Different types of light

The key light
The key light is the light that is most bright and most influential. For our thriller this would be used to reveal characters that hold in importance, for the audience to gather that this is the moment or action that should be view the most in order for them to understand completely what i occuring in the scene.



The back light
The back light helps counteract the effect of the key light, bu allowing the character or object look more rounded. This lighting would be highly suitable for our thriller as is will allow the characters to be anonymous and making the audience believe that this anonymous character is someone of good justice, but this may not be true, meaning that this type of lighting leaves the audience in suspence.


The filler light
The filler light will help soften the harsh shadows that the key and back lights create, more than one filler light may be used.

Reading a film

The defintion of reading a film means to look at a particular film in great detail to view how it is put together. The way you would usually read a film would be to read an extract from the film rather than actually the whole film. when reading a film it is similar to reading a book; although your're not actually looking at a written page your're viewing the camera screen. Text, books or film can be looked at for a variety of reasons; you can either read a book or watch a film just for enjoyment, or might want to view it more in depth to actully see why you enjoy it.

Mise en scene

Mise en scene is a French term meaning "what is put into a scene or frame". what ever is put in or left out can have a greate difference to the signals we, the audience draw in about the kind of film it is and what we are suppose to be feeling at this moment. A simple shot of a house in a place of no where can be made to look threatening by adding crows around and on top of the house and by having the shot taken as the sun is setting. This same house can be given a different look by adding green grass and having the sun shining brightly, with men doing farm work around the outside of the house; this will made it seem as a jolly place to be.

The elements that shoulg be consider in mise en scene are:
settings and props
costume, hair and make-up
facial expressions and body language
lighting and colour
positioning of characters and objects within a frame

A tracking shot is where the camera follows the action, moving along tracks laid for that purpose, often pulling backwards in a scene.









This here is a crane shot; where the camera mounted on a crane and moves around at a distance above ground level. This can also be done by a camera being attached to an helicopter.

AS media studies Film-(thriller)

This is another past students thriller
This is a past students thriller scene, i personally believe that the shots used in the scene are quite good especially when the protagonist is first seen and a low angle mid-shot is used. This shot emphaises the characters face and shows that he is a controllable and unease character. The sound used for the short scene greatly matches the actions taking place, the sound makes it seem as if theres a mission taking place. The use of the camera overall isnt so good as they don't diverse the shots. I rated this thriller 2 because the use of the camera was'nt fully used appropriately for the thriller.

Name of our production company

This is the ident for our production company i created it on live type which did not take very long to create at first it was a bit tricky but once i got the hang of it i created it very well, the ident is red and black to create a scary effect for our gangster thriller

Analysis of past students thrillers

In lesson we watched scenes of students pasted thrillers, we did this to get an insight of how our thrillers can turn out to be. We came across thrillers that were good and no so good, we had to give a score from 1-5, 5 being excellent and 1 being poor.
This is a past students thriller scene, i personally believe that the shots used in the scene are quite good especially when the protagonist is first seen and a low angle mid-shot is used. This shot emphaises the characters face and shows that he is a controllable and unease character. The sound used for the short scene greatly matches the actions taking place, the sound makes it seem as if theres a mission taking place. The use of the camera overall isnt so good as they don't diverse the shots. I rated this thriller 2 because the use of the camera was'nt fully used appropriately for the thriller.

I have produced a survey questionnaire to identify the target audience we want our film to be targeted at. The survey questionnaire will help build up for us in producing our short thriller scene, and have it produce successfully. To create my questionnaire i used Survey Monkey, and then i posted it onto my Facebook to receive feedback and here are the answers to my questionnaire.

Course work brief

We have been set a task to construct a thriller, including the titles, aimed at a 15 or 18 certifcate audience. Before the making of our thriller film scene we will need to explore into ohter thrillers to come up with ideas of how our own should be. We must discover the sounds that will be used, the use of lighting and the environment where we will be recording but at the same time they must be appropriate for us to accomplish and be successful in making the short scene.

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate is a paranoid thriller and also utilized as being a political thriller, greek tragedy and also refers to social context and tensions. This modernised version is different to the back dated one, for example the scene where Sergeant Raymond Shaw is ordered to drown and kill.....

In The Manchurian Candidate, Captain Bennett Marco, , alongside the rest of their infantry platoon become kidnapped during the Korean War in 1952. they all set off to Manchuria which then they are brain washed to have the thought of Shaw saving their lives in combat so that he gets awarded the Medal of Honor.


Years have passed after the war and Marco is back in the US working as an intelligence officer, he begins to suffer from recurring nightmares of Shaw killing two of his comrades and also seeing himself being clinically observed by Chinese and Russian intelligence officials. When Marco discovers that another soldier from the platoon also has the same nightmare, he begins to attempt assembling the mystery and the meaning of the nightmare.

