Prelim Animatic

The Story board shows a character walking into a room, where they then meet another character who is sitting there scribbling on a piece of paper. The character who enters the room is a councillor who is treating a mental patient. As the councillor asks if the patient is alright he is ignored as she continues to scribble. The councillor carries on asking until the patient begins to grow restless persisting that someone is at the door watching her, but the councillor tries to assure her no one is there. We then see a scary figure at the door for a split second but soon vanishes...

Structure of Thriller Openings

There are 3 basic structures which are -

• A Narrative opening (with titles running throughout)
• A discrete sequence
• Titles over a blank screen - followed by the narrative opening

An example of a film which illustrates the 'narrative opening' is the film Panic room

Panic room demonstrates a narrative being brought in the opening sequence, we are introduced to the main character by continuous mid shots and the fact that we are always viewing there expressions after something has been said also she has most camera time.



We are also introduced to the setting of New York city because of the iconic images of time square and the high buildings. During the title sequence we can see that the credits have become part of the mise en scene suggesting that the narrative of this film is closely related to its setting.

In panic room the sound changes soon after into a sinister low sound indicating to the thriller/ action genre.

An example of a film which shows a discrete sequence is the film Enemy of the state

An example of a film which has a blank screen throughout the opening credits and then followed by the narrative opening is: 

Structures of Film Openings

Structure of Film Openings

Discrete Title Sequence

 SE7EN

Discrete title sequences are created by using loads of editing.  This gives the audience a hint of what the movie’s genre it might be, although the use of jump cuts in this discrete opening creates uncertainty in the audience of what the movie is exactly going to be about.

Traditional

Traditional title sequences are used to give the audience a place where they can relate to, where the films is going to take place, as it also gives an inside of the drama. As in this film Panic Room, the titles are as if attached to the buildings, creating the effect of being one with the city. The use of editing isn't as in exaggeration as with the stylish title sequence.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when a film makes reference to or in some way is influenced by other films or film genres. Films often use scenes from other movies and recreate them to include them in their movie. A good example of this is ‘Psycho’ and ‘Fatal Attraction’. The last scene in Fatal Attraction makes reference to the earlier film ‘Psycho’.

Both of these scenes are almost identical, Fatal attraction used everthing from Psycho from being in a bathroom to the props, like the knife etc. Both scene are dramatic and famous.

Art Of The Title Sequence

Catch Me If You Can

Other Influences for openings

Intertextuality

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between films. Quite literally, films borrow aspects from each other. This may include the use of camera angles,mise en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing.

A good example of intertextuality woud be from the infamous shower scene in the film Psycho. Many films have created similar scenes that relate to this scene is all aspects.

There has even been a cross between genres as the shower scene is replicated in a spoof from The Simspons. There has been intertextual reference through the use of sound and as you can see the use of the blood draining out of the sink.

This particular shot from Fatal Attraction is another good example as it also has the rapid stabbing in the bathroom, but also mimics the idea of a woman being stabbed in the bathroom and then falling slowly back against the wall leaving a trail of blood behind her.

Ideas For Our Thriller

From watching these varieties of thrillers I particularly found the idea of using camera angles as an important feature. I would like to have the camera focuing on characters from a high angle with no noise, building up anticipation to a climax of the characters eyes suddenly opening.





Fatal Attraction shows a good example of this idea



Intertextuality

Intertexuality : is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts, it can include an authors burrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader referencing of one text in reading another 

A example of this being done is in an American spoof movie called Disaster movie which encounters other well known text references from different movies and television shows this is shown through many of the characters by there use of identity costume, similar camera shots and music which is represents a certain person (Hannah Montana)

Opinions Of Thrillers

Personal Responses To Thrillers

I decided to conduct some research in order to find out actual peoples opinions on what a thriller is, rather than giving a simple definition.

By doing this it became apparent that there were some explicit simalarities as well differences in the perception of a thriller. This nonethless gives a better understanding to the genre.

ideas for the opening film

La Diosa Coronada

Intertextuality

Intertextuality

Is the shaping of texts, story line or scenes from other texts, photographs, paintings or films. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.

As an example of this a found in one of The Simpsons episodes an Intertextuality reference to the film The Shining. 

Some still shots of the film, to get an idea of what is the story line. 

