Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer, in a career that has covered a period of over 4 years his films have taken up a number of different themes and genres.Speilbergs early films were mainly science fiction and adventure, which then, began to address issues such as the Holocaust (A Holocaust Szemei 2000), Slavery, War (Wagon Train 1957) and Terrorism. Spielberg also teamed with George Lucas who created Star Wars and was Spielberg’s friend.
Spielberg directed the action adventure film, Indiana Jones- Raiders of the Lost Ark who was played by Harrison Ford. It became the biggest film at the box office in 1981, and received numerous Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Picture. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic park, which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal like his previous films. He produced and directed Schindler’s List (1993), which was a film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got an award for Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped to find the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.Speilberg directed the thriller Jaws which then went on to get 3 Oscars.
As the research was coming to end, we thought we needed more than our views and our research. We needed different opinions and thoughts from other people. So we decided to create a questionnaire and find out what interested us for our coursework video clip. We printed an amount of 20 questionnaires to distribute.
We decided we had to ask a range of questions so we could use it to our advantage and use peoples opinions and encrypt it in to our piece of coursework. We not only asked question that related to us and our coursework, but asked question to do with research around the thriller area, for example ‘’How often do you watch a thriller film?’’
The first day begining our coursework involved many things we had to do. These consisted of making our groups, understanding mark schemes for the task, how to use a camera, creating a blog spot, how to use editing software and researching and watching previous thriller movies/videoclips.
The mark Scheme... 20 marks- Research and Planning
60 marks- Construction
20 marks- Evaluation
The Group...
• Mohit • Humzah • Usman • Amar The Software/Hardware Cornered how to be used...
So today was another lesson, not the fact to be missed that we had to crack on with our thriller task. Today's lesson we learnt about understanding what the actual term ' thriller' meant. We viewed many videos and pictures to understand how directors made there film so different but yet so to the point of a thriller that a viewer could not resist watching. Understanding how colours and scary picture can emphases the screen shot even more by adding basic foundation to the scene. One of the video's we watched was an opening to a famous thriller called 'Se7en'...
When we analysed this video, we saw that the director used a various of colours , sound, lighting and pictures to create the dramatic scene. The sound emphasises each screen shot building up the sound and the suddenly dropping when we see something bad. This plays with the minds of the audience preparing them for such a scene, and then this leads of the whole movie becoming a 'thriller' arising a suspenseful atmosphere. Colour used in the video is mostly red, this symbolises blood and in the end gives a clear distinction of threat.
The preliminary task was scene with continuity. The basic plot of the scene was a character opening a door and coming in, sitting next to or in front of other character(s) and having a conversation. For this task there were requirements of 3 shots to be used. The 3 shots asked to be used were
Shot/Reverse Shot- is a shot used my many cameramen, the meaning of shot reverse shot is a character shown looking at another character.
180 degree rule- is a famous rule used by many directors; the basic concept of the 180 degree is if two characters are shown in a scene they should have the same left/right relationship. If the camera passes the line of the 180 degree line then the cameraman must show the movement of the camera to the other side. (The picture you can see describes the 180 degree rule)
Match on Action- is basically in other terms the continuity of the scene. If there is a cut in a scene, the next bit of clip must carry on were it left of.
Our Planning/Story
Our story was basically a teacher holding an detention on the weekend. The children are messing about in class room, but are interrupted by a fuming teacher. The shot suddenly cuts to the teacher closing the door and storming in. He walks over to the table and sits down and begins the conversation with the children.
Roles: Camera Man: Humzah Actor 1:Mohit (Teacher) Actor 2:Amar (Student) Actor 3:Usman (Student)
Editing: Coming to editing the film was not so hard. We sued the apple software called iMovie. This is where we cut out scenes we has made a mess of and de -creased sizes of clips that were too long. We also added animation in-between cuts through the clips to add more an professional effect.
The opening credits to this film help promote the fact that it will be a thriller movie in many ways. Firstly the music used in this scene sounds very mysterious and creepy, this sets the scene for the rest of the film as it makes the viewer think that the film will be all about mystery. The colours used in the opening credits were black and white, they show that the film may just be of 2 sides and not anything in the middle. It also makes the film seem dark and brings uncertainty into the mind of the viewer.
The main image shown in the opening credits are of sand being blown off card that have the names of all the directors and producers of the film, this could symbolises that the truth will be uncovered and creates a sense of mystery. The opening credits are not very interesting as they are repetitive and make the viewer bored and get a bad impression of the film. As the end of the opening credits approaches the tempo of the music slows down and it becomes long and drowned out. This could show that the film may also contain some sort of slow and painful type of death. Overall this opening sequence is not very effective because it does not grab the viewer’s attention and hold onto it. It is also very repetitive which can make the viewers lose interest before the film has started.
As a group we discussed how we were going to structure our research tasks amongst ourselves, we came to the conclusion that we would each take about 2 tasks from the check list and complete them over a period of 3 days. Once this was done we would all meet up on the 08/02/2010 to discuss all of our research we had been assigned to and pass it around so all members of the group had this on their blogs.
