Genre and Subgenre

Genre-refers to the method based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed.

Subgenre- the genre which is also embedded within the film and interlinks with the primary genre to enlarge films audience, e.g Romantic Comedy.

The thriller sub-genre which inspires me most is probably Psychological Thrillers and 'Fatal Attraction' is a prime example. It falls into this category as it plays on the idea of a love traingle which results in the woman (Glen Close) who slept with a married man (Micheal Douglas) going insane and effectively ruining his family's lives. Furthermore, leaving an impression on the audience, making them feel like if they commit an affair they may go through hell.

For our thriller, we desire to intergrate psychological aspects, which can apply to anybody watching our thriller so they feel the full effect of our opening.

 The Large knife is recognised in many thrillers, as it originated from Hitchcock's 'Psycho', it is an effective convention as it shows the extreme ambition of the killer and it creates optimum danger, which can trigger tension whithin the audience.






I believe through the insane character wearing white it can effectively promote innocence and lead the audience to believe that they are not the one who has done wrong. I believe through having a sense of normality or security in our opening will be quite effective as it will dramatise our opening much more once their actions have been shown, creating the shock factor.



The setting is also a key factor in which is recognised in the opening immediately. I believe for our thriller opening we dont want our setting to be so obvious, we had an idea to film a section within some sort of forest which would be secluded from the public, to show mystery and danger. In Fatal Attraction the family's house has a large yard and is practically shut off. However, the camera shots are taken from within the forest, towards the house, where there are branches obstructing the audiences view. I feel this is a clever way to shhot it as it can promote tension and have thew thrilling aspect of somebody spying on you.

Health & Safety of the use of equipment

JVC Camcorder
Using this camcorder, you have to be careful as it can break if it is dropped. You hold it steadily with both hands, ensuring that you don't drop it you have to watch what you are doing. As the camcorder is quiet big and heavy, if it is dropped onto the foot it can hurt or it could possibly bruise or break a bone. It is dangerous to meddle with this equipment due to its weight.

Tripod

The tripod is quiet heavy, and when using this equipment you also have to be very careful when opening and closing the tripod. It can snap you finger if it gets caught when opening the hatch to lengthen the tripod. It could hurt, this is very dangerous therefore if it is used, it should be used carefully and it is not a tool to play with. 

Lighting

The lighting equipment, if used for a long time it can heat up and can potentially burn therefore, when using it you have to be careful you don't burn yourself. The light equipment can also be heavy, if dropped onto foot, it can hurt or potentially bruise.

All equipment used during the production of a film, is dangerous in many aspects, keep a steady hand and be careful of what you are doing to ensure that you are safe, and no danger will occur.

Art of the title Sequence (Research Task 2)

Quantum Of Solace



I have chosen this extraordinary, and exciting film opening as I believe it has all the conventions to a film opening.

Film Title

The film title at the end of the opening sequence informs the audience of what movie it is, also introducing the film by the main character James Bond shooting a bullet though the film title, which suggests a new scene is about to unravel.The slow motion of the bullet being shot enhances the mysteriousness and enhances the audience curiousness of what had happened, and why.

Production Logo

 Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) and Columbia Pictures (Sony Entertainment), both companies help each other to promote the film as both companies are already well known. The input that both companies put in to the film 'Quantum of Solace' is far great, therefore their logos are first to be put up screen in the opening title. This conveys their significance and importance, as well as role within the production of the film.

Setting

The location of the film is in text, put over the Siena town to convey the setting of the film.This gives the audience a clear knowledge of where it is set, and what may happen within this town. The long shot suggests that there are many civilians living in this town, which also indicates danger to them and the properties that surround the area. This setting, also conveys the time, which is during the day and the action that happened at the beginning of the film opening, can be seen in public.

Introduction to Characters and Directors                             

Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond in Quantum of Solace, has the most screen time because he is the main protagonist of the film. He plays an important role, as the introduction only introduces Names Bond and no other character  This conveys his significance in the movie, as he is a celebrity he has the main role to attract female fans and men to watch the movie.

Eon Production is also presented in the credits below Albert R. Broccoli because they are the producers of the film, they are introduced before Daniel Craig which conveys the significance of Eon Productions.

Camera & Editing

The pace of James Bond firing the gun, foreshadows the genre of the film, which is a thriller. The use of the gun, suggests that there will be shooting and violence during the film. 

The long shot conveys the setting of mountains,which foreshadows that something is going to happen on the mountains, the beautiful landscape is then skipped to a close up of a car.

The pace of the car, is speedy and fast which indicates urgency and as James Bond has the most screen time, it clearly show that he is the one being chased my a group of people with guns. The sleek, modern car suggests his wealth, his suit is clean and neat which also suggests that he is James Bond. you can immediately see that he is the main protagonist of the film.

Music
At the beginning of the film, the music introduces the film, you can tell its an action movie genre as the digetic sounds of gun shooting is portrayed. The music at the end of the film opening is very sassy, and the combination of the instruments help create an atmosphere that the audience know, it is an action movie that is very exciting, the effect of the 'dun dun dun', it's like its slows down the film opening for a little while so the audience can engulf what is happening as so far, the car chasing scene was very fast and you cannot really tell what is happening.

