Over the past few sessions we have been creating a presentation in order to help us pitch the initial ideas for our opening sequence to our class. We showed a basic, image-based presentation on the screen and wrote notes to help us expand when talking the class through the ideas shown by the images. The following presentation, therefore, is not the actual presentation that we used to pitch our ideas to our class, but is an amended version using the original presentation and our notes combined:
This lesson we discussed and researched the importance of audience feedback. We found that by doing audience feedback, we would receive alternative opinions on our ideas, hence helping us to assess, and change our ideas prior to creating our product. This not only will help us not to waste time making changes later on in the process, but will also help us to make our opening sequence as appropriate and successful as possible in terms of our target audience's requirements.
Audience feedback is key in the media, as the audience bring in the revenue and make a persons work credible, it is also what makes a film popular or not, the more people that enjoy a film the more the messege of it gets spread. The aim of an editor/director/producer is to please their audience. The audience is the reason for making a film, in some cases, however in short films it sometimes is not about the money and number of people that would go and watch it but it is about expressing themselves or may be just asa hobby rather than a buisness.
Now that we fully understand the importance of audience feedback, we have decided to create a presentation containing the initial ideas for our opening sequence. We will also create a questionnaire for our peers to fill out during our pitch presentation.
It is important to understand the genre thoroughly so that our opening sequence contains all the appropriate stereotypes, and that we do not include unnecessary conventions- or if we do choose to, that we are able to understand and explain why we have done what we have done. Thriller 'A story that starts with a serious problem, a protagonist (our hero/heroine) who tries to solve the problem only to find that it gets worse and worse and worse. The plot rises to a dramatic confrontation with the antagonist (bad guy), usually on the bad guy’s territory, and ends with a short denouement.'
•Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers. ...
Thriller films, are types of films known to have given or promote a gravitated build up of tension,
it involves high level of suspense, a higher level of anticipation, uncertainty, reaction from the audience
in which encourages an audience in wanting to know what happens further.
If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character is placed in a scary situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involvecharacters, which come into conflict with each other, or with outside forces the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.
Within the genre of ‘Thriller’, there are many conventions, which of course have to be used as much as possible to make the Thriller effect work properly.
A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily)
There is usually a crime in the narrative or storyline of a thriller. It keeps the viewer hooked.
A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions
Thrillers are usually made up of these. Mainly to keep the audience questioning, and to make them work out what’s going on, leaving strong enigma’s
A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved
This will keep the viewer hooked and he/she will always want to see the resolutions.
A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist
All thrillers have a protagonists against an antagonist and at some point in the thriller there will be a situation which will include both characters come together, usually in a fight or action scene. The antagonist will usually always have the dis-advantage, but will come out the victor.
Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations
This will enable the audience to relate to the situation, and therefore the effect will be stronger.
Themes of identity
This is used so the audience can keep tabs on each character, who they are, and why they’re there. It also helps us identify the protagonist and antagonist.
Themes of mirroring
Shows that there may be one or two people in the same position.
Themes of voyeurism
When someone is being e.g. spied upon and doesn’t know. Usually shown through point of view shot of the person doing the spying.
Protagonist with ‘flaw’ which is exploited by the antagonistThe antagonist takes advantage of the protagonists flaws. The flaws are usually obvious to the audience but not to the antagonist untill they are revealed to him. When the flaws are visible to the antagonist, it put him/her in the dominant position.
Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist’s psychological state
The titles usually mirror the type of film, and give the audience a chance to see what might be coming up in the film.
There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril
This is used so that there is action building up to a certain point to keep the audience hooked, and the peril is usually solved by the end of the film which leaves the audience in good spirit.
Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist’s plight The mise-en-scene is very important, and needs to be relevent e.g. if the character is happy, put them in a happy place, with bright lights, or if the character is sad, put them in a sad place with dark lighting.
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre. In addition to drama and mystery, many psychological thrillers contain elements of, and often overlap with, the horror genre, particularly psychological horror.
·Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.
·Thriller – Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.
·Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state
Devices and Techniques
·Stream of consciousness – a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. In psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the character's psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.
First-person narrative – a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, "I". This direct involvement that the characters have with the story in turn makes the reader more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand the mechanics of the characters' minds. This technique is often paired with the concept of the unreliable narrator.
Back-story – the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character's motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions.
Themes
Many psychological thrillers have emerged over the past years, all in various media (film, literature, radio, etc.). Despite these very different forms of representation, general trends have appeared throughout the narratives. Some of these consistent themes include:
·Reality
·Perception
·Mind
·Existence/Purpose
·Identity
·Death
These major subgenres help develop the plot of a psychological thriller film, shaping the characters'personalities. eg. usually character will find the true identidy/ the devil side of himself/herself in psychological thriller, in which it is one of the architypes - the loss of innocence.
