Lighting decisions- Beth Reszke

We have decided as a group that the atmosphere of the indoor car park is good for the effects we wish to achieve. However, we will most likely still use additional lighting for outside the car park so that we achieve a silhouette effect when seeing the feet of the antagonist by the slightly open metal shutter door. It is still important to make it look like natural outdoor light, and to have correct continuity, it must also match up with the natural light in the outdoor shots of the car.

Risk Assessment - Health and Safety

The group made sure to read the risk assessment form and agree with its terms and take on board advice towards health and safety risks.



Having a child in our film, we have to make sure that we understood and were covered on the risks involved. It was important that all people in the car had a seatbelt on while the car was moving, and the child must have a car seat if they are are under the age of 12 and under 1.35 metres in height.
http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/law/index.htm

As well as this, we would be working in a car park with hard flooring, and it was necessary to accompany children at all times to prevent injuries from slipping and falling.

Prop and Actor Research - by Amy

In our film, we do not need many props, but the props we do have are essential to the plot of the film and are not as easy to find as smaller props may be.

• Car

The car is an essential prop in our film. We have found someone to be our older character who is able to drive and owns a car. This is essential in the film because otherwise, we would have had to use a 'body double' of sorts, but this has helped the situation a great amount. I managed to find a friend who was willing to take part in our production.

• Children's car seat

We also need to use a child's car seat in the film. This prop adds a significant amount of suspense at the end of the film, and for obvious reasons it is needed for the child in the film to be seated in the car safely while we film the car driving towards the car park. We are still in the process of finding a child to act in the film, as we will need permission from the child's parents, and we are still discussing what age would be suitable for the purpose of the film.

Synopsis - by Rachel

The basic plot of our film opening is of a mother driving into town with her child, she parks in an enclosed carpark, leaves her child there and forgets to lock the door. We see her walk off and then the focus changes to the child, that he is alone and therefore vulnerable. We then see that he is not alone in the car park and this new character is an antagonist. This is suggested by use of sound and cinematography and we do not see the full figure of this person but only outlines, shadows, his feet, hands or silhouettes which opens more questions about who he is and keeps us distant emotionally from the character as we don't see his face but we know that he is of importance by a use of CU shots. It then becomes increasingly intense as the camera cross-cuts from him to the child in the car, creating a relationship between the two and we see that the child is in danger. Our opening finishes with a shot of the empty car seat where the child was sitting. We plan to keep it simple by including no dialogue and for the opening to open up lots of questions that need to be answered such as "where has the mother gone?", "When will she come back and how will she react to her child missing?", "who is the person that took the child?" in the way that we have seen most thriller openings do.

Roles of the group

Roles of the group

Camera - all members
Editing - all members
storyboard - Rachel
Costume - Rachel
location organiser - Beth
Lighting - Beth
Prop and actor reserarch - Amy
Music soundtrack - Amy

Thriller location and first ideas - Beth Reszke

As a group we have decided that this indoor car park would be good to use for our thriller. It is not public, and we have permission to use it which means we won't have any interruptions or problems with use during filming in regard to permission, and public driving in and out. The large metal shutter door is particularly beneficial to us and we have begun to formulate ideas for our thriller with this in mind. It is a good location due to its size, lighting, low ceiling, and is highly recognisable as an indoor car park.

Rachel - Thriller opening sequence textural analysis

Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave
Sound

· Non diagetic sound: Music - tense, mysterious, strings

· Diagetic sound: Teacups and cheese knife rattling, Eerie noises

Camerawork

• Dolly to behind plate of cheese shaking makes tense atmosphere
• MS from behind cheese in cupboard, sense of being watched
• Zoom in on eyes in window of van, suspense

Mise en scene

• Dark lighting throughout

Mood

• Dramatic music (violins etc) creating tense atmosphere
• CU shots of weapons, scared faces

The Simpsons: Cape Fear

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701080/
The Simpsons remake of the original Cape Fear film from 1962 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055824/)

Mise en Scene, iconography, (light, colour, settings)
Letters written in blood
Sharp knifes, chainsaws, weapons
• Low key lighting in cinema (cinema setting/location also creates sense of entrapment as it is dark and a confined area with little space to run in)
• Lightening bolts are dramatic
• Lighting is odd colours (disorientating) when Homer bursts into Bart’s bedroom brandishing a knife then chainsaw and his eyes are glowing red in a typical scary way
Mask

Sound
• Music is tense and dramatic

Character Types
• Man come out of prison on parole
• Victim (child)
• Scared parents
• Useless police – the people who are supposed to be protecting cannot help so makes the audience feel helpless

Themes and Issues
• Stalkers
• Threats from an unknown person – person is revealed at first only by their hands and other body parts (CU shots) which keep their identity a mystery

The Girls
Props used that helped build a tense atmosphere were potential weapons (the rake that one of the girls brandished and swung around with then hurt her Dad with in mallicious manner) that created suspense as we were not sure if she would seriously hurt the dad with.