The discovery is that the Communists have beem using Shaw as a sleeper agent, which is activated by seeing the Queen of Diamonds, he is provoked by the appearance and obeys orders and after he will forget what he persisted from the orders given.

Information on Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13 August 1899 and passed away 29 April 1980, he was an English filmmaker and producer. In the suspense and psycological thriller genres he pioneered many techniques. Hitchcock was very successful in his native United Kingdom in both silent and early dialogued films, after this successfulness he migrated to Hollywood. In 1956 he had become an American citizen and also remained a British subject.
Hitchcock fashioned  himself in a unique and recognisable directorial style. He allowed viewers to identify with the carmera which moved in a way to mimic the viewers gaze, which will force them to be engage into what is occuring.

He framed shots to have the audience feel the way he wanted them and maximise the anxiety, fear, empathy and he also used innovative film editing to reveal the point of view of the characters. Many of his stories frequently feature fugitives that tried to escape from the law also including "icy blonde" female characters. 
Many of the films that Hitchcock filmed had a twist in the endings and highi thrilling plots which featured depictions of violence, crime and murder.

North by Northwest

I have research into a thriller called North by Northwest, produced by Alfred Hitchcock which is an 1959 movie starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

This thriller is about a hapless New York advertising executive, called Roger Thornhill who is mistaken for a government agent named George Kaplan, by Foreign spies as he migrates across the country looking for a way for himself to survive.

In this thriller there are many techniques used to have the audience feel mislead; these are as followed cliffhangers, red herrings and suspense.

Suspense is risen in the scene where the plane crop duster attack near a Midwest cornfield, where we the audience are stuck not know the fate of Roger Thornhill, as he is in a life or death situation.

Red herring is used in the scene of where Thornhill is shot by Eve and we are left to believe that his life is over. We then later find that this is a set up for Eve's attempt to escape from Vandamme, and the shot of the bullet was actually a blank.

Sabotage

Sabotage is a film including a terrorist named Verloc, he attempts to cause disruption in London by planting bombs. Alfred Hitchocks, uses dramatic irony in the film Sabotage; dramatic irony is where the characters have no knowledge of what the situtation in the film is. In the case of the film Sabotage a young boy Steavie is sent by Verloc the terrorist, to deliver a package by 1:30pm and the bomb will detonate by 1:45pm, the boy does'nt have any knoledge at all of the package being a bomb but we as an audience do know, this is the example of dramatic irony. 





Thoughtout the scene of the boy attempting to get to the destination of where he is to deliver the package, tension is highly built up as time passes by. The music that is used in this scene creates and adds to the tension making the audience feel unconfortable and thinking if the boy will make it to the destination before the bomb detonates.The music that is used sounds similar to a ticking of a clock suggesting that a lot of time is passing by, this music gradually picks up pace as time proceeds building up the suspence. The music that is used sounds like the ticking of a clock which suggest alot of time has passed by. 

thriller codes and conventions

The conventions of the thriller genre is to do with sound and editing examples of this are camera angles, quick cuts and music for tension to create and heighten the tension in the film, also the tempo of the music can be sped up when appropriate. lighting is also used and especially the creation of shadows in the film. Mirrors and stairs are also conventions of thriller movies.
  

Shadow of a doubt

1943 was when the thriller 'shadow of a doubt was made, and is one of Alfred Hitchcock's favourites out of all he's thiller creations. In class we watched the opening to this film and did some analysis using the mise en scene sequence.

Settings and Props

The begining of the scene is set in a bedroom where the light is very dim which suggest that it is day time. Many props were used such as a cigar; this cigar that was held in the hand of Uncle Charlie suggested to us, the audience that he is a wealthy man and is able to afford such possessions. We are then shown cash scattered over a table beside the bed and also on the floor. As the money is on the floor it suggest to us that it is not so important to Uncle Charlie meaning that, that amount of money is near enough worthless to him. Another prop that was used is an empty glass, which Uncle Charlie picks up and throws it at the wall because of his rage.

Positioning of characters and objects within the frame
When Charlie is outside the apartment he was in he is in the middle of the frame. There are two men who are after him and they're in the foreground of the frame, as charlies becomes in the background, the two guys are on either side, which reveals and suggests that Charlie is trapped.

Costume, Hair and Make upIn the opening sequence Uncle Charlie is wearing a suit which seems to look very expensive and his hair is slicked back with gel.


Lighting and Colour
At first light is seen entering the room where Uncle Charlie is in laying on his bed, darkness is then comes about as a woman comes into the room and pull the blinds down. From this Charlie is then brought to life, getting up from his bed and begins to move around, this here suggests that he likes the darkness, this allows as to believe he is the antagonist in the film.

Facial expressions and Body language 

At the begining as Uncle Charlie is laying on his bed, his facial expressions showed that he was tired, calm and in a relaxed state.