Feedback on idea

The idea of the characters walking, talking and finding the murderer would be a whole film but this is just an opening scene. Therefore, the whole idea of them just talking doesn't have a main focus, so putting the finding of a dead body in there could be more of a focus. However, I could change the idea by making the boyfriend a detective finding a serial killer and his detective girlfriend could be dead but he does not know she is as he can still see her. However, we wouldn't find out that she is a ghost until we see the dead body. I would show this with a long shot of the dead body in the distance and then a close up of it. As they rush over to the body I will then shoot another angle where it shows him talking to himself. The girlfriend would find a glove a couple of metres away from the dead body which would belong to the murderer  and that is when the opening scene will end. Looking more into the TV series, River has helped me develop this idea.

Further development of Supernatural Thriller idea

My location would be Mill Hill Broadway high street and it would be a natural setting as it is in the outside in the evening to create a sense of darkness.

The only props I would use would be a knife and a mobile phone and my actors would be a middle aged man as the killer, a teenage girl as the girlfriend/ghost and a teenage boy as the boyfriend.

Films and TV series that have a similar narrative are Ghost Whisperer, The Sixth Sense and River.

The boy would wear black jeans and a black top as he is trying to blend in with the darkness when he goes to find the killer of his girlfriend. The girlfriend would wear a dress to convey her innocence and the killer would wear trousers and a shirt to make him seem like any normal guy.

The opening scene will feature the girl lying on the floor dead and the boy crying over her body.

In the whole film there will be shots of a boy walking up a high street with his girlfriend and they will be talking about a man. Shots will be shown of the boy walking up the road by himself so that we know that his girlfriend is actually a ghost and that he can see her. We will hear their conversation of tracking down her killer and they will eventually reach a house, the killers house. As the boy gets his phone and calls the police on his phone, a figure will emerge from behind a bush by the house and it will be the killer who will try stab the boy. However, the shot will stop at the killer reaching for the boy with the knife go end it on a mystery of whether he killed the boy or not.

Board of thriller idea

This has helped me to visualise my ideas as it shows the girls are walking at night and having fun as they are laughing which will create a chilled atmosphere and so we will show that with the non diegetic music and dialogue. The image of the person walking alone is the eerie aspect of the film as it shows how the girl is talking to a ghost.

The mood board helps to explain the narrative as the scenes are dark and portray friends walking at night, switching to the girl walking by herself.

The tone of my mood board seems quite dark but also fun as the juxtaposition of friends together and the night time helps to set the tone of a sci-fi thriller.

Films similar to mine and development of idea

Instead of having the opening sequence as the girl walking through a forest and finding a dead body, it could start with a transition from credits to the camera slowly panning round the pictures of her family in her house along with the credit names of the actors and then it will go straight into the rest of the film. She will shout "bye mum" and then walk out the front door where she will meet her friend and they will go on a normal day out walking around and talking about things. At this point, the music is up beat and almost fun.  They continue to talk and we hear their conversations about school life and parties, just as any other teenage girls. As they walk around the camera will take shots of them at different angles and some will show how the girl is talking to herself as she walks around with no one by her side, leaving the audience with the interpretation that the girl is a ghost.

I have developed my idea from the film 'The Sixth Sense' where a little boy has the ability to see dead people and his psychiatrist who befriends him is in fact dead but does not know that he is.

Another production which impacted my idea was the TV series 'River' where a detective has a partner who he believes is alive but was killed and is not shown from different angle as he walks with her

The TV series, 'Ghost Whisperer' has also allowed me to develop my idea as she comes across ghosts all the time in her daily encounters and sometimes she does not even realise that they are ghosts.

Interviews about thrillers

From these interviews, we gathered that the younger girls mainly do not like things that jump out at them and the younger boys do not think that "jumpy moments" are necessary in thrillers. From this, we have taken the assumption that we should not include many "jumpy moments". We also gathered that to appeal to an older audience, we would have to include more mature themes.

Credits in films

When watching the opening credits to two different films, we found that the Low Budget British film had less credits and mainly focused on the Production and film company names, along with the distributor as they get more money from mentioning their names back and can't afford to mention all of the characters, directors, producers etc.

