Thriller Analysis (Amy)

The thriller opening I chose to analysis was Se7en.

The background music used in the opening of Se7en is very tense, it's quite slow to begin with but the pace quickens towards the end of the sequence. The sound used is non-diagetic as the characters cannot hear the music being played. The music in the sequence ends with lyrics, which makes it more tense as it suddenly stops and words are emphasized in bold letters with the camera panning the page they appear on.

Throughout the opening sequence, it cuts to various different objects such as pictures and books which obviously has some meaning and relates to the story some how. It adds a mysterious edge to the opening, making it tense and wondering what will happen later on in the film. The colouring of the opening sequence was all black, red and white which were strong colours to relate to a thriller as black is dark and edgey and red represents danger and blood. The names which appeared are often shadowed and some of the sequence, for example seeing someone writing on a page, is shadowed too.

There are various different camera angles and movements used during the sequence, like panning over the pages or pictures and writing. The lighting is really dark and typical of a thriller opening. Overall, the mix of music, various different camera angles and shots, and dark lighting make the opening sequence to Se7en a typical tense thriller opening and extremely effective, that leave the viewers intrigued to know what happens on later on in the film.

Pulp fiction opening titles, (Tom)

I chose the thriller: Pulp fiction

The opening to Pulp fiction is different to others, it isn't really shots of the movie and people in it, it starts with two people in a diner and one shouts this is a robbery, then the music starts to play and the credits appear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UcnT3sMcfw&feature=fvw

Firstly the music used in the piece is a known song called 'Pump it' by black eyed peas but the orginal in the opening is called 'Misirou' written by Dick Dale. The sound is non-diegetic because its not actuall happening or fitting in, the music is quite upbeat and lively, this then gives out a relaxed enviroment which is different from other thrillers because others use the tempo in music to increase tension.

The editing in the opening is very unique and complex, the beggining of the opening tittles there is a bullet and it goes through different ojects whilst slowly making progress across the screen.




Unfinished

Thriller Title Sequence Analysis (Jessica)

Thriller: Psycho 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tek8QmKRODw

The backing track used in the opening title sequence of Psycho is a high pitched string piece which creates tension instantly and very well. The pace of the music is quick also making the audience feel tense and feel like they are moving at the same pace as the music. All sound in the opening title sequence of Psycho is Non-Digetic. Towards the end of the opening the track uses and "call and response" style of notes, using the same notes but in a different pitch, this creates a mysterious atmosphere, relating the music back to the direct story line of the film. The use of contrapuntal sound with the pitches of the instruments is very effective and has an impact on the audience which makes them feel tense and alert them into the genre of the film. The track finishes on one long suspended note, creating suspense as it fades into the opening of the film.

 The Editing within the opening of psycho is done with the strong use of transitions between screens and the use of fades. 

This example shows the use of the grey lines to bring the words into focus, this technique is used throughout the opening sequence, it is very effective to the audience and goes in time with the music also. The colouring in the opening title sequence is all grey, white and red, this sets the time in which the thriller was created.

This is another example of a simple but effective transition, the use of splitting the word psycho into three sections and making them move left and right and different times this creates a very shadowy atmosphere reflecting the genre on the film. The way the transitions come together, could be argued to reflect the story line of the film, how lots of different pieces of information are put together to finally reveal an answer. These transitions are repeated in slight different ways- the use of repetition of the same thing is a common feature of psychological thrillers.

The lighting is all dark throughout the opening title sequence again reflecting on the atmosphere created throughout the film.

There is no variety on the camera angles throughout this opening as it is more of a graphic opening compared to a thriller such as se7en which uses a wider variety of camera angles and camera movements.

Overall, the use of simple transitions and strong sound track come across as very effective, they create a very tense atmosphere instantly alerting the audience into the genre of film they are watching and the mysterious happenings which are going to entail. This opening title sequence is simple but effective and it fore fills all traditional features of a thriller.

