Preliminary Planning

Our Preliminary task was to film a person walking into a room sitting down and involving himself in some sort of conversation with another character. We were told to include a match cut and also to keep to the 180 degree rule.

Script:

Character 1 (Dan): I'm glad we could meet
Character 2 (Charlie): I don't have time, where are the codes?
Character 1 (Dan): I have written the codes on the first page.

Audience research analysis

What do you expect from a thriller
When i asked my interviews this question i got similar answers. The most common thing that they said they would expect in a thriller is suspense, tension and excitement. This is therefore obviously a factor that is highly demanded from the audience so therefore these aspects should definitely be considered implementing into our production. Other factors that they said they expected is good story, good actors and interesting characters. Although we may not be able to make a good story in the first 2 minutes we can still make a strong opening what suggest the story and we can also introduce the characters and make them interesting.

What kind of music do you expect in a thriller
Again the answers to this question were very similar. People expect music that is fast-paced and exciting. However one of the participants said that the music should match what is taking place. This is something i feel our group should definitely consider, if the opening scene is something that is fast paced then the music can be fast-paced and exciting but if were going for a more spooky opening then that would not be appropriate and we could choose a more spooky soundtrack.

Whats your all time favorite thriller? What made this stand out for you?
The answers these question were very similar to the first question and can back up what i found out about what people like and want from thrillers. Two of the participants picked the same movie (The Dark Knight) and for similar reasons, because it is fast-paced, exciting and has interesting characters. Again the same results i found in my first question so it is something we definitely need to consider as a group. Our group could also consider doing further research on The Dark Knight to find out what aspects make it such a popular film. The other films that people liked were 'Shutter Island' and 'The Departed', they liked these because they had good story's, interesting characters and suspense.

What style of thrillers do you enjoy the most?
When i asked people what style of thriller they liked most i got three answers; Action, Psychological and Crime with Action occurring twice. This suggests that these are obviously genres that people enjoy and therefore one of these could be chose as a basis to our production. With action being the most popular style of thriller i think our group should implement action into our production.

Audience research results

Interview responses
What do you expect from a thriller?
Participant 1- I expect suspense and excitement.
Participant 2- I expect tension building, suspense, a good story and interesting characters.
Participant 3- I expect action, excitement and good actors.
Participant 4- I expect a good plot, tension and to be asking myself questions throughout.

What kind of music do you expect from a thriller?
Participant 1- Fast paced exciting music.
Participant 2- Fast pace or spooky depending on the movie.
Participant 3- Quick, jumpy, exciting.
Participant 4- Whatever matched the actions taking place.

Whats your all time favorite thriller? What made this stand out for you?
Participant 1- Dark Knight- It has interesting characters and the film stayed interesting and fast faced throughout.
Participant 2- Shutter Island- The film is really interesting, it kept me asking questions throughout and had exciting twists as well as a fear factor.
Participant 3- Dark Knight- Its exciting and fast paced and has a lot of really good actors.
Participant 4- The Departed- I like it because it has a very clever story, good actors and it built suspense which kept me on edge.

What style of thrillers do you enjoy the most?
Participant 1- Action.
Participant 2- Psychological.
Participant 3- Action.
Participant 4- Crime/Action.

In your opinion are thrillers improving or getting worst? (Old or new thrillers best?)
Participant 1- I think that thrillers are getting better because they now have better technology like cg.
Participant 2- I do like old thrillers but i do think that they are getting better.
Participant 3- I prefer new thrillers because the old ones didn't have the right technology to pull of action scenes and make it feel more realistic.
Participant 4- I don't feel there getting better or worst, there are good older thrillers like Goodfellas and pulp fiction as well as new ones like inception.

In your opinion what makes a good film opening?
Participant 1- A good opening has to be exciting and make me want to watch the rest of the film.
Participant 2- A good opening build tension and gives the story and characters an introduction.
Participant 3- A good opening starts to build suspense and has a exciting event that starts off the movie.
Participant 4- A good opening will build tension and suspense. It should also introduce the characters and a bit on there background.

Diffrence between Horrors and Thrillers

I've always felt that horror was just a sub-category of thriller films. Horror is defined as, painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay; intense aversion or repugnance; repulsive, horrible, or dismal quality or character.  So if the movie has you intrigued and glued to your seat waiting for the next thing thats going to make you jump, you are watching a thriller. Horror is more graphic, they show you exactly whats going on; blood, gore and all. I think of Alfred Hitchcock movies as Thrillers and you never saw a drop of blood. Horrors main purpose is to scare people and to make them cower in fear throughout the movie, but a thriller is made to entertain the audience and keep them on edge throughout, this builds up to a big twist at the end. That is the main diffence between a thriller and a horror in my opinion.