In contrast, the High Budget American film mentioned all of the production and film company names, along with the characters, directors, producers etc. Therefore, it is blatantly shown that they had more money to spend and also got a lot back.

Feedback for my idea

1. Only two minutes so opening sequence could be difficult to get across that she is hearing voices
2. Too much for two minutes
3. Idea of finding a dead body could work so I need to watch more opening sequences
4. Watch the opening few minutes of The Killing US Drama on Netflix
5. Watch River and write about about how mental health issues are introduced
6. Watch The Sixth Sense and write about how the dead character is represented
7. Write about Donnie Darko and how mental health and suspense are used
8. Either do a killer finding or supernatural, talking to dead people

My Idea For my Thriller

Different types of sequences used in films

The art of the film title

• The name of the film
• An understanding of the tone/atmosphere of the film
• Narrative information
• Introduce all/some of the characters
• A sense of the film genre
• Actors names
• Establish the location

The girl with the dragon tattoo

• Gives the name
• Tells you the names of the characters and shows you them in black and white
• Sense that female character is powerful as she turns into a phoenix
• Introduced to lead actors in a sexual relationship as we see them kissing
• The intensity to opening sequence with dark non diegetic music and dark colours give a sense that it is quite dark in content
• We get the sense that water and fire are involved, so it could be somewhere near the sea and is set in a dark landscape where there isn't much sunlight

The discrete title sequence

• Like a miniature film before the actual film and gets audience in the mood to watch the film before it starts
• Discrete title sequence includes lots of animation and editing work

Traditional title sequence

The traditional title sequence still quite stylised but goes straight into the beginning of the film. In this type of title sequence, the films use sound and font, alongside the images to create the mood of the film. For example; we see this with Drive where the clothing is quite 80's as in is set in the 80's and the music is old fashioned. The font is also quite 80's looking as it is bubbly and pink. there is a sense of loneliness and isolation as he is driving alone at night through the city highway. This gives the sense that he is a lonely guy.

Straight into the film

This is a film that goes straight into the story and doesn't have an extra title sequence. A very good example of this is the title sequence of Wes Craven's Scream. There are no titles at all and the film starts directly with the action of the opening scene. This type of title sequence is far less common and is more likely to be used in horror of action films as it racks up the tension straight away with no sense of longing in the introduction.

The stylised opening sequence

A stylised opening sequence is a combination of straight into it and discrete. The film goes straight into the action but it is interspersed with titles at the same time. This helps create a mood for the film. The combination of sound and editing are vitally important in this sequence as they create meaning for the audience about the film. Mesrine does this by splitting the screen into parts, denoting that they are being watched from different angles by surveillance and the non diegetic music is cinstant throughout the sequence which creates the same tensional feeling throughout

Art of the title sequence - Halloween II

We can tell the genre of the film through the orange font and the slow zooming into the pumpkin and skull, indicates that it is a horror as skulls and darkness are symbolic of this genre.

The non diegetic music of something creeping in minor key builds up in tempo and the darkness all around the pumpkin creates an eerie atmosphere, again symbolising the horror genre. As it zooms into it with a flickering light inside and splits in half, revealing the skull within, this creates suspense and heightens the tension of the sequence. We don't meet the characters, but that slow zoom gives us a sense of something watching or stalking someone which is something we would expect in a horror film. We can tell this is a discrete title sequence as it tells us nothing about the film but gives us the information of the genre and what it might be about, i.e halloween.

Analysis of an AS Thriller

We can already see that the male character is wearing leather gloves and a trench coat as soon as he walks through the door, which is suspicious in itself and the non-diegetic sound as he enters indicates his nasty side. The woman comes across as very innocent as her home has many signs of it being family-like with family photos and a pram in the corner of the room. This binary opposition of a sinister man and an innocent woman makes it obvious that something will happen to her and the tilting down motion of the camera showing how he stole her door keys highlights this. The slow non-diegetic sound and tracking of the camera help to build up tension in the sequence as the killer stalks around the kitchen and the fact that the house is in an isolated location signifies that she will have nowhere to go. There is an eye-line match of him looking at the woman's key and phone on the table and a close up of him taking them which demonstrate the danger in which she is about to face. As the woman looks in the mirror, she catches him stealing things in the drawers and this is shown through an eye-line match. The close up of his leather glove placed next to her hand along with the sinister non-diegetic sound indicates that the killer is about to murder his victim and heightens the tension within the final scene.

