I am an AS Media Student from Samuel Ward Sixth Form, and as part of my examination i have to create a blog on my work, the things i have learnt and the improvements in my filming skills from the beginning of the AS year to now. On this blog, I will be showing the codes and conventions of a thriller film, our preliminary task from the beginning of the year, my film planning for my groups thriller opening and the actual final product of our Thriller film opening with an evaluation about it.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Sunday, 8 May 2011
The Codes and Conventions of a Thriller Film
The common codes and conventions of a thriller film.
· Dark, moody lightning that cast shadows.
· A twist at the end.
· The antagonist or villain is hidden.
· Everyday setting.
· It could be about supernatural sifi or about war, paranormal,etc.
· Play on common fears.
· Mixes with other genres.
· The audience may be slightly confused at the beginning of what’s going on, but somewhere in the middle or late beginning of the thriller, the audience realise what is happening by the film having something happen to explain it.
· No sound motives.
· Music is in a minor key of an orchestral (moody and creepy).
· Many close-ups to show anguish.
· Rapid editing to enhance suspense.
· Common micro elements.
· Intelligent.
· Crime.
· Sense of risk.
· Protagonist in mortal danger.
· The things that happen in society such as rape or burglary.
· Titles!
· Macro elements are the micro elements meaning or reminiscent. For example, red text could mean danger, blood, and death. The red text would be the micro elements and the danger, blood and death meaning would be the macro elements.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Initial Ideas We Came Up With For A Thriller Film.
Initial Ideas
1). An Organisation or Mafia who was holding a person hostage because they know too much about them or are threatening him/her to give them an object they want. If they try to escape or if they do not give them the object, they will be killed by organisation. The hostage decides to make an escape anyway - not aware of the consequences - to get out of being a prisoner from this organisation and a chase scene begins. Unfortunately, the boss or guard finds out about it and calls one another to inform them about the escape. In the end, the prisoner is spotted and killed.
2). A girl is walking home or she is running away from a bad experience (argument, etc). If she is running away, she has tears down her face and someone is behind her. She turns around and sees dark figures. She starts running or power walking until she is knocked down and captured. She wakes up tied to a chair where there is a table beside her with drugs, needles and knives laid out. The same men who chased her down the street are standing around her and one goes for the knife and raises it above her head. She starts panicking in the chair and as he slashes down with the knife and it catches the ropes where she breaks free. She punches and shoves the men out the way to the exit and runs for her life. She gets out of the building and heads for a area of forest. While she is running, she has flash-backs of images or voices and trips over something. She then looks up to find feet at her face. It is the same men from before and they laugh. The girl screams.
3). A girl or boy is walking home who is upset. They approach woodland because they want to be alone or their hat gets blown in the wind towards the wood (if it is windy for filming). When they reach the entrance into the woodland, they see a shiny object on the floor and are intrigues to what it is so they go to pick it up. He/she examines the object, but are disturbed by something strange or supernatural. They look panicky turn around and find a dark creature behind a tree, showing its teeth. He/she are terrified by this creature and run off out of the woods. He/she runs a great distance from the wood until they trip on something along the way and is slashed along her arm, until she wakes up. She sits up in her bed, breathing heavily and feels her arm to find red on her hand. He/she looks at her wound on her right arm and hears a growl in their room to realise that this may not be a dream after all.
4). It’s getting late and the protagonist is walking home from the grocery store with some shopping bags and he is about to walk past some stairs. As he does, a knife with blood on it bounces down the stairs towards the protagonist’s feet. He looks up from the knife to find a man in a white coat standing at the top of the stairs with a body slashed through the throat at his feet. The antagonist stares at the protagonist and starts to make his way towards him in a slow menacing walk. The protagonist stares at the antagonist and drops his shopping from shock and is nearly paralyzed until the antagonist gets too close to him that he runs off. The protagonist runs and runs while the antagonist is right behind him. He hits a dead end and is cornered by the murderous serial killer. The antagonist walks into the camera and it ends with a cliff-hanger, making us wonder what has happened to this man.
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