This link is to get a glimpse of the way The Simpsons used The Shinning in their episode.

The Chase

The wife is trying to run away from 'Jhonny', as he wants to rip her apart.

In the episode from The Simpsons, Homer gets crazy as he is living in a house for several days, without beer or food, this is what drives him insane and tries to attack Marge. They even included the   

In the film the wife finds several pages with the phrase 'All works end no play makes a dull boy'. He wrote it with a type writer. He fills several pages of this.

marge is 

Teacher Feedback

Hello group 22
Some great looking blogs here - particularly from Lindsay and Chris (well done).  I'm wondering where you time-line blog is - this was the work that we did in the lesson last week.  Don't forget to post it.

Anjana - I got your email.  Come along and blog during lunchtime workshop.

Keep up the great work everyone.

Film Audiences

For each one of the genres exist different audiences.



Comedy: These genre is mainly directed to the family audiences, the content of this films are meant to be funny, using actors well know, as a clear example of this there is the film:

Bruce Almighty
The film is a must watch film fro all the family, everybody from the small ones to the adults do enjoy the films in which Jim Carry is on.




Horror: These genre is for teenagers and young adults. The content of these films are sinister, scary and creepy. For example:

 The poster of the film above is meant to be more appealing to the young generation for the low key lightening, the kid without a mouth and the look in her eyes.



Romance: In this genre the audience tends to be young adults but mainly adults, for example there is the film...

This is now a classic film of romance with Leonardo Dicaprio as Jack, in the poster is clearly to see the romantic genre with the way in which the main characters are hugging or holding each other.







Action: This films are full of action, energy, movements through the whole of it, every body in the room is trapped inside the story line.

The Transporter film is full of action, as it can be observed from the poster, there is the main character Jason Statham is holding a gun, It looks as if he his trying to defend himself. The young adults and the male adults are probably more drawn to watch this kind of films.






Historic: the audience can be adults and probably few young adults as well. The main theme or story line on this genre are to remember or to recreate specific parts of the history in a specific place. As an example...

In the poster is clearly to the eye that the main character Mel Gibson has been a battle and the background there is a battle going on. the audience for this film are the adults,as they are more aware of situations form the history.

Research into film audiences

Audiences

Audience data describes the gender, age, ethnicity, social group and region of the film audience as a whole and for particular popular film titles.

These are the diffrent film certificate catergories.

Thrillers tend to be aimed at 12 - 18 age certificates as they may have innappropriate content, such as violence that may not be suitable for younger viewers. The subgenre can heavily influence the target audience for a thriller as some can be more horror based compared to others that can be crime based.

Genre and Subgenre

The term genre is a way of categorising a particular media text according to its content and style.

Genre does not rely simply on what's in a media text but also on the way it is put together (constructed). This can be important, for example, when distinguishing between a horror movie and a thriller, which can deal with similar subject matter, and look the same — lots of action set at night — but belong to separate genres (a horror film takes the audience into a supernatural place, where a thriller sticks to reality).

A subgenre is a additional catergory of genre added to a piece of media providing addtional features that could help attract a wider audience.

The Film Shutter Island is a Psychological thriller that also has an additional subgenere of horror.
This particualr piece of media inspires me as a thriller as it appeals to the audience through keeping them constantly 'guessing' throughout the film, drawing them to think for themselves to what they believe is actually going on.

From watching this clip I was inspired by the use of sound to build up to a climax. For example 'mood music' is used throughout the sequence. This makes the audience aware of the genre. Also in the clip at 2:06 the contrast in sound is built up as also of a sudden the music becomes a faster tempo before going deadly silent, in order to startle the audeince as something is about to drasticly happen.

There is also a use of dim low key lighting to convey the atmosphere throughout there are never extreme bright colours used.

Genre And Sugenre

Genre is the kind or type of a work of art, comes from the French, meaning 'kind' or 'genus' Literary genres include the novel and the sonnet. Musical genres include the concerto and the symphony. Film genres include:

This genre has earned the most money in 2011

Sub genres are more difficult to explain as these ones are usually classified depending on the film itself. For example, 

This film's genre is Horror, and as sub genre has thriller, drama and mystery. when combining these three sub genres as result we have a horrific film, which maintains the viewers at the edge of their seats through out the whole film.

