Progress Report

This is a pregress report and what I believe that our group should achieve

Conventions of Genre

This video is to define an enigma code and the different genres within a thriller. Aimee created this video and me and kate did voiceovers and I helped to edit the sound to the video. We had trouble getting this up on youtube as whenever we uploaded it the sound was out of sequence from the video. As we have no way of fixing this we decided to upload it and explain that the speech is out of sequence.

Spoiler number 3...inception!

Inception is a crime/psycological thriller film produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. This film as been very successful not only as a thriller film but in general has great box office sales. This may be because of the suspence and mystery the film brings also the enigma code is strong through the whole film as you are constantly asking questions, although some may say it creates too many questions as this can make the film hard to understand.

The film starts with the main characters already in a dream, this drops you straight into the story as your dont actually know whether its a dream or not as you havent been told anything yet, this creates mystery which is known to be one of the key aspects of a thriller film. The main character Dom played by Leonardo DiCaprio is then shows with a group of people wired up to machienes away from the dream, if you die in a dream you end up stuck there having to spend your life in limbo, but if you are woken up before death you will only die in the dream and in reality will be okay. As Dom gets into trouble and becomes in danger within the dream his team try to wake him up so push him backwards into a bath.

As the first sence and dream ends you begin to get realise whats going on, your learn what they do to get into eachothers dreams, you also learn why they do this. You find out that it is hard to tell whether the team are in adream or reality the characters themselves confuse dreams with reality this is why each team member has a different object which they spin, if it keeps spinning and doesnt fall then it is a dream but if it falls then it is reality.

Throughout the film we learn about the main character, we find out that he is a very secretive character and for some reason doesnt like when people mess with their dreams, he takes a girl into a dream with him and when she starts tampering with things he gets very cautious. One night the girl walks in on Dom in the dream chair and intrudes on his dream to find out why he is so secretive about his life. He had a wife and children he took his wife into the dream with him and she got confused between dream and reality and thought that her dream was her reality they built a whole life together within the dream untill they he realised that they needed to get back be with family. She didnt want to leave and ended up killing herself and this comes alive in every dream that Dom has.

At the lower level of every dream Dom relives this and this could harm him and the team. They get in trouble because of what they are doing and are on the run therefore he doesnt get to see his children this also occurs in his dreams. Dom has a reoccuring dream about being back with his children and just before he sees their faces again they turn and run away.

Yet at the end of this film we see the same dream and the children then trun round and the father and children run towards eachother but as Dom goes towards them he spins his object and then the film ends so you never know whether he is in a dream or back to reality.



I think that this is definately a successful thriller film as it is full of mystery and suspence but I think that there are too many enigma codes and this makes the film really confusing and could put people off watching the film as it is really difficult ot follow and for that reason I'd give this film a 4 out of 5 star rating.

Grading other opening scenes

Although this video does demonstrate some skills such as camera shots with close ups there is no foley sound, it seems low skilled, there isnt enough titles and it seems to jump from the tied up scene to the boyfriend scene very quickly I dont think this seems part fo the sequence which doesnt make it flow I believe this shows some good aspects but deserves a level 2.




I think that this video would get a middle level 3 grade as they have a suffient amount of shots and the editing runs smooth and isn't jumpy, the music added also creates suspense and the interigation scene makes it clear to be a thriller film. I didnt think it deserved a level 4 because there wasnt alot of technical camera angles used like high angles, low angles or match on action shots making it look very basic they also did not have enough titles this is why I would give the opening a Level 3.




This is a clear opening sequence for a horror movie I think the editing is amazing the colour grading has made the video blue making it feel cold adding to the horror atmosphere the fading in and out of each clip is smooth and really brings an effect to the opening. The costumes are great and the location is on key for the genre. I believe that this video should get a level 4 as it demonstrates great skills and shows that they have obviously done research on their chosen genre and opening sequences.

Thriller plan!

Plan for my Thriller...

