Film Credits

FILM CREDITS

One of the purposes of film credits is to credit the makers of the film. he purpose of the opening film credits are to state and tell you who are the producers, production company and other important people who are key to the production.

Colours

Dark and shadowed. This makes the opening scene sketchy and dull. The colours of the paper are dimmed down and made more yellow to show paper from the olden days. As the film is based on the 7 deadly sins the film had to make the opening credits look old fashioned and they did this by dimming down the colour and editing the iconography used.

Style

Flickered and sound of common things enhanced. This is to show the weirdness of the film. The flickered text and images are there to show the disordered nature of the killer. The use of montage editing show a sense of urgency in the killers thoughts and make the audience recognise the genre to the film.

Conventions

Dark and the opening sequence has brilliant mood setting music to make the opening scary with basically no acting. You only see the presumed killers hands not the face to keep the identity hidden for the presumed chase for his identity. It ended by saying 'Day 1'. This sets up a time frame of which the film will be done. It sets up that the killer will be doing things on different days and lets the audience know this. All of that was fro the last wording to the credits.

Order of appearance

The order of appearance was the; Production Company, Director, Main Actor(s), Title of Film, Actors Continued, Casting, Music, Costume Designer, Editors, Production, Camera Operator, Co-Producer, Producer, Writing Manager and Director (again).  

My Evaluation (american phsyco)

Colours

The colours are an unconventional element to this opening sequence. the original colours to thrillers are dark and 'moody' whereas in this the colours are white background with plain black writing. This could have a deeper meaning e.g. the character having two personalities or has the or having an unexpected twist within the film. The two colours represent good and evil or innocent and guilty, an odd thing for a thriller to have the dominating colour to be the innocent one. A quick burst of colour misconceives the audience as drops of cherry and sweet red sauce drop as if blood but when the opening scene begins you see the presentation of a desert in the same pattern the spots of blood had previously occurred. 

Style

The white screen has a sequenced appearance of plain black text. This runs smoothly and is another unconventional way to introduce a thriller to the audience. Its quite a clever technique as it has the audience judging the film and making theories before the film has even started and that keeps the audience on edge. 

Conventions

They haven't followed the common conventions to a common thriller film but have the audience in the same state of mind. The audience are skeptical and exposed to what the film has in store for them and are just as wherry or even more then they originally would have been. 

Order of appearance

The order of appearance was the; Production Company, Director, Main Actor(s), Title of Film, Actors Continued, Casting, Music, Costume Designer, Editors, Production, Camera Operator, Co-Producer, Producer, Writing Manager and Director (again).  

Group Analysis and Ideas




As a group we have discussed the different credits and which ones we liked and preferred. We like the used of motion tracking in other opening credits that we have seen and we also like the idea of white text on the background but with a glow like it would be a light. An example of this is:

But we want it to be white or more suitable colours. we want them to be gloomy and dark or at least the rest of the shot to be dim white a bright white text. one of the fonts that we liked we saw when we were watching a youtube video, the font is called optic and it has sharp edges that resemble a knife. this font was obtained from Dafont.com.

Another font that we liked was called face your fears and this was also from Dafont.com. This style looks like it is blood painted onto something which shows death and this is the font that we will be using. It will also go with our motion tracked credit theme so will comply with our film very well.

Character Representation

Name: Yeliz 

Age: 23

Gender: Female 

Ethnicity: Turkish

Background/purpose to narrative:

Yeliz lives by herself and has no friends or family close by. She is new to the area so doesnt have a sustainable relationship with her neighbors, a young couple who stay to themselves and are hardly ever seen... 

Connection to the audience:

The innocent female is a common convention to most thriller films as she is usually weak and vulnerable. We have chosen this character to follow the commons of a traditional thriller and make a sympathetic connection to the audience. Thrillers need the audience to have a connection to the main characters in the film so the audience show emotion when the victim  faces the 'unwanted' guest at her door. If the audience dont show emotion then they wont jump or be scared when Yeliz is attacked. 

