Individual Possible Problems

For our shoot I tried to work on certain things to help me to be a better group member and to enhance my contribution to avoiding the possible problems of filming. These were:

• Be organised - Charging up equipment, bringing all equipment etc.
• Bring Props - remember to seek out and bring important things for our shoot
• Be a good/serious actor - trying not to laugh and trying my hardest to act
• Helping with other actors - so they are happy and not complaing/suffering in silence
• Communication - being in constant communication with everyone involved

Overall everyone in the group contributed well on both the test and the real shooting weekends and the only problem we thought we could not solve was the weather but the rain was not too bad in the end and conditions were fine enough to enable us to shoot.

Title Sequence - The Titles

For my Title sequence I should include titles for most of the following:

• Film Title
• Actors
• Production Companies
• Director/Producer
• (Based on Novel?)
• Screenplay adapted by
• Music
• casting
  

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Opening Sequence

For me this film was a sort of inspiration for our idea. In the opening scene the characters are established well as druggies and I believe there are many interesting techniques used in this film that i believe we could try and adapt to our own project. I really like the narrated voice-over throughout the film, as Johnny Depp's hallucinations are explained to us although we do not always see them ourselves.

There is a lot of eerieness created by the weird characters that I belive could also work well in a thriller, since it could create a lot of enigma and suspense around our main character.

I really like the very last shot of this clip. It is a Close-up of Johnny Depp's face and it actually looks quite scary because his character is on so many drugs. Therefore I think with darker lighting and possibly some sinister music, this could really work well in the Thriller genre.

Thriller Sub-genres

The Thriller Genre is made up of a range of sub-genres.
These include:

• Spy Thrillers
• Political Thrillers
• Military Thrillers
• Conspiracy Thrillers
• Technothrillers
• Eco-Thrillers
• Erotic Thrillers
• Legal Thrillers
• Forensic Thrillers
• Medical Thrillers
• Psychological Thrillers
• Horror Thriller
• Disaster Thriller
• Serial killer Thriller
• Romantic Thrillers
• Supernatural Thrillers
• Action Thrillers
• Crime Thrillers

I am particularly interested in the Psychological Thriller Sub-genre. Films I have seen like Psycho, Memento and The Talented Mr. Ripley have inspired me to possibly focus on this sub-genre of thriller. I really want to see Fight Club as soon as I can and I have been advised by Jennifer to see Mr. Brooks.
These Thrillers strongly focus on character and there is usually an emphasis on the characters mind, what they are thinking and their mental state.

The Thriller Genre

Genres allow us to place a film into a category and to create conventions. They are very helpful to both the film industry and audiences. Genre conventions allow the film industry to know what is successful in a particular genre and to give familiarity to the audiences. Audiences use genre to help make a guess of what they will and wont like. If an audience liked a particular genre, then they can make decisions easier on what films they think they may like. They would like the familiarity of genre conventions, and would begin to have expectation of a genre based on genre conventions.
Conventions can be broken down into the categories:

• Characters
  
• Narratives
  
• Themes
  
• Iconography

Typical Thriller Characters:

• Psycho
• Detective
• Assasin
• Victims
• Criminals

Typical Thriller Narratives:

• Death (pre-determined, murder, accidental, suicide)
• Red Herring
• Being Watched
• Being Followed
• Deception

Typical Thriller Themes:

• Entrapment
• Isolation
• Voyeurism
• Revenge
• Gain

Typical Thriller Iconography

• Shadows
• Street Lamps
• Confined Spaces
• Running Water
• Bars on Windows
  

2005/2006 Thriller Projects

I've been watching the Thriller projects from previous Latymer media groups. They have been a big help in my initial ideas to my own thriller opening sequence. My favourite was called 'Exposure'.



