Sunday, 21 October 2012

Scream analysis - Miss H

 Scream.


At the very start of ‘Scream’ you immediately realise it is a psychological horror.
The target audience of ‘Scream’ is an older audience 18 and above because not only does it contain strong language and violence but it contains scenes of a gruesome nature that can cause distress to some audiences. For example, 


The first horror foundations emerge in the opening seconds of ‘Scream’, Kacy receives a phone call that makes her uneasy, the phone then rings again and she is drawn into a conversation with the mysterious caller.


‘Scream’ has a slight thriller aspect, this is when the man on the phone says something that scares her psychologically and puts the audience on the edge of there seat.
In ‘Scream’ the director uses a establishing shot, this sets the scene and shows the audience where the character is.


The camera shot I am specifically talking about is the one that shows the audience the garden and then Kacy’s house, this tells you it is a horror movie as the house is miles away from the town, it is isolated and therefore so is Kacy, this also shows us voyeurism as the antagonist is looking in on her and so is the audience.


‘Scream’ uses sound to scare the audience and character eg: Kacy realises she’s being watched so she locks all the doors and looks out the front window she then walks into the other room and then straight after that the door bell rings this scares her and the audience as its unexpected.
Mise En Scene in ‘Scream’ creates the setting, this affects the target year, for example Scream was made in 1996 so the clothes worn by the characters reflect this time period.


The Mise En Scene also shows a horror element in the film an example of this is when Kacy plays with a knife whilst on the phone creating a horror element, she mentions another horror movie where the killer used a kitchen knife as the murder weapon, and this shows us dramatic irony.





You comment briefly on camera, sound and mise-en-scene. To improve, you need to expand on your ideas to demonstrate detailed analysis using the PEER method.

You need to also:

1. Replace 'aim' of scream with 'target audience'.

2. You speak of scenes of a gruesome nature - please provide examples of them to support your comments.

3. The third paragraph needs work - it is not a 'slight' thriller aspect. It is a thriller and you have to justify why by picking identifying the genric conventions that feature in it.

Analysis of Questionnaire - Miss h

Questionnaire:

1. What is your favourite movie genre? 

2. Do you watch thriller films on a regular basis? 

3. What is your favourite thriller movie and why?

4. What do you look for in a thriller movie opening?

5. Where do you think is the best location to film a thriller movie opening? 

6. What do you thing is the best iconography (weapon) to use in a thriller? 

7. What do you find effective about thrillers?

8. If you enjoy thrillers, why? 

9. What sort of story line keeps you hooked into a thriller film? 

10. Have you ever turned a thriller film off before it finised? Is so why? 





Sub Genres - Miss H

Thriller Sub-genres.

Within a genre there are many sub genres, for example in the thriller genre there are  thirteen sub genres including: action thriller, crime thriller, legal thriller and psychological thriller.



Action adventure thriller:

An action adventure is less about fear and thrills and more about doing something, or doing lots of things, to get somewhere, all of which are interesting, but not necessarily fearful.
The examples for an action adventure thriller is: 

Safe - This narrative is related to the sub genre 'action adventure thriller' as the narrative is: Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei's trail. This reinforces the conclusion of safe being an action, adventure thriller as the task is to find this girl and rescue her, so it is less about the fear and the thrill but is mainly interested in getting the girl and how the characters will get there.

Conspiracy Thriller
 
In this sub genre the protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone.



Air America - Air America is based on a young pilot who finds himself recruited into a covert and corrupt CIA airlift organization operating in Vietnam War Era Laos, this is had a relation to the sub genre listed above as his aim is to try and escape from the airlift organization operating in the Vietnam War, but to do this he must confront the organization, this he must do alone.

Crime Thriller
 
This sub genre focuses on crime, and is 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.



The dark Knight: 
When Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent launch an assault on the mob, they let the clown out of the box, the Joker, bent on turning Gotham on itself and bringing any heroes down to his level, i believe this narrative is reinforcing the main focus of a crime thriller, which is the criminals point of view, which is shown (the joker) as he tries to rob banks and bring the world to his level and follow his commands. This narrative is suitable for the 'crime thriller' genre as it includes the police capturing the villain to try and discover him.

Disaster Thriller
 
In this sub genre usually a natural disaster is taking place, and the antagonist is either trying to stop the disaster, the extent of the disaster, or just save themselves before time runs out and the disaster has run its course.


