Thriller Evaluation

The slide show should be here. If it isn't please visit the link to flickr to view it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35812551@N05/show/

What I've Done

I had took part in drawing up the initial story board. We knew we wanted one some parts of the story to take place in a dark room and or a forrest. During filming I was responsible for bringing the blinking light that we decided might be in the piece after the initial story board. We thought a swinging or blinking light in a dark room would match the mood of the piece. In the end we chose the swinging light as it was easier to controle. Also I helped edit and film our thriller.

Evaluation

This is an evaluation of the things in the last few months that has lead to the completion of our thriller opening. Our product is like many other thrillers in that it starts with string instruments, has many dark scenes and has credits that are in a cold colour(black in our case). One thing in our thriller that is different is that the forrest seen throughout isn't dreary in the least.
I think that Warner Bros. would be a good institution to distribute our media because although they've reprisented many thrillers such as Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen it has also distributed less conventionall thrillers like The Matrix. Another institutuion that may be good to represent our flm is Fox Searchlight Pictures. Not only has it given us Slumdog Millionnaire but would be able to advertise to a large amount of people taking into consideration the amount of media power the owner of Fox, Rupert Murdock has.
The target audience for our film are mainly males with the average age ranging from 18-25. In our soundtrack for the film we had strings to start of with but then introduced an electro style wich surprisingly seemed to work. I think this made our opening seem a bit more up-to-date.
Having a dark room as one of the settings was very helpful as darkness is one of the things that gives an uncanny grittiness that thrillers are known for. In our film we've used the red light of a dark room, costume and a torch to provide the look of a swinging light in certain scenes. We decided to use the darkroom's light because we thought it would look more authentic then a filter.
From this project I've learnt a lot about filming pieces of action as it has taken longer than I thought it would to get a two minute amount of footage. Before I'd started the course I didn't even know how to use a camcorder. I have also learnt new skills in editing with Final Cut Pro and how to use Soundtrack Pro. This will be useful in future projects. If I did it agai I think I'd try to come up with a clearer and more detailed story board. A lot of valuable time was spent on decideing which shot to make next and where to put it.

Storyboard

Editing part 2

For the last few days we've been working on putting effects on our credits and spreading them evenly throughout our thriller movie. We discussed the fact that we wanted the credits to be in black so that when the light plays across the screen at certain points the words are revealed, much in the same way evidence is revealed in a thriller movie. I thought it was a bit of a gamble and origonally opted for white or another cold colour but black seems to work so we've kept that effect. We've also been working on our movie soundtrack. At first we were going to record a version and add it to our work but this proved too complicated and so we decided to use Soundtrack Pro. We decided to use strings because although they're stereo-typical thriler instruments it gives the inroduction the coldness it deserves. We've made a good start and will be finnishing up this week.

Editing

The lesson before we broke up me and Taio just got on with the editing and made a start on the credits. We were working out the exact time we wanted them to apear. The affect we want is that every time there's a scene where there's a light swinging the light will illuminate the credits we've created. I hadn't been able to be there the week before so I hadn't beem able to work on most of the story editing. We still have to get the timing right for the fading out of credits but it should be fine when we get back. Getting it right was hard as the window of time that we wanted the credits to be seen in was too short. We had to slow down the light swinging across the screen to adjust this.

Our Thriller Opening

Filming and Ideas:

