Sunday 31 January 2010

Analysis of Thriller opening titles

Public Enemies - Action Thriller


The opening sequence of public enemies gives an insight as to what the narritive is going to lead to, it also shows the a background theme of the great depression in America, which tells the audience a location for the thriller and also introduces the names of the main characters in the film. This part is separate from the action as the characters names and information is shown on a black background with white writing, which shows the the audience that it is significant to the narrative.

An idea for how the group could use titles in our sequence:
We could put the title of the film at the beginning on a plain black background to make it stand out, and also as shown on public enemies it makes it clear and significant to show key features to the narrative and introduce the audience to the characters. I also thought that we could put the names of the characters over the action so that the audience can identify each character and the main character.

Friday 29 January 2010

Location report



The majority of our filming will take place at a graveyard in Burwell.

We will travel by bus from Cambridge, on the Newmarket 10. There is a bus stop directly outside the church so its convenient for us all.

Before filming we will ask permission from the vicar of the church, to make sure we are being respectful.

We will keep the equipment in the church or one of our friends houses who lives next door to the church if it starts to rain. If it does start raining we will film the sequence where our main character wakes up, so then we don't waste any camera time.

The dream sequence will be filmed at Chloe's house in Sawston, because two of our group will in the same village.This will be the route that we take whilst filming the opening. We need to know the route of where we're going because then the shot list and the storyboard matches up to what we are doing.

Shot 4 and Shot 5 will be filmed at the end of the 1st yellow line
Shot 6 and Shot 7 will be filmed along the 2nd yellow line and then as it turns
Shot 8 and Shot 9 will be filmed along the 3rd yellow line

Unfortunately we will not be using this location anymore because the priest didn't agree to us filming in his graveyard. For future reference we will always check before we plan because it would have saved us so much time.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Blog advice from Andrea

Your blog is designed to evidence the research and planning you have done before you start filming your thriller.
A blog in the 'excellent' category could include some of the following detail:

3. Practise soundtrack for your thriller
18. Test footage with a full explanation as to the technique you were testing and how successful the test was.
20. Practise titles, consider the job titles and the names you wish to include. Do some research into titles. Look at Saul Bass as an industry expert in title sequences.

Pitch of Thriller opening idea

Our thriller opening is about a young girl who lives in a quiet town. She begins to experience nightmares which soon turn in to reality as she notices strange happenings in her life.

Our opening sequence is going to be set in a graveyard at night time, in Cambridge.
The characters that we are going to include are a young girl who is going to be played by Catherine and her three friends Chloe Tay and Rachael.

The genre of our opening is going to be a psychological thriller we are going to show this by incorporating the girls' fragile state of mind. This will be shown using close up shots inter cut with point of view shots to make the audience feel like the girl.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Eclipse Productions

This is our production logo that we are using for our project. We chose 'eclipse' as it sound sophisticated. We found when we tried to create the sun it was difficult at first to blur the sun to make it realistic we overcame this eventually and have found the logo to be quite effective.


Taking lives soundtrack

For this project we didn't have enough time to finish the soundtrack so this shows us that we need to set ourselves more time to make a soundtrack for our opening thriller sequence.
on certain parts of the soundtrack we used suspense building non diegetic music, to build up the tension and confusion of the film opening.

Mood Board

Our story for the opening of our thriller is going to be set in a graveyard as it is a flashback/dream from the main character and what she has experienced in her life.
This mood board shows the type of setting and atmosphere of the locations we would like to use in our thriller film.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Fugue.

The opening sequence of this film shows a close up of one man on a bus....

Hurtwood House Thrillers

This film opening uses fear of the unknown to put the audience in suspense.
The music is eerie which also builds on top of the suspense.
The title sequence uses the underground symbols/map to introduce the characters and the location of the film which is London.
The chemical shown in the closeup shots signify that this film could be a crime thriller or political thriller.

Eve



The use of music at the beginning is quite sad and slow, this is while the man is walking through the grave yard and putting flowers on someones grave. Later on the music becomes faster creating a fast paced atmosphere.

The fact that you couldn't see his face until later on in the film keeps the viewer from seeing everything at once. this creates a lot of suspense along with the music.

36


The use of music in this clip is quite eerie as it is a piano playing in the background, later on in this clip they show footage of a person playing the piano which gives the impression that they have been playing it through the whole opening.

