Thriller Credits Analysis

The opening titles for Six Feet Under follow the characteristics of a typical thriller film. The credits go with the style of the film as they appear on objects or in the typical scenes of what the audience will see in the film or programme. This adds to the effect of the genre. The scenes on which the credits appear, are all based around the image of death. Either dead bodies, hospitals or the grave yard is what is pictured in the opening credits.
This gave us the idea to use a similar idea for our credits. At the opening of our film, inbetween scenes of the shower, images of old newspaper articles will flash up giving the audience an idea that a death has occurred. Therefore, our idea for credits would be that the names would appear as part of a newspaper article. This would make it more obvious to the audience of the genre.

Mise-en-scene in the Thriller

Props:
For the opening of our thriller film, the props needed will be a couple of plain towels, fake blood, family photographs, newspaper articles, clock and a murder weapon. These will help to give the audience an insight to the storyline.


Costume:
Because of the shower scene at the very beginning, you won't necessarily see any costumes. However, in the family photographs normal casual clothes will be seen. These will be the only scenes where you could see any costumes.


Make up:
The only kind of stage make up that will be used throughout our thriller will be the fake blood used in the shower and on the towel. Other than this, make up won't really be needed.


Lighting:
The lighting will turn dingy throughout the scenes of the old family photographs. This will give the audience an idea that it's from the past. However, in the shower scene it'll just be ordinary lighting.


Sets:
In our thriller film, the only sets used will be the bathroom and a living room for the mantle piece that the audience see's the photographs on.


Colour:
A dark red colour will be used to indicate horror or danger. This will represent the thriller genre and will be used when the flashbacks are shown on the screen.

Protagonists and Antagonists

Batman: The Dark Knight In the trailer for Batman: The Dark Knight, both the antagonist and protagonist are shown in their typical mannerisms.
The Joker is shown to be an antagonist by the way in which he dresses. His face is painted to look like a jester. However, it looks quite disturbing like a clown turned nasty. On the other hand, Batman is a typically good looking protagonist. The Jokers manner also gives him the tag of antagonist, he seems very twisted when he speaks and his body language is not of a normal person, the way he speaks about death and how he murders his victims also shows that he is the antagonist.

Batman is the protagonist in this movie, we know this because He is the hero in the film, we know this because his name batman shows that he has more than just human qualities and powers. batman also saves someone who in danger in the film and so this confirms his tag of protagonist.

Feedback from Idea Presentation

We had to give a presentation to the class, selling our ideas, receiving both negative and positive feedback form our classmates. We then had time for questions to be asked about our opening clip, what it would include, whether or not it was doable and general facts they wanted to know. Our first question was about how we would show our credits, this question was well received as we had not come up with an idea for our credits therefore Ryan came up with the idea that we could show our credits on a newspaper this links in to the opening of our thriller Film. We were then asked about the name of our film. This is yet to be decided as we need to think of something appropriate and sensible. A lot of questions were also raised about the micro elements we were going to use to create a Psychological thriller. This was a good question as it drew our attention to this subject. We decided that a great deal of the genre would come down to the music and the camera angles we were going to use. However, to make it totally clear its a psychological thriller, we have a lot of dependence on the editing. Our editing is to make it clear, a lot of the fear is in the characters head, rather than a surreal event. Through the use of editing we want to incorporate a suitable soundtrack, differentiation in colours, and a range of fast paced, exciting transitions.

Presentation of our Thriller ideas

Narrative Ideas for our Thriller

For our 2 minute Thriller opening we have though of a complex narrative, that will come under the genre of a Psychological Thriller. The idea involves a girl grieving the death of her brother, who was brutally murdered. This is shown to have a spiraling negative effect upon her mental state as she is in a state of desperation until she finds the reasoning for the murder of her supposedly innocent brother.

We only have two minutes to introduce this theme. In these two minutes we want to create a feeling of desperation, anxiety and a mental breakdown that can be passed on to the audience through a tense representation of the scene.

To open our clip, we will have an eeirey soundtrack playing in the background, as the name of our ident appears onto the screen through the darkness. This will set the tone for the rest of the scene. A slow fade will then take place, as we see some old photos of a brother and a sister together, photos of the two looking very happy. The gloomy music will continue and the shot will be filmed on a window sill, in front of a window at night. The camera will slowly pan over numerous photos as the title of the film appears in on of the corners. If possible, we want the weather to miserable (raining or possibly thunder) in the background. Sound effects can be added to enhance this effect. The scene will then change to the sister who we have just seen in the photos. She will be in a shower. She will not be looking happy as we are soon to find out her unstable mental condition, but the colour of the scene will not suggest too much fault. Then using a sharp and scratchy transition, we will then see more old photos and newspaper articles, suggesting how the brother has died to the audience. This shot will peacefully maintain for a few seconds before jumping back to the close up of the girl in the shower. As she nervously washes, she will then panic as what she believes to be blood drips onto her face/ shoulder. To show a state of panic, the scene will jump, and there will be no blood, suggesting its all in he head. We will include more obvious photos and newspaper articles suggesting how, where, when and perhaps why the brother was brutally murdered. The mentally unstable theme will the continue, as instead of blood falling from a shower, it will appear there are blood stains on her towel, when actually there isn't.