'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is a fast thriller film that displays a murder that the audience didnt see and also insanity from a few characters. It has intense music playing through it and it gets faster towards the end when the investigation gets more extreme, also the shot change becomes more frequent so the audience is really on the edge of their seat trying to keep up with what is happening. This displays the perfect thriller film.




'Saw 6' is a contemporary horror film, it display's countless instances of blood and gore and has little or no storyline behind it, although its use of intense music and frequent shot changes is like a tension building thriller. The weakness of the storyline, to supposedly see how far a human would go to save their life, is unrealistic because it seems that they are just trying to create scenarios in which they can show off the blood and gore.

but most thrillers display storylines that are either based on a true story or could genuinely happen.

About Alfred Hitchcock

Biography

Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England, he was the second son and youngest of three children of William Hitchcock. Hitchcock's father died when he was 14. He often described his childhood as being very lonely and sheltered, a situation compounded by his obesity. Also he was raised as a strict Catholic this may have affected, influenced and motivated him to make his life better by doing what he enjoyed and was talented in by creating films that reflected his image of himself. I believe that Hitchcock created the types of films he did to be able to get away from reality and to escape to a world that he was able to create. Also in his films there is always some kind of threat involved and this may be because of his childhood and how he has a fear of death due to his father. In his own world of film he can take control of the threat.

Hitchcock's interest in movies began at around 1915, he frequently visited the cinema and read US trade journals. In 1920, Hitchcock learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and managed to secure a job as a title designer. The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, a $12.5 million producer-distributor, was the largest film company at the time. (http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/newsite/index/COUNTRIES/

US/HISTORY/PEOPLE/JesseLasky/JesseLasky.asp). Hitchcock designed the titles for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In 1923, he got his first chance at directing when the director of Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitchcock completed the movie. Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing assignment on Number 13 (1922); however, before it could be finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitchcock was then hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. Hitchcock's career as a director finally began. Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema with a significant body of work produced over 50 years.

The BFI (British Film Institute) are currently exploring Hitchcock's complete works.  http://www.bfi.org.uk/hitchcock/- The fact that the BFI still find Hitchcock's work influential shows that he is an important figure in the world of film, especially in thrillers.

He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular, it was his first film that had actually been finished. In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. 600 people attended the service.

Influences of Hitchcock and His Influences On Us

Below is an interview from The Dick Cavett Show, 8th June 1972. From this interview I learnt that Alfred Hitchcock was influenced to make his films by many things, one of these things was an early incident with his mother. Hitchcock vividly remembers when his mother made him jump and gave him hiccups as a child. He described in detail that his mother had taught him the power of fear. This was a big influence on Hitchcock because he realised what he had to do to make people such as himself scared or excited. 

Also as a child Hitchcock was influenced hugely by his father because he committed a misdemeanour and his father decided to take him to a police station by himself with a note to give to the police, he gave the note to he police and they put him in a cell for five minutes. Hitchcock didn't know how long he was going to be in there. Still at the age of 73 he explained how his fear of the police was still upon him and how what psychologists say about facing your fears is therefore unfounded. 

Two of Hitchcock's trademarks are Macguffin's and also he always appears in his film's. Hitchcock describes a Macguffin as 'The thing that the spies are always after'. My example of a Macguffin comes from 'Flightplan' (2005). The Macguffin is the main character's, Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster), daughter and the main part of the plot is the fact that she is missing. These two trademarks are low budget ideas and we would be able to include them in our filming in order to show that we have have drawn inspiration from Hitchcock himself.

Part 1- youtube wouldn't allow me to embed this clip but it is part 1 of 2, this link is for part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q-QAsi7Ge0 

Part 2 is below-

Thriller or a horror?

What is the difference between the two genres and what defines them?

I think that thrillers play on the fears that we already have; whereas the horror genre installs a chilling idea or thought into our minds, of  which we may not of yet considered to be scary. Thrillers deliver audiences with a clue, a mystery to solve and some sort of conclusion to that mystery. A well worked thriller should make you doubt the conclusion even after it has been told.

'Memento'


This is an example of a really thinky film,they use memory loss to create a world which is backwards.
Memory loss is a common thing which is made interesting by putting him in a nail biting scenario he has to find out who murdered the guy to prove that he is innocent.

