The Thriller Genre

Thrillers are a genre that can be shown in television, film or programming. It is normally used to create tension and suspense and excitement are the key elements. The thriller genre has many subgenres such as:-

• Psychological Thriller
• Religious Thriller
• crime
• Disaster
• Mystery
• Supernatural
• Political
• Medical
• Legal

Thrillers have a huge effect on humans, they can stimulate a viewers mood such as a high level of anticipation, ultra heightened expectation, anxiety, uncertainty, suspense, excitement, tension, and a feeling of terror.
Literary devices are also used in many thrillers to create tension throughout the film such as red herrings and cliffhangers to keep the viewer on edge and gripped. Each sub genre has its own methods but fight and chase scenes are the most commonly used methods in the thriller genre.

crime thrillers are kidnappings, ransoms, captivities, and revenge.
mystery thrillers are investigations, and the whodunit technique.
psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, and deathtraps

Priliminary Task

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Our priliminary was different to prelims that had been done in the past at the school consisting of a deal or and exchange. Instead we wanted to create a prliminary that included all the main transitions and camera angles to make it a top quality movie. We didn't want our piece to be too serious, instead we wanted to bring humour to it. Our preliminary had many pros and cons and improvements could be made if we were to do it again.

Pros of our piece include:

• Good story line thats humourous
• use of camera angles and transistions
• music
• editing skills (black and white, slow motion etc)

Cons Of Our Piece include:

• Unwanted objects in shots (apple, football players etc)
• Lack of dialog

Outline Of Storyline and making of the preliminary.

It begins with emily walking through a door we used a match on action shot here and in my view i think it flowed nicely. Then we catch the back of her walking to the bench she is later sat on, her sat on the bench is the strongest part of the movie because we were able to use a wide range of camera shots for this part which meant we could experiment a lot with the various amounts of camera angles. Then it goes to the shot of the 4 boys walking past Emily, the music gets louder and the boys walk in slow motion, we were able to catch shots of them walking from behind, infront, a close up of infront, a sideways shot and a close up of their feet walking past. The whole movie flowed really well throughout the whole movie and their are no drastic changes of where you can tell the angle has changed. We were put the movie in black and white to try and blend out the PE lesson that was taking place in the back ground, it worked really well with the whole movie so i am glad we made this change. The music we used was "chamillionaire-riding dirty" and it fitted well with the boys walking towards the camera making it humorous for the audience.

What i have learnt from doing a preliminary?

By doing a preliminary i now have more of a understanding of how to use the camera and how to carry out effective camera angles. I also have a basic idea of how films/programmes and adverts are put together. I have also learnt how to do a few extra things on imovie which will be used in my advantage when creating my thriller opening to make it a top quality movie.

Thriller Institutions- New Line Cinemas

New Line Cinemas

at the age of 27 Robert Shaye founded the popular American film studios. It was based in America and therefore had a much bigger market as the majority of films were made in America and became great success.

New Line Cinemas is became owned by Time Warners in 1996 and then was later merged with a larger studio "Warner Brothers" in 2008.

New Line Cinemas have produced many films over time all with various genres such as:-

• 17 again- Comedy
• Friday 13th- Horror                                                      
• The Butterfly Effect-Thriller
• My Sister's Keeper-Drama

New Line Cinemas would be of inspiration to me for making a thriller opening as they have produced many thrillers such as:

• 15 Minutes
• Blade 2
• Final Destination
• Snakes On A Plane

BBFC (British Board Of Classification)

The British Board Of Classification is a non-governmental organisation, it is funded by the film industry and classifies films within the United Kingdom, they classify DVDS, videos, and selected video games.
They classify every single film that is released with either one of Uc, U, PG, 12, 12A, 15, 18 or 18R

What The BBFC aims to do?

• protect  the public, in particular children, from inappropriate content.

• allow the public,particularly parents, to make knowledgeable viewing choices

• identify and take into consideration an adults choice within the law

• reply and reflect changing social attitudes towards media elements through motivated public debate and research

• give a cost-effective, efficient classification service within their statutory authority

• work together with the industry to develop new service models to give content guidance which support unfolding media delivery systems

• provide a good service to enforcement agencies.

How are films are classified?

The decision is finally decided by the senior examiner, however if the examiners do not agree or if important policy issues become involved then the work may be seen by other important people within the BBFC such as the director, and the presidential team.

when in the process of classifying films, examiners normally look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence. They also look at the release format as they need to take into consideration that  people will watch films underage in their homes. 

No Country For Old Men

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kqoJevTIIQ

The opening to "No Country For Old Men" is a typical western film opening. The scene starts with a black screen and a voice over narrating the outline of the film, the black screen then changes to shots of a western landscape, there is 11 in total and each lasting about 6 seconds. Each landscape is taken at different times of the day. The narrating then stops and the audience can hear footsteps as it pans round you see a police officier leading a man into a police car, this adds tension and keeps the audience gripped and wanting to know more.
When both the characters are in the car, there is a close up of an air pump that has some relationship to the man that has been put inside the police car, This adds mystery to the opening sequence as the reader is trying to put two and two together and figure out what the two have in common. The next shot is of the criminal however lighting has been used very effectively and the man is in complete darkness with only his silhouette visual to the audience this gives a sense of suspicion and an air of mystery.
Once both actors are in the police station the main focus is on the police officer this coming in the form of a medium shot, however the criminal is also visual but blurred out, the audience can see movement from the criminal and hints that something is about to happen. The killer has a very dark, worn face and he wears very dark clothing to contrast well with the darkness, he also radiates a dominant character that comes across as being very intimidating.

Se7en

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY

A film about two homicide detectives working in a crime filled city, who became deeply involved in a murder case. Each murder corresponding to one of the seven deadly sins (gluttony, envy, lust, pride, sloth, greed, and wrath)

Mise En Scene Of Opening Sequence.

Costume:- Plasters On fingers
Lighting:- un-natural lighting, dark lighting blurred on some objects to create mystery-symbolic to death danger and blood.
Acting:-Characters face is never seen throughout the opening section. Only hands are shown to create suspicion and mystery.
Make-up:-Dirty fingers from writing ink, random spots of blood.
Props:-Books, Pictures, collection of hair DNA?, needle indicates planning of death?

Sound.
The only sound during the opening was non diegetic sound which was the music. The music used creates suspense and has a slow pace which has the opportunity to build up momentum, a few sound effects are also used for example a high pitched screeching noise that can also be related t as a scream gets the audience anxious however prepares them for whats to come further on in the film. 


Editing
There are small quick jump cuts that flow and join the scene together well. The quickness of the cuts adds suspense and keeps the audience of edge. There are a few fade ins used to introduce the new scene.


Camera Angles
Most of the shots during the opening scene are close ups, this is to hide the persons identity and make it more mysterious making it more gripping for the audience.