Shutter Island

Shutter Island is one of my all time favourite thrillers, and was made in 2010. It is a drama set in 1954, where U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island. As the film unfolds, twist after twist demonstrates to the audience a story which is totally unexpected. The film is directed by Martin Scorsese, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer and Mark Ruffalo, and is the second film (first released) that DiCaprio and Scorsese have worked together on. The film is one that uses techniques such as suspense, and builds tension from the beginning. There are several red herrings and twists, and the film keeps you guessing right until the end.

Always

Just finished watching a film called 'Always', made in 1989, about a legendary pilot's passion for dare-devil firefighting and his girl.  Although its not a thriller, but more of a romantic adventure movie, it is directed by Steven Spielburg, who is "Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in the history of film, Steven Spielberg is perhaps Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world."

Similary to a thriller, the film does use techniques such as suspence, cliffhangers and twists. It also uses colours, such as red, to signal danger, and lighting to create shadows, particularly at the end, when the dead spirit of the pilot is letting go of his girlfriend, she steps from the darkness into the light, and into her new life, without him.

Treatment for your Thriller

Name of our Thriller;
HIDE AND SEEK

Outline of Ideas;
Girl receives a text saying 'MEET ME @ HAINULT, 11PM'.
The girl does so, we see her driving to Hainult Forest.
The girl arrives and believes she is alone.
Sees a hooded figure on the tree swing, which as she turns away becomes face to face with her.
She screams and is backing off but trips.
All goes Dark.
Title credit - HIDE AND SEEK


What Resources will we need;
Setting - Hainult Forest
Christy Davies as main character
Christy in her car
Tree swing and clear opening in forest
Christy's outfit
The girl on swing outfit - all black, hooded & make up (white)


Justification of Ideas in Relation to Genre;
Set in a dark isolated area, building tension.
The cross cutting of the two locations (the car and the forest) builds suspense.
The blackness at the end- the audience wishes to know more and continues watching.

Skyline

A couple of days ago, myself and Tom went to see Skyline at the cinema. It is a sci-fi thriller, starring Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Donald Faison and David Zayas. The plot involves strange lights descending on the city of Los Angeles, and the rest of the world, drawing people outside, where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth. It uses such techniques as the build up of suspence and tension, to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Most of the film is a fast pace, and the speed of editing encourages the audience to feel the danger that the characters feel. The main colours featured in the film, are blue and silver. The silver is a denotation of the mechanical metallic robot aliens, and the blue represents the sense of sadness that is felt throughout, right up until the end. The end features an unexpected twist, which keeps the reader engaged until the films final moments. This was an enjoyable film, and a good example of a thriller, demonstrating a number of different thriller techniques.

The Content of our Opening Credits

We have discussed as a group what we wish to include in the credits that will run alongside our thriller opening. The following is what we decided to include, and in what order we believe they should appear in.

Credit 1 - TDB Studios Presents
Credit 2 - A Film by Thomas Mason
Credit 3 - Starring Christy Davies
Credit 4 - Beth Berrett
Credit 5 - Also Starring Daniel Lawrence
Credit 6 - Screenplay By Thomas Mason
Credit 7 - Edited By Thomas Mason, Beth Berrett and Daniel Lawrence
Credit 8 - Assistant directors Beth Berrett and Daniel Lawrence
Credit 9 - Directed by Thomas Mason
Credit 10 - Hide and Seek

Mobygratis.com

Just signed up to www.mobygratis.com for myself and my group, so that we can use it to find music for our thriller opening. We are going to need two pieces of music, and this will allow us to find music from an unsigned group, and ask for their permission to use it, with ease. We will later find our tracks, and ask for permission, as soon as possible, so there is enough time to get a reply from whoever owns or wrote the music. 

Our Company Iden- TDB Studios

This is the finished product of our company logo 'TDB Studios', which we created on Livetype last week.