Horror's on the other hand are far more about making you feel unnerved and alone, one of the ways in which filmmakers aim to do this is by leaving you in the darkness. A decent horror will present you with a simple idea and let it manifest in side of you; saving the conclusion up until the very last minute. This not knowing makes the audience feel uneasy and by implying danger makes them feel as though something bad is round the corner.

'The Exorcist'


 This is a really scary film, which takes an innocent little girl and turns her into an evil demon, the audience are not aware of any unformalities to start and therefore grow a bond with the girl, however once this is revealed the viewer is doubly scared as they were not expecting it as much.

Analysis of thriller openings

Shutter Island

 At the very beginning of shutter island it begins with the title sequence, it states the company that produced the movie 'Paramount Pictues' and then goes on to state the movie title 'Shutter island'. At this point there is slow chilling music. It then cuts to the first scene where there is static mist from which we slowly see a large boat emerge. Next is the introduction of the protaganist, when we first meet Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) we see him throwing up in the toilet. It uses close up shots of his face to express his sickness. We then meet the next character on the boat, he goes to the front of the boat where we get a two shot of the two character together. They are both wearing similar clothing, large beige coats and hats etc. From this uniform we can tell that the film is defintly set in the past and also they are wearing uniform so they have some kind of link. Then next they engage in convesation he asks him 'how long have you been with the marshalls', so we know that they are both U.S Marshalls. The next significance of the opening is the flashback, we see a flashback of Teddys past in which he had a wife, the flashback expresses his hapiness before his wife died. From this we can digest a lot about the character for instance he has had a shadey past. We again here the chilling music during the flashback and then it stops once it cuts back to them on the boat. The next shot is the introduction to 'Shutter Island', there is a establishing shot of the whole island from the boat. From this eastablishing shot we can see the shear size of the island. Also the general colors and weather give the island a very spooky touch. Also at the time when the island is shown the music return but much heavier and deeper to signify the islands magnitude.


 The Departed
At the start of the film like Shutter Island it begins by listed the companies involved in the making of the movie. It then goes to the first scene, it states 'Boston, some years ago' telling us where and that it is in the past. The first shots we see are of actual historical events that have taken place in Boston, they all have a focus on violence and racism. Also as this point we begin to hear the voice over of Jack Nicholson and the beginning of the song 'Rolling Stones-Gimme Shelter'. As the voice over continues in then cuts to the Jack Nicholson character standing in a garage smoking, there is a track shot of him moving through the garage and also you can only see his silliouette at this point adding mystery to the character. The camera then cuts to the next scene a cafe, it starts off as a pov shot of him walking into the cafe and as he goes in it changes to an over the shoulder shot, also the music climaxes apon his entry to the cafe. Whilst he is in the cafe he is handed some cash there is a close up shot of the money. From this scene we can guess that he is some kind of 'gansta' if he is being handed money for no reason he must be involed in some kind of crime. During the cafe scene Jack Nicholson also meets a boy, he gives the boy some food and comics. The significance of this is that it is showing to sides to the character because he also believes in helping others, the music changes as he begins to help to a more slow song and then returns to original song as the boy leaves.

Using what i have found out from these thriller openings i have come up with a list of what is usually shown in thriller openings. This checklist can then be used as a tool when making our production to see if we have the same things in our opening.

• Opening credits, name of the production and distributing companies invloved.
• Suspense and tension can be built.
• Main character will usually be introduced right away and we will learn a bit about them.
• A theme song can be used at the beginning or a song that sets the scene.
• A narrator can be used at the beginning to set the plot etc.
• The actors names can be stated throughout the opening.
• Set the scene, establishing shots or it can state it (eg. Boston, Some years ago)
• The film title can also be stated.

What is a thriller?

In this blog i am going to be looking and what is a thriller, what defines and makes it a thriller. My personal description of a thriller is 'a film designed to keep the audience on edge through excitement and suspense'. Thrillers will often use suspense and tension to keep the audience on edge and build anticipation.

A typical example of what a thriller could play on is a crime, a crime thriller will focus on certain crim eg. a murder and it will have a complex narrative structure, false paths, clues and resolutions. They often also play on things like themes of identity and will often have a protaganist that could be in some kind of state or peril.

A example of a thriller is the 'The Dark Knight' this film plays a lot on the feelings of the protaganist, his fears and disires. During the film there are times where we see the protaganist and other characters in danger and we are in suspense to see if they over come this danger. For example when batman is racing against the clock to save his love there is alot of suspense to he see if he will make it or not. 