Suggested Locations

Our planned location is a Jazz's house, here we will be able to film everything that is required in our opening thriller sequence. For our opening shot of the photo, we can use a mantle piece located in her house. This will give a professional and organized appearance to the opening scene. The shower will only be needed as it comes. We may need to adjust lighting, making it either brighter or darker, but that can also be done using the editing. Enhancing the lighting and colors will make the blood look a piercing red in contrast to the tiling of the shower room.

Characters/ Actors

Our scene will not include a great deal of 'actors'. Only the girl in the shower will be needed, however we will need people to be in the photo's of past events. To create variation in our photos, and a sense of reality, we will use friends to achieve lots of different people in different photos. The two main people we need in these photos though, will be the main actor and the brother- maybe the suspected killer.

The Girl in the shower will be played by Abi
The Brother can be played by...
Everyone else can be played by friends as they are background characters.

Genre

The genre for our film will be a psychological thriller. This often shares elements of mystery and drama too. Psychological thrillers mainly focus on the plot rather than a character and usually involves two characters interfering with one another's minds. One of the characters (usually the protagonist) will suffer from a mental struggle throughout the film and there is either a fear or fascination with the idea of death. The characters spend most of their time in the film trying to discover their own purpose. However, it usually contains danger on a mental level more so than a physical level.
The psychological thriller genre will be represented in all aspects of the opening scene. The music used in the opening will generally be quite eerie and create a sense of tension and suspense for the audience. This will ensure that the genre is immediately obvious to the viewer.
The flashbacks at the beginning will switch between old photos and newspaper articles, this will be seen inbetween the shower scene of a female character. From the opening, the characters won't necessarily be made clear to the audience of who they are, this will give a sense of confusion and keep the psychological thriller as a genre consistent.
The opening scene will jump straight into the action therefore the viewers will not be aware of where the shot is taking place, again creating a sense of confusion.

Mood Board

Disney Ident Analysis

The Walt Disney ident is very simple but very attractive to the viewer. It starts off with a blank blue screen and a beam of light starting from the top draws the famous Disney ident palace. The music that goes with it is high pitched and gentle and it has an element of fantasy which ties in with the Disney palace. While the music is playing the Disney font flashes up below the Disney palace as part of its creation and then a beam flies over the top this again adds fantasy to the logo which is relevant to the type of films Disney make which is children's fantasy. The font in which Walt Disney is written in is bubble writing and the font is old fashioned this is clever because Walt Disney production and distribution company goes back many years hence the old font, however the films are made at a more recent time hence the bubble writing. As mentioned before the whole of the logo is made up of two blues, the background being a dark blue and the Disney palace being a very light blue, this adds a calming effect for the viewer however it also builds up an element of excitement which makes it a very good logo for Disney.

Our Idents Design

To create a profession and impressive look to our opening scene in our thriller clip, we want to create an 'Ident'. This is the distributive group who create the film, and show their ident at the begging of every movie. Example of this include 20th Century Fox, Paramount pictures and Pixar. we began by coming up with a name for our pre-film Ident. Looking at images on the internet, we like the fusion of the rwo words 'Eye' and 'Eclipse', as we saw them appropriate to the thriller genre, creating and fitting in with a tense atmosphere. Therefore we came up with the idea of 'I-Clipse'. it then made sense for us to fuse the center of a pure blue eye, into the darkness within an eclipse. This creates a good effect, as an eclipse creates an eeiry darkness whilst an eye gives the viewer and sense of being watched. Therefore this is very appropriate to open out thriller clip. There is a possibility we can then animate our clip. We want to be able to fade the title 'I-Clipse' into the eclipse, then the eyes fading in over that. If its a possibility, we will then also add an eeiry tune into the Ident, that will be the trademark soundtrack, and will create the atmosphere for the film. The music will have to be long the lines of a dark, piano tune, creating an on edge atmosphere for the audience. In some ways, the sountrack to go with the ident is the most important part, as despite the logo being recognised, the sycronised music seemes even more so. I belive we have an effective opening ident that will set a good tone and quality for out thriller clip to follow.