To start off with I couldn't think of any kind of story line or plot so I decided to go back to the start and watch many thriller films over the break, I also looked at different sub genres to decide what thriller genre I wanted my thriller to be; disaster, crime, psychological, mystery, political or religious.
After watching different thrillers I came across my favourite sub-genre; psycological. As i loved films such as fight club, inception and shutter island as they really succeeded as a thriller as i was on the edge of my seat throughout always trying to guess what was going to happen next.

Plot

I liked the idea of the mentally unstable 'marshal' during shutter island, the love for his family in inception so I decided on a psychological thriller and therefore decided on this...

Throughout my thriller you would see a detective who has been put on the case of a murdered family; husband, wife and a child. They would figure out that there is another child in the family, a daughter that lives out of town, she is called and rushes to the station she states that she would try to help the police find out what had happened to her family and who did it. The detective would sympathise with her as he has also been through a traumatic family time. But throughout you would slowly find out that she was the murderer yet it would be really unexpected as she provides information and leads the police to other suspects.

Characters
Detective builds a strong bond and can relate to the daughter as his family is broken too. Daughter is mentally unstable, the team find out that she hasn't taken her pills. The team figure out that she is the killer but the main character doesnt believe it.

Enigma code
The enigma code to my film would be 'Who killed the family?' 'Whats going on between the detective and the daughter?'

How does my plot fit the sub genre?
My plot fits its selected subgenre of a psycological thriller as it plays with your mind as you never know whats going to happen next.

How does it attract my target audience?
My target audience is femal aged 15-25 the film does not have a lot of gore and violence in it but will still have the odd snip of violence to keep the excitement there. Also the detective would have a slight romantic connection with the daughter and girls love a bit of romance.

 

I found it really hard to think of a title but came up with 'A love to kill'.

Preliminary Task

This task was the first task that we got given as a production group, we have made a directors comentary over the top of one of the videos identifying our mistakes and what we would do differently or went well. I think overall this task went okay but was rushed because of the time period we had to shoot we found it difficult to shoot certain things due to many different reasons, we made simple little mistakes that we know not to make during our actual thriller sequence.

Spoiler Review of Shutter Island...

Shutter island is an famous thriller film that includes a lot of mystery, tension and suspense. Throughout the opening scenes tension and mystery is created when the marshals Teddy and Chuck, arrive on scene, on the island.

At the start of the film a giant mysterious boat emerges out of the fog and heads straight forward, heading towards island, this is where the main characters Teddy and Chuck are revealed. During the first scene we see Teddy on the boat is portrayed to be ill in some way, this is shown as he holds his head frequently throughout this scene and when arriving in the office he asks for aspirin. The story begins to unfold when the two marshals arrive at the mental institution, and are told why they are there. One of the patients there called Rachel mysteriously disappeared from her room, yet the door was still locked from the outside and metal bars were placed across the window.

The marshals were at the island to find out what had happened to Rachel and how she had escaped. She needed to be found as the reason for her being in the institute in the first place was because she drowned children and set them up around a table like they were still alive. After finding out this the detectives then get straight to work, asking questions and investigating the case. Next the two marshals are seen looking around Rachel's room, when Teddy stumbles across a piece of paper with 'who is 67' written on it, after finding this it makes Teddy think deeply about this...could it be a clue? Whilst the marshals are investigating the case a few different events happen which make the viewers wonder making them part of the story, firstly you begin to wonder why the marshals are denied any access to any records, why the nurse of the missing patient is no longer at the institute and has oh so conveniently gone on holiday at this specific time and lastly why does Teddy receives a note from a patient during an interview them.

