Friday 28 January 2011

Initial Ideas for Thriller

Something along the lines of a psychological thriller.

Very ambiguous opening can have lots of quick cuts and fades.
No actors have to be shown as this creates a sense of mystery and suspense.
Low budget.
Easy to light as a small area is being used. Easier continuity.
Writing notes - close ups.
A whole location doesn't need to be used, just a small dark space that can be lit by lamps...

Possibly use a church - if we can get permission - creates 2 different interlocking scenes.

Inspired by Se7en...

Thriller Title Fonts

Film-American Typewriter
Film – American Typewriter Light
Film – Century Schoolbook Italic
Film – Edwardiam Script FTC
Film – Lucida Calligraphy
Film - AppleGothic



These are some ideas of font styles that we could use for the titles of the opening to our thriller.

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Thriller Ideas

Initial Ideas –
Things to plan:
Title.
Moodboard
Genre/Subgenre
Character Profile
Plot Outline
Fonts/Colour Scheme for titles
Music
Locations
Storyboards

Titles -  
A number? A number is open to interpretation, so it doesn’t have to have a clear meaning.
A single word? Again open to interpretation and single words sound creepier, for example “Vertigo” or “Se7en”.

Genres –
Psychological Thriller? Allows room for interpretation. Doesn’t have to be clear. Can have a lot of close-ups or abstract shots – meaning no actors have to actually be shown. Creates a strong sense of suspense. – Bit like Se7en?
Graphic Thriller? Very blunt/graphic. Open to special effects and artistic type things. 


Lighting - 
Lighting would be quite simple if a lot of close-ups are used as a lamp with a filter can be used to create a simple but effective light instead of trying to light a whole room.

Tips for creating suspense







    • If you choose to have a few people die in the scene, it will elevate the scary feeling, but can turn your scene into a horror film, detaching your audience from reality, which can be good or bad, depending on what you desire.
    • A good way to create tension is using extreme close-ups. For example, if you are showing a person running, just show the feet hitting the ground. Also, focusing on the eyes brings the audience closer to the actors. Expressiveness in the eyes can create feelings of fear, tension and suspense.
    • Lighting is key in creating suspense. Use dramatic lights and darks to add tension in your scene. Black shadows, bright disorienting lights and sharp contrasts can add interest to your movie.
    • Music is key when heightening the tension. Watch any Alfred Hitchcock movie and the music alone will send shivers up your spine. Low, booming bass works well, but high-pitched, shrill sounds are the best.
    • If you choose to have a few people die in the scene, it will elevate the
      scary feeling, but can turn your scene into a horror film, detaching your
      audience from reality, which can be good or bad, depending on what
      you desire.

       A good way to create tension is using extreme close-ups. For
      example, if you are showing a person running, just show the feet hitting
      the ground. Also, focusing on the eyes brings the audience closer to the
      actors. Expressiveness in the eyes can create feelings of fear, tension
      and suspense.

      Lighting is key in creating suspense. Use dramatic lights and darks to add tension in your scene. Black shadows, bright disorienting lights and sharp contrasts can add interest to your movie.

    Different Types of Genres

    I was confused as to specifically WHAT a Thriller was, and some of the conventions of a thriller - So i've compiled a list with some examples of each.



    Definition of “Thriller” - thriller is a film that provide thrills and keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation.

    Conventions of a traditional thriller –
    Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary suburbs/cities
    The heroes in most thrillers are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger
    In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened
    Thrillers also occur on a much grander scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments
    a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others. In thrillers influenced by film noir and tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in the process.

    SUBGENRES –

    CONSPIRACY THRILLER – Awake, Marathon Man, JFK.
    CRIME THRILLER – The Score, Oceans 11, Entrapment.
    DISASTER THRILLER - Deep Impact, Twister, 2012.
    EROTIC THRILLER – Lust, Caution, Dressed To Kill.
    LEGAL THRILLER – The Client, A Time To Kill, The Juror.
    MEDICAL THRILLER – The Hot Zone, Anatomy, Pathology.
    MYSTERY THRILLER – The Number 23, Shutter Island, Vertigo.
    POLITICAL THRILLER – Rendition, Topaz, The Ghost Writer.
    PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER – Psycho, Panic Room, Funny Games.
    RAPE & REVENGE THRILLER– Baise-moi, A Cruel Picture, Irreversible.
    RELIGIOUS THRILLER – The Ninth Gate, Angel Heart, The Da Vinci Code.
    SUPERNATURAL THRILLER – Signs, The Others, In Dreams.
    TECHNO THRILLER – The Matrix, Jurassic Park, Terminator.

    Also, other combinations are used such as Horror Thriller, Spy Thriller and Action/Adventure Thriller.




    Tuesday 25 January 2011

    Learning Experience of Making a Production Logo

    We used Photoshop, Final Cut Express and GarageBand to create our Production Logo which in some aspects was quite difficult but in others; was quite simple.

    For example  - the easy parts of creating the Logo were; choosing the background image for the Logo, creating the title "Divine Productions"(choosing the fonts), and using more of the Final Cut Express and Photoshop tools, that I'm becoming more familiar with now.

    Unfortunately there were still more difficult parts than easy at the moment. For Example -  creating the music was slightly difficult - not necessarily the construction of the music, but more finding the right pieces of music to create the clip on GarageBand.