Garage Band Trial

From analysing a 3 minute clip of Identity without sound, we had to make our own sound clip to match the action happening. From repeating the clip, we picked up on the storm happening outside and a detective-like figure flicking through newspaper articles and a tape recorder.
Using garage band, we searched for a soundtrack that would fit the style and genre of a thriller. We managed to find sounds like thunder and rain to suit the weather outside. We also managed to find eery sounds to suit the thriller genre

Previous Media Studies Pupils Thriller Film Analysis

The return

This clip introduces to the audience who the main character of the film is going to be from the very first shot; the way that the figure is just plainly standing in a field is very simple and yet very effective because the way that the camera has been edited makes it look as if we as the audience are looking through an eye, thus putting us in the eye of what can only be assumed to be the murderer. The way that we are watching as the camera zooms into a closer and closer up shot of the boy's face gives me the impression that we are stalking our prey, there for giving the impression to the audience that the boy is going to be the victim of whatever crime is going to happen. After this shot the camera changes to view the opposite angle, this gives the impression to the audience that this is what the boy is seeing and we, as we now can assume that we are looking from the eyes of the main character, are now looking at the murderer. This is very effective because it creates suspense and tells enough about what the themes of the film are to be without giving a great deal away.
The flashing images that are next shown are quite frightening and as a result of the flashing, disorientating for the viewers; this is effective because it confuses the audience and therefor frightens them more as they feel themselves loosing control of the situation. The way that the camera looks like something shown on a cervalance camera is also very frightening because you can imagine the events to be real as opposed to just acted scenes and the abstract shots of people seemingly in distress crouching on the floor is very unerving as the audience asks themselves, what is happening to them?
The cervalance camera also suggests the theme of a crime thriller because the audience would immediately make the link fro this shot to CCTV and therefor the police. This is good because again it introduces the themes of themes of the film. The white noise and blank screen that the film has used also introduces the theme of crime because I think that the blank screen suggests to the audience that something has gone wrong to stop the events from being seen, cutting the cords for example.
The shot of the instruments that the audience can infer are murder instruments such as saws ad knifes also makes the film seem much more brutal and sick as you see a hand maticulously picking out their weapon of choice which gives the audience the impression that the murder is not meerly a disgusting act of anger but perhaps a hobby that the muderer actually cares about and enjoys. This makes the film so much more terrifying because if from the film you got the impression of some kind of remorse from the murderer for an accident then the chance of being murdered seems so much less likely where as a murderer that kills people for fun seems much more likely for them to seek out the audience.
The font that has been chosen for the credits is interesting because the regular words featured in credits such as "film" and "by" are in clear writing whilst the words such as who the film is by and the students second names are in a font that almost looks as if it has been carved in, this again suggests the theme of murder to the audience and also makes everything seem more gruesome and creepy as opposed to just clean-cut.
The music used adds to the creepy atmosphere because it is very eerie and un-suggesting, meaning that anything could happen. This also suggests to the audience that anything could happen in the events that would take place in the film, leaving the audience tense and nervous as they can not guesse what is going to come.
The candles that duplicate refer to the title "the return" as the audience is flickering back to life, becoming stronger as two. The referance back to the eye at the end ties the clip all together and introduces the title "The Return" as the killer's eye is returning, in some way this gives the impression that the film is a sequal which also suggests that the murderer is still not caught which scares the audience as they can infer from this that the killer is obviously skilled in their diseptions.

Analysis of the clip 'Captive'

Captive is a thriller filmed by a former long road student. The clip caught our eye from the very opening as they have professional included the opening shot with the word 'moon' with an image of a moon replacing an 'O'. Also an eerie music is playing in the background, an ironic twinkle from a piano. The as the credits play, a blurred flame flickers in a dark location- again an effective eerie opening to the thriller. A fast pasted change of shots then takes place- glimpsing at photos, tied hands and a rough image on an eye. The editing here, fastening the pace of the clip is an effective technique to creating an edging effect to the clip.
The regular referances back to the newspaper clippings infers to theaudience that the events occuring have become known enough tob documented on the news; perhaps even warning the public. This is extremely effective because it gives you an insight into what the film is going to be about which conforms with the criteria of achievening a grade 4 as they are introducing thethemes of the film to the audience. The other clippings on the board show the audience imagesz of what looks to be a father and son; this, along with the newspaper clippings, gives the adience the idea that somethig badis going to happen involving either the man or his son.
By showng the audience quick shots of a large knife it carries on the idea of murder; the way that the group had managed to make this knife glint makes the shot seem so much more effectively sinister because it is obvious that the knife is going to be a main prop in the film. This is good because it too introduces the themes of the film.
The hand-held shot they used during the clip of the person being gagged is very effective because it makes the scene look so much more chaotic. This also contrasts well with the strangely twinkly music which would not indicate the events the audience are seeing. The group have also used a varied lot of shot types including a lot of close-ups of the words on the newspaper, this is effective because it is very confusing for the audience and makes thm feel disorientated.
the fact that they keep on going back to the shot of the candle shows us the audience that it is significant to the thriller. There are also short sharp shots of the different tools and knifes which are shown with the shot of an eye and pictures of people which indicates that these may have been used for a series of murders. The fact that the knives and tools are shown by a small amount of light in a dark room again adds to the eeriness and again suggests that the tools were used for murders. The pictures, the tools interlink in a number of shots giving them a strong connection. Finally we see someone who has been tied up, this person may well be connected with the people in the photos, this also shows the audience that he could be the victim of torture or in fact an eventual murder.

