Friday 16th October 2009

In today's lesson me and my work partner came up with a fixed plan for our preliminary production; we came up wth ideas and started stroryboarding. We then discussed with our teacher how to make our ideas to fit in with the prescribed task that was set for us. By the end we managed to adapt the brief and make it intrigueing at the same time. In order to conform to the genre. Since the main task is going to be a thriller I thought it would be good practice to experiment with the genre in my preliminary task in order to learn from it for my main task .We have kept the initial storyline the same but changed the location in order to fit in with the description. Over the weekend I am going to write up our story line and script in detail and think of possible locations and characters.

Tuesday 13th October 2009

In last lesson, we started to think more in depth about ideas for our preliminary prescribed task. To help us think of better ideas and locations our teacher showed us examples of short films that made use of similar codes and conventions it gave us ideas to expand on this within our own individual storylines; since the lesson on Tuesday I have been thinking about which locations would be appropriate for our preliminary task. First of all I have thought about the genre and I've decided to follow the horror thriller genre. The concept of the narrative is one of a woman who is talking to her dead child whilst playing chess or a card game in the park. The arguement gets heated and ends with a shot of the space that the child was meant to be sitting in. The audience then realise that the child is in fact dead. It is still undecided whether there will be any make-up will be used to signify death or to let the audience come to their own conclusions, beacause if it isn't used the genre would become more psychological rather than thriller. In order to become clear about this, I am going to research more into the horror thriller sub-genre and think more about our narrative so that we know exactly what it consists of and can then begin planning concisely.

Research on Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a British filmaker and producer he was one of the first to create techniques in the suspense and psychological genres. The fifty feature films he directed consisted of the basic codes and conventions such as suspense, silence, fear, terror etc. such conventions have been developed over decades making the success and recognition of the thriller genre so evident in the present day. Hitchcock is one of the most popular and recognised film-makers.
He was popular for cruelly withholding information from his characters and the audience and most importantly engaging the emotions of the audience. Hitchcock's trademark has become gallows humour- a type of humour that arises from stressful, traumatic of life-threatening situations. He has become famous for his expert control of pace and suspense, his films are based heavily on the conventions of fear and fantasy.

About Hitchcock films:

The Lodger (1926) was an early silent film based on the serial killer Jack-the-Ripper, he made a cameo appearance which he made a habit of when it came to feature films. His next film was called Blackmail which was released in 1929. What makes Hitchcock the master of thriller and suspense is his ability (even in the early days of film and television)was to present a true
representation of reality

Cinematography in films is the art of adjusting sound and light and capturing it as a moving image.
When making our main task, I have researched the art of cinematography, which is essential for understanding the type of shots we use and why. Which ultimately is to instil suspense and wonder within the viewer.
In our main task it will be filmed from a subjective and objective point of view.
Objective - Is the audiences point of view
Subjective- Is What the character is seeing.


Below I have also included in my research Hitch-cock's filmography, I obtained this information from http://hitchcock.tv/mov/hfilm.html
The Silent Years
1925 The Pleasure Garden
1927 The Mountain Eagle
1927 The Lodger
1927 Downhill
1927 Easy Virtue
1927 The Ring
1928
Champagne
1928 The Farmer's Wife
1929 The Manxman

The British Classics
1929 Blackmail
1930 Juno and the Paycock
1930 Murder!
1931 The Skin Game
1932 Number Seventeen
1932 Rich and Strange
1934 The Man Who Knew
Too Much
1934 Waltzes From Vienna
1935 The 39 Steps
1936 Sabotage
1936 Secret Agent
1937 Young and Innocent
1938 The Lady Vanishes
1939 Jamaica Inn
1940 Foreign Correspondent
Vintage Hollywood
1940 Rebecca
1941 Mr. and Mrs. Smith
1941 Suspicion
1942 Saboteur


The War Years
1943 Shadow of a Doubt
1944 Lifeboat
1945 Spellbound

Perfecting the Art
1946 Notorious
1948 The Paradine Case
1948 Rope
1949 Under Capricorn
1950 Stage Fright

The Fourth Decade
1951 Strangers on a Train
1953 I Confess
1954 Dial "M" for Murder
1954 Rear Window

