Level 2,3,4 Examples of as media film openings

Level 2- This film is level 2 due to it not setting the impression of a professional, realistic opening to a film. The title credits lacked in creativity and a font that linked to the genre of the film could have bee used to. Additionally the name of the film came up nearer the end of the film opening, generally they aere supposed to come up at he beginning. Shots lacked in vercitility as all the shots portrayed similar images of a girl walking in different directions.




This film opening is level three. music links in to what is happening has been edited creativly to allow tension to build and be emphasized through the use of the music become more tense or having a higher pitch. However, acting could be more realistic and composition and camera shots such as angles could be sued a lot more effectivley. For example, using a high angle shot form the kidnappers point of view to highlight is dominance and the girls weakness and vunerability.





Level 4- as media course work - awake- pyschological horror film opening realistic , creates suspense and mystery- enigma code who is this person who is at the door. sound and images are used effectivley and fit into story line. variety of shots and angles, close attention to mise en scene.

Costume Design- Characters - James

JAMES - Nicholas's son who he needs to protect

     

                                                            

Asset list - Props

Asset list - Filming Equipment

FILMING EQUIPMENT

 

 

 

 

Audience And BBFC research Guidance, references to Taken

Audience & BBFC research Guidance & examples on Prezi

Audicnece expectations of thriller- Vox Pop

I picked three people that would have different opinions on thrillers due to age, gender and different interests. This allowed my results to show a wide range of different opinions on what is expected from thrillers.

Final film brainstorm - Motive

Where a thriller could be located.

I took this picture in Germany. Many thrillers are located in busy, conjested,rural area's such as this location in Germany. This location would offer a variety of different typcial thriller scenes- chase and action scenes on the river, the streets and bridges. Addtionally many thrillers are set in europian country's such as Taken. Some of the  buildings are company buildings. This would easily relate into a location for a thriller due to typcial charatcers in a thriller are buisness men.

Framework How sound presents social class

Framework how sound represents the social class- gender- how they are represented form this and how this challenges or reinforces there genders on society. From the series ‘the street’

Step one feminine- women character is represented as feminine uses quiet, soothing sounds- to infer her motherly side. Stereotypical for a female to be motherly as a mother is represented as the one who looks after children. Typical motherly role.

Masculine- shouting- shows aggressions and power installing authority into the male. Stereotypical representation for the male is to be dominant which is apparent in this character. As he raises his voice to be seen as intimidating and in control.

Feminine- represented as being a sexual object to males- content to wanting ot please the male gender. Through when eating the food’ the slurping noises’ hint the suggestion of sexual frustration which is foreshadowed when she has the affair with the other man. Represents women as specially being a sexual object to men.  Also highlights women to being disposables the man had cheated on his wife.

 

Step two- power- man and women both dominant as shouting which exerts power and authority.  however they both have moments when both genders are singularly most dominant. For example-  noise of dishwasher water spraying everywhere is loud, piercing  and aggressive- stereotypical characteristics of a masculine persona therefore this noise is masculine. Subsequently, this masculine sound is dominant amongst any other sounds, which impersonates the male character as the woman cannot deal with the noise as stereotypically symbolizes as weaker and unaware about technology. However,  technology is within a mans territory of knowledge, therefore the man inverts authority and takes on the task of diminishing the sound, implying that the male character has the dominating role.

Step 3- man acting in a way that is socially excepted for example is shouting, raising his voice exerting an aggressive typical dominant male. Trying to exert authority to show he is in charge of the argument and his points are significant, he raises his voice as he wants to be heard and listened too, this makes him look normal as males are represented frequently as being dominant and in charge.

Step 4- This reinforces male stereotypes as he is reinforcing and idolising himself around a typical male persona so that no social pressures are inflicted onto him, must live up and act in a way that is socially accepted and expected.

 

Individual Idea- Presentation

 

Thriller action crime thriller idea.

PITCH 

• Crime/Action Thriller
• Target Audience 18-25 years old. 