We then see the note with the word RUN written on it this adds to the mystery throughout this film and makes you think of the enigma codes attached to this section of the film. Is the patient mental? How is Teddy going to react to this message? What is the patient trying to tell Teddy? And most importantly why is he being told this, why did he receive the message? Teddy begins to get suspicious, he confronts his partner and the head of the facility of the institute but both tell him he is being stupid. Teddy's his illness increases, he begins to get dreadful migraines and starts to have flashbacks. during this point in the film it is not clear why Teddy is having the flashbacks as, all that is made clear to us is that Teddy has lost his wife in a house fire recently. The main flashback Teddy has is a of him and his wife, this doesn't make sense to the audience as they don't understand the flashbacks at this stage of the film but all will be revealed but the end of the film. Teddy suspects that experiments are being carried out on the patients, non the island preventing anyone to exit or come into the island, Teddy uses this to his advantage and starts to look a little deeper into his suspected experiments. The storm disturbs the electricity boards within the institute which allows Teddy and his partner Chuck to enter they forbidden area of the institute...block C, this section of the institute was off limits as it held patients that were damaged and dangerous. Teddy looks around the ward trying hard to find clues to what is happening within the institute. After looking around Block C Teddy comes across a dim light in a cave outside of the institute, he followed it leading him onto a dangerous cliff edge where he then goes to investigate. Teddy arrives in this fire lit cave, he discovers that it is home to a dirty old woman who claims to be the missing patient, Rachel. 

This is when the mystery in the story starts to expand as we see Rachel tell Teddy that she isn't a patient but a doctor, she also clears up Teddy's suspicions about the experiments as she claims that this is the reason she is now stuck in a cave. Rachel explains that if Teddy keeps taking the medication and cigarettes from different people within the institution he will end up staying there as a patient as the people there are drugging him to make sure he doesn't leave. Teddy then returns to the main land flustered and confused, unsure of what to think, but as the migraines and flashbacks got worse and more frequent he decides to take Rachel's advice and stop taking things from other people as this could be what is contaminating him, the reason for his migraines etc. Things only get worse for Teddy from here, nobody believes a word he says, this starts to make him doubt, this is when Teddy tries to run and get away but people start telling him he came alone and he has no partner this causes Teddy loose his mind he doesn't understand what's wrong why he's being told this. Teddy runs away he gets to an old light house where he suspects the institute is carrying out their experiments, he believes that he hasn't gone crazy and will find his partner up her...however he doesn't have a clue of what's going to happen next. This next scene is where the truth comes out, where the drama happens. although it's still confusing the story line for this part is very well thought out, you apply what you find out here to the rest of the film. 

As Teddy goes in to the top room of the lighthouse, the doctor is sitting at a desk, waiting for him. The doctor is calm yet patronising, Teddy is shaking, confused and unsure of what's going on. The doctor tells Teddy that everything he believes isn't reality, he tells him that he is the 67th patient in the institute, his name is really Andrew and he has been there for 2 years. Throughout the film we have known him as a marshal called Teddy but the doctor then goes on to explain that the job of being a Marshal was all just a fantasy, we find out that Andrew has committed a crime so terrible that he can't forgive himself and the truth hurts that much that he has created a new reality, in his mind a better version of himself. Teddy (Andrew) then starts to question the doctor on where his partner is as he can't believe what he has been told, the doctor then reveals Chuck in perfect health and unharmed. He then questions the doctor and starts panicking when Chuck backs him up, is he really mental? Is he patient number 67? Teddy loses his mind he picks up a gun, but doesn't quite know what to do. The worry and hurt in Teddy's eyes is so emotional, it brings the audience to empathise with the character and the audience can feel how upset and confused he is, Teddy then aims and fires at the doctor, however when he looks back he is still alive, this makes us believe that the doctor is right. Teddy then realises this why didn't the shot hurt him, he then takes a look at his gun, he snaps it in half to reveal that it is a toy. The doctor approaches Teddy showing him pictures of his children, he takes the pictures looking at them like he is remembering maybe starting to admit the fact he is mental, he then has another hallucination of his wife and daughter. The last scene then goes back to Teddy sitting outside the institute with Chuck, as if they are marshals again. However Chuck nods to the doctor showing that in fact Teddy (Andrew) is one of the patients at the institution. So to conclude I believe that this film was very successful as a thriller as it interacts with the audience ahs many enigma codes attached to it and keeps the mystery and suspense sharp throughout the film. I thought that the story line was well thought out and I have never seen a film quite like it I think that the twist at the end is very unexpected and creates a strong bond between the characters and the audience. 

