Shooting and Failed edit

  We had planned to shoot our Thriller opening on the 10th, 11th and 12th of Novembe, however, there was a student protest in Central London, where our story takes place. We thought it sensible to avoid any difficulties including transport cancellations, and large amounts of people, so we decided not to shoot on the Wednesday.

  Overall, our shoot was successful. We did not encounter any problems in Central London and were very aware of the public in regards to our equipment and their privacy. We shot in London on the Thursday morning, so had a bit of a time limit as we had to be back for our lessons, therefore we did not complete all of our filming. However, we did plan days on which to re-shoot, so this was not a problem.

  We shot in my dads offices, The Department of Education, on Friday. We really wanted to get permission to use the building as we wanted to create an authentic office/organisation environment, so we were very grateful for this accomodation. When filming we were very concious of the fact it was a work environment so kept quiet and tried as hard as we could to stick to our shot list. The shoot was successful, apart from a small error in preparation regarding the elevators. We wanted to show our character walking into a lift, being in there, and walking out, but we had not realised how many lifts there were that respond to just one button. We had to press the button the quickly rush to the one that was coming. We did eventually manage to shoot it. We were also on somewhat of a time limit as we could not let it get dark, for continuity purposes. We filmed from roughly two thirty, and it starts getting dark at around 4.30, so we didnt have a huge amount of time.

  When we came to the edit, we were told that all of our footage was unusable, due to over exposure (despite the fact the camera was on 'auto' for the duration of the shoot) and we could not load our footage onto the computer as the tape lagged and jumped. This was an unfortunate case of bad luck with equipment. We will have to reshoot the entire thing. This would have been a huge problem for us as the use of my dad's offices was pretty exclusive, however, he confirmed that we will be able to use it again.

  I hope the reshoot will be beneficial, as we can perfect things we werent one-hundred percent happy with, and we may be more efficient in regards to shooting. We plan to film the majority of the central London content on Friday 19th, and the rest the following friday, including the stuff at my dads office.

More photo's of our indoor location.

Mise-en-scene ideas

Shot List

Extreme long shot (establishing shot) - Central London

Long Shot - Busy London Roads (panning with cars)

Long Shot - Busy London Streets

Long Shot - Building detective works in  (pan up?)

Extreme Close Up - Fingers typing on laptop

Medium shot - Character typing

Close Up - Characters face

Over the shoulder medium Shot - Colleague rushing in to tell her news

Over the shoulder medium shot - Detectives reaction

Extreme Close Up - Hand reaching for phone

Medium Shot - Opening door

Long Shot - Rushing down corridor

Extreme Close Up - buttons on lift

Medium Shot - Entering lift

Medium Close Up - Character in lift

Long Shot - Good character walking through atrium towards door

Medium Shot -  Good character rushing down street

Long Shot - Bad character rushing down Oxford Street

Medium Close Up - Bad Characters Face

Medium Shot - Good character's back rushing pasts people turning head

Long Shot - CCTV footage of bad character

Long Shot - Bad Character running down alley way

Close Up - Good Character on the phone

Long Shot - Good character rushing down street

360 degree shot - Good character looking around to find bad character

Close Up - Good character's face on the phone, bad character tells her to look around

Bad Character's Perspective Long Shot - Good character looking into the camera

Photographs of what we hope to be our main location

  I took these photos of central London around Oxford and Regent Street and near the Houses of Parliament, to get an idea of the nature of our location. We wanted to use an iconic and busy place to film to show the importance of the company in our story. 

  I noticed many difficulties with our location, mainly the amount of people in the area and the possible disruption we could cause. Also the public could have a negative affect on our footage. We have planned to do some extreme long shots of the area which could prove difficult as I couldn't spot anywhere where this could be filmed from. 

  Our location isn't set in stone, we are also considering Southbank, which  haven't taken any pictures of yet. 

