Character Information

For our three minute opening of our thriller we have chosen to focus on one primary character, Ben. The reason for this is that the rest of the characters are seen in groups, the party goers and the group of boys, and this gives the main character a sense of isolation.

Ben- A mysterious character aged 17 who has had some sort of personal trauma in the events leading up to the opening scene because of this he is left socially awkward and unable to relate to his former friends and party goers.

Party Goers- A group of college aged students who are at the party. Drunk, under the influence, smoking and so on. One person is in a bunny suit and others are in a state of madness.

Rude Boys- A group of boys on the estate that the party is set. All wear the same type of clothing and just sterotypes

Defining the Genre and Sub Genres

The genre of the film can be quite a difficult thing to define as many movies these days are hybrids but there are four main ways to define a genre. These are:
Setting, the environment where the story takes place.
Theme, the isuue or issues that the film deals with.
Mood, the emotional tone that the film takes on.
and Finally the format, the way the film is shot.

Subgenres are when a film takes on a genre but also has other genres included in it such as a mystery can be a supernatural mystery or a psychological mystery my example of a sub genre is Jennifer's Body (2009) a dark comedy horror film directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody. This film could also be considered a teenage comedy as well as a high school comedy. The film plays on teenage cliches such as jocks, cheerleaders and nerds which are typically associated with high school films along with the new emerging trend in high school movies emo's. The film also has a cannibalistic demon which is a convention of a horror film. The witty dialogue is typical to teenage films of late, Juno (2007) Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) and smart people (2007).

Thriller Music

Music in thrillers tend to use a mixture of low heavy base notes mixed with high eery sounds. It tends to use orchestral music and heavily influenced by string instruments such as violins and cellos. High notes tend to hit us in the head and can make us feel dizzy and unnerved where as the lower base notes tend to affect us right in the stomach and make us aware of on coming danger. Music in important for any type of media wether that be film or television and spans all genres. The music is probably the most important thing when creating atmosphere in a scene. It sets up the tone and can create suspense, comedy or tragedy. How many times has the music been a key factor in the reason for you crying in a film? Like this?

Below is a piece of music from the Taken Soundtrack that is used in the last fight sequence. This sequence is pivotal because it is the moment where he could get his daughter back or loose her forever and get him self killed in the process. The music quickly get's uptempo gives us the jumpy tense feeling that is used to heighten the effect of the scene.

Production Companys: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a division of 20th century set up in 1994 it deals with the production and distribution of indie and British films. "Fox Searchlight's Slumdog Millionaire won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 81st Academy Awards as well as a further 7 academy awards. Other Fox Searchlight films receiving Best Picture nominations include The Full Monty, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine and Juno."
Fox atomic was a subsidary company set up in 2006 to deal with the distrubition of genre films but was shut down in 2009.
Notable films released by Fox Search light include:
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
One Hour Photo (2002)
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
Night Watch (2006)
Thank You for Smoking (2006)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Juno (2007)
The Savages (2007)
The Wrestler (2009)
Notorious (2009)
500 days of summer (2009)
and Whip It (2009)

Thriller Directors

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980)was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. The Telegraph Described him as "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." Notable films directed by Hitchcock include :Suspicion (1941), Rear Window (1954) and Spellbound (1945)


Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is a jack of all trades not only a director but a screen writer, producer, cinematographer and actor. He is best known for his work on iconic films such as Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (Vol. 1, 2003; Vol. 2, 2004) as well as guest directing in sin city (2005) and directing a two part episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2005)

Thriller Actors

Angelina Jolie is an actress probably best known for her critically successful acting in drama films such as Changeling, A Mighty Heart and Girl, Interrupted as well as her action films, Mr and Mrs Smith, Tomb Raider and it's sequel but she has a history in thriller films as well. Hackers (1995) was her first leading role and was well received by critics. Followed by The Bone Collector(1999), Original Sin (2002), The Taking of Lives (2004), The Good Sheppeard (2006) and the upcoming film Salt (2010)

Robert Deniro is a movie legend who has gained critical success and an Oscar. He is probably best known for his work in The Godfather II (1974, Taxi Driver (1976) and Cape Fear (1991)

Christian Bale is an English Actor probably best known know for his portrayal of Batman in the Christopher Nolan reboot of the franchise (Batman Begins & The Dark Knight) but won critical acclaim in American Psycho(2000)

Prelim Task.

For our lesson we were told we would have had to film a sequence using continuity. We were asked to create a series of 10 shots to show continuity also using a shot reverse shot. Alsion asked us to film a conversation aswell as a match action shot of someone going through a door or something similiar. Again I grouped up with Ben and Harley and we decided, after many scenarios including a internet date gone wrong, that our continuity film would be about Ben as a drug dealer of some sort going to meet a potential client but unluckily he meets the wrong person, Harley,who is listening to her headphones oblivious to what is going on and eventually asks him how to spell apricot. Our 10 shots were:

1. Long shot of Ben walking down the corridor
2. P.O.V shot looking at Ben's phone
3. Match in action shot of the door handle
4. A shot of Ben walking through the door
5. P.O.V of Ben walking into camera
6. Over the shoulder shot of Ben looking at the other person
7. Shot reverse shot
8. Low angle shot of other person
9. Over the shoulder shot of Ben in confusion
10. P.O.V shot of Ben

When filming after looking for a location we changed some shots around but made sure that we had a reverse shot and match action shot which was what we needed.

