Evaluation Question Number 6

Final Edit The Basement

WE'VE FINALLY FINISHED OUR FINAL THRILLER OPENING!!!!!!

As a group, we struggled a lot to get to this stage. At first we were put into a group with 2 other students which dropped out from the course. Then we were put into another group which consisted of 4 students (myself, Netitia, Lorenzo and Muazzin), unfortunately, Muazzin had formed his own group and filmed his own movie. So in this case we had to use our Rough cut for our Final Cut as well, because we didn't have enough time to make another movie. 

We hope that this film is also as enjoyable as the others even though we couldn't spent as much time as we could have to edit it!! 

Structure of Thriller Openings

 

When you look at film openings there are 3 main basic structures that are followed:

1. A Narrative opening with the titles running throughout;
This is when titles appear while the story is being revealed, the titles are surrounding the film. Some examples of narrative openings are The Shining, The Stepfather and De ja vu.
This is the opening to DE ja vu:

2. A Discrete title sequence;

This is when the title sequence is separated from the film, its on its own. It is by itself on a background e.g. it'll show some film and then show a title and then show some more film. Examples of discrete title sequences are Arligtion road, James bond and seven etc.

I think that seven is a really good opening sequence, it grabs the attention of the reader straight away with the scary & chilling start. The opening of seven uses a lot of close up, i think that this is good because it creates suspense because the audience don't kw what is actually happening. All they can see is what the director wants them to see. The implications for this is that the audience will want to watch the rest of the film to figure out what all these little snippets of film reveal after. 

This is the title sequence to seven:  

3. Titles over a black screen, followed by the narrative opening;

This is when  all of the titles are played before the narrative opening starts, the black screen usually has sound and the black screen lasts for about 30seconds max. this type of narrative takes a while to happen, the camera slowly crawls in and keeps the audience waiting or keeps them in the dark about whats happening. Some directors will love to use this type of narrative because it builds up suspense, however other directors will disagree and say that the audience will be bored and switch it of in the first 5-10 seconds. 2 examples of a titles over black screen opening are dead calm and Donnie Darko.

Here is the Donnie Darko title sequence: 

4.There is one last type of title opening that directors use and this is 'a narrative opening with highly styled editing, distinct from the rest of the film. this type of opening is like a music video in a sense because the the clips are edited to the beat of the music. The normal sub-genre that uses this type of opening are 'action thrillers'. The Taking of Pelham 123 is a really good example of this type of title sequence.

This is the opening for The Taking of Pelham 123: 

Here are some other title sequences, see if you can remember what type of title sequence they are:

1.

2.

 

 

The documentary 'WATCHING' on Film Openings

Film Openings

Thomas Sutcliffe says "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible."

What he means by this is that when making a film, directors need to think about how they will keep the  audience interested throughout the film. It must a lot of different plots, twists and unexpected events. the directer has to keep the audience's anxiety high so that they feel like they need to watch the whole film. Thomas Sutcliffe says that the best way is to use 'instand arousal'. This is when the audience get a shock/ or when a significant piece of information is revealed, or if there is something out of the ordinary e.g. a big explosion or fire at the beginning of the film, rather than the film building suspense throughout the film, then revealing the shock later in the film, Instant arousal makes the audience engaged from the moment the action starts. If the film started with a explosion or fire this is how i would react:  hehehe :D
                              

What are the risks of instant arousal??

According to director Jean Jacques Beineix the risks of instant arousal is that the directer has given most of the exciting bit of the film at the begging and have nothing that will compare to it, therefore the audience will not want to watch the rest of they film. They will get bored and switch off... looking like this:
                  

Jean Jacques Beineix's idea implies that we must make sure not to give too little information in the beginning, and not too much. If the audience knows too much then there is no suspension for the rest of the film which means they will not want to watch the film. If there is too little and they don't know what's going on, then they will lose interest and will not want to watch the film. That's why its important that "a good beginning must make the audience feel that they don't know enough yet, and at the same time make sure that they don't know too little."
                            <-- Jean Jacques Beineix

A Classic Opening :

