Sunday, 17 November 2013
Synopses For Opening Sequence
Synopses for opening sequence ideas
Our ideas are still vague as we are allowing room for compromise both ways, however the basic concept begins with a black screen, titles appear along with music as this is happening a shot of a match being sparked alight in slow motion. The score will be very tense and suspenseful and we will try our best to synchronise what we can with the way the score develops. Cinematography wise the shot will most likely be an extreme close up or close up. Edits will be slow at this point as later on we will be increasing the speed at which they cut at to increase suspense. A figure will slowly come into focus and visibility and he will light a candle. He will shine the candle on a wall full of symbols and begin noting them down in a notebook, while he is doing this we might possibly have narrator dialogue speaking what the character as he is writing things down.
Our next shot is of a girl who is walking through a forest and walking toward an abandoned building. Cuts will speed up the time it takes her to approach the building. We will try to make the audience assume that she is looking for him and they are happening at the same time, however we will later reveal that they are during different time periods, one key prop of this will be the girl holding and looking at a photo of the boy in the previous shot. Next there will be cross cutting between the two characters with the girl following in the boys footsteps, cuts will make it look like both are doing the same movement and motion to build tension for the girl character. At that point strange sounds will begin to be heard, which should raise the suspense. The girl character will find a candle on the floor that looks exactly like that of the boy, and some dried up blood on the floor. She eventually finds the notebook and begins reading from it, some pages are ripped and torn, then a cut back to the first character, where theres a shot of him and a dark mysterious figure creeping up on him, and then a cut and he disappears.
Another synopses idea that we had was about a group of young adults driving to the forest for a camping trip, there would be contrapuntal music of dread and ambient high pitch score, while there is a long cut montage of the kids in the car messing around and having fun, this would quickly end and as they drive deeper into the forest small psychological elements like ripped signs and scary trees would be visible, they get out the car as the road ends and look around a spooky landscape of autumn trees with their leaves lost, the 3 main characters realise that the fourth is no where to be seen, running around looking for him and panicking he jumps out scaring them for a jokes, they all relieve themselves and carry on looking around they start setting up tents but the night beats them to it as it get's to dark for them to finish, eventually they are faced with a situation that the person who was playing jokes earlier disappears again, the group contemplate wether to look for him or not, it is from each of their perspectives apart from the one their looking for, they slowly begin losing each other and find themselves on their own. that would be the end of the opening sequence.
-David Ziolkowski
Friday, 15 November 2013
Thriller synopses research
Thriller synopses research
The definition of a movie synopses is "Brief condensation, outline, or summary of the main points of an articles, book, or plan. Unlike an abstract, a synopsis maintains the point by point sequence of the salient ideas."
From: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/synopsis.html#ixzz2pHvXm0rg
Therefor thriller synopses are just brief summarisations of the movies main events and critical points/themes that help the reader to understand the overall direction and meaning of a film in terms of not only conventions and sub genre. There are many thriller synopses i have decided to analyse silence of the lambs as it's sub genre's include psychological, horror and mystery.
The Silence of the Lambs
- A psychopath known as Buffalo Bill is kidnapping and murdering young women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the F.B.I. sends Agent Clarice Starling to interview a demented prisoner who may provide psychological insight and clues to the killer's actions. The prisoner is psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lector, a brilliant, murderous cannibal who will only help Starling if she feeds his morbid curiosity with details about her own complicated life. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to confront her psychological demons, but leads her to face with a demented, heinous killer, an incarceration of evil so powerful, that she may not have the courage -- or strength -- to stop him!- Written by Robert Lynch <docrlynch@yahoo.com>
From this synopsis we can see that there are many important thriller conventions used, for example plot lines about 'psychopath murder' and 'psychological demons' all demonstrate the mental aspect (suspense/ tension) of the film. We can clearly see the sub genre's highlighted are the ones I mentioned in the introduction. The audience for this kind of film is also not likely to be a very young audience younger than 15 possibly as it may scare them, the film is clearly intended for young adults as it is about one and furthermore the themes displayed would be interesting mostly to this age range.
Next i would like to analyse a movie called "The Sixth Sense" as it is a very popular and interesting thriller movie.
The Sixth Sense
Child psychologist Malcom Crowe is one night visited by an ex-patient named Vincent, angry, enraged. He wounds Crowe, then kills himself. A few months later, Crowe is visited by a 9-year old boy named Cole. He sees dead people who do not know they are dead. Because of this, he is called a freak in school. Crowe, at first thinks he is seeing things, but after spending a lot of time with Cole (much to his wife's dismay), he discovers Cole may be seeing dead people after all.
