Match on Action - 180 Degree Rule

Narrative, Thriller Sub-Genres and Enigma Code

Narrative

Omniscient – When the audience knows everything about the character

Restricted – When the audience only knows what the characters view ( shown from the characters point of view)

Linear – where there is a clear beginning, middle and end

Non linear – where the film plays flashbacks to throw the character off task.

Enigma Code – It acts as an intriguing form of grabbing the audiences attention. It works by gradually finding things out, building up suspense and drama.

Thriller Sub-Genres

Conspiracy thriller – contains some sort of heros who are stereotypically a journalist or armature investigators who finds themselves trapped in a large and powerful organisation. Later on unravels powerful evidence in addition to many enemies who try to keep the secret organisations alive through lies and propaganda. These companies are then brought down by the protagonist character. This type of genre plays with the identification of good to overrule the evil in the world. Conspiracy thrillers often play with the secrecy of governments and major organisations in history.

Crime thriller – more suspense in a crime thriller. Often focus more on the criminals and their activities in leading up to the crime or in retrospect the ending of the film leading back to how it all started. Usually emphasise action over psychological aspects althrough there is also a psychological part to the genre as well. Central topics of the films include serial killers and murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosses.

Disaster thriller – shows a group of people or one person survival while in conflict with a natural or artificial disaster such as a hurricane, flood, earthquakes or volcanoes. Many disaster films have also had causes of human activity that has bought mankind to the brink of extinction through nuclear disasters which are artificial disasters. This type of genre plays with what the future is going to bring for mankind if such disasters were to happen.

Mystery thriller – Relates a lot to crime thrillers. Focuses mostly on the efforts of the detective or private investigator in order to solve the mystery. This sub-genre looks at the circumstances of the mystery or crime itself in order to try and figure out what the clues are, audiences usually take part in trying to uncover the crime. This genre gets into the psyche of the audiences as audiences have a prime offence that they also follow as the protagonist is finding out information as well. This brings more dramatic effect to the films during the investigation in order to know what the crime is.

Political thriller – looks into the stability of a government and the reliance on a hero or heroine who must ensure the stability of the government that employs him in order to prevent a bad thing happening. Commonly used scenarios are the US presidential elections and the preventions of world wars occurring.

Psychological thriller – This is the quintessential sub-genre of thriller that is implemented into all the sub-thriller genres. It plays with the audiences minds and produces suspense in film because it reflects the main characters conflict being mental and emotional hindered. It shows the mentality of a character and the thought processes that they go through which makes this sub-genre so suspenseful.

Religious thriller – This sub genre connects the plots closely religious objects, institutions and questions. Many religious related films usually unravel the good and bad points about religion in particular the catholic brief. This connoting the good and how it overcomes the bad in films, through a quest to finding out the truth.

Supernatural thriller – often brings an otherworldly element that shows something out of the ordinary happening to a protagonist that has to overcome this powerful factor. This genre is mixed with tension and suspense in addition to also having unsuspected twist during the film. The protagonist or villains usually have a supernatural gift that helps them to get to the source of the problem. This sub-genre is very closely linked in with religious thrillers as usually daemons entering the human body, alien life form, appartions or the possession of a pivotal character is an element of a supernatural thriller film.

Techno thriller – Look into the manipulation of sophisticated technology playing a prominent part in taking over the world giving the new world order where mankind is over run by robots. This particular sub genre is mainly based on fictional speculations in life that tend to follow a science fiction trend. Common themes linked in with this sub-genre is world wars, action and science fictional occurrences like aliens taking over with new technologies.