Stanly Kaufman describes the classic opening to be some sort of establishing shot of the surroundings e.g. the city, the countryside etc. This the leads to the camera going slowly to the main characters/objects/place. he says that it will typically show landscape, then it will show the building it takes place in and then the window in the building, which leads to the action within the room;

 >>  >>  >> 
                        
I think that this style works because it's good for the audience to know where scene is happening and what environment its going to be in. i think the type of place or environment tells us a lot about how/ what the film is roughly about. However this opening is  not the right type of opening for me, I'd rather they cut to the chase and give me something that will appeal to me. An example of a classic opening would be the opening to the film 'The Shining'...
                                       

'The shining' is a very successful movie because it creates lots of suspense. The idea in the opening to use the helicopter is great because it creates the idea that something is following the small car from behind, it tells us that the car is heading ina bad direction, they also try to create this by the music. The music is very slow and the trumpet is played slowly in a low note, which leads to the idea that something bad is going to happen. in the documentary there was a quote that really stuck with me: "The camera is like the predator". I think that this is the perfect way to describe the how the opening was supposed to make you feel or think.


                

Kyle coopers title sequence of 'se7en' is so effective because of the way the letters move on the screen like they are trapped and are trying to escape, i think that because they used lots of close up it really made the film mysterious, leaving the audience wanting more, wanting to find out what happens next.  i think that the music is amazing because it really gives you the creeps, also it really co-operates amazingly with the opening. From the opening we might also guess that the character cutting faces from newspapers, crossing eyes and sawing the paper might be crazy, they might have some kind of mental disorder, maybe they are some kind of crazy serial killer.............
                                                 

'A Touch of Evil'

Orson Welles with his opening to the film 'A Touch of Evil',wanted to achieve suspense by puting in an explosion that the ausinece were not expecting, he was planning to do this by having people acting as they would on a normal day, and the suddenly have a car explode. However universal studios put title credits over the the opening which ruined the effect Welles wanted to have on the audience. He faught his case with the production company but in the end they won. universal studios only did this because they wanted to be known and recognised.
                                                  

This is the Opening to 'Touch of Evil':

'A Favourite Trick of Nior'

'Film Noir'/The Trick of Film Noir means when the opening of the film starts with the ending. the rest of the film shows the sequence to how they ended up in that position at the beginning. i think that this is effective because it will leave the audience asking 'why did it happen?' 'who caused this to happen?', this will make them in curious and therefore lead them to watch the rest of the film to find out answers to their questions... It is very effective, however keeping the suspense is very difficult as the action happened at the beginning and we know already know the ending. this is the opening to casino, this is a really good example of Film Noir;

Intertexuality

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the relationship that exists between different texts, especially literary texts, or the reference in one text to others

The ways in which Hitchcock's 'Psycho' has influenced more modern day slashers.

Psycho's infamous scene of the girl getting murdered in the shower, has had a mighty impact on the rest of slasher films. It was a huge hit when it was released, and even to this day film makers have gained inspiration from that particular scene and have even incorporated aspects of it in their own slasher movies.
We watched a clip from 'What Lies Beneath' in class and noticed that the director chose to include a bath and a running shower. The director clearly took liking to the bathroom setting, and I too agree that it is an iconic setting to shoot a murder scene.

Thriller clip analysis

 

What lies Beneath (Supernatural Thriller):

In the first scene the camera is positioned on top of the stairs facing towards the women, as she stops and looks, the audience are not privileged to knowing what she is looking at or what is behind the camera.

Mid-shot

  Eerie music is played during this scene helping the suspense of the moment.

Music stops, where then the camera starts to pan towards what the women is apparently staring at.

As the camera continues to pan, the audience can hear several sound effects such as birds chirping in the background and a low hollow blowing sound.

Camera panning

 The camera finally stops panning where then the sound of the hollow blowing intensifies. 

Another sound effect is when the women opens a door, the audience are given a creepy creaking sound of the opening door which adds to the intensity of the atmosphere.

The misty fog which leaks out the gaps of the door also helps the directer achieve his aim of creating a suspenseful environment.

