Unknown

"Unknown"

Director:
Jaume Collet-Serra
Writers:
Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell
Stars:
Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and January Jones

This thriller is based in Germany where by a double agent is in a car crash, the result of this is the lost of parts of his memory. As a double agent he had a cover story it was at the point of waking up from the crash had he started believing his cover story. The McGuffin behind this story is the world food organisation, this drives the story at the beginning until we see whats really happening.

In the film we see a key scene of tension where we see Liam Neeson's character reaching for scissors to cut throw the cable tie, to escape from the man who is trying to kill him. We see that they have edited the scene so that we don't know whether he has picked the scissors up before the man drags away the body that he is trying to get the scissors from. By doing this audience is brought into a scene where they are being kept in the dark they don't know whether he will get away or not. We don't know whether he picks up the scissors or not because of the use of the close ups on his characters face, using the close ups with the disorientating music allows for a feeling of confusion to the audience, it also shows how the character himself is confused.

Another scene that has good effect is the club scene this is because of its Loud booming soundtrack which is disorientating  and threatening. This scene comes after the scene of the car chase, now the producer has achieved well edited set of scenes, from going into a scene where there is confusing and disorientating shots from a short cut scene where there is a lot of action going on.

Story board

As well as the shot list that we did in the 2nd production meeting we also did the story

Shot List

In the 2nd production meeting we talked through the shot list, we then wrote down the shot list itself. In the shot list we had a list of all the different shots that we are going to be putting into the opening of our thriller

How to film a thriller

How to film a thriller

Camera angles

POV - shows the viewpoint of someone

Tracking shot 

Close ups/reaction shots/extreme close up

Shooting through an opening - suggests hidden watcher

Long shot/middle shot

Shot reverse shot: shows character then shows POV of what they see

Handheld camera shots

High angle - shows weakness/vulnerability

Editing

Slow editing - shows peacefulness/no danger

Fast editing - quick cuts show panic, puts the audience on edge

Dissolves/fades - cut out long journeys

Music

Diegetic sound - sound heard on screen e.g birds chirping, footsteps - actual sound 

Non diegetic sound - sound heard of screen e.g narrator, soundtrack - commentary sound

sinister sound effects show danger
ominous music
Background sounds (nature) shows

Lighting

Dark lighting
Natural lighting e.g sunlight

2nd production meeting

In this production meeting we discussed the camera shots and movements that we will put into the thriller that we will be making in our group. We made a list of the camera angles and movements scene by scene and also made a story board for the thriller.

 This is the picture that was taken showing our group working on the story board.












This picture shows the list of camera angles and movements we will be using in out thriller.

These two pictures show the three ideas that we came up with as a group, as well as the story board. 

1st Production meeting

Today I got together with the group I will be filming the thriller with, we got together and planned some ideas and concluded to what plan we will use for the thriller.

Past student work

In this lesson we looked at five different thriller opens from past students. The first opening we looked was one called "Hidden"

In this is opening we see what we would think is a couple, walking home at night, then the boy drops the girl off home, to then which he gets killed. The first thing i see as a problem is the lighting.

Rope

“Rope” 1948

Director:
Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: adapted by Hume Cronyn from Patrick Hamilton Play. Dialogue Arthur Laurents.

Stars:
James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Rope is a film based on a true story, this story is that two men under go the role of god and they decided who lives and who dies as they go kill a man just to see how it feels. Alfred Hitchcock took this story and made it his own. The two men that kill in the film kill there own friend, then as a cover story they pretend to invite him to their own party as well as inviting his parents and other friends and ex lover. From this they act oblivious to his where about's, this is until one of there friends finds the hat of the man of has been killed, he then leaves and comes back pretending to forget his cigarette case. He then starts questioning the two men about him, one of the men crack under pressure and he finds the body.

