Monday 27 December 2010
Christmas time!!!
Well as you can probably tell from the lack of blog posts its been christmas so everyones been relaxed and havent managed to blog so sorry! but we will be getting more posts up soon. We are getting through the planning well and have even done a questionairre so look forward to seeing the results on here soon!! hope you had a good christmass!! :)
Saturday 11 December 2010
Codes and conventions of thriller films...!!!!
Conventions of Thrillers
We wanted to look at the conventions of thrillers so that we could understand what makes a thriller successfull. This would then allow us to apply these to our film.
What gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is hte intensity of emotions they create, particually those of apprehention, exhilartion, excitment and breathlessness all designed to generate that all important thrill.
If a thriller doesn't thrill then its not doing its job!!
What is a thriller???
- uses suspence, tension and excitment as its main elements
- includes many sub genres for example; mystery, crime, psychological, political or paranoid.
- An atmosphere of menace, vilonce, crime and murder
- Society is seen as dark, corrupt and dangerous
- literal devices like plot twists, red herrings and cliff hangers.
Thriller Methods...
- Crime- ransoms, cativitities, heists, revenge, kidnappings
- Mystery- investigations, technique
- psychological- Mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement, death traps, horror of personality, obsession
Thriller Characters
- Criminals, stalkers, assassins, psychotic individuals, escaped cons
- menaced women, innocent victims, private eyes, world weary people
- cops, people involved in twisted relationships
characters are not often black or white, good or bad, they are often grey.
We have chosen to base some of our ideas on these conventions so that our film opening fits the criteria and is easily identifiable as a thriller. We have chosen to use lots of suspension, tension and excitment within our thriller opening, mixing it with the unexpected and unknown. We have decided to include literal devices such as plot twists and cliff hangers. This would keep the audience on edge and ensure that their attention is focused. It also allows people to think for themselves within the opening and try and work out the connections before they are actually unvieled. We have a mixed subgenre of crime and psychological to allow us to have the excitment from the kidnapping and the suspiscion from the twisted plots. we have also thought about the characters in which we used so that we had a innocent, vulnerable girl in which people would altomaticaly associate with being an easy target. We are also going to use a kidnapper in which would force action to the thriller opening.
Sophies first story idea....!!
Characters
Katy Walker. - Young woman to show vulnerability and an easy target. Dark clothing to symbolise she’s mysterious and dark, you can’t tell what her background is like and she may be difficult to understand. She is a pretty girl but is a quiet and shy so no-one really knows her within her local village, she has not lived there for longer that 2months so has no friends within her community. She longs to be known and is often seen walking round by her self.
A person- This person is someone that we see steal the Katy, we do not see him so he is not significant within the scenes/opening.
Summary
Katy is taking a walk around the village in order to become more popular, she is hoping she will see someone who will acknowledge her and make her feel welcome. Although it is late at night and is dark so there is no-one about. When she gets pulled by a man she becomes to panic, she does not no what is going on and automatically develops a hatred for the area. She fears for her life and begins to make a fuss to try to get free. We do not see what happens to her but then see her kneeling at a grave, this is to confuse the audience and for them to get hooked and want to no the reason for it etc.
-Starts of with a pan of the dark night, the moon and the trees are moving in the wind. There is no lighting apart from the moonlight. Pan of the sky
-Next thing we see is a faint image of a women walking down a dark street wearing heels and a black coat, we cannot see her in detail but can hear her heels on the floor and can see the outline of her. Many different shots of her walking, low shots, mid shots etc.
-She becomes more visible under the streetlight where a close-up of her showing a blank expression on her face, there is no emotion in the shot. Close up of her face to show emotion (or no emotion)
-The girl takes a few more steps before being pulled into a dark alleyway by something; we do not see him/her although we see a shadow (if possible) and hear a scream and a fuss/ fighting between them. His breathing is loud and he is panting.
-there is then a cut to the same girl kneeling at a grave, she is sat with no expression on her face but is paler. More variety of shots of her walking and her being pulled aside, mysterious camerawork will being fussed and pulled about, camera work in which circles around her sitting at the grave, stops on her face and leads into the next shot
-it zooms in on her face into her eyes, it then flashes back to the same alleyway/street in which is quiet with no-one about. Close up on her eyes, Long shot of the alleyway
Sophies Director Study - Jonathan Demme.
Jonathan Demme
For my Study i had to research about Jonathan Demme. He himself has Directed many successful films and had many good reviews. Demme began writing critiques and articles for small town newspapers. Soon after Demme's father introduced him to producer Joesph E. Levine who offered the young man a press agent position at Avco embassy. Several years of this work led Demme to Roger Corman who he met publicising the famed director's Von richthofen and Brown; the two quickly fostered a successful buisness partnership and an even longer-lasting friendship. Demme has acknowledged Corman as a significant teacher and mentor. - He was Born on the 22 february 1944 •
- He is best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the an oscar
- He has directed many films in which some of them have awards; he has won 20 awards and been nominated for 15.
Silence of the Lambs
Silence of the lambs is one of Jonathan Demme's most recongnized piece of work and has become very succesful. This film won Demme an oscar and has been reviewed very positively. It was released on the 31st of may 1991.
