Improvements.

we need to put together our main ideas with do-able filming. come up with a setting and a way of putting our ideas into context.

characters:who is going to be playing the man in our opening.
how to film the flashbacks and who will be in them, maybe use pictures.

Thriller Opening

Thriller Opening

Our story is about a man who is trying to find the killer of his lost son. our opening will include flashbacks of the son and the father.
Title Idea
Font - Dakota Handwriting:

The Lost Son

Our sub-genre is going to crime-thriller as the story is set around a suspected murder.

picture from Black Swan a new thriller. We are going to use a lot of black and white coloured shots with Chiaroscuro lighting (contrasts of dark and light.) this gives a good affect during a flashback as it emphasises the difference between real time and the past.
We are going to use a non-linear narrative showing scenes from the past inter-twined with the harsh reality our character is experiencing. to show our protagonist's feeling of vulnerability we will use point of view shots to enhance the disorientated and confused state of mind of our main character and display this to our audience. we will also use extreme close ups; on our characters eye (a convention of thrillers)

for our music soundtrack we have decided to use a mixture of deep beats to intensify situations, and highly pitched string instruments to add tension and a feeling of suspense.

Student Film Opening Analysis

This Train Terminates
The thriller film opening of This Train Terminates was very good. The action centers around this crime that is building up in the train station. This follows the conventions of extraordinary things happening in ordinary situations.

There is good use of parallel editing when google it cuts between the station and the people behind the crime. This helps to build the suspense as the viewer feels that the crime is about to happen. They also use lots close ups and medium shots in the station which gives us this sense of not knowing what is going on or who's behind it.


Fenland 
The opening titles to Fenland work well to introduce the thriller. The antagonist is immediately viewed in the scene however nothing of his identity is shown. The viewer is given constant hints throughout about what this person has done by using close ups of newspaper articles. This adds a mysterious feel to the scene and makes the watcher want to carry on. Also the soundtrack fits well with the action on screen.

The Recruit

The opening sequence of The Recruit shows that the main characters father has been killed in a plane crash. The fathers death is shown through a series of newspaper articles. This follows more of the classic thriller conventions in the opening and immediately gives the protagonist a flaw as it must be traumatic to lose your father. The film continues and very few details about the death of his father are revealed.

The main character, James Clayton, is an ordinary guy going about his day. This character is isolated and appears not to trust many people. This also shows him as a protagonist.

Another main character, Walter Burke,

Crime Thrillers

Crime

->  Protagonist

        - Outsider

        - Often have characteristics of antagonist

-> tragedy

        - motivation

              - Line between right and wrong is blurred

-> variety of characteristics 

        - gangs or duo's of criminals

              - dopey sidekick

              - eccentric

-> Central topics often include a crime or a number of crimes

              - Murder

              - Kidney

              - Robbery

        - Narrative follows the planning and execution of crimes - not always successfully

famous Crime thriller:

Ocean's 11

Action Thrillers

Action

-> Protagonist = traditional action hero. Sometimes framed or mistaken for someone else

-> Quite a lot of violence
         - more blood than your average thriller
         - weapons
         - brute force
                - Used to escape

-> Flaws are unlikely to be physical 
         - more likely to be emotional

-> contrapuntal sound
         - non diegetic sound is vital to enhance sound

-> High Value Motive
         - money
         - secrets

-> lots of fast paced action form the start

-> manipulation
         - possibly government or people

famous action thriller:
James Bond

Memento Opening Analysis

At the start of the film we see a reverse of time giving the sense of a flashback (non-linear narrative) this flashback is not immediately perceptible and disrupts the continuity of the scene and also our sense of time is confused. we then see the protagonist in his motel room he has a sense of disorientation and seems not to know whats happening. This scenes also has a voice over from this character which is used as a stream of consciousness to give an insight into the psyche of the protagonist.

 Our view of the main protagonist is manipulated within the opening scenes as we get an understanding of his achilles heel and flaw, this is his memory as he cannot develop new memories, he is made to seem vulnerable, heartless and dangerous. 

Another highlighted convention of this psychological thriller is the character's dual identity. In one scene he is murdering a man and the next he has woken up in a motel room and doesn't seem to know what he's done. one side of him is vulnerable whilst the other could be potentially dangerous and unpredictable.

The narrator is also unreliable because of his state of mind and unstable psyche. Because of this the viewer is invited to identify with him and his character.

The string based soundtrack at the beginning and throughout the opening creates the theme of suspense and adds to the tension already starting to unfold. the use of the long notes contrasts with what is actually happening. This feeling of tension is emphasised with the uncertainty in the narrative. 

Psychological Thriller Conventions

Doppelganger - Black Swan

Central theme of identity - mistaken identity, stolen identity, dual identity, doppelgangers, confused identity, amnesia

Donnie Darko - Thinks the rabbit is
real

Perception and reality - seeing the narrative from the perspective of multiple characters of what is and isn't real compared to the norm establishes in the film.

Memory - the torture of an individual with a traumatic memory. The trauma of a specific lost memory.

unreliable narrator - Momento

Stream of consciousness - this is a device often used in psychological thrillers to give an insight into the psyche of a particular character, this is usually the main protagonist.


unreliable narrator - Psychological thrillers often play on the ideal of the inherit trust placed in the narrator or the central character that the narrative follows

Flashbacks - beguiled

Technical devices - Flashbacks and repetition in editing is common

use of eye imagery - the butterfly effect

Imagery - eyes are a frequent motif

Rear Window - Alfred Hitchock analysis

the film begins with the opening titles, this is accompanied by some theme indicating music which is the sound track, an old fashioned up beat yet doesn't set any mood of suspense from early on. The music is mainly playing while the blinds of the 'Rear Window' is playing.

The blinds going up basically set the narrative of the film, which is basically J.B Jeffries watching his neighbour' s through the window on the titles. This would set the mood of a classical thriller because of the style of the film.

The whole of the start of this film is a bit misleading for the audience as we know it is a thriller yet we get no idea what is going to happen and where the suspense will kick in. this in a sense leaves the viewer with the feeling of mystery.

As the film starts the director uses a lot of establishing shots to show the area in which the film is set, there are also many high angle shots with panning transitions into zoom shots. we start off by seeing everything from the main character's perspective which shows us that his point of view will be key.

establishing shot.

the location of the opening is in a high risen flat block in America, this is clearly an ordinary situation which as we know is one of the key elements of a thriller, so we know that something extra-odinary is about to happen. we are also drawn as an audience to the protagonist, and his 'achilles heel' which is his broken leg. he is perceived as vulnerable and in some ways an easy target, if he were to be attacked he would have little means for escape.

Prelim Task

Preliminary Task for Thriller project.

-establishing shot
-close up
-match on action
-reaction shot
-long shot
-filming a conversation (180 degree rule)