Confusion and panic was shown with the music (a beat that sounded like it could be a heartbeat), the camera went out of focus to show how he wasn't sure where to look and the camera whipped around as a point of view shot of the dad.

the body language was disturbing; the girls seemed to not notice that their dad was back home and carried on playing with their dolls and didnt look up at him but kept to themselves though he appeared to be speaking very upbeat and friendly towards them. the contrast in facial expressions and body language made the audience feel uneasy and uncomfortable.

When the girls were asking, almost commanding for their dad to play a game, the camera moved around them a lot, jumping from different agnles, portaying confusion and panic.

tension is reinforced by the use of sound - during the more scary moments (e.g. when they are tying him up, pushing him around, hit him, try to push him into the lake) there is a high pitched metallic sound effect that makes us feel even more uncomfortable.

Seven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_%28film%29

Enigma Codes

• We wonder why these two very different characters have come to work together as well as why Mills ‘fought’ to work in this place when he could have chose anywhere else. The location is grimy, rainy and miserable

Restricted Narration

• We don’t know what is going to happen so this builds suspense and we are watching from an objective point of view

Character Construction

• Somerset is a very ordered and well-presented man: he makes sure every item of clothing and object at home is perfectly neat. He goes to sleep to the sound of a metronome which raises some questions about his character; does he listen to it to cut out some sounds of outside? Is it hypnotic or relaxing to him? If so, why is this sound relaxing to him? – most people would not find it comforting. The way that it is shot with a CU and zooms in towards it makes us feel drawn into it as Somerset feels absorbed by the sound. It also makes this prop seem significant as a representation of his character as when Somerset finally feels frustrated at one pint in the film he throws and breaks the metronome and this is a significant turning point in his feelings and character development.
• Mills is quite obviously the younger, more energetic character

One Hour Photo

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265459/

The colours in the room

His memory is shown with use of colour, camera movement and sound. The two shots are linked with a sound bridge of children laughing.

Research Task of thriller openings - Beth Reszke

The Simpsons - Cape Fear
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701080/
This Simpsons style remake of the original Cape Fear film from 1962 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055824/) has added comedy to the common conventions of a thriller.

-The non diegetic sound includes music which reflects on the current mood of the characters. It is sinister and mysterious at times when Bart receives the threats and we see his reaction to them. The diegetic sound also helps create a dark mood and atmosphere with the use of thunder and rain during a storm. The weather is used here to add a sense of tension and dark mood.

-Throughout the episode, they have used certain props to create effects on the characters. Bart, in particular becomes scared and edgy and reacts in fear when he sees sharp objects. For comical effect, this is repeated in the film and once tension is built, we then find out it is only something innocent.

-Their use of lighting fits in with the common conventions of a thriller, as it is light and colourful when in a normal home or neighbourhood situation. However, in some shots, such as when there are zooms in on the face of his nemesis, Sideshow Bob, there is a dramatic change in lighting as it gets darker, and more dark shadows appear on his face. This builds tension and characterises him as being the dark, evil character.


The Girls

The short film 'The Girls' is a thriller that takes a different kind of style. It covers the theme of a kind of twisted family situation and the idea of paedophobia. It' character types and themes are different, but still has a reaction to the audience like a thriller would and uses common conventions such as tension, suspense and mystery.

• The music used seems innocent at first, but turns darker when we realise what the characters of the girls are really like. It starts to build tension and suggest something more sinister than a couple of innocent girls.
  
• The opening frame shows a girl swinging from behind a large tree. This is the first we see of the girls, and they seem like a couple of normal, innocent sisters. This is contrast with the outcome at the end.
  
• The setting is important to it being a thriller, as a big garden with woods and a river can easily be used in a thriller. The audience is encouraged to wonder what will happen, especially in shots where they go into the woods and, what could happen next is unknown to us, and to the characters.
  