Intertextuality Ideas for our Thriller

We have discussed a rough basis for our Thriller movie, and plan to have an Instant Messaging scene in the beginning of the film.

We have researched many films that have these types of scene and plan to use intertextuality from two different films, "Hard Candy" and "Trust".


An opening title for our film could look something alike the end title for the "Trust" trailer, where it is written out in to a word processor, showing the computer orientation

Some aspects of this camera shot may be used in our opening thriller, this intertextuality will be embedded in our thriller because it fits into our opening convention. The instant messaging conveyed in this movie 'Trust' will also be a main aspects to our opening thriller because it creates an instant link between the two people conversing on via the internet. Another camera shot we liked from "Trust" was the Over The Shoulder showing the girl looking at her computer screen.










We also liked the idea from "Hard Candy" where the camera shows a POV shot or a closeup of the screen of either of one of the partificipents in the Instant Messaging conversation, this allows us to see how close they are to eachother, and get to know the characters via their Instant Messaging names, and getting to know the plot.

The last idea we'd like to embedd from another fim is the wall of photos from the film "One Hour Photo" this shows a 'stalkerish' character looking at his possible victims.   

Intertextuality

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between film. When films "borrow" ideas and specific scenes from eachother. This is used as it can enhance the film text as viewers often like realising the use of intertextuality.

Intertextuality is often used in modern day films as there is such a rich history to draw on.


For example, the legendary thriller "Psycho" released in 1960 is often copied with the shower killing scene.

Many films have copied this idea, by using a mixture of shower scenes, knife murders and the breaking of shower curtains, for example the film below.

This scene copies the bathroom location, aswell as the murder in the bathroom and repetitive stabbing, however it has a different twist as there are 3 separate people, and the victims also end up murdering the attacker.

Reservoir Dogs Remake Images

Group 24 Resevoir Dogs Remake Images - flash slideshow maker

Comparison of Original & Remake of Reservoir Dogs

The Reservoir Dogs remake, in comparison to the original is more or less on the same borderline. There are some aspects in our production that is different to the actual film introduction.


As there was more characters in the actual introduction, it effected our synchronisation which made our remake shorter. However, we used slow motion so that it looked as if it was the same time length as the original.


Throughout the remake, we used slow motion to lengthen the clips and math the original as it is used to match the convention of the original, which is action and thriller. As the characters are gangster, slow motion portrays their sinister.

The camera in our remake was off focus because it was on manual, rather than auto. This effected the quality of our remake which distorted our footage. In comparison, to the original the quality is very bad when viewing on the blog.

The lighting was also of bad quality because it was dark when we was filming, alongside limited time and lighting. In addition, the original had good lighting because it was filmed during the day, whereas we was filming during the evening.

We couldn't find the right text to match the original, however we adapted it to the best of our ability.

At the beginning, we did not use the voice over because our cafe scene was around 3 seconds s it didn't fit in with the timing. It would have been better if we did do the voice over because, it would have matched the original as well as provide dialogue.



In our credits, we did not include the scroll up credit because it looks as if it was the ending of the film, and we didn't have enough names for our credits.

We have also added another scene at the end of the credits, of Mr.Orange being shot which makes it dramatic and it and the introduction nicely. We also didn't follow the script because there was foul language which we couldn't use.

Editing Process - Reservoir Dogs

 

The remake of the film was edited on Final Cut Pro.We used a variety of visual and audio clips, altering speeds, and adding texts with motion.

This shot shows the process of adding the opening text to the project. We added a text similar to the original, with the same colour, and a similar typeface.

 This image shows the process of us slowing down a clip. We slowed the clip down to a 3rd of its original speed, to correlate with the original film.

 In this clip we added text onto each closeup of the characters, to introduce the character and the actor who plays them.

In these two shots, left, we are changing a few things. First of all we changed the centre of the camera, as it was aimed slightly to the right. We then proceeded to edit the text, so it would raise above the characters heads, reading "Reservoir Dogs" as it does in the original film.

This shot shows the final process of editing the film, which is redering, the software converts and compresses the images and audio files and exports it as a .mov, which is a video format.

Reservior Dogs Remake

YouTube version here (HD)

Minh's Research - Conventions of film openings

What are the conventions of a typical film opening? 

It can be broken in different structures. Audio, production companies, directors, actors, settings, camera shots and the pace it was edited in. All these features are fused together to support the makers genre and effect they want to create for the audience.

Here are thrillers soundtrack openings that all have something in common. Tension. All of these soundtracks are the typical soundtrack (eery) genre used to  help create tension towards a thriller opening. They can also be used to foreshadow the next scene or action about to occur. 

Often in a opening of a movie, the production company of the film is introduced. In this case it is FOX in One Hour Photo. The production companies are the people who help produce the film financially and the film may not exist without it.



After the viewing the production company, the directors and actors are
shown to the audience. Here are two from "Pyscho", one of the traditional thrillers. They may be "well known" people who the public may want to watch, therefore it is essential to add these in.

There are also other ways of the makers to introduce the actors, in Trainspotting. The characters personality is shown visually by an action they create, then the name is shown while the video clip is paused onto a still screen shot. 