Our Company Logo

Today me, Tom and Dan created our own film company logo, on Livetype. Each of the print screens below demonstrate our progress step-by-step. The first image is simply of our company name, made up of each of our initials. Secondly, we applied an animation, called 'frigid', combined with 'circles'. Finally, in the third picture, we chose our colour, deciding on two different shades of blue.

Survey Progress

Checked the survey again today- 37 people have now completed it (as shown below). I have decided to leave it until we have collecte 50 sets of results, as this is an easy number to deal with if we wish to use persentages when analysing. Then I'm going to use a website called Wordall to interpret, and display my results.

Film Openings - Examples

Se7en
Below is the opening credits from the 1995 film 'Se7en'. 
Looking at the font of the credits, it can be described as flickering, irregular, spiky, and various shapes and sizes. The music used is both disturbing and unsettling. 




Panic Room
This is the opening of Panic Room, made in 2002.
The font of these opening credits is very big and bold, set amongst big buildings, emphasizing the size. The music is upbeat, and the shot goes from the general to the particular. 

Film openings

"Opening credits, in a television program, motion picture, or video game, are shown at the beginning of a show and list the most important members of the production. They are usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. Some opening credits are built around animation or production numbers of some sort (such as the James Bond films). Opening credits usually mention the major actors, guest stars, producers and director, as opposed to closing credits which lists the entire production crew."

(http://en..org/wiki/Motion_picture_credits#wikipedia Opening_credits)

Yesterday we discussed and analyzed film openings, such as 'Se7en' and 'Panic Room'. We looked at the order that members of the film production team and cast are displayed in. We discovered that it is as follows;

- The production company, and their logo

- The directors name ("a film made by...")

- The main characters of the film ("Starring...")

- The co-stars ("Also featuring...") 

- Other members of the filming team (Editors, cameraman, hair and makeup artists, assistant   directors and producers etc)     

Sabotage

Sabotage was another of Alfred Hitchcock's movies, made in 1935. Hitchcock himself was known as the 'Master of Suspense', and this particular piece of his works has often been used to define suspense in a thriller. The extract that we watched demonstrated dramatic irony, meaning the audience knows something which a character does not. In this case, a man named Verloc is a terrorist, and he gives a package to his his sister's younger brother to take to Piccadilly Circus. The brother, a young boy does so, not knowing that the package is in actual fact a bomb, set to explode at 1:45. He is told to walk to Piccadilly Circus by 1:30, but is prevented in doing so by a number of obstacles, with deadly consequences.

How suspense and tension is built
- There are number of close ups on the bomb, and a number of close ups on the boys face, which occur more and more frequently as the time gets closer to that at which the bomb will explode.
- The music alters from an upbeat sound, parallel with the scenes of the Lord Mayors Show, to a contrapuntal "tik tok" sound, similar to a bomb, or a clock, which speeds up and becomes higher pitched as the time nears 1:45. 
- Various clocks are shown throughout the extract to emphasis the change in time, again increasingly more as time nears the time of the bomb exploding.

Survey Progress

Just checked the number of responses collected so far for my Target Audience Survey. Have had 29 responses so far, which is good, but i've re-posted the survey onto my profile and updated my status asking people to do it (as shown below).

Film Certificates - The BBFC

I have been looking into what film certificates are, and what they mean to a film, and created this table to demonstrate my findings. Ratings are distributed to films by the BBFC, the British Board of Film Classification. It was set up in 1912, and its aim is to create age appropriate censors on films, based on their content. Recently certified films includes; Brighton Rock (15), Gnomeo and Juliet (U), I am Number Four (12A) and Mothers Day (18).

Creating our Survey

Today, i created my survey on surveymonkey (as shown above), and uploaded it onto facebook (as shown below), for friends, family and peers to complete. i asked such questions as the age and gender of the participant, their favourite type of, and all time thriller, and how often they watch thrillers.