Used from IMBD also address: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167404/plotsummary
The sixth sense is very psychological also as it possibly looks into a mental illness/ alternative reality that is scary and tense, the connotations of death and dead people are mainly scary, shocking and horrific. This kind of thriller is different from many others as it has no action, however the use of flashbacks is another convention, as it disorientates space and time confusing the audience furthermore there is a large use of obtrusive edits which add to the feeling of tension as they further unsettle peoples psychological understanding of movie events, thrilling them.
In terms of audiences the young boy would imply that young children can watch this movie, however they are likely to be very scared by this movie, so the appropriate classification of 15 is given to this movie, meaning mainly young adults would be the largest demographic for this movie of many sub genre's including mystery, psychological and weak horror mainly.
For my final analysis of film synopses i would like to research a different sub-genre of thriller, the disaster thriller, which has conventions of 'the end of the world plot lines' with survivalist concepts, furthermore they are likely to contain the first person view of someone who experiences and tackles the obstacle of the end of the world, either individually or with a group who often have to work together to survive. The movie that i have chosen which fits this sub-genre and contains all the conventions noted above is called 'The Day After Tomorrow' which i will analyse.
The Day After Tommorrow
- As Paleoclimatologist named Jack Hall is in Antartica, he discovers that a huge ice sheet has sheared off. But what he does not know is that this event will trigger a massive climate shift that will affect the world population. Meanwhile, his son Sam is with friends in New York to attend an event. There they discover that it has been raining non-stop for the past 3 weeks, and after a series of weather-related disasters begin to occur over the world, everybody realizes the world is entering a new Ice Age and the world population begins trying to evacuate to the warmer climates of the south. Jack makes a daring attempt to rescue his son and his friends who are stuck in New York and who have managed to survive not only a massive wave but also freezing cold temperatures that could possibly kill them.- Written by John Wiggins
IMBD address: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/plotsummary
This movie is very different to the first two that i have discussed as the 'thrill' is in a different feeling category- this is more of an adrenaline building, instinctual, survival situation rather than psychological perplexion. In this thriller the conventions displayed are like i mentioned earlier of the survival plot lines and with individualistic point of view on life, with a positive message to help others. The sub-genre fits in very tightly to the disaster sub genre and audiences for this type vary greatly as well, but may be more appealing to a further audience of older and younger ages than the first two. It is more appropriate for a younger audience and is a PG, meaning all ages can see it, in my opinion children older than 8 would also enjoy this movie. On the other side of the spectrum this film might also be appealing to an older audience as disaster and survival is a universal topic interesting to older people as well whatever age.
-David Ziolkowski
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Thriller audiences and our target audience
Classification of films for different audiences.
There are many different classifications, starting of with U for universal, all audiences can view this kind of movie, they are usually but not limited to children's movies, this is because they are not allowed to contain any strong forms of violence, drugs, horror, imitable behavior, nudity, sex or discrimination.
The second rating is PG, standing for parental guidance, so it is the parents choice wether the child is allowed to watch the movie or not. It is allowed to show very mild forms of violence, and references to sex however should not offend any one under the age of 8.
The third rating is 12, which means audiences aged 12 and over are allowed to watch the following film, 12A is a further given classification which is only used for theatrical viewings in cinema's, what it means is that they have to be attended by an adult to see it.
The fourth rating which is 15, is more explicit, however they still may not show, prolonged sex, gore and sadistic violence.
The final classification which is 18, is allowed to display any theme no matter how violent, gory, discrimminatory and abusive thus meaning that some audiences may or may not find them offensive, however some works would go into the R18 category which deals with sexual fetish, and pornographic material.
Appropriateness of different audience classifications.
Thriller movies don't seem very appropriate for young children, as thrillers often contain violence, murder, bad language, and generally things that are too scary for them to see. Following the BBFC ratings, the minimum I would give a thriller is about the 15 classification. However, there are many very violent thrillers that would also fit the 18 classification, and other mild thrillers that fit in the 12 classification. Something like a Conspiracy, Legal, Techno or Political thrillers would probably fit in the 12 or 15 classification. Crime, Psychological or Supernatural thrillers would probably fit in the 15 or 18 classification. However, something like a political thriller, may seem boring to a 12 year old, even though it is considered suitable for them to view it.
After researching this me and my partner have decided for our film to be targeted at 15 - 25 year old demographics.