Name: Unknown

Age: Unknown 

Gender: Unknown

Ethnicity: Unknown

Background/purpose to narrative:

The character has a history of mental illness and and thinks he is in a past time. the characters family originate form  germany and the subjects farther fought in the 2nd world war. The subject is a known racist and has recently moved from his isolated town in Germany that have communist connections with the ukraine to the area which Yeliz is...

Connection to audience: 

The character shows an obscurity to the audience and will give them encouragement that the film will be effective. 

Name: Paul Wright

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White British 

Background/purpose to narrative:

A high-end businessman, with shares in a company and everything he wants. His farther owns the company and has secured his role. After a pattern of being late, he starts to become mysterious. He has unregistered meetings with someone who just moved from Ukraine that last hours at a time. He starts to turn up in old coloured clothes and starts to speak like he is from another time. He becomes a major collector in German WW2 artifacts and locks himself in his office without any communication to the rest  of the building. The other subject starts to dress in the businessman's clothes and people start to wonder...

Connection to the audience: 

This gives the audience the impression that the unknown subject is persuasive and devious. It will show the corrupt nature and unveiled lifetime problems Paul has had and gives the sense that he vulnerable and weak minded. 

Cinematography

Cinematography Group

Close ups

We used close ups to show the audience the expressions and feelings of the characters and by doing this, it helped the audience familiarise themselves with the clip and interact more with it. Here are some examples from our narrative;

A jump cut is used, paired with a close up, of her face while in bed. She immediately awakes and throws herself upward as if the previous scenes were just a bad dream. A close up facing the banisters Was then used with a focus due focus effect. The victims legs fly past the camera indicating that she has gone downstairs.  The next time you see her is when she opens the fridge to get a bottle of water. This shot was from inside the fridge and is considered a close up. This was to show her cluelessness of what was going on. Dramatic irony begins to develop. She warily reaches for the door handle (extreme close up) but the phone starts to ring. She puts her fingers to the blind and widens two of the blades and sees a masked man, in another close up, starring in on her.

POV

We used this shot as we feel it shows the unique view of the character themselves instead of what we persuade them into seeing. It shows exactly what they need to see. Here is how we incorporated this in our narrative;

She freaks and swings around to see know one their. This was done using a point of view or POV shot so the audience could see clearly the difference in what the different shots presented (man there and than gone). In on other POV shot, all the bedroom doors slam in the order she throws her body towards them.

Over the shoulder

We used this shot to show you what the character can see but also who is seeing it. This came into use to show the masked man at the table indirectly. This gave the audience the feeling that he is ready to surprise them but mainly indicates that their is a masked man in the house. This was its main purpose in this scene. 

She enters the living room and picks up the phone. We used an over the shoulder shot in this scene as a masked man sits at their table waiting for her to turn around. The hang up noise startles her and a sudden bang from outside makes her drop the phone. However an unexpected stop by her and the circling camera capture facial expressions as she sees herself on the green panicking for a way out just like in the dream and then from an over the shoulder long shot, she sees herself get taken by the masked man and the screen goes black.

Mise-en-scene

MISE-EN SCENE

The different categories we need to follow in order to have a successful thriller are:

• Lighting
• Clothing
• Iconography
• Body language/expressions
• Positioning of character(s)

Lighting

In our thriller film will will consider three main light sources to set the scene for the film these will be backlighting, filler light and the main light. There will be light from outside which will be the backlighting. The lamps will be used as main light as to keep the room dark enough to keep to the common conventions to thriller films but still allow enough light through the lens of our camera to give it good quality. The filler lighting will be a combination of different light all over the house and will be used antagonistically. We will use the fridge light to fill the lighting in the kitchen whereas the backlighting in the living room will be a lamppost and a dim flood light to just increase the power of the lamp post.  These lights are very slight so will not be very obvious but will give us the slight bit of light needed to create shadows. We will use low key lighting to keep to the common conventions to a 'typical' thriller film. This is to create shadows so the characters look intimidating and allow the audience to see what is not directly in the camera shot. This is an important convention because it can mislead the audience making the narrative more unique by confusing the viewers and catching them off guard more often than usual.