Sweded

Sweded is the summarized recreation of popular pop- culture films using limited budgets and a camcorder. The process is called swedeing Upon completion, the process has been sweded. It comes from the film, “Be Kind Rewind” as the character Jerry accidentally erases all the videotapes at the rental store so the pair remake all of the movies themselves. These became so popular with customers and they were told that they took longer to arrive and costed more as they came from Sweden. This is why they are referred to as “sweded”.

This is our version:

In our version, we used shots such as wide shot, close up, medium, high angle and low angle shots. For props, we drew on pieces of cardboard, for example; a dinosaur, a helicopter and gates. The arrangements were; Sam on camera and Gabriel, Yoseph, Cesare and I acting. To rein-act the helicopter flying into the scene, we drew the set on the cardboard and the helicopter, and made helicopter noises whilst playing the intro music. This added humour to our piece and was enjoyable to make.

What Is A Thriller

A thriller is an exciting film that has a mystery and intrigue. There is an enigma to be resolved that will change the equilibrium. A common feature in the film will be a death, kidnapping or assault that will lead to a chase involving the heroes and villains. Binary opposition is essential in this process as it enables the audience to determine whose side they should be on. Another common convention used in the thriller is the anti-hero, a character that is flawed and put in a position that they don't necessarily want to be in, but ultimately they save the day. Watching a thriller generally involves willing suspension of disbelief - we know the idea is ridiculous but we buy into it for the duration of the film.
Different types of Thrillers include:

Psychological - A thriller story which emphasises the psychology of it's characters and their unstable emotional states. For example; Trance, Seven, Inception, Shutter Island, American Psycho

Sci-fi - A thriller story associated with science fiction and a futuristic setting. For example; Alien, 2001, Children of Men, Terminator

Action -  They deal with semi realistic storyline's all though most of the weapons or dooms day devices may be a bit far fetched, the plots of most Action thrillers are the same which contain terrorists, complete and utter Psychopaths. For example; James Bond films, Bourne, Speed, Source Code, Die Hard, Hurt Locker, Hanna.

Crime - These thrillers focus on crime, and are usually from the criminal’s point of view. Physical action and eluding the police take the place of gathering evidence and trying to discover the criminal. For example; Sherlock, The Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, The Dark Night, Memento.

Conspiracy/Political -  The protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone. For example; JFK, Klute, Z, Capricorn One, Missing, The Insider.

Preliminary task

First, we set up the tripod and bubbled the tripod. We then placed the camera on the tripod and put the battery in the camera. We turned the power of the camera on and white balanced the camera, then focused it so that it would film correctly.

We filmed the sequence in the hallway of our school as the surroundings of the shot looked great and there was a turning on the left where one of us could walk through to leave in the end of the script. We did not use any props or music or costume, just ourselves in the clothes we were wearing on that day. The shots that we used were a wide shot, over the shoulder shot and close up shot as those were the shots best used for doing the preliminary task using the 180 degree rule.

Moreover, we worked quite well and cooperatively as we had one two people working on the camera together and two people acting out the scene which was probably the best way to do it.

However, we did have to improvise as the area we were first filming at was invaded by a teacher at our school telling us not to film by the staff toilet as it was a public area for teachers so we had to change the place we were filming at. One of our actors also forgot their lines so they held made up/changed lines and we went along with it.

We filmed the scene multiple times using different shots and when editing, we cut the repeated and bad parts so that we showed all the different shots in one scene with all the different lines that followed after each other. For example, the first line was filmed using a wide shot and the second line was filmed using an over the shoulder shot etc.

Editing was fairly easy to master as we did it as a group and discussed together which scenes we liked and thought were best. One of the boys in our group had edited clips before so he was familiar with the software in which we were using. This made it easier for us as he knew what to do.

Furthermore, we learned which angles we can film from and which angles we can't film from. I also learned that working as a group makes things easier and when editing, copy a scene first before you cut it.

I would make the other person acting with me learn his lines so that it wouldn't have been as much of a struggle and wouldn't have taken up so much time re-filming shots. That would also have allowed us more time to edit, instead of taking up time from another lesson.

Textual analysis of opening of Kill Bill Volume 2

During the scene where the men put her in the coffin, the light dims out when the nails go in , the music fades to a gradual stop and the torch light turns off as we hear the non diegetic sound of the car going away which indicates that all hope is gone. The very fact that this actress looks so beaten up makes us think that she is weak and will not be capable of escaping from them. There are a lot of eye-line match shots between her and the men holding her captive which switch between both of their views and from her view, they are dominating above her which creates a binary opposition making her look weak and them powerful. The men are above her on eye-line match when they put her into the coffin and one of them says, "This is for breaking my brothers heart." We now know that he is in control. The diegetic cricket sound highlights that they are in an isolated area so no one would be able to save her. The sound suddenly shifts to a non diegetic western type of music so that we pick up a sense of the setting. We then hear diegetic noises as they bolt her into the coffin and once the coffin is bolted we hear destruction and amplified breathing noises from the actress to initiate that she is distressed and feels as if she is going to suffocate, therefore we believe that she will not survive.

Once she is stuck in the coffin, the camera is tight on her face to make the space around her look smaller. There is a darkness in the coffin proving that there is nothing in the coffin apart from her and we can only hear diegetic sounds of her breathing which connotes her isolation. Also, as the torch light is on her face, we are able to see the state she will be in when she dies. However, the mariarchy music returns, revealing that there is still hope for her to escape. There is also a non diegetic sound of slow thumping and a heartbeat which implies she is a lot calmer and is in control. The cutting shots from her eye-line view to her boots portray the progress she is making and now that the camera is taking shots at different angles whilst panning around, it makes the coffin look more spacious, therefore it is easier to for her to escape and is less of a tight space.

We start to realise that she is managing to escape as the music speeds up in pace and has more cuts with a beat that sounds as if she is breaking out, nearly escaping. This makes us have faith in her that she will save herself as the music gets louder. The shot switches from her face to the ceiling of the coffin which presents her achievements and concentration of escaping. The camera is then placed at a low angle on her in the coffin to indicate her power and strength as she overcomes being trapped. Although the lighting is dim, the torch is still shone on her face which lights up the coffin and this golden lighting gives us hope, making her look more angelic than previously.

As she smashes through the ceiling of the coffin, we hear a lot of diegetic sounds from the soil crashing into the coffin which heightens the tension of the scene. There is then an establishing shot back at the scene where she was first put in the coffin so we know where it is set. Finally, the music comes to a stop as her hand thrives out of the soil in a victorious grasp in the air, with the camera zooming in.

Textual analysis of opening of Scream

Sound
During the opening of the film, sound has a major part in building up tension and allows us to categorize the film as a thriller. At the start there is a lot of sounds taking place. There is a constant non-diegetic heart beat mixed with a diegetic phone ring which is suddenly stopped by a non-diegetic scream and knife-stabbing sound effect. The diegetic cricket sound effect playing in the background gives us the idea that the house is in an isolated area so we know that when the character is put in danger, she will have no where to go. In the conversation between the female character and the man on the phone, he says, "So I know who I'm looking at." As he says this, the sound shifts to a dramatic, eerie, non-diegetic track, which increases the tension. As she turns around to check outside, there is a diegetic sound of a dog barking to signify that someone is outside and it heightens the sense of danger. After she hangs up the phone, he rings back and this time the volume of the eerie music increases, along with the sound of boiling popcorn and the phone ringing. Additionally, there is a sort of booming sound which seems as if it is symbolising her fast paced heart beat, or his footsteps tracing him getting closer to her, both of which build up tension. Near the end of the scene, the non diegetic sound starts to speed up which suggests that she is going to try to run away, However, she gets stabbed and a different non diegetic sound plays with an angelic tone which signifies her innocence and that she is dying.


