Question 8) Prelim film to final film

These shots are the progression from our prelim shots onwards to our final film. We could see as a group that comparing our prelim film to our final film that there is a big improvement with use of sound, lighting and credits. 

This shot is too dark however our final film has more lighting. 

The mise and scene in this shot is not right, as too our final film we organised as to were we wanted our props to be.

in this shot the credits are not right, you don't have to show 'Staring', in our final film we just used the names of the cast individually.  

The font and layout is very basic and doesn't really go with the story of the prelim film, however in our final film we managed fit in the credits into the right places and use correct fonts in order for theme of our film to also show through the credits. 

Through out the time, from learning since the start of our course, we have progressed a lot being able to know what techniques to use, what not to do with the camera and also what we can do with the camera to get the best results that we need to get a clear and steady shot.

Similarities between characters in our thriller and another thriller.

Both this characters have similarities due to the fact they both use mask in order to disguise their identities. Leaving the audience to question who they really our. However the character from halloween doesn't give too much clues away, age and race, whereas in our thriller film its quite obvious. 

character from the film 'Halloween'

Character from our film the'Basement'

These two victims are both similar as they both are females, the costumes are similar with the bloody white top and the scared worried facial expressions. 

Our victim from the 'Basement' 

Victim from 'Halloween' 

Evaluation of 'Se7en' and our opening sequence

'Se7en' Screen shot of title sequence

Screen shots of our thriller 'Basement'

The screen shots of our thriller are similar to the opening title sequence of 'Se7en' because they both use dark lighting, a lot of dark shadows are used to distort images so that the audience are not sure of what they are seeing.

The extreme close ups allows the audience to try build a picture of the surroundings which is similar to 'Se7en' because they have ECU's of hands and objects in a room however due to the close up you have to build an idea of what the room looks like.

'Se7en' Screen shot of title sequence

Screen shots of our thriller 'Basement'

The screen shots of our thriller are similar to the opening title sequence of 'Se7en' because they both use dark lighting, a lot of dark shadows are used to distort images so that the audience are not sure of what they are seeing.

The extreme close ups allows the audience to try build a picture of the surroundings which is similar to 'Se7en' because they have ECU's of hands and objects in a room however due to the close up you have to build an idea of what the room looks like.

Q6 Audience Feed Back

As a group we are happy with the feed back we got, the feed back was mostly positive, for example; Someone noted that they liked the soundtrack and that we had a good use of lighting. Seen as all the feedback given was mostly positive it is clear that we got our target audience. We achieved our initial plan in making our thriller suspenseful. However there were some criticism's such as our thriller was too dark in certain places, but that was the whole point in order to create mystery to our title sequence. If we were to improve it we would add a bit more lighting in order to get more positive feedback.

jelly baby film

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. In broader definitions of suspense, this emotion arises when someone is aware of his lack of knowledge about the development of a meaningful event; thus, suspense is a combination of anticipation and uncertainty dealing with the obscurity of the future. In terms of narrative expressions, it may be contrasted with mystery or curiosity and surprise. Suspense could however be some small event in a person's life, such as a child anticipating an answer to a request they've made, e.g., "May I get the kitty?". Therefore, suspense comes in many different sizes, big and small.

Se7en

Synopsis: Police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire, tracking a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his motive. Police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire, tracking a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his motive.

Rated: R

Running Time: 2 hr. 5 min.

Distributor:New Line Cinema

Directed By: David Fincher

Written By: Andrew Kevin Walker

Momento

Synopsis: A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife. A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.

Rated: R – for violence, language and some drug content

US Box Office:£23.8M

Distributor:Newmarket Films

Directed By: christopher nolan

Written By: christopher nolan guy ritchie

The difference between a horror and thriller

A thriller is more interested in suspense, putting you "on the edge of your seat" or in plain terms, making you nervous for the fate of the characters. A horror movie wants to make you fear for your personal safety, to make you afraid that what happened to the characters may happen to you even after you've left the theater.