Costume Design

For the victim, we have chosen to dress her in night clothes as they have to be relevant to the narrative but also have that thriller feel about them. We came up with this idea via watching 28 weeks later. She runs through the forrest in her pajamas as has been court off guard and has no time to prepare. We wanted to make her as vulnerable as posable and the night clothes were perfect. They fit the common thriller conventions and our narrative. This shows that she weak and that the killers unexpected arrival has confused her and taken her by surprise. The killers were going to be dressed all in black with there faces will be blacked out and bright eyes, however, this was to difficult to do so we came up with smart attire but however as dark as possible. They will be in a WW2 german gas mask to help the narrative get a different feel. This promotes a slightly odd personality to the characters as well as the already scary and random features. It makes the audience think about his past more than usual and this helps them connect to the film.  This is to put fear and an unsolved identity so that the victim does not know who they are and what they are doing. This is important to the conventions of a thriller because it shows that they wont to be seen but not identified so that the audience is suspicious into who it is.

Iconography

We will be using a small range of props than all have different purposes to the individuality of our narrative; an old style phone, a few doors, a glass, a bottle of water, a fridge, and masks. The narrative shows why the glass and bottle of water is needed. The old style phone and the old masks link in with each other as both have the same theme about them. The phone rings and turns her attention away from one villain, but straight to another. The door and the phone are going to tell the audience that something is going to happen to the character as you can see what she can't. This is called dramatic irony (The dramatic effect achieved by leading an audience to understand an incongruity between a situation and the accompanying speeches, while the characters in the play remain unaware of the incongruity). The cup of water is the excuse for the victim to get out of bed which then leads into the rest of the story and finally the masks are for the antagonists, to hide there faces and to play with the audiences head as they link in with the old style phone which will ultimately lead to the audience adding a natural and subconscious fear affect to them.

Body Language/ Facial Expressions

The body language of the victim will be as if she is having a nightmare with a sweaty face. She will awake quickly and get out of bed. At this point she will be tired and calm. She is blatantly unaware of her surroundings so does not notice the antagonists in the window as she makes her way to the kitchen. In the kitchen she thinks she sees a villain in the door behind her so quickly throws her head round to see if there is some one/thing there. She decides not and then thinking she is going mad goes to the living room as a phone is ringing. She picks up the phone slowly and warily but still unaware of the antagonists. As she hears the hang up tone her face becomes confused and more awake. She is now keeping a close eye on what is around her. Her face lights up as she finds a killer on the front drive way and turns to run to the kitchen.  She sees another antagonist behind her s, now wide awake, throws herself up the stairs and onto the landing. All the doors shut on her in a scries apart from the bathroom door. She again throws herself at the closing door and slides down as if she has given up in life. She sees the killer again and makes on last break of the front door but hastily comes to a stop as she sees herself being taken ahead of her. Her expression is of fear and disbelief. We closely monitored highly rated thriller films such as the strangers and saw to see their body language in different scenarios ad we have planned them into our thriller.

Positioning

We will position the Positioning of the character. All through the scene in the bedroom you notice the girl is always right up to the camera showing that she is the victim and the killer is a mid range to a long range to the camera showing the he is the killer because you can always see what he I doing. This tells the audience abut the characters and knows when something is about to happen creating tension

Planning the production

Production Roles

Camera Operator: Orcun and Arthur

Definition: This person works with the camera in production of the film, they operate the camera through out the production.

Reason: Arthur and Orcun are most experinced with cameras as well as having good knowledge about them. They were also the ones who chose the camera shots within the pre-production of the thriller. Orcun took up the role of being a camera operator because he felt it was his strongest role in the production of the film. Arthur also took up the role to help Orcun out with

Actors: Harry, Sam and Yeliz

Definition: Someone who acts in a dramatic or comic within a production of audio or visual content.

Reason: Sam is tall and will look down onto our victim givng him the sense of power and Harry has good knolge of the thiller genre and willbe able to play the role well.

Sound Technician: Sam, Harry, Arthur, Orcun

Definition: Someone who assembles, operates and maintains the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound.

Editors: Sam, Harry, Arthur, Orcun

Definition: They edit. It is not someone who is involved with the filming or pre-production, but the post-production, like selecting the right footage, makes modifications to the footage, etc and then creating the final piece.