Initial thoughts for 2 minute Thriller Opening

 My groups initial idea for our opening is a crime Thriller. We are planning to film in central London, maybe Oxford and Regent Street or Southbank. We want to create a tense, busy, quick-fire mood, rather than a quiet, spooky suspenseful feeling.

  We came up with a vague storyline. Instead of having a stalker plot, we decided that the goodies would be stalking, or rather searching for, the baddie. What the audience will gather is that there is a company following a man, but they don't know what he has done. The head of the company will be a woman as we thought a man chasing a woman would send out a more perverse message than we intended.

 There will be a lot of difficulties to face whilst filming, for example, we want to make it look quite big, and spectacle-ish with big buildings and computers, and of course we don't have the facilities or abilities to film that sort of thing. Hopefully our shots rather than the content will be assessed. Also we are filming in a very busy area so we will have to be careful with the equipment and hope that the busy effect we are aiming for wont just turn into a mess where you cant see who is supposed to be on camera.

  We've taken inspiration from crime thrillers such as The Bourne Trilogy, where you are thrown into the story with no information. We are relying on having the enigma we will hopefully create to give the film tension.

  Our film fits the thriller codes and conventions with the mood, which is tense and exciting. We have the stock characters of 'goodie' and 'baddie', and are filming in an urban area.

Common Thriller Actors

Robert Deniro

Often played characters that were often prone to brutal violence and/or characters who were borderline psychotics. His Italian upbringing contributes greatly to the Mafia/gangster films his is cast in.

·        Righteous Kill

·        The Godfather part 2

·        Taxi Driver

·        Angel Heart

·        The Untouchables

·        Goodfellas

·        Casino

Jack Nicholsen

Frequently works as a character with mental instability. His features like his wild eyes may be a reason for his casting.

·        One flew over the cuckoos nest (not really a thriller, but useful when describing his type cast)

·        A Few Good Men

·        The Shining

·        The Passenger

·        The Postman Always Rings Twice

·        Batman

·        The Departed

Leonardo Dicaprio

Plays conflicted, tortured-by-their-own-demons characters, who need to deal with their past.

·        The Beach

·        Blood Diamond

·        The Departed

·        Shutter Island

·        Inception

·        Gangs of New York

Matt Damon

  Damon has a strong physique and is quite attractive, which may be why he is cast as the action hero.

·        Saving Private Ryan

·        The Talented Mr Ripley

·        All the Pretty Horses

·        The Bourne Trilogy

·        The Departed

·        the good Shepherd

·        Greene Zone

Anglina Jolie

  Jolie is extremely attractive and has the strong feminist ‘fembot’ look. She is capable of doing her own stunts.

·        The Bone Collector

·        Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

·        Taking Lives

·        Changeling

·        Salt

·        Wanted

Pre-lim Edit - FinalCut Pro

Pre-lim Edit - FinalCut Pro


  Today we edited the footage we shot last week for our pre-lim continuity task. We used the software Final Cut Pro, which I had used before but quite a while ago, so it took a few minutes to readjust.

  The aim of the task is to produce a seamless piece of film with perfect continuity, and to also get to grips with the cameras and equipment. When filming we took each shot about three or four times so it was likely that all the shots would fit together somehow. We payed special attention to the walking patterns and made sure no one was magically further down  the hall than they should be.

  I had used Final Cut before and so knew all the controls and how to upload the video. I felt comfortable editing and helped the others in my group who hadn't used it before. I think it was good to do a task focusing mainly on continuity because in the past, although I had always considered it, I had never payed so much attention to detail. We found hat just the slightest tweaking of a shot could make the who piece run more smoothly and look a lot more polished.

  We were happy with our final piece and felt it had good continuity. It was nice to be able to edit things that we didn't like when filming for example, the sound levels changes in different shots, so we evened them out. I think we could have changed the shot to her face when she said 'wait', because that was quite a climatic moment and it would have been more dramatic to see her expression.



Prelim Task User 3 from BDC on Vimeo.

Paramount.