Initial ideas

Within the group we have come up with some initial ideas of what we are going to include our film opening. We want to have a general action theme within the opening, the main scene will be a motorbike chase. Another key idea for the opening will be that it is not character based but more object based, the man getting chased will be carrying a brief case. This will also play on the fact that the audience want to know what is in the brief case but they wont find out until further on. By using the appropriate CEMS we feel that we could cause suspense throughout the chase and leave the audience hanging.

Audience Research

Within our groups audience research we have each chosen a different section on specific research. The area of research which i am covering is interview. By doing interviews with people i can ask open questions and get there opinion on what they want.

The questions that i have drafted to ask the interviewees includes:

1. What do you expect from a thriller?
2. What kind of music do you expect from a thriller?
3. Whats your all time favorite thriller? What made this stand out for you?
4. What style of thrillers do you enjoy the most?
5. In your opinion are thrillers improving or getting worst? (Old or new thrillers best?)
6. In your opinion what makes a good film opening?

By asking these questions to a variety of people i hope to discover what different peoples opinions are on thrillers and hopefully find a trend in their answers and with the other research we have done within the group. This way we can implicate what they feel makes a good thriller into our production.

What is a thriller?

There are many ideas about what makes the perfect thriller, however there are some key features every thriller should have.

It should have a strong story line which makes you question what you have just wacthed and leaves you with different ideas about the film rather than having one clear message. A typical thriller will also play on common fears of most people, they are fears which we, the audience, would hate to happen.

A good example of a thriller is 'Vantage point' it is effective as it takes the event of a terror attack and shows how different people interpreted the same event. Seeing the same event over and over from different angles builds tension an makes you question every character.




Thrillers should have you on the edge of your seat and wanting to know how this films i going to conculde right from the first scene.

Audience research - Questionnaire

Questionnaire

(Please answer multi choice questions by underlining your choice, you may underline more than one choice per answer.)

About You

1. What gender are you?

Male

Female

2. What age category do you fit into?

12-16

17-25

26-31

32-40

40+

3. How many films do you watch a month?

1-3

4-7

7+

4. What do you generally watch on television?

Comedy

Movies

Soap operas

Music videos

Documentaries

Police dramas

5. What hobbies and interests do you have?

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Your opinion on thrillers

6. What would you expect from the opening to a thriller film?

Production Company introduced

Actors/actresses introduced

Set the scene

Fast paced music

Slow paced music

Music with lyrics

7. Do you think that a thriller film has to have a certificate over 15 in order for it to be intense? Why do you think this is?

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8. Which of these generic conventions would you want to see in a thriller?

Cliff Hangers

Suspense & Tension

Villains

Murders

9. What kind of thrillers do you prefer watching?

Psychological

Technological

Stalker based

Political

Legal

10. What do you expect to see when watching a thriller?

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11. What is your favourite thriller film and why?

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12. Do you prefer a thriller with a cliff hanger or a resolved ending and why?

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Audience Research - Data collection

Three of the most popular thriller films ever made are Memento and Inception.

Inception

Inception looking from my search is the most popular with an older male age group.

Gender  Age
Male     25-34                        (chart gathered from you tube statistics)
Male     35-44
Male     45-54

A good proportion of the films market are located in the America's, with only small parts of Europe (mostly the English speaking parts) showing interest in the film. This data was collected from a trailer of the film so does not give a clear example of who actually bought the DVD.

Graph for inception

I also took into account different peoples views on the films from professional critics to the every day movie goer and this is what i came up with:

This is the view of an average cinema goer:

http://blog.dans.im/post/971085121/my-thoughts-on-inception

And here is the view of a proclaimed film critic:

http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2010/inception/

The contrast is quite interesting, you get a much more considered argument with the film critic whereas the average Joe asks more question about the film.

I realize that inception is a film that is most popular with the male audience however the makers of the film understood that it was important to have a female as the lead role in order to keep other audiences aside from the males interested and engaged.

Memento

Audiences

This trailer is most popular with:

                                                                       

Gender                Age

Male                 18-24

Male                 25-34

Male                 35-44

     

From the statistics collected from the YouTube trailer I can suggest that this is a thriller which is popular with a younger male audience. so when producing my media piece i may want to consider the themes and actors i use in the piece for instance most of the actors should be male.