Camera
The camera also plays a significant part in this scene. At the start of the scene, the camera tilts down to the house from a high angle in an establishing shot to symbolise the isolation of the house she is in, therefore she will have nowhere to run to quick enough if anything bad were to happen. This also connotes that she is being watched by someone as it moves down onto the point where she is. The camera starts tracking her as she walks through the house on the phone which points out that she is alone in a big, dark house so she is quite vulnerable to anything at that moment. The camera makes a fast zoom into her face whenever she gets scared to signify that she is in danger and does an eye-line match with her when she sees all the fog outside with no one else there to highlight the danger as she is alone. As she paces around the house frantically, the camera makes a tracking shot, following her at a fast pace to create a sense that she is being followed. The camera makes a close up shot of her face when she cries so that we feel sympathy for her and makes a wide shot when she hides from the man to show her vulnerability. Whilst she is lying on the floor after being stabbed, the camera shows a dtilt angle on the screen from the floor to signify her weakness and as this gives a low and uncomfortable feeling to the audience, we know that she won't survive.


Editing
For editing, there are a lot of switches between shots and it keeps cutting to the woman's eye-line view to a shot of her, along with the sound increasing in tempo which creates tension so we hear it as she sees it. There is an edit of a match on action cut as it cuts from one side of the windohe other as the murderer's face pops up at the window. \This is especially effective as it shows both the frightening mask of the murderer and the terrified facial expression of the actress. We also catch a glimpse of the masked murderer's reflection in the glass. At the end of the scene when the actress gets stabbed to death, we watch this in slow motion which heightens the effect of the murder.


Mise-en-scene
The darkness of the lighting on the house in the woods depicts an isolated area which tells us that the film is a horror. As the female character is blonde and dressed casual, this portrays her naivety as she is engaging in conversation with a with a psychopath.

How genre, narrative and characters are represented in Skyfall

During the opening scene of Skyfall, we are presented with the hero named Bond through the tracking shot, which follows him as he enters the room. We understand that the situation is serious as there is a medium close up on Bond, showing he will do anything to save Britian. We also know the seriousness of the situation as we are shown a dying body in a dark room, with slight natural beams of light focusing on it. The light from outside has a yellow wash to it so we realise that they are not in London. As there a non-diegetic sound in the background, this builds up tension along with the dying body and helps us realise that the genre of the film is action thriller. We know that the main character is the hero due to the slow paced movements of the camera following him around the room, and the fact that we are shown how he tries to help the dying body in an over shoulder shot as he presses on the wound. As he leaves the dark room, he enters the light of the outside which symbolises the binary opposition.

Further on into the scene, we are introduced to the villain through the fast paced car chase. There are many edits where camera time is on Bond and Eve and suddenly switches to the villain in his car. As it keeps switching between the good people and him, we automatically know that he is the bad guy in the film. There is also a lot of cross cutting from the chaos in this car chase and the calm setting in the office where the mother figure and donor are helping and giving information to Bond and Eve. As there are only non-diegetic sounds in the car chase setting, this makes it seem more chaotic and so we know that this is a mission to defeat the villain. The setting around the car chase is stuffy and busy to make the situation seem more chaotic which clarifies that this is an action thriller film.

We meet the helper named Eve with a shot of her pulling up in the car and letting Bond get in the car. As the music shifts to a non diegetic, middle Eastern sound, it is clarified that she is not dangerous and is there to help. The music change also helps us to understand where they are and where the film is set at that point. During camera time on Eve, we see a shot of her smashing the car's front window as she can't see through it. This suggests that she is resourceful and we want to side with her.