Trailer....

I think that this film deserves a 5 star rating as it meets all of the criteria of a thriller film and leaves you with the main enigma code of the story 'is it better to live as a monster or die a good man'

Module 1 Self Assessment- Where am I at?

After looking through my blog and reading Rosie's comments I have 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 to do. All of which I will upload as soon as possible. Targets - complete 8,9,10,11 and 13 - Make sure to embed clips (presentation) - Detailed annotations Level 3 13/20 low B

Se7en Re-edit

This is a re-make of the opening title sequence of the thriller film Se7en. Me, Sophie and Abbey made our own version using different photos that we were given to make a title sequence in the style of Se7en using the software final cut, which is a professional program and what we will be using for our final thriller film.

Dexter

Here are photos of Me, Rosie, Rosie and Emma on set of our Dexter shoot, we each took it in turns to film different slates so we all had practice with the camera at different shots. Although Emma was the main character throughout our shoot for slates where you didn't see the person in camera shot we each took turns to be in front of the camera doing things like cutting the orange and flipping the bacon.



Above is our groups final dexter edit, as we had a group of girls there was some parts of the original footage that we couldnt do but comprimised and made our own version. Emma was the main character in our sequence and me, Rosie and Rosie all helped to edit and fim the footage.

Sound Terminology

This is a mind map created by; Aimee, Kate and myself of the different terminology used to describe different sounds used within the media industry. We each took different ones and researched them then summarized each one to give a clear meaning and understanding of each one so we know what we can use when making our final thriller.

 

We applied the knowledge we learnt through researching different terminology, we used different layering techniques although it isnt very obvious through this as we didnt use the every technique that we researched when our group gets time we'll add more sounds to this such as music in the back ground and other sound effects.

Thriller Film Setting...

I took this photo as a setting of a Thriller film, I believe it would be suitable because it looks mysterious and is used by people form the adult world. Also the way in which the lighting is aranged makes the audience suspicious and makes the platform look creepy.

Iconography Mood Board

This mood board shows the differnt iconography types in thriller films, here you can see the different shots used; long shots, close ups etc, you can also see the different props used and the different lighting effects. you can see there are alot of close up shots on the props drawing your eye towards it, also the lighting is very dark and dim, setting the scene for a thriller, any lights used are very bright and straight across the screen.

Analysis of Thrillers....SPOILER!!

During the last week I have watched the ever so famous thriller film Se7en and what a good film it was!
It starts out showing us an average day of detective Somerset played by Morgan Freeman. We see the gruesome sights he views on a regular basis, then comes the opening title sequence where the credits roll and the movie reel cuts and gets played backward, it also burns, and every other horrible thing imaginable whilst showing close-ups of the killer preparing his evil scheme. Very, very effective.

The film is very dark, in spirit and in lighting. It is raining in every scene except the end scene, and the lighting in general is dim and dreary giving a depressive atmosphere. After the credits roll we see Somerset meeting his new partner David Mills, played by Brad Pitt, as they are assigned to investigate the murder of a very obese man. We find out that someone had force fed him to eat spaghetti until he bursts with his hands and feet secured by chicken wire.

We then see the detectives work together, despite their differences, and as they unveil more victims of these strange and cruel deaths...we start to realise the killer is acting on the "Seven Deadly Sins." As each victim suffers whatever sin they chose in life. The obese man committed gluttony, then we meet a lawyer who is killed by greed, the next a hooker killed by lust, a model by pride, and a drug user by sloth. We don't see any on-screen violence, but the way in which the director portrays each killing effectively gives us chills, by allowing us to see what has already happened and trying to figure out the amount of pain and torture the victim has gone through. Keeping the audience guessing and on the edge of their seat is one of the main features of a thriller and this film did this brilliantly.