Title- Obsession
Plot- Nicholas  a man who lives in london originally from france is tracking a 17 year old girl called Nicholas. The girl's father works for the government in London. Her father organized an operation to capture and torture Nicholas's brother .( As he was proven to be murdering children in parts of europe such as germany and france.) This man' son was killed and he believed it was Melissa's father who worked in the government who murdered him  however it was because Nicholas's son committed suicide due to rather being dead then being put into prison. As a form of revenge this man is hunting down Melissa and is planning on killing her. The story is about Nicholas hunting Melissa down and having to become close to her and her relatives so that he can abduct her. However he becomes attracted to Melissa but he still wants to kill her to get Justice for his brothers death. This leaves him obsessed by her in a deadly and emotional way.
Influenced by-Pierre morel as the film has a similar story-line to Taken.
Enigma Code- Will he kill Melissa
Fit the sub- genre-  Crime as weapons are used in the thriller and its an action film as it involves interrogation scenes and abduction.
How does it appeal to the audience- Even though the audience will automatically take a distaste to Nicholas for wanting to kill Melissa . They will be intrigued into knowing if Nicholas has a dark relationship with Melissa. They will also find it thrilling to found out if he will kill her too. Also at the beginning of the film he will find her, and how he manages to get close to her family and her in order to abduct her.

Characters

KIM - TAKEN

The character of Kim in Taken/ Taken 2 is the daughter of a man who used to work for the goverment. Similary in our Thriller opening- Obsession, the character of Mellisa has a Dad that works for the goverment. Therefroe these two chaarcters are similar and have similar roles in the thriller as the girl who needs to protecting and is in potential danger.

BRYAN - TAKEN

Bryan plays the character of the Dad who used to work for the goverment. In 'obsession' Mellisa's Dad works for the goverment. This helps give an indication of what Mellisa's dad will look like and how he is as an character.

GEORGE HARVEY- LOVELY BONES

 

Similar to the fim -Taken

 

falling down foley by nicole, callum and Tom

Falling down Foley By Nicole, Callum and Tom
This was our Falling down Foley remake. We created it through looking at the falling down foley opening sequence and recording all the individual sounds used within it. We plotted this information by creating a timeline. We plotted when each sound came in and when it finished. Also which sounds continued at the same time and overlapped eachother. We recorded the  sounds from 30 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds. Furthermore, once the sounds were plotted onto the graph we used garage band. Gaage band allows us to insert sounds into it and merge the sounds into eachother. We needed sounds that were similar to the sounds from the film therefroe we used sound bible. Sound bible was a website that stored loads of sounds for us to choose from to allow us to have the most realsitic sound that sounded as close and acccurate to the real one from the film. The pictures below show the timeline. This helped develop my knowledge on what sounds should be expected within a thriller , and which sounds i should consider using in my own thriller opening.  It also helps increase my capabitltiy in using garage band and what websites are useful such as 'sound bible' .
 

Remake of Se7en edit

This is mine and Tom Putman's Remake of the Title sequence to se7en. This task allowed us to focus on how a movie editor cretaes the opening title sequence in a way to entice the audience into watching the film. The main purposes of a title sequence is
1- give the viewers a genreal idea of what the film is going to be about, however still a vague detail to create a sense of mystery.

2- feature everyone who has had an input on the film, paying particular detail to the director, film companies and main actors.
3- laying the title sequecne out in a enticing, creative manner.

We used film cut pro to put the titles and images together and overlay with the music.

Analysis of thriller, thriller narratives - by nicole Burrows, ellie cheale and alex watts

1hr photo

1 hr photo
crime thriller - detectives, police involved - possible criminals .
what happedne between him and his wife
restricted
police department
non linear

shutter island

Shutter Island
enigma code- what is shutter island where are the two men going.
Location- Boston harbor- 1954- ocean- boats .
physiological thriller
non Linear- Leonardo   DiCaprio begin sick 
restricted- know the same as charters know.

minority report

 Minority Report
Washington- department - detectives.
enigma code- who is the killer? all they know is he is white in his forties.
science fiction
non linear
restricted.

Insomnia anaylsis

Insomnia
 Crime thriller
detectives, murder, criminals, location- old, lakes and mountains.- Alaska
Non linear
Typical scene- crime scene- observing a picture of a criminial in black and white-  initiates mystery.
enigma code- where the murderer is, if he is killing anyone else

self assessment module 1

I am giving myself a level 3 with a mark of 14. Which is a grade B-  a low grade B
To improve -
- research into thrillers , become more aware of how they effect their audience. for example watch more thrillers and understand what is expected from them- codes and conventions, why , how they do this.
- complete all work such as video work and work in group. make sure to complete group work early and video work as this takes up a lot more time then other tasks.
- complete the tasks - seven remake, dexter sequence ,individual lock stock task.
- improve all work through the comments I have been given. - for example add more detail and be more creative with layout of posts on blog.