Thriller Film Openings for Analysis (& Mood Board)

Crack beginning – Restricted

The Usual Suspects – Opening Scene – Omniscient

Memento Opening Scene – Non Linear

Enemy of the State – Full Opening Sequence – Linear

The Machinist Opening Scene -

Vertigo Opening Scene – Rooftop Chase – Linear

The Bourne Identity (1/10) Movie Clip – What's Your Name? -

Donnie Darko opening scene -

The Art of a Title Sequence – David Fincher

Individual Thriller Location Recee (photo of a location you have found & why suitable)

Individual "Dexter"/Opening Titles Remake

(Individual comments showing understanding camera shots/angles/movement)

Individual "Se7en" Titles remake edit

Summer Assignment Individual: Titles Timeline Map

Summer Assignment Individual 9 frame Title Sequence Design Analysis

Individual Collage of Iconography associated with the genre

We had to make a collage that we thought represents a thriller film. We had to include:

• Props
• Costumes
• Locations
• Lighting

The first picture shows a vulnerable man and a villain in the background. He has blood and sweat on his face which shows that he is stressed and implies that he is the one being chased.

The second picture shows a man in a suit holding a gun. This is a typical character in a thriller film.

The third picture is a picture of a gun as this is a very common prop in thriller films.

Fake blood is used in a lot of thriller films. It helps the character/actor to play their role. If they was to trip and cut yourself, you need fake blood to show this action

Man holding a knife shows that he has power and is a villain of some sort. He is wearing a mask which shows that he is hiding his identity from the victims.

The police are in a lot of thriller films as they have a lot of power over any character in the shot. One of the police are holding a gun which gives them authority and shows that they are masculine characters.

The location of steam shows a girl walking into darkness it sets the scene of the film and shows that it is not a happy film and will involve some thriller.

The magnifying glass represents detectives in the film. They are used to figure out a situation in something specific if the police don't know what to do.

The girl hiding under the bed on the phone, is a girl from the film 'Taken'. She represents all vulnerable girls in thriller films. She shows that she is scared and has no power or any idea about what is going to happen.

The last three pictures show villains in different perspectives. The first one is showing his identity. The second is hiding it through a shadow, and the third is a group of men with weaopns. The location of the last one shows dark, hidden and isolated property which is typical in a thriller film.

Individual Mind Map: Conventions of the Genre

What is a Thriller? 

Different character views

Alpha Male

Tony Lays a Beatdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_AoiGVVjrY

Tony has more power than the other men. He is in charge of them. He looks at the muscles of the other men to see who is the hardest to beat up to show how much power he has even over the strongest man there. He throws up at the end while he is on his own, in his own room to hide his weakness from the mafia men. If they see this, they can get the boss fired from his job purely because he has a weak side to him. They show a close up of his at the end while looking into the mirror to portray his weakness and emotion. Birds eye view/High angle at the end shows that he is alone in the room . It also shows how weak he is and it takes all of his power and authority away from him as it is looking down on him.

Alpha Female
The woman is 'in charge'. She is telling them what to do which shows her authority. Woman looking over the boss' shoulder which shows that she is still in charge even though she is in the background which makes it try to look like she is not the main character in the shot.

The Post Masculine Man

The IT Crowd
Series 3 Episode 2

The two main characters are not socially accepted masculine men. They try to act like a 'Manly man'. Moss thinks that his conversation about football with the postman makes him sound manly and masculine. The masculine men have a woman by their side and the less masculine/feminine men do not. The man mimics the behavior of the masculine man when approaching him and puts on an act to make him look like something he's not. In the football scene, they look squashed up and uncomfortable because they are two sicks surrounded by the other masculine, well built men. They don't know what they are on about when talking about the scores, it shows that he is trying to fit in. In the restaurant, the man is wearing a suit that is too big for him. This shows that he is trying to be masculine and make himself look more built than he actually is.

Male Gaze
The idea of how the character is presented to the audience
There is 3 views of feminism.

• How women think men look at them
• How women see themselves
• How women see other women

The woman has curves. The woman is talking about men six packs. There is a sexual music tone. Her hair is tied back which is meant to make her look sexy. The camera zooms in on her body, specifically on her bum, boobs and her stomach. This shows the view of provocative women through mens eyes.

Look in to:

Stereotypes of gender

-mise-en-scene

-camera

-sound

-editing

1. Masculine/Feminine

2. Character behavior - Power

3. Opposites

4. Reinforce/Challenge stereotypes

Camera shots and styles

• angles
• movement
• focus
• composition

Looking into scenes - Gender, Authority and Angles

Gender

12th September 2013
Stereotypes - Gender
- Challenging stereotypes is when the character does the opposite to what he/she is expected to do by society.

