Thriller openings

Student Thriller Openings
In this lesson to gain more of an idea on what we have to film, we watched a few thriller openings that other students had made.

Blasphemy
Blasphemy has the opening of a psychological thriller, a compulsive person that is collecting pictures of people at random. There is great detail to the point that he is cutting and distorting the pictures, as this is the opening there is no insight to why he is doing this. The man also takes time to underline quotes from the bible. Blasphemy takes similar ideas from the film “Seven.” The opening had slow panning and tracking shots of a pathway and church Also, long shots of someone making their way through the abandoned church. An exercise we had to do was decide what sort of age group each film opening would suit, Blasphemy I felt had the target audience of 25-35. It’s a sophisticated opening which didn’t feature too much action and I believe younger audience would need to see something adventurous early to continue watching. 
Essex Road
Essex road is more of an action based thriller opening, centred on a police officer trying to piece together the events of a girl who was attacked in an underground station. The officer was pacing around in his office trying to work out clues to catch the killer, it made me think that someone may be trying to attack him too. The camera shots focuses on the girl with long shots and mid range shots, these were the main focus as she was being chased. There was a close-up of a bracelet she dropped as she was trying to get away, this highlights significance to the film and the officer solving the murder case. The opening uses flashbacks to show the killing and links up the evidence. The target audience age can be lowered compared to Blasphemy as it’s accessible to young viewers from 18-40.  

Timecode
Timecode’s thriller opening is about a boy who wakes up in the middle of nowhere, in a back alley and finds himself hand-cuffed to a briefcase. A frantic attempt takes place to get himself free ensues. He sees a man on the other side of the alley, and the opening comes to a head. The action of the film was slow. The choice of the location was well suited to the action and the background was also good to watch where there wasn’t anyone in the public caught on camera. There was a good variety of shots. I think that this opening had a target audience of 25-45 year olds.

Days Are Numbered
the opening was unique compared to the other thrillers, because it used the idea of not actually being thrilling in the begging to justify an opening that would not be considered thrilling at all. The target audience for this opening would be 35+ as its non-relevance to a thriller may annoy people who are not willing to understand.

Thriller Films & Audience
In this part of the lesson we looked at some statistics that dealt with what types of genres people liked to see and how gender affected them. There was a list of films that were out at the same time. We rightfully concluded that men would be more likely to watch films that focused on action, war and violence. We knew that women would tend to watch more romance and comedy movies. What did surprise me was finding out that women were equally likely to watch thriller films than men. 

watching a documentary

In Today’s lesson we watched a documentary about film openings as a class. There were interviews with directors such as Jean Jacques Beineix, Orson Welles, and critics such as Thomas Sutcliffe and Stanley Kauffmann. The documentary was about differing opinion and reasons concerning the question “how should a film opening work”. This was interesting as we were asking the same question and trying to consider the best approach, whether such as brutal as a killing should take place or should we prolong the thrilling events.

T.V critic Thomas Sutcliffe described films that “need to seduce their audiences into long term commitment and that the temptation to go for instant arousal is the most irresistible.” I Which i think means they need to be given a reason to be enticed by your movie and the best known way of doing this is to excite them from beginning to end.

Others have a different opinion such as  French director Jean Jacques Beineix,” the risk of having instant arousal in the opening of a movie is that you may not be able to answer the questions afterwards, or even not be able to make the rest even dramatic than the beginning.” Beineix relates to me more than Sutcliffe does to give the audience what they want straight away makes it hard to produce a film that can go the distance instead of just have one particular great scene but everything else is flat.

Stanley Kauffmann talks  the classic opening with “a long establishing shot of the city, a mid shot of the shops, a long shot of the building and a mid shot though the window to the main character.” He says that this type of opening works because it allows the audience to know that everything is well before the dilemma kicks in. Which is true, it sets the tone and represents the calm before the storm. 

The Shining

15/12/08
In today’s lesson our objective was to watch “The Shining” as it will contribute ideas to why thrillers differ to horror films. We were asked to analyse certain scenes in the film, whilst explaining how the suspense was built and maintained, we had to monitor all aspects such movement of the actors, eerie soundtracks and the periods of differing editing. As the film concluded, there was a class discussion about particular scenes that highlighted and maintained suspense. A few of the scene that we commented on were the following:
Jack’s  staggering limp – Jack is chasing  Danny down as he tries to kill him with an axe, because of the menacing look on his face and the dragging on Jack’s feet the scene is more intense as we have to continue to watching to see whether Danny is killed or escapes.
The Intro scene – I found this scene thrilling in a different sense, there was minimal action however there was constant weariness because the car being followed through a bird’s eye view this creates a situation of predator and prey. As the story is told straight away you had to wait to see when it was coming which I think is an inspired idea. Finally, as Wendy tries to make conversation with Jack she finds that he has repeatedly written “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” The aftermath of this scene is she realises that Jack is becoming  psychotic as it is also a revelation to us that he was never writing a book as he was kept insisting he was and from here we see a dramatic change in Jack and now feel something bad will happen soon. 

Filming session

In this lesson we started to begin filming, as there was limited time we had to think of ideas quickly. Teddy thought of the Barbican centre as a filming location we went there and the buildings and the environment made the Barbican a great too place to film. We originally planned to film our thriller at any tube station we could find, however we had to change our plans because we did not obtain permission in time from Transport for London, it would take at least two weeks to receive an answer which could have been no. So we decided there was way too much risk without gain so we carried on.

The Barbican had much to focus on; it had a sophisticated look that we could incorporate into the thriller. In my opinion filming in the Barbican is far more beneficial to us than filming at the tube station there is more to interactive with. We finally decided who was going to do what for the project, I was going to be directing and holding the camera. Emre, Teddy and David were going to be the actors, Emre and Teddy making the briefcase swap and David is going to be waiting for Teddy to be vulnerable so he could steal Teddy’s briefcase for Emre.

The plot we originally made was still kept, three men feature in the opening and two are working together however one man is not aware of this nor does he ever see the third person. As we were filming we just decided to use all the time we had gathering different shots even if they seemed hard or nonsensical we wanted to use as much variety as possible. Although I do like filming at the Barbican there was one shot in particular we would miss, it was heavily reliant on the escalators so it was for this reason we were determined to make up for it.

We were close to finishing filming today, but we had run out of time so we had to travel back to college the only fear I have is that the snow and Ice will not last until Monday and we may have to start filming again. If this does happen I still believe we will finish filming as most of our shots do not feature ice or snow so it would be extra work but not a worst case scenario. 

I had to add these photo's afterwards as there was difficulty putting them together with my written evaluation.


Emre walking with the bag, smartly dressed, with a serious attitude. Tall buildings in the area, mainly workplaces.

Emre Walking towards Teddy, David waiting at the back and ready to get the bag off Teddy once the exchange has been done.



David walking behind Teddy to grab the bag off him. David dressed with hood to cover his identity.

A screen-capture of the movie Collateral. This is the scene where Tom Cruise is confronted by two men to give his bag. He then shoots both of them.

A screen-capture of the movie Grand Torino. This is a suitable example of perfect image quality. There is good lighting. It makes the film look bold.

An image from the movie Green Street, based in the UK. The quality differs with many American movies.

A screen-capture of an amateur movie called The briefcase. Our film and this one both associate with the idea of the importance of the contents inside the bag.

A stereotypical example of the target audience we are approaching. A young entrepreneur.

An example of a Facebook discussion group. This particular one is about the film Superbad.

Thriller Evaluation

AS Media Studies
Thriller Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge form and conventions of real media products?
Our thriller film uses codes and conventions of real conspiracy thriller movies by having the tension all the way through the film. We have managed to do this by creating a quite serious image for the film; by having two smartly dressed men doing a bag swap without properly looking at each other, showing hardly any facial expression; by having the lightning jumping in as soon as the film starts; clearly having the unmistakable bags, where the audience would immediately know that whatever is inside has some worth, creating suspense; bringing in the hooded man to go after Teddy and steal the bag back which performs one of the best things you could have in a situation like this, for a thriller movie. We have used the instant arousal idea (where David goes after Teddy), from the “Watching” documentary. We have done this because, as it says in the documentary “a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know too little”. We have portrayed this by preventing the audience from knowing too much. For example, the audience do not know the purpose of the mobile phone in the bag, which leaves some mystery to it. Also the audience know some aspects of the film, such as the fact that Emre has conned Teddy by having David, Emre’s partner, to go after Teddy to get the bag back from him, which only the audience know about. As Alfred Hitchcock says, “Let ‘em play god; they’ll work like a devil for you because they know what fate is facing for the poor actors.”

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Although the actors in the film were all 16-17 year old college students, we aimed our target audience to be 25-40 year olds, possibly middle class and have a job in a formal workplace. The way we established this, was by getting out of our usual clothes and to go for a smarter look, because this social group are most likely to appoint to this article of clothing on a daily basis. The reason why we didn’t have David smartly dressed was because he wasn’t part of the exchange of bags and that his job of stealing the bag from Teddy required for him to wear a hood, because he was engaging in noticeable criminal activity, so he couldn’t show his face. We also thought about David’s clothing to represent the stereotype of a robber. Our thriller was made in the Barbican Centre, which helped justify the extent of which the bag swap had a serious role in. The Barbican Centre was quite desirable for our location as the structure of the area and the tall buildings surrounding it had some representation of businessmen/women having a job there. The codes and conventions were best suited to the 25-40 year old category because that is the age group that would have the highest level of employment, and that the idea of business would relate mostly to 25-40 year olds. The idea of middle class came to mind as people in that class would have a job associated to an office or in the management area, so the Barbican Centre also gets points for that. The maturity of the thriller would also have the biggest impact on out target audience, as other audiences, such as the younger generation are more likely to watch films with greater action and adventure.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our thriller film was influenced greatly by the briefcase scene in the film Collateral, where two men go after Tom Cruise to get his bag, and since it is a successful movie, it may have a positive impact on our film too in the Hollywood scene. It also fits quite well into being a thriller film, as it performs the codes and conventions of a thriller film, such as creating the suspense and leaving a mystery, and letting the audience “play God”.

However, the actors aren’t in the age group that they have targeted the film to be at, so it would seem very amateur, because people in a certain age range would inherit different characteristics, for example the clothes they wear, their posture, their attitude, the way they speak and their appearance. The lighting or the quality of the image isn’t up to date compared to what we would receive from the Hollywood film industry. Overall, in my opinion I would say that our film may not shape up to fit into Hollywood standards.

Nevertheless, I would see this movie as a British underdog rather than a Hollywood mainstream movie and would think that it has a chance to draw itself into Britain’s movie screens.

I think this film would be accepted by the British film industry, as our film has the factors that make a film British. In terms of the atmosphere its dark, its dreary weekday in London, and the characters are in a rush to get the bag swap over and done with. The level of lighting is one good example. Our film is quite dark and many British films possess that feel. It’s almost like a disease. The Barbican is also another good example as it is a well known location in London. Compared to American films it also has people from ethnic minorities which reflect a diverse British culture.

Also it will be suited to placing a spot on the famous YouTube website, as it is recognized for hosting many types of video production, including amateur films, documentaries, music videos etc. Yet it will need quite a lot of attention and web hits to become noticeable worldwide and make a name for itself. After some research I found that our thriller film was quite similar to another amateur film called “The Briefcase: chase scene”. It is about a boy walking a long distance and after some time he finds himself being followed by another person, and his aim is to grab that bag off him. It’s had 594 views and is getting positive comments from other YouTube users. I think YouTube has its highly respected reputation for having a ground for amateur videos, and is the type of media we would like to distribute our video to.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My audience would go as follows. A 25-30 year old entrepreneur who is making a considerable good amount of money because of his genius. He has a good sense of humour and has good negotiation skills. He is a success. He loves to watch Dragons Den and likes to grab ideas for his next invention. He drives a brand new Audi, with his own personal number plate. He is very much into his social life as he goes out to bars and clubs in the weekend. He is single, and makes the most out of it.

5. How will you attract/address your audience?
I will attract my target audience through billboards around the UK. A billboard is a suitable method to approach my target audience as they will be outside, at work, at lunch, unavoidable seeing advertisements like these. The billboard itself will have just a photo of Teddy, turning behind his back with an angry facial expression. That billboard will give the idea that he is going to do something unpleasant, for example take revenge. But we will show that he is “the good guy” on the billboard. Also I would extend the presence of our thriller by having trailers onto the internet, with a great deal of slow motion shots and a beat to go with every shot that pops up. I will use sources such as YouTube and Vimeo. I will also raise the awareness of our thriller through social networking websites such as Facebook and create its own discussion group for people to put their views about the film.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
My experiences of filming and editing have been phenomenal, as I have gained new skills using the camera and getting to grips with the editing software Final Cut Pro. Filming has been fun as we didn’t suffer any problems during the process, and experimented with the camera angles to make our film look neat. We used as many shots as we could that would suit our thriller. I used to do some editing before, but final cut pro on a Mac was more of a challenge for me, as I wasn’t familiar with using Mac’s and that I didn’t know how to use Final Cut Pro. My editing skills, such as log and capture, creating effects and adding text into the video have expanded. I have also used the internet whilst making and editing the film. This was to help me blog for every lesson I had during the project.

7. What was the audience feedback from the class and cinema?
When we showed the video in class to the other groups we had in set 1, they were pleased with the plot for the film, that it was a conspiracy thriller and it had its unique vibe to it. They found that the soundtrack went well with the film, as it was a good combination of opera sounds that we used from the software provided.

In the cinema the audience were very happy with our performance as there was cheering from many people, and we got an applause after the film had finished.

8. Compare your thriller film to your preliminary task?
Our thriller film, compared to our preliminary film showed that we put great efforts into this project. The reason is because, although our prelim was enjoyable to watch, it didn’t grasp the idea of a thriller film. Instead it was more of a comedy, as we had David smiling all the way along the film.