Evaluation of Quiz how i can improve from this.

I scored 25 out of 28.

21-28 impressive. You are  thinking around elements we have discussed in class and have clearly been studying around the topic and applying your knowledge rather than just remembering.

I am meeting the expectations of an A level student.  This is represented through my high score in the previous quiz.
I know generally allot of elements within media due to taking it at GCSE. I had to produce a music video and received an A* for it. This shows that i understand camera angles and most important how to make a film look realistic. I can apply this to the thriller  title sequence.  My note taking in class is constant. I learn well through revising and writing a lot down in class and mesmerizing it visually and written.
That activity that stood out the most was generally powerpoint slide writing things down about media. Forex ample 'what is expected in a thriller?'  we repeated this exercise by writing on the board about what is expected in a thriller and this became familiar within my brain allowing me to learn about it and learn it allot more easily  than possibly any other way.

Napoleon Dynamite inspired opening title sequence

Spoiler review on safehouse - Thriller

Safe house is an Action Thriller released on Feburary 10 2010 in America by Universal Pictures. The main character Tobin Frost is an international criminal who is has an important data storage device. He is arrested howver and has to surrened to the american consulate in South Afirca - Cape Town.
He is Transfered to a safe house where is held by the house keeper Matt Weston- the other main character- a low in sense of buisness hierachy agents.  There is an attack at the safehouse Weston manages to escape deciding to take Frost with him as he deosent have any other choice.

Frost is a dangerous criminal and throughout the film he is shown to killl a variety of different people in different ways- he is intelligent and knows how to keep himself distance from the american Consulates and any other form of police services and forces. 

The film keeps the audiene in constant suspense as they question Frosts faith to not kill Weston as he is looked upon by Weston as a threat- this determines the sucess fo the film as suspense is a key feature within a Thriller.

The film continues throughout with Frost and escaping and Weston manging to capture him again, with the data storage device still in mind. The device is revealed to contain details of the corrupt dealings of the CIA, MI6. througout the film they both try to kill eachother but an event or situatuion will stop this form happening. An unsuall relationship begins to form between Frost and weston. For example Frost has a gone by Weston's ear instead of shooting insdie his ear he shhts the wall next to it. This cause westons ear to bleed and he looses eharing for a while, however Frost does not kill him , but procedes this an warning. This begins to show also at the end of the film when Frost manages to escape the fight  to retrieve the file with the imformation about the  device. In doing so he abandons Wesoton who is  badly wounded in a fight and has passed out in the buliding. Howvever Frost surprisingly  returns to rescue Weston by killing Vargas and his men but is shot by Barlow. In this Weston shoots Barlow and kills him. Frost gives Weston the file and tells Weston that "he is better than him " He then dies.

Weston returns back to the U.S and meets with CIA Deputy Director Harlan Whitford, who tells Weston that some career destroying facts about the CIA must be removed from his report, but that he will be promoted. He then asks Weston if he knows of the files location or if he has it but weston Denies ever having it. This shows the unsual bond and relationship between frost and Weston and even htough forst is the protaganist the audicne appreciate this bionnd and relationship between them. Weston then leaves, and leaks the files to the media.

I rate this film with three stars- this is due to it keeping the audience in suspence through the intense action scenes and consant doubt in Frosts reliability and faith towards the chararcter of Weston.  However, the film lacked in relaxing scenes; scences that allowed the audience to relax from all the tension and suspencse as the majority of scenes were action. If a tension graph was reconsidered into the film i would of rated this film with four stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation of first shoot

focusing on -
 exposure
blurry
colours
in or out of focus
white yellow

Group 1
general comment - Tape 1- haven't rewound the tape therefore work could possibly be lost and makes -it difficult for the editor.
Shot one -white balance as soon as film begins.
Shot 2- no white balance .
Shot number 5- blurry- have white balance though.
Shot  number 7 - to right due to large for the background therefore exposure is an issue.
Shot number 2- white balance is correct and exposure is correct.

improvement
rewind the camera back
do shots in the correct order.
correct angles
make sure there is no film when the actor is not prepared or aware that th camera is on and filing and this destroys the realism.

Group 2 
To dark- exposure should be better.- low key lighting and is white balance.- focus is good.
malfunction in camera leaving the image distorted.

