OPENING OF OUR THRILLER - Who Am I?

Preliminary Task- Joe Gleave, Olivia Davies, Naomi Angel and Sam Hickson

EVALUATION

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Question 4: Who would be the audince for your media product? 

Question 3: What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?



Audience Member Interview



Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of contstructing this product?



Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?



Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Section1: The thriller genre

The Heroic romance-
This is where the hero of the film is shown to be normal and they are forced to act out of circumstance, and they will fall in love with the damsel in distress figure in the film. This technique is shown in Angels and demons where in the end the heor of the film ends up with the sub character who was a woman.

The Exotic-
This is something in the film that doesn't fit in with the narrative, this could be a person or even a place.
This is used in seven where detective Mills' wife is never seen outside the home and is always in white and looking pure and innocent and this derives from the narrative because of the murders.

Mazes and labyrinths-
This is when the narrative of the film is filled with twists and storyline dead ends so that it keeps the audience guessing and keeps them entertained. This can be seen in the movie The DaVinci code because there is a plot twist at the end of the movie.

Partial vision-
This i where the narrative of the film deliberatly hides certain information from the audience by only giving them slight ideas. This is shown in Se7en when the audience are shown the murder scenes and not the actual murders taking place.

Concealment and protraction-
This is the deliberate hiding of information from the audience that is vital to the narrative, this is normally in the form of te hidden identity of the killer of of the possible outcome of the film and this technique is shown in Se7en because we dont get to see the killer or know his name until the end of the movie.

Question answer model-
this keeps the audience asking questions of the narrative like whats going to happen and who is going to be killed next and these are frequently used in American psycho becaue the audiend didn't know who was next to be killed or what the killers motives for killing were.

Tranformed city-
This is where the setting of the narrative is a normal place that doesn't seem to have to much happening and it is turned upside down by a killing or something bad and this is uses in The DaVinci code because in the opening is a nice city (Paris) and an art gallery (The Louvre) and this nice setting is overshaddowed by the murder that takes place.

Definition of a thriller-
This is a genre of film, literature and television and it is a genre that uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements and this is for the audiences entertainment. Such uses of the thriller genre are as follows

• Seven- psychological/ crime/ religious thriller
• Jaws- thriller
• The DaVinci code- crime/ religious/ conspiracy thriller

The thriller genre can also have what is known as a hybrid. This is the combination of more than one genre or subgenre. The thrillers Seven and The DaVinci Code are hybrids because they have more than one element in them.



(image from Psycho 1960)





(image from Silence of the lambs 1991)







(image from The Strangers 2008)





Section 2: Seven Analysis

Narrative structure:

• Seven starts with a murder scene
• The character detective Mills is married, and his partner detective Somerset lives alone
• there is a police investigation about the murders that are happening
• all of the murders coincide with the seven deadly sins which are(Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and pride)
• The killer has religious motives (at his home he has lots of religious items and relics)
• Set over seven days which coincides with the ammount of murders/deaths that take place

Thriller codes and conventions

• Muder scene (corpse, blood)
• Police, detectives, investigation
• Dark and murky buildings or rooms (usually where death has taken place)
• Music creates tension for the audience and creates alot of suspense
• Killer has a strange motive for murdering someone (religious, psychotic)

Camerawork:

• Tilts and mid close up show authority of Mills and Somerset, also shows emotions
• Tacking in towardscharacters shows them getting closer to something (brings audience into the scene)
• Worms eye angle shot shows authority of the police and detective's Mills and Somerset
• Mid close ups and longshots of characters keeps the focus on the characters and their emotions and reactions and not the setting they are surrounded by
• Over the shoulder shot of Mills and Somerset walking down stairs with police in front of them shows that they have higher authority than the regular police. also shows their importance of the film to the audience

Mise En Scene:

• Dim lighting is symbolic of Death
• Setting has a city apartment for Sommerset and Mills' homes
• Murder settings are mostly small apartments (possibly shows that the murders were secret as nobody knew about what was happening at the time)
• Costumes are typical detective clothing for Somerset and Mills (hat, mac, shirt, tie)

Sound:

• Diegetic- rain, conversation, cars, guns, shouting
• Non-diegetic- music was mostly played at murder scenes and it was very slow and droning, this created tension and suspense for the audience. Also the opening credits had very bass beating music with hints of screams in the background (created the mood for the film)

Editing:

