Conventions of a thriller

Characters:  Our film will include a couple of ambiguous characters who seem like common criminals however end up having a much more developed background than was first expected. As the film develops so will the characters stories, the audience are given little information about the two thieves to start in the hope that they may create their own preconceptions and become more surprised of the truth as the film continues. The main protagonist will always have some kind of compromising weakness for instance in the film Vertigo the main character has a fear of heights which means he can no longer carry out his duties as a San Francisco cop.



Camera angles/shots: I would like to use many close ups and straight angles on the two main characters of the story in the hope to create as much of a personal connection with these two figures as possible. In order to make clear who the main characters are we should make sure that lesser significant characters spend less time on screen and that their stories are much less developed.

Narrative: Our main characters are going to be a couple of escaped criminals being chased down by an important group of people who are after the information these criminals have stolen. Every good thriller will be centered around some kind of crime or criminal act and may involve an element of espionage. For example in the thriller inception the criminal act is taking advantage of somebodies thoughts in order to manipulate them in their own favor; the espionage element is shown in the way of the victims subconscious, his subconscious acts as his psychological security.



Twist: Most thrillers will lead you to believe that a certain character is completely innocent however it then reveals that he is the cause of all the terrible events that have taken place. For example in the film 'Memento' their is a character named teddy who offers to help the main character Lenny to find his wife's killer as he has a condition which means he is unable to create new memories. It is then revealed at the end of the film that Teddy has only been taking advantage of his condition because he is a wanted man. Our misleading element will probably be that it is the government who are the real criminals, the two criminals have a secret of which they have stolen from the government and the government want it back. Whereas the audience will believe that the criminals have done something with selfish intentions.

Mystery/Diversion: Finally our film will have to include some kind of an enigma, this is were by there is a puzzle or conundrum surrounding the narrative. This will help the characters to develop and the overall plot to be more exciting and mysterious. I think that our enigma should be around the two main criminals, for example they could have been involved in the making of this government secret however have not been given the code to access the device within the suitcase. The two escapees' however previously worked on the machine and so have an inkling as to what the password could be. They know that the guy at the head of the time manipulation project had lost his daughter in a previous experiment, and so think that this maybe the key to gaining access to the machine.

CEMS of 'Rear Window'

Rear Window 


It starts off with a happy, jazzy piece of music over a long shot of three blinds being raised which fills the whole screen. The audience is positioned in the main character's room throughout the film. This also applies to the opening shot which makes the audience feel as if they have been in the room the whole time and are watching out of the window. The blind is being raised as if it is revealing the scene but makes the audience wait to see what is behind the blinds. This compares to the curtain raising in a theatre. The first cast member's name, James Stewart, appears on screen. The font stands out because it is brightly coloured compared to the background and it is very big and embossed. All of the names throughout the title sequence are upper case. It almost fills the whole screen which attracts the audience's attention. The audience knows that this is an important person because his name stands alone. 


As the title sequence continues the blinds begin to raise one at a time. Over the top it displays next the director's name and the title of the film. It fades the titles in and out over each other at the same time. The co-stars are shown in a small group of three names, the font is slightly smaller but keeps the same type throughout. Next a long list of the names of the rest of the cast is presented diagonally across the screen. Then it starts to show the creators of the film, first the writer of the screenplay and second the author of the short story it's based on. Then, more crew are listed, the most senior crew get their name displayed bigger then the other senior crew. The crew compared to the cast have to display both their name and their position. The crew's positions are in lower case. The last thing you see before the end of the titles is the director's name which is displayed almost as big as the first billed cast member.

The title sequence finishes and then the camera dollys forward and slightly downward until the shot is framed by just one of the three windows. The camera is positioned at the bottom of the window, we know this because we can see the sill of the window in the shot. This gives the audience the point of view of somebody sat in the window. This is foreshadowing what is to come because throughout the movie James Stewart's character is sat looking through the window at this height whilst in his wheelchair. Cut to the camera looking down into the courtyard from a high angle which give the audience the impression they are still in the window looking out. Next the camera pans right across the courtyard following the path of a cat, then it tilts upwards until level for the audience, then it pans left to display the other apartments opposite the window. This is a long shot that works as an establishing shot as it shows the entire courtyard. 


