Monday 2 May 2011
Thursday 7 April 2011
History of Thriller
The thriller genre origniated from 'Homer's Odyssey' which is thought to be one of the earliest prototypes of the thriller genre. The modern thriller has now branched into other popular sub-genres such as:
Conspiracy, In which the Character recognises enemy e.g 'Flightplan' by Robert Schwentke (2005)
A Crime thriller, which accounts a successful or failed crime, often criminal focus as main character e.g 'Oceans eleven' (2001) Steven Soderbergh, or 'Godfather' by Francis Ford Coppola (1972) which is considered one of the best thrillers of all time.
A Disaster thriller which can be Natural or Artificial which affects the main character such as 'The Day after tomorrow' (2004) by Roland Emmerich. These can often be popular as exaggerations of real events that have happend recently, for Example '2012' that was also directed by Roland Emmerich (2009).
Legal thriller - lawyer/hero faces enemy in and/or outside a courtroom 'Presumed Innocent' (1990) Alan J. Pakula,
Medical thrillers involve hero/heroine working to solve a medical problem, such as 'Coma' (1978) Michael Critchton.
Mystery thrillers involve a main character involved in Problem solving or in a mysterious setting, 'Memento' (2000) by Chirstopher Nolan. This particular example also used variation in Narritive structure which supported the ideal of mystery by placing the audience at the end of the film and working towards the start.
Political - Hero/heroine must help maintain government order, 'The Ghost writer' (2010) by Roman Palanski, real life politcal events can also influence thrillers, for example 'JFK' by Oliver Stone (1991) recorded the events that lead up to the assasination of the President of America.
Psychological thrillers that display conflict that is emotional and psychological, until an often phsyical climax, 'Phone Booth' (2002) by Joel Schumacher
There are other sub-genres that have been formed such as Erotic, Religious, Rape/Revenge,Techno and medical thrillers.
One of the first appearence of a thriller sub-genre was a romantic-comedy film called 'Safety Last' by Harold Lloyd (1923) and other sub-genres followed as a result of it's success.
A Crime thriller, which accounts a successful or failed crime, often criminal focus as main character e.g 'Oceans eleven' (2001) Steven Soderbergh, or 'Godfather' by Francis Ford Coppola (1972) which is considered one of the best thrillers of all time.
A Disaster thriller which can be Natural or Artificial which affects the main character such as 'The Day after tomorrow' (2004) by Roland Emmerich. These can often be popular as exaggerations of real events that have happend recently, for Example '2012' that was also directed by Roland Emmerich (2009).
Legal thriller - lawyer/hero faces enemy in and/or outside a courtroom 'Presumed Innocent' (1990) Alan J. Pakula,
Medical thrillers involve hero/heroine working to solve a medical problem, such as 'Coma' (1978) Michael Critchton.
Mystery thrillers involve a main character involved in Problem solving or in a mysterious setting, 'Memento' (2000) by Chirstopher Nolan. This particular example also used variation in Narritive structure which supported the ideal of mystery by placing the audience at the end of the film and working towards the start.
Political - Hero/heroine must help maintain government order, 'The Ghost writer' (2010) by Roman Palanski, real life politcal events can also influence thrillers, for example 'JFK' by Oliver Stone (1991) recorded the events that lead up to the assasination of the President of America.
Psychological thrillers that display conflict that is emotional and psychological, until an often phsyical climax, 'Phone Booth' (2002) by Joel Schumacher
There are other sub-genres that have been formed such as Erotic, Religious, Rape/Revenge,Techno and medical thrillers.
One of the first appearence of a thriller sub-genre was a romantic-comedy film called 'Safety Last' by Harold Lloyd (1923) and other sub-genres followed as a result of it's success.
Wednesday 6 April 2011
AS Media Questions
The purpose of an opening shot is to set the scene in which characters are based. This is often done through the use of various shots such as an 'establishing shot' which gives the audience an overall view of the scene for the audience, a famous use of this can be found in Christopher Nolans' 'The Dark Knight' (2008).
A director can use various methods to create suspense within a film. For example sound can create suspense through harsh sounding tones to create an eery feel. Editing can be used to add suspense and suggestion to the audience through various techniques such as a 'fast cut'. The use of a series of short cuts can suggest that the character is in danger through the sudden increase of pace to the film.
A thriller film is defined on the emotions it makes the audience feel. For example a thriller must build suspense and allow the audience to form a relationship with the character. This relationship is often positive, even if the character himself is unsavoury. An example of this is in a film is 'The Magician' (2005) directed and starring Scott Ryan as he plays a hitman that uses dark humour and display the changes to make his character likeable to the audience.