I think my first main attraction to it was the use of sound. All the sounds are very exaggerated, and really emphasise all the small details bringing our focus to every small action creating suspense. The fact there is no speech also really adds to the suspense as we do not know whether the character is our protagonist or antagonist. The emphasis on his fast breaths, quick footsteps, the rustling of keys, and him shoving clothes into the bag adds to the mystery and suspense since we wonder what has caused him to want to get away so quickly. Also his actions are typical conventions of running away, packing his bags in a hurried mess, running to the medicine cabinet etc. I especially liked the very fast paced short sequence where there is a montage of clips where he zips up his coat and puts his bag down etc. which then stops at him with his hand on the door ready to leave. This hesitation brings great tension at this point, Why has he stopped? At this point the music then starts and the pace becomes very slow. The eerie music mixed with this unexpected slower pace also brings suspense and the camera tracking his footsteps adds to this and makes us ask the question, Where is he walking to? The suspense also builds when we (the camera) enter the room but it is too dark to make out anything. Once the light is flicked on, some of our questions are finally answered and the story of the film has been set, without giving much away. I love the idea of all the photographs in the room, and i also love the lighting in the room, it looks very unnatural and makes the scene look quite eerie.
Overall I think this is a very good opening sequence as the techniques were carried out very well, and the thought going into every small detail makes you want to watch on, completing the task of an opening sequence.

Narrative Theory - The Shining

Levi Strauss - Binary Opposites
Oppositions within the narrative

Good vs. Evil
Sane vs. Insane
Adults vs. Youth
Past vs. Present
Reality vs. Supernatural


Todorov - Narrative Structure

Equilibrium - Jack Torrance has a good family and seems to be a kind happy man.

Disruptions - Jack agrees to look after a mysterious hotel for the winter, he becomes mad and tries to kill his family.

Twarted attempts - The phone lines are down because of the storm, Jack breaks the radio, and Jack also breaks their snow vehicle.

Resolution - Wendy realises Jack has gone mad, and attempts to escape from him.

New Equilibrium - Wendy and Danny manage to escape the hotel, leaving Jack to freeze in the snow storm.


Barthes - Action and Enigma Codes

Action (one thing leading to another / what happens next?)

• Jack gets the job as the caretaker
• Danny goes into room 237
• Wendy reads what Jack has been writing
• Wendy blames Jack for Danny's bruises
• Dick Hallorann comes to check if everything is ok

Enigma (things that create mystery)

• What exactly is Danny's gift, The Shining?
• Who is Tony?
  
• What has 'Tony' told Danny about the Hotel?
• Why does 'Tony' not want to go there?
• Why should they not go near room 237?
• Why does the butler say Jack has always been the caretaker there?
• Why is Jack in the picture at the end that dates 1921?

Propp - Character Types

Protagonist - Danny
Antagonist - Jack
Helper - Wendy
Princess - Wendy
Donor - Dick Hallorann
Dispatcher - Dick, Wendy
Father figure - Jack, Dick, Wendy
False Hero - Dick

The Psycho Shower Scene

Psycho was a ground breaking film in its time, and the shower scene where the lead woman is killed, has become one of the most famous scenes in cinema history. It was extremely shocking at the time, since the lead woman is killed halfway through the film. The murder is shot quite unconventionally from a montage of different angles, and we do not see the murderers face once. There is a lot of suspense in the clip at it is quite disturbing even though we do not see the knife penetrate her but we do see a lot of blood.

DVD Cover Analysis - Seven

The DVD cover is a very omportant way of constructing the narrative image of the film.
On this cover there are two people, both in close-up, but it is not just one shot of the people, it is two different shots. Since there are two people on the cover, we know there must be some sort of relationship between the two. However we cannot tell whether it is a good one or a bad one. Since the shots are Close-ups we can see their expressions very well, and this contributes to make the image look very dark and mysterious.
The mise-en-scene of the cover is very dark and shadowy. Shadows and darkness are typical conventions of teh Thriller genre, so audiences can know what to expect a bit more from this film. Both characters have one side of their face in shadow, and this makes the audience feel they are mysterious characters and may have something to hide, because of the typical conventions of a thriller genre. There is not a lot of colour use on the cover, although we would not expect this from a film in the thriller genre. It is very dark, with light shining quite brightly compared to the dark surroundings, shining on opposite sides of each characters face. Therefore the dark split between the two accompanied by the sinister words listed here may signify that the two characters do not have a good relationship. The words listed are each scrathed off which signifies these are all things which feature in the film, and since there are seven of them, we would make the link to the title of the film. Therefore the basic plot to the film has been set up by these seven words.
We cannot see much of the people in this shot apart from their faces, so the dress codes and action codes are a mystery to us, creating an enigma around the image, setting up many questions the audience may ask. Both people have very serious facial expressions and are staring intently at something. This creates an enigma, and gives suspense, since you wonder what they are lookin at. Brad Pitt is a white American in his 30s, and Morgan Freeman is an African American in his 60s, so this conveys there is not a family relationship between the two people, in the film. The age difference could also signify that Morgan Freeman could be Brad Pitt's boss or Brad Pitt may be coming to him for help or guidance.

