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
   
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