The Master of Suspense
1955
To Catch a Thief

1955
The Trouble with Harry

1956
The Man Who Knew
Too Much (remake)
1956
The Wrong Man

1958
Vertigo

1959
North by Northwest

1960
Psycho


The Grand Old Man
1963 The Birds
1964 Marnie
1966 Torn Curtain
1969 Topaz

Coming Home
1972 Frenzy
1976 Family Plot

The Silence of the Lambs analysis

Mise en scene The mise en scene of the first scene is following the thriller conventions as it is in a forest, and the establishing shot shows trees without leaves suggesting the winter season, we can infer that the absence of life in the trees will be reflected onto the narrative and foreshadows death or disruption. The setting is very rural and looks like a deserted country side, no form of civilisation. This is even more daunting for the viewer because due to media such as newspapers the most extreme are seen to occur in a an area that is unknown, this puts thoughts and images into the mind of the viewer and the case might be that this setting is not going to reflect any of their thoughts. As the camera is following this character and changing camera shots we piece these images together and make inferences according to her appearance. She is dressed very casually, with tracksuit bottoms on and what is interesting is the her jumper; it has loads of sweat on it, which is very worrying as we are not familiar with this character yet and so wonder what is wrong. It is daunting as the amount of sweat on her jumper suggests that she has been running for a long time and that she is in some kind of danger.


Sound In this first scene there is non-diegetic sound, the music connotes a unsteady and complex setting, as there are many variations in the music; it goes from high pitched, to low pitched and then quite deep. Reflecting sadness, triumph and power. The subtle diegetic bird tweeting (or animal noise) emphasises the country side setting.
Once she stops running she exchanges a couple of lines with a detective character. Her tone of voice is quite controlled and calm suggesting that she is not in any danger at all and that this was just a false clue. (typical of thriller films)



Camera Angles The director uses a medium shot to introduce the female character; we see her facial expression that is one of determination and possibly fear we infer that she is trying to get away from someone or something. The tracking from behind makes us think that she is being chased. The motion within the camera whilst she is running does a great job in conveying her urgency. And as the camera movement gets stronger we start to feel that urgency and build a connection with this character and feel scared for us.
The director uses spatial relations so we can see her in one shot running and then in the next shot we see a medium shot of a building when we see her in the building we are supposed to assume that she has entered the without actually seeing her entering.

Case Studies- Panic Room

Panic Room
Mise en scene The mise en scene in the first scene is that of urban city life, and thus is reflective of modern day life. And so the fact that it is of the thriller genre makes it that much more ‘closer to home’ for the viewer. Whatever disequilibrium that is soon to come in this narrative will have the viewer wondering could this happen to me?
The big expensive, elite looking buildings is in a sense intimidating as they are so big, this allows the viewer to infer of a destructive antagonist. The use of this daunting or powerful inner city mise en scene, tells the audience something bad is going to happen and so we become on edge, and anticipate for a destructive of frightening disequilibrium.

The mise en scene changes from the elite powerful looking buildings to the city. We are introduced to two characters that are dressed in opposite types of clothing but both are reflective of a modern woman in an urban society. All they are dressed very differently. For example one is dressed in a more flamboyant coat whereas the other is dressed in all black clothing. This suggests to me that the one dressed in all black clothing is most aware of her surroundings. And the other one is more likely to be exploited by the antagonist later on in this narrative.



Sound - There is the use of daunting deep instruments in the non-diegetic sound used for this opening sequence. The deep music connotes destructive power and links in with the city we are being introduced. When we associate with urban settings we don’t expect the dark and deep music that we infer to represent power and danger. We normally associate this music with a rural and unattractive mise en scene.

Camera Angles - Camera angles in this first scene are used to immense effect to create tension, suspense and a feeling of stalking. There are many point of view shots used in a montage- style fashion. We are being introduced to the setting and the high angle shot connotes a sense of superiority making the viewer feel inferior and most importantly enticing them into the narrative. There is one last tilt from a high angle shot to a mid-shot of two women. This sudden change creates a sense of normality. It is normal as the audience are able to familiarise themselves with the setting as oppose to the opening scene and the camera movement. The camera in this scene is taking on human characteristics; we feel that we are somewhat the eyes of the antagonist, stalking this city. We link the opening establishing shots with the two very apparent normal women. Although the use of high angles tilts make us fearful and also not safe from the antagonist’s wrath even though we know no physical harm will come to us.

The women are in dialogue and some sense of urgency is portrayed by the director through tracking. This sense of urgency on the surface to the viewer does not seem unusual as modern day women have been portrayed as having busy lifestyles. But if the viewer is an active consumer then they would link this urgency with the opening scene and infer of something out of the ordinary.
In the next scene there is a wide shot, but what is most interesting is the positioning of the characters. The man is represented as superior as he is standing at the top of the stairs. The two ladies are below him seem inferior. This suggests a conflict soon to come in the narrative between both females as the protagonists and not necessarily this man but a male antagonist.
There is then a gradual zoom from a medium shot to a close-up. This conveys her facial expression which is one of enigmas. This also makes the audience feel uneasy, but it may lead the viewer to connect with this character as the female is aware of something untoward that is coming her way.