When analysing this film, there is no thriller conventions, for example there is no fast pacing action, there is no resourceful hero and the bad guys are not villains who are powerful and better equipped they're just two normal people who killed a man with no motive other than to see what it feels like. However there is suspense builders, ones where we don't know if someone is going to open the chest where lay the dead body. Hitchcock built the suspense by getting different characters to go near the chest and question why the food is being served on the chest instead of the dining table, by doing this it makes the audience hang in suspense to see if anyone realises that there is a body in there. As well as this there is dramatic irony in the way that we know the where about's of the missing man and we also know that this person is dead in the chest. I believe myself that the film wouldn't be as affective if we didn't know about the body.

When filming this Alfred Hitchcock wanted it to be a continuous film and it to be a one shot take, however due to how only film reels were only 10 minutes long he couldn't do this. So instead he tried to edited it in the way that it seems like a one shot take. he did the cuts by zooming in on one of the actors backs. By doing this he gave the film the affect of real time and continuos shot, in my opinion i believe that this didn't make the film sloppy or bad, and that it was a good attempted at making a continuous  

Studio Idents

Idents are animations that we see that the beginning of a film, they come become the title sequence and they are the studio company logo. The big six idents that people usually recognise are:

• MGM
• Universal 
• Columbia 
• Paramount 
• Warner Brothers
• Watt Disney 

Looking at all these idents I can see that they all have something in common, that is the fact that they all have a image that represents something big and that has power. For example, MGM has a lion, which is "the king of the jungle" Universal has a picture of the world, making it seem powerful. Also the paramount ident shows a mountain, if someone can climb a mountain then they are considered a powerful person.

 From when the first idents were used in films to now they have changed and evolved, the most obvious changed would be the colour, as they used to be black and white films however now they are coloured.   

For example when looking at the universal ident, we can see the way it has changed. However one thing in the ident has stayed the same, this being the way they have kept the world in the ident. Although we can see that the animation has changed, the graphics have got better and the plane and we see in the first ident has been removed and instead we see the word universal go round the world.

Modern thriller openings

From looking at four different thriller openings I can tell that there is something that they all have in common. One of these is death, in each clip opening there is at least one death, by doing this they are setting the scene for the rest of the film, for example. In the first film we watch "Brick" we see that there is no dialog, there is only the backing tract, which does go with the scene making it parallel. In the scene we also a boy next to dead body, its set next to a tunnel with a blue dominating colour, by using the colour blue there is the overwhelming sense of cold, possibly representing death.

In the next opening thriller clip "Zodiac" we also see a dominating colour which is black, being similar to the dark blue in "Brick". This could be again representing death, however this is a longer opening scene, by doing this they are giving the audience more of a understanding of the back story of the film. For example we see that the woman that picks up the boy in the car is having an affair, as the boy says "is that your husband". As well as this, with using a longer opening scene, which as able to give the director the ability to create suspense. By using the car that pulls up near them then goes then comes back, as a way to build suspense, it also shocks the audience as we expect the man in the car to be an officer, as he uses the torch. However this man ends up shooting the boy and the girl in the car, which i feel no one would expect.

However in the next thriller clip "No country for old men" there is no dominating dark colour, expect for the opening voice over when the sun is rising, but after this the scene is set out in the open in the daylight. After this we see the first death where the man kills the office, by doing this it defeats the idea of the mystery of who killed the person, like we have in "Brick" and "Zodiac". However, another mystery is created in the way of why does this man kill people in the way he does.

The last film we looked at was "A history of violence" this film gave a different affect, it was a slow opening to the film, there was no intense action which gives a relaxed feel to the film however, when one of the actors goes inside the house eyebrows get raised and because of the relaxed state that the viewer has been put in, there is an overwhelming sense of shock to the view when we see the little girl killed.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene means "in the scene or frame" This is a french term. There are five elements to Mise-en-scene, these elements are:

• Settings and props 
• Costume, hair and make-up
• Facial expressions and body language 
• lighting and colour 
• Positioning of character and objects in a frame 

Settings and props would be where the frame is set and the props would be objects that are either in the back round of the scene or being used in the scene. Costumes, hair and make-up would be what happens tot he actors before they go on to the scene, someone would chose their costume and another person will do hair and make-up. Facial expressions and body language is what we see the actors do in the film and this is how we can tell what kind of mood there are in. Lighting and colour is the way that the film could be lit in the studio, and the way colour could tell the audience what type of mood the people in the film could be in, for example if the room is coloured blue then it would suggest that the mood of the people is cold, also that they are sad. Positioning of characters and objects in a frame is how the room is set out, that is if they are in a room. For example, where about's they would be standing in the room, as well as how the room is set out. 