At first we had only an abstract idea of what we wanted to do. We wanted part of it to be set in a forest. We also thought it would be good to have some of it take place in a darkroom and may be have a wall of photos. Throughout the darkroom scene suspense music would be played. I thought it would be interesting if we had an interrogation playing throughout the forest scene. The idea was that there would be a stalker who has been following this girl and in the scene where he follows her through the forest you find out that he’s actually murdered her as well. During later stages we decided it might give the start more energy if we cut between these two scenes and we could also add suspense if as we cut back to the forest we get closer and closer to the girl (played by Yolande). In the darkroom we cut to things the stalker has such as a film reel, camera and pictures of Yolande on his cabinet. Filming in the forest was hard because sometimes Yolande had to be a certain distance away from us and yet we needed to tell her when she was meant to run from here to there. I had to be called to give the right cue to Yolande at times. It would've been easier and a lot more cost effective to have used a radio.
The first day filming was spent 3 hours set in the dark room to reflect on the stalkers thoughts/ideas/plans. We filmed; panning shots over pinned up photos of the victim with red and white lighting, we did a white spotlight in the dark room over film reels floating in water with the effect of a tap dripping which gave a gentle ripple effect, moving the images giving a rhythm and feel of stillness and silence in the room; to create suspense as you wait for something to happen. The use of the steady, hand held, swinging spotlight in the dark over the camera gives an indication of the theme or the base of the subject is. The audience think why? What? Where? Confusing them, enforcing vulnerability on the audience as part of the thriller film.

A list of Directors and actors that are involved in Thrillers

I thought it would be a good idea to write up a list of actors and directors that have been involved in thrillers thus far.


Actors:

Tommy Lee Jones ,62(Enemy of the State, Valley of Elah)
Awards: Academy Award, Golden globe, screen actors guild and Emmy

Matt Damon, 38 (Bourne Trilogy)
Awards:

Nicole Kidman, 41(The Interpreter, Dead calm, Bankok Hilton)
Awards: Golden Globe , MTV Movie, Berlin International Film Festival

Denzel Washignton, 53(De ja Vouse, Inside Man)
Awards: Golden Globe, Academy Awards

James Stewart, 89(Anatomy of a Murder)
Awards: Academy awards





Thriller Directors:

Steven Spielberg, 61(Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority report)
Awards: Academy awards for best director, Academy awards for best movie

D.J. Coruso, 43(Eagle Eye, Disturbia, Two for the Money)
Awards:

The Coen Brothers, 51 and 53 (No Country for Old Men, The Man Who wasn't There)
Awards: Academy Awards for Best Screenplay, Direcor, picture and editing.

Stanley Kubrick, died aged 70 (The Shining)
Awards: Golden Globes, Baftes, Oscars

Riddly Scott, 70( Hannible, Matchstick Men)
Awards: BAFTAs, Emmys, Golden Globes

From this information I can conclude that acting in thrillers isn't a young man's game generally because the average age of these A-list thriller actors is 50 years old. May be because thrillers usually have loads of puzzles to solve they need wize minds to solve them. The directors are of senior age but it seems that to get to the global market most of them need this experience.

007

Spy Thriller-"Thriller or that which thrills; spec(slang or colloq.) a sensational play(cf. shocker) 1896 Pall Mall Mag 'Full blown detectives...the sort you read of in thrillers!"-Oxford English Dictionary

Another type of thriller genre is the spy thriller. Every spy thriller needs big drama, fast cars, gadgets and espionage and the James Bond movies are no exception. In essence what happens is someone belonging to some secret agency solves a large problem using any of above components. when the Bond movies first came out their was a buzz about the whole genre what with features like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Prisoner and Get Smart and books like The Ultra Secet and Pearl Harbour: Warning and deception. There was definately money to be made and Pineapple studios cashed in, becoming the home of the double agent. It is the second most profitable film after Harry Potter. They still produce Bond films today; films such as Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
I think Bond was a big hit with audiences because he's a a daring, hansome character who many men wish they could be and whom many women wish they could be with although he also has a dark side; his willing ness to kill with ease and slight missogeny. These human touches help the vewer to really connect with the character but also show that he isn't just two dimentional.

Cassino Royale, 2006

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Starring: Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Eva Green

