Thriller Task - Research: Titling Textual Analysis

We looked into other title sequences from other thrillers in order to get an idea of what an opening to a thriller should be like. One thriller we looked at was 'Splice'. This was a medical thriller about a baby in a womb, and was shown quite early this synopsis from the title sequence itself. The titling itself got its own section, accompanied with eerie music, to set the tone of the film quite early to be quite gruesome; shown from the titles. While we aren't doing any kind of medical thriller, the way in which the text was used to set the tone of the film was very informative and useful.
Splice title sequence

Another opening sequence we looked at was 'Psycho'. This is a psychological thriller; an aspect we may plan to use in our film. It uses black and white colours to emphasize the psychological aspect as the two colours are of opposite ends of the spectrum. The lines crossing through the title show that there is some form of 'elimination' as a theme; the crossing out showing removal and potentially deaths. This was useful as we may plan to add psychological aspects into our thriller, and the connotations of a psychological film would use.

We also looked at the action/horror thriller 'Final Destination 3', a film about unique ways to die in peculiar circumstances. As our thriller is to involve a killing - possible multiple in the full version - we thought this was a good one to look into. It also had action, which is going to be prevalent in our film. It had eerie music to indicate it was a thriller, (most likely involving death), but it used bright light of a fair in contrast to this. This is peculiar as it is unique, but also could mislead some people. The film has 'unexpected' deaths - what the series is known for - and this may have be their way of luring in new viewers to the franchise. It was also an interesting use, as the screaming of people can be heard through the sequence. This may indicate the death that is prevalent in the film; covered up initially by the fair. This was an incredibly clever opening, and while we cannot use a fair in aid of our thriller, the hidden connotations within the opening is something we have begun to think about.

Overall, the title sequence can reveal much more than we first realized, and can set the tone for the film in just two minutes. Music is key in these openings, while keeping the audience interested with relevant shots that are mysterious and misleading. This could be used in our thriller to make the titles show information during the opening to show the viewer specific information such as the main cast, director and producer.

Thriller Task - Research: Production Process - 6 Stages

Thriller Task - Research: (Case Study) Company: Paramount Studios

I created a Glog to show my case study of my chosen company (Paramount Pictures). They create a frequent amount of thrillers, especially with the psychological thriller genre. Using some of the information in this, it might indicate how we create our opening by using some of the ways in which paramount create their films.



Paramount Pictures Glog

(The video in the Glog is one of the Paramount Pictures Logo, if the video does not work please use this link to view video.)

Thriller Task - Research: Disabilities in Film & Television

Cinema has rarely touched on the disability subject, films are rarely seen having mentally or physically impaired characters. The first disabled character portayed by a disabled character did not star on British Television until 1992 in the BBC soap "Eldorado". In the present day; drama has made space for disabilities such as motor neuron disease, obsessive compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions. But most parts are still played by able bodied actors, disabled actors and filmmakers continue to fight to be equal in there stories and past being depicted on television. (Source: Unlimited: Disability on Screen - BFI Disability Article)

The study of a small screen diversity came up with results showing that younger and male people are more represented in television and the representation of disabled, ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay and bisexual people were much less. These statistics below show how disabled people are represented in television:
Women: 42%
Over 55: 16.1%
Minority ethnic: 13.4%
Disabled: 2.5%
Lesbian, gay or bisexual: 1%
(Source: Women, Old and Disabled Under-Represented - The Guardian Article)













Many disabled actors were embarrased to take on disabled characters on television. In addition to this, many disabled people are absent in shows such as soaps and quiz shows despite having more than 250 disabled members in the Actors Union in the UK. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant create projects which go against the culture of discrimination, and they highlight these issues. Their new series, Life's too short, which stars Warwick Davies playing a twisted version of himself.
(Source: Ricky Gervais and Disabled Actors - The Guardian Article)

"There aren’t enough disabled people on TV. To address this, the BBC has announced plans to quadruple the number of people with disabilities it puts on television by 2017." This shows that tv corporations are now beginning to represent more disabled people on TV. This is shown as there is next to nothing about disabled characters on television series or movies in the present day.
(Source: The BBC’s Plans for More Disabled People on TV - New Statesman Article)

This has shown that in the film and television industry, there is a problem that not enough disabled characters being represented and that there will/needs to be an increase. This has given us the decision in whether we should consider having a disabled character in our opening of the thriller. We have given this a thought as we are considering the use of a disabled character as a way to promote that all disabled people are not to be stereotyped.

Thriller Task - Research: (Case Study) Director: J.J. Abrams

I created a Glog to show my case study of my chosen director (J.J. Abrams). His use of lens flares and other trademarks to do with mystery plots has given me and my group ideas on what to add into the narrative and post-production of our thriller opening to make it more engaging and effective.