Films other than those discussed above that would fit into a thriller genre are 'Mr Brooks' (2007) by Bruce A. Evans , Shutter Island (2010) by Martin Scorsese, 'Pulp Fiction' (1991) by Quentin Tarantino and 'The man who knew too much' (1956) by Alfred Hitchcock.
The types of thriller sub-genres that exist are the following:
The Narritive structure in a thriller can also be different to other genres for example it is possible to change the beginning scene to display the ending and then play back from there.
The narritive difference between horror and thriller is that thriller relies more on suggestion of violence and threat than actually showing it on screen. For example there is much suggestion of violence in Martin Scorsese's thriller 'The Departed' (2006).
There is also editing differences as there will rarely show threat on screen unless part of the climax of the film, whereas horror films will often be graphic in showing violence/gore.
Camera angles can also vary as thriller films will often use low angle shots and long shots to help build up suspense as they provide vivid display of the on screen image. Horror films will often use extreme close ups/close ups to shock the audience.
Of the 'top 20 thriller films' I have watched a majority, possibly due to there fame as being cult classics. This suggests that thriller films that have star attraction, such as 'The Godfather' and 'Pulp Fiction' can create classics for all generations as they are known actors.
A director can use various methods to create suspense within a film. For example sound can create suspense through harsh sounding tones to create an eery feel. Editing can be used to add suspense and suggestion to the audience through various techniques such as a 'fast cut'. The use of a series of short cuts can suggest that the character is in danger through the sudden increase of pace to the film.
A thriller film is defined on the emotions it makes the audience feel. For example a thriller must build suspense and allow the audience to form a relationship with the character. This relationship is often positive, even if the character himself is unsavoury. An example of this is in a film is 'The Magician' (2005) directed and starring Scott Ryan as he plays a hitman that uses dark humour and display the changes to make his character likeable to the audience.
Films other than those discussed above that would fit into a thriller genre are 'Mr Brooks' (2007) by Bruce A. Evans , Shutter Island (2010) by Martin Scorsese, 'Pulp Fiction' (1991) by Quentin Tarantino and 'The man who knew too much' (1956) by Alfred Hitchcock.
The types of thriller sub-genres that exist are the following:
- Conspiracy thriller - Character recognises enemy e.g 'Flightplan' Robert Schwentke (2005)
- Crime thriller - Account of a successful or failed crime, often criminal focus as main character e.g 'Oceans eleven' (2001) Steven Soderbergh
- Disaster thriller - Natural or Artificial that affects the main character
'The Day after tomorrow' (2004) Roland Emmerich - Erotic Thriller - Thriller with erotica, 'Basic Instinct' (1992) Paul Vehoeven
- Legal thriller - lawyer/hero faces enemy in and/or outside a courtroom 'Presumed Innocent' (1990) Alan J. Pakula
- Medical - hero/heroine working to solve a medical problem, 'Coma' (1978) Michael Critchton.
- Mystery - Main character involved in Problem solving or in a mysterious setting, 'Memento' (2000) by Chirstopher Nolan
- Political - Hero/heroine must help maintain government order, 'The Ghost writer' (2010) by Roman Palanski
- Psychological - conflict is emotional/psychological until an often phsyical climax, 'Phone Booth' (2002) by Joel Schumacher
- Rape/Revenge - Character suffers abuse, and seeks revenge - 'The last house on the left', (1972) by Wes Craven
- Religous - Connections to Religious icons,institutions and questions, 'Angels and Demons' (2009) by Ron Howard
- Supernatural - Otherworldly elements that may include a villian or hero with supernatural abilities - 'Flatliners' (1990) by Joel Schumacher
- Techno-thriller - ' Sophisticated technology play a dominant part in the plot of the film -The Matrix (1999) by Andy and Larry Wachowski
The Narritive structure in a thriller can also be different to other genres for example it is possible to change the beginning scene to display the ending and then play back from there.
The narritive difference between horror and thriller is that thriller relies more on suggestion of violence and threat than actually showing it on screen. For example there is much suggestion of violence in Martin Scorsese's thriller 'The Departed' (2006).
There is also editing differences as there will rarely show threat on screen unless part of the climax of the film, whereas horror films will often be graphic in showing violence/gore.
Camera angles can also vary as thriller films will often use low angle shots and long shots to help build up suspense as they provide vivid display of the on screen image. Horror films will often use extreme close ups/close ups to shock the audience.
Of the 'top 20 thriller films' I have watched a majority, possibly due to there fame as being cult classics. This suggests that thriller films that have star attraction, such as 'The Godfather' and 'Pulp Fiction' can create classics for all generations as they are known actors.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Questionaire results
Of the 50 people we asked to complete our questionaire, 35 were male and 15 female.
