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.