J.J. Abrams Glog
(The video in the Glog is one of J.J. Abrams talking about mystery, if the video does not work please use this link to view video.)

Thriller Task - Research: Lighting Practice

We began our lighting practice and we took a few pictures to show certain light reflections and how it showed the mood of the person. We also shared the camera around so the different people in our group had a chance at using the camera.

Firstly we used artificial light looking upwards at Andreas to show the mood of possible confusion or sadness, this is shown by the light focusing more on his mouth and above his eyes where sadness is shown most on the face.

We also took the shot from above to make Andreas look more intimidated as the light is shown more when the photo was taken at a higher angle.

We used two artificial lights for this picture of Max, one was placed on the left part of his body and one was placed above his head but to the left to make the whole left part of his head brighter than the right side. This is shown to make Max look happy, as the light shines on his smile and it makes him show a curious/happy face.

We also took this shot from above to make the light show more and that Max shows a larger smile when his head is leaning backwards to make him look upwards. In addition to this, we used the high angle shot to show Max's glasses reflect a shadow onto his face which show a good effect of making his face look secretive.

The use of sideways light is also useful in showing a sinister expression shown in the photo of Brad. Again, we used artificial light in the photo, one light was placed to the left of Brads face showing one half and the other light was placed to the right of his head lighting up the background to make the other half of Brads face darker and to contrast the light.

This is used to create binary opposites in where the dark and the light meet and to create an effect to make Brad look more evil and to make the audience believe (or think) that he is a protagonist just by using the light and his facial expression.

In this photo of Me, we used the natural light seeping through from behind the blinds to attempt to make an effect. There was one artificial light placed next to the camera aiming at me but in this photo it did not come out in a good quality.

The light from behind is supposed to show that there could be something else in the shot to look at apart from my head. This is useful to make multiple things happen at once during the shot.

In this image, we used the natural light in the room to make Andreas' head stand out to the background. Even though the light in the background is fairly similar to Andreas' head, it makes Andreas' head stand out as it makes his hair brighter.

In this photo of Brad, we used the light created from the ceiling lights in the room to make Brad look intimidating, this is shown by the low angle shot but in addition the light shining down on him makes the front part of his body slightly darker which could also show how he could be an antagonist and how evil he will look when the light is shown making him darker from the front.

I got bored at home again and like usual, Max was able to give me a perfect facial expression to create an amazing picture.











When I was walking home the other day I took a picture with the deep fog that was present. This made the picture effective and if fog is a frequent weather problem then our group could possibly use the fog to our advantage to make lighting more significant and to give the opening a darker feel and a colder atmosphere.




This lighting practice has helped us for when we film our thriller opening. The use of lighting is very important for when the film is being produced as it is used to connote dark emotions with the aim of using low key colours, with the addition of post-production tools such as the hue, saturation & colour it means we can manipulate the dark emotion connoted from the opening. With the use of graphic matches and light comparisons, we can make sure the transitions between clips are also correct and fit the continuity of the opening.

Thriller Task - Research: Brief History of Thriller Movies

This is the brief history of thriller movies, it shows how the whole genre of thriller as a movie has transformed from the beginning with Alfred Hitchcock and Safety Last into the modern era of gore and intensity. I believe I can use this to my advantage in the creation of the thriller opening as it gives me and insight on what was popular and what is currently popular in the modern era of thriller films. It also contains key moments in the genre where directors like Hitchcock created thrillers and also contains key moments in the genre such as the age of spy thrillers or the beginning of psychotic thrillers.

Thriller Task - Research: Se7en (1995) Textual Analysis

Thriller Task - Planning: Initial Ideas for our Thriller Movie

We spent one lesson working out what we will do for our thriller movie idea, this is a mini poster we created to show out ideas and what our plan is from the outset of the task.







































Adding on to this post, we have decided further on what mask to use, we are considering the mask known from groups such as "anonymous" and from the film V for Vendetta but we are mostly edging towards the use of a basic white mask with potential red paint to indicate blood spatter or any kind of evidence that the mask is old or used.

Barthes' Narrative Codes

Barthes is a French critic who created the theories about different codes which are used in thrillers to make them effective. He used different codes to show different ways in which thrillers engage audiences.

One of these codes is an Action Code, this is what is used for the audience to recognise the next logical step in the narrative, for example if two people with fast cars are waiting at a traffic light, the next logical step is they would race. Or another example is if someone is packing a suitcase then it will indicate that they will be going somewhere. These codes are used to make the audience understand and guess what the narrative will progress into before the narrative actually does this. This would add a sense of dramatic irony or possibly suspense.