• The location has a natural light and looks like a nice sunny day. This is important in characterising the girls in the first few shots as it sets the mood. It's contrasted with darker scenes in the woods and once the evening comes to reflect on how the mood has drastically changed and become mysterious, depressing and threatening.
  
• The use of a rake as a prop earlier on in the film is important as it is later used a weapon towards their father. The audience is encouraged to believe that something may happen with this once we understand the aggressive characters of the girls.
  

Characters

• The characters of the girls change from the beginning of the film, where we see them as young and sweet, to later where they seem aggressive with each other, and then towards their dad. The first suggestion of this is where the girl is playing with her dolls, talking about "death and destruction" in such a blatant and 'innocent' way. I found this disturbing, and it was their intention to do it in this way to shock the audience and make you feel sympathy for the man. They then return to their innocence at the end, which makes it even more sinister for the audience as we now know what they have done and what they are really like.
  
• Pathos is brought out in the character of the girls father, as in his attempts to be a good and fun father, he is physically abused by his daughters. He is seen as the authoritative figure, but has no power and is helpless in this situation and we as the audience feel sorry for him.

My response to the film
The film was well made as it definitely achieves a desired effect from the audience. I don't like its dismal, sad conclusion, but I felt that it was shocking in many parts and made me think about situations like this that may happen in families in real life. As a thriller, it does well at hooking its audience with the use of suspense and emotion.

Se7en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_%28film%29

The opening to the thriller "Se7en"builds suspense and constructs characters.

Enigma codes
Certain things leave the audience with unanswered questions that they expect to find an answer to later on in the film. Things such as why does he use a metronome when he is trying to get to sleep?. The fact that it continues to close in on this and we see a close up of it can suggest that it has a great importance to the plot and possibly the character. Other things leave us wondering about the Detective Somerset (played by morgan freeman). Such as the way he sets out all his possessions and has a perfectly ironed suit on his perfectly made bed ready for going out. We are also left to wonder why have the two characters of Somerset and Mills been brought together. Dialogue helps us to presume the characters are also wondering the same thing to an extent. This leaves big questions which will be resolved later on.

Character construction and stereotypes
The two main detective characters Detective Somerset, and Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) are used carefully to give us an idea of their personalities, and how this may affect what happens.

• Somerset - A professional, intelligent, highly organised detective who seems to put work before anything. The use of his carefully pressed detective costume and organised behaviour communicates this to us in the early stages of the film.
• Mills - A young detective who contrasts with Somerset in the way that his clothes are not as perfect looking and he has a more laid back attitude.

These are both stereotypes of commonly used characters in films and programmes. This makes it easier for us as an audience to presume things about their behaviour and personality.

One Hour Photo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265459/

The first few minutes of the film start to present the personality of the main character played by Robin Williams. The use of slow camera movement from seeing him on the screen in the dark room, to a slow zoom through the window into the interrogation room lets the audience know the situation he is in. The white room clear of all objects apart from him sitting at a table in the centre isolates him from all others as it starts from a long shot to show that there is nobody else around him.

Blindness

The opening to the thriller 'Blindness' introduces the main character and his problem of suddenly becoming blind. However, before this has been made clear there are a number of ways in which suspense and intrigue is built.

• The use of quick cuts between fast moving traffic and coloured lights which then reveal to be traffic lights in a busy street create atmosphere and a set a fast paced tone.
• The look of terror and fright in the facial expression and body language of the man in the car leaves the audience want to know what is going on and what the problem is.

• This goes along with the sound effects of a busy junction to create a chaotic and urgent atmosphere, building tension and suspense.
  
• When the audience knows what the situation happens, they would want to see how it progresses, as well as find out the answer to the questions formed in their minds such as 'Why has this suddenly happened to the character?' and 'Will it be resolved?'
• Their use of unrestricted narrative as we can see more than the character as he blindly steps out of the car. As an audience, we can see the danger he is in with passing cars and obstacles that he can't see, and this creates tension as we want him to move out the way of oncoming traffic and not get hit. We continue watching to see how it progresses and if he makes it out of the road alright.
• As the light changes to white, and the images become very blurred and we can't make out what they are, we are put into the viewpoint of the character to get an insight into how he is seeing and the situation from his point of view.
  

Much like this one, when I create a thriller opening I intend to create a tense mood in the first few shots and give my characters strong, clear characteristics that make the audience see the situation from their point of view like the first character in this thriller.