• Blurring of depth of field draws the audiences focus on the characters
• Match on action when Sometset grabs his glasses
• Opening credits has lots of superimposed images of dark evil looking images
• Establiching shots all the way through the film to show the audience where the action is going to take place
• Opening credits have lots of fade in/out of the dark gruesome images on screen
• Crosscutting from each of the detectives different lives except when ther together
• Elliptcal editing from when Mills and Somerset aredriving to the first crime scene (time and journey has been fast forwarded for audiences entertainment)

Graphics:

• Opening credits has lots of white scribbl style writing against a black background (makes it stand out to the audience)
• Pale and white tint overlays on the shots of the early morning
• Green and red tints in the murder scenes creates imagery and recognition of death and mystery
• red blood spattered on the white walls brings attention that a death has taken place to the audience

Section 2: Donnie Darko Analysis

 Narrative structure:

• The opening scene is of the character "Donnie", and he has woken up in the middle of nowhere and he then rides home looking really confused ad to how he got there

Codes and conventions:

• Music that creates mystery to the audience
• Transformed city - set in suburbia but it has a twist to it
• Partial vision because the character does not know or the audience does not know how he got there

Camerawork:

• Establishing shot of the woods in opening scene and this shows the audience where the action or the narrative is going to take place
• Tracking left in establishing shot of the middle of nowhere to show the audience that the character is surrounded by absolutely no civilization where he is
• First person perspective shot when Donnie is riding home to create awareness of what the characters is seeing to the audience

Mise en scene:

• Setting- woods or the countryside, small suburban town
• lighting- dim to show audience that it is early morning
• mid shot of characters to show his reactions and emotions to his whereabouts
• costume is messy dirty night clothes and this is so the audience can make the connection with  the early morning setting and the narrative so far

Sound:

• Diegetic- birds, bike tyres
• Non-diegetic- slow ominous music at start of scene which is used to draw the audiences attention, then it goes into a soft piano tune which links well with the early morning setting because its relaxing. Then there is some soft singing voices when Donnie is riding home and these get louder until there is an anticlimax at the end this is to create suspense and tension within the audiences emotions and reactions to the scene 

Editing:

• Fade in at start of scene  from black opening credits to opening shot
• superimpose when the film title gets posted into the shot
• fade out  when the shot  goes to a blank white screen
• elliptical editing when Donnie's on his bike riding home and this is to make his journey seem to go quicker to the audience
• continuity editing is used lots of times when Donnie is riding home because each time he is back on screen he is in a different place and this creates a story that he is getting closer to home

Graphics:

• White writing in opening credits against a black background( this is used in alot of thrillers and it could be considered a code and convention)

Section 2: The Da Vinci Code Analysis

Narrative structure:

• An old man is running from what appears to be danger in an art gallery/ museum. It is then revealed to the audience that he is running from a man with a gun and when the man catches up to the one running away he wants information from him and when he is told he then shoots the man who was running away.

Code and conventions:

• Disstorted camera sequences
• Music that creates tension or mystery with a final climax (sometimes before the action takes place
• Partial vision- dont see the killer until the end of the sequence at first all the audience see is his shadow moving across the wall of the art gallery/ museum
• Concealment and protraction- killer is hidden from the audience this creates this creates mystery to the audience
• killer usually has some form of a weapon, in this case its a gun, and the killer usually has some form of a religious or psychological motive. In this case its religious

Camerawork:

• pan/ crab right leads the character into shot and also introduces him to the audience
• tilt down brings us directly behind the character and shows audience the direction of the action
• close up of the paintings eyes on the walls to show the audience that it looks as thought the eyes are following him to his death
• birds eye shot with track in and this makes it look as though something is swooping down upon him e.g. death
• close up of killers face shows anger, control and any other emotions the audience may get from his facial expressions

Mise en scene:

• movement and expression- the killer is standing and the old man is on the floor, this shows the vulnerability of the old man and the power that the killer posseses
• Long shot of character running and this suggests to the audience that something is happening
• setting is and art gallery (the Louvre in Paris )
• the old man clothes are old fashioned and this is a reflection of his age and also his possible profession 
• the killers clothing is the same as a monks which suggests to that audience that he is a religious man with a religious motive for killing
• the lighting is dark on one side of the room and then light on the other and the old man runs from the light side to the dark side which suggests he is headed for doom

Sound:

• diegetic- running footsteps, worried moans (creates tense atmosphere), gun shot
• non diegetic- choir orchestration and classical music which creates mystery and suspense. all of the tones were ominous and dark and deep which is a hint at danger
• there was no music in the death scenes and this draws the audience attention as well as creating suspense

Editing :

• fade in to opening sequence
• continuity editing, lots of sequences of the old man running through the art gallery and it shows how his setting within the gallery has changed
• shot reverse shot on the killer and the ol man talking before old mans death