Two Minute Warning:
The narrative for this movie will include the elements of a disaster thriller.
A psychotic sniper plans a massive killing spree in a Los Angeles football stadium during a major championship game. The police, led by Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT commander Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), learn of the plot and rush to the scene. Still, they may be too late, as an all-star cast finds itself lined up in the sights of a gun-toting madman.

Psychological Thriller

Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.





Thursday, 18 October 2012

The development of thriller genres - Miss H

How has the thriller genre developed in both the mainstream and independent fields over the last 30 years?

The thriller genre has developed in the last 30 years, mainly because there is new technology which is more advanced and up to date.
The thriller movies created between the 1970's - 1980's were more psychological and were mainly based on the audiences fear which created a real relationship between the audience and the movie, whereas now, there is so much blood and gore, movies in the 1980's were more scary without being disgusting.

1970-1980's Movies:



 2008-2012 Movies:





For example the film, 'the untouchables' (1986), keeps the audience in suspense and in tension as the film is set out in an ordinary modern setting which reinforces the thriller genre to be more 'realistic',  the on screen sound helps to produce the effect of suspense and tension,which also reflects back on the audience's fear which is 'realistic'.

By comparing the film 'the untouchables' and the film 'saw' you can see a huge development between these films, as the untouchables does not show a huge amount of blood, the blood and violence is very minimum, whereas a latest film 'saw' has an extended amount of blood being portrayed, which reinforces my point on todays films having so much more blood and gore, this is a reason to why there are many different thriller sub genres. 

Conspiracy Thriller
 
In this sub genre the protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone.


Crime Thriller
 
This sub genre focuses on crime, and is 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.


Disaster Thriller
 
In this sub genre usually a natural disaster is taking place, and the antagonist is either trying to stop the disaster, the extent of the disaster, or just save themselves before time runs out and the disaster has run its course.


Psychological Thriller

Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.

Action Thriller

An action thriller movie is mainly focusing on the action which takes part in the film but has thriller elements within the film. 








The BBFC - Miss H

The BBFC.

What is the BBFC?
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent, non-governmental body. The BBFC classifies films, videos/DVDs and some video games, advertisements and trailers according to its Classification Guidelines, with ratings ranging from ‘U’ for Universal to ‘R18’

Age Certificates.


15.
No one younger than 15 should be able to see this film. It may involve scenes of drug use however it cannot encourage this misuse of drugs or any other dangerous substance. Nudity and sexual activity is accepted but not in strong detail as it is too inappropriate for people under the age of 15. Serious crimes may be used in a film but not shown in too much depth. Violence can be involved but there cannot be too much attention drawn to the pain or misery of the Act. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language, for example the work f***. Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms for example C****. 

An example of a movie with the age rating of 15 is shown below:
Paranormal Activity. Age rating: 15


18.
In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC's public consultations, at '18' the BBFC's guideline concerns will not normally override the wish that adults should be free to chose their own entertainment, within the law. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas: where material or treatment appears to the Board to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – e.g. any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which is likely to promote the activity.

An example of a movie with the age rating of 18 is shown below:

Kill Bill. Age rating: 18

U.


The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for
audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict
what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range.

The BBGC rate films and videos aimed at very young viewers, such as Chuggington, Teletubbies or In The Night Garden, U. However, the BBFC give them special BBFCinsight stating they are ‘particularly Suitable for pre-school children’. Films or DVDs with this BBFCinsight should raise no significant issues in terms of discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, theme or violence.

An example of a movie with the rating of 'U' is shown below:

 
PG.

PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content might upset younger or more sensitive children.
 
In a PG work, illegal or antisocial behaviour, such as bullying, will not be condoned or seen to go unchallenged. Smoking and drinking will not be promoted or glamorised and if child characters are seen smoking or drinking, there should be a clear message that this is bad. If drugs are mentioned or seen, a PG work should emphasise that they are harmful.
 
 
12.
 
12A means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film unaccompanied. The A stands for 'accompanied' and 'advisory'. Children younger than 12 may see the film if they are accompanied by an adult (eg someone over the age of 18), who must watch the film with them.
An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. To help adults make this decision, we provide BBFCinsight for all films.