It leads you into a false sense of security becasue at the beginning its shows a couple that are happy and in love, therefore this makes you think that its a romantic story until you get to the shot of the eye. This shot makes the audience feel scared and confused as its such a contrast to how it was before. This clip then ends with the man shooting his partner, this shows the viewer that everything isn't as it seems and that something must have happened.

It leaves you wanting to watch more, to also see how the number 36 is incorporated into it.


Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro in art is contrast between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human body.

Further specialised uses include chiaroscuro woodcut, for coloured woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink; and chiaroscuro drawing for drawings on coloured paper with drawing in a dark medium and white highlighting. Similar effects in the lighting of cinema and photography are also chiaroscuro.

Why do thrillers thrive

People enjoy thrillers because they can watch something dangerous but still feel the safety of the cinema. Thrillers also build up excitement for the audience, and causes them to have an emotional response to the film. The audience can also see the danger/fear rather than just reading about it, this creates realism. The thrills that the audience experience are things which they would not want to in real life, so it gives them an opportunity to experience it artificially.

Friday 15 January 2010

Public Enemies - Crime Thriller.


This crime thriller includes multiple murders in the first 7 minutes, guns and violence are used to show the crime. After the crime has been committed diegetic background music starts which is vocal and church like then turns into more tense music when they are driving away. There is a chase in a isolated woods, which is typical for thrillers. They wear smart clothing to show they have money and that they are of importance this eventually leads in the film to them robbing banks which is a typical crime thriller convention. The violence at the beginning was located in a isolated prison, which separates the good from the bad, also the prison introduces the police. The end of the sequence shows the three vigilanties shooting a trespasser this shows crime and that its also intense as they are chasing through the woods.

Casino Royale - Action thriller, opening evalutation

The opening to Casino Royale shows many people getting killed. This is a convention of an action-thriller because its fast paced. Towards the beginning of this clip a dark figure appears, this gives a sense of the unknown, as you cannot see his facial features just his silhouette, this also creates suspense because you don't know what he looks like until the end of the clip.



The music is very edgy and mysterious sounding and the lyrics "save yourself because no one else will save you" in a preview of whats to come.

The guns in the picture shows that it will be action as well as a thriller and as there is subtle violence, you can tell that it isn't a horror.

Thursday 14 January 2010

The Sixth Sense - Thriller conventions

The opening of this film is very plain, its just has a black background with a score playing.
The use of the colours, white writing on black background, makes the audience focus on the music more because there is nothing else to watch yet. The plain lack background also give a sense of the unknown as your not sure what to expect when the film actually starts and the film also sets up suspense as its very dramatic music.


When the credits stop, a light bulb fades in. Whilst there is still low level music in the background.

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Thriller Definitions.

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains.

Deadlines

25th Feb - Shot all of material
2nd March - Rough Cut
9th March - Final Cut Deadline
16th March - Writing Deadline
22nd March - Final Deadline.

Friday 8 January 2010

Preliminary Task



Our film incorporates the all elements of the task using close ups on the door handle, an establishing shot of the corridor and the main character.
We kept to the 180 degree rule by making sure the character were always filmed on the correct side.
We intended to use match on action, however it ended up being a jump cut as the film shows the character opening a door and then in the room, which broke the continuity. We now know to make sure in future tasks that there is continuity, and that we are doing the shots correctly.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Preliminary task

• A match on action shot connects two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in the second shot begun in the first shot. For instance, if a character lights a match in the first shot, the same character will draw it up to a cigarette in the second.

• Shot-Reverse Shot—The alternating of two shots to establish an interaction between the objects in each shot; for example, when a character in shot A is speaking and shot B reveals the character to whom he is speaking.

• 180 degree system—The continuity approach to editing dictates that the camera should stay on the one side of the action to ensure consistent left-right spatial relations between objects when the shots are edited together. The 180 degree line is the same as the axis of action.

Preliminary task

• A match on action shot connects two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in the second shot begun in the first shot. For instance, if a character lights a match in the first shot, the same character will draw it up to a cigarette in the second.

• Shot-Reverse Shot—The alternating of two shots to establish an interaction between the objects in each shot; for example, when a character in shot A is speaking and shot B reveals the character to whom he is speaking.

• 180 degree system—The continuity approach to editing dictates that the camera should stay on the one side of the action to ensure consistent left-right spatial relations between objects when the shots are edited together. The 180 degree line is the same as the axis of action.