As a good horror movie often contains a great deal of suspense and as a good thriller can be pretty scary in spots it's more down to the intentions of the film maker and the subject matter of the film. Hitchcock is regarded as a suspense director but his films Psycho and The Birds are more correctly classified as horror films because they deal with horrific subject matter and their intention is to terrify, not make you nervous about the fate of the on-screen characters. Hitchcock's film North By Northwest has a terrifically suspenseful ending but it is not particularly horrific in that it is not specifically designed to scare you into thinking you may fall off Washington's nose on your next visit to Mount Rushmore.

top 15 pyschological thrillers

The Talented Mr Ripley

Anthony Minghella, 1999

The 1950s. Manhattan lavatory attendant, Tom Ripley, borrows a Princeton jacket to play piano at a garden party. When the wealthy father of a recent Princeton grad chats Tom up, Tom pretends to know the son and is soon offered $1,000 to go to Italy to convince Dickie Greenleaf to return home. In Italy, Tom attaches himself to Dickie and to Marge, Dickie’s cultured fiancée, pretending to love jazz and harboring homoerotic hopes as he soaks in luxury. Besides lying, Tom’s talents include impressions and forgery, so when the handsome and confident Dickie tires of Tom, dismissing him as a bore, Tom goes to extreme lengths to make Greenleaf’s privileges his own. This was the first film I saw Matt Damon in, and I was extremely impressed by the way he managed to make me feel so uncomfortable in every scene. To top it off, Philip Seymour Hoffman makes a cameo appearance in the film.

14

Fatal Attraction

Adrian Lyne, 1987

Happily married New York lawyer Dan Callagher has an affair with his colleague Alex, and the two enjoy a love weekend while Dan’s wife and kid are away. But Alex will not let go of him, and she will stop at nothing to have him for herself. Just how far will she go to get what she wants? This film has prevented me from ever seeing Glenn Close as anything but evil – watch this for some good old 80s frights.

13

The Game

David Fincher, 1997

When workaholic businessman Nicholas Van Orton turns 48, his long absent drug-addicted brother turns up and gives him a special gift for his birthday – membership of an exclusive game. Nicholas, against his better judgement signs the waiver form and his life is turned upside down. This film is a lesser known work by the director of Se7en – and while it is not as popular, it is an excellent film which really draws you in to the suspense and intrigue. I guarantee you will love it. From a perspective of the twisted psychological aspects of the film, this probably tops the list.

12

Cape Fear

Martin Scorsese, 1991

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney/”Leave It to Beaver”-esque family-man. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years, ago Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady’s rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss. It was a toss up between this film and the Departed – and I chose Cape Fear because the Departed is a fairly new film and is a remake of an Asian film. Having said that, if you haven’t seen the new Departed – you should see that too.

11

American Psycho

Mary Harron, 2000

Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments with fear and violence. This film has more cringe moments than any other I have seen. This is probably the most gruesome of the films on the list – but it does manage to keep it as “tasteful” as possible. The worst scene for me is one involving a drawer full of medical implements. If you have seen the film you will know what I mean.

10

Les Diaboliques

Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955

The wife and mistress of a sadistic boarding school headmaster plot to kill him. They drown him in the bathtub and dump the body in the school’s filthy swimming pool… but when the pool is drained, the body has disappeared – and subsequent reported sightings of the headmaster slowly drive his ‘killers’ (and the audience) up the wall with almost unbearable suspense. This film was remade under the title Diabolique in 1996 starring Sharon Stone. The original is so much better – avoid the new one.

9

Straw Dogs

Sam Peckinpah, 1971

Upon moving to Britain to get away from American violence, astrophysicist David Sumner and his wife Amy are bullied and taken advantage of by the locals hired to do construction. When David finally takes a stand it escalates quickly into a bloody battle as the locals assault his house. This is Dustin Hoffman as you have never seen him. This is one of my favorite psychological thriller cum revenge movies – it is definitely worth the purchase/download. Be warned: some of the scenes in this film are quite disturbing.

8

Play Misty for Me

Clint Eastwood, 1971

Disc jockey Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) attracts the amorous attentions of a demented fan named Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter). Evelyn lets Dave pick her up at a bar; later at her apartment, Evelyn admits that she is the cooing caller who repeatedly asks Dave to play the Erroll Garner classic “Misty.” From then on, the film is a lesson in how one casual date can turn your whole life around. Evelyn stalks Dave everywhere, ruins his business lunch, assaults his maid, mutilates his house and all of his belongings, and finally threatens to butcher his girlfriend Tobie Williams (Donna Mills). You’ll never be able to hear that song again without looking over your shoulder. This was Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, and what a debut it is!