The Birds

The Birds is a :

  Horror  119 min  -  Horror | Thriller

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Daphne Du Daphne Du Maurier (story), Evan Hunter (screenplay)

Stars:Rod Taylor Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette

The film is set in Bodega Bay, this is where the external threat of birds comes and sends the town into ciaos. The fast pacing action of the birds attacking the town shows that this film is a thriller, for example when Mitch's family are having tea and then the birds start coming through the chimney. In this scene we are able to see how fast Alfred Hitchcock was able to build tense, as one moment they are having tea then suddenly one bird comes through the chimney then a flock follows causing the fast pacing action :



The thriller convention is that there is a resourceful hero, is this true of "The Birds"? well considering that there is no actual villain in the film to drive the plot, and that there is only the threat of birds, its hard to say whether there is a hero or not, as these are just normal people trying to escape the birds. We see that Mitch is resourceful in the film however he doesn't over come the birds. As Hitchcock ends the film with them only leaving the house, it doesn't answer the question whether they over come the threat or not. But this is what Alfred Hitchcock wanted to do, he wanted to leave the impression of an never ending terror of birds in the audiences heads.

Through out this film we see the use of suspense, and it is used extensively. For Example, when Melanie was outside the school waiting for Mitch's little sister. Without Melanie knowing, there is a growing threat of birds build up behind her. It takes over 3 minutes for the crows to attack, which is longer than a normal suspense building scene which would probably be around a minute or less. The affect that this has on the audience is one where the audience knows something that the character does not, this makes the audience worry for the character and lets them hang in suspense. We also see in this scene the use of a contrast of music, this is that of the innocent children singing there song and the squawking of the crows and the threat that they pose. As well as this, in the whole film the only piece of music in the film is the part where the children are singing.

It is common of the Alfred Hitchcock films for him to use a MacGuffin, in this case the irrelevant thing that drives the film is the relationship between Mitch and Melanie, most of the audience couldn't really care if they get together or not they just want to know if they can escape the birds. In the film the representation of different groups has been clearly shown. It is seen that the men are the people who protect and it is the woman that need protecting, as we see in Mitch's family. The mother herself shows how much she relies on the men in her life as since she lost her husband she is left to rely on her own son. We see this in the seen where they are attack by birds in the the house, we see that Mitch takes control of the situation, and tries to fight off the threat of birds. We even see the mother shout at her son Mitch and say how the father should be here and that if he was this situation would be more under control. As for the younger people in the film we see that they depend on the adults in the film, by Hitchcock doing this he is mirroring the real world.

Blog 4 : Psycho

The thriller psycho is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the film is based around the women who steals 40,000 dollars. However this is in its self is not what drives the film, this only gives the film a starting ground it is referred to as the mcguffin . Half way through the film people will forget about the money or just not find it important any more, as there are much more pressing issues that will turn the audiences attention. But this is what Alfred wanted to achieve, he wanted the audience to become compelled at the mystery of the 'psycho' killer.

This film is under the name of a thriller, so therefore it should have aspects of the thriller genre, and it does. The film contains moments of fast pacing action, where there are quick cuts from scene to scene, with music and that compliments the scene making it parallel. A well recognised scene that this is seen in is the scene where the main character is killed in the shower. However, does this film contain, a hero and a villain? The idea of having a hero and villain is recognised in near enough all thriller films, however not this one. As there is no hero that saves the day. On the other hand there is a villain if you will, this is the psycho, who is the motel owner, but no hero defeats him, there is only the police who arrest the man. We cannot count the main character as a hero as she dies half way through the film, as well as this the police only do there job of arresting the man which isn't heroism. The only people that come close to the idea of a hero is the sister of the main character and the man the main character has an affair with, these two people start engaging with the film when the main character dies, this is so that these two replace the woman. With this it is these two that find the psycho, so maybe, these two can be considered the hero's.