Film Director: Arthur

Definition: They manage everything. They direct the actors and film makers what to do, they also may be responsible for things like story making. They are the creators and brains behind a film, they create the film, with help from the film makers of course.

Reason: Arthur is the most experinced in film making and directing so he is the director since he is most suited for the role.

Location Manager: Harry and Sam

Definition: The location manager is someone who is in charge of the location. They also arrange the mise-en scene they need to find and secure locations to be used and coordinating the logistics involved for the production to successfully complete its necessary work. They are also in responsible for any problems that may arise during the production of the film.

Reason: We are filming in Harry's house so it is his location were we are filming and the second part of the film is recorded in Sam's garden which is his location, therefore they are both the ones organising the location, becoming the location managers.

Storyboard Organizer: Orcun and Arthur

Definition: This person makes sure the film is being shot in the right order of the story board and that the story board is correct to the idea that has been put forward.

Reason: Arthur and Orcun thought up the whole concept and story of the thriller so they will be the ones who will be coordinating the story correctly, since they are most clear of it and what they want the story to be filmed like.

History of a Thriller

History of the thriller Genre

Christian Metz development of genre theory is an idea that each genre goes through four different stages, these being the Experimental, Classical, Parody, and deconstruction stages. The experimental stage is when the first few films in the genre are created. This sets out a set of conventions or 'rules' for later films to then go on and follow. The Classical stage is where most of the famous films in the genre are created, for example in the thriller genre some of the most famous thriller films are The Silence of The Lambs, and Se7en. for the horror genre Saw and the Strangers are amongst the many (even though the shining is considered the scariest move ever) The Parody stage is when films are created to fun of older films in the genre (usually classic films). Finally the deconstruction stage is when two genres (A genre and another genre commonly known as a sub genre)  are mixed together to make a hybrid genre. The hybrid genre can contain any two genres as the task we have been set has allowed us to do in this media project. One that displays the two genres we are using would be the Omen or more recently, woman in black. 

A film is portrayed as a thriller when the storyline gives the audience thrills, and keeps them on the ’edge of their seats’ as the plot builds up towards the climax. An enigma is set to the narrative. The tension is usually built up by a character being placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap which seems impossible to escape. There is also use of life threatening complications during a thriller film, as the main character is usually unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in an extremely dangerous situation. This genre is also one of the only times the protagonist or villain, could actually come out on top. Examples of this are in the Human Centipede, Saw, Hostel and all the Final Destinations (in-between the first and second films of this saga, Alex is killed by 'death' so it still counts). 

The genre was introduced by one of the worlds best but most controversial film directors, Alfred Hitchcock. His first 'thriller' picture was The Lodger, released on the 26 Sep 1926. It was a silent film but was still considered the first of its kind and helped to shape the modern day thriller genre. Hitchcock continued his brilliance with Strangers on a train and his best known Psycho. Released 26 Sep 1960 Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted a re-review which was overwhelmingly positive and led to four Academy Award nominations. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and is highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics. The film is often categorized by multiple sources as a drama, horror, mystery and thriller film.  

Whats the difference between a horror film and a thriller ? 

Horror stories are normally driven by a supernatural or paranormal agency of some kind as the motor of the plot - for instance, 'Dracula' features the undead creatures known as vampires, 'The Exorcist' features demonic possession, HP Lovecraft's 'Cthulhu Mythos' stories featured various outrageous monstrosities from different planes of existence. If there is violence in a horror story, it tends to be quite extreme and bloody.

Thrillers, on the other hand, don't normally feature such agencies. The antagonists are human, with recognisable motivations and desires, and the stories are normally set in a background which tries to be as realistic as possible. The events in the story tend however to be somewhat larger than life to provide the thrills. As examples, Forsyth's 'The Dogs of War' is about mercenaries in Africa, McLean's 'Where Eagles Dare' is a (pretty fanciful) story about a secret mission during World War II. The violence in thrillers is usually not that exaggerated or graphic although some scenes, such as the torture scene in 'Scream', can be made deliberately unpleasant.  