  Paramount is the oldest American film studio and production comapny, and is still one of the six major distribution companies along with Universal, Fox Searchlight, Sony, Disney and Warner Brothers.  Paramount is made up of five film lables; Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.  Also in partnership with the company is Steven Spielburgs DreamWorks and Marvel Entertainment.  Paramount is currently owned by Media conglomerate Viacom.

  Paramount, initially named the 'Famous Players Film Company' was established in1912.  The company has produced approximatley 2741 films to date. During the Famous Players days, Alfred Hitchock formed a lifelong connection with the company, producing 12 films including The Call of Youth, Dangerous Lies and the Man From Home. Later, when the company became Paramount, Hithcocks most notable works were produced with them, such as Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Hithcock is known as one of the best Thriller directors in history, and defibnietly set the standard for the films to come. Paramounts legacy of classic movies still remains prominant today, even among newer major  distibution company's.  

  Some Thrillers more recently produced by Paramount include Paranormal Activity, Perfume; The Story of a Murderer, War of the Worlds, The Talented Mr Ripley, and The Godfather Trilogy.

  Paramount had the fortune to produce the highest grossing film in history; Titanic, which at the box office grossed $600 million dollars. Decending, Paramount's highest grossing films are; Titanic, Forrest Gump (winner of six Academy Awards), Shrek the THird, Transformers, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Beverly Hills Cop, War of The Worlds, Ghost and Kung Fu-Panda.  IN 2008 Paramount led the overseas revenue surge with $2.04 billion, which was a 28% increase from the previous year.

Thriller Directors

David Lynch 

  David Lynch is a film writer producer and Director. He's especially well known for his stylized cinematography and recognizable themes and motifs that recur in many of his films. Most significant of these themes is his use of surrealism and dreams or dreamlike quality.

 Some of his most significant films include:

• Erasorhead
• Blue Velvet 
• Twin Peaks
• The Elephant Man
• Mulholland Drive 

Lynch has a lot of stylistic trade marks including the use of slow motion during violent scenes, strobe lighting, reference to French culture and close up shots of eyes. 

Although not all of his films are thrillers, he borrows a lot of thriller conventions in his other films. All his work is extremely eclectic and surrealist.

Martin Scorcese

  Martin Scorcese is a film producer, director, writer, actor and editor. He has a number of cinematic trademarks including the use of tracking shots, the most famous of these in Goodfellas in the Copacabana scene. As well as trademarks such as freezeframes, use of music by the Rolling Stones, strong religious symbolism and having stories begin with happenings in the past, his most significant is very real and graphic vilence.  Demonstrating this best would be the untimate scene in Taxi Driver. He often collaborates with the actors Robert De Niro, Leonardo Dicaprio and Joe Pesci.

  Some of his most significant films include:

• Taxi Driver
• Goodfellas
• Shutter Island
• The Departed
• Casino

Uses and Gratifications of Thrillers

Uses and gratifications of Thrillers

People want to watch films or use media for different reasons and these are described by Uses and Gratifications developed by Bulmer and Katz, which include Entertainment, Integration and social interaction, personal identity and information. The ones that apply to Thrillers are:

Personal Identity - People often watch films in order to identify with characters, specifically in terms of dramas, if the person is going through a difficult time.  Often at the end of soaps, when a sensitive issue has been portrayed, there is a number for a helpline shown at the end for individuals suffering in the same situation. This encapsulates 'personal identity'.  Also, by watching a thriller one might want to find similarities in their identity with the hero for self fulfillment.  One may gain personal identity in that they discover what they believe be it religiously, morally or politically,  about the situation being portrayed  

Integration and social interaction –  People enjoy discussing films and complex storylines with groups of people, so by watching films recently released you immediately have a chance to socialise and also gaining self belief if you were the one who knew the story from the beginning. Opposing this is the idea that thrillers are in fact a substitute of socialising, in that it fills one's time, and provides emotional stimulation. 