7

The Usual Suspects

Bryan Singer, 1995

After a waterfront explosion, Verbal, an eye-witness and participant tells the story of events leading up to the conflagration. The story begins when five men are rounded up for a line-up, and grilled about a truck hijacking (the usual suspects). Least pleased is Keaton a crooked cop – exposed, indicted, but now desperately trying to go straight. The cops won’t leave him alone, however, and as they wait for their lawyers to post bail, he is talked into doing one more job with the other four. All goes tolerably well until the influence of the legendary, seemingly omnipotent “Keyser Soze” is felt. Although set in the modern day, it has much of the texture of the forties, plus suspense, intrigue (a fairly high body count), and lots of twists in the plot. This movie ranks #20 on the IMDB top 250 – and for a very good reason: it has a star studded cast, excellent direction, and excellent cinematography.

6

Memento

Christopher Nolan, 2000

Memento chronicles two separate stories of Leonard, an ex-insurance investigator who can no longer build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he remembers. One story line movies forward in time while the other tells the story backwards revealing more each time. This is not just a thrilling film – it is a clever film that really does leave you guessing all the way through. Guy Pearce is fantastic in this must-see movie.

5

Se7en

David Fincher, 1995

This thriller portrays the exploits of a deranged serial-killer. His twisted agenda involves choosing seven victims who represent egregious examples of transgressions of each of the Seven Deadly Sins. He then views himself as akin to the Sword of God, handing out horrific punishment to these sinners. Two cops, an experienced veteran of the streets who is about to retire and the ambitious young homicide detective hired to replace him, team up to capture the perpetrator of these gruesome killings. Unfortunately, they too become ensnared in his diabolical plan. Anyone who has seen this film can not deny the psychological thrill of waiting to see what nasty thing the serial killer has lined up for the next sin! This is a brilliant film and if you haven’t seen it – you must.

4

Taxi Driver

Martin Scorsese, 1976

New York City cab driver Travis Bickle constantly, almost obsessively, reflects on the ugly corruption of life around him, and becomes increasingly disturbed over his own loneliness and alienation. In nearly every phase of his life, Bickle remains a complete outsider, failing to make emotional contact with anyone. Unable to sleep night after night, Travis haunts the local pornography emporiums to find diversion, and begins desperately thinking about an escape from his depressing existence. The superb acting of Robert De Niro gives this film a constant chill. Every minute he is on the screen – the viewer is nervous. This is a masterful thriller by one of the modern greats – Scorsese.

3

The Manchurian Candidate

John Frankenheimer, 1962

After Raymond returns from the Korean War as a decorated hero, the other members of his platoon can’t really remember what he did to win his medal. Two of the soldiers start having recurring nightmares, and one of them decides to investigate Raymond’s current activities. What dark and sinister secrets are being withheld by the Government and the Army? This film was so good that it spawned a remake (a far inferior one, I should add) starring Denzel Washington. This original version includes excellent performances from Janet Leigh, Frank Sinatra, and the indomitable Angela Lansbury.

2

Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock, 1954

Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbours. He begins to suspect that the man opposite may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his society model girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his nurse Stella to investigate. I could only select one Hitchcock film for this list (otherwise it would be a top 10 Hitchcock list) and Rear Window seemed the obvious choice. It has brilliant acting, excellent film work, and plenty of suspense.

1

Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme, 1991

Clarice Starling, a young intelligent FBI trainee, has been sent to the Batlimore state hospital for the Criminally insane to interview an inmate Dr. Hannibal – the cannibal – Lecter. A brilliant and renowned psychiatrist turned serial killer. She must match wits with Lecter to gain clues in the search for “Buffalo Bill” – an unknown psychopathic serial killer. Silence of the Lambs has to take number one spot – not only is it clearly the best of the genre, it introduced to the world one of the most scary, intelligent, and vile characters in film history: Dr Hannibal Lecter. I think it is also fair to say that it was one of the best performances of Jodie Foster.

Thriller structure openings

There are 3 basic thriller openings.

• A narrative opening - a narrative opening is when the  titles running throughout the whole of the film opening

• A discrete title sequence- A discrete title sequence is a small, self contained film that may not have much relevance to the actual opening of the film but is used just to introduce the titles.

• Titles over a blank screen - Where the titles run over a blank screen. For example when text is shown we are faded into a blank screen.

thriller audiences

In 2009 there were 31 suspense films released. However Animation, action and comedy done quite well and the reason i feel as if there were quite succesfull is because it has a wider variety of audiences which can range from many more audiences. Where as Thrillers in 2009 were quite low in the box office this could be due to the fact that most thrillers are similar and sometimes have the same or typical storyline. Not something unexpected however recently the directors to thriller films have bucked up the ideas.
We find that thriller audiences sometimes vary depending on the sub genre of the thriller.
Not everybody llikes the same type of thriller thats why there are so many to cater for everyones tastes.
For males theres usually action violence and crime where as for females the thriller story is usually behind a romantic thrill.

ways to create suspense

• Scary music - The audience feels that something big is going to happen. They just don’t know when, because the music is even and repetitive. Usually when the action starts, the music changes to something much more dramatic.