When this thriller is mentioned the first thing that will pop into peoples heads would be the shower scene, this is because it had such a big impact on people in the cinemas in 1960. There are recorded incidents of people collapsing in the cinema because of how shocking this scene was. However it has been said the true brilliance of this thriller is found in the editing, for example. In the shower scene will only see the knife, the woman and blood, this all taking place in the shower. It was then left down to the audiences imagination, as there is no graphic footage of the knife impaling the woman. The camera work of this scene is truly good as the angles used hide the woman's body, this also was a shock to the audience. The angles used were mainly close ups, whether this be on the knife or woman, by doing this it was able to hide the woman's body but also the identity of the killer.

 

Media Theories

There are 5 media theories, these theories are:

1.Barthes – Enigma Codes

2.Levi Strauss – Binary Opposites

3.Traditional Hollywood Narrative Structure – 3 Acts (linear)

4.Todorov – narrative theory – 5 stages

5.Propp – Character Types.

Barthes believe in the Enigma code, this is that text portrays a mystery to draw an audience in to the filmOpen – not resolved at end Closed texts – resolved at end Polysemic texts – lots of different meanings.

Levi Strauss said narratives can be organised through binary opposition -  two things opposed – often dominant vs subordinate - e.g. male/female, hero/villain.

Traditional Hollywood Narrative Structure the typical Hollywood narrative = set up (25% time) /confrontation (50%) /climax (Final 25% of film time)

Todorov believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern through various stages.
 1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.) 2. A disruption of that order by an event. 3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred. 4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption. 5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

Propp believed that there are 8 key character roles Hero/Villain/Helper/Donor(Provider)/Father/Dispatcher/Princess/ False Hero - N.B. one character can perform more than one role – how many in your thriller?

Blog 1: Thriller convention

Thriller convention

A thriller is a type of film that is fast pacing, there is action throughout the film frequently,in a thriller there will more than likely be a hero and a villain. We will normally see the hero over come the villain, and save everyone. Thrillers use devices such as suspense, this is where by the film grabs the audiences attention, and makes the audience want to carry on watching as they will want to find out what will happen next to either the hero or villain in this case. Thrillers also use red-herrings, this is when the film tricks the audience into thinking some will happen when something else completely different happens. Another device is a cliffhanger, this means letting the audience question a film. These are usually found at the end of films, with usually another film to follow as the last has been left at a point where audience has their full undivided attention on the film, but the film just ends, and leaves the audience questioning what happened?

      A thriller is a flexible genre, the genre is flexible and can engage the audience through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social and political tensions. Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience, "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like”. Other characteristics of a thriller are that thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger e.g. policemen.  However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. Usually the hero is seen to be a man however there have been cases where we see a woman being the hero. Danger and violent confrontations are standard plot elements of a Thriller. The climax of a mystery is 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.

There are all kinds of Thrillers these are as follows: legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on. Thrillers can be defined by the primary mood that they create: fearful excitement. In fact, this openness to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics.

Sound exercise

In this exercise the aim was to film a video with the use of boom microphone. By using this it was easier to record sound, instead of relying on the camera to pick up sound. By using the boom we were able to record conversations between us and other types of sound, such as dietetic and non-dietetic sound.

For our video if feel that if there was more time then we would have been able to make the video better this is because there was parts of the video where we added sound tracks in that didn't match the seen. Another thing that I feel could have gone better is the camera work, some camera movements weren't good as the tripod got jualted. I believe this to be down to accidently kicking the tripod or as we go to press the button to stop recording hitting the camera.