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Monday, 15 October 2012

Group Narrative - Miss G

Group narrative (Miss Georgiou)

Group Narrative
Everyone in my group wrote up and individual narrative saying what will happen in each scene what types of character, camera shots, edit etc we could use. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages of each idea and created a narrative to use in our thriller clip. 
The people who are part of my group narrative are : Dipika Sharma, Lauren Vale, and me (Ayesha Ali)
Dipika Sharma
Individual Narrative

Storyline
My stroyline is about a girl called Aisha that has two bestfriends called Angeline and Louise. They do everything together and they are such a close group of friends. Aisha starts recieving strange text messages from a random number and she keeps it quiet for a while. Soon she decides that she would tell her friend Louise about this stalker. Her friend Louise thinks that Aisha (the girl that gets stalked) is joking and lying about the stalker and doesnt believe her what so ever seeing as Aisha is a top joker and jokes about everything! Soon after Aisha goes missing one day and theres a note on Louises bed saying "Call Aishas phone or she dies"
Louise then tells her friend Angeline, the clever one out of the three about what happend, but she gets angry because they dident tell her in the first place!


Characters
The characters in my story are 3 best friends called Angeline Aisha and Louise.
Angeline is the clever one out of the three, she has an answer for everything and she can easily get out of traps and never gets into trouble because she is so clever.
Aisha is the top joker in the group, she jokes about everything and never takes anything seriously. She has no limits to her jokes no matter how extream they are she jokes about it.
Then there is Louise thats blonde and thinks everythings a joke and laughs about everything aswell. Shes always worried about her looks and makeup.


Setting
In our thriller movie we will use a number of different settings and locations throughout depending on what is going on in that particular scene. The first scene will be set at night on a roadside in public, with just a girl walking home on her way back from a club. In this opening scene i will try to use codes and convetions of a thriller film and the key feature we will use is low key lighting. We will also use background music to suit whats going on at that moment. So when the girl starts getting chased the music will turn into fast pace music etc. Other settings we will use in our thriller opening is one of the girls bedrooms, a club, a carpark and a forest.

Target Audience
This film will be rated a 15 because it will have sceness of a sexual nature and maybe some use of drugs and voilence.

Codes and Conventions
- Low key lighting
- Shock
- Surprise
- Suspence
- Tention
- Stalking
- Chase
- Background music

An advantage to this is it has loads of good codes and convention like low key lighting from the stated settings. A Disadvantage to this is it would be hard to film the scenes without getting unwanted people in the background or noises the will distracted the viewers.

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Lauren Vale
Individual Narrative

My individual idea for our thriller narrative is a teenage girl wakes up and finds herself trapped in an unfamiliar room tied against a chair. The clip then goes into a flashback to reveals what had happened to her and how she ended up in that predicament. The teenage girl goes missing and eventually the best friends notice her out of character behaviour of not turning up to school and not talking to them for a number of days and decide to try and find out what happen to her. Over that period of time all the girls get anonymous texts from someone dropping hints on where she is and gives them tasks that they have to complete. If they did this they would receive another text giving them the next tip to help them find her. If the girls didn't do what the texts said their friend would be killed.

Settings:
There are going to be number of settings throughout my thriller narrative and the first one will be based in a dark room. The girl wakes up and finds herself tied to a chair and doesn't know how she got there. The audience will be able to realise that she was drugged up by the unknown stalker. In the scene i will used low-key lighting to help conceal the identity of the stalker and prevent the audience for getting a clear view or the surrounding keeping them in suspense. The second settings will be set in a forest. This will highlight to the audience that its hard to escape and that the girls are alone. This is where the stalker will get them to do a task to get the next text. Finally the third settings will be at a park whether the two friend meet to talk about the texts and their missing friend. The park is conventional to the thriller genre because it create a creepy atmosphere for the audience and the audience expect there to be little kids playing there instead of girls being stalked.

Beginning:
Once the girl wakes up she remembers what had happened the previous day and starts to panic. I will use diegetic sounds of the girl screaming and her heavy breathing to create a tense atmosphere. The clip with then going back into a flashback of the three girls walking to school when one of them receives a anonymous text message threatening to kidnap her. The girl dismisses it and continues like normal without telling the other two girls what has been happening. over this scene non-diegetic sound will be played to make the audience suspicious creating a sense of foreboding that something bad is going to happen. The day carries on like normal, they go to school and as soon at the bell goes they meet up to walk home. The two friends wait for the other girl and soon realise that she isn't at school and assume she went home early. I will then show the girl receiving the texts walking home from the stalkers point of view making the audience know she is being followed. I am going to use  specific camera angles such as a low angle and point of view to help hide the identity of the stalker and build suspense.