The Bone Collector
The opening sequence to The Bone Collector follows the typical conventions of a thriller in the way that it builds tension with similar techniques.

1. Sound
   The opening uses sinister music that builds up the ominous, foreboding mood with the audience. This tone matches the images shown to create this effect.
2. Camera movement
   It uses slow paced sweeps to contrast with the fast paced movement of lines on the screen to resemble drawings. When the character is going under a small space, they have used a point of view shot to bring the audience right into his position, and this creates tension as we then only know as much as the character. They have achieved this effect by the use of a shaky camera to put the audience in the position of the character and make it seem real.
   
3. Content
   It opens with fast paced movement of drawn images which link the themes of the film such as death and crime with their violent images and themes. It also has headlines and photos as if all of these are like pieces in a scrapbook put together to remember an event. This is later emphasised by the fact
   
4. 
   
5. 
   

Beth Reszke research feedback

Amy Leadbitter Research Feedback

Se7en
This film has many different enigma codes, relating to both characters. Questions are raised regarding their personalities, how, and why they meet.

Detective Somerset
-Why does he sleep to a metronome? - This may show that he is a very troubled individual. Some people who are stressed, or troubled sometimes listen to a metronome or 'white noise' to calm themselves down; like they are trying to drown something out in their head.
-Why is he so in order and clean at home? Again, this may be caused by stress due to his job and trying to keep something in his life in order because his job is unpredictable.

Lieutenant Mills
- Why does he seem less interested in his job that Somerset? - Lieutenant Mills seems a lot less motivated with his job than Somerset. This can be figured out even by just looking at the way he composes himself. In the scene we first see him, he is chewing gum, and we can see that he does not care as much as Somerset about his appearance at work.

The mise en scene in the opening sequence of this film helps set the mood for the rest of the film. The lighting is relatively low key throughout, which sets a dark, and perhaps maybe grim mood for the events that follow. The surrounding are dull and dirty in the opening sequence (excluding Somerset's apartment). This is usually seen as a typical scene of a crime in America, which sets the audience up for the rest of the film.

The Simpsons - Cape Feare

In the early 60's J. Lee Thomson directed a film called 'Cape Fear'. In the early 90's, this film was remade with the same name, and again in the 90's, The Simpsons remade this with a slightly different name of 'Cape Feare'.

1962 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Fear_(1962_film)1991962_film)
1991 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Fear_(1991_film)

1993 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Feare

Mood - Dark mood; murder and revenge; with a comedy twist using physical jokes.

Mise en scene

There is low key lighting when there are scenes with Sideshow Bob writing death threats to Bart Simpson and also in the movie theatre and on the house boat, when Sideshow Bob is attempting to kill Bart. The rest of the episode is relatively light. Since it is usually only dark with Sideshow Bob, it is like he is making it dark for Bart.

The non diagetic soundtrack in this episode is in a minor key and is only usually when Sideshow Bob is in the scene. The same music is used every time we see Sideshow Bob, so from that we can associate that particular music with him, and when this music is playing, it builds tension in the episode. There is not much diagetic sound, apart from everyday sounds, which does not add suspense to the episode as a whole.

In this episode, Bart Simpson spends a lot of the time nervous, or scared, and his body language shows this. He shakes and shivers a lot, and when the family is on the houseboat, Bart runs up to Homer and Marge to tell them about Sideshow Bob, and his feet are still moving very rapidly when he gets there, in a panicked fashion. His eyes are also very big in this scene.

The whole episode has the same darkness of the films, but it has a comic twist by adding light-hearted jokes. In one scene, the family has moved into a houseboat to escape from Sideshow Bob. We see Bart in his bed, tossing and turning, trying to sleep, and then the door creaks open. Homer then runs in with a knife and a oven tray and he shouts very quickly "Bart do you want a brownie before you go to bed!!". Bart screams and Homer then starts cutting the brownies into squares and talking in a relaxed voice. He then leaves, but runs back into the room brandishing a live chainsaw and wearing a hockey mask (Friday 13th), shouts "Bart do you want to see my new chainsaw and hockey mask!!". Bart screams, and Homer leaves the room embarrassed. There is also a scene in which Sideshow Bob repeatedly steps on rakes.

In my opinion, this is a strange twist of a thriller, but personally I would still class it as a thriller, due to the mise en scene and plot of the episode.