Our interview

This is the interview that me and my group carried out, in an attempt to identify our target audience for our thriller. As I explain in the introduction we asked three questions, in order to find out the sorts of thrillers that different ages and genders enjoy, and what they believe to be key components to a thriller movie. The three questions we asked were:

What is your favourite thriller?

Why is this your favourite?

What are your favourite componants of a thriller?

Identifying our target audience

In order to create an effective and popular thriller opening, myself, Tom and Dan need to identify a target audience to which our thriller will appeal most to. The are a number of methods that can be taken to do this, such as carrying out an interview with a range of different people, and finding out their favourite thrillers and thriller movie components. Also, we can carry out an online survey asking various questions, which we can post onto facebook, so that our friends and families can answer the questions.  

My Thriller Montage

The above thriller montage demonstrates the sorts of images and ideas that come to mind when i think of or discuss thrillers. Most thrillers that i have seen have one of the above ideas incorporated into it; for example, bloody scenes, money, death, darkness etc.

Preliminary Task BLOOPERS!

Although the final product of our film is around 1:12 minutes, we actually filmed around 4 minutes of film. The film below is the parts of the film we had to edit out of the actual preliminary video, for obvious reasons. However i've put it onto my blog as a example of the number of out takes we had, and the editing we had to do as a result of Daniel being unable to act.

Preliminary Task with Thomas Mason and Daniel Lawrence

The below video is the preliminary task that myself, Thomas Mason and Daniel Lawrence created, in an attempt to learn how to create different camera shots, and how to edit them together to make a sequence. We used a number of different shots, such as long shots and close ups, and we also tested the use of over the shoulder shots in the conversation between me and Dan. We also used the tripod to create tilt shots and pan shots, where the camera moved side to side or up and down, on a fixed axis. At one point, when dan enters the room to meet me, we filmed him opening the door from one side of the door, and going into the room from within the room he was entering.

Spider Diagram on thrillers

Today i asked two students, Connor who is a media student, and Stacey who is not, to help me create a spider diagram of words that first come to mind upon hearing the word THRILLER, as another way of identifying our target audience, and to discover what people expect in a thriller. The following videos demonstrate what they came up with. 

Directors and Definitions

Alfred Hithcock is and English director, who began making films in the 1940s, right through to the 1970s. He made his first film in 1925, and continued to make films in Britain, up until 1939, when he went to America, and became a hugely successful and influential director in Hollywood. Overall, his career spanned over 50 years. He popularized a number of thriller techniques, such as macguffins, and creating suspense and tension. He is known as an auteur, and employed such techniques as creative use of dietetic sound, precise editing, and misleading relationships. Furthermore, he used characters which we put in positions such as being trapped or imprisoned.

Alfred Hitchcock

Another auteur in the thriller industry is Steven Spielburg, who directed such films as Jaws, Schindlers List, ET and Saving Private Ryan. He, along with Hitchcock employed the idea of voyeuristic viewing.

Steven Spielburg

Auteur- A director with a clear style, often using specific techniques and similar themes throughout their films.

Voyeuristic Viewing- The audience is watching something that they feel they should not be watching something they should not, or would not usually watch.

Graphic Matches

Graphic matches refer to joining two shots by making some form of connection between them. This means the focus of attention remains in the same place, and a smooth transaction between two shots is carried out. The example bellow is from the famous shower scene is Psycho.

Film Language

There are a number of  aspects that need to be taken into consideration when making an effective thriller,as i intend to do. Below are the aspects i need to look at, and how i can use them appropriately in my film, as well as examples of how they have been used in thrillers previously.

- Lighting (in terms of a thriller) 

 There are a number of different ways that lighting is used, in all genres of films, to create different effects, whether it is a glamorous look, or a distorting one. Under lighting is what is used to create a distoring effect, as shown in image 1. Also, in thriller movies, back lighting is used, which creates silhouettes, meaning that the viewer cannot see the characters face, creating an ominous and mysterious effect, building suspense. This can be seen in image 2. A further type of lighting format used to create an atmosphere most suiting to a thriller is low key lighting (images 3 and 4). This is when key lights and back lights are used, but no filler lights, meaning there is a sharp contrast between light and dark areas, and deep distinctive shadows are created, known as chiaroscuro. This type of lighting were primarily used in film noirs.