As each victim is found, the killer leaves more clues until they get closer to him. Somerset goes to the library to see who's been researching the seven deadly sins and comes up with a list of names John Doe being the first. They arrive at John Doe's apartment and people start shooting the detectives then realize they have the right guy.

The detectives unravel the mystery behind the killings, five of the seven killings happen before they manage to capture John as he appears at the police station about to turn himself in. He seems quite normal for a killer, except for his own bloody fingers, because he keeps slicing them so that he has no legible finger prints. He is also covered in someone else's blood.

As we've found out, the killings are based on the seven deadly sins, so what about the last two victims? According to John Doe the only way to find out about the other two is to drive him to a deserted field at a specific time and wait for his instructions. They do this to try and save the other two victims, this is the only scene in the movie that is bright and sunny, a direct contrast of the rest of the film.

Suddenly, we see a van pull up with a guy carrying a small box. He was the reason that they had to be there at a specific time. We never see what's in the box but as Somerset opens it, John Doe tells Mills, who has a gun pointing at him the contents of the box....the pretty head of Mills' wife, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. 

We find out that earlier in the day, John visited Tracey and after killing her, he ships her head to this location, making sure that the two detectives to are there with him. John Doe then explains that since he himself envied the life of Mills and his wife and unborn child that fairs fair he should be shot, this is when Somerset tries to hold Mills back and tells him not to shoot him as this is what he wants. He then keeps bugging grieving Mills to let the sin of anger destroy his own life and shoot him making him  the sin of wrath...the last victim. He gives in and Shoots Doe ending this cycle. Mills is led away in a police car as we realize that this was all planned, the film ends with the two detectives saying their farewells.

Throughout the film the audience are kept sat on the edge of their seats as the film cleverly has many differnent clues that could link the killings to different people so you are always wondering who the actual murderer is. There is a twist in the film as we figure that all the killings will be the same but the last two have a twist as the killer is cruel and deseving and sends Mills his wifes head to complete the last deadly sins. In all honest I think that the ending was the only part of the film that I found not too good as it doesn't really bring closure to the story, other than that I'd give the whole film an A+!

The trailer....



Id give this film 4 out of 5 stars, i thought it was a great film but i didnt like the endimg as it didnt bring closure to the film.

What a Thriller is....

This is a mind map of what a film needs to be considered a thriller

Time line of Title Sequence- Se7en

New Line Cinema Presents: 3 seconds

An Arnold Kopelson Production:6 seconds

A Film by David Fincher: 10 seconds

Brad Pitt:14 seconds

Morgan Freeman:18 seconds

Se7en: 24 seconds

Gwyneth Paltrow: 29 seconds

Richard Roundtree: 33 seconds

R.LeeErney: 39 seconds

John C. McGinley:42 seconds

Julie Araskog, Mark Boone Junior:46 seconds

John Cassini, Reginald E. Cathey, Peter Combie:54 seconds

Hawthorne Jones, Micheal Massee, Leland Orser:58 seconds

Richard Partnow, Richard Schiff, Pamola Tyson:1.04 minutes

Casting by: Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Borden:1.11 minutes

Music by Howard Shore:1.17 minutes

Costumes Designed by Michael Kaplan: 1.22 minutes

Edited by Richard Francis-Bruce: 1.24 minutes

Production designed by Arthur Max:1.27 minutes

Director of Photography Darius Khondji: 1.35 minutes

Co-Producers Stephen Brown, Nana Greenwald, Sanford Paritch: 1.40 minutes

Co-executive producers Lynn Harris, Richard Saperstain:1.44 minutes

Executive Producers: Gianni Numari, Dan Kolsrud, Anne Kopelson: 1.50 minutes

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker: 1.54minutes

Produced by Arnold Kopelson, Phyllis Carlyle: 1.59minutes

Directed by David Fincher:2.03 minutes

From this task I learnt how to analyze a title sequence in detail, knowing where each credit comes in and in which order you see the names; for example the production company is always the first name to appear. I also learned how many people it actually takes to make a film and who needs to be credited within the first 2 minutes of a film, during the opening scene.