Openings to Thriller Film

Thriller films will normally start with a fast paced action scene that will straight away grab the interest of the viewer. This is done is most thriller films. These scenes will create tension, excitement and/or suspense.

This is a shot from the opening scene of the thriller film 'Drive'. This film has a action packed opening scene

Types of Thriller Films.

There are many different types of thrillers that thriller films are based on. This are sub genres of the genre. These sub genres are the bases for what many thriller film are set. One type of thriller film that is popular are 'Spy Thrillers'. Spy Films is a genre that is a sub genre of the broad genre of Thriller films. Spy films are made to be realistic even though many parts or the film seem unrealistic to the viewer. An example of a popular successful thriller series is James Bond. These are spy thriller films that normally feature a villain or evil organisation, that Bond then has to try and stop by killing important members or that organisation. In Spy Thriller films as well as many thriller films the main character will not die. This is done in every thriller film but because the film is 'thrilling' people will still go to see the film.

Another genre of thriller films are political thrillers. Political thrillers are sometimes based on true events or history which make the thriller interesting. These films normally are based around conspiracies of assassination, terrorism or mass destruction. This genre of thriller overlaps closely with crime thrillers and conspiracy thrillers.

Psychological thrillers are also a type of thriller movie. Psychological thrillers are very suspenseful that emphasises the character and the characters mind more than the main plot of the film. These can normally entail a protagonist  and antagonist battling psychologically and physically.

The last type of thriller is a supernatural thriller. These normally feature people normally teenagers with magic powers that encounter and have to battle a villain of some sort.

Preliminary task Analysis

For our preliminary task we had a set short story board that were giving to us. We had to use this short story board to create a short scene that had all the objectives that were set. When we got gave the story board we then wet straight out to start filming. We found a empty room with a door and began to think of ideas. Once we thought of ideas we then started to film. Firstly I made sure that I never crossed the 180 Degree rule while filming. The 180 degree rule applies when filming a conversation piece.

This is a picture of the 180 degree rule that shows that the camera show only stay on one side of the people talking in a conversation. By crossing the 180 degrees the characters would have appeared to have switched places. I was the cameraman and made sure that the 180 degree rule was not crossed.
Our first shot was done to look like a steadi cam had been used, but it had not. In this shot Tom (The Main Character) walked through the door which was followed by a shot of his coming through the door on the inside of the room. This is continuity editing. This is then followed by the conversation between Tom and Sarah,which leads to Tom running out of out of the room.
In the editing stage there was not much editing to do. We had to make the clips shorter to make it look like a real time conversation. We also needed to overlap the sound of Tom laughing over the shot of Sarah looking angry. This was done but cutting a sound piece from a sound of Tom laughing then placing it over the shot of Sarah.

Due to the time difficulty that we had the task was only short, if we had more time we could have made the scene longer and more advanced. I think that the 180 degree rule was used properly and effectively to keep the continuity in the scene. 

This is the video for our preliminary task. 

Recipe For A Thriller

A thriller film is a genre that includes many sub genres such as action thrillers and horror thrillers. Thriller films will normally have a protagonist that faces danger and has to escape from that danger or has a mission to carry out. An example of a thriller film series is the James Bond films. They are action thrillers that has a main character that has to escape or kill a villain or organisation.  Thriller films will always use certain features that make a thriller 'thrilling' to the audience. One of these feature is suspense. Suspense is used many times in a thriller film to build tension and put the viewer on the edge of their seat. 

Sound

The sound in a film is a very important factor that is thought about and planned very thoroughly. The sound in a film is categorized into different types of sound;

Diegetic Sound - Sound that is visible on the screen that takes place inside the film that the characters can hear. For Example;

• Sounds made by objects in the film E.g. Sound of a car crashing.
• Voices of characters

Non Diegetic Sound - Sound that is not visible on screen and cannot be heard by the characters. For Example;

• Music added to the film E.g. Soundtracks
• Narrators Commentary.

Sound can also be categorized into Parallel and Contrapuntal sound.

• Parallel Sound - Where the sounds compliments the visuals to create a mood that matches the visuals with the audio. For Example in a Romantic film, light soft romantic music will compliment the visuals. 

An example of parallel sound is the very well known Rocky Montage scene.

A example of contrapuntal sound is a scene from Reservoir Dogs.