Conclusion

Overall from my research then i realize  now that Thrillers are on the majority more popular with the male audience of all ages. This then would be an ideal target market for our film to play to. Also i noticed that the trailers were popular with all of the English speaking countries meaning that there is a market for any thriller film as long as it has a strong idea. The use of cultural stereotypes are not necessary as long we produce something that makes the audience think and talk about it.

Screenshots displaying effects of lighting and camera work

This photo from ‘Hancock’ shows a close up and focus shot on Will Smiths face showing the anger and fear in his face. Also it is manic in the background but they show it out of focus so the audience is aware of it but their main concentration is on Will Smith’s face. Also the dim light in the background contrasts with the light on his face, this draws the audience to it and away from the destruction around him.

This shot from ‘Bad Boys 2’ and it displays Will smith with worry on his face and his girlfriend looking at him expecting him to do something with her eyebrows raised. Also the light emphasizes the expression on each of their faces in this wide shot displaying them both sat on the hammock.  Also the fact that they are in casual clothes gives you the impression that they are relaxing.

This is a close up shot from ‘I Am Legend’ and it is displaying strongly the fear on his face, you can tell this because of the light coming through the spy hole onto his face. Also the clothes he a wearing are very plain and practical, this displays that he is not bothered about what he is wearing.

This is a wide shot from ‘I Robot’ showing Will Smith communicating with the robots. The light in this clip emphasizes the robots strongly because of the light on the already bright colour, although Will Smith who is wearing dark colours in a light room also stands out. The leather jacket makes the audience feel he is in an angry state of mind at this stage of the film.

The Generic Convention's of Thriller

Thrillers are a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. A common subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, the political thriller and the paranoid thriller film became very popular. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. A good example of this is 'the birds.

(Alfred Hitchcock on the scene of 'The Birds'.)

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods such as a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, suspense, excitement, tension, and terror. Literary devices such as red herrings and cliff hangers are used extensively. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods.

Openings to films

Shanghai noon

Touchstone pictures introduced.

Spyglass entertainment introduced.

Chinese symbols and Chinese music over worded introductions to film company.

Introduces main actors/actresses over music and symbols.

Title of the film shown in the same font as shown for actors and film company but symbols fad away and leave the title with a black background which makes the title stand out. Also music fades out into another song.

Shows rows of Chinese soldiers.

Still introducing actors/actresses over the first scene of soldiers.

Shows long/wide shot of the princess being carried in her throne.

Establishing shot sets the scene and text tells the audience where they are, in this case ‘Forbidden City, China’.

Introduces two main characters by showing them meeting eyes.

Sets the scene showing the audience old Chinese buildings.

Tells the Audience a bit of information about the story when the princess refuses to marry the other man.

Then it shows the other main character Jackie Chan scrubbing the floor which give you the impression he may be a kind of worker.

Shows Jackie Chan listening to the princess’s conversation which tells the reader that these two characters roads will pass. Whilst actors/actresses name are still being shown throughout the scene.

Tells the audience about what is going to happen by saying that the princess is off to America and that they’re leaving that night. Then the emperor calls out the names of the soldiers that he wants to retrieve the princess but Jackie Chan volunteers to help as well

Limitless


http://tubeplus.me/player/1723478/Limitless/

Opens with the title of the film in big white font whilst going through the view of the cars in the city.

Introduces actors/actresses

Intense music getting quicker.

Start displaying the different parts of the mind/brain which is foreshadowing the film.

Shape of the brain turns into a birds eye view of the city.

Introduces director

Camera zooms in on a person and a voice introduces that person as himself.

Tells all information about the character e.g. writer and how he looks.

Tries to explain his life to his friends but gives up.

Tells the audience that he has a problem with coming up with ideas for his book.

Shows him lounging around

Girlfriend breaks up with him.

Meets his ex girlfriends brother who gives him a drug , this outlines the overall plot to the film.

CEMS analysis of Se7en

Se7en- CEMS analysis


Sound
This clip starts with the main character laying in bed with ambient noise in the background, for example, cars, horns, sirens and talking. Also the diegetic sound of when he turns the tap on and picks up the keys make him sound like he is in a hurry due to the pace of the noises.

In the next scene when he is talking to the police officers the police radio is loudly heard in the background, this sets the scene of a crime scene with police communicating. Next you hear footsteps coming from the stairs which introduces a new character about yo come into the scene.