Last Years Work

My favourite piece from last years work was Passion Productions because it was just so well put together. The shots were effective and the acting wasn't cheesy. It reminded me of a BBC Drama/Thriller Opening. It was just very well put together and gave me ideas on the standard of how I want my opening to come out.

Passion Productions from BDC on Vimeo.

Continuity

Continuity can be a major problem when filming, for one it can completely suspend our belief in the film, but in this lesson we worked on how to film continuity and use match action shots.My group consisted of Ben, Harley and myself, we were told we had to film a journey of some sort so we decided to film a prison break out scene. Alison taught us how to use the camera's and set up the tripod and as Ben and myself had learned this in GCSE media it was a nice reminder of how to use the cameras and as we were using HD camera's it was like a whole new experience.

We used a lot of different shots to create the feel of myself being imprisoned. We found a suitable location that 'resembled' a prison and for a lot of this lesson it involved me walking up and down and looking angry/upset that I was imprisoned. I did get a few turns holding the camera such as my point of view shots and a low shot that we used to make people yelling abuse look more intimidating. Harley and Ben did a lot of the filming and Harley filmed that the last few shots as we decided to include Ben as a character. We used point of view shots probably quite a few times as we found this effective because it gave the viewer the chance to feel as if he was there.

Our shoots was successful although there were a few mistakes that could be edited out if we had the chance to edit our work. We spent the whole of our lesson filming this work for a two minute video that involved us just mainly holding the camera. If this was done professionally it probably would have taken us the whole lesson to set up lighting camera's and microphones and various other equipment.

Analysing a film of choice. Taken.

Taken is a 2008 french action/thriller staring Liam Neeson, written by Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morel. It is important to note that Luc Besson and Pierre Morel have both predominately worked in action and thriller genres. Luc Besson previously working as both writer and producer on The Transporter Franchise as well as the film adaptation of computer game Hitman. Whilst Pierre Morel has worked on french action films District 13.

"Liam Neeson, stars as Bryan, a man with a hidden past (ex-spy) whose 17 year daughter Grace goes on vacation with her friend Amanda, to visit Amanda’s cousin in Paris. Shortly after she arrives there, she and Amanda are kidnapped by slave masters. Neeson hears the kidnapping whilst he’s on the telephone to her and begins to talk her through it until she’s snatched. He tells the kidnappers that he has a particular set of skills that will prove to be a nightmare for the abductors and that he will hunt them down by whatever means possible and kill them."

The basic plot of Taken is simple and appeals to it's main demographic that of males aged 16-34 with it's use of stunts and highly choreographed action sequences. Whilst also appealing to a more high brow cinema goer as it's use of language and story. It also uses clever plot ideas in solving the puzzles that lead him to his daughter.
There is a scene in particular that I thought used shots, music, location and atmosphere effectively. This is the kidnapping scene, which you can see in a edited version below. The scene uses p.o.v shots to put us in the place of the daughter played by Maggie Grace and the MCU's of Liam Neeson with the grainy speaker on his phone playing out his daughters dialogue add to the mis en scene making us feel very much more like that we are there with the character. Additionally the music both diegetic and non diegetic add to the atmosphere. Starting off with music playing loudly from the speakers to capture the care free nature of the two teenagers and allowing the kidnappers to sneak in successfully. The music then cuts off so all we hear is the dialogue and eventually we have silence before his daughters deafening scream is heard and we as an audience are shocked.

Of course this is not the whole of the film, the film does have it's flaws, such as Liam Neeson's character being able to do literally what ever he wants in front of who ever he wants and the fact he hands his daughter back over her mother as soon as they return back to the US. Also his daughters lacks any sign of distress for the events that have occurred or grief over the death of her friend. What the film lacks in continuity issues it makes up for in dialogue, story and strong performances by the cast. The cinematography of the film captures both conventional Paris and it's seedy underbelly using dark and dim lighting to give it a gritty feel.

The opening of Se7ven

Se7ven is a 1995 thriller film directed by David Fincher and staring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow.

In class we watched the first three minutes of the film focusing on shots, music (both digetic and non diegetic) as well as mis en scene and titles. The shots used in the film especially the beginning when we as an audience are introduced to Morgan Freeman's character are used to establish the authority that his character carries and to show his neatness and loneliness.
Lighting in the film seems to be mostly natural lighting giving it a raw, gritty, feel to the film that is normally seen in British cinema. Where as in the other opening we watched, that of Momento (2000, Dir Christopher Nolan), it is very glossed over and sunny and typical of Hollywood films.
The titles of the film where similar to that of a Horror film, using atmospheric music and scary looking fonts for the texts but as you could say this is a crime/psychological/thriller it suits the overall feel of the film. This is important because the opening titles link into the film and give the audience a feel of the film.

Introduction to brief.

For our first lesson we were told the specifications of the course. The course entails making a two to three minute thriller opening aimed at a 15 or 18 certificate. The definition of a thriller is a 'suspenseful adventure story or play or movie'. In the lesson we discussed what we thought a thriller was and what a thriller involved, discussing red herrings, suspense, atmosphere and sub-genres as well as hybrids. We also talked about how that thrillers can sometimes be likened to horrors as they both use suspense and atmosphere but horrors tend to focus surviving the gore and murders where as thrillers are about solving the mystery behind the problem.