The movie starts in black and white. A man took a lift to his office. A lot of silence while this happens. Odd camera angles make us feel ill at ease. There is no music at this point; It's quiet, too quiet. The man got to his dark office, looked around and saw Bond waiting for him in a chair. The man sat at a desk down and half opened a draw. There is a close up on the draw, there's a gun inside. Because their wearing trench coats it resembles a 60s black and white movie. They exchanged dialogue and then the scene cut to a fight between Jamese Bond and nameless villain. The new scene is a good contrast to the dark office. They're fighting in a white tiled public toilet so the villain must be really out to get James. Ergent music.
Cut back to office. The office worker pulled out the gun that was in the drawer and bond explains that he'd already removed the magazine. the man thinks that Bond isn't there to kill him because double agents(people who've killed at least twice) are the only people that MI5 would send but then again if Bond killed his associate then he could've been sent to deal with this man to be given a chance at double 0 status.
Cut back to Men's toilet fight. James Bond seems to overwelm villain. The villain has dropped his gun and lies motionless
Cut back to the office. We've concluded that this could be Bond's second kill. He dispaches the office worker
Cut back to toilet fight. As Bond turns to pick up his gun the villain starts to sturr. He grabbs his gun(camera become the eye of the barrel) but befor he can shoot Bond does the classic turn and shoot that starts the title sequence.

Intro of Sleepy Hollow

I looked at this because i think it is a good example of a thriller that has a lot more scope than most genres. This is following on from the point me and Yolande made in our blog about thriller sub genres. Sleepy Hollow is a horror thriller which includes a bit of romance between Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp's characters as well as the Crime which the headless horseman comitts throughout the movie.

Title: Sleepy Hollow, 1999

Directed by: Time Burton

Staring: Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci

The first titles seem to almost swim into existence like a halucination and disapear like smoke. That and their cold colour let you know that one of the big themes in this will be ghosts or the paranormal. Also there are string instruments playing which seem to be hurried. May be there is an emergency. The scene starts with someone writing a will and testiment and cuts between that and what looks like dripping blood as the music plays out. It turns out that the blood is not blood but wax used to seel a letter which makes you think that even though it's only wax, the presentation of it suggests something more gory is to come. It also shows you that this is a period piece. Hardly anybody seels letters with wax anymore. In the second scene the writer of the will and testiment is riding in a cariage. The night is dark, foggy and a strom is starting to break. Lightning tears across the night sky. The dark night is horror mes en scene and by this point we are expecting something to happen. There are lots of close ups on the tense faces of the driver and rider. Shwing!(onomatopoiea) The rider peers outside of the carriage to see the headless driver's body lolling forwards.

Thriller Subgenres

A thriller is generally is a fast paced, action packed drama with quite resouseful characters. Although it can be catagorized very easily it usually includes more than one genre, which becomes the subgenre. in order to make a good Thriller it must contain suspense, clifhangers, puzzles. As long as you have these elements a Thriller can be set practally anywhere like, an exotic setting, rural areas, deserts, polo regions etc.

The general characteristics of a thriller varies like mystery stories, crime/mass murder, terrorism, assassination. They mostly deal with quite big issues, there are usually mysteries to solve and suspense is held until confrontation; in the plot there is usually a twist in the plot.

Sub- genres

• sci-fi thrillers (I, Robot), A thriller where technology ahead our time plays a large part
  
• Action thriller (The Matrix) Usually
  
• Conspiracy thriller (Enemy of the State)A violent confrontation of a hero in front of a group of enemies.
• crime thriller (Righteous kill)
  
• Disaster thriller (The Day After Tomorrow)
• Eco-thriller (The Day After Tomorrow)
  
• Erotic thriller(Basic Instict)
  

Christian and Yolande

Match On Action

This is used to explain the cutting between two different camera angles but continue showing the action in the scene at the same point in time. Without this, you will find that your work will not make sense. This could be the difference between continuity editing and dis- continuity editing

Continuity editing

For our preliminary exercise we were introduce to some media terms. One of these was continuity editing, which is basically editing a clip so that the appearance of the scene stays the same and nothing seems to magically appear or disappear. For example if a bag is on a table in on shot it needs to stay on the table for next.

Video form http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NoiVAPY_ww

In the first scene the laptop remains on the girls lap after every cut. This is an example of continuity editing.

Group

The Begginning

We are group one. In our group their is Jack Perry, Christian Graham, Yolande Bramble-Carter and Taio Rene-Lawson. Taio and I did the GCSE media course and have some minor experience of using the cameras as we made a soap opera opening sequence last year. Christian and Yolande are brand new.