Middle:In the middle of the narrative there will be two scenes one in the forest and one at a park in their local area. Firstly the two girls arrange to meet up to talk about the texts they have both been receive and about there missing friend. This scene will be shown in a two shot so the audience can see their facial expressions and their body language. This scene will include on-screen sounds such as the swings creaking in the wind or the trees whistling. These conventions will build suspense within the audience.
The second scene is where the friends of the kidnapped girl both receive anonymous texts off of the stalker telling them to go so a certain place and certain time. The diegetic sound of the phones ringing at the same time will be shown through an extreme closed up with shallow focus. This is conventional to the thriller genre building a tense atmosphere. The girls are told to go to a forest which highlights to the audience that its is an isolated location making the generic victims more vulnerable. They complete the task set out in front of them that leads them closer to their friend.
 
End:In the final part of the thriller narrative the two girls a led to the place where their friend was and struggle to help her untie herself from the ropes. Once they have finish all three of them run towards the door to get out where the stalker reveal his identity and raises a gun a the girls. The cameras zooms in on the iconography prop and this diegetic sound you hear a gun shot. This shock the audience and the camera fades to black.
The target audience for my thriller narrative was a 15 because i may use strong threat and menace unless sadistic. The violence may be strong but i wont dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.

an advantage for this would be that she has used different scenes to connect my event. She could use a variety of conventions such as camera shots, settings and lighting to create suspense, surprise and tension. However a disadvantage would be that it would be hard to find a god location for the scene where the girl wakes up in a dark room like a warehouse to film. This would be ineffective because it wouldn't create the suspense needed.

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Ayesha Ali
Individual narrative

Narrative:
There is a group of 5 children, they're all on vacation and they're all having a sleepover round onee of the five children's house.. it's 9 o clock and they decide to play hide and seek.. one of the children go upstairs and hide in the loft in one of the cupboards and he finds a box that was tapped up with allot of layers, so the child decides to open the box, once hes opened the box he finds a book.. he starts reading the book, and the book tells a story about 5 characters that all get treats and good things happen to them. What the boy does not realise is that the book is based on the 5 friends life.. so in the book as one character gets a gift, one of the friends get a gift and so on.. so all five friends eventually have good things going for them, when suddenly theres a twist.. one friend in the book has to die, so all five friends argue within themselves as they are worried to find out which friend dies.


Characters:
The characters in my story are 5 best friends called, tom, jake, amy, rose and mike. In my story all five friends go to Tom's house for a sleepover. The character who finds the book is Amy, and amy decides to tell her closest friend Rose. In the story, Jake is the very calm, easy going character who takes everything as a joke and is very rarely serious, so in this situation Jake does not really pay much attention until the twist happens. Finally Mike, Mike is the very clever character who looks into everything into detail, he very rarely takes a joke and makes one, once Mike finds out about this book he creates an argument as he wants to tell his parents as this is something serious, but the other characters do not agree.

Setting
In the thriller movie we will use many different settings ongoing throughout the movie which all relies on the particular scene. The opening scene will first be set out in the playground of the school where all five friends play together everyday, and that is where all characters decide to have a sleepover round Tom's house. Later the scene will be placed at Tom's house where they play hide and seek and find the book. Many other scenes may be included for e.g: Houses, Park, Cafe or school.

Target audience:
The target audience for this thriller is 15 because many scenes may include a limitless number of violence or blood.

Codes and conventions:
Shock
emotions
chase
enigma
low key lighting
Background music 


An advantage of the narrative is that it has a typical setting in the house which is conventional to the thriller. A disadvantage of this is that in one of the setting it would be hard to not get unwanted noises. An example would be wind or even children that are going to play in the park. Another disadvantage to this narrative would be that it is hard to get five people to act it out.

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Synopsis


For our final idea i have used different parts of each of our individual narratives to create a new idea.