WHY?

Mad Men - Peggy Olson - Women in the workplace
-Reinforces Stereotypes
-Women have to impress men
- Diet - Women were expected to stay in shape to impress the men
-Women cant keep up with mens intelligence
-Be Flirty
-Less Educated and intellegent
- Costume
-Men in suits are less exposed than women, they are covered up from neck to toe.
-Women wore dresses and skirts which made them more exposed

At that time, men had more rights.

Does this reinforce or challenge stereotypes?
It reinforces stereotypes.

1960's - Clothing, Hair, Office, Social Expectations

WOMEN'S STEREOTYPES WERE THE OPPOSITE TO MEN'S STEREOTYPES

1. Women were secretary and men were managers and boss'.
2. Women had no control and med were in control.
3. Women were exposed, Men were covered up and concealed.
4. Women had to show off their skin, men had to be covered up
5. Women were to be looked at by the men, and the men were there to look at the women.
6. Men were in charge of the women and had power over them.
7. Women had limited rights, men had lots of rights.

Social groups expectations change over time

Social norms are what society has built into our minds and thats what is "normal"

The Street
It is set in the kitchen mainly. The father is wearing a white vest to show off his masculine build in his body. He is the most dominant in the clip as he is the loudest and the one that takes authority over the other characters. 

• At the beginning, the woman is in the kitchen to show that she is doing the cooking or the cleaning as that was her role in the household.
• The man is aggressive and is bad tempered
• Older generation is loud and shouting at one another
• Younger generation are silent as they know that they didn't have the right to speak and get their word in about the situation
• The woman is a mother figure so she sticks up for her children
• The children look innocent
• Camera shot of mother comforting the young girl she that she won't be unhappy or guilty
• The builders are all men as that was a masculine job strictly for men only
• In the new scene, the woman is back in the kitchen, which shows that she is in there a lot of the time. The man is never in the kitchen as he earns the money for the family while the woman spends her day at home completing chores for the rest of the family. It is a feminine job.
• Water leak - the woman panics and tries to sort it out. The woman cant do it as it is a mans job to be a plumber, so the woman does not have the skills to fix it as she does not know what to do. The woman shouts for help of the nearest man she sees on the street.
• The man runs over in a masculine way, wearing a suit and fixes the leak for the woman.
• The woman giggles in a feminine way.
• The two young boys are sitting in the front room watching the football. The young girl/daughter is sitting in the kitchen. This separates the gender stereotypes again.
• The girls punishment is to bleach the toilet. Why did the girl get this punishment? why was she not grounded instead? She is being punished by learning life skills as a woman, cleaning the house, and it is helping her to grow up cleaning like a typical housewife.

Mad Men Yourself Homework

For homework, we had to go onto a website called Mad Men Yourself, and create a character that represents us.

http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/mad-men-yourself

This is a close up showing the detail in the face. I have chosen to have my hair up as that is how i occasionally wear it. I have chosen to use a bit of make up, as this is what i wear on an everyday basis. I have chosen to wear a red dress as i wear red quite a lot and i like to dress up whenever i get the opportunity. I have also chose to include gold jewelry including necklace and earrings as i like to wear some jewelry but not too much.

I have chosen this setting for my mad men character as it seemed most appropriate for what the character is wearing. She is at a night out walking over to a man dressed in a suit. She is holding a handbag which represents me as i do not go out without a handbag. It also shows  the feet which she is wearing a pair of black heels to suit the occasion.

Summer Task - Spoiler Reviews (need to do 2 more)

Insidious - Film Review

Insidious is a Thriller based around the idea of a young boy who is haunted and possessed by the 'Outside World'. 