Entertainment – Watching a film does not require a lot of brain power therefore by choosing to watch a film you can relax and escape into someone else's life for two hours.  Thrillers are a great way to forget about one's normal lifestyle as usually the plot is not easily relatable, however people enjoy putting themselves in the characters position and deciding what they would do if the situation presented itself.  The protagonist of many thrillers is typically strong, independent and attractive, which the viewer may idolise.  Thrillers specifically provide thrills which induces adrenaline rush and enjoyment. This is the main reason people watch thrillers.

Information - Especially in terms of political thrillers, films are sometimes watched to inform the viewer about specific issues.  An accurate example of an informative thriller would be The Davinci Code and Angels and Demons, which provides both a bias view of religious isseues, and historical facts. Political thrillers such as The Constant Gardener, exposes the living standards of people in thrid world countries and political corruption of more developed countries. Blood Diamond is similar in this way.  Some watch biopic thrillers to gain information about history, for example JFK.    
.

Thriller target audiences

  In regards to demographics, anyone over the age of 12 are in the target audience for Thrillers, unless the content of the film clashes with religious beliefs. Thrillers in general will appeal to a younger audience, as it provides an adrenaline rush, and includes harsher material, such as swearing and violence.  However, if you explore sub-genres of Thrillers, they appeal to different audiences. 

  An action-thriller would most likely appeal to men for many different reasons, including style of edit and camera work and storyline.  For example, in James Bond and other action thrillers such as Die Hard or The Bourne Trilogy, the action and fight scenes appeal to men much more than women as men often watch thrillers to idolise the heroes in the story and try and find some similarity in identity. More specifically, those who have an interest in video games, will appreciate the camera angles used in action thrillers made recently to make the audience feel as though they are experiencing the action, such as Green Zone. This audience would most likely be young men. Also commonly used in action thrillers is the male gaze. Part of the storyline could include a woman needing saving. This would appeal to men for the same reason as the action, they want to feel like a hero. However, a sexist view could be taken by women, therefore they would not be attracted to this sort of film. Even if the woman is a hero such as Lara Croft, they are still sexualising her. 

  Political Thrillers have a both a higher age group and higher education level group in the ABC1 category. A complex storyline would be more interesting to someone of a higher education level, rather than someone who would appreciate an action thriller like Die Hard, who would receive instant gratification.  A political thriller requires the audience to work harder to appreciate the story, and people of a higher education level enjoy working harder and being the first one to uncover the story.      

  Psycho/Horror Thrillers appeal mainly to the younger generation as they are often independent art genre films and their storylines are less about politics and less in depth, but more about relationships between characters. Psycho-thrillers are popular films for first dates, as well as rom-coms, as the couple have an excuse to get close to each other in anticipation.

   

Se7en Analysis

Se7en Analysis

  In today’s lesson we watched a short extract of the thriller, Se7en, by David Fincher. The majority of the extract is the opening credits, so analysis of character, among other things, was limited. The mood of the film is seedy, dirty and dingy. There is an element of confusion and the unknown. An enigma is created through the use of the metronome and throughout the opening credits as we see only the man’s hands, and do not know what he is doing.

  One of the main themes I identified was violence and to a point, sadism. The opening credits show us images of sharp sinister looking instruments such as blades, hooks and needles, as well as photographs of skulls and skeletons with metal instruments through them. Linking loosely to this theme is insanity, or more accurately disturbed obsession. The person in the credits creating this type of log or scrap book, is clearly disturbed, or obsessed in some way by pain and other unexplainable things, for example the blacking out of people’s faces, and the extreme attention to detail. Another recognisable theme is religion. We see the hands blacking out sexual references in a passage of writing, and ‘God’ being cut out of a dollar bill, which both connect to the lyrics at the end of the credits; ‘You bring me closer to God’. This suggests to us that the insanity could be influenced by religious obsession.