Our final idea is going to be a stalker obsessing over a school girl. The characters we will have for our thriller opening will be: The obsessive stalker, the innocent school girl and the innocent school girls friend. The narrative will be based on an unknown stalker capturing the school girl. This will begin by the innocent school girl being trapped in a room, then a flashback will be played to how this has happened. The flashback will include the school girl walking to her friends house to collect some books from her friend, but what she doesn't know is that the stalker is following her, the innocent girl has been getting text messages before but has ignored them as she thought nothing serious of it. Later when the innocent girl is inside her friends house she gets a text saying 'what books are you getting' the innocent girl again thinks nothing of the text and ignores it. Now the innocent girl is walking home but has to go through a forest to get home, the stalker now appears in the scene and the innocent girl hears a twig crack and looks behind her to find a stalker with a black jumper looking directly towards her, the innocent girl runs and hides behind a tree and trys ringing her friend who doesn't pick up, the stalker then appears to jump out behind her and catches her. From here the scene will flashback to the girl trapped in a room. 
 
Settings:
There are going to be number of settings throughout our thriller narrative and the first one will be based in a dark room. This is where the victim wakes up and finds herself tied up with rope on the floor. I am going to use low key lighting to hide the surroundings leaving the victim and the audience unaware of the location. This is conventional because the reflection shown from the low key lighting keeps the audience in suspense. Our second setting is going to be in a forest to where the girl is caught by the stalker, we have found this conventional to a thriller as the environment around us will create an effect of being isolated and alone, as the victims are always the ones being left on their own.
 
Beginning:
The beginning of our narrative is going to start off with the girl waking up in a dark abandoned room with her hands and feet and waist tied up, with duck tape placed on her mouth. She soon realises what had happened and she begins to panic. This is conventional to a thriller as the audience can see the victim struggle to escape, which will build a relationship with the audience as her facial expressions will express pain, this is also conventional as the victim is the one suffering. The scene then goes into a flashback to show the audience what had happened the previous day and how the innocent girl had ended up in that predicament. This is conventional because it starts of with an enigma which is the key feature in a the thriller genre, it leaves the audience questioning what happened which builds suspense because they are waiting to find out who had caught her and why. We are also using low key lighting which is conventional because it hides the settings so the audience are unaware of where they are just like the victim. This is effective because it builds a level of anxiety. The iconography items such as ropes and duck tape highlights that's she is trapped and she has been left abandoned. This convention makes the audience curious and gives them a sense of foreboding that something mysterious is going to happen.

Middle:

This will begin by the innocent school girl being trapped in a room, then a flashback will be played to how this has happened. The flashback will include the school girl walking to her friends house to collect some books from her friend, but what she doesn't know is that the stalker is following her, the innocent girl has been getting text messages before but has ignored them as she thought nothing serious of it. Later when the innocent girl is inside her friends house she gets a text saying 'what books are you getting' the innocent girl again thinks nothing of the text and ignores it. Now the innocent girl is walking home but has to go through a forest to get home, the stalker now appears in the scene and the innocent girl hears a twig crack and looks behind her to find a stalker with a black jumper looking directly towards her, the innocent girl runs and hides behind a tree and trys ringing her friend who doesn't pick up, the stalker then appears to jump out behind her and catches her. From here the scene will flashback to the girl trapped in a room. 
 
End:
In the end the stalker manages to grab hold of the innocent girl, the scene now fades to the dark room the where the girl was tied up to reinforce the beginning of the scene.
 
Target Audience:
The target audience for this thriller is 15 because many scenes may include a limitless number of violence or blood. 


The advantages to this narrative is that we will be having a setting that is mysterious and more conventional to a thriller, also the iconography we have chosen, we believe that this will help us achieve our goal of building a relationship with the audience as to how we have used the iconography.
The disadvantages to our thriller will be the timing for some of our scenes, for example: we will need to film in a forest where the weather won't be too bright and too dark. However, we have decided a filming schedule for this.