- Colour

In any instance, colours used can be percieved in two ways; through its denotation, or its connotation. A denotation is a literal description of a colour, and a connotation is the assosiations and the ideas that it carries with it. For example the denotation of the colour red is that it is the first colour in the colour spectrum. It's connotation is such things as danger, love, and anger. In thrillers in particular, dark colours are used, as well as red, to suggest or foreshadow certain things, or to create a particular mood.

- Sound
Sound in films is used to create a certain mood, build tension and express feelings of characters. There are two types of sound; diegetic and nondiegetic. Diegetic sound is sound which is part of the film world for example, radio, dialogue or music, from a duke box or CD player etc. This may be on screen or off screen. Nondiegetic sound is sound that is not in the film world, and only the viewer can here. This can be in the form of background music or narrative.
Sound can also be parrallel or contrapuntual. Parallel sound is when the images on screen match the music or sound being played with it, building suspence and tension. In contrast, contrpunctual sound is when the images and sound do not match, creating a sense of false pretence.

- Camera framing
This is what can be seen within the frame of the screen, concerntrating on how far the camera is from the subject, and from what angle the shot is taken. The closer the camera is to the subject, the more emphasis there is on detail. An example of an ECU (extreme close up) is shown in image 5, and a mid shot is shown in image 6. When looking at angles, a  low angle shot is when a camera is placed below eye level (image 7) making the subject look powerful, whereas in contrast a high angle shot is when the camera is placed above eye level (image 8) making the subject look weak and vunerable. Another type of shot is a point of view shot, where the camera shows whats going on, through the eyes of a character.


- Camera movement

The movement of the camera can be used to enhance our involvement in the film action, by directing our attention or emphisising a particular viewpoint. Camera movement can include:
A PANNING SHOT- where the camera moves from side to side on a fixed axis.
A TILT SHOT - where the camera moves up and down on a fixed axis.
A CRANE SHOT- where filming is done, mounted on a crane, or from a helicopter.
A TRAKING SHOT- where the camera follows the action on tracks laid out.
A ROLLING SHOT- where the camera moves diagonally , creating an askew image, often suggesting a character is ill or drugged

- Speed of editing
The speed of editing helps determine the mood of what is taking place. If the audience is to feel anxiety and suspence, the editing will be quick, as it would also be in an action sequence. If the a relaxed mood is desired the speed of editing will be slower.


- Style of editing
To make a continous piece of film which is fluent, the style of editing must create smooth transitions between scenes and shots. There are various methods used to do this. Amongst the several ways, those that myself, Tom and Dan will use in our thriller are a straight cut, a fade-out (where the screen fades to black- usually showing time passing) and a dissolve (where one imageis slowly brought in beneath another one).

Media presentation

View more presentations from bethrett.

No Country For Old Men - A Thriller Opening

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American Western Thriller, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Berdem and Josh Brolim. It is about an ordinary man who, by chance, comes across a fortune which is not his. It is a cat and mouse chase between himself, and those who are after the money, including Anton Chigurh, a crazy killer, who is introduced in the opening of the film.

Tension is built in the opening of the film, through two deaths, both muders carried out by the ominous Chigurh.

The opening of the film, can be broken down in the form of CLAMPS;

Costume-The villain is wearing all black, suggesting darkness and evil and giving nothing away.

Light-Throughout the opening, the audience does not see the villains face, as it is hidden by shadow. This means we are unable to see his expression and nothing about him is given away.

Actors-The film has reconisable actors in it, however we do not learn of who is in the film at this point, other than the villain.

Make up-Make up is used on Anton Chigurh to emphasis the dark features that the villain possesses.

