How to film a thriller.

student idents&title sequences.

Title sequence



A title sequence is the method by which films present their title.the  production company comes first which is followed by the music,. utilising conceptual visuals and sound. It usually follows but should not be confused with the opening credits, which are generally nothing more that imposed text.

the stages usually go in this order

1. production company
2. prod co presents
3. a film by
4. main stars
5. title
6. major other cast members
7. sound,editing,makeup,costume,lighting,cinematography
8. producer
9. director

ident
ident is a moving image or logo which presents a brand that is shown before a show/movie ect.it is usually 30seconds long.

warner bros.

Warner Bros is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. one of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner.warner Bros is based in mainly new york . the logo has always had the same basic look. It's a shield hovering in the clouds stamped with the initials W.B. Everyone knows it, and looking back at old Warner Bros. movies, it's tempting to say that it basically hasn't changed over the years.

In 1935, 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox Film Corporations creating 20th Century-Fox. This famous logo has been modified many times over many years.in 1994 after a couple attempts which had failed,which even included trying to film the monument as an actual three-dimensional model, Fox in-house television producer was hired to produce a new logo for the company. this time using the new process of computer-generated imagery (CGI). With the help of graphics produce and his company Studio Productions.

after in 2010, 20th Century Fox updated its logo, which was created and animated by its  Blue Sky Studios. The new logo officially was shown  in Avatar. In 2010, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 75th anniversary, and modified their logo for that year.




in 2013, the byline for News Corporation was removed due to the split of them and 21st Century Fox, and the bylineness logo debuted on the DreamWorks Animation film named Turbo which was released on July 17 of that same year. This marks the very first time in almost 20 years that the logo is byliness and the very first time that the company was transferred to a brand new company.

initial ideas.

this is our group.this is where all the hard work and brainstorming went down.
we produced alot of spider diagrams to get to our final filming.we had many ideas but the vital component was the initial plan we got.

we came up with 5 different ideas whilst brainstorming but in the end we went with the one we best thought we could get the most of.

1st production meeting.

1ST PRODUCTION MEETING.


In our first production meeting we met for the first time to do some planning. We basically did a mind map in our group to explore some ideas to what could fit the thriller genre. As we started a discussion we based it around the word 'obsession'.we brainstormed around this word because as a group we felt that intentionally the best thrillers usually have a vital theme of obsession based within the film.
one of the plots were based around a neighbour which is obsessed with the husband within the married the couple that this obsessed person lives near.it all turns into a horrible disaster as this neighbour uses violence to seek revenge on the wife.

myself(deja),Tanya,kemique&dorcas from right to left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within the brainstorming we came up with High School Sweetheart theme which  In this film we will use a high school sweet couple as the vital focus of the thriller. The girlfriend within the relationship cheats on the guy, therefore naturally the boyfriend is angry and seeks revenge. He kills/harms the girls friends first which makes the girl scared that he is coming after her last. This plot  touches more into the genre of romance rather than a thriller so it may not be an appropriate film to do. 

north by north west.

Alfred Hitchcock makes the film 'north by north west' meet many stereotypical  conventions of a thriller.


characters-

                  One of the first immediate thing that shows north by north west is in the thriller genre is because of the mistaken identity of the innocent.The protagonist roger is mistaken for a man name George Kaplan. This happens because when George Kaplan's name is called roger puts his hand up at the wrong time whilst trying to get the bar employees attention for him to contact his mother.this led to the story line being complex because the audience was baffled and didn't know what was going on when the two hit men kidnapped him.this created enigma for the characters which made them ask questions.the antagonist.Hitchcock also makes this a stereotypical thriller because the protagonist is put in danger.the antagonist is introduced later on and is set on to kill the wrong man.

sound
A slow establishing shot of where George kaplan is at the crop duster scene emphasis's his vulnerability.the off screen sound of the crop duster coming down is first shown as an off screen sound as it gradually gets louder and louder then it becomes an on screen sound  where the bus is also coming on the road at the same time.the off screen sound fits the conventions of a thriller because we dont know whats coming so it brings suspense.then when the duster gets closer it makes the audience go to the edge of their seats because it builds a tense atmosphere for us but for roger it is quite threatening as it is a parallel sound.