Close up.

Close up of the women, we can see her facial expression and in this very moment, we are able to notice that there's something for her to fear, as well as the audience.

Point of view shot

Point of View Shot, this camera shot helps the audience empathise with the situation as they wait for something to happen or appear due to the build up of suspense. 

Close up

Long shot

The scene then leads to cuts in the shots from the close up of the women, to a long shot of the bathroom, the 'close up' of the women allows the audience to see how she is reacting as she walks close to the bathtub.

The 'Long shot' of the bathroom lets the audience think why the women is acting so strangely, especially as the bathroom seems to be an ordinary everyday bathroom. 

Over the Shoulder

This now emphasises the situation, the audience now know that the women has making her way to the bathtub, and due to her facial expression, the audience now know that the build up of suspense has lead to this scene.

High pitched sound starts to play over the scene.

Low-angel shot

High pitched sound continues to play, however camera goes into a low-angle shot, the camera also appears from underneath the water inside the bathtub, this makes the audience feel as if they are looking through another persons  point of view. But who?

Over the shoulder shot

Again, this type of shot emphasises the situation, however the audience now see that there is nothing inside the bathtub, so who was looking up? Adds to the mystery of the scene.

Women unplugs the bath, the scene goes quiet except the sound being made by the unplugged bathtub, the audience can believe the suspense is over, the camera then pans to the right and we are lead to a 'over the shoulder' and 'two-shot' which will make the audience jump as they finally witness what the suspense was building up for.

A high pitched bang sound plays when it pans to the ghost in the reflection.

 

Close up of reaction

Scene cuts away to another room which shows
the man jumping out of bed to investigate the scene.

Over the shoulder

During this shot, the high pitched sound continuous to play, also, when the man looks at the bathtub, a loud noise is instantly played, probably representing the sudden realization of what has just happened.

Two shot/Close up
A sudden change in music changes the atmosphere of the scene,
the sound becomes more calm and relaxing as the scene of suspense
finally comes to an end.

Cutaway - shot

The final seconds of the scene cuts away to the bathroom plughole, all sounds are gone except the breathing of the women, however these final moments tell the audience that the threat is over and so is the scene.

Introduction to the camera

 

Before filming we were introduced to the cameras that we would be using during our time filming.

We were told to only use the main functions of the camera such as zoom, focus and record as the other functions of the camera was not needed for the basic camera angles we were going to be shooting.


We were also told to not use the camera if it was raining as the water can affect the camera and if wet enough, it may become inoperative.


Also, we were taught how to correctly insert the battery into the video camera alongside the memory card which would then be placed into a video drive after filming where then the film could be used and edited. 


The teacher told us that before filming, the camera has to be in focus or the shots that we take will become blurry and barely usable unless we wanted to produce that effect.

Alongside the camera we were introduced to the tripod which would be used to help stable and keep in focus any camera shots.


We were taught how to set the tripod and that we must always keep the legs evenly a part.


We were then taught how to extend the legs of the tripod which is used to adjust how high we want to capture the shots.


In addition we were told that if the camera was not locked on properly on the tripod it would be at risk of falling of or was at risk to cause the camera to shake and wobble during filming which could ruin the shot if it was not the effect which wanted.


Furthermore, we were told that if we wanted to adjust the tripod we should remove the camera beforehand in case the tripod falls over which would damage the camera and maybe even break it.


We were taught how to remove the camera, this is done by making sure the lever is facing away from the camera before pressing the red button and sliding the camera of.

Introduction to sound

 

To emphasis the idea of suspense or fast pace action, every director would have to play with the idea of sound such as explosions which would add to the dramatic effects of action thrillers, or high pitched violin noises which will help create a suspenseful environment.

Soundtrack Pro

We were taught how to use soundtrack pro which we will use for our film editing.

  
Here is an example of the sounds we are able to use in soundtrack pro, there are a number of different types of sounds which once clicked on, different ways which the sound is heard will open up for us to pick. 

In my example I have clicked onto the explosions, here you can see there are many different ways the 'explosions' will sