A Look at the Titles of Memento...

Memento had one of the most interesting title sequences I've seen in a thriller film - mainly because it is not conventional, it's delicate and slow as the same image appears throughout; that of a polaroid picture. The music - although classical - is not conventional either, its yearning and painful in a way, like heartbreak is being portrayed. I found it really interesting that although no action actually happens during the title sequence, I was still interested, I still wanted to watch - because of the atmosphere caused by the music, which was dramatic and powerful and overall, intriguing.

The Importance of Sound - The Shining

Yesterday, I sat down and watched Stanley Kubrick's The Shining - a film full of weird psychological happenings and make-you-jump moments. I absolutely loved it. It terrified the hell out of me at some points, but over all, it was a really great, refreshingly interesting film and cinematographically, I thought it was amazing. The vast setting of the actual story -the large empty hotel in the snowy mountains -completely supports the dark thrilling film and the performances are really convincing.

One thing that was very apparent to me whilst watching this film, was the use of sound. In last thursday's lesson, we studied the use of sound in film and I haven't been able to get the ideas of the different categories out of my head - and when watching The Shining, I found how important it was as a dramatic technique, especially to this particular film. The string sections made me jump alot, and I often thought, when watching, "If this music wasn't playing, I wouldn't be looking at the screen through my fingers. In this one film, I realized how prominent sound is in films in attempt to evoke emotion and feeling in the audience.

In the start of this particular scene, the importance of music really hit me and I realised if this scoring was not there, I would not have been wondering what the hell was going to happen ("Is he going to kill someone?! Are those freaky little girls in blue dresses going to appear?!") - music can utterly change the entire tone and atmosphere of any scene.

Although The Shining is considered to be a horror film by many, I can definately define the thriller aspects in it. It is pschyological and its meant to make you question the characters and also the state of our humanity when put into isolation - basically, it's a film to make you think without being conventional in any way.

What I learned from Dexter task...

From recreating the opening scene of drama tv show Dexter with my group, I learned quite alot:
  - Organisation is everything: I've learned not to leave anything to chance or till later on in the process because if one thing goes wrong, it tends to start a domino effect, and we can't be dealing with that.
 - The finer details are important: Getting everything just right and correct is really important as it gives the audience everything they need and want, to be able to enjoy and be incorporated into the film piece.
 - Good communication: It really just keeps everything well organised and speeds up the problems when things down don't out how you expect them to. 
 - I also learnt about the way I use the camera and I really got to grips with it well during this recreation.

American Psycho - A Look at the Titles

Throughout the American Psycho titles, there is implicit meaning and imagery, such as, as what seems to be blood falls in drops, really it is a red sauce being put onto the dish that carries itself through the title sequence.

As the knife comes down - bringing ideas of murder and anger to the audience - the character uses it to cut food.  All the shots so far are close-ups to intrigue the audience and make them closer to the action.

In this shot, the blood-fooling sauce is apparent and the woman eating wears black gloves - something used often whilst murdering/ committing crimes.

This title sequence really reminds me of the Dexter routine which I already studied, as they both consist of close ups that attempt in a way to fool the audience into thinking a certain way - getting them in the mindset of the American Psycho.

BFI...A-MAZ-ING

So yesterday, our media class took a little trip up to London to the British Film Institute, where we were given a presentation on films and the like not only by the chief examiner petesmediablog.blogspot.com but also by visual effects supervisor Simon Carr and also actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher.

During the first talk of the day, Pete gave us a presentation on famous film openings and we studied how they set-up the rest of the filma nd what effect they had on the audience. He told us that film openings establish the genre of the film, the narrative, the principal characters and also the complete atmosphere. Pete showed us The Art of the Title website which we'd already looked at in classed and used to conjure up our own timelines of famous films (I used Mission Impossible II for my timeline example).

Pete really stressed the importance of sound - and foley - and how many students don't give it much attention or put much care into making/choosing a track. He showed us through another student's film how sound can be layered and what effect it can cause to generate interest into the piece.

Visual effects supervisor Simon Carr also talked to us and showed what his job entailed, so we could have a look at the finer details of film making- the special effects, cgi etc. I found his talk very interesting, especially as he did a case study of one of my favourite films ever feautring Ben Barnes- Easy Virtue!! And it was also a great chance to get an insight into the post production side of film-making too.

^Last December, meeting Ben Barnes at the Comedy Theatre (after an evening production of Birdsong)

                                    

Actor/director Dexter Fletcher gave us some very good advice about how to open a piece of film - one of the most important things to do first is to establish the characters and define them quickly, but not nessercarily through a script but through actions, and imagery. He also said a good idea is to get other peoples' feedback on what you've created during the actual making process, because for instance, if someone doesn't understand why a character does something, you need to change it so it makes sense for the audience but at the same time doesn't give too much information away or patronize them. Dexter Fletcher also said that when dealing with typical characters, to make the character interesting, turn them on their head. If you expect a character to react a certain way to a situation, make them deal with it in a different way to show variety and surprise in the story. 

Dexter Fletcher told us it was all about storytelling via letting the pictures tell the story and that's eaxctly what my group plans to do for our final thriller film piece. He also gave us some good advice including keep the location close and all sets near a base so it wouldn't take long if you had to quickly change plans and go to a different location.

Overall, it was a really great fun and informative trip, and I'll definately take everything I've learnt into consideration during this course.

25 Word Treatment - my thriller film - Charge.

Charge

When ex military leaders John Harper and Adam Seere join forces with lower respected ministers to overhaul the British government and get a lot of money in the process, it would seem nothing could go wrong for the elite team of secret masterminds. But when they recieve one letter that could change everything, it soon becomes a game of cat and mouse as the corrupt but intelligent team come face to face with the enemy and have to literally run for their lives.

An modern homage to Tony Scott, full of action, spying, mystery and tension supported by a good storyline and something for the audience to invest in.

Enemy of the State

I thought Enemy of the State was a really great and intriguing thriller that kept you watching right up until the end credits. It was fast and had twists and turns that you'd never expect. It also had an interesting take on the modern world we live in - and all the technology that we've discovered - and I think was really ahead of its time in 1998 when it was made.

It's directed by Tony Scott who directed other thriller films such as Top Gun and Spy Game. Scott often uses fast jagged and circling sort of shots when depicting car chases and action.

Espionage/Political Thriller - Brainstorm!

9 Frame Analysis - Enemy of the State

Frame One

This first shot sets up the entire scene as we see an establishing shot and also the font of the writing which is in the style of typical thriller.

Frame Two

In this shot, the audience is introduced to one of the main protagonists in a seemingly ambiguous circumstance. It is not until a little later in the scene, when his real character is revealed.

Frame Three

The conversation between the original two main characters entirely sets up the story, as the audience learns a bit about their past and also the reason why and how they know each other, and also what they're doing there, at the specific time.

Frame Four

As the scene goes on and the characters interact further, the audience is given clues as to why the character is really there. This scene builds the story up and the music behind it adds to the tense and mysterious tone of the piece.

Frame Five

The next establishing shot ecorporates the surrounding characters as the audience become more aware of what is about to happen. The piece has been fairly relaxed up until this point.

Frame Six

With fast camera editing, the audience find out what happens in this scene - that they have planned to kill the first character we see. And an important character at that, as it all relates to the entire story of the piece, and therefore relates to the end, when everything is sorted out. This character who is attacked is the main key to the whole story and narrative.

Frame Seven

We see this character has no remorse and feels no guilt about being a part of the murder that has taken place. We now understand that he is the 'villain'/ 'bad guy' of the film.

Frame Eight

The audience are very much let in on the story and encouraged into it as they see each part of the experience, including how the villains fake the death.

Frame Nine

In the last few frames, we see establishing shots as the car plunges into the lake. This feels like symbolism 'taking the final plunge' and a good, dramatic way to end the first scene before rolling the opening titles.



The Prestige - Film Analysis

I was utterly confused by this film but I loved every moment of it...

The Prestige

- The storyline is completely original and keeps you interested and on the edge of your seat right up until the last scene. It's pretty incredible and although the actual storyline and final result of the story is unclear, the narrative is very intriguing as it darts back and forth in time - interestingly a subject that's parallel to the actual story.

- The characters are well drawn and interesting with hidden layers and complex personalities that the audience can both relate to and enjoy watch as they go about in the film. It's a story full of magic and mystery but is at heart a brilliant thriller film that keeps you guessing, and even when it's finished, you still think and wonder about what actually prevailed.

-The Prestige is directed by Christopher Nolan who is famous for his thriller films and adaptions such as Momento, Batman trilogy, Inception and Insomnia. It also stars well known actors who appear in other thrillers such as Christian Bale (who played psychopath serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)

Okay...

I've changed groups and am now a member of the group that consists of Joe Fitzpatrick http://joefitz-asmedia.blogspot.com/ and Abbie Hales http://abbie-hales.blogspot.com/ . We also have our new group blog --> http://joeabbiemaisy.blogspot.com/

We'll be having our first group meeting on Monday 21st November to discuss the planning for our remake of Parity.

In class...

...on Thursday, we looked at Ideology - how what is presented to the audience has been created including the thoughts behind it and why its been made in the way it has, and also what affect it creates on the audience. We had to draw a picture, which to us, would represent Ideology:

Also, as a class, we had a brief discussion on fundamental things you would expect from a thriller film and came up with a few ideas:

- blood

- police tape

- chalk outline on floor

- weapons

- red and blue flashing lights (police car symbolism)

Timeline - Mission Impossible II

So, in class we looked at how timelines were made for the titles of films to see what had to be included and just generally how it worked. I used the title sequence of Mission Impossible II (which I borrowed from watchthetitles.com) and created a timeline for it. I did this so when I come to making my own titles for our next group thriller film project, I'll know what to do.

Mission Impossible title sequence --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvK97cxjt_Y

A New Thriller - Mind map, ideas!

I've been thinking of ideas for a new thriller and in this mind map, I've started to brainstorm my ideas, ready for evolvement. I've considered: the story, characters, settings, similarities it has to other films of the genre, sucb-genre it falls in, and other initial ideas I have.

Group Work - Audience Research Statistics

    Fight Club





Interestingly, 43% of raters gave Fight Club a ten and I'm not surprised, it is, in my opinion, a significant film in the timeline of the thriller genre. An sligght amount more of men than women rated on the film and it was better accepted by people under the age of eighteen, as ages go up, less and less people voted. This shows that the film is intended for a younger audience, with references to modern life in 1999 and also a fast paced story, as seen in the trailer, to keep people and mainly youngsters interested. I get why this film would appeal more in the majority to males than females as there is a lot of action and the cast is very male dominated, apart obviously from Helena Bonham Carter's character. But there's a lot to keep the audience involved and intrigued and it's just a generally great movie.

Taxi Driver

29% of raters also gave a ten to the film Taxi Driver. The film is largely accepted and liked by males both under eighteen years and also aged between 18 and 29. Women aren't far behind in terms of rating either and the film is mainly rated in 8, 9 and 10.

Taken

The majority of raters (30%) on IMDB rated Taken as an 8. The film was well accepted by both females and males, with males leading the rating, similiar to the other films I've looked at. Interestingly, again, more people under eighteen years old have rated this film, showing that perhaps the entire genre of thriller is more intended for younger people and the film makers play on this and manipulate the films into putting this point across. 

Inception 

Inception is one of the highest grossing thriller films and you can see how much it's liked by the raters, as 49% of the raters gave the film a 10 on IMDB. Interestingly, both males and females liked it and rated and although the number of people does go down as the age groups get older, the film is widely accepted and watched. Inception is a very universal thrillerand I think the target audience is very wide and vague, which allows more people the encouragement they need to go and watch it.

Group Work - Intended Audience

Chris and I discussed what sort of audience would our film be intended for and so I came up with the poster below...

Group Work - Production Company Logo

Chris and I have been working hard on ideas for the production company and I've come up with the name of Pumping Heart Productions, running along the lines of thrillers that get your heart pumping fast as you watch on screen what happens. We're also working on a logo. Here's what I brainstormed earlier...

This is one idea I've had ^

These are Chris's working drawings^

Group Work.

Until we can properly sort out our group blog all together, we've decided to keep the group work on each of our blogs.

Group Blog: http://chrisandjeniandmaisy.blogspot.com/
Chris Rizzi's Blog: chris-rizzi-media.blogspot.com/
Jeni Hatt's Blog: jennifer-as-media.blogspot.com

Last weekend...

...I did something I've never done before in my life; I went out and purposely bought a thriller film - in fact I ended up buying two.

The first was Takers, which focussed on a group of L.A. criminals trying to score a huge amount of money, but there are twists and turns and eventually things don't turn out as they originally planned. Overall I thought the film was really good and had an interesting narrative. There are some really cool shots too in the film that I noticed were put to good use in the genre it falls under (there were blurry close-ups and large establishing shots throughout the picture) and it all helped to create suspense especially, for example, in the clip above.

The scond film was Awake, which centred on a young and rich business man who needs a heart transplant. His doctor friend is the surgeon so he thinks everything will be fine, but he falls under the rare condition of anesthetic awareness and hears and feels everything- including the fact that his friend and wife are planning to kill him for his money. I really liked this film, it was interesting and different and it made me laugh at myself when I had to cringe away from the screen. The narrative was also interesting as the main character goes back to certain times where he should've seen specific things that could've stopped what happens.

Self Evaluation!

After reflecting over all the work I've done over the last 5 weeks, I've evaluated my self and the way I work.

Areas in Level Criteria

(1) Complete - do we know who did what?
In this area I reckon I'm about a level three/four, somewhere in between. I've done quite a lot of research and a fair amount of planning and on some pieces, my work is a lot more detailed and full than other pieces.

(2) Useful research and demonstrate learning or just copying?
I think I'm probably just edging on level four in this area because I have done a lot of research into thrillers and audience. I've watched many more thriller films over the last month than I ever have in my life. I've also researched extensively about iconic thriller directors and typical synopsis' within the genre as well  as writing my own review of thriller film Like Minds.