  The focus on character was limited due to the fact that the clip we watched didn’t really give us much reference to the lives and nature of them. Morgan Freeman’s character is lonely, hence the fact he sleeps alone. He looks tired and withdrawn and gives off a retired attitude, based on his expression to the noise outside. Although the room is not luxury it looks tidy and in order which suggests Freeman likes routine and order. This is backed up by the strange want for a metronome ticking to send him to sleep. The character in the credits pays special attention to detail, cutting and writing everything with pristine precision and taking special care creating this log. From this we know he is a finicky person, and quite clearly disturbed, which we can see from the content.

  The sound used creates tension and suspense, as well as a negative atmosphere. When we see William Somerset, Morgan Freeman’s character, there are sounds of people outside fighting which suggests bad happenings and creates a sense of dread. The use of the metronome is similar to that of the heartbeat often used in thrillers, keeping a pulse and building suspense. It also symbolises the passing of time. Alternatively to this diegetic sound is the music playing in the opening credits. Rather than a fluid melody it is a mixture of obscure sounds which sound metallic and mechanical. These sounds connect with the objects shown and the combination of both makes the audience cringe, like nails down a blackboard.

  The ‘mise-en-scene’ of the short scene in the bedroom is neutral colours, murky, and minimalistic. There are not many belongings other than the bare necessities; one picture, books, telephone, glasses and metronome. The lack of homely and personal possessions suggests there is no maternal/paternal character to provide them, or he does not see value in them. There is a dim yellow light, giving the effect that everything is mouldy and dingy. In regards to the credits, there is intense attention to detail, shown through extreme close-ups. Everything shown is dirty, gritty and in bad condition. The flickering of the images and titles suggests a home video theme, as does the red light photograph development.

  The opening shot of the clip we analysed is a mid shot of Freeman in bad. This establishes and lets us takes in the surrounding. Considering the content of the scene it lingers for quite a while on this shot suggesting that the audience are to expect something. This builds up tension. The next shot is an extreme close up of him putting down his glasses, which again somehow implies that something significant is going to happen, or alternatively, it is grabbing our attention using something mundane like glasses, and contrasting it to the metronome, which the camera then focuses on. The slow zoom on Freeman accompanied by the sound of the metronome symbolises time passing by. The shot flicks back and forth from the metronome to him, which makes the audience tense and expectant and creates a false climax in the film.

  The editing of the opening credits, along with the extreme close ups of the content, create a sense of mystery as we cannot see who the hands belong to, and the quick changes of shot and the flicky quality makes the viewer confused. There is a very gritty, seedy quality to the images shown. It is distorted and the images are overlapped and obstructed. The images are not laid out in an orderly way, they are messy and distracting, which suggests a home cinema type theme. An idea that all these perverse happenings and taking place in someone’s shed.

  

Pre-lim task

Pre-Lim Task

For our preliminary task we had to shoot a short scene of someone walking down a corridor, through a door, sitting down and exchanging a few lines of dialogue. The aim of the task was a) to have perfect continuity and a seamless clip, and b) develop good understanding of the equipment and get used to using it.

In our groups we began talking about some ideas that we could use in our scenes. We knew it didn’t have to be a literary masterpiece, but we did want to have some sense of narrative, and also keep with the theme of Thriller. I suppose at first we were slightly ambitious and began talking quite enthusiastically about all the different shots we could use, however when we started to think how we could actually shoot it, it became clear that we should keep it simple. We thought that less is more, especially when we are not that experienced with the equipment.

We came up with a very simple scene, and began drawing out a story board. We decided on these shots:
1. Long shot from behind of someone walking down the hall
2. Tracking shot from the right not showing the persons face
3. Close up on the persons hand on the door
4. Person coming through the door from the other side
5. Person comes into a two shot and sits on a chair
6. Shot reverse shot with dialogue
7. Close ups of expressions
8. Mid shot of person walking out

Luckily, I had used the equipment before for my GCSE trailer so I had a lot of experience working with the cameras and tripod. However, there are new HD cameras since last year, which weren’t very different in regards to controlling them, but I did feel like they were much more valuable and therefore was a little scared to handle them at the beginning. I didn’t find it difficult to actually film the scene as I have done filming before and am quite confident with it. We took the shot at least three times each to guarantee to give us more of a chance of one of them being right. At the time we thought we were taking special care about continuity, but looking back I think we could have been a lot more vigilant about it just to make sure everything was seamless and nothing looked odd.