When they step outside you can hear the heavy rain on the ground and shelter above, aswell as police sirens. Lastly, when the credits are shown it plays fast paced techno music involving base, this creates suspense, also as the credits go on, the music gets faster and louder and when the credits stop the music climax's with a loud bass bang and then fade fades away.

When morgan freeman is in bed he start off the metronome clicking to take him away from the cars alarms and shouting of the sleepless city outside. This sets the scene of what type of city it is.

Camera
There seems to be great emphasis on the fact that Morgan Freeman is a very smartly dressed man. This is created by lots of close ups on his smart attire. The camera also does a close up on him smartening his tie. Not only is it apparent he is a short man, it is also made clear that he is somewhat organized; with the emphasis on him having his pressed jacket laying on the neat bed.

They have used low angles in this clip in order to emphasize the authority of the police. The camera is very low pointed upwards every time it switches to them.

The feeling on pace is created by tracking the two policeman constantly as they are walking down the street. As the younger policeman stops immediately so does the camera, however Morgan Freeman carries on walking. This creates dramatic effects the audience didn't expect them to suddenly stop.

Mise en scenes
At the very start of the clip when we first see the main character (Morgan Freeman) we are drawn to his dress. The character is wearing a shirt and then he put on a tie and braces. These sort of clothes that we see him wearing are very smart and traditional, this can tell us a lot about his character for example that he has traditional values and appreciates formality. We then see him pick up his tools (stopwatch, pen, keys, knife) again very traditional objects and the way in which he aligns the objects shows his perfectionism. This is also reflected when he puts on his blazer we see he he picks a  bit of dust off before putting it on.

In the next scene at the crime scene we are introduced to the next main character (Brad Pitt). When the two characters meet we can straight away see a contrast in what they are wearing. Morgan Freeman is wearing his traditional smart outfit but Brad Pitt on the other hand it wearing a much more casual outfit. He wears a leather jacket rather than a blazer, his tie is loose and his shirt is not ironed. This is a large contrast between the two characters, just from what they are wearing we know they have a much different personality, Brad being the more casual character and the dress can also draw attention to the different age group.

After this first introduction it then goes on to the title sequence. During this title sequence there is large focus on a characters hand, which we assume is the murderer. The props that they have implicated into the characters actions all have the similar aim to give a sense of evil and pain. He is using objects such as razor blades, bandages and needles all of which can be related to pain and suffering.

Overall the misé on scene used is very useful because it can tell us a lot about the character before we even know them and it can help tell a story.

Editing-

Analysis of screenshots

This screenshot is taken from The Dark Knight. There are a few different uses of the camera and scene that define this image. First is the camera position, it is at a low angle to give the character a more powerful look. Also is the scene lighting, although there is some light the scene is still very dark, this suits the characters persona by helping him have a more dark mysterious look. The combination of the two techniques tells you the character is mysterious but still a very powerful character.

This is a screenshot taken from The Prestige. The image is a two-shot from the film. This two-shot marks an interaction between the two characters and marks the significance of the light bulb he is picking up. The mise en scenes used it this film tells you a lot about the film. The clothes that they are wearing are very old fashion eg. top hats, large coats, shirts, ties and canes. This tells us that the movie was most likely set in around the 18th century.



This image is from the film Goodfellas. The image is a point-if-view shot of somebody looking down on the character pointing a gun at him. The use of this pov is very powerful because it shows it from the shooters perspective making you feel part of the action and also we see the characters reaction/look of fear.

Audience research

For our audience research we have allocated ourselves different areas of research, Charlie is doing interviews, Josh is doing questionnaires and Dan is doing online data collection.

Charlie- As my area of research i have chose to do personal interviews. The reason i have chose this is because by doing this i can ask detailed questions to the audience and get their honest and in depth opinions. As apposed to other types of audience research this option lets me get their full opinion and feelings.

Dan- I think the collection of online data is an effective way to collect relevant data to our thriller project. The up sides to data collection is that all the relevant data is there in a few clicks, it is all there on the internet and in certain magazines. However as with most data collection methods there are downfalls to this, for instance it is somewhat difficult to identify whether the data collected is accurate.

Josh- I decided to choose questionnaires because it is in my opinion the most effective type of research. It allows you to ask open and closed questions which would help our group to get a wide range of views and ideas on specific areas. Also it is the quickest method of audience research which makes it practical.

By doing each of these research methods and combining the information we find from the audience we hope to get a strong opinion on what we need to do to make our production appeal to the audience.