Codes and conventions of our thriller narrative:
  • Low key lighting - This will help create shadows of our victim and the villain.
  • Chase - This will build a relationship between the audience and the victim
  • Shadows - Which will be used to represent the inner darkness within beings.
  • Quick Cuts - This will be used in an important/thrilling scene within our opening
  • Changes in camera angles - Will help visualize more than one things happening in a scene.
  • Tension music - This is an important convention for our thriller as it will have the audience feeling tense and curious.
  • Photographs - The photographs used in our thriller opening is conventional to a thriller as the victim is always targeted, and the audience is able to see this through photographs of the victim either hanged or displayed in the villains setting.
  • Flashback - This is a convention of a thriller, it allows the audience to have an insight of our characters past.
  • Stairs - The stairs is a key factor for one of our codes and conventions as it won't show the audience the full identity of the character but will only display the characters feet, from there the audience will be left questioning who the character is.
  • Ropes - This convention will help add to the effect of our opening being a thriller.
  • Knife - This convention will help add to the effect of our opening being a thriller.
  • Match sticks - This convention will help add to the effect of our opening being a thriller.
  • Unknown Setting - We had thought an unknown setting will help to create an enigma within our thriller opening.
  • Hidden identity - As a group, we were attracted to the idea of having a hidden identity as it wouldn't give away the narrative of our thriller opening but at the same time, will keep the audience in their seats.
How is our narrative conventional to a thriller?
I think our group narrative is conventional to a thriller as our plot for this story is a kidnapping plot which includes the kidnapper being a psycho. This is conventional to a thriller as the victims are usually the ones being chased/captures/caught, and also the villains most commonly have a problem for e.g: psycho, mental etc. For our thriller opening we will be having our victim being chased through the forest and eventually gets caught by the stalker who is a obsessive psycho, this reinforces my point of our plot being conventional to a thriller as the victim is chased and our villain is a psycho, to add to our narrative being conventional to a thriller, we have used a character with a hidden identity to help create an enigma within our opening, our setting will also be part of creating an enigma as the audience will be aware that something strange is going to happen as the characters will be in a forest, so the audience will be left in their seats, curious and tense waiting for a sudden incident to occur.

Individual Narrative - Miss G

Individual Narrative.

Narrative: 

There is a group of 5 children, they're all on vacation and they're all having a sleepover round onee of the five children's house.. it's 9 o clock and they decide to play hide and seek.. one of the children go upstairs and hide in the loft in one of the cupboards and he finds a box that was tapped up with allot of layers, so the child decides to open the box, once hes opened the box he finds a book.. he starts reading the book, and the book tells a story about 5 characters that all get treats and good things happen to them. What the boy does not realise is that the book is based on the 5 friends life.. so in the book as one character gets a gift, one of the friends get a gift and so on.. so all five friends eventually have good things going for them, when suddenly theres a twist.. one friend in the book has to die, so all five friends argue within themselves as they are worried to find out which friend dies.


Characters:

 The characters in my story are 5 best friends called, tom, jake, amy, rose and mike. In my story all five friends go to Tom's house for a sleepover. The character who finds the book is Amy, and amy decides to tell her closest friend Rose. In the story, Jake is the very calm, easy going character who takes everything as a joke and is very rarely serious, so in this situation Jake does not really pay much attention until the twist happens. Finally Mike, Mike is the very clever character who looks into everything into detail, he very rarely takes a joke and makes one, once Mike finds out about this book he creates an argument as he wants to tell his parents as this is something serious, but the other characters do not agree.

Setting:


In the thriller movie we will use many different settings ongoing throughout the movie which all relies on the particular scene. The opening scene will first be set out in the playground of the school where all five friends play together everyday, and that is where all characters decide to have a sleepover round Tom's house. Later the scene will be placed at Tom's house where they play hide and seek and find the book. Many other scenes may be included for e.g: Houses, Park, Cafe or school.

Target audience:
The target audience for this thriller is 15 because many scenes may include a limitless number of violence or blood. I think the age group i have chosen will watch my film as it would create a stronger relationship between them and the characters compared to the rest of the audience watching the film, the reason to this is because the characters in our opening are around the same age as my target audience, so the audience who are around the age of '15' will ideally imagine themselves in the victims position, hopefully this will aim to scare the audience which is why they wanted to watch my film.