The Girls
Today we watched a short independent thriller film called 'The Girls'. This film focuses on paedophobia, and it could even be leaning towards schizophrenia. Stereotypes are broken in this film, and roles can even be seen as reversed.

To begin with, the mood was very chilled, and just like a normal day, but as it progressed we could see that the mood was really very disturbing and twisted. Despite all that was happening in the film, there was always a sense of innocence. This comes from the girls' attitude through 'playing with their dad' and the attitude the father had when he started playing with his daughters, which was light hearted, and he was just chasing them around the garden, just like a normal father and daughter would do.

Throughout the whole film, there was ambient lighting, as it was filmed outside. This did not add any tension or suspense; it gave the sense that this was just two girls playing outside. Even while the girls were hitting their dad and pushing him down to the river. The end of the film was the only time it was dark;the father was still outside after being pushed in the river.

The characters in this film have very conflicting personalities. The father is not expecting anything out of the ordinary, so he is relatively relaxed. The girls' personalities change throughout the film. At the beginning, they seem innocent when they are playing in the garden, but this changes when we see one of them playing with their dolls. She uses them to act as herself and a psychic, and she acts out a palm reading. She says "I see death and destruction" and drops the dolls without a second thought, like she is possessed. When they start playing with their father, they 'change' back to being innocent and care free, but soon change back when they start tying up their father and beating him with a rake.

The props in this film add to the feel of it a great deal. The rake plays an important role, since this is when we first see that the girls are not normal; when she hits the dog. They also use the rake to hit their father. The blindfold and hand ties are also very symbolic. This shows that he cannot see his little girls, only the girls that are hurting him, and he cannot do anything about it. The dolls symbolise innocence, and when they are dropped, so is the girl's innocence.

The role of the authority figure is challenged in this film. To begin with, the father is the authority figure, and is controlling what is happening and what games are played, but as the film progresses, the audience sees that the girls are taking over the role of the authority figure by tying their father's hands and blindfolding him, so he does not know what is going on. The authority figure also changes at the end of the film, when their mother comes home. The girls 'change back' to being innocent, and when the mother asks where their father is, they give an innocent answer and say that he 'decided to go and sit by the river'.

I think that this film adds a very disturbing twist to a perfectly innocent, everyday activity, and it also shows what people can be like when left alone. This has a very interesting feel and it is a very good example of a paedophobic thriller.

Memento

The opening sequence to this film has a peculiar set up. It seems to be in a non-chronological order. It starts as an extreme close up on a hand holding a polariod photograph of a dead body. We are not aware of who the person is, or of the killer. At first, the audience is also not aware of the fact that this is being filmed backwards, but we see the hand shake the polaroid, it becomes clear. After the shot with the photo, we see the murder, but backwards. This is a way of showing the main characters condition. He cannot make new memories, so he has to constantly remind himself of day to day activities, or his job and what has to be done.

The lighting is low key for the first part of the opening sequence, but then after we see the main character in his motel room, it turns into 'ambient' lighting, but does not last for more than about 2 minutes. This is where we meet the victim of the murder. At first, we are not aware of this, but it becomes clear when they drive to a old building in the middle of no-where. The main character walks into the building and takes out another polariod photo. It is a photo of the victim, with 'Do not believe his lies he is the one Kill him' written on the back.

The props in this sequence mostly seem to be notes and photographs, which obviously are to help the main character do what he has to do, even mundane everyday activities like 'shave', which he has on a note stuck to his leg. This shows his inability to undergo everyday tasks with his condidtion.

I think this is a very good example of a thriller. The beginning leaves the audience unaware of what really happens in the film and what the characters' stories are.




Wallace and Gromit - A Close Shave

When you think of thrillers, this may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but when looking at mise en scene and plot, it is a very good example of a thriller.

• Lighting - low key throughout the opening sequence, setting a mood for the rest of the film
  
• Diagetic Sound - Teacups rattling as the truck goes by, the cheese knife hitting the floor (and where it lands [inbetween Wallace's slippers]), the loud noises made by the truck outside


• Non-Diagetic sound - eerie soundtrack, strings (building suspense and tension)


• Camerawork - The close up of the eyes in the van raising questions of who it is and what is going on, dolly from behind cheese plate rattling

Despite the fact that it is an animation and is mostly targeted at children, the elements of mise en scene and mood of the opening sequence classes it as a thriller.