MacGuffin was created by Alfred Hitchcock it can be referred as a hidden catalyst which moves the plot on to create scene or ending with a twist. It can also be referred as the engine that sets the story in motion. It can be anything or nothing at all. In The 39 Steps, it is "secrets vital to your air defence"; in Number Seventeen it is a valuable piece of jewellery, while in The Lady Vanishes it is, in the most perfectly abstract of all Hitchcock's MacGuffins, a coded message contained in a piece of music. Examples of these are in the films such as:
The top secret plans in The 39 Steps (1935). The eponymous statuette in The Maltese Falcon (1941) The letters of transit in Casablanca (1942) The uranium in Notorious (1946) The case with glowing contents in Kiss Me Deadly (1955) The "government secrets" in North by Northwest (1959) The stolen $40,000 in Psycho (1960). The stamps in Charade (1963) The Death Star plans in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Many people may pre-vay this media concept as a cliff hanger shot used by cameramen, but in actual words it is something that creates meaning for the nest scene.
After watching the opening scene of “True Blood” there are many ways in which it supports the fact that it will be a thriller based film. The Scene opens with an image of a dead animal under dark and swampy waters; this makes the viewer feel like the rest of the film will be associated with death. The scene then carries on through a number of short flash images that show a number of disturbing images as well as taboo subjects. One such image of a woman that is in her lingerie may be a taboo subject as women should not be showing large amounts of their body’s, as well as this there are images of women smoking, pole dancing and taking part in sexual activities. The title of the film is “True Blood” an image contained in the opening scenes that supports this is the image of a young boy eating something which is made to look gruesome, the young boy is shown with blood all over his face which makes the viewer feel reinforced that the film will contain blood within it.
Furthermore there are images of dead animals and animal carcases which show that the film will contain alot of death. The music being played in the background is called “Bad Things” which reinstates what the film may be about; it makes the viewer feel that the film is going to be full of suspense. As well as this by using flashing images it could showing that death will be quick and that the film will have alot of different things going on. True Blood has a good opening to a thriller as it gives an overview of what the film will be about as well as showing that it will be full of suspense and tension. Furthermore it still plays the traditional view of an opening scene as it introduces all of the people involved in making the film.
Todorov's theory: Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of un-settlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative).
Propp's theory: Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.
The acknowledged master of the thriller genre he virtually invented, Alfred Hitchcock was also a brilliant technician who deftly blended sex, suspense and humour. He began his filmmaking career in 1919 illustrating title cards for silent films at Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio in London. There he learned scripting, editing and art direction, and rose to assistant director in 1922. That year he directed an unfinished film, No. 13 or Mrs. Peabody. An early example of Hitchcock's technical virtuosity was his creation of "subjective sound" for Blackmail (1929), his first sound film. In this story of a woman who stabs an artist to death when he tries to seduce her, Hitchcock emphasized the young woman's anxiety by gradually distorting all but one word "knife" of a neighbour’s dialogue the morning after the killing.
Here and in Murder! (1930), Hitchcock first made explicit the link between sex and violence. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), a commercial and critical success, established a favourite pattern: an investigation of family relationships within a suspenseful story. The 39 Steps (1935) showcases a mature Hitchcock; it is a stylish and efficiently told chase film brimming with exciting incidents and memorable characters. Despite their merits, both Secret Agent (1936) and Sabotage (1936) exhibited flaws Hitchcock later acknowledged and learned from. Hitchcock would return to the feminine sacrifice-of-identity theme several times, most immediately with the masterful Notorious (1946), a perverse love story about an FBI agent who must send the woman he loves into the arms of a Nazi in order to uncover an espionage ring.
Saul Bass born on May 8th 1920 was an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated sequences. In his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, these included Hitchcock, Stanley and Martin Scorsese for Alfred Hitchcock, Bass provided effective, title sequences, employing kinetic typography, working with John Whitney, and in Psycho. It was this kind of innovative, revolutionary works that made Bass the film maker he was. His later work with Martin Scorsese saw him move away from the optical techniques that he had managed to begin and move into computerized titles.
Moving on Bas had helped in the directing the highlight scene of Psycho, the hugely edited shower-murder sequence, he used his initiative mind to direct such a scene making it perfect to every second that was shot. bass became notorious in the industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). The subject of the film was a jazz musician's struggle to overcome his heroin addiction, a taboo subject in the mid-'50s. Bass decided to create a controversial title sequence to match the film's controversial subject. Bass was responsible for some of the best-remembered, most iconic logos in North America, including both the Bell Telephone logo (1969) and successor AT&T globe (1983). Other well-known designs were Continental Airlines (1968), Dixie(1969) and United Way (1972).
Thriller conventions are things related with a thriller and characters in a thriller, it also describes the type of thriller the move is. E.g. crime. The main points that were taught were...
• The thriller has a genre in itself, something called a sub genre. This can consist of many themes such as murder, crime, drama & conspiracy etc. • The music is there to build up excitement for the viewer • An protagonist is the ‘good guy’ in the movie • An antagonist is the villain in the movie • The thriller movie will make audience feel uncomfortable through the opening scenes of the movie. • Lighting will help the director emphasise the movie’s aspects • Strong vibrant colours are used to help portray different scenes
Thriller movie genre's are created with mostly suspense. Your nearly left at the edge of your seat at the cinema, as many dramatic scenes all squashed in to one, making it a never ending action packed arena.
There are also many types of genres, often named sub genres which are...
• Action • Conspiracy • Crime • Disaster • Drama • Erotic • Legal • Medical • Political • Psychological • Spy Thriller
The equipment was also introduced to us; this included such things like the video camera and tripod. We were taught how to place the camera on to the tri pod and then assemble the tri pod itself for the right angle and movement.
To help us using the camera a task was set to create a video about anything and then uploading it to the iMacs and using the editing software in iMovie to edit them. This helped us to see how the leads worked and how videos were uploaded. Also getting to grips with different types of animation.