Dalton is a healthy, bright and cheerful child who loves his family. He plays the innocent and vulnerable role in the film which explains why he is the targeted and main character. Why Dalton? Dalton shows a weak and childish character from the beginning of the film which shows that he is the easiest character to be tricked into exploring and playing with things that he wouldn't know is wrong. He finds an open door which leads to a staircase, leading to the attic where unknown items were stored if they didn't have a place in the house. Being a typical 6-8 year old boy, he decided to explore this room. It is pitch black to show the danger and the suspense in the room. He climbs up a ladder to try and reach the light switch, which shows how young he is. He falls down the ladder and fell unconscious. This is where the possession begins.

Dalton is in a deep sleep which the parents find him this way when they attempt to wake him the next morning. They rush him to hospital to find out that he is in a severe coma and they do not see bright light happening any time soon. What the hospital is unaware of, is that the father lived his childhood being possessed by spirits. They wanted to become human and the only possible way of doing this is to live inside a young human body. The father doesn't remember this experience until the end of the film when Dalton recovers.

They experienced some very awful events in the house including noises, a child's drawings, voices, images, clues of spiritual existence and almost losing their son, so they resulted into moving houses to get away from it. It took them about a day to realise that moving out was not going to help their situation at all. They brought into the scene, two men and a lady who wanted to help find images and signs of these spirits. The lady discovers that it wasn't the house that was haunted, it was their son, Dalton.

By the time they had discovered what had caused all of this trauma and aggravation, Daltons soul had already been taken to the 'Outside World' hidden where he wont be found. The only way to bring him back would be to send someone who is aware of this 'Outside World' and find him to bring him back to his home. The only person who was capable of doing this was Dalton's father. He had been taken there himself when he was a little boy like Dalton. It is extremely dangerous for him to go there because while he is out of his body, he could potentially die there and never come back to the real world. He would sacrifice his life for his sons as Dalton is only in danger due to the fathers previous childhood. Also while he is away, any other spirit could steal his body and use it to live in. He had to be fast to get back on time before anyone or anything notices that he is gone.

The film is quite slow moving at the beginning but throughout the film there is constant suspense. There are many events throughout which make you sit forward in your seat. It affects the way the film comes across to the viewer as it creates tension and makes some points more unexpected so they are not predictable. It makes you feel sympathy for the innocent Dalton and the vulnerable mother who is in constant worry throughout the film.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Summer Task - Napoleon Dynamite

For my summer assignment, i had to re create the title sequence for Napoleon Dynamite. I couldnt think of how to make the scenes again, so i decided to draw each of the scenes and video them in a similar way to the original video.

I have used different music to the original because when i went to edit the video, i did it on my ipod and i didn't have and could not get the actual sound track. I thought that the idea and the layout of this video was a good idea at the time but i did not get the right camera angle and the lighting was too bright so you cant see what is on each page properly. If i was to make this video again, i would try to do it properly with the foods just like the video on the original title sequence.

Analysing Title Sequences

9th September 2013
We looked at title sequences for the entrance of television programmes and movies. We were asked to look at 6 specific title sequences and analyse them. They were:

• Vertigo
• Catch me if you can
• Seven
• Fight Club
• Sherlock Holmes
• Casino Royale

We had to look out for :

• Images
• Styles (colours)
• Visual effects
• Font
• Animation of titles
• Editing.

I used a website called www.artofthetitle.com to watch the title sequences.

Vertigo - http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/vertigo/
Images: Lips show anger and sadness as it is a frown, Eyes look evil
Style (Colours): Red light implies danger. It sets the scene to show it is a thriller film and also tells us that there will be some kind of crisis and drama. Louder music is also used to portray this.

Visual effects: Pink illusion shows confusion. Many different colour shapes represent all of the different confusions and events within the film. It goes back to the red eye at the end to remind the viewer of what the danger is, and shows that the person's eye is seeing things differently to others.