Thriller definition - 

Noun A novel, play, or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. A person, thing, or experience that thrills. Horror definition -  Noun An intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. A thing causing such a feeling.

Group Narrative

Group Narrative

Group Narrative

The narrative to my thriller film should be decided by 4 key conventions. The Genre, witch would be a thriller so will limit the other 3 conventions. The Characters, witch have to follow the codes and techniques to a thriller genre so will be traditionally be a helpless female who runs up the stairs instead of out the door. The Time and Setting are the other two. They again have to follow the traditional techniques of the Genre, as it is the most important and deciding factor. The setting will be a dark secluded place with dark lighting and limited access to towns and villages. The Time will be as realistic as possible to get the audience to show a natural reaction to the clip.

My Idea:

My idea was to have a woman alone in a cabin. She is there with new friends but while shes asleep they mysteriously disappear. She wakes up and finds a not saying they've gone out for drinks. She thinks its a bit wired but thinks nothing really of it. Later on she finds a load of her stuff has been looked through and she starts to become suspicious. Noises and blatant change in iconography show tension build. She starts to see silhouettes in doorways and becomes panicked. She reaches for the phone and the line is dead. She runs to the door and swings it open and one of the friends is right there. She is grabbed and turned to the camera. It all goes black and the female character screams and then it ends.

Advantages: Good use of the thriller conventions. 

Disadvantages: Too long winded and is to predictable.

Sam's Idea:

From all of the the research I have done I have got an idea of the location, lighting, characters and iconography that I should use in my clip. It would be set in an estate with a big field or wod nearby and there is a character who is vulnerable or is being stalked. Walking dog ate night in the woods and there is a dark figure that you see running from tree to tree but you never see him/her. But she is ok then she goes through her day working but there is someone following her but still you never see his face. She starts to creep out as she knows that someone's following her so she invites some of her friends to co e and stay with her. Power goes off and they all get scared the tv turns on but it's fuzzy and makes a loud noise that scares them even more. Then there's a flash of lighting and the killers face appears in the window.

So they all run to the top floor and try and call the police but the phone line has been cut and there's a bang which is the front door opening and the killer walks in and straight up the stairs as if he knows where she is hiding but he is shouting there's no where to hide and as he opens the door where they are hiding one of her friends throws something and they get out of the bathroom and they try and run but at the bottom of the stairs there is another man and both killers trap them and torched them until one escapes. 

A few of my ideas are from past thriller movies for example the masked men are from the strangers as there is more than one killer who is after the girls and the torcher sequence is from the human centipede as in this film there are 3 people who have been sown together. I will use lighting and sound effects from The Strangers also because my film is based in a similar condition, in a house.

Advantages: This has good use of the conventions and will draw the audience into the film as is not as predictable as mine. 

Disadvantages: There are too many characters to be using in the opening 2 minutes of a film.

Arthur's Idea:

Starts of with camera moving across the ground at ground level. This will be the opening credits, the text is motion tracked with movement of the ground, featuring out names (credits). Ends with a small scream, which then transitions into the first scene.

First scene is extreme close up of the woman’s eye. Which then opens (the eye) where she is scared and breathing heavily and this point the camera shot zooms out into a medium shot. She then sits up looks over to a glass which is empty so she gets out of bed and goes to the kitchen where on the way the audience see the villain but the character does not. Whilst this is building tension the women then puts the tap on and fills here cup with water. The camera is facing her where as the camera is placed on the side where the tap is. The audience then see the villain in the background whilst the woman character does not, this builds loads of suspense.

Then lighting (thunder) flashes and you get a better view of the villain then see the villain disappear. The women now turns around whilst drinking her water in relief. You then see the kitchen door creaking open which then you hear a thump and a black cat runs through, the women picks up the cat and turns around to go back to her bedroom and there is the villain right there where she bumps into the villain and screams she drops the cat and runs away in which on the way comes across the front door which is being banged on. She locks herself in her room in which she is very scared and reaching over to grab her home phone in which the line cut out whilst calling a friend number. She then screams and hides under her bed, it then becomes very silent you hear footsteps coming towards the door and then banging on the door. Then it changes into a POV shot and sees the door being opened and the villain walking in which you see him walking around then dropping on the floor so you have an extreme close up of the villain for around 1 second then screams and then it ends.