The Marking Criteria of our Thriller Project

Level 4- This is the top flight grade- to achieve this you need to reach 48/60 marks.
To reach this level you need to

Achieve excellence in:

-The recording of voices clearly
-In Studio/ Interior
-On Location
-Steady Camera Shooting
- The framing of Shots
- Using a variety of shot distances- Long, Medium, Close-ups
- Shooting Material appropriate to the task set- in this case a thriller.
- Selecting appropriate Mise-en-Scene
- Appropriate editing so the meaning of the scene is apparent to the viewer.
- Using a variety of shot transitions and effects to attract the attention of the viewers.
- Using sound with images
- Using appropriate titles

Thriller Sub-Genre

Psychological thriller

Contained drama elements and mystery

danger on a mental level ad a physical level

Two or more characters on one anothers minds

one solitary character with a mental struggle

There will be a fear or fascination of deat

character spends most time of finding own purpose

When watching the opening sequence of the film Taken it is apparent from the beginning that the main character wants to become closer to his daughter, this implies to the audience that something bad is going to happen involving the daughter.

In addition to this, the character drops hints about his past with lines such as "I want to make up for lost time" and "it will be just like old times, but better-know one will get killed" this tells the audience that the main character has been involved in a secret life that involved danger; from this we can infer that he is probably trained in combat and therefor conforms with the Action Thriller factors.
The man is identified straight away as the protagonist and the audience immediately warms to him because of his affection and wanting to be around his daughter. So far in this clip the antagonist is not featured.

Analysis of Crime Thriller 'Double Jeporady'

We are now analysing a 'Crime Thriller'. The example movie of this we have been given is 'double jeopardy'. The scene opens with an establishing shot of a busy city. This fits the genre of a crime thriller, as storyline are commonly set in the heart of a busy town, however, reveals almost a hidden and secret life withing in the city. This hidden life, is the life of crime that no-one knows about.
So immediately as the film opens, an idea of the genre can be guessed. As the scene continues, an example of normal life is shown to the audience, however, with a slight build of suspense. We see a rotating car wheel, then a jump cut to a civilians feet walking along, when the shot numerously switches between the two. We see the character step inside the car, and eve
rything is made out to be fine and relaxed as she placed her feet upon the dashboard. However a tune that grows in volume begins to build suspense, when we see the car comes to a halt. We then see that that female character has tears strolling down her face, as a gun is being held to her head. This is a typical opening to a thriller scene, a busy city where everything seems to be carrying on as normal, when little do we know, theirs a lot of crimes and hidden problems masked by everyday life. This sets the scene for the film, as the scene then jumps to explain the story line 'six years earlier'. At the very opening of the film, a happy relaxed tune is played, leading the audience into almost a false scene of security, making the hidden criminal activity taking place much more shocking.

'Vantage Point' A Political Thriller

We are looking at Thrillers with sub-genres. We watched the opening clip from Vantage point, a political thriller. It makes clear in the opening scene that the American government, with a great deal of support are again the terrorist attacks following the events of 911. Typical of the genre, we see two teams of people, those in the offices and those in the action of it all. In this example, they have portrayed this using the news team, and the crew. We have the head in the control office, ordering her camera men around the arrival of the president to portray the storyline to the audience. it also gives a message about the media and censorship, as the news presenter and co workers try to do a clip upon recent assismnations and terror attacks at events like this, however the head woman goes against this as it is 'not their story'. We are given clues to wahst going to happen as in the oppening clip of the movie we can hear news presenters all hyping about this event, giving us a clue that we are going to see through the eyes of the news, this terror attack unfold. Rather than shots being worked for us, we are talked through them by the overiding head and what they acheive. However this clip gives us a message for the rest of the film. Perhaps that talking about terror is not the way to go about it, as they continue to retaliate, assisnating the president of the United DStates of America and a serious of explosion taking place that kill the TV news presenter, who had only just try to warn people about events like this. The filkm is clearly set about a war on terror and the approach taken to this, based on the events we witness in the opening clip of the film. Agin, it typically fits whats expected on a political thriller as there is the good force, fighting against terror, but the terrorists fighting back. The use of the media in the scene creates an affective appearance to the movie, as its fast paced, gives us a good view of the political events, and carries a lot of message to the viewers of the movie.

Panic Room - Psychological Thriller

A psychological thriller focuses on; drama elements and mystery,danger on mostly a mental level rather than physical, two or more characters preying on one another's minds, one solitary character with mental struggles, characters will have fear or fascination with death, characters try and discover their purpose.



The audience knows that Panic Room is a psychological thriller because the film is based around how there is a safe room in the house which is meant to be the safest place in the house. However, what the villains want is actually inside this room so it becomes the most dangerous room in the house instead. This makes it a psychological thriller. The Panic Room shows Jodie Foster's fear of being stuck inside the room.