Thriller genre research

As part of my preliminary task I have researched Thriller codes and conventions in order to use them as a basis for my groups own production, I found that the most popular conventions involve false clues and unsolved problems, which confuses the audience and tension builds, I feel that it is most appropriate to extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations; which is what I plan to do for both my preliminary and main production task.

Thriller Genre

Thriller films all have a goal to provoke tension and anticipation from the audience: Thriller films have many sub-genres for example Action thrillers, conspiracy, crime, Drama, psychological, Horror,Spy, Supernatural etc. all of the above follow a similar narrative characters mostly are convicts, criminals, stalkers assassins or they could be completely 'normal' but certain events could change their personality and the way they react to things for example in the 2009 film 'The last house on the left' ordinary middle class parents find out that the gang that raped and nearly killed their daughter was seeking refuge in their house and this caused them to conduct a series of gruesome revenge tactics. Although the sub-genre is important for people to distinguish for example the difference between a disaster thriller and a supernatural thriller etc. it is more important for within a thriller that the focus is taken away from the stalker or the crime, but focusing more on the suspense and the anticipation generated.

The Horror genre is closely-related to this genre and is similar as it also provokes tension and anticipation from the viewer, the difference is that most horror films resort to provoking these emotions through blood and visual discomfort whereas thriller's is mostly psychological which personally I think is more confusing for the viewer and is much more discrete and sophisticated.

Case Studies - Hide and Seek

Today I have completed all 5 of my case studies with all the corrections, as I stated earlier
Hide and Seek
Mise en scene-The mise en scene is set in a dull park setting in a park. The emphasis on this scene is that of the winter and dull setting. There is binary opposition within what we are meant to infer from her outfit and the actual mise en scene. Her pink outfit establishes her gender and emphasises the innocence connoted with young
girls, and on the other hand the dull winter setting connotes the harshness of real life and is the hidden meaning that the adult or older teens are supposed to grasp. This coldness is reflected as the trees in the background have no leaves possibly foreshadowing death although this is unknown to the viewer at this point.In the first scene the audience can immediately recognise the representation of a mother who is coping or appears normal for example her white clothing in the first scene reflects this notion of purity and the trust a child upholds within a parent. On the other hand in the second scene you infer of a normal wholesome family home, but the mother character is dressed in all black clothing signifying death and impurity. It suggests a connection between the sadness reflected through the violins earlier and a possible saddens within her.

Sound- The film starts with suspenseful piano non-diegetic sound. The use of this suspenseful sound is subtly creating tension within the viewer as classical music can be interpreted in different ways: it can be seen as calming and happy or in this case it can be used to reflect a sad or untoward mood. To me the music reflects a lot of emotion, more so when you see the mother and child character together. The audience infer from this music alone a lot of expressions of love and emotion is going to be reflected in this narrative. But the introduction of the violin suggests sadness and loss.

Camera Angles -The medium long shot of the mother and child demonstrates the strong bond between mother and child that society has constructed. These two characters may leave the feeling uneasy as with the structure of any narrative there is always an equilibrium and disequilibrium. This possibly foreshadows binary opposition between the disequilibrium of the narrative and the innocence and assumed purity of the child.
Through the use of point of view shots we feel as though we are the child experiencing the delights of spinning around on a Mary-go sound. Such a innocence and balanced narrative structure is being represented through the use of this child character.
The director of this film has taken into consideration the methodology of Hitchcock films and placed the camera in a extreme- close up of the young girl’s eyes. This allows use to build a personal relationship (which is part of the uses and gratification theory which suggests that as viewers we gain four gratifications from a film.) with the character, emotion comes directly from the actors eyes. And so added with the fact that this character is a child we are reeled into the narrative and although we know something bad is going to happen to her, we don’t want it to because through this extreme- close up we have built a connection with this character.The medium long shot I explained earlier quickly changes to a long shot where a male character is seen overlooking because of the use of a long shot the audience infer that he is a stranger. We later realise that he is the child’s father; the director seems to purposely use a long shot to connote the distance in the family and also in the couples relationship. In the next scene a wide shot is used and through this we see binary opposition evident again of the medication and alcohol and the happy family. This wide shots links in with the long shot of the father; we infer that there is big distance into getting the once happy family in the picture into reality again. And that it is impossible for them to be happy again.


Editing During the first scene there are no jump cuts suggesting that the child character is content and fulfilled around her mother. Through this a element of trust is reflected and we as viewers our fooled into the notion that there is a strong bond between these too and nothing could break it. These kind of false clues and paths our typical of the thriller genre.