Advantages: good strong narrative and use of cinematography. 

Disadvantages: incorrect as doesn't follow task

Orcun's Idea:

a female character who is presumably the victim of the opening scene to my thriller narrative, will have woken up from a nightmare in the middle of the night. She is petrified and has not come to her senses once she has woken, she is breathing rapidly and needs a drink of water to ease her throat. she leans over to the glass on her bedside draw but there is only a drop of water remaining, this results in her stepping out of bed and heading of downstairs for more water. she will open the fridge once in the kitchen with the camera placed in the fridge so that we can see the look on her face as she searches for water. when she places the glass on the table there will be a figure in the glass door behind her, she will see his refelction on the window of the cupboard and spin around to catch them in action but to only find there is no one there.

The telephone starts ringing in the front room, on the window sill. she picks it up and hears a muffled voice which screeches through the phone line, this fades into a beeping effect which means the phone call has ended. someone is banging on the back door which she immediately drops the phone and runs to the front door, to find it half open. when somebody knocks on the second front door she runs back insinde to find the phone hooked back up, remembering she dropped it it confuses her.

Final Narrative


A mid shot shows the victim running through the streets with panic and despaired facial expressions. It cuts (with a lagging effect) to the next mid shot but of her just walking down the road with her iPod. This is seemingly set before the chase. The lagging effect again occurs but to show her looking around in desperation. The camera circling her creating an spence that she is trapped with no clear escape. Using the same camera shot, it focuses on her but you see a man in a gas mask appear from the dark and grab her from behind. A jump cut is used, paired with a close up, of her face while in bed. She immediately awakes and throws herself upward as if the previous scenes were just a bad dream. A panning shot is used so the audience can take in her expressions and feelings before a mid shot shows her exit the bedroom. A close up facing the banisters Was then used with a focus due focus effect. The victims legs fly past the camera indicating that she has gone downstairs. Another mid shot is put into play but this is to show the door window over the shoulder of our victim with the same masked man from the dream watching her. His presence is not that clearly shown so the non-diegetic music increases in pace and volume to attract the audiences attention.

 She walks into the camera making the screen go dark. The next time you see her is when she opens the fridge to get a bottle of water. This shot was from inside the fridge and is considered a close up. This was to show her cluelessness of what was going on. Dramatic irony begins to develop. She opens the cupboard to get a glass and she pours the water. When she drinks the water, she looks into the glass window in the cupboard and sees a reflection of another man in different clothes but in the same mask from the dream. She freaks and swings around to see know one their. This was done using a point of view shot so the audience could see clearly the difference in shat the different shots presented. She warily reaches for the door handle (extreme close up) but the phone starts to ring. (The ringing sound was an old style one to stick to the old themed style of the villains, masks and old suits). 

She enters the living room and picks up the phone. The hang up noise startles her and a sudden bang from outside makes her drop the phone. She puts her fingers to the blind and widens two of the blades and sees a masked man, in a close up, starring in on her. The music again fluctuates in favour of pace and volume alarming the audience but now showing fear in the victim. She race up the stairs with the handheld camera following her (to help make the audience feel that are their and to help the variation of cinematography used) to the upstairs landing. In on other POV shot, all the bedroom doors slam in the order she throws her body towards them. The shot changes to a mid shot of her throwing herself at the bathroom door For one last attempt but she hits the door and slides to the floor In despair and hopelessness as she has failed and the door slams shut. As she begins to accept fate, one of the men arrives at the top of e stairs and grabs the victims foot. In one last attempt to flee the scene, she kicks him off and rushes down the stairs. 

She flings the front door open, forgetting about the other man outside, and rushes to the middle of the street. However an unexpected stop by her and the circling camera capture facial expressions as she sees herself on the green panicking for a way out just like in the dream and then from a POV and long shot she sees herself get taken by the masked man and the screen goes black. Simultaneously she screams and. The title of the film appears in red across the screen. 

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