Camera Angles of Se7en

Camera Angles - During the opening scene of Se7en, a lot of close ups were used to show the detective getting ready. Close ups on his personal possessions show that he picks up a knife, this is quite unusual for an ordinary person. Therefore, the audience can probably tell it's a thriller. A medium shot shows the detective walking down a corridor and speaking to another detective therefore the audience knows that something has probably already happened again fitting to the thriller genre. When Brad Pitt comes into the scene, a tracking shot follows Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt down the street as they speak. Again, the serious conversation lets the audience know something has already happened. From the high angle shots, the detectives are seen to be quite powerful and as leading roles. A long shot shows the detectives bedroom, again showing the audience that Morgan Freeman is going to be a main character, and as it zooms closer to Morgan Freeman's face the minor noises in the bedroom like the clock ticking and people outside his house grow louder. Then the opening credits start to appear where extreme close ups of strange pictures and objects are shown. This again reassures the audience of the thriller genre.

Micro Elemts in the Opening of Se7en (Mise-en-scene, Sound)

We watched the 5 minute opening clip for the film 'Se7en'. Within this clip we analysed the micro elements of sound and Mise-en-scene.

Mise-En-scene
The clip opens with a shot of the Morgan freeman in his house. This opening clip is a very bright shot of his clean, tidy and decorated house, showing him dressing up in detective clothing, with penknife etc. showing the audience his career immediately. There is the a very contrasting scene- the scene where the crime is located. The house the crime took place is in immediately all smokey, undecorated and has a dull, green lighting, instantly suggesting to the audience that this location is not as nice as the detectives house. its a typical urban City. The detective then leaves the house an walks into the city- giving the audience an idea of the location- which we see through the heavy down pouring rain is a very low class, untidy city. Then the credits roll, and this is done in an effective way. we see evidence for the crime being researched with a heavy tune in the background and quick flash changes between scenes. This gives a sharp and snappy introduction to the film. We meet the other detective within the scene who is a contrast to Morgan freenman, as he is young, a lot more layed back, and cheeky with his attitude, whilst morgan is a lot more serious about the matter.










Sound

In the opening of the clip there is diegtic sound. The non diegetic sound are cars that are stuck in busy city traffic, there is also the sound of a police siren which indictes that the setting is a busy urban rough city. The sirens and the cars horns sounding indicates to the audience that it is also a rough city with plenty of crime, this also hints that morgan freeman is a detective/police man and this city has required his service for some years now. After this we see the opening credits, and again non diegetic sounds come with this. this sound is a very abnormal sound and it is also very alienating and robtic, the beat also starts of slow but then eventually quickens up. It is very overpowering which also ads the sense of struggle in the city but also a struggle for Morgan freeman who is working hard to fight crime. After the opening credits we see morgan freeman in bed trying to settle down however he uts a metranome on while trying to get to sleep, this indicates to the viewer he finds it hard to switch off probably because of his job. the metranome also shows he needs a pattern in his life and he is a control freak.

Micro Elements of "7"

Colour and lighting
In the beginning of the clip the lighting was extremely bright and vivid white, a lot of items in Morgan Freeman's character's room were also white which I think was to show his purity as a character and let the audience know he was a "good" person. After this quick period when the audience saw the room, the scene immediately turned much darker, showing a dead body. I tihnk that the room was turned dark to mirror the event that had occured and set the scene for the film, the dark room made everything a lot spookier and creepier for the audience and also introduced the "dark" element of the film.
The lighting continued to stay in this dark way throughout the rest of the clip, disreguarding the fact that the characters were now outside; this showed the audience the sincerity of the police work and also made things seem more realistic, if the clip had been wildly airbrushed and covered in light then the film would have seemed alot further away from real life and there for been less relatable and scary for the audience.

A Classic Thriller 'Vertigo'

Colour

Throughout the clip, approaching the end of the film, a lot of dark colours are used, not just with the lighting, but also with clothing. This shows the audience that a bleak ending to the film is approaching. Judy is also dressed in black suggesting mourning. If the colours were bright and vibrant, it would remove a great deal of tension from the scene whilst distracting the attention of the scene from the characters. So the dark seeting is necessary to creat a bleak and tense atmosphere.

Music

Approaching the climax of the film the music slowly builds and builds along with the tension. A dramatic peice of music growns in volume and intensity, letting the audience know that something important is going to take place. The use of music is a good way to buildsuspense in a scene.

Characters

The characters in the scene are both typically attractive, to make the audience like her.

Typical thriller

Withing the 8:00 minute clip we watched, it was made clear to us that some kind of crime had taken place and the man had solved this. However, right at the moment when all is made sense of, another complication arises as the female characters jumps from the chirch. This follows the typical sequece of a thriller, following a crime and involving complications.