Props-The murderer uses an oxygen tank for the second murder. This is significant to the forming of Chigurhs character.

Settings-The opening is set in an isolated desert in western land. The audience can realise that whatever was to happen in such a setting, no one would be around to help the victim.

Character Analysis of Anton Chigurh    

Costume;

- Black

- Dark

- Suggestive that he is the villain

- Plain: there are no patterns or writing on his clothing, which gives nothing away about his character, personality or identity

Speech, Language and Tone;

- Minimal amount of speech

- Simplistic language

- Calm

- Monotone


Mannerisms, Actions and Responses;

- Unexpressive

- Calm

- Sationary, doesn't move much

- Little physical contact with people, even during killings

- No emotion

- Manipulating

- Controlling

- Intimidating

- Argumentative

Representation in film;

- Outcast of society

- Unrealistic responses to other people and situations

- Bad, darkness, evil - Freud's ID ?

- Troubled                     

"Shadow of a Doubt"

'Shadow of a Doubt' is a thriller made in 1943, and was one of Alfred Hitchcock's favourites out of his own collection of creations. 
As a class, we watched the opening of this film, and analyzed it, in terms of mise en scene. What we discovered about the opening of the thriller is as follows;

Settings and Props
Props include a cigar, which suggests that the owner, in this case the character Uncle Charlie, is well of and can afford such possessions. This idea is reinforced with the fact that another prop is a sum of money scattered over the bedside table and on the floor. The fact that the money is on the floor, suggests that it is of little importance to Uncle Charlie, and to him it is in fact worthless. A third prop used was an empty glass, which Charlie throws at a wall, as an act of anger. This action suggests that he could potentially be aggressive, violent and dangerous.

Positioning of characters and objects within the frame
When Charlie leaves the apartment and walks down the road, he is in the centre of the frame. The two men who are after him are in the foreground, whilst Charlie is in the background, and they are either side of him, suggesting a sense of entrapment on Charlie's part. Also, when we are first introduced to Uncle Charlie, and then to his niece, also named Charlie, they are both first seen laid out on a bed and the camera approaches them from the same angle. This technique is known as a mirroring effect, and it suggests they are 'two sides of the same coin' but with differing personalities. This is shown in the above video of the two shots.   

Costume, Hair and Make up
Uncle Charlie, in the opening sequence can be found to be wearing a suit that looks as though it is expensive, again reinforcing the idea that Charlie is rich. His hair is sleek and gelled back, looking as though it is well tended to.

Facial expressions and Body language 
Both Uncle Charlie and his niece are found, as I have previously mentioned, lying on the bed. They both wear an expression of tiredness on their faces and look relaxed and uninterested in their environment.

Lighting and Colour
To begin with, there is light entering the room in which Charlie is laying on his bed. When the woman comes into the room and pulls the blind down, Charlie enters darkness, at which point he moves from his relaxed, lazy position on the bed, and begins to move around. This suggests that he tends to 'come alive' in the darkness, and at night, hinting that he is the antagonist of the film. The opening seems to have a lot of shadows, and therefore I know it uses low key lighting He is provided with an ominous look when he is on the phone shortly after, due to the shadow that is created over his eyes, by the hat he is wearing. 

The Manchurian Candidate - 2004

The Manchurian Candidate is a paranoid and political thriller which, in the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes.Captain Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) and the rest of their infantry platoon are kidnapped during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and are brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat — for which Congress awards him the Medal of Honor. Ben Marco is trying to regain and unravel his sanity. It refers to social context and tensions, and its purpose is to entertain as well as provoke thought. The film also stars Meryl Streep.
From watching 'the making of' the film, I have found out that the director aimed to elaborate and make the film bigger, sadder and darker than life. Questions constantly asked throughout the film is who is control, who has the power, and who is the enemy. 
The film plays with the idea that the human mind can be manipulated, which could maybe be applied to reality, the idea of which, is scary in itself. 