The setting of the film is normally shown as a wide angle to inform the viewer where the film is located at. In Psycho and The Taking of Pelham 123. We can see two different long shots with similar aspects to help allow the viewer know where it is set at.

Sometimes the pace (editing) of a scene can determine what sort of movie it is. It can used to create an emotional effect to the viewer, it could be from being lust to being on their toes. In this clip the makers used both slow and fast motion to allow the viewer to concentrate on certain things while seeing how busy the city it is. The special effects and audio are also synced to it to help create a certain rough tone.

Research Task 2

ART OF TITLE SEQUENCE THAT I FEEL REPRESENTS ALL THE THRILLER CONENTIONS:

Here is the opening from the film 'Cape Fear', I believe that the opening sequence represents all the traditional triller conventions that a thriller film should have.

Camera- The use of Camera is not so evident within this opening, however, it's stillness in capturing the movement of Water throughout the opening credits can insinute a theme. Water itself can aso bring many connotations: vitality, drowining, chilling. Therefore, instead of following the traditional camera conventions of a Thriller; capturing the setting in long shots, where as this opening provides an element of mystery which is aslo a traditional convention used in thrillers.

Soundtrack- The Soundtrack used in Cape Fear also accompanies the conventions in a thriller. Its loud volume and low key droning noises creates a tense atmosphere and immediately forshadows the genre of the film and what there is to expect within it, to some extent.

The volume of the soundtrack heightens when the title of the film appears which is coherent in thrillers to emphasise what the audience is being enticed in to.

Titles featuring the Directors and Actors

The mention of the film companies within the titles is used widely throughout all film genres, as it promotes who are behind the film and puts an official stamp on the film itself.

                                            The same goes for presenting the actors' names in the titles. Robert De Niro is a househod name, his appearences in many films can also give the audience a sense of what type of film the will be enduring, due to the genres he personally adhires to: thrillers, horror and often comedy.

Revealing the plot in a subtle way

Eyes are freely used in the opening of Cape Fear, which may establish the idea of watching or stalking; embedding the aspects of a Thriller. Normally, in Thriller openings something dramatic happens or the beginning is a 'Film noir' (the end is at the beginning). However, in this opening a reccuring theme is shown which shows the plot of the film but in a suble, myseterios way; making the audience feel uneasy and manipulated.

In Cape Fear al the convenient conventions are used to portray the genre of the film, as well as adapt to the traditional cinematic film opening.

Conventions of a Film Opening (Research Task 1)

What are the conventions of film openings?

There are a few main types of conventions which are portrayed in many films, for example: thrillers. Film openings tend to be at lest 2-3 minutes long so that the audience gets an idea of what the film is going to be about.

The main conventions are:
- An introduction of the characters and Directors
- Music
- Film title
- Production logo
- Setting (e.g: location, time)
- They may introduce a pre-plot of the film


The Taking of Pelham 123 is a good example of conveying the conventions of a film opening.

Main Characters & Directors

John Travolta's name cascaded across the city to portray
significance.

Two main characters are shown in the film opening to also
show significance

The main characters are portrayed through text on the film opening, 'John Travolta' is introduced to convey his significance in the film. Names of celebrities that are shown in the introduction of the film opening will enhance the popularity of the film and it will encourage their fans to go and watch the film.  The directors name is also conveyed to the audience right after the production names 'A Scott Free.Escape Artist, which conveys to the audience who created the film.

Music
Music is used to create an atmosphere for the audience, in reference to The taking of Pelham 123 uses a hip hop track which was produced by Harry Gregson-Williams which sets the mood of the film. The music that is used in the film, determines what genre the film is.

Film Title

A film title introduces the film, and it tells the audience that the film is about to start. It provides information of the film to the audience by the style of font the film uses to promote the film. 'The taking of PELHAM' in the film title, suggests that it is taking place in an urban city, of Pelham.

Production Companies

The company productions are promoted at the very start of the film, which conveys their stake in the making of The taking of Pelham 123. At the start of the film opening, we see a 'Columbia Pictures' that steadily zooms in to the screen in slow motion, which gives the audience time to acknowledge where the production of the film comes from. Also, there is bold, black text cascaded across the city setting, which also gives the audience acknowledged of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pictures (MGM) contribution the film.

Setting

The setting of the film is a crucial element because it provides information to the audience of where the film is set and what time of day it is. As you can see, it is in an urban city, with massive amounts of development which suggests that the film is set in a modern city with modern technology such as new guns.

Camera Shots
Extreme Long Shot (ELS) - is used to show the setting of the film.

This portrays the film is set in an urban city of Pelham.

Long Shot (LS) - is used to convey buildings.

The film is set on this very busy street,
which foreshadows the dangers of the citizens

Medium Shot (MS) - conveys the significance of an object or character.

The camera shot makes the Subway significant because
it suggests that something bad is going to happen in the
subway.

Medium Close up (MCU) - conveys the facial expression of a character or significance of an object.

This camera shot allows the audience to get a close up of
this bad character, you can see his tattoos, shades and hat
which conveys he's up to no good.