Sound can also be categorized into On and Off Screen sound.

On Screen Sound - Sound that the viewer can see it being made in the shot E.g. if the tires were making smoke while driving off the audience will hear the screeching tires.

Off Screen Sound - Sound that is not being made in the shot and is being made out of shot. E.g. Neighbours screaming in the next room.

'Unknown' Film Analysis

'Unknown' is a psychological thriller film starring Liam Neeson who plays Dr Martin Harris, a scientist who travels to Berlin with his wife Liz for a conference involving biotechnology. While travelling to the Hotel by taxi from the airport in Berlin, Harris is in a car accident that results in the car plunging into the water. Harris is trapped in the car but it saved by the taxi driver. This results in Harris being in a coma for four days. Once woken up Harris is forgetful and has trouble remembering what happened. Harris losses all means of identity. When Harris locates his Wife he finds her with a different man who is called Dr Martin Harris. Harris believes he is an imposter and his wife Liz claims so does not know Harris. Harris continues to search for his identity but starts to question of he is Martin Harris or not.


Unknown is a film of suspense and action. This is portrayed throughout the film with different camera shots. A camera shot especially used to show confusion amongst Harris is the tilt shot. This is a shot used in the scene where Harris's wife claims she doesn't know him, her own Husband. This shot was used many times in the scene as well as closes ups to show confusion in Harris's mind. By using this shot type it exaggerates to the audience how confused Harris is. A feature also used in this scene is the focus depth of the camera. The camera is focused on Harris making the background completely blurry to show that Harris is confused at that time his mind is separated from the rest of the room. The direction and cinematographer have planned this scene carefully to ensure that the scene looks distorted to show the emotions of the characters.

A way the director creates suspense is using crescendos in the music the intensify the music to fit the scene to add suspense to the scene. In the scene where Harris is being followed in the subway, the music builds up or crescendos the music which intensifies the scene. In the subway scene the fastest Harris begins to run, the more the music crescendos which adds more suspense to the scene. This is done many times throughout the film to add the thriller feel to the film.

Overall 'Unknown' is a very good psychological thriller that incorporates many different well know and some not well known features to make a successful thriller film. By using different camera angles, lighting methods, music and face paced scene the director has created a successful thriller film that has the viewer on the edge of their seat.

Different Shot Types.

The director and director of cinematography have to plan carefully what type of shot types that they will use in a scene and in the whole scene. By using only a few shot types a film can seem boring and unprofessional. So a skilful cinematographer will try to use many different shot types in a film to make the film more pleasant to the viewer. There are many different shot types that can be used;

Extreme Long Shot (XLS)

                 Long Shot (LS)

      Mid Long Shot(MLS)

                Mid Shot (MS)

Medium Close Up (MCU)

                  Close up (CU)

         Big Close Up (BCU)

 Extreme Close Up (XCU)

                                   

WatchYoBak film analysis.

WatchYoBack is a very short thriller type film that was made by me and Tom Mccloud. This short film is very short because of the very limited time we had to film and edit the film.

We started by creating a short storyboard just so we have a rough idea on what we wanted to go out and film. We started by finding a location where we wanted to film our first shot and then we decided what sort of shot type we would want to do. We decided that we would do a low tracking shot. For this we used the tripod for a tracking shot, but we did this because we didn't have a steadi-cam to make the shot steady. So we had to use the tripod in the most effective way to ensure that the shot was as steady as possible. For this shot I had to turn the tripod to the side and carry it like that. This was probably the most difficult shot that we filmed in that film because it was very hard to keep the camera as stable as possible while progressing up the stairs. For that shot we shot that one long duration shot and then filmed separate shots that we would edit into them. We used a upwards panning shot that focuses on Tom's hand going up the banister. We also filmed a close up shot of Tom's hand opening the door then him going through it. We filmed these shots with a tripod so that they were stable. The final shot was also shot with a tripod and  is a shot of Tom walking and then I come behind him and knock him out and dragged him away.

In the editing stage we only really had to cut and put clips together. We enhanced the sound of the weapon hitting Tom's head by making it much louder in Final Cut. Our film was planned to be longer but because of the time limit we had we could not complete all of the filming that we wanted to. For the future we will try to work more efficiently if we have a very limited time schedule to try and full complete and be satisfied on the film that we had produced.