The Setting  the setting creates both a sense of place and a mood and it also reflects thornhills emotional state of mind as we as an audience can tell how confused and isolated he feels. The crop duster setting in north by north west isn't a typical setting for a thriller.stereotypical thrillers are usually set in places like the city or when meeting someone in an underground car park.somewhere unknown dark and sinister, that creates a tense atmosphere for the audience to watch.In north by north west thornhill is meeting someone in the middle of nowhere in a crop field in broad daylight which goes against the stereotypes of a thriller.Hitchcock has said that this scene is based around a nightmare which he had made real.which crazy things happen in.He has said the audience is not meant to understand as it is a narrative because dreams are not narratives they are disjointed.This scene is something out of the unexpected because it isn't ordinary.its a fantasy scene.


red herrings

When thornhill is meant to be meeting this undercover person there are some objects that the audience feel could be what this mystery antagonist is coming from. The first one could be the bus that drives past. This is a red herring because the audience immediately think that thornhill is about to meet this man and end up dead. But that is not the case as the car continues to drive past. As this medium shot of thornhill watching the bus drive past shows the strangeness of the atmosphere. Red herrings give the audience false/misleading information and that is what the bus did in this scene. When the police are ordered to take Roger to the American spymaster they call the professor, who then explains the plot that George Kaplan never existed; he was only a red herring, meant to distract the enemy from the real agent

editing 

a variety of continuity editing techniques is used in North by Northwest to create both smoothness and suspense. The first editing skill used  is  an establishing shot. Usually a establishing is used when  a new scene  transpires. Hitchcock utilizes an establishing shot to provide a overview to a scene. These establishing shots avow audience members to understand what is going on. The second continuity shot is when Roger Thorn hill first encounters Phillip Vandamm, Alfred Hitchcock uses the shot reverse shot throughout the conversation. The reverse shot pattern allows the viewer to see the reaction of the character’s faces more closely, which adds suspense to the film.

Mise-en-scene.

Mise-en-scene is a French term meaning 'in the scene or frame'.Film makers have borrowed the term and have extended the meaning to suggest the control the director has over the visual elements within the film image

The elements of mise-en-scene are:

1. Settings/props
2. costume,hair&make-up
3. Facial expressions&body language.
4. lighting and colour
5. positioning of characters and objects in the frame

 Setting..

The Setting in a movie creates both a sense of belonging and atmosphere. It may also imitate a character’s emotional state of mind. The setting can differ in movies depending on how the director wants the setting to be portrayed. Usually the main types of setting are based entirely fictitious within a studio or either as a realistic, genuine re-construction of reality or as a quirky narrative. But on the other hand it may also be filmed and found on the location. In the image below taken out of the thriller ‘taken’ the setting is based in a small village in Albania (which is the location).

High-Key Lighting

High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene.High-key lighting revolves around fill lighting  to be increased to near the same level as the key lighting. The scene appears very bright and soft with rarely no shadows shown in the scene. High key lighting is used in mostly the musical and comedy genre because the mood and atmosphere within the scene is often very bright and happy which reflects off the lighting. The lighting can create a mood and atmosphere which the audience can feel whilst watching it. For instance in the wizard of oz a comedy/musical the lighting was really heavy and most scenes were shot in high key lighting which we can see below.

Low-Key Lighting

Low-key lighting is the opposite of the high-key lighting, because in low-key the fill light is at a very low level, causing the frame to be cast with large shadows. This causes harsh, bleak contrasts amongst the darker and lighter parts of the shot, and for the man purpose of the shot to be hidden behind in the shadows. This lighting style is most effective in film such as thriller productions and gangster films, as a very dark and mysterious atmosphere is created from this murky light.

 Facial expression/body language

In a film the camera can be at a range of distances and angles to portray the actor in different types of shots for instance an extreme close up, or as a dot in the distance through the use of a long shot. The variety of shots mean at different lengths  that different emphasis's will be placed on facial expressions and body language to accurately convey the correct type of shot. Depending on what the film maker wants to portray will effect the facial expression of the character. The way in which the characters hold and move their body indicates how they feel and think. Not everyone portray the same body language but things which we will normally recognise but the majority of body movements actors frame, the audience will get.

colour

The first use of colour was seen in films for instance' voyage a Travers L'impossible' which was in 1904.in this film they painted each frame by hand onto little tapes. In 1925 the next development was introduced in a two strip Technicolor using only red and green. One of the examples shown using this is in 'the mystery of the wax museum'(1933).