Analysing The Usual Suspects

During the opening scene, we mostly see the character, Keaton and so we are convinced that he is the main role. Keaton is the only one dressed in a smart suit so we automatically think that he has the most wealth and owns the whole cooperation.
We learn that each character has different positions in the group. Two of the men are violent as they need up to 5 armed police officers to take them away. One isn't dangerous at all, is the "brains" of the operation and is disabled with a limp. one is wealthy and owns it all but gets killed and one is a thief.
At first, the slow music makes it sound mysterious and builds up tension when it changed to a dark/eerie sound straight after the Villain's name is revealed. This lets us know it is a crime fiction and it's important to remember the Villain's name, Kaiser. We notice that the music pauses during the gunshots and resumes to highlight that as a key moment. The music also changes with the characters, depending on how dangerous they are.
We also notice that the murderer/villain changes his hand holding the gun to reveal his watch, which later on we will see on who we thought was innocent. When the camera goes onto the Villain, it focuses on his feet and then up to his body but does not reveal his head. However, when the camera goes onto Verbal Klimpt, it also focuses on his feet and goes up to his body, but shows his face which suggests that he is the killer from the beginning and that it is all an act.
The camera zooms into Keaton so that we realise he is important and therefore, we listen to him. It also zooms into the rope where we realise the reason behind that is there is a person hiding in there who witnesses the murder.

Analysis of Film Posters

In the first lesson on 8 September, we analysed the connotations of the film posters around the classroom so that we could understand more about the genre of the films, determine information about the plot and characterisation. We learnt that a connotation is what the elements mean or signify, what it represents. Here are some that we did.

The connotations of Skyfall are: It's dark and mysterious which suggests danger. The circular image around him creates the effect that he is in the tube of a gun and that he is he bullet which is ironic as there is a lot of shooting in this film. The light at the end of the tunnel could represent the moon and how most of his missions are in the night. The fact that he is in a suit states his place of authority, also that he doesn't care what he is doing as long as he looks smart. Furthermore, of this suggests that the genre of the film is action/adventure and the way he is striding through the tunnel in the direct middle, this gives the impression that he is the hero.

The connotations of Pulp Fiction are: She is lying on a bed in a sexual position which implies she is using her femininity for vicious ways and that she is a femme fatale. As she is smoking in the image, this shows how she is care free and her body language is relaxed which also signifies to the audience that she is quite hard and isn't the most friendly of people. The poster signifies to us that this film is slightly retro because its cover looks like a classic 50's pot-boiler as it has frayed edges and a sticker saying 10c so it is obvious that it is a magazine. As she is dressed all in black, this implies she is dangerous, especially that she is a gun, and her facial expression is serious. This all suggests that the film's genre is thriller/action. Additionally, the use of gun is in the foreground and the darkness of the background symbolises the films content might be dark in nature.

The connotations of Children of Men are: The window is smashed and the leading role is boldly shown through the hole of the window, which suggests he wants to escape to survive from the chaos that is taking place. His unkempt face shows how he doesn't care about his facial hair as he has bigger responsibilities in life, such as saving the world. As the colours are blue/grey this brings us to thinking that it is a Sci-fi film as these are the colours which are often used. Moreover,the use of the colour red suggests that there will be deaths in the film and the image of the foetus in the red eye symbolises the death of babies in the film.

The connotations of Sherlock Holmes are: It is set in the 1890's as their costumes are quite old looking and there is an old British lamp. We can tell that it is an action/mystery film as the tagline says, "nothing escapes them" and the two characters have gloves on which suggests they are detectives. As these two characters are the centre of the poster and are the boldly coloured, wearing nice clothes, this signifies that they are the heroes. We can also guess as they are looking into the camera with proud expressions and one of them has his head up which signifies authority. On the right hand side of the poster, a man is standing in the shadows with half his face shown, so we know that he is the Villain. The lady in the background on the left is dressed in pink, but is also slightly in the shadows and is smiling so this suggests that she is an anti-hero.

About Myself :)

Hi, my name is Isabella Mae Aaron. I'm the one on the right.

I am 16 years old, my birthday is on March 2nd and I live in North West London. I attend JFS School and my favourite things are singing, acting, my friends and my phone. I am the youngest out of 5 children and am currently studying the A Levels in Sociology, Psychology, Drama and Media. I am allergic to dairy and love liquids. My favourite singer/actress is Ariana Grande and some people say I am the equivalent to her character, Cat from Victorious.

This is my Auntie Michelle. She is a senior lecturer in Media at Birmingham University.

This is my brother Max. He studies film at Met Film School. My family have inspired me to do this course for my A levels as they made me love films as well as my original love for social media.

I hope you like my blog!