Another code is the Mystery Code (alternatively known as an Enigma Code) which is designed to add a sense of mystery into the thriller which would intend to draw an audience in as they would like to know an answer to the film. An example of this is if an attack on someone happens but you do not know who caused the attack, you would be incline on watching further to be able to find out who the attacker is.

The Semic Code is a code in which the use of a sign is designed to show you a meaning of the thriller. Examples of this is a knife or a firearm would be used to show violence or the use of the sun may be used to show the meaning that the narrative is set on a sunny day. A Cultural Code is also used to in the narrative to make sense to an audience which is aware of the culture or social aspects. It makes reference to the real world that the audience would recognise, such as Aston Martin cars may be recognised for its roles in James Bond films or Owls and Wands in Harry Potter.

 

The Code of Oppositions is referred to a narrative which is dependent on binary opposites such war vs. peace or male vs. female. Thriller videos may use this to show the protagonist and antagonist where a protagonist would mostly have bright colours on etc. whereas the antagonist would where darker colours.

In our preliminary video, we used multiple Barthes' narrative codes to make the thriller preliminary task to be effective. One code that we used was a Semic Code, we used the code when Max was using the gun. This was effective as it made the audience know that the narrative would have been a violent one as the gun symbolises violence. The Action Code was used with this as the gun being used on camera would have lead to the audience thinking someone would be killed which happened when Max shot Andreas. Another code we used was the Mystery Code, it was used when Max was aiming at Andreas and we tried to provoke the question as to why and then it was all answered when the flashback had happened.

We could have used a Cultural Code if we chose a more relevant location like a dark basement or a disused factory to show how rough and gangland/mafia/hitman it could have been, this could have been improved by the characters dressing more appropriately. The Code of Oppositions could have been used by the protagonist and antagonist being binary opposites through how they acted and what they wore to clearly identify the narrative and who the characters were in terms of who the antagonist and who the protagonist were.

Conventions of a Thriller Movie

The thriller is a broad genre and incorporates literature, film, gaming and television. It is made up of multiple overlapping sub-genres which make the whole thriller category known to people. The way in which thriller videos work is by the use of certain features. Thriller's often use fast paced scenes with frequent amounts of action, mystery or fear depending on what sub-genre is used. In addition to this, the use of suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers often make thrillers a genre which excites people and will make the audience engage with what they view. "A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace." extract from wikipedia.

There are multiple types of sub-genre thrillers which use multiple effects to make the media interesting and engaging. In a spy thriller such as James Bond's 8th instalment "Live and Let Die". "Three British agents investigating drug smuggling are killed under mysterious circumstances. Each murder is linked to a Harlem crime boss, Mr. Big, and an international diplomat, Kananga. The British send agent James Bond to investigate. When 007 arrives in New York he is nearly killed by one of Mr. Big's hoods, but the attempt gives Bond a lead and he soon discovers a plot to flood the US mainland with a billion dollars' worth of heroin (extract from Live and Let Die IMDb)". The film often uses action, and a fast pace throughout the movie which is utilised to engage the audience. In addition it uses a simple narrative of a hero vs. rival which means for an easy understanding storyline.

Another sub-genre of thrillers is a medical thriller. They are designed to use effects such as suspense and possible cliff hangers. 2011 movie Contagion is a good example. "Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a worldwide epidemic as the CDC works to find a cure (extract from Contagion IMDb)". This thriller uses such concepts of suspense as the epidemic becomes larger but also includes a mystery as to how this epidemic began, the use of mystery in thrillers is used frequently as it is designed to draw the viewer in and a use of such mystery codes will make the viewer watch as they are intrigued as to how this all began.

Thrillers are on a much grander scale and because of this it makes large companies able to create complex or fast pace concepts in which will engage viewers. This also means that they are able to make thriller conventions effective by the use of lighting and camera movement. In most thrillers pan and tracking shots are often used towards the beginning of films which is used to set the scene and to engage the viewer as to what is happening and add mystery if there is any (with guidance from thriller slideshare).

The mise-en-scene of thriller films are fairly similar. Most of them will use modern age equipment such as cars and weaponry to make the fast paced action a common effect and to make this work some thrillers are set up in areas where weapons are likely to happen. But in addition the location is specific to the narrative of the thriller. The mise-en-scene will be set to where the story is such as a 1920's detective movie would perhaps be filmed in New York with the use of Tommy Guns and Revolvers. Whereas a sci-fi thriller could be set in a future metropolis such as Neo-Seoul in the film Cloud Atlas.

The research I did during this task will be used to help me and my group decide what sub-genre of thriller we will choose when we begin planning our main thriller task.