Potential Target Audience: 16-35 years old. This is because our opening sequence starts with a 16 year old girl and a 18/19 year old boy and the rest of the plot is about the girl being older. We chose this age range of target audience because they will be able to relate to our plot more and it also links in the ages of the characters. Target audience of a lot of psychological thriller is 16 +, this is because the film could contain some violence and some things that are quite disturbing which shouldn’t be seen by young people. Our target audience is 16 – 35 because there is a car crash which could be quite upsetting to younger viewers and there are links with psychological problems. It is necessary to plan our target audience prior to creating our product in order to ensure that every single aspect of our opening sequence is appropriate.
Wednesday 16th November (Session 1) Today, we split in to groups and continued to brainstorm for our film ideas; we have decided that we want a theme in our film to be 'circles' and are going to try and find images and sequences to fit this theme. Also discussed were the ideas of hallucinations, drugs overdoses, car crashes, flash backs and jump cuts. We also watched a few clips of programmes and other films for inspiration. For example, the club scene in Skins (Series 4, Episode 1) -where there is a shot rotating around the girl in the club where she is standing still and everyone is moving around her- gave us inspiration to use a shot like this in our film. Also, we liked the opening of the episode, where you here the digetic sounds before you see anything. Furthermore, we liked the way in which she was made appear isolated despite being in a very overcrowded place. Unfortunately, due to age restrictions on YouTube, I am unable to imbed these scenes, however this is the full episode on 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/skins/4od#3052140
Tuesday 15th November (Session 4) Today we started to brainstorm ideas for our product. Firstly, we watched opening sequences created by past students to help inspire us and get ideas flowing. We then discussed ideas for the plot and also for the individual shot types that we want to include. We decided that we would like to use montage editing to create confusion and a sense of enigma for the audience. Within our montage editing we will use canted angles, extreme-close-ups, and point-of-view shots to help disorientate the viewer. Also, we talked about different conventions of the genre and decided which we would like to keep to, and which we plan to oppose. Enigma is a strong convention of the genre and we have decided to conform to this. However, stereotypically, there would be an obvious antagonist from the start of the film; we will still have an antagonist in our film but as we are only creating the opening sequence, our antagonist will not be shown. Finally, we discussed and explored sub-genres and hybrids and decided which of these we are going to use. We have decided on the Horror-Thriller hybrid.
"Analyse the opening sequence of three films of the genre. Make notes on camera work, sound, editing, mise-en-scene, narrative and representation."
Inception
This session we were told to come with a thriller film that we had prepared. We were then told that we would be watching these films independently and analysing them. Personally, I chose to use Inception; because it was rated number 3 thriller film, and also because I had a copy which was easily accessible. We then once again used the table headed Codes/conventions and Effects and filled it in accordingly.
Today we were set the following task: "Analyse the opening sequence of three films of the genre. Make notes on camera work, sound, editing, mise-en-scene, narrative and representation."
To begin this we discussed the conventions of the thriller genre We then chose 'Swordfish'and 'Collateral' as our two group thriller films, and to prepare a third film to analyse independently. We created a grid with two columns entitled 'Codes and conventions' and 'Effects created' and twelve rows; entitled 'Digetic sound', 'Non-digetic sound', 'Camera angles/ movements', 'Editing', 'Lighting', 'Special effects', 'Costumes', 'Props', 'Actors', 'Narrative', 'Representation', and 'Title sequences'. Over the next week we will watch each sequence a few times and fill in each section of the tables. It is important to watch and analyse existing films of the genre in order to successfully create our own product with appropriate stereotypes.
·Stream of consciousness – a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. In psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the character's psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.
First-person narrative – a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, "I". This direct involvement that the characters have with the story in turn makes the reader more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand the mechanics of the characters' minds. This technique is often paired with the concept of the unreliable narrator.
Back-story – the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character's motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions.
Many psychological thrillers have emerged over the past years, all in various media (film, literature, radio, etc.). Despite these very different forms of representation, general trends have appeared throughout the narratives. Some of these consistent themes include:
·Reality
·Perception
·Mind
·Existence/Purpose
·Identity
·Death
These major subgenres help develop the plot of a psychological thriller film, shaping the characters'personalities. eg. usually character will find the true identidy/ the devil side of himself/herself in psychological thriller, in which it is one of the architypes - the loss of innocence.
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre. In addition to drama and mystery, many psychological thrillers contain elements of, and often overlap with, the horror genre, particularly psychological horror.
·Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.
·Thriller – Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.
·Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state
