Seven

In class we watched the film of Seven. This movie was a thriller that did very well in the box office and is 11 in the top. It was made in 1995 and is an american crime film and was written by Andrew Kevin Walker.

Saul Bass

This is a picture of Saul Bass, he was an academy award winning film maker. He is mostly known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences. he worked for many famous directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and many more. His most famous work is  "The man with the golden Arm".

Audience research

In our group we had to find out what the audience expected from thriller movies and their opening sequences. We interviewd people on what they thought about thriller films and this gave us insight into what they thought and what we should put into our thriller opening sequence. The questions that we asked were very similar to those in our questionnaire, this was so that we could compare them to the answers we get in our questionnaire and then we can get more varied feedback on thriller films.

Peliminary Task

This week we were asked to start our peliminary task which included shooting a scene of a character walking into a room and starting a short conversation with another character. This short clip had to be less than 2 minutes long and had to include match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. As a group we all had to discuss and come up with ideas on what to base the scene around, we came up with the idea that it would be an interview with a celebrity and a magazine interviewer. We came across lots of problems while shooting becuase they're wasn't enough tripods and we had to share which meant that we had less time to shoot. Then we also found it hard to shoot with continuity becuase our postures were not the same as the last shot taken. This was very useful making this short clip as it gave us insight into what kind of problems we were going to have in making the real opening sequence. Then when we had finally finished making the opening sequence we then started editing it and removing any unwanted parts to it and adding transitions and making sure that it was the right amount of shots we needed.

Thriller research continued

Thriller Research Continued Posters and Ratings

Thriller directors research

Alfred Hitchcock:






He is the master of suspense his films are very recognisable and one of them is Psycho. This was one of his biggest hits and it did very well in the box-office. Each of his films have exciting ans experimental camera angles in them. An example of this would be in the movie "vertigo" and their is a "Dolly Zoom" camera angle used and is achieved by the camera moving away from an object or a scene and zooming in at the same time.








Another director is Steven Spielberg:

He is a very respected and talented director although was influenced by Alfred hitchcock. Speilbergs thrillers are always set in different places and this causes more tension to the film. Some of his films include "catch me if you can" and "Jaws". Jaws was most famous for the scene in the opening when the girl is in the water and all we know is that something is going to happen. The tension builds up by the music and the camera angles. Then we see something take her and she is gone and the music stops and we know that she is dead and it must be a shark.

Todorov and Propps theories

Todorov's Theory:
-The environment starts with an equilibrium- this is where everything is as it should be in an equal balance.
-Then there is an order of a disruption and this is the disequilibrium.
-Then there is a recognition that the disorder has occurred and this is the equilibrium.
Propps character theory-
Vladimir propp created a theory for media texts and productions it was-
1.The villain (struggles against the hero)
2.The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3.The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4.The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5.Her father
6.The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7.The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Research into thriller genre

Psycho is an American suspense movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is about a secretary who is hiding in a motel after embezzling from her employer and the motels owner who starts to have feelings for her. The films has many aspects to it that makes it a thriller such as the music in the opening sequence and the characters reactions. The shots that are used in the film capture the audiences attention and make them guess to as what will happen in the end.

Research into McGuffin and Thriller genre

A McGuffin is a element of a plot that catches the viewers attention or that catches the viewers attention becuase it is very intresting. Sometimes, the specific nature of the McGuffin is not important to the plot because it could be just showing how good the plot really is and this makes the audince like the movie. The McGuffin can sometimes be ambiguous, completely undefined, generic or left open to interpretation.The MacGuffin is common in films, especially thrillers. Commonly, though not always, the McGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first scene, and later declines in importance as the struggles of the characters are shown. Sometimes the MacGuffin is even forgotten by the end of the film.

I also watched a thriller film called taken. This film was very effective because it used things such as digetic and non-digetic sound throughout the film. This made the audience more attentive while watching the film. It was about a father and he was a FBI agent and his daughter had been kidnapped. The father was retired but he was going to do anything he could to find her. It had a very compelling plot. I found it to be a very useful film and it gave me much insight into thriller films. It used many camera angles in it to show the different expressions on the characters faces and capture each emotion.

Thriller Presentation

For more information on Thriller movies we had to make presentations in our groups of four. This presentation was about thriller movies. We decided that each of us should do a slide and we split it up into the intro of thriller movies, examples of thriller movies, what are thriller movies and the summary of all the slides.

Thriller Films presentation

Conventions of a thriller

Today in class we looked at thriller conventions and we reviewed some opening sequnces of films. The first one we looked at was Insomnia, this had many names at the beginning such as the Director, famous actors, casting, Co-producer, Music, Editor and screenplay and there were many more. In the clip of insomnia there was textures used such as fading and shots of the blood close-up. These were very effective because it made the audience unsure about what was happening. There was also sound used and this builds tension in the film and also got more loudewr when the title "Insomnia" came on the screen. Then suddenly the music stopped when the plane was going over the trees. The shot that is show here is very useful becuase it shows blood droplets going on the shirt. This is very effective because it is an extreme close-up and it makes the audience very puzzuled as to what exactly is going on.
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