Vertigo

At the start of the clip there is a chase which is set on a rooftop, the height of the rooftop adds to the suspense of the chase. The zooming out of the ladder shows the audience that the setting is the rooftops. The audience gets a good view of the chase with a long shot which pans the length of the building while the chase is taking place. Suspense again is added to the chase when the policeman fires a couple of bullets on the front runner. After this we see a medium shot of a jump between two buildings, there are three people involved in the chase so we know from this shot that we will have to watch three individual jumps, this shot creates a feeling of tension for the audience because we the inevitable that one of the three will not make or will come close to not making this tricky jump.

when the third person doesn't

The differance between 'Horror' and 'Thriller'

All films are catagorised by their genre- Comedy, Romance, Horror, Chick Flick; however, we have to film the opening sequence to a thriller. There is commonly a lot of confusion between Horror and Thriller films, however there is a distinct differance.

A Horror movie is normally catagorised due to its attempt to make the viewer experince feeling of fear, terror, digust or horror. They will also commonly follow a storyline of an evil force or event with inclusion of supernatural forces or beings. These possibly being zombies, vampires, warewolves, the possesed, the evil/insane, black magic, twisted science or canibals. Also, horror movies more commonly follow a single, and evil character, showing graphic detail of damage cause- causing the audience to feel horrified.

AThriller movie however is categorised by including more fast paced action scenes, commonly set in foreign cities, desserts, polar reigons or high seas, and is usually following the side abiding by the law. There is as overlap between the genres of Thriller and Mystery, as the hero tries to steer the villain away from steeping outside the boundries of the law, whilst mysteries are about discovering who is behind the crime. Thrillers are not categorised by their subject/ storyline, but the approach taken towards it. An example would commonly include spies or an espionage infiltrating the villains, however, not all spy films are thrillers.

Examples of Thrillers include:
-The Godfather
-The Dark Night
-The Silence of the Lambs
-The Matrix

These are all films in which the storyline follows the good characters, wether being 'heroes' or just abiders of the law.

The Dark Knight

Use of colour
In this clip you can see that the use of colour is very bland; the way that the film has chosen to set the events in bleak coloured places sets the tone for the film. If the background of the prison cell for example was brightly coloured, it would not fit in with what was happening in the film; as The Dark Knight is quite a dark film the colours match to the theme. The characters, disreguarding the Joker, are all dressed in blacks and whites which are very plain colours. This could be so as not to distract from the film or it could also be to emphasize the situation that is happenig. The black and white colours also fit subtly support the theme of "good vs evil" white generally being associated with good and black generally being assosiated with bad.
The Joker is however, dressed in brightly coloured makeup; this makes him stand out against the other characters but not in the same way that the use of colour makes the characters stand out in children's films. Instead it highlights his psychotic ways and almost makes him seem less appealing as a person. Although the Joker is put in bright colours, they are also bleak which conforms with the bleak feel of the film.

Lighting
The lighting in the film is very dim, much like the colours. In this clip, though unnoticable unless particuarly looking for it, the light is actually spot-lighting the two characters, having them stand directly beneath the lights it makes them stand out without lighting the whole room irredescently which could take away from the grim feel.
The lighting in the rest of the prison is very dark which could be to emphasize that it is filled with bad people. It also makes the situation almost feel more deperate as a result of the lack of light.

Establishing shot
The establishing shot of the Joker and the policeman in the interigation room shows you the Joker sitting slouched on the floor; this supports his posona of not caring what happens to him. The man standing guarding the door is higher up in the shot than the Joker is which tricks the audience into thinking that the policeman is in charge of the situation. The mise-en-scene shows the room that the two are in to be very bleak and unfriendly which gives a cold feel to the audience.

Dilect
The way that the Joker is manipulating the conversation shows the audience that he is actually in control of the situation although he is lower down and the things that he is discribing such as the way he murders people is extremely disturbing. It is also very creepy how the Joker appears to be so calm as he is discribing terrible things to this man, the way that he says "I want my phone call" as if he has someone he wants to help him is almost creepily humorous because the audience is aware that he is a psychopath and so obviously is plannig something.

Close ups
The close up of the Joker's face whilst he is sitting on the floor is to show the audience how he is reacting to what is being said to him, it adds to how disturbing a character he is because you can see the excruciating detail of his psychoticness when he does things such as sticks his tongue out and traces over his scar with it. The close ups of the policeman show how serious he is and helps the audience to feel compassion for him.

Sound
At the beginning of the clip the music is very quiet and becomes progressively quicker and louder which lets the audience know that the scene is building up to something. The music adds to the tense atmosphere as if everything is becoming bigger and more powerful. Nearing the end of the Joker's and the Policeman's conversation the music dulls down again which makes it seem as if the exciting part may be coming to an end, only to become even louder again. This shows all the differnt twists to the plot and reminds the audience that they will not know what will happen next.