Graphics:

• Large bold white text against the black background which makes it stand out to the audience
  

Section 2: Jaws Analysis

Narrative structure:

• Calm relaxed teenage beach party and then a boy and a girl run off own the beach together to go swimming. The man is to drunk and passes out on the beach but the girl has already gone swimming, then she gets attacked by an unknown source and she gets killed

Codes and conventions:

•  Music that creates suspense, then goes quiet like there is something wrong
• death scene
• sometimes sound suspense before death scene
• dark or dim lighting to create the mood for the audience
• anticlimax
• Transformed city-  calm quiet place that gets turned upside down by a shark attack
• Partial vision- we assume that it is a shark without seeing it because of the film title
• question answer model- we assume that she will be attacked by a shark

Camerawork:

• First person perspective of what the shark would see underwater allows the audience to see what is more than likely going to happen to the girl in the water
• close up of girl during the death scene, shows the look of horror and the pain on her face to make it seem more realistic to the audience
• shot reverse shot when the boy and the girl are looking at each other on the beach
• long shot of the girl in the see and it shows how vulnerable she has become and now the audience can suggest that she id going to die

Mise en scene:

• dim lighting on beach which creates a relaxed feeling and links closely to the relaxed beach party atmosphere
• calm water when the girl dissapeard under the water
•  setting is at the beach
• regular young people clothing baggy fashionable for the era
• lighting goes darker when the boy n girl run off together down the beach suggests their heading for danger

Sound:

• diegetic- water, and waves connects with the setting of the beach, also there are the screams of the girl when she is being attacked and this i vital for creating fear within the audience
• non diegetic- classic jaws theme, also the music creates alot of tension towards the impending doom that the girl is heading towards

Graphics:

• White text stands out on the black background in the opening credits, also it is in bold font just to make it stand out a little bit more.

Section 2: Red Eye Analysis

Narrative structure:

• A young woman is travelling on a plane to an unkown detination to the audience and whilst she is away the hotel that she manages is being taken care of by her assistant.

Codes and conventions:

• transformed city- the area that is in the clip seems to be a normal everyday working environment and because of the genre of the film the audience is mad aware that it will more than likely change

Camerawork:

• close ups of the two women characters faces to show the differences in their levels of calmness and how professional they are

Mise en scene:

• Girl behind desks actions and expressions showed the audience that she was nervous
• girl in car was very calm and expressed her role as a hotel manager by being calm an showed the audience what her character is like
• Father was persuasive over the phone to his daughter showed that he has control as a parent
• both the women were dressed in suits which shows that they are business women
• old couple were wearing classy old fashioned clothes which is a reflection of their age
• dad was dressed in comfortable clothing which is a reflection of his homely setting
• the settings were a hotel, airport, taxi and a house and this all came together to be linked because of the phone calls that were happening on screen
• the house lighting was very soft and calm which showed that the audience that tis is a comfortable setting

Sound: 

• Diegetic- car, airport background noise
• Non diegetic- music in opening was like all thriller music dark and ominous and suggests that there was some deceptive acts taking place on screen

Graphics:

• white text against a black background to make them stand out to the audience

Section 2: research into examples of comparable products: American Psycho Analysis

Narrative structure:

• a man who lives alone and is also very succesful and has everything he wants is suffering from depersonalisation, which is a mental disease and he starts to become more and more insane as he kills people

Codes and conventions:

• blood so that the audience have some idea about the genre of the film and that it does contain gore and violence
• dark music that creates tension within the audience
• transformed city- this is because it is a normal working class place and the scene is overshadowed by these murders
• killer with a mental disease which is quite common within the thriller genre

Camerawork:

• slow track in around the killers home which gives the audience a personalised view of the killers day to day surroundings
• close ups of killers face so that te audience can see what his emotions are when he is in the normal state of his illness through the day and when he is about to kill someone, this shows the contrasts and hoe even though the audience can relate to him when he is normal we can easily be fooled by his posture on screen

Mise en scene:

• when the character is getting frustrated he appears to get angry and says things that are disterbing to the audience
• the settings are always the same places in a sequence to one and other- home, work, resteraunt, club and this shows the audience that his day is always the same as the day before
• the costumes of the character are always suits which suggest that he is a succesful man in what he does
• the costumes of the waiters in the start of the film suggest that the action is going to take place in a resteraunt
• the lighting in his home is very bright and this is where he also kills a man and this is unsettling to the audience as most thrillers have very dark lighting and because this is bright at a death scene it kind of hightens the tension