From the 1930's to 1940's black and white represented reality and colour represented the fantasy&spectacle life. Nowadays it’s the opposite. Also in the 1930’s which were during the great depression the colour was sepia.

past student thrillers

In preparation to plan and make my my own thriller I've been analysing and looking at other media students opening thrillers.the point of me doing this is to not make the same mistakes certain other people have done to make sure my film is at the best it could be.i also believe that from watching others movies and identifying the mistakes and taking aboard the good parts it will make me/my group take time in producing and editing the film to give it the highest level film.

hunter-
The movie l

sound/film evaluation..

production

at first my group storyboarded our film so we could get a clear understanding and idea what we was going to be doing when filming our media project.

STYLES OF EDITING.

Straight cut- 

              Is the most common and invisible form of transition? The one shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audience’s attention. Also straight cuts help retain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Dissolves-

Dissolving is a shot fading off the screen whilst another shot is fading in.if the producer of the film wants to show connections between two characters or objects and settings within the movie.

Jump cut- 

A jump cut is when the audience attention is brought to concentration very suddenly. It occurs by breaking the continuing editing and it also appears as if a section of the part of the film has been removed. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time.

Graphic match-

 It is useful in relating two disconnected scenes or in helping to establish a relationship between two scenes.  It is connected by ending one shot with a frame containing the same compositional elements (shape, colour, size, etc.) as the beginning frame of the next shot, a connection is drawn between the two shots with a smooth transition

 The bone that was thrown by the ape in 2001 in  A Space Odyssey becomes a space station. This cut helped to make the transition from the past Neanderthal world to the future 2001 also in physcho the example we see the water draining away as the shot slowly becomes the victims eye, lifeless.

Wipes

A wipe is an image that is shoved off the screen by another either to the left or right.it is more common for the picture the wipe is the most common used technique where one shot is replaced by another by the movement of an edge, or line, which replaces the previous shot by “wiping” it. By revealing a new scene, environment or space the wipe offers a spatial or temporal transition to the director.it is used signal a movement between different locations that are experience the same time.

Fades

A fade is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it becomes black or white. The shot will fade off until only one black or white screen can be seen by the audience.it is used in films to indicate the end of a certain section of time within the story line and it can also show the time passing by.

media theories.

There are many types of different media theories that people come up with.It is based upon the relationship between society and media itself.

Claude Lévi-Strauss thought that the way humans comprehend certain words depends not fully on the significance they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposites'.

 Claude Lévi-Strauss thought that the way humans comprehend certain words depends on the significance themselves contain but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and it’s opposite. Binary opposites have been said to create balance within the world. Without them, the world would be unbalanced. Critics of the theory have argued that although everything may have an opposite everything must have a medium. For instance for rich and poor there is the middle class and for gay and straight there is bisexual.

A Binary opposite is a connected concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the scheme by which there is not a antagonist neither is there a protagonist but there are two side which are against each other or a human or supernatural. They are used very often in films within the horror and thrill genre.

 Roland Barthes describes a text as "a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signified; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..." this basically means that a text is tangled which needs solving so that then we can separate out the letters to reveal that we can encounter a definite potential of meanings. Looking at a narrative from different angles create different meanings as many times as you like. Usually open texts are not resolved at the end but closed texts are because their is a definite meaning whereas open texts can go on forever.

 Vladimir Propp – character types

                       

                                Vladimir Propp analysed series of Russian folk tales in the 1920s. He had then decided that the same events kept being repeated in each of the stories, creating a consistent framework. The plot is driven by the action and choices of the hero but it is also spread across widely throughout all the characters.

• The villain, who struggles with the hero (formally known as the antagonist)

• The donor

•   The helper

•   The Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain

•  The dispatcher-this is the character that makes the villians evil known and sends the hero off.

•  The hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds

•   the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (i.e.. by trying to marry the

• Prop broke down tales into the smallest possible points which he called narrative functions, necessary for the narrative to exist.

in a smiggle scene-

vlmadmir propp has showed there is a sturggle and the villian is overcome and then the state of disorder is settled..

recognition scene-at this stage the hero is recognised(an action film like superman).


tordorovs narrative theory-

Todorov was a Bulgarian who was a  structuralist linguist who then published influential work on narrative from the 1960s onwards) he had  suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance.

• Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:

• A state of equilibrium at the outset.

• A disruption of the equilibrium by some action.

• A recognition that there has been a disruption.

• An attempt to repair the disruption.

• A reinstatement of the equilibrium.

• This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us and can be applied to many ‘mainstream’ film narratives.