    Another difficult aspect was putting all the pieces together in Final Cut Express. Making sure all the fades and edits were in the right places with the motion keyframes was slightly problematic but resolved quite quickly. We used a lens flare effect in our Logo which was created in Final Cut Express - and that also posed some problems as we didn't know how to create this effect at first, but once we discovered how, we found the Flare looked really good with the rest of our Logo and so we decided to keep it.

    Overall, I'm pleased with our Logo as it looks smooth and professional - with appropriate music. I particularly like the Lens Flare + "Divine Productions" title that fades out after growing bigger.

    Production Logo



    "Divine Productions" production logo.

    Wednesday 19 January 2011

    MGM production Logo



    This logo looks very professional due to the quality of the graphics. The lion in the center represents strength and power. The colour scheme is mostly gold and red which are bright and attractive and also gold combined with the lion is a royal allusion, which shows that MGM considers itself as one of the foremost film companies.

    The saying "Ars Gratia Artis" means "Art for Arts sake".

    This logo does inspire confidence that the film it is representing will be good.
    Company Logo


    The paramount company logo makes the user think of good films as many stars make up part of the logo and films are often rated in stars out of 5. The mountain shows the viewer that they are high up and important. The music is elegant and shows quality.

    Tuesday 18 January 2011

    Student Work

    DON'T zoom unless intended effect is a home movie/stalker type thing.
    Keep consistancy - titles, colours, lighting, shot height and angles.
    Write a script.
    Use a decent camera
    Re-record sound.
    PLAN!
    Get a decent actor!!

    The Interpreter


    The Interpreter

    Background music is African music at the start to show where the film is set. There is an intro before the credits start, this shows 2 men being shot, which could be the story line. We are showed this first, similarly to a blurb in a book. We can tell the film will have action in from the start, as there is violence.

    The rest of the credits then appear after the intro about 5 minutes in. They appear normally and in a standard font. At this point they are in America so the music changes to more orchestral. Each credit lasts for about 4-5 seconds, which is fairly slow.

    I think the film’s genre is an action/thriller as there is a lot of early action and it is set in what seems to be a violent area.

    I liked the fact that we are given an early idea of what the film is about in the pre title sequence intro as it sets you up for the general style of the film. 

    Let Him Have It – Opening Sequence/Title Sequence

    • 2 Minutes long
    • White text on Black background
    • Music and Sound Effect backing


    Sound Effects introduced 
    • Bombs (setting 1941)


    Music introduced
    • -       Piano
    • -       Dissonant clashing notes/chords
    • -       Repeating bass line
    • -       Strings introduced to create suspense (cello?, violin)
    • -       Repeating melody line


    What we think of it
    • -       Boring 
    • -       Too simple
    • -       Didn’t really introduce the film
    • -       No pre-title sequence
    • -       Kept to the conventions of a good title sequence (e.g. just actors names themselves, apart from “Mark McGann as Niven Craig”.
    The title sequence didn't actually contain any images or pre-title sequences and so no characters, narrative, camerawork, editing or mise en scene is used. From this title sequence we can't actually tell what genre the film is.

    Friday 14 January 2011

    Vertigo Storyboard

    vertigo storyboard



    The titles used for Alfred Hitchcocks "Vertigo" are appropriate because the spirals would have created a sense of dizzyness; relating to the title of the film.
    Sopranos Opening Sequence

    Friday 7 January 2011

    Analysis of Preliminary Task

    Having watched our preliminary task as a group we feel that our project made use of continuity editing, match on action shots and the 180 degree rule, that was specified to be used.

    Therefore we think our project was successful. this view was agreed upon by our peer group.

    The general consensus was that the shot when James entered the door worked well as far as continuity editing goes as the door was in the same position when it moved from the close up shot to the match on action.

    Definitions

    Continuity editing is the predominant style of editing in narrative cinema and television. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.
    In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasizes smooth transition of time and space. However, some films incorporate cutting to continuity into a more complex classical cutting technique, one which also tries to show psychological continuity of shots. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. 


    The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

    Cutting on action or matching on action refers to a film editing technique where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action. Although the two shots may have actually been shot hours apart from each other, cutting on action gives the impression of continuous time when watching the edited film. By having a subject begin an action in one shot and carry it through to completion in the next, the editor creates a visual bridge which distracts the viewer from noticing the cut or noticing any slight continuity error between the two shots.


    Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)


    Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres are mystery, crime, and psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies.The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods. Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations,paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.

    Characteristics

    A genuine, standalone thriller is a film that provide thrills and keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation.[6]
    Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary suburbs/cities. Though sometimes, they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or the high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger. However, more common in crime thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger, like police officers and detectives. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.
    Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. While a murder mystery would be spoiled by a premature disclosure of the murderer's identity, in a thriller the identity of a murderer or other villain is typically known all along. Thrillers also occur on a much grander scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others. In thrillers influenced by film noir and tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in the process.
    In recent years, thrillers have been slightly influenced by the horror genre; they have more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror, and body counts.[7] Recent thrillers which took this route include Eden LakeThe Last House on the LeftP2Untraceable and Funny Games
    Similar distinctions separate the thriller from other overlapping genres: adventure, spy, legal, war, maritime fiction, and so on. Thrillers are defined not by their subject matter but by their approach to it. Many thrillers involve spies and espionage, but not all spy stories are thrillers. The spy novels of John le CarrĂ©, for example, explicitly and intentionally reject the conventions of the thriller. Conversely, many thrillers cross over to genres that traditionally have had few or no thriller elements. Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, and Brian Callison are best known for their thrillers but are also accomplished writers of man-against-nature sea stories.


    Preliminary Task



    This is our preliminary thriller task.