Film Certificates

15
Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use

The shining micro elements

Close up's
The shots rotate from showing you the man and the woman's faces; by doing this the audience has a clear view of the characters expressions and therefor can feel more involved with the scene. The close-up of Jack shows how psychotic and creepy he has become and is there to frighten the audience. The close up of the woman screaming and pleading helps the audience to see how terrified she is; as the scene is obviously frightening from the audiences perspective, the close ups of the woman help the audience to feel compassion towards the character and share her desperation.
The close up of Jack's hand when he tries to unlock the door builds tension and also makes the viewing of the woman cutting his hand much more exciting because you can see what is happening in detail. When the audience is watching Jack through the broken door frame this also adds to the scariness as it is also what the woman would be seeing. It also helps the audience to see what side they are on, if it was not already obvious, because they are being put in the position of the woman.

Mise-en-scene
In this clip of The Shining, the mise-en-scene is very clever; even when both characters are sort of in the same room, the camera never shows their faces together. This is because the whole time throughout the clip the camera focuses on the differnt characters point of view and so when you see Jack you know that that is what the woman would be seeing. By keeping the mise-en-scene very simple, only showing the characters, it helps the audience to focus more on the event that is taking place as opposed to becoming side-tracked at an important period in the film.

Establishing shot
The establishing shot in this clip is very fast but you can see that it is the house from the outside. This is very creepy because when you just see that you do not know what is going on inside the house; the shot erouses the saying "you never know what goes on behind closed doors" because the house just looks like it always has. The establishing shot does not actually set the scene in this clip because you do not know what is going to happen however you do know that something is going to happen inside the house.

Sound
The music in the clip is extremely eerie, it is very subtle so unless you listen for it you would not notice it was there. However, it really adds to the tension in clip and keeps the creepy theme of the film in place. The music actually just sounds like a horrible concotion of the wind outside and screams that get progressively louder as the scene continues and becomes even more terrifying. The music becomes slower and lower when the axe is making its appearance through the door to emphasise what is happening.
The sound is diagetic and just of the woman screaming and Jack speaking. This is another way of having no distractions for the audience.

Lighting
In most thrillers you would expect the lighting to be bleak however, the lighting in this clip is just like how you would expect the lighting in a bedroom and a bathroom to be; this helps everything seem much more realistic and relatable for the audience and because of this aspect, also makes the clip a lot more scary.

Character types
In this clip the characters are both very relatable for the audience which helps the film become more terrifying, the way that the characters are both dressed in normal clothes and, by a glance if you did not see what was going on, do look perfectly regular, makes the scene even more frightening because it emphasises the point that Jack has just gone crazy and so makes the audience think that anyone could be a murderer. As the "villain" of this film, if Jack were to have been dressed up in an outfit that would have made him look like a typical villain the scene may not have been quite so scary as it is the fact that he was just a normal person that is the most terrifying.

What I would expect in a Thriller

Thriller films have a lot of very specific factors that you would relate to a Thriller when you saw.
In a Thriller I would expect to see binary opposites that are more grusome or evil than you would see them in genres such as romantic comedy or children's film.

The joker, for example conforms exactly with the image you would relate with the "villain" in a thriller film; this is because of his creepy and extremely odd ways which is in obserdly amazing detale down to his manorisms. I would expect a character like this to be involved with a thriller film because it is obviously the "bad" character that creates the problem and thriller films are always very tense and obviously solving a problem, whether it is saving some ones life or running away from something. The fact that "The Joker" is displayed as a character that is extremely frightening in appearance is however not always what I would expect from a Thriller film; there is a fine line between a thriller and a horror and in a thrillor I would just expect the "villain" to behave badly but in a horror I would generally expect the "villains" physical appearance to be frightening also.
In a thriller film, just like any other film, I would expect there to be a counterbalance to the "villain". However, this would not always have to be the "hero". Although in many thriller films such as The Dark Knight there is some one that "saves the day", not all thriller films do contain this aspect.

In the thriller Phone Booth, for example, Collin Farrel's character who is obviously supposed to forfil the role of "the good person" he is more of a victim to the "villains" evil as opposed to a hero that saves the day.

The location of a Thriller can obviously vary as it is a very vast genre, however, I personally would associate a Thriller with a bleak setting that would show the audience the severity of the situation. However, this is obviously not a necessity as in films such as Speed you witness the location to be extremely normal. However, it is a very clever factor to include a certain point of normality to a Thriller film as it helps the audience to relate to the storyline and therefor becomes much more exciting and tense.

In a thriller film I personally do not invision many props when I think of them; perhaps weapons or forms of travel or a specific prop that will follow with the story line such as the telephone booth in Phone Booth. I think this because I generally think that when you watch a Thriller film there is very little to distract the audience from the storyline as a result of the story being often complex or difficult to follow. Costumes however are often a big feature of Thriller films. A brilliant example is the costume and makeup Heath Ledger wears when he plays The Joker in The Dark Knight; this all adds to how frightening he is. However, a lesser example is the straight-jacket woarn by the main character in Hannabal Silence Of The Lambs.

