Sadie Middleton: November 2011

Monday, 28 November 2011

Analysing Opening Title Sequence - in relation to Thrillers

I watched various different opening title sequences, ranging from genres such as action to thriller.

All the title sequences were very different to each other, there were a few I liked in particular.

The opening title sequence to Casino Royale was really interesting because of the way it was animated it really gives you a clear idea on what the movie is about and the fact that at the beginning James Bond turns around with his gun and is framed by a circle tube also during it we see a black figure fighting and at the end it walks towards us and the director decided to allow 1 second of light hitting the figure to show who it was and then to darken again to the black figure. This shows the audience who the main character is and lets them know who they are following.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/01/14/casino-royale/

Other opening title sequences which is unlike Casino Royale, that I liked, was Stranger Than Fiction. I liked how unusual the text was displayed and I believe it all fit in well to the scene, it is quite like the Stepfather title sequence in a way that it kind of mixes in with the film, but the difference is, not that it’s a different genre, but that the text is more obvious then The Stepfather, you notice it more and you're not as distracted by what is going on behind the text then in The Stepfather. Below is the opening title sequence to Stranger than Fiction.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/06/10/stranger-than-fiction/

Looking at all the different sequences I saw one in particular which I thought could relate to how my group and I want ours to turn out like.

The Stepfather, I found to be quite similar too our opening title sequence in the way that it was more like the film at the start, it wasn’t animated, it was the start of the film mixed together with the opening title sequence. I also like how the names and writing is quite discrete compared to the other opening title sequences. Below a beginning clip of the movie so you will be able to get a better idea on how we want our thriller to turn out like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ4WnQo1v-0

Sunday, 13 November 2011

Thrillers - Story Board

Below is a scan of our story board.

Thrillers - Character List

In our thriller we have four characters in the scene. We thought about what we want our characters to look like.

For the first character:
- Young, aged 16-19, dark hair, african, tall and quite built in terms of muscularity.

Second character:
- Youg, aged 16-19, brown hair, white ethnicity, medium hight.

Third character:
- Young, aged 16-19, brown hair, white ethnicity, short.

Fourth character:
- Young aged 16-19, light coloured hair (quite ashy blonde/brown), mixed race, tall

We have a few people in mind however we are all going to sit down together and sort everything out so that it is all clear to us and that way when we begin to get everything together properly we will know exactly what we want.

Thrillers - Props list

The props list was really easy as there isn't much needed in the scene.

- Football
- Football outfits
- Goal post
- Fake blood (for when the boys get shot and a bit of this will go on their shirts)
- Gun (sniper)

Thrillers

After a while of thinking of ideas we finally all agreed on one.

New idea
There are four young boys playing a game of football, you get close ups of their faces, feet, etc. The camera suddenly cuts to a sniper aim on the screen while its zooms in on the players, the shot goes back to a establishing shot of the boys being clueless and then suddenly back to the sniper aim and one boy gets shot. This happens again to another boy until finally the two others realise, the run in opposite directions and the camera only follows one. The boy being followed sees a house at the bottom of the road, there the camera follows him to the door and he finally escapes.

We believe that even though their is a bit of running in the scene it won't really matter as first of all its only a little bit of running and the first part of the title sequence is so enticing that it won't affect the rest of it.

We all agreed on this idea and we believe it will work out really well.

Media Coursework - Thrillers

In class we were put into groups of around 3 to four, in my group there is Myself, Julia and Fadie. Our first task was to come up with a few ideas for the thrillers so we all went away and came back with our own ideas. I believe that this stage of the Thrillers was probably the most difficult part for our group as we found it very hard to agree on ideas and i also think that we each found it hard to really picture the scenes in our heads. By the end we finally came up with two ides which none of us very really set on but we decided to show Matt and luke.

Idea one
Our first idea was basically about two young children, who are brother and sister, running away from Nazi's in hope to find shelter but along the way the brother trips and is taken away by the Nazi's. The sister, in panic, runs as fast as she could until finally she is safe.

Idea two
A young girl decides to go for a run one day, she ends up taking the wrong route and ends up in the woods, and then all of a sudden she is grabbed by the feet and dragged away.

Matt and luke explained to us that it can be very difficult to film running scenes because various things could go wrong. They allowed us to think about our thrillers in more detail and we realised that they wouldn't work out the way that we wanted to as it would come to great difficulty.

So, it was back to the drawing board.

Coursework Task

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

What is a thriller?

Crime thriller: Focus’s on criminals, either killers, robbers, chases, murders. (E.g. Seven)

Psychological thriller: In which the conflict between the main character is mental and emotional rather then emotional. (E.g. Shutter Island)

Supernatural thriller: Brings an otherworldly element along with tension, sometimes the character has a psychic ability. (E.g. Jacob’s Ladder)

A thriller is defined as a novel, play, or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. In my opinion a thriller is something that keeps the audience on the edge of their seat filled with excitement and suspension. It has your eyes drawn to the product from the beginning to the end. Below are examples of sub genres of thrillers with the movie posters.

Conspiracy thriller: When the hero or heroin confronts a large group of her enemies. (E.g. The Da Vinci Code)