However things I feel that went good are the way in which we added sound tracks in, although I said I feel this went bad, I think that on a couple of scenes we seemed to pull it off. For example the Scene where my partner and I are running away from the killer we used two different sound tracks, this is so that one sound track is associated with the killer and the other is associated with my partner and I.

blog 3 'North by Northwest'

Crop duster scene in 'North by Northwest'

In the film 'North by Northwest' we come across a scene that can bring a viewer to the edge of their sit, this scene is the crop duster scene. This is where we see Roger Thornhill try to escape death from a crop duster. Throughout the scene we see a wide range of camera movements, different types of sound, a variety of mise on scene and a couple of editing techniques. All of these combined help make the scene compelling.

Upon first look at the crop duster scene, it may not look like that there isn't much editing throughout the scene, however when analysing the scene that the editing has been done so that a viewer can feel differently about the on going scenes. Such as, at the beginning of the crop duster scene the scenes are long, this is because of the fact that there is not much action going on in the scene we only see roger Thornhill waiting for the so called George kaplin. Further on though we see how the scene starts to change and the scenes start cutting faster, this is because of the action that is starting to happen. We see roger talk to a person who is waiting for a bus, although roger believes that this person is George kaplin. After this this man says how the crop duster isn't dusting the crops, as soon as this scene ends we see the crop duster come into action as it tries to kill roger Thornhill.

As well as this the mise on scene of the scene that Hitchcock used complimented the scene in the way that the scene is based in the desert, and the only objects used in the scene are only really cars, the way that have been used creates suspense, we see a number of cars pass by Roger Thornhill, as the view hangs in suspense to see if George kaplin gets out of any of the passing cars. At one point we do see a car stop with a man get out, roger Thornhill along with audience is lead on to believe that this man is George kaplin due to the fact that roger was took that George kaplin we meet him in the desert. In this sense we see that the cars have been used to keep the viewer on the edge of their sits. 

The camera work in the scene can establish a lot about Roger Thornhill, for example the way in which some of the POV shots show how Roger Thornhill is on his own, but more 

then this, that he is vulnerable. Hitchcock achieved this establishment by using a range of wide camera shot, this shots are used so that the audience can receive a lot of information from the shot however when we come to the wide angle shots in North By Northwest we only see a desert with a crop field and a road going through the middle of it. Another bit of camera work used is the tracking shot of Roger Thornhill running towards of the camera while running away from the crop duster, by this shot being used it helps establish the nearing threat of death that is closing in on Roger, but not only this. By Roger being so close to the camera it lets us become aware of his reaction towards to near threat of death. 

Another part of the scene I feel has been put together very well is the sound. We see that Hitchcock put dietetic sound in the first part of the scene and non-dietetic sound in the second part of the scene. We also see essences of parallel sound and contrapuntal sound.

Camera excise

Throughout the filming of this short video I feel that considering that this was our first time filming as a group, we did ok. In the short video we used a range of camera shots and movements, such as. Long shot, wide shot, medium shot, close up, extreme close up, rolling shot, tracking shot, crane shot, point of view,over the shoulder, pan, tilt, high angle and low angle. However when using this shots I feel that not all of them were shot to the best standard they could have been shot at, such as the rolling shot. When we did the rolling shot the tripod jolted as we tilted the camera to the side. This applies to some of the other shots we did, ones where the tripod has to be moved during the shot being taken, such as the tracking shot, pan and tilt. However I feel like that there were aspects of the filming that were of a good standard, for example. The high and low angle shots this is because I feel that they flowed in with the short video. Improvements that can be made for the next time we film would be to be more careful with the tripod so that less jolts are made.

The brief

The brief

You have been asked to produce the titles and opening sequence of a new fiction film in the thriller genre.

The sequence should last a maximum of two minutes.

You may work in a group of 2 - 4 students.

As acting is not assessed you are free to use actors that are not members of your group.

The film is worth 60% of your coursework grade.

The accompanying blog is worth 40% of your coursework grade

Together the Foundation Portfolio is worth 50% of the overall AS Level.  

Welcome Post

Hello, welcome to my blog.
In this blog I will be looking different aspects of media and the thriller genre.
I am doing this for my AS Media course at Robert Clack.