Its difficult to state a definition of a thriller as they have many genres, although there is one convention they all share which is the obvious one, to ''thrill'' the audience.Thrillers can be divided into categories, i.e., action thrillers, psychological thrillers, millitary thrillers, spy
thrillers, etc.
Action thrillers
They often have elements of mystery thriller and also crime thriller.Generally includes a race against the clock, containing lots of violence, an antagonist, usually contains lots of guns, explosions, large elaborate set for the action scenes to take place. The narrative relys on action. Examples of this are, ''James bond films'' ''Resivoir dogs'', ''The bourne series''.
Crime thrillers
Generally set in cities or busy local places (crowded areas) to give the impression of a secret world, they use music which create suspense, usually set around FBI or police, with hints of mystery thriller, due to some kind of murder or attack, lots of establishing shots are used to show locations, or to set the scenes in which things are taking place, close ups are regularly used in crime thrillers to show significant detail or expressions. Examples of Crime thrillers are, ''Sin city'', ''The untouchables'' ''Se7en''.
By Saffron
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Political Thriller.
Examples of Political Thrillers:
'The contender', 'All the presidents men', 'Air force one'.
Political thrillers are very similar to the normal thriller genre the difference is, it includes involvement of political differences, issues, or problems. It can also involve hints of other genres like action and crime, but still remain a political thriller.
Conventions-
Air force one is an example of a political thriller, although it is set on a plane, the narrative is a hostage situation due to political issues. The trailer we have uploaded shows things that conforms to the conventions of a political thriller, things like the non diegetetic sound of the American national anthem. The main character being the president, and his family and security are being held hostage by a foreign terrorist group that wants a General released from prison.
Saffron and Sam
'The contender', 'All the presidents men', 'Air force one'.
Political thrillers are very similar to the normal thriller genre the difference is, it includes involvement of political differences, issues, or problems. It can also involve hints of other genres like action and crime, but still remain a political thriller.
Conventions-
- Where the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him or her.
- There is generally a 'pretend hero/heroine' someone the audience believes will be good but turns out to be either an antagonist or just a helper.
- Innocent people are brought into and involved in the political world or issue.
- They use many locations often making it focus on other countries and/or cultures.
- A character trying to prove their innocence.
Air force one is an example of a political thriller, although it is set on a plane, the narrative is a hostage situation due to political issues. The trailer we have uploaded shows things that conforms to the conventions of a political thriller, things like the non diegetetic sound of the American national anthem. The main character being the president, and his family and security are being held hostage by a foreign terrorist group that wants a General released from prison.
Saffron and Sam
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Saffrons media homework.
Comparing the opening sequence of 'Resivour dogs' and 'Inception'.
Looking at the openeing scene of 2010's Inception, we can see that it uses many of the codes and conventions of a thriller move for example, clearly showing that the narrative is centered around a crime (usually murder), this is shown through the use of the micro elements, mainly mis-en-scene, and camerawork. Props are used such as guns, weapons etc this connotes danger, violence, death etc. Also things such as jump cuts, (to show fast paced movements), high anlges/low angles showing particular characters (protagonist and antagonists). There is also a big use of special effects, (pyrothetics)to create explosions making tension, and showing danger, also used to start or finish a chase scene. This all addds to just one of the conventions of a thriller. Other conventions such asthe protagonist often ends in peril, the theme of identity , the protagonist having a weakness which is later explioted by the antagonist. All these other conventions are used to show the genre through the opening scene During the first 3 minutes of Inception unusually the first shot is of the sea which the audience cannot immediately tell what the genre is because the sea isnt seen as something likely to be in a thriller movie as it it represented as being calm peaceful, but then all this is contrasted within the next 20 seconds because there is a close up of what seems to be the victim (although also the main character) who has clearly been washed up, so this shows something bad happeneing. The use of bullet tme to slow down a shot of children playing starts to create tension, and non diegetic background music to emphasise that tension adding to the feel of the genre.
UNFINISHED.
Looking at the openeing scene of 2010's Inception, we can see that it uses many of the codes and conventions of a thriller move for example, clearly showing that the narrative is centered around a crime (usually murder), this is shown through the use of the micro elements, mainly mis-en-scene, and camerawork. Props are used such as guns, weapons etc this connotes danger, violence, death etc. Also things such as jump cuts, (to show fast paced movements), high anlges/low angles showing particular characters (protagonist and antagonists). There is also a big use of special effects, (pyrothetics)to create explosions making tension, and showing danger, also used to start or finish a chase scene. This all addds to just one of the conventions of a thriller. Other conventions such asthe protagonist often ends in peril, the theme of identity , the protagonist having a weakness which is later explioted by the antagonist. All these other conventions are used to show the genre through the opening scene During the first 3 minutes of Inception unusually the first shot is of the sea which the audience cannot immediately tell what the genre is because the sea isnt seen as something likely to be in a thriller movie as it it represented as being calm peaceful, but then all this is contrasted within the next 20 seconds because there is a close up of what seems to be the victim (although also the main character) who has clearly been washed up, so this shows something bad happeneing. The use of bullet tme to slow down a shot of children playing starts to create tension, and non diegetic background music to emphasise that tension adding to the feel of the genre.
UNFINISHED.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Evaluation Preliminary task.
What we learnt from the preliminary task.