Lesson 17/2/11

This is our first go at playing around with title effects in final cut within our title sequence, we used effects such as earthquake and blur to create a distorted effect :)

Lesson 15/2/11

In today's lesson we have finalised some ideas which were still in the air, we decided on the location for our thriller opening such as we chose to film the majority of our opening in soham, such as the snooker hall and park, Dom is going to ask permission for filming in the snooker hall soon. For our dark room we are going to ask permission from Mepal's primary school to borrow a classroom for this. We also decided on the date to film our project. 


We also made our flashback sequence in final cut today:





This way we'll have a head start on our editing as we our filming on the last weekend possible not giving us much time for editing ):

Font Ideas

We liked this font because of the heart pulse through the middle of the writing. We are considering this font for our main title.



We liked this one too as it is distorted and looks scratched and worn.


We're not too keen on this font, it seems quite mysterious to the audience.


We all really liked this font as it fits the distorted mise en scene we were looking to create.


We liked this font but it seems more suitable for a horror and also it is quite difficult to read.


This is a clearer font to read than the above but with a very similar style to it, but we don't like these as much as we do some of our other options.

Our Test Shot Footage

This is our test footage for one of our shots for our thriller. You can see the safety precautions we took during this :)

Safety precautions for our thriller opening

We realised that if we were going to film our captive falling from a chair then we would have to protect his head. We did this by covering his head with various items of clothing and also used a sports mat for the captive to land on so he didn't hurt himself. These pictures also show that we want to tie the captives hands for a full effect. 

More Happy Memory Images

Our sonic mood board

This is our final sonic moodboard it shows the type of mise en scene we plan to create during our thriller. We also used the images we plan to use in our "happy memories" flash backs of the captive and his girlfriend. We used the sound effects of pool balls smashing to show the dramatic swing of the captives head as he tries to fight off the flash backs he is having.

Areas For Improvement

After watching and analysing our children's film openiong sequence i am able to identify three areas that I think we should improve in order to make our Thriller opening more efficient and to make it look more proffesional. These three areas are Sound, Planning and Composition.

Firstly, Sound.
The sound in our children's film was non-diegetic music. Personally, I don't think it worked too well with the overall feel we were trying to create in our sequence. The actual composition worked quite well but creating the wrong mood and atmosphere. For example, the scene where Bagman enters fully transformed for the first time, the mood that would ideally be created would be tense and dramatic through the use of loud drums and deep, low bassy instruments. As oppose to the one used in our sequence which was a mellow plucking guitar sound.

Secondly, Planning.
We did some general planning for our chiuldren's film but i personally know that my own planning lacked detail and precision and therefore I scored very low marks. But the lack of planning also effected our efficiency when it came to shooting. We had done a storyboard but looking back it could've been in more detail. Thus helping us in greater detail when it came to shooting. Had we storyboarded in greater detail we would've known exactly what we needed to shoot and when.

Story Board

Camera Shot List

Our Happy Memory Photos

These are some of the still images we are going to use in our flash back sequence to represent the memories of the captive's past life.

Why 'Thrillers' Thrive

The first summary that I can make from the article entitled 'Why "Thrillers" Thrive is that 'Thrillers' thrive because unlike other film genres, they make a difference to a person's welfare and personality. The article states in a very true fashion that if a person is deprived of a 'thrill' or 'shake-up' they can be left with a 'sluggish' or 'jellyfied' nature. Some people choose to register these thrills from extreme scenarios or stunts such as skydiving or bungee jumping. However, many prefer to gain these thrills from something that is not just a lot cheaper but is a lot more accessible and evidently, this is film.
The article also talks about how thrillers are created in such away that the audience feels a sense of participation in the film. Which allows them to empathise with the characters and really start to believe how safe and secure a viewer's life really is when compared with a character experiencing the stress and turmoil that is shown in so many thrillers. It is this sense of participating thus being out of control that film makers use to give the viewer a 'thrill'. Which I have explained above is how the thriller genre differs from others.
These summaries show not only how thrillers generate demand through the use of the viewer almost needing to see in order to not become 'sluggish' this need is different from the norm as it is need not want. But, how film makers direct the films in such a way to create the thrills that satisfy consumer needs.
Finally, the extract discusses how 'Horrors' differ from 'Thrillers' and the different effects they have on the audience. Film makers for the 'Thriller' genre aim to thrill and excite which is similar to 'Horrors' but sometimes they can push the boundaries leaving some viewers scared and upset as oppose to delivering thrills that make the audience feel better about themselves which so many decent thrillers do.