Film openings: CEMS analysis: Inception and vantage point

Inception


Camera
The Wide angle of the Japanese castle helps to establish where the next scene is set. There was a close up of the gun and spinning top- with the close up including the spinner and the gun we get an interesting contrast between violence and a child like innocence, this contrasts helps to set the tone of the following scene; whilst the men are calm and playing innocent we get the feeling that there is a strong threat and sense of tension in the room. Reaction shot with low angle shot to include shaking chandelier behind him. During the shaking of the chandeliers the guy asks "whats going on up there?" this creates tension by getting one of the characters to reiterate the audiences immediate thought. By having the shaking going on behind the man we get a feel for some sort of pending doom that is creeping up behind them with out them knowing what it is.

Editing
While Di Caprio and his buddy are chatting the camera quickly cuts between the two guys creating a feeling of pace and causing dramatic effect. The use of close cut editing is advantageous as it sets the pace of the whole film; the audience know it will be an exhilarating thrill ride rather than an informative documentary. In another scene in which a scruffy Di Caprio is eating at a table the editing suddenly cuts to the other end with out any continuous link showing an immediate contrast between the two characters, whilst Leonardo is all scruffy and weak this bad guy is smart and looking very healthy; making him seem  more powerful.
The audience are also given hinters that this is a dream world given the fact that Leonardo's characters clothes change from scruffy to smart almost instantly with seemingly no transition from the latter to the present.

Mise en scene 
In this film they use the insignificant objects to great effect a spinning top is used as an indicator that he is either in or out of the dream world this use of bringing insignificant objects in to the forefront of the audiences attention, creates  a familiarity of which the audience can relate to; whilst immersing them in a world which is very abnormal and strange. This film has huge emphasis on time and starts out with many different clocks all going at different speeds, this is used to show that in each level of dream time moves at different speeds.

Sound
Right from the off the film starts with a steadily building bass track with the same 4 beats being repeated over and over again until the waves hit the protagonists face and the sound of the collision stops the music. The sound of the waves continues.
This sudden contrast of pace seems to be a reoccurring theme in most areas of the thriller genre, with a very loud overwhelming noise building as if some sort of threat is approaching and then being interrupted by a softer much calmer noise of which the audience may feel more at ease with. I believe this technique is used to keep the audience guessing; as they know a threat is approaching but are not sure when or where from.



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Vantage Point

Camera
    In the opening credits the camera zooms in on some of the members of the crowd, this is probably to give the feeling of scrutiny as if everybody there is a possible suspect. Also the film sets the scene by giving us a wide angle shot of the Spanish skyline. This wide angle shot is useful as it allows the audience to understand exactly were the film is happening. Finally we have a shot from the perspective of one of the crowd members this angle helps us become engrossed with the event that is unraveling before us. By putting us in the crowd the audience feels more like they are part of the event.

Editing
  There is a part during the opening credits in which they have used a collage effect in order to switch between scenes, By mixing two events like snipers on the roof and people waving flags we get a stronger idea of the contrast in danger and celebration; all going on in one location. The film also hops from in and out of the action, one minute we are seeing the events unfolding from a computer screen and then the next we are in the crowd and watching it first hand. This transition is used to create that feeling of having many different perspectives; giving the feeling that all areas of this event are being scrutinized from every possible angle.

Mis-en-scene

Mis-en-scene is used in this opening scene to great effect. A common theme that is repeated in this scene is  the level of security that they have set up around the event. The fact that they have high security lets the audience know that they are protecting a possibly high priority target. This film accentuates the feeling of being in a crowd by having alot of flags all waving in front of the camera also some of the crowd members were holding up banners saying words such as 'we love the president' thus revealing why the crowd are here.
There are also alot of clicking camera's in the crowd, this all creates the idea that this 'target' or public figure is well loved and very famous.


Sound
When the town of the event is being established we over here a set of church bells playing, this sound has been implemented in order to give an audience an idea of when this event is taking place(midday). As we see the target emerge from one of the escort vehicles there is a sound track playing in the background which grows in pace and velocity. As the soundtrack grows the audience is given a sense of growing threat around the president. another thing to note would e the fact that as the president makes his way down towards the podium the sound of his protesters increases, thus creating uneasiness, as the audience is led to believe that this could be the threat that has been so heavily hinted so far.

What defines a thriller?

Fast paced action, constant motion.