Thriller will attract many different demographic types, in particular young adults, who seek thrills and enjoy mystery, the person has to be into twists in the story and who enjoys working things out for themselves. They are more appealing to boys than girls slightly due to the suspense element which some girls enjoy less. I would target a young audience as they are the most likely to watch thriller movies, between ages 15 and 25, this is also the largest market for films. Some considerations would be to have young and attractive characters that would appeal to the young audience and someone that they can look up to. The content that I would have to use would have to be appropriate for a young audience, so I will include several fast edits to build attention and use appropriate tense score, there can be mild references to gore and violence, but I have to be careful not to show to much or else it could be classed as inappropriate for the audience that I would want to show it for by the BBFC.
Subgenre: Psychological thriller
Me and my partner want to make our film a psychological thriller because we think that is what a true thriller is, something that has elements which play on your mind like scary noises and clever editing and cinematography, we believe that this is what we want for our film to look like. We will not include any gore, strong language or discrimmination just thrills so for my opening sequence, I highly doubt it would fall over the 18 rating. It would probably fit under the 15 classification. I don't think the sequence will feature strong language or discriminatory behaviour, but it may include strong violence, or drug use, possibly fitting in the 15 category.
There are many different classifications, starting of with U for universal, all audiences can view this kind of movie, they are usually but not limited to children's movies, this is because they are not allowed to contain any strong forms of violence, drugs, horror, imitable behavior, nudity, sex or discrimination.
The second rating is PG, standing for parental guidance, so it is the parents choice wether the child is allowed to watch the movie or not. It is allowed to show very mild forms of violence, and references to sex however should not offend any one under the age of 8.
The third rating is 12, which means audiences aged 12 and over are allowed to watch the following film, 12A is a further given classification which is only used for theatrical viewings in cinema's, what it means is that they have to be attended by an adult to see it.
The fourth rating which is 15, is more explicit, however they still may not show, prolonged sex, gore and sadistic violence.
The final classification which is 18, is allowed to display any theme no matter how violent, gory, discrimminatory and abusive thus meaning that some audiences may or may not find them offensive, however some works would go into the R18 category which deals with sexual fetish, and pornographic material.
Appropriateness of different audience classifications.
Thriller movies don't seem very appropriate for young children, as thrillers often contain violence, murder, bad language, and generally things that are too scary for them to see. Following the BBFC ratings, the minimum I would give a thriller is about the 15 classification. However, there are many very violent thrillers that would also fit the 18 classification, and other mild thrillers that fit in the 12 classification. Something like a Conspiracy, Legal, Techno or Political thrillers would probably fit in the 12 or 15 classification. Crime, Psychological or Supernatural thrillers would probably fit in the 15 or 18 classification. However, something like a political thriller, may seem boring to a 12 year old, even though it is considered suitable for them to view it.
My target audience...
For my opening sequence, I would like to target the teenager to young adult audience. Looking at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) ratings, this could come under the 12, 15 or 18 rating.
Looking at the 12 rating, moderate violence is allowed, no emphasis on on details (like blood). Weapons are allowed, but not glamorised. Drug use is allowed, but can't be glamorised. Very infrequent strong language is allowed.
The 15 rating says that strong violence is allowed. Frequent strong language is allowed. Drug Taking is allowed. Discriminatory behaviour/language is allowed.
The 18 rating says that very strong violence is allowed. Frequent strong language is allowed. Strong horror/blood and gore is allowed.
After researching this me and my partner have decided for our film to be targeted at 15 - 25 year old demographics.
Thriller will attract many different demographic types, in particular young adults, who seek thrills and enjoy mystery, the person has to be into twists in the story and who enjoys working things out for themselves. They are more appealing to boys than girls slightly due to the suspense element which some girls enjoy less. I would target a young audience as they are the most likely to watch thriller movies, between ages 15 and 25, this is also the largest market for films. Some considerations would be to have young and attractive characters that would appeal to the young audience and someone that they can look up to. The content that I would have to use would have to be appropriate for a young audience, so I will include several fast edits to build attention and use appropriate tense score, there can be mild references to gore and violence, but I have to be careful not to show to much or else it could be classed as inappropriate for the audience that I would want to show it for by the BBFC.
Subgenre: Psychological thriller
Me and my partner want to make our film a psychological thriller because we think that is what a true thriller is, something that has elements which play on your mind like scary noises and clever editing and cinematography, we believe that this is what we want for our film to look like. We will not include any gore, strong language or discrimmination just thrills so for my opening sequence, I highly doubt it would fall over the 18 rating. It would probably fit under the 15 classification. I don't think the sequence will feature strong language or discriminatory behaviour, but it may include strong violence, or drug use, possibly fitting in the 15 category.