Potential location

This is one location idea we looked into as it would be good for the dragging away of the hostage's girlfriend as the colouring around this area is very old and faded and the floor is stony and grey this could also be argued to effect the emotions being experience in our opening. 

Areas of improvement for children's film. (Tom)

Watching our children's film back i can see that the main areas for improvement are the filming of the animation, the music for the animation and the story line.

The Filming


Animation is quite hard to film because you have to do lots of single photo shots, 10 shots make 1 second of filming, this gives a more smooth look to the movement of the characters/props on stage. Its quite hard to make it really smooth because of the amount of shots and the plasticine moving, and we had a limited amount of time. Also in parts of the animation you can see the fishing wire that holds up the props that go through the air. We could have improve this by using a thinner fishing line and adjusting the light so that the fishing line becomes invisible to the naked eye. Also when the crook flies out the front screen of the car you can see a hand because the finishing wire was to short but at this stage we were rushed for time and we just wanted to get the piece finished. Also between lessons the position of the camera, the lighting and the props on show moved which means we had to try and get it like it was before but doing that was really hard.

The Music


The music to the piece was okay but wasn't constructed brilliantly, the sound effects for the crashing and the then etc. were good and timed perfectly.



((Not finished))

Areas of improvement on Children's Film Opening. (Jessica)

After watching back over our children's film opening, the three main areas of improvement that stood out for me were music, mise en scene and the story line.

MUSIC 

The non-digetic music in our children's film was one continuous backing track, i don't think this idea worked very well as it didn't really fit with the actions taking place on screen. Also we created the track with the use of garage band and adding both quick and slow pace music with wide varieties of instruments, which when put together didn't blend correctly due to the pitch and volume of the various instruments. Although our digetic sound came across really effective, such as on the sound effects we used, the non-digetic sound was too loud and overpowering for this to have a strong impact. 

MISE EN SCENE

When we created our children's film opening, i don't think we looked into the mise en scene of the clips enough. Aspects of the mise en scene such as location, were not thought out thoroughly enough, for example we filmed "bagman's first attack" as him bursting through the car park doors the college refectory, this wasn't really explained in our clip, and could come across as misleading to the audience. 

We also could have furthered our use of props and costume, we didn't really experiment with our props, we could have brought the characters out more through the use of props and stronger costume styles, for example giving the villain and the hero a weapon of some kind to build the storyline of the of the characters.

STORY LINE

A third aspect for improvement was our storyline, i think from the first start of our idea researching we tried to create something that would only look good if we could get hold of professional surroundings. (which was pretty much impossible with our on site filming). We used a linear narrative but the story didn't develop in real time, we didn't make this clear enough to our audience either, which made our storyline weaker. 

We also, from class feedback, realised we had given away too much of the storyline in the opening of our children's film, it came across more like a trailer than an opening, this is an aspect we need to consider when doing our thriller openings. :)

Props/ Costume

Tom

• Hessain sack/ pillow case
• Gun
• Ripped white shirt, black trousers
• Fake blood
• Banaclarva or scarf to cover face

Dom

• Black suit, black trousers, tie, white shirt.
• Water bottle for dripping
• banaclarva or scarf to cover face

Jess

• Different clothes for feild, snooker and for being dragged away
• A light for the dark room??

Amy
???

Stuff we still need

• Old wooden chair
• Rope for tied hands

Anything else????

Locations

Garage for dark room- Tom's friends garage, Dom's friends garage/unplastered room.
Park swing- Whittlesford rec/ rec near Dom's friends.
Feild- Any feild that has sunshine on it
Snooker hall- Tom's grandad's, sawston snooker club, Soham snooker hall.
Gravelled driveway-?

Why thrillers thrive. (Tom)

Thrillers are so popular because of the excitement and the blood rush they give us throughout our bodies, a good thriller makes us feel like we're actually there, but yet when you come to reality we're not we're just siting comfortably in our chairs in a 'secure environment'.  Watching a thriller is like looking through a 'window' because your inside and sheltered from everything bad. Its the job of the movie to try to make us project ourselves into the consciousness of the character to feel the 'real thrill' which is happening. 'watching a well made film we don't sit by as spectators, we participate.'

In the British film 'Hell's Angels' the tension is build up before the plane crashes into the zeppelin this is done by a series of quick cutting of different shots of the facial expression of the pilot, and then on impact the balckout in the cinema makes you feel like your there and you've been knocked unconcious due to the impact, but then we realise we're sat in a nice secure place where we can't be harmed.

When someone tried to bring the thriller to life by making the pillar apear to fall down but then was suspended from the roof, people didnt like this idea and the show was close down, this indicates just how much people like to be in a safe location when watching a thriller. Its the techniqyes inside the thriller that make is so appealing like 'Extreme Aversion' which is where emotional jolts are used to exploit sadism, many of these techniques put together make a good thriller.

In conclusion thrillers are at their best and most popular when you can watch them knowing that nothing is going to actually happen to you and your just looking 'through a window'.

Summary of Why "Thrillers" Thrive (Jessica's)

The Article on Why "Thrillers" Thrive talks about why we as humans enjoy these "emotional disturbances", or how they are commonly called, "thrills". It also talks about how we are able to watch thrillers knowing we are safe, for example sitting in a secure environment. This makes the thriller appear as though we are watching it through a window as such. Another point that is made is that we are not just spectators of the actions on screen, we are in fact participating also, we have to, to feel the true emotions that the characters are feeling.


It gives a good example of "good cinema" from the scene from "Hells Angles" where we are really put in the footsteps of the character on screen, due to the quick changes of shots and the facial expressions we see, we are able to feel first hand the sense of panic that the character is feeling. It also continues to say that there is no harm in this because we know subconsciously that we are safe. 


In the conclusion of the article it states that the writer believes that the thriller genre will be successful and be around for a long time, compared to the horror film genre which will soon die out. 

Script

In a dark, vacant room there is silence, but there is water dropping.
A man is tied to a chair in the room with a sack over his head. Shaking his head from side to side. As he shakes his head he sees a flashback of a happier time with his wife in a light, warm snooker hall. They are alone.
The man shakes his head again in distress. A flashback of his wife being taken and shot is shown.
One shake and a happy flash back of them walking in a bright field with bright flowers and the sun shining.
Another shake shows a flashback of him pushing her on some swings in a sunny park smiling and laughing.
There are a series of happy still images consisting mainly of his wife, smiling, gradually getting quicker building until a collision of snooker/pool balls brings the scene back to reality.
Finishing with the hostages.

script with prop detail

HOSTAGE SCENE

The hostage is tied up with a bag covering his head, so he is unable to see anything, this will keep the hostages identity hidden (common feature of the thriller genre). And will also make the audience suspicious to his situation. Also having him tied to a old wooden chair, this would suggest the amount of time that he has been there. And also shows the kind of surroundings he is being kept in.

FLASH BACK SCENES

Still images of the couple in various locations, we need to consider the weather and the clothes that the actors and actresses are wearing to make it look although they are different days, we're also going to include images of other happy memories that the hostage has experienced in the past like group, friend photos.

LOCATION 


We are using various locations for our sequence such as a snooker table showing the happy memories of the couple, swings in a park, a sunny field (if possible due to English weather :( ) and a stoney floor for the captives girlfriend to be dragged across.