• Color Effects Color correction can be useful for creating a discomforting feel in a scene. Tinting the image with a “cold” color (blue or green) can give it a “pessimistic” look, especially if the color of skin is also changed. But don’t overdo it or it will become too unrealistic and the audience will detach from the characters.
  Also, reducing the contrast of the image (a bit) might have the same effect — the audience will feel uneasy because they will need more time to perceive the image (it is more difficult with low contrast).
• Sensory Deprivation
  People are afraid of the dark because they can’t see what’s in it. When you are in a forest at night and you hear the wolves howling, you can’t help but wonder how close they are.
  You can ignite the same kind of fear in the audience by carefully placing the camera so that they don’t see what they want to see — or eat least that they can’t see it well.
  There are many possibilities: a shadow in the dark, a closed door with strange sounds coming from behind it, a main character’s scared face when we cannot see what he is looking at… The audience has their imagination turned on — and it’s working in your favor.
• The Ignorant HeroWere you ever caught shouting something like that to the movie screen? One of the strongest methods of producing suspense is letting the audience know what kind of danger the main character is cluelessly rushing into. They know what he doesn’t know, but they can’t help him. This makes them feel helpless — another very desired effect.
• The Villain’s Point Of View  Even when we see who is watching, it is a hint that the character could be in for a fatal surprise.
  This method also achieves the most desirable goal of a suspense-making director: to keep the audiences guessing.

Tips when creating a suspenseful film

If you choose to have a few people die in the scene, it will elevate the scary feeling, but can turn your scene into a horror film, detaching your audience from reality, which can be good or bad, depending on what you desire.

A good way to create tension is using extreme close-ups. For example, if you are showing a person running, just show the feet hitting the ground. Also, focusing on the eyes brings the audience closer to the actors. Expressiveness in the eyes can create feelings of fear, tension and suspense.

Lighting is key in creating suspense. Use dramatic lights and darks to add tension in your scene. Black shadows, bright disorienting lights and sharp contrasts can add interest to your movie.

Music is key when heightening the tension. Watch any Alfred Hitchcock movie and the music alone will send shivers up your spine. Low, booming bass works well, but high-pitched, shrill sounds are the best.

Try to use as few shots and cuts in the scene as possible, so there is little gap between the action. This also gives the feeling that you are actually there witness the action, and can easily build tension in a film.

3 examples of thriller suspense from The Stepfather

In class we had to watch the psychological thriller The step father and come to a conclusion of the seens we thought stood out to us most and the most intense atmoshere as a thriller. At the start of the film we could see the man was changing his identity. Shaving off his beard and wearing eye contacts. This for me was the most intense part. We knew nothing of the man, we didn't know the reason for his sudden change of appearance or the part he had to play.

The secound part was seeing the dead bodies around the house, and the fact  that he walked around them and the house as normal was a shock. It became quite clear to me that he had murdered the woman and her children and that he himself was infact a pyshcotic character. It made me think what was he reason for killing them?


The third part was when the location was set in the super market, you could see the convosation between him and the lady was going to lead to future romance.
When the scene was taken into the car park the tension built up. The audience response would be for the woman to stay away, but as she invites him out for lunch its clear that her and her family will be the next victim to his psychotic ways.

Thriller Fonts

Ive come to the analysis that different thrillers have different fonts depending on the sub genre of the thriller. But the most basic ones look like these.

Panning

Panning is a great technique for action the main subject will be sharp against a blurred background. The idea is to follow the subject as it passes in front of you and continue to follow it as you press the shutter and even after the shot is taken.

If you pan at the same speed as the subject it will appear sharp against a streaking blurred background. To ensure smooth results keep your feet still and rotate the top half of your body as you track your subject. Prefocus your camera at a point where your subject will pass to ensure the picture is sharp. Also ensure the background isn't too light and doesn't have shapes as this can create ghostlike effects or streaks in the image. A darker background is better.

To aid in capturing panned pictures, photographers use aids such as tripods and monopods, which make it easy to swing the camera along one plane, while keeping it steady in the others. A low budget option is to tie a piece of string around the lens, then to drop the other end to the floor and step on it to pull it taut. This will allow a little bit more stability and allow for smoother blur.