Demographic: 15-25 year old audience's
The kinds of audiences that would be interested in this would be people who enjoy mystery and tension and are drawn to suspense.
I want to do a film that would appeal to the teenager/young adult audience because I am of that age, and I think I understand what appeals to this age range, thus aiming my film for the 15-25 demographic, which is also a large section of the market.
For my movie I would most likely keep it to a “15” which contain the following:
-strong violence
-frequent strong language
-portrayals of sexual activity
-strong verbal references to sex
-sexual nudity
-brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
-discriminatory language or behaviour
-drug taking
Sunday, 3 November 2013
Thriller Opening Title Sequences
As our project is to create a Thriller opening sequence, I have analysed several thriller opening sequences.
This opening sequence from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' (2011) is a title sequence. The sequence is several different objects and people covered in a black liquid. They seem to be references to events that occur in the film. Production and cast credits run over the sequence, as well as the title. Quite punky/rocky music plays over the sequence. Over all the sequence is quite dark and horrific.
The opening segment to 'Taken' (2008) gets straight into the film. It starts with home video footage. Then a quick cut to the protagonist waking up, looking at the photograph, holding some instructions, then the film starts. The production and cast credits run over the opening. The opening seems to be making it easy to draw conclusions from, that the protagonist cares about his daughter, and he seems to live separately from his family. Nothing pretty thrilling occurs in this opening.
The opening sequence of 'Psyhco' (1960) is just titles. A dramatic score kicks in. The production and cast credits run over barred line graphics and black. Simple, but does the job.
'Eagle Eye' (2008) starts with a production credit. The sequence takes place in the middle of events. The sequence starts with young kids running to a village. Cars are seen driving towards the village. A sinister score plays overhead. Foreign dialogue is heard as we see the point of view of some binoculars. Cutting between inside the office and the village creates tension, as the viewer knows something is going to happen. The score becomes dramatic towards the end as the people are blown up. Then the title is shown. The opening creates enigmas and gets the viewer in the mood for the rest of the film.
After looking at these opening sequences, I think my title sequence won't just be titles. I would like to set up enigmas, and really excite the audience, as it seems to be a far more interesting route to take.
The History of the Thriller Genre
The thriller movie's aim has always been to create 'suspense, tension and excitement' for the audience.
One of the earliest thriller movies was the silent movie titled 'Safety Last!' (1923). To create the typical thriller emotions for the viewer, score seems to play a big part in this film, as well as actor performance.
Several scenes highlight this. In the first ten minutes of the film, the protagonist gets locked in the back of the van. As soon as the doors close, the score becomes dramatic, almost pleonastic to the protagonist's actions. The actor, compared to today's standards, appears to overact, however, as there is a lack of dialogue, this would be to help the audience understand clearly how the protagonist is feeling. We get several long shots of the protagonist, to see his actions, like hitting the van, showing us he's desperate to get out. We also get a close up of his face, showing us his worry. These help the viewer feel tense.
Another scene later on, the most famous scene from the film, is where the protagonist climbs a building. The scene is around 20 minutes long, but the most dramatic part is where he's near the top and hangs off the clock. The higher the protagonist climbs, the higher the notes are in the score, also the tempo increases, adding to the suspense. The score reaches a dramatic climax as the protagonist hangs off the clock. Again, close ups and long shots of the protagonist show us his terror.
Alfred Hitchcock is famous for being a pioneer in the thriller genre, his first thriller film 'The Lodger' (1927) would start his career of thriller films, creating and inventing techniques to maximise the viewer's anxiety and fear, which are used to this day.
Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' (1954) is considered one of his best films.
This scene starts with a very long cut, lasting a hole minute, then a couple of long cuts follow. The long cuts create suspense, as the viewer anticipates something to happen, due to the nature of the genre. When we cut to the point of view of the protagonist, the score stops, creating tension. The man in the apartment appears to have knives, this creates enigmas. The background noise of outside adds realism. At the end of the scene, the close up of the protagonist's face shows us that he has the same ideas as we do, making the audience feel like they are figuring it out along with the protagonist.
In this scene, sound has an important role. Your can hear the the footsteps of the antagonist climbing the stairs in the background, making the viewer tense as he gets closer with every step. Also, the phone goes off suddenly, making the viewer jump, which then makes them even more tense. A close up of the door, showing the light under it going out creates even more tension, as the viewer knows he is right outside. The low key lighting as the antagonist walks in the room, just lighting part of his face, shows the audience he is a shadowy figure and the 'bad guy'. This scene highlights the fact that small details can be just as, or even more effective at creating suspense and tension then obvious techniques.