How following thriller openings highlight and show how they are thrillers.

 

 

 

Thriller Openings-                          The usual suspects

 

Donnie Darko

• This shows that generally in all thriller openings there is a sense of mystery as the audience does not know what it is happening or what the charatcers are possibly doing. For example this was shown through the film Donnie Darko- as through camera tecniques the boys face at the beggining of the film is not shown- creating mystery.
• The begginig of the thrillers tend to introuduce the enigma code for the film. As the director wants to intice the audicne at the beginning of the film as then the viewers will continue watch the film and not get bored.
• Slow camera movements and sharp cuts are common and the beggining of the fim do build suspension.
• A death or a disaster can happen at the begining of a thriller too instantly intice the audience.

Spoiler review of Limitless

Spoiler review of Limitless

The movie limitless is a thriller which is about writer who discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities. However, the drug wears off and so has to be taken regularly; when he does not have access to the drug anymore it begins to have dangerous effects on his body and his life

The film begins with the main character Eddie who is the writer, standing on the roof of his expensive penthouse. There is a group of men who are trying to break into his apartment therefore he prepares himself to jump off of his balcony. The audience is instantly hooked at this point as the scene then cuts to him in the past. This creates suspense as the audience want to know if he jumps off of the roof. It also creates mystery because they want to know why he is considering committing suicide.

Three months before, Eddie was struggling as a writer with writers block, and was losing inspiration. However a drug that the brother of his ex wife had given him transformed his life. This was due to the drug allowing Eddie to access 100%of his brain capacity. This allowed him to create talented novels and go on to becoming a very successful, intelligent business man. However, once word got out about the new drug, Eddie knew he was in potential danger.

Later on, the audience realises that Eddie is about to kill him as the men trying to break into his house as they want the drug that Eddie has been taking. However, Eddie had run out of drugs and he knew as the men had put it themselves they ‘would kill him slowly’ Therefore he decided he may make his death quick. However, he realizes there may be one pill left in one of his boxes to his new apartment, he decides to take a risk and find the drug. He manages to find it and kills all of the men who have managed to of gotten into his apartment. The twist at the end is that he ends up still taking the drug but a healthier scientifically created version of it, which helps him run for New York State senate. Therefore he uses the drug in the end for good and not for recreational reasons. The twist is that this drug that is extremly dangerous can be used in a way to help people and can be used for good.

The film was extremely successful at representing a thriller through the use of the busy city of New York as the location, the weapons such as guns, and in some cases the knives and the harmful drugs usesd.Also the main character Eddie who was a business man. This is a typical job a main character would be expected to have in a thriller. Money is a key element in thrillers and so it was in Limitless too.

I rate this film with four stars, as it was constantly keeping me in suspense which is what a thriller aim to do. There was also a sense fo an enigma code through out the entire film.For example- who was ' will he ever find a way to quit the drug and to not use it for recreational purposes.'

Analysis of the title sequence 'the fugititve'

 

The Fugitive is a blockbusting chase thriller Produced in 1993. The film is about a doctor who goes on the run after being wrongly convicted of killing his killing his wife; and is pursued by a determined law man. The film begins by introducing the credits, however this is executed skilfully as this is the part of the film which is purposely created to lure the audience into wanting to watch the rest of the film. For example, the screen fades in to form a black screen.

 

 

 

This is done by using the editing technique cross fade; as the frame then faded from black to a bird’s eye view of the location where the film is mainly set. Ehich is a dark city in america. This automatically sets the scene of the film and the audience want to found out more.

 

The dissonant music makes it a thriller, as this prepares the audience that something dramatic is going to happen. Furthermore, the audience expect a thriller to create tension. Therefore in certain parts of the film the tension increases through the music. For example  the word 'Harrison appears on the screen in a bigger font than any of the other previous writing, this suggests ot the audicne that this actor 'Harrison' is important to look ouit for in the film as he will be one of the main charatcers. It is important ofr the audicne to recognize the main characters becasue they are the ones who create and guide the stroyline of the film. Furthermore, when the word 'harrison' appears the music creates a noise similar to a loud chime. This connotes the idea of the importance of this charcater , this is also done similary with the other main role, Tommy Lee Jones.

 

Timeline of Thriller title sequence 'Splice'

Mind Map of whats is expected within a thriller

Thriller collage mindmap