(3) Care/Creativity in the Presentation
I think in this area, I'm somewhere between level three and four because I've tried really hard to present the information in a creative and different way, that stands out. I've used various medias such as video and voice overs to keep my work interesting to read and good to look at, particularly at first glance.

(4) Time Management 
I have tried my absolute best to put in at least four hours of independent studying and work each week but I have found it difficult which is why I think I'm only on a level two at this moment in time, but I plan to reach at least level three within the next few weeks/month.

6 Ways to Kill Your Husband - Final piece.

This is my group's final thriller sequence piece. 

The Planning Progress

To plan for this task, my group and I carried out a range of planning activities and pieces of work. Personally, I created the main idea of the script, but Chris Rizzi had a huge input into what material was actually used when filming. I also drew the storyboard out and helped look at what shots we were going to use. I think we were fairly organized but nowhere near enough as towards the end of the project, it became honestly quite a struggle. Although it proved difficult, I think I really benefitted, as did my group, from making mistakes and learning from them. There are some things I would change, for instance, we didn't have enough time to edit the piece into black and white, or get the exact shots we planned +/ wanted. 

The Video Production

Chris and I used a small room with low lights- which helped create extra shadow and therefore suspense- and few props. We had to include match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. I think our match on action shots worked pretty well and were edited to a good standard. Although we only used the shot/reverse shot once, I think that too worked effectively. I'm afraid to say we did break the 180 degree rule but I think we all learned from it. Abbie Hales and George Martin also, graciously helped out with the production of the piece. 

I think the piece looked pretty convincing and the conversation worked well, and although it wasn't essential, we tried hard to create a good, interesting script. There are many things I would do to improve it such as plan further in advance and think more clearly and effectively about the shots we planned to use, but as I said before, all the mistakes we make will eventually help us understand where we can go right. 

For more information on our piece, check out Chris Rizzi's blog.

This is mine and Chris's Directors Commentary...

Preliminary Task - Script (6 Ways to Kill your Husband)

This is our script we created for the film noir sequence...

Preliminary Task - Storyboard!

This is our storyboard for the preliminary task film noir sequence.

Composition, the rules of.

I learnt that composition is basically the frame in which the scene is shot, which makes it visually interesting to the audience. It's basic guidelines for filming and there are sub- ideas to it such as...

The Rule of Thirds - This is where you imagine a grid of nine squares covering the shot. Sometimes, the grid is already over the camera so it can help when filming. The object of interest in the piece should be situated where the lines overlap. Below, I've drawn a picture to remind myself of this rule, when needed.

There are other factors of composition such as...

Head Room - this is where you need to have a good enough distance between the top of the person's head and the top of the frame. 

Look Room - It's sometimes called Nose Room and it basically is the distance between the side edge of the frame and the person's nose. 

Lead Room - This is when the camera follows (pans) the moving object in the scene. 

There are other shots that are used in composition like eye level shots, low and high angle shots etc.

An important factor of composition is simplicity - meaning not too much happening in the background so the audience can focus their attention on the main object and balance - meaning if there is an object on the left hand side of the frame, something needs to be placed on the right to balance out the shot, and vice versa. 

Recently in class...

I learnt about 3 different techniques used in film which make the piece interesting and are also fundamental guidelines to follow when filming.
I studied Match on Action. Match on Action is basically where you film various shots of the same movement so it follows through naturally to show the scene. Jeni Hatt, Chris Rizzi and myself all had a go at editing these sequences which show the idea of Match on Action...

We also studied the 180 degree rule and Shot reverse/ shot. To see information on these, check out:

Chris Rizzi's blog: http://chris-rizzi-media.blogspot.com/

and

Jeni Hatt's.

Film Production Companies

After surfing the web researching film production companies I found a specific example.

Hammer Film Productions is a British film company that was started in 1934. It's famous for it's more 'gothic' pieces of work but is well known for thriller productions and also film noir.

This production company is suitable for making a Thriller film because it's what they specialize in - dark, tense, sometimes scary pieces of work.

Hammer Film Productions have made films such as The Phantom of the Opera and series of films under the varied titles of Dracula and Frankenstein. The company was at its most successful peak from the late 50's to the mid 70's.

http://www.hammerfilms.com/ 

For more information on film production companies, check out my group member Chris Rizzi's blog: 

http://chris-rizzi-media.blogspot.com/ 

Lock, Stock Sequence

Jeni, Chris and I took a scene from the film Lock, Stock and recreated it because it showed pretty well various types of angles and shots - such as close-ups, side views, extreme close-ups and panning shots. Above are the 9 frames we initially print screened.

After studying the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot, here is our finished, edited piece of film...