The filming of our pre-lim was successful. There were some things we had to adapt to, for instance the place in school where we wanted to film was busy so we had to change the shots slightly. Luckily our shots weren’t very complex, however, you would need to be prepared for something like that to happen on a larger scale when things aren’t so changeable. Another thing we had to deal with was the lighting. It was a lot darker than we expected but from the viewfinder it didn’t look too bad, and maybe even contributed to the narrative and mood. Also we can treat the footage on Final Cut to make it slightly lighter if needs be. Another thing we hadn’t thought about was the fact that other people actually use the corridors. A few times our scene was interrupted which wasn’t really a problem as we could shoot again, but I think we were a bit of a blockage in the corridors that people did not appreciate.

I think we stuck to our story board very well and filmed all of the shots in it, while also adding some more. I think this was a good thing because if you are prepared with all your shot written down or drawn exactly how you want them, and you can stick to it, the shoot will be a lot smoother and it also allows more artistic licence when it comes to filming.

The Godfather - Horse head scene analysis

The Godfather – Horse head scene analysis

   The scene opens with a chilling serenity. The sun is rising, the big house is empty and the birdsong clashes with the sinister music. The audience has a sense of confusion and expectancy, we are waiting for something to happen. The shots of the house and the sleeping person makes us think and we question what is going on. Nothing is explained.

  Two main themes we identify in this scene are violence and punishment. The way Mr Woltz is portrayed suggests to the audience that he is not a nice man, and we draw this from his incredible wealth, and the fact that he sleeps alone and has no one to share it with. From this we conclude that what is done to him is a punishment. And we know that those who punished have a violent ruthless nature, from the extremity of the punishment. Other themes are Italy and rivalry. The Italian music is a giveaway, to those who haven’t seen the whole film, that the story may be based in or about Italian culture, and the severed horses head suggests mafia involvement.

  Woltzs’ character is hard to analyse in this short scene as we don’t see much of his action. However, from what we are told, we get the sense that he is a materialistic money obsessed man. He has an obscenely big house, which, from what we can tell, he doesn’t share, based on the fact he sleeps alone. We draw from this the fact he is a cold hearted business man.

  In regards to sound, music is the main factor. The scene opens with sinister Italian sounding music, along with birds chirping which clashes and creates a sense of dark serenity and a mood of expectancy. The birdsong sets the scene, we know its morning. The music changes when we first see Woltzs’ figure in bed, which changes the atmosphere to that of suspense. The music builds and becomes louder and more layered as the camera zooms in on Woltz, and also as we get nearer to finding out what is in his bed. This creates panic. The music stops abruptly as the horses head is revealed so that we can hear Woltzs’ cry.

  The scene opens with an establishing shot of our subject’s house, to set the scene and inform us of his financial situation. It pans to show the extremity of the house, then zooms in on our subject. We are now in the house focusing on Woltz and zoom into him from above, creating tension, and lets us know something bad is about to happen to him, as he is in a vulnerable position. As Woltz discovers he is covered in blood he pushes his sheets further down and the audience see this through a tracking shot which reveals the image to us as Woltz would be discovering it. The last shot of the clip is extremely long, straight on at his house to show how far his screams are travelling. 