Codes and conventions:

  • Low key lighting - This will help create shadows of our victim and the villain. This will be evidenced in the scene to where Amy will go in the loft to find the book, the light that will be coming through to that scene will only be the light coming from cracks from the ceiling which will create a mysterious vibe within the audience as they will be aware from the lighting that some thing un-ordinary is about to happen.
  • Chase - This will build a relationship between the audience and the victim. The chase will be taking part with Jake and Mike. Mike will be chasing after Jake but Jake will be unaware of who is chasing him, while the audience can see exactly who is chasing him. This reinforces the fact that the chase will build a relationship between the audience and the victim (Jake) as they are in their own world positioning themselves in the victims (Jakes) position hoping he will look behind him to see that Mike is chasing him.
  • Quick Cuts - This will be used in an important/thrilling scene within our opening.
  • Shadows - Which will be used to represent the inner darkness within beings. The true colours arise between the characters when Rose betrays Amy and choses for Amy to die instead of herself. This is shown when Amy dies there is a strong shadow standing next to Amy, this shadow represents to the audience that the character of this shadow is a greedy narrow character.
  • Changes in camera angles - Will help visualize more than one things happening in a scene.
  • Tension music - This is an important convention for our thriller as it will have the audience feeling tense and curious.


How is my narrative conventional to a thriller?

My narrative is conventional to a thriller as my plot is a chain of links that summaries the narrative. This means that my narrative is a mysterious on going story. This is conventional to a thriller movie as most movies have a twist to their movies which i have included. The audience itself will not be expecting my thriller opening to have a twist to the end, this is conventional to a thriller as the enigma will thrill the audience and engage their attention to continue viewing my opening as they will suddenly turn into their own little world trying to link the chains together to solve the mystery. 

Also the main convention of a thriller film is the iconography used. The lighting for our scene in the loft is only light enough to see minute details which add to the suspense as a natural human instinct to find out what isn't known. Large threatening props such as guns, knifes and acid we have used to create a sense of danger and fear. Also the colours i have chosen for the narrative represent the characters emotions. For example Jack always wears red t shirts which symbolises danger and blood in our narrative, While amy always has a blue bow tie which is meant to represent a mystery. 

Thursday, 11 October 2012

Psycho shower scene - Miss H

Psycho Shower Scene.
The editing and camera shots were used in the film 'psycho' to enhance the conventions of the thriller genre.
Psycho shower scene
The scene starts with the girl sat at her desk filling in a book of some importance showing that what she is doing is confidential and that the book itself must have a higher status than the girl. It is an eye line shot and a medium shot which makes the audience feel close to the girl and here surroundings. In the shot the girl is in a dressing gown and is surrounded by normal scenery for example a mirror and chairs. However there is one window in the shot showing a bit of vulnerability because it is the only entrance that you can see. 

The cuts at this moment do not occur that often until she goes to the bath room. The girl walks to the shower to put the paper into the bin. A close up is used on the toilet to show that the flushing is an crucial part of the scene. After this the girl takes of her clothes showing her skin, this shows that the girl is vulnerable. This also shows the audience that the girl is now unprotected and the fact that you are seeing her shower indicates that something is going to happen. 

 The cuts start to happen more often now showing that something will happen, the constant showing of the running shower head shows that it is an independent witness of an event that will soon occur. The cuts stop so that the audience can see through the curtain that the door has opened. The camera remains the same as the audience sees the killer slowly walks in. 

once the killer pulls back the curtain the theme of the killer starts and the cuts start happening very rapidly. The cuts show the women’s head moving different directions showing distress. When the killer leaves the bathroom the cuts become very slow again symbolizing that the women is dying. Her hand is shown in a close up sliding down the the wall. Whilst this is happening the camera moves to the side slightly showing emptyness, the shower is still running at this point showing how it is the only living source in the room at this moment. 

A close up is used on the plug hole to show the water going down and symbolises losing and perhaps shows how before she put rubbish in the toilet and now she is almost being flushed herself.






Film Director Research - Miss H

Research on Alfred Hitchcock. 

What is a film director?
film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock.


Full Name: Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
Born: London, August 13, 1899
Died: Los Angeles, April 29, 1980
Career: Movie/TV director, producer, actor and writer from the 1920s to the 1970s in Britain and the United States
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, billed as England's best director, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood.
Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters.
Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGruffin" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones.

Some ofSir Alfred Hitchcock Films:
  • Psycho - 1960
  • The birds - 1963
  • Rear window - 1953
  • Vertigo - 1958
  • North by North West - 1959
  • Marnie - 1964
  • Rebecca - 1940
  • Rope - 1940