The music used in Thriller films is generally used when setting and between scenes and obviously when important events are occuring. The music used generally builds tension and keeps the audience involved because it tells them when the exciting parts are going to happen. in this clip of The Shining the music used to build tension is extremely subtle, so subtle infact that you barely notice it being there. However, it really helps to set the scene and definately adds to the tense atmosphere, it also makes everything seem more eary and deperate.

Analysis of 'The silence of the Lambs'

We chose to analyse the thriller, The Silence Of The Lambs. The clip we are looking at involves the first meeting between agent Clarice Starling and the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Micro Elements:
Establishing Shot- The scene opens with an establishing shot looking down a corridor surrounded by withered prison cells, giving an eery sense to the location- as you cannot see in the cells, only past them. The shot also includes a lot of shadows this immediately makes it clear to the audience the genre and atmosphere of a thriller film.











Close Up Shots - The camera continually flicks between showing the location, and Clarice Starling. The close up allows you to see her nervous expression as she passes every cell. The audience then see inside the individual cells giving them an idea of what kind of character Dr. Hannibal will be, as we see other charaters in the prison cells before the audience meet him. This again creates an uncomfortable and nervous atmosphere- giving the audience a sense of Clarice's fear.


Over the Shoulder Shot- When both Dr. Hannibal and Clarice engage in conversation, a combination of over the shoulder and close up shots are used. At the beginning of the conversation we see over the shoulder of both characters. The use of seeing over both characters shoulders seems to be an attempt for the nervous Clarice to hold her stance of power against Dr. Hannibal. However after an intense close up on Hannibal Lectre, Clarice is then invited to sit down - losing her stance of power as a low angle shot of the Dr. and a high angle shot of Clarice is then used. It almost creates the sense of a stand off between the two characters.

Mise En Scene - Throughout the scene, you can clearly see its set within a prison, surrounded by creepy characters in other shadowed cells, an eery staircase at the bottom of the corridor and a cold, gloomy undecorated location. The deprived location creates an uncomfortable, on edge atmosphere for the audience as they know its not a relaxed atmosphere for the characters. The Dr. is also wearing a prison suit, again making the scene look more believeable that they are in a prison. Whilst the agent wears formal clothing and carries credentials, which is typical of someone in that career.

Camera movements- An effective use of camera movements is when we are introduced to Dr. Hannibal. A Point of View shot combined with a tracking shot is used, slowly edging round the corner of the cell wall to reveal the character standing with a serious glare. This creates a good effect for the audience, as it will create a great deal of suspension, making them almost want to look round the wall themselves. Throughout the rest of the scene there is very little camera movement as Clarice is seated and the Dr. stands. We see a medium shot of Clarice sitting down as she speaks, but a close up of Dr. Hannibal's face- suggesting to the audience he is in the position of power. The angle also creates shadows over his eyes creating an evil, masked emotion to his personality, whilst all of the female agent is revealed, making her look more vulnerable.

Sound- There isn't a great deal of non-diegetic sound within the clip, as a lot of silence is used. However before the meeting of the characters the diegetic sound is shadowed out by an eery, suspense-building piece of music. To the audience this builds up to the meeting of the characters. However when they meet, diegetic dialogue is used, with a great deal of silence adding to the suspense and uncomfort of the conversation.

Lighting- As already mentioned, non diegetic lighting is used to create a lot of shadows within the scene, again, adding to the eery atmosphere, giving the audience a sense that there is a lot of unknown. However the diegetic lighting that is present is very dull and dark- creating an almost green effect, lowering the mood of the meeting.

Our preliminary task tought us a lot about what we had to prepare for for our final task. It became clear that the acting isn't easy, and holding in giggle will have to be a priority, especially as time is also an issue. However, the editing put the clip together smoothly and we had a good experiment with camera angles. Therefore this was a good practical exercise to take part in before filming our final piece.

Preliminary Task Storyboard

For our preliminary task we will be filming in the the D block. The two people who will be acting in our preliminary Ryan and Jazz. Mark will be the cameraman and Abi will assist with directing.

Preliminary Task

establishing shot:


The establishing shot is key to introducing to the audience where the setting is. It introduces the theme of the show.

Close up shot:


The close up shot gives the audience a clear view of whats happening in the scene, and it makes the audience feel closer towards the action.

Match on Action Shot:


Match on action shots show the same action happening from two different shots. Therefore the audience may see what is happening in the scene from two different views e.g. a close up and then showing the same scene from a medium shot. This creates fluidity within the shot.

Reaction shot:


Reaction shots show the audience the actor's reaction to what has just happened in the scene. This gives the audience a feel for the actor's emotions and view on the action.

Long Shot:


This gives the audience an idea of the location the characters are in and their positions in relation to each other.

Filming a conversation:


This makes it clear to the audience which characters are speaking to each other in the scene.