From previously doing a childrens film preliminary task it made it easier for us to understand what we need to ensure of when doing the thriller task. Although we came along some difficulties we learnt from these, and we learnt that we need a more quiet area to film other wise there is too much background noise needed to be edited.In the future we will ensure that the area has minimum amount of noise, so that the dialogue is clearer. We also realised after filming that we needed to have better continuity by making the shots slow, buy not making them cut drastically, for example, close up, jump cut to extreme long shot. When using the lift in our task we found it difficult because it was hard to film without having the doors openeing and closing at the wrong time, but as a group we feel it worked well as it gave a good effect. Also we think that the use of background music which we added when editing gave a better effect as a thriller.
Camera work
Camera work was our main area of focus we tried to use many shots, to create better continuity by using things such as establishing shot, to show the audience the setting and the surroundings, we used reaction shots to emphasise emotion and expression. We used long shots to show everything in the mis-en-scene, we used over the shoulder shots to show the reader the characters point of view and what they are looking at, to make the audience feel more involved and more connection to the narrative. We tried to use high angle shots when looking at the victim to make it seem more vulnerable and show him as being weak, and inferior, and used low angle shots for the other character to show them as being more superior ( powerful, healthy, strong etc). We did not use any movement in our camera work, because we did not make it as if something was moving towards a character, or chasing a character etc. We tried to ensure eye level in our shots.
Mis-en-scene
The costume we used was basic, just to show ordinary characters, no antagonist or protagonist was being shown, mearly the body language is what set to show the victim (michael). The costume was modern although not stereotypical, it also shows the class of the characters, which would help to create realism for the audience. We did not use props as we felt it was not nessacary in our task because the story line was basic, but productive.
Editing
As a group we used basic editing such as background music to create an effect on the audience to make the genre of thriller more clear, also we added a small effect to the dialogue of the victim just to show his struggle to speak, which we wanted to emphasise as much as possible.
Sound
We mainly used diegetic sounds, such as the sound of the doors opening and general background noise and dialogue, we added some non diegetic background music. We muted some diegetic sound because there was too much background noise which was not needed because it made it difficult to hear things such as the noise of the button, dialogue and other general diegetic noises.
Improvements
In the future, if we had time to improve then we would use our time to continue editing things like the sound, and adding special effects to show more of a ''thriller feel'' to the task. Making it more of a mystery, so that the audience would feel they want to continue watching. Also we would try to improve on making the camera shots better and making them flow better so that continuity flows better, as we feel that our coninuity didnt work as well as we had hoped.
Sam and Saffron
From previously doing a childrens film preliminary task it made it easier for us to understand what we need to ensure of when doing the thriller task. Although we came along some difficulties we learnt from these, and we learnt that we need a more quiet area to film other wise there is too much background noise needed to be edited.In the future we will ensure that the area has minimum amount of noise, so that the dialogue is clearer. We also realised after filming that we needed to have better continuity by making the shots slow, buy not making them cut drastically, for example, close up, jump cut to extreme long shot. When using the lift in our task we found it difficult because it was hard to film without having the doors openeing and closing at the wrong time, but as a group we feel it worked well as it gave a good effect. Also we think that the use of background music which we added when editing gave a better effect as a thriller.
Camera work
Camera work was our main area of focus we tried to use many shots, to create better continuity by using things such as establishing shot, to show the audience the setting and the surroundings, we used reaction shots to emphasise emotion and expression. We used long shots to show everything in the mis-en-scene, we used over the shoulder shots to show the reader the characters point of view and what they are looking at, to make the audience feel more involved and more connection to the narrative. We tried to use high angle shots when looking at the victim to make it seem more vulnerable and show him as being weak, and inferior, and used low angle shots for the other character to show them as being more superior ( powerful, healthy, strong etc). We did not use any movement in our camera work, because we did not make it as if something was moving towards a character, or chasing a character etc. We tried to ensure eye level in our shots.
Mis-en-scene
The costume we used was basic, just to show ordinary characters, no antagonist or protagonist was being shown, mearly the body language is what set to show the victim (michael). The costume was modern although not stereotypical, it also shows the class of the characters, which would help to create realism for the audience. We did not use props as we felt it was not nessacary in our task because the story line was basic, but productive.
Editing
As a group we used basic editing such as background music to create an effect on the audience to make the genre of thriller more clear, also we added a small effect to the dialogue of the victim just to show his struggle to speak, which we wanted to emphasise as much as possible.
Sound
We mainly used diegetic sounds, such as the sound of the doors opening and general background noise and dialogue, we added some non diegetic background music. We muted some diegetic sound because there was too much background noise which was not needed because it made it difficult to hear things such as the noise of the button, dialogue and other general diegetic noises.
Improvements
In the future, if we had time to improve then we would use our time to continue editing things like the sound, and adding special effects to show more of a ''thriller feel'' to the task. Making it more of a mystery, so that the audience would feel they want to continue watching. Also we would try to improve on making the camera shots better and making them flow better so that continuity flows better, as we feel that our coninuity didnt work as well as we had hoped.
Sam and Saffron
Storyboard
This is our storyboard, which we had to change slightly, due to the fact we had the idea of a character walking down the stairs, and then opening a lift, so we changed this to walking down a corridor to the lift, we also cut out some dialogue and changed a few camera shots and angles.
Saffron Lyndsey and Michael
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