Sound:

• opening sequence has very dark ominous music which is setting the mood and creating tension before leading to a climax for the audience
• the music at the death scene in the home of the killer is diegetic noise because it is what the character decides to play so that he cant be heard and this creates the tension for the audience but it also makes it more personal for them also

Editing:

• foreshadowing
• cutting from scene to scene and this makes the audience feel the lapse in time that the character feels because it is like the day is just flying by and only represents itself to the character as a sequence of events and not a continuous process, and this could also be considered to be elliptical editing

Graphics:

• opening scene had dark drops of supposed blood against a white background which is an indication to the audience of genre and the tone or mood of the film

• in the laundromats on the sign it said "you feel better when your clothes look better", and this relates to the characters attitude to the way he must look and the way in which he feels about himself

Section 3: Brainstorm of content and classification of film

Ideas for film
Idea 1: Title- Who am i?
A student who appears to be a regular teenager liveas a typically normal day, gets up goes to college and comes home and goes to bed. This night though is very different because when he wakes to the sound of his alarm ringing her realises that he has no familiarity with any of his surroundings and then makes a shocking descovery that he is completely covered in blood that isnt his own. A full police investigation goes into place for a missing girl and the boy then realises that it is someone from his college, but he does not know that he isnt the normal guy he though he was because he has Schizophrenia and he must decide to hand himself over to the police or remain hiddedn to protect his family.

Idea 2: Title- Cellar
A young woman is screaming in a cellar and cant understand why she is there. She has been kidnapped by an unknown stranger who she met at the bus stop and when she got off he followed her to her home and then she cant remember her journey to this dark damp place.

Idea 3: Title- Ground level
A 16 year old wealthy girl has been told that she has a job interview at her local shopping centre, but when she goes to leave the lift to go to the interview the door wont open, then it is revealed that she is being watched by an unknown captor and little to her knowledge does she know that she is being held hostage but also at randsom by terrorists who want all of her fathers fortunes.

Certificate Classification
After discussion and planning the decision was that the classification of the film has to be 15, this is because some of the content of the film was decided to be to mature and adult themed for anybody under the age of 15. Also the reason the film is goin to be of 15 classification is because there is not alot of extreme violence and gore that makes it for 18 or above. Also because the characters in each of the film ideas are either teenagers or early 20's the audience that goes to watch this will be able to relate a little bit more to the characters.

Section 4: Audience research

I have conducted a questionnaire that will geive me the information needed to produce the opening sequence of a thriller that will meet the audiences needs. The questions involve what the audience expects to see, hear and expect. They do this by covering the music, plot themes and thriller sub genre.
Here is an uncompleted copy of the questionnaire:

1.       Age:

2.       Gender:                                 Male                       Female

3.       Which one of these types of thrillers do you prefer?

Crime Thriller

Conspiracy Thriller

Mystery Thriller

Political Thriller

Religious Thriller

Supernatural Thriller

Psychological Thriller

4.       Why do you prefer this type of thriller?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5.       Do you want there to be a mix of more than one type of thriller?

Yes                          No

6.       If yes, which thrillers would you like to see mixed?

Crime Thriller

Conspiracy Thriller

Mystery Thriller

Political Thriller

Religious Thriller

Supernatural Thriller

Psychological Thriller

7.       Do you think anticipation, adrenaline and rush are all key elements in a thriller?

Yes                          No

8.       Do you want the music to heighten tension and suspense?

Yes                          No

9.       When watching a thriller do you prefer to be:

Intrigued                                Scared                                    Excited

10.    Do you think that every thriller has to have a plot twist?

Yes                          No                           Unsure

11.    Do you prefer to relate to the characters?

Yes                          No                           Unsure

12.    Why do you prefer this?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

13.    Which of these plots do you prefer to see in a thriller?

Plot Twists

Revenge

Kidnappings

Horror Personality

Obsession

Conspiracy Theories

False Accusations

14.    Why do you prefer this kind of plot?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

15.    Do you believe that every thriller has to have a tragedy?

Yes                          No                           Unsure

16.    Do you feel that the best thrillers are those that incorporate different types of characters?

Yes                          No                           Unsure

17.    Do you feel that there should be a romantic element in a thriller?

Yes                          No                           Unsure

18.    Do you feel that there has to be murder in a thriller?

Yes                          No                           Unsure

19.    What would you expect to see in a thriller?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

20.    Do you think that thrillers should have a sad or happy ending?

Happy                     Sad

I handed out 30 copies of this questionnaire to various people and here are the results that i have gathered from my research-