The majority (32) of people asked were between the ages of 16-20, and 25 had recently seen a thriller genre film.
We then asked the 50 people if they enjoyed films with variation in narritive structure, and of which 34 enjoyed a film that was not a traditonal layout in narritive. It was found that a thriller was the most popular genre of film for the poeple asked as 30 people agreed that thriller would be the type of genre that they would be most likely to watch, with comedy being the least popular. (4)
The next question we asked was specific to the people who felt thriller would be the film they would most likely to watch, as we asked them to name a sub-genre, we had a wide response however mystery and supernatural were both quite frequent.
The title of the film was key in attracting people to watch the film, as it was the most popular answer in the questionaire (26). We asked people what would be the most attractive name for a thriller if they saw the title, and 36 of the 50 people asked agreed that 'Hidden Shadows' was the best.
To conclude, based on our own research the audience age range we will target is 16-20 year old thriller fans, particularly that enjoy mystery or supernatural sub-genres. Our film will have a variation in narritive structure to the norms of other film genres as suggested by the majority of the people asked. The title of this film will be 'Hidden Shadows'.
The majority (32) of people asked were between the ages of 16-20, and 25 had recently seen a thriller genre film.
We then asked the 50 people if they enjoyed films with variation in narritive structure, and of which 34 enjoyed a film that was not a traditonal layout in narritive. It was found that a thriller was the most popular genre of film for the poeple asked as 30 people agreed that thriller would be the type of genre that they would be most likely to watch, with comedy being the least popular. (4)
The next question we asked was specific to the people who felt thriller would be the film they would most likely to watch, as we asked them to name a sub-genre, we had a wide response however mystery and supernatural were both quite frequent.
The title of the film was key in attracting people to watch the film, as it was the most popular answer in the questionaire (26). We asked people what would be the most attractive name for a thriller if they saw the title, and 36 of the 50 people asked agreed that 'Hidden Shadows' was the best.
To conclude, based on our own research the audience age range we will target is 16-20 year old thriller fans, particularly that enjoy mystery or supernatural sub-genres. Our film will have a variation in narritive structure to the norms of other film genres as suggested by the majority of the people asked. The title of this film will be 'Hidden Shadows'.
Questionaire
1. Gender (tick apropriate)
Male
Female
2. Age:
12-15 16-20 21-26 27-32 32+
3. Have you seen any films recently that you feel would be defined by genre of thriller?
(If yes please state)
_______________________________________________________________
4. Do you enjoy films more if they have a different narrative structure* than other films?
(*start/end in different places in time)
Yes No
5. Which type of film would you be most likely to watch?
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
6. If you chose thriller, is there a particular sub-genre/s that would appeal to you?
_____________________________________________________
7. Which film title sounds the most appealing to you for a thriller?
Hidden Shadows
In the Dark
Attack from the Unknown
8. What feature most attracts you to watch a film?
Title
Images
Star appeal/advertisement
Trailer
Monday 4 April 2011
Script extract
From Andrew Amphlett & Kyle Gamble & Cameron McIntyre’s : ‘Hidden Shadows’ Script – VI Adaption.
EXT. WAITING IN THE STREET – NIGHT
The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER waits on the side of the street awaiting a person.
The street features a brick wall, which the character leans against, and a lot of open space, emphasising the dim glow of the orange lighting.
In the background there are office buildings, which are brightly lit up. In front of them are various different objects blocking the view from the light.
The only sound in this scene is coming from the backing track playing and the natural background noise of the wind, until the MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER moves around anxiously.
The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER moves around shiftily as if he is expecting something to happen.
He then begins to walk off away from the camera, making the viewing audience wonder what is happening.
From directors note: There is no dialogue throughout the whole extract as this creates more suspense as the clip plays and so there will be no dialogue annotation.
EXT. WAITING IN THE STREET – NIGHT
The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER waits on the side of the street awaiting a person.
The street features a brick wall, which the character leans against, and a lot of open space, emphasising the dim glow of the orange lighting.
In the background there are office buildings, which are brightly lit up. In front of them are various different objects blocking the view from the light.
The only sound in this scene is coming from the backing track playing and the natural background noise of the wind, until the MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER moves around anxiously.
The MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER moves around shiftily as if he is expecting something to happen.
He then begins to walk off away from the camera, making the viewing audience wonder what is happening.
From directors note: There is no dialogue throughout the whole extract as this creates more suspense as the clip plays and so there will be no dialogue annotation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)