A good film to compare older thrillers to more contemporary thrillers, and show the differences to thrillers now, would be 'Disturbia' (2007), as it is inspired by 'Rear Window'. The films shows us that there are several techniques which are still used today, and others which a clearly modern day versions of original techniques, trying to maximise the tension and suspense of the audience with technological enhancements and new ideas.
This scene uses kinetic camera work, unlike in 'Rear Window', by the cameraman and the protagonist, making the scene feel more real, making it even more tense for the viewer. The video camera used by the protagonist, when its shaky and zooms in, reveal less about what is going on then the camera in 'Rear Window' did, creating even more tension. The dramatic score, going silent when the antagonist can't be seen, and kicking back in when he returns, is similar to older thrillers, except the the score seems even more dramatic and screechy in this contemporary thriller. More and shorter cuts, and a quick dolly shot create an even faster pace, pumping the viewer with tension. The score quiets down when the protagonist looses the antagonist, but jumps right back in again when he is spotted, making the viewer jump. Overall, this scene shows us that today we still retain elements of Lloyd's and Hitchcock's work, but also have made our own improvements to create the most thrilling scenes possible.
One of the earliest thriller movies was the silent movie titled 'Safety Last!' (1923). To create the typical thriller emotions for the viewer, score seems to play a big part in this film, as well as actor performance.
Several scenes highlight this. In the first ten minutes of the film, the protagonist gets locked in the back of the van. As soon as the doors close, the score becomes dramatic, almost pleonastic to the protagonist's actions. The actor, compared to today's standards, appears to overact, however, as there is a lack of dialogue, this would be to help the audience understand clearly how the protagonist is feeling. We get several long shots of the protagonist, to see his actions, like hitting the van, showing us he's desperate to get out. We also get a close up of his face, showing us his worry. These help the viewer feel tense.
Another scene later on, the most famous scene from the film, is where the protagonist climbs a building. The scene is around 20 minutes long, but the most dramatic part is where he's near the top and hangs off the clock. The higher the protagonist climbs, the higher the notes are in the score, also the tempo increases, adding to the suspense. The score reaches a dramatic climax as the protagonist hangs off the clock. Again, close ups and long shots of the protagonist show us his terror.
Alfred Hitchcock is famous for being a pioneer in the thriller genre, his first thriller film 'The Lodger' (1927) would start his career of thriller films, creating and inventing techniques to maximise the viewer's anxiety and fear, which are used to this day.
Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' (1954) is considered one of his best films.
This scene starts with a very long cut, lasting a hole minute, then a couple of long cuts follow. The long cuts create suspense, as the viewer anticipates something to happen, due to the nature of the genre. When we cut to the point of view of the protagonist, the score stops, creating tension. The man in the apartment appears to have knives, this creates enigmas. The background noise of outside adds realism. At the end of the scene, the close up of the protagonist's face shows us that he has the same ideas as we do, making the audience feel like they are figuring it out along with the protagonist.
In this scene, sound has an important role. Your can hear the the footsteps of the antagonist climbing the stairs in the background, making the viewer tense as he gets closer with every step. Also, the phone goes off suddenly, making the viewer jump, which then makes them even more tense. A close up of the door, showing the light under it going out creates even more tension, as the viewer knows he is right outside. The low key lighting as the antagonist walks in the room, just lighting part of his face, shows the audience he is a shadowy figure and the 'bad guy'. This scene highlights the fact that small details can be just as, or even more effective at creating suspense and tension then obvious techniques.
A good film to compare older thrillers to more contemporary thrillers, and show the differences to thrillers now, would be 'Disturbia' (2007), as it is inspired by 'Rear Window'. The films shows us that there are several techniques which are still used today, and others which a clearly modern day versions of original techniques, trying to maximise the tension and suspense of the audience with technological enhancements and new ideas.
This scene uses kinetic camera work, unlike in 'Rear Window', by the cameraman and the protagonist, making the scene feel more real, making it even more tense for the viewer. The video camera used by the protagonist, when its shaky and zooms in, reveal less about what is going on then the camera in 'Rear Window' did, creating even more tension. The dramatic score, going silent when the antagonist can't be seen, and kicking back in when he returns, is similar to older thrillers, except the the score seems even more dramatic and screechy in this contemporary thriller. More and shorter cuts, and a quick dolly shot create an even faster pace, pumping the viewer with tension. The score quiets down when the protagonist looses the antagonist, but jumps right back in again when he is spotted, making the viewer jump. Overall, this scene shows us that today we still retain elements of Lloyd's and Hitchcock's work, but also have made our own improvements to create the most thrilling scenes possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)