I Am Legend analysis

I Am Legend – Opening scene analysis

   The opening sequence of I Am Legend encompasses a number of sinister themes, for example, Isolation. In our first taste of action, we see from a birds-eye shot, a miniscule car travelling through this colossal city. Immediately we indentify the theme of suffocating isolation, being separated and cut off from human communication, which links with the similar theme of loneliness. We are shown just how lonely he is as his only company is a dog, and the animals around the city have more relationships than he does. Apocalypse and the breakdown of civilization are also strong themes. The film is set in New York City, which is thought of as one of the ‘centres of the world’, and this setting accentuates and exaggerates the fact that it is now desolate and uninhabited, as it is usually rife with people. The city has been taken over by nature, with plants growing up sky scrapers and animals running free through the city. This shows the theme of civilization as we know it breaking down, or reverting to its original form when it was unspoilt by man. The ‘God still loves us – but do we still care?’ poster, is a brilliant example of this theme. However, the main theme running through the opening scene, is that of the unknown. All we are told is that New York is barren of human existence except for one man. Wild animals are running free, and the man has to hunt them for his food. An alarm goes off and the man has to go. But we don’t know anything else.

  

  Will Smiths character is the hero of the story. At first we see him driving through a deserted city with a gun, and could assume that he is the baddie, however the fact he has a dog softens his character and makes him the good guy. His character wears a leather jacket which is strong iconography for a mysterious or slightly darker or 'cooler' character.  He is edgy, his mannerisms are jerky and alert and he has shifty eyes. Through this we get the feeling that he knows there are things he needs to look out for, and also makes us uneasy as we don’t know what is coming. He’s experienced; the way he drives so precariously suggests that he knows the roads, and he knows that he’s not at risk of hitting another car. Neither he nor his dog seem particularly fazed by the wild animals on the contrary it appears they went out looking for them. Both he and his dog seem to be well trained to the situation, which implies that they have been there long enough to get used to it. He’s a desperate survivor; he has taken the measures to ensure that he and his dog can survive in these conditions, however you can see the desperation in his face when he doesn’t manage to kill the deer.

  The scene opens with diegetic birdsong and animal noises. These natural sounds create an oxymoron and a sense of misplacement with the setting of New York City. There are strong winds, the empty swirly kind that sounds as though it could be a plane which creates a sense of loneliness and abandonment. The car interrupts the natural sounds crudely which reinforces the idea that man and technology destroyed earth in its purest form. The screeching tyres of the car keeps the audience alert and on their toes, enforcing a tone of suspense. When we first see the deer, it introduces itself with a frightened squawk, making the audience jump and a high suspense chase begins. Again reinforcing the previous said idea of technology versus nature, is the contrast of the car tyres and the deer hooves, which make up the chase sounds. When the scene shifts to Will Smith walking through the grass, we immediately identify the sound of footsteps. Footsteps always create suspense, much like the non-deigetic heartbeat often used in Thrillers. Footsteps accentuate the movement, and the emphasis on them makes the audience more alert and apprehensive. In this case they also stress the fact that he is the only person in the city. The sound of the lion breaking the deer’s neck is so striking and tells the viewer just how real the situation is that Will Smith’s character is in.

  The function of the opening establishing shot is to demonstrate and emphasise the emptiness of the city. There are a number of pans up and down buildings and of deserted streets for the same purpose. The extreme long bird’s eye shot is to show how small the car is compared to the city, and demonstrate the theme of loneliness. During the deer chase there are point of view shots which lets us feel the action from the characters perspective, as if we are in the film, which is much like computer gaming. The edit is fast and jumpy, adding to this effect.

Conventions for Thrillers

  Conventions for Thrillers

In class today we talked about how different Genres of film have different qualities or ‘conventions’ that create that specific type of film. We discussed what conventions Thrillers have and came up with the following: 

•  Mood – tension, suspense, serious, thrilling, excitement, anticipation, anxiety.
• Narrative – climax(es), cliff-hangers, not necessarily happy endings but sometimes ‘resolves’.
• Characters – goodie/baddie/damsel/idiot that gets in the way/’helpers.
• Music – the type that makes you say ‘no not that way!’, screechy violins.
• Location – urban areas, buildings with lots of corridors to get lost in.
• Plot – “If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.” - http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html