Rear Window Vs Disturbia

Similarities and Differences

Character Similarities

• Male protagonsist and Antagonist
• Love interests
• Teams of 3
• Both Antagonists were old men
• Obsessions of proving what they saw
• Victims both female
• Both sidekicks are comical

Character Differences

• A friend in Disturbia and a nurse in Rear Window
• RW, she doesnt believe him immediately
• Age difference between the protagonists
• Disturbia is slightly comical
• Crippled and House arrest
• Time Periods
• D, has bigger death count
• Antagonist in D, more evil, serial killer
• RW, domestic killer
• D, Antagonist hints more about deaths

Narrative Similarities

• Cast and police ankle alarm
• Stuck in house
• Love interest
• Both sure, but friends dount
• Conversation between protagonist and antagonist
• Gardening
• Someone goes to ivestigate
• Parties are distraction

Narrative Differences

• D, boy can move around
• D, police are against him at the beginning
• RW, relationship already set up
• D, murder more obvious
• Nature of murder
• D, intro with death of dad
• Sounds of suburbia are different to city

Iconography Similarities

• Windows
• Binoculars
• In own room
• Natural light and light bulbs
• Lenses
• Use of bags for bodies
• Dead animals
• Both women are blonde

Iconography Differences

• Clothing, RW, dull colours and pyjamas
• D, in suburbs
• RW, in city
• D, we go in antagonists house
• D, more graphic
• D, more diegetic sound
• D, surgery room
• D, more technology

Themes Similarities

• Spying
• Obsession
• Murder
• Entrapment in environment
• Love interest
• Boredom
• Suspicion
• Bad Police (useless)

Themes Differences

• RW, more about independence and isolation
• RW, difficult to be a community
• Motivation, sexual
• Disturbia Voyeuristic
• D, more comedy
• RW, motive for murder
• D, psycho
• D, mother/son relationship
• D, death of parent
• D, being new in town
  

My Thriller Shot

When taking this shot we were trying to create a claustrophobic atmosphere. We achieved this by using a frame within a frame since this is a signifier of entrapment. We also used shadow and darkness as it gives a mysterious and eerie feeling that can rub off on the audience. The actor has a scared look on his face and is looking away from the camera. This also gives a sense of mystery since the audience does not know what the actor is looking at and what is making him look afraid. Mystery is scary for a viewer since they can only imagine what the actor is looking at. Also since the shot is an MCU the audience can’t completely read the situation and therefore can’t tell whether the character is good or bad. We hoped to create a claustrophobic, mysterious and suspenseful shot and I believe we achieved this.

I believe this shot represents the genre thriller because we can tell from it that the character is in a tense situation. The use of shadows and darkness are genre signifiers since it shows he is not in a good situation. The weird angle of the shot also creates a weird feeling that the situation is not right so it signifies the genre.

Rear Window

I watched Rear Window and enjoyed it very much. I was a bit skeptical about it to begin with, but was enjoying it very soon.
I thought it was good how the camera (audience) can only ever see what is inside the room or what is seen from the window, we only ever get to see as much as Jeff can see, so no more is given away to the audience, to keep them guessing as to whether it is a murder.
Just recently watched Disturbia also, and can see the similarities, but will talk about that in another post.
x

Thriller Brainstorm

Thriller Conventions

• to be thrilled
• villain, -murderer - crooks - gangster
• strong protagonist
• dark shadows
• following
• tension
• suspense/anticipation
• police raid
• conspiracy
• fraud
• death, - efiicient - predetermined
• attraction
• obsession
• love

Homework Post

Had to do a post for homework so here it is!!!!!
I watched Rear window on Monday and enjoyed it, so am looking forward to seeing Disturbia.
I am looking forward to starting the production to the Thriller project also.
Just getting to grips with blogger and checking how to do simple things i will need to.
Thats all for now..........Mike

p.s i like the template given to us for the blogs.

Welcome

Welcome to the Latymer School Thriller Video Project!!!

From the Media Team.....