WATCH NOW----Silence of the lambs trailer
Reviews of Silence of the lambs
- All sorts of macabre things have gone on, and are still going on just offscreen, in Jonahan Demme's swift, witty new suspence thriller (The New York times)
- "The Silence of the Lambs" is delicious with foreboding, a masterly suspense thriller that toys with our anticipation like a well-fed cat. Adroitly directed by Jonathan Demme, it lurks about the exquisite edge of horror, before finally leaping into an unholy maw of bloody bones and self-awareness. (Washington post)
- All creative hands are at the top of their form in "The Silence of the Lambs," a mesmerizing thriller that will grip audiences from first scene to last and generate solid B.O. (variety)
Overall Jonathan Demme has become a very successful director and has produced many good films. He has proven his success by the many awards he has been nominated for and won.
Friday 10 December 2010
Dan's initial thriller idea
Idea for media coursework
Cast of characters:
Emma Marshall is an ordinary secretary for a steel company in Sheffield. She works late shifts 5 days a week. She is quite a shy individual who likes to keep herself to herself. She is quite a nervous individual as her husband passed away a month ago which is leaving her in a traumatic state. This makes her an easy target and vulnerable.
Locations:
Secretary office which has files of the company from 1998 to present. The room is filled with two tower computers for the secretary and another work colleague. There are drawers filled with stationary that could be used for weapons. The manager’s office where she has to get keys from too lock up and end of shift. The manager’s office contains many computers, a safe which contains a large sum of money, files and files. Furniture in both rooms. Both rooms have windows.
Possible title: SAFE CHECK/CHECKMATE
Emma Marshall believes it is the end of her world that her husband has died and she is horrified that she still has to work the late shifts she would now prefer early shifts for her own safety this is making her a nervous wreck. At the start she seems quite content in her office filing away. When it is the end of the shift she has to lock up so she takes a trip down to the managers office to get the keys to lock up with. She attempts to lock up the building when a man with a black coat jumps on her leaving her helpless on the wet muddy ground. The anonymous man then breaks into the safe?????? Not sure how to end it!!!!???
Dan's film director study- Tony Scott- what a guy!
Tony Scott- Film Director
Bio:
Tony Scott is an English film director born on June 21, 1944. His top films include Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II. Tony was born in North Shields. Tony’s first appearance in film was not behind the camera but in front of it. His first film he appeared in was directed by his older and more famous brother Ridley Scott.
List of films:
§ The Hunger (1983)
§ Top Gun (1986)
§ Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
§ Days of Thunder (1990)
§ Revenge (1990)
§ The Last Boy Scout (1991)
§ True Romance (1993)
§ Crimson Tide (1995)
§ The Fan (1996)
§ Enemy of the State (1998)
§ Spy Game (2001)
§ Man on Fire (2004)
§ Domino (2005)
§ Déjà Vu (2006)
§ The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
§ Unstoppable (2010)
Top Gun:
Top Gun is probably Tony Scott’s most famous film he directed. Top Gun is an American action film directed in 1986. It was made by the Paramount Pictures Company. The Film starts actors such as Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. Top Gun was opened to the United States on May 16, 1986. It brought in $353,816,701 worldwide.
The film won the following awards:
| Year | Award | Category - Recipient(s) |
| 1987 | ASCAP Film and Television Music Award | Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures - Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for the song "Take My Breath Away". |
| 1987 | Best Music, Original Song - Giorgio Moroder (music) and Tom Whitlock (lyrics) for the song "Take My Breath Away". | |
| 1986 | Apex Scroll Award | Achievement in Sound Effects |
| 1987 | Best Soundtrack | |
| 1987 | Best Original Song - Motion Picture - Giorgio Moroder (music) and Tom Whitlock (lyrics) for the song "Take My Breath Away". | |
| 1987 | Golden Screen | |
| 1987 | Best Pop Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist) - Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens for "Top Gun Anthem". | |
| 1987 | Best Sound Editing | |
| Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects | ||
| 1987 | Favorite Motion Picture | |
| 1988 | Award of the Japanese Academy | Best Foreign Language Film |
| No year | Won for the line, "I feel the need. The need for speed." Ranked 94th. |
Charlottes Director Study - David Fincher
This is another thing that we were asked to do in our lessons before we got stuck in to planning our thriller movie opening. We were to make a presentation about a director that we were given to study. I was given David Fincher to find out about, and here is the powerpoint that I showed to the class...
On this presentation, it does not have all of the information on it so I have also attached the script that I had with me when I was reading out this powerpoint, which has more information on it.
I think that David Fincher is an incredibly talented director and I have enjoyed looking into the type of things that he does when directing his movies, and looking at some of the best movies he has made.
Thriller advert.
We were all asked to produce a 'Wanted' poster for a thriller advertisement.We were asked to include all of the things to do with a thriller movie including, characters, settings and story lines. Here is the one that we chose out of our group to share..
All of our group found this activity fun to do because it is a creative way to learn what the basics of a thriller movie are. Enjoy. :)
The beginning...
For our Media Studies A Level, Me (Charlotte Curtis), Daniel Palfrey, Olly Seldis and Sophie Dallas are making a blog to cover all of the planning and aspects of making our opening to a Thriller movie. At the moment we are all bringing things together to put onto the blog, so keep a look out! :)
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