Research: Target audiences

When a film is made it is made with a target audience in mind. Filmmakers generally aim to appeal to a specific section of the audience; this is what is referred to as a target audience. This can be divided into categories including age and gender, which will influence a films content. For example, 'He's just not that into you' is clearly targeted towards women and uses conventionally female themes such as love.

This also applies to thriller films. They also tend to appeal to a specific demographic. in most cases thrillers appeal to teenagers and young adults because they find it less shocking. In 'Saw' the use of 'bold and guts' does not deter younger viewers.

'Premonition' is a thriller film which uses classic thriller conventions such as suspense. it is a psychological thriller which works on an intellectual level and features a level of mystery which would appeal to adults rather than teenagers.

Genre and Subgenre

A genre is a category in which something is placed due to its content. For example, Paranormal Activity would be considered as being a thriller/horror because it contains scary elements. A genre is almost like a 'type' of movie. There are many different types of genre's, thriller being one of the most popular.

Although a movie could be categorised into being a thriller, there are several different types of thrillers. These films usually contain other elements to them, this is called 'Subgenre'. An example of this would be the movie 'Scream 4', Scream 4 is a thriller but it also contains elements of mystery throughout the film. Mystery would be the subgenre.
 
One of my favourite films is 'Shaun of the Dead'. Shaun of the dead is a comedy thriller based on the earlier film ‘Dawn of the Dead’. Shaun of the dead is a parody, which is a humorous imitation/variation of another film. I personally like this film as it is not only a scary movie it is also funny. I believe comedy is a good subgenre to incorporate with the genre of thriller as it takes the edge off and adds a new dimension. The comedy balances out the thriller element and the mixture of two genres appeal to a whole new audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k

Thriller - Target Audiences

 When making a film  the institution will always take into consideration who it's target audience it. The target audience is always displayed through gender, ethnicity  age and social group. But some films are also taget to anybody known as a family audience. 

In terms of thriller, they usually consist of suspence, tension and excitement and its audience is expected to feel certain feelings such as anxiety, fear and anticipation. 

A research project carried out by a media student made a questionnaire: 

From this questionnaire she found out how varied audiences are, and how many different feeling thrillers are expected to create for it audience: 

• shocked x1
• scared x4
• jumpy x2
• engrossed in the story and compelled to watch x1
• tension x1
• excitement x3
• adrenaline x2
• fear x2
• nerves x1
• anticipation x1
• unsure of the ending x2
• suspense x1
• surprised x1
• entertained x1

Thriller films are generally targeted to young adults and adults who prefer to do less thinking in some sense, they like to sit back and see action taking place and enjoy the feeling of adrenaline building up as the suspense takes place. Some may say that thrillers are for people who are more intelligent, as a common sub genre is psychological thriller which requires intelligence and focus so this may be target to a much older audience between the ages of 30-45. But overall thriller movies have quite a wide target audience and is it commonly known to include many other genre in the film it self such as: crime, romance, sci fi, drama etc.

Genre and Subgenre

"Film genres can be categorized according to the setting of the film the context and style" 

Film Genre's are also recognizable by the narrative elements and the way in which it is constructed. They can also be categorized by the setting, mood and format. Films usually consists of more that one genre, another word for this is, Sub genre. An example of this is Transformers:

Transformers is known to be an Action film because of its setting and the heroic fictional characters however, it also consists of sub genre's such as sci-fi, thriller, romance and comedy. But because action can range from so many different sub genre's a better example would be 'The others' because the Genre is Thriller and the Sub Genre in drama, mystery and romance. 

                                                                              

This is a still from The others, and clearly gives off a sense mystery because there is very little you can see from a lantern as it is very dark this suggests that she is scared and worried. It also demonstrates the genre: thriller and mystery. We Can use this idea in our own film, because darkness is used  to portray a gloomy and mysterious atmosphere we can use this idea of shadows and light overcoming darkness to produce our own thriller opening.  


Here is another still from The Others where the main characters 
are shown as afraid by being positioned between an old wooden staircase. The use of children in this image shows their innocence and naivety, as they are obviously afraid of something which is showed in front of them. Children are commonly known to be used in thriller movies because they are a symbol of innocence and don't know any better. We can used this characterization for our own film 
opening because children are known to be the conventions of thriller moves and we can use this idea of  'innocence' an 'Children' to produce our film.