The 2004 differs from the original version of the movie, made in 1962, in a number of ways, one of which is the murder of Senator Jordan. In the original, the Senator is shot by Shaw, whereas in the newer version, he is drowned in a lake. The director said that he altered this scene from the 1962 version as he wanted it to represent and symbolize the feeling of drowning which the characters are feeling at this time. During this scene, the fog represents the characters lack of clarity. They are confused, due to information overload, and are experiencing a number of ambivalent dreams. The music used at this point enhances the tension, at the point which Shaw is approaching the lake to kill his victim. Shaw's hypnotic state is represented by the camera shots and simple editing. 


The final scene of the film is the shooting of Eleanor and Raymond Shaw by Marco, at which point the film reaches its climax. Raymond realizes his soul is corrupt, and the damage that could be done to America through him, and so he sacrifices himself and his mother to eliminate the possibility of him being manipulated and operated.
The last image of the film is a clip of Mount Rushmoor. The effect of this is that it opens the audiences mind to the possibility that the past presidents could have been corrupt.

MacGuffin

The term 'MacGuffin' was popularised by Alfred Hitchcock. It is part of film, which is essentially something that the entire story is built around, and yet has no real relevance. It is an object around which the plot evolves, but, as to what the object actually is, is unimportant to the audience. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, or a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.


In the case of 'North by Northwest' the MacGuffin is introduced towards the end of the film;  a microfilm, containing top secret government files, that the villains are smuggling out of the country. It could also be said that the character Kaplan is a MacGuffin, as Thornhill, as well as the villains, spend most of the movie vainly trying to track him down.

A Traditional Thriller - North by Northwest

An example of a thriller that I have researched into is Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 movie 'North by Northwest', starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. This action filled thriller is about a hapless New York advertising executive, named Roger Thornhill, being mistaken for a government agent by the name of George Kaplan, by a group of foreign spies, and he is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

This thriller provides a number of examples of techniques often used in thrillers, such as suspense, cliffhangers, red herrings used to mislead the audience, as well as obstacles for the hero to overcome, put in place by the villain.

There a number of memorable and distinguished scenes throughout this movie, such as the the UN shooting, the crop field scene, the auction room, the 'shooting' of Thornhill, and the final scene, on top of Mount Rushmoor.

In particular, the use of suspense is particularly apparent in the plane crop-duster attack scene near a Midwest cornfield as we do not know the fate of Roger Thornhill, who could be about to get killed. Also, an example of a red herring in this thriller, is the shooting of Thornhill, by Eve Kendal, where we believe he is killed. It is later discovered that this was a set up in Eve's attempt to escape from Vandamme, and that the bullet shot was in actual fact a blank. Being a red herring, we are led to believe one thing and reach a certain conclusion, only to later discover that this is not the case. The cliffhanger of the film is the finale on Mount Rushmoor.

What is a Thriller ??

Thriller is a genre of film, television and literature which often overlaps with other genres. They are fast-pacing, with frequent action, and resourceful heroes who attempt to thwart and overthrow the plans of a more powerful and better equipped villain. Devices are used such as suspense, red-herrings and cliffhangers repeatedly throughout. A thriller is a villain driven plot in which he or she presents a number of obstacles which the hero must overcome. The genre is flexible and can engage the audience through rendering psychological, social and political tensions. Hitchcock said that thrillers allow the audience to "dip their toes in the cold water of fear to see what it is like". 

Previous students work

Today in class we looked at work created in previous years, and discussed their ideas, story lines and success. Here are a couple examples, which were my favourites. They have a good use of music and camera angles. The first one includes a montage; where the guns trigger is pulled, and the birds fly away, so you assume the gun shot the girl. The second one has fast pace action and a god story line, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

Our Project

In Media Studies, I am going to be making the opening sequence to my own thriller movie, lasting around two minutes, with a group. Before being able to do this, i will have to research into what makes a good thriller, by studying such things as lighting and sound, and looking at other examples of thrillers.  

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