Eventually the camera pans back round into the apartment where it shows a close up shot of the main character with sweat running down his forehead. As this is happening the music becomes more dominated by violins. Cut to an extreme close up of a thermometer showing that the temperature is more than 90 degrees fahrenheit, then it tracks across to the left and out of the window and focuses on the background action. The combination of shots of the sweat running down his forehead and the thermometer tells the audience that it's hot. This makes the film realistic because more people will have their windows and blinds open during a heat wave which means the characters can see into other people's apartments. As the camera tracks the music fades away and the sound of the radio in the next door neighbour's window. This mise en scene includes a man in his pyjamas shaving whilst changing stations on his radio. Cut to another long shot of a man and his wife waking up on their balcony in their pyjamas from an alarm clock. This sets a very natural, informal scene and the action is extremely everyday. 

The camera then tilts down and pans across to another woman's apartment as she walks out into the view of her main window, she is wearing only underwear and the camera hovers over her window for a while whilst her bra pings off and she bends to pick it up, as a man's gaze would do if in this situation. She then puts her bra on and moves into the kitchen with a kettle and dances whilst putting it on to heat. The next shot clearly displays the gap between the apartments which leads into the street to show the audience that the character has a view though to the street. 


There is no element of danger in the scene which is strange for a thriller, this shows that our group doesn't need to have anything overwhelming or fast-paced in our opening. Instead we could simply set the scene.

Storyboard

Below displays our first idea's storyboard not our new updated idea.

Research into Sounds.

Here i shall collect a few samples of different sounds we may like to implement into our final piece. Sound is hugely important in setting the mood of the film from using almost a constant amount of sound as oppose to dialogue or Using very little sound with sudden small sharp interludes.
In the film we see an illustration of how you can use music in the background for dramatic effect. Halfway through the film there is a soundtrack which plays it is the soundtrack of the song "when johnny comes marching home again". The tune itself sounds very infantile as if setting the tone of the whole movie, By making the tune infantile in nature it prevents people thinking that the film is taking itself too seriously.
Also there is an underlying poignancy in the lyrics of this particular song, for example the first two lines say:

  "When Johnny comes marching home again,
 
  Hurrah! Hurrah!
 
  We'll give him a hearty welcome then
  
  Hurrah! Hurrah!" 

This is interesting as its relates to the film. This "Johnny" character is obviously a hero of some sort which is very much like that of Bruce Willis' character and both are returning home after a valiant victory. Any American audience member may then pick up on this little reference however an English viewer may not; thus giving a good idea that he is American through and through.

Here is a possible source for our MP3 sounds: http://sounddogs.com/


 

Production Company Animation Example

I have been experimenting with my group's production company animation and have made a sample animation as shown below.

Spoiler Alert: Se7en

Se7en had a very clever plot. Each murder displays one of the 'seven deadly sins'. After you realise there is a pattern you know that there is more murders to come and you are on the edge of your seat waiting for the next murder. It makes you think about how the deaths are going to be linked with one of the sins so your imagination creates it own image of the death. For the 'Lust' death it doesn't show the death due to its potentially graphic nature but it does show the weapon used for the murder so you create your own image. 

Aside from a great plot, the sound is also cleverly done. It has heightened levels of digetic sound so much so that in some points (such as the opening scene between the two detectives on the street) the street noise  almost drowns out the dialogue. This makes the audience feel like they are part of the action by letting them hear what the main characters are hearing. In the dinner table scene where Detective Mills' wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) invites Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) over to dinner without Mills' (Brad Pitt) knowledge is dominated by the sound of  the city's trains. This makes Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow's characters uncomfortable because they used to live in the countryside and have just recently moved to the city. The audience relates to this situation because the level of sound and train vibration is shared by them and so the audience shares Brad Pitt's character's experience of  being uncomfortable.

The final scene in the desert was exciting and I was on edge because of the final reveal. The audience doesn't know whether Mills will shoot John Doe.

Who was Hitchcock?

Hitchcock was a revolution in the thriller film genre. He understood how to give that sense of a character which was isolated and really understood how to build suspense.
Alfred hitchcok understood that by hinting at the threat however not making it the center of attention until half way through the film, fear factor would be far more effective.
His first break into the film industry was designing the titles for silent films.
His first american movie was called 'Rebecca' made in 1940.
It won best picture at 1940 film awards.
After his 1946 film 'Notorious' he started producing his own films. This allowed him to make films which he felt alot more passionate about.
Mr.Hitchcock wasn't afraid to push the boundaries of what he showed on screen this was most apparent in the murder scene during the film psycho; which was seen as many as grotesque and unlike anything they had seen before.  After the birds and psycho his movie career somewhat wound down, however he received many honorees for his duties to film for example he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.