Catch me if you can - http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/catch-me-if-you-can/
Images: Shows different types of transport; Plane, taxi, walking.
Style (Colours): Different colour backgrounds to show the different scenes.
Visuals: He changes his identity which sets the scene which is running away from someone. You can guess what it is about by looking at and reading into the name of the movie. It shows suspicion through the way he is acting and walking. Man is running away from the spy as if he has done something that he is guilty for. there are stars at the end to show that he is free. Cartoon images are used.
Font: Dripping effect that is everlasting shows that he will run forever if he has to. Different coloured fonts are used in each scene. Black, Red, Green, Pink, White...
Animation of Titles: The computer keyboards, the lift in the hospital and the swimming pool ladder all use the dripping title effect. the dripping effect is the black line that drips to the edge of the page.The titles are all written like a map or roads.
Editing: Clicking or swish sound to change the setting or scene. The rope title goes down to the other scene. Hooks are also used to move to another scene.

Seven -http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/
Images: Dirty fingernails
Style (Colours): Red light shows danger
Visuals: Creepy hand shows the thriller of the film and represents a character
Font: White on black to show that it is plain and basic
Animation of Titles: Flickering of titles makes it look scary. It reminds me of a haunted house when the lights flicker on and off. Shows that it is a thriller film.
Editing: Title scene is used between each image. Black smudges are used.

Introduction to Media

5th September 2013
Students who study media, will interpretate things that they see and will think differently to students who do not study media. This means that if we need other peoples ideas on something about media, the best way to do it, is to ask other people studying media as they will have a better idea on what topic you are talking about, and what kind of answers you would require.

When we talk about people being "normal", we have to put speech marks around it. This is because nobody actually knows what "normal" is. There is no such thing as normal, society has created it to make us act the way that we are, and we would think of it to be "normal."

Celebrities are interesting because they sell themselves. Most pictures that we see of celebrities are airbrushed to make the viewers look up to them and think that they are perfect. This is why we act the way that we do. We have grown up being manipulated by the media and society. We copy other people around us without noticing. Depending on the people that you talk to, you will change slightly to fit in with the crowd. This includes the way you speak, dress, act and more.

Exam work

Genders
In the video clip, you need to look out for a number of things. Some of the things that you need to remember is:

• Male or Female Character?
• What roles do the characters have?
• How do the characters behave? Masculine? Feminine? Aggressive? Innocent? - Take every action into account.
• Are there any hidden meanings within the clip? (Guns - women aren't expected to use them as they portray aggression, Animals- how many, and what do the animals represent?, Digger- is the person in the digger male or female? what colour is the digger?, Man wearing a pink top- is this "normal" and what is the reason for this? stereotypes, is the man a feminine character?)
• Why?

Analyse the video and give it a significance or meaning

We watched a video clip on primeval twice and then had a little test to see if we could remember and take in the information in such a short time. (in the real exam, we get to see it 5 times and it is a longer clip)

1. 4
2. 3
3. Yellow         
4. Blue                                  
5. Garden Shovel

I got 4 out of 5 in this test because the answer for Question 4 was Pink instead of Blue. I need to make sure that i pay attention to the colours that they use and look into the meaning of why.

We then analysed this video clip further

There was 2 dogs on the scene. They were used to show the equality between male and female.

The Guns on the scene look threatening. Guns are usually linked with male behaviour, so the woman has two for a back up. She needs two to protect herself as she doesn't have the strength that the men in the scene do have.

The woman was in the digger which shows her masculinity. She is wearing a black leather jacket which shows that she has strength and authority. She has power over the men.

The man wearing the pink top and is holding a shovel as a weapon rather than a gun, shows that he is a feminine character. Women are usually the ones to wear pink and to do the gardening, so the man is representing a woman.

Challenging Stereotypes

Everything is open to different opinions so there will be more than one meaning for everything. Different types of people will view things completely different so anyones opinion cant be incorrect.

1. What social groups could you be asked about?  Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Disability, Social Class, Religion and Sexuality                        
2. What are the 4 technical areas that you have to write about? Editing, Sound, Mise-en-scene (Everything in the scene) and Cinematography
3. What are the 4 steps of framework for analysis?

• Step one - Finding meaning in the way that each sex acts.
• Step two - Who is in charge and who has less authority?
• Step three - How each character shows individuality.
• Step four - Choosing a group of typical people of similar interests and seeing if they behave in the way that people portray them to be.