These are just a few things which make up a thriller film a good example of a thriller film would be the sci-fi adaptation of "do androids dream of electric sheep?" (BLADE RUNNER) In which humanoid robots have gone rogue and it is the job of one Harrison Ford to track down the Cyborg and kill him. The film starts with alot of explosive scenery however little in the way of noise. this rather unexpected serenity is striking as it creates the feeling that there may something more sincere below the surface. Thrillers are all about making the audience feel uncomfortable and portraying fears which are very real amongst most people.   

  

There is a huge emphasis on the effectiveness of sound from the cyborgs echoing voice in the rain at the end to the vangelis sound track which sounds like it has been taken from mars itself. This film does use a great deal of special effects however still likes to keep the actions sequences as real as possible with few explosions and spaceships fighting each other it is a lot more about the interaction of the human beings and the robots.

Examples of different shot and lighting effects...

Here we see a close up on al pacino's face with little fo the servants face bein captured, this would probably be because they want tog et the full reaction from al pacino as he is the head character.

                                                                          

This is an example of an over the shoulder shot and it is done from a low angle perspective, this portrays the queen as being the most dominant character out of the two.

The use of dark lighting is also quite poignant it is like the darkness is creeping up around the frog.

They also use hard lighting to give a much grittier feel to the film.

 

 

This is an example of a reaction shot and show show crazy the guy has gone. There is considerable emphasis on how sweaty he is, this emphasis is created by using soft lighing as it causes a shine off of his head.

Here we are given an example of a longshot, it is known as a long shot as it shows the character from head to toe and we get a good example of what her fashion and style is like.

They also just use natural lighting in stead of hard or soft.

Analysis of CEMs, The Da Vinci code

Camera
When we are introduced to the character at the begin and we start to see him running the camera is positioned in such away that we get a good shot of his face. The camera is positioned so when the man runs past we get a close up of his face. This enables the audience to see the distress in the man's face and helps us understand that he is in fear of whoever is chasing him. We also see a track shot of the man running down the corridor.

Whilst the man is running away we then see a shot from the chasers perspective. The camera shot is a over the shoulder shot of the chaser and in this shot it draws attention to the fact that he is holding a gun, this tells us that he is chasing him with the intention of harming him.

Once the man has fallen over we then see the two characters levels of power. To portray the two levels of power they use a low angle shot on the chaser to make him look powerful and a high angle show of the man fallen over to show weakness and vulnerably. There is also a two-shot of the characters where it is from a low angle shot from behind the fallen man again to express his vulnerably.

When it moves to the next scene the symbol convention, it starts off with an establishing shot. In the establishing shot we can see the whole room including audience, a large screen and a man walking in with a spotlight marking him. From this we know what they are doing (a convention) and that there will be focus on the character marked by spotlight. We also see in this shot a close up of the screen where we see some word containing information on the character, from this we pick up information like that the man is a 'Professor of Religious Symbology'

Editing
When the film first starts and moves on from the title scenes to the actual scene it starts off with very quick cutting shots. We see a man running down a corridor and the fast cutting rates give the impression as well as other things that he is running away from somebody, and in one of the shots we see a shadow in the background so we know he's being chased.

The next significant use of editing in this scene is once the man has fallen over. The camera cuts between the two faces to focus on both of their feelings. By constantly cutting between the two characters face we can see what they are feeling and how they are reacting during the conflict.

Mise en scenes
The first scene when we see the man running down the corridor we see a few close up shots of the painting in background. The paintings along with the overall setting have a very classical gothic and somewhat religious theme about them, also the chorridor is very dark also setting the gothic theme. This scenery alround gives off a fairly spooky impression. The camera seems to focus on the portraits eyes as if the man being chased is being constantly watched and cannot escape from their locking gaze.

The clothes which the characters are wearing in the scene tell us alot about the characters. The first chracter that we are introduced to is wearing a smart suit telling us that he is most probably in some kind of position of power. The man chasing him wears a religious robe. At first he has a hood on concealing his face this gives him more of a mysterious persona. Also we know from what he is wearing, that he is representing some kind of religious cult, this short scene foreshadows and clearly lays out the story of the whole film. There are secrets of religion that the religious hierarchy would rather we didn't know.

Sound
The music starts right at beginining during the title sequence but very slowly and then it starts speeding up throughout the credits to the movie title it which the song climaxes. It then moves on the character running down the corridor where it changes to a more intense scary song. Also as he is running away we can hear nothing but his footsteps and the music telling us that he somewhere quiet and there maybe no help available. The character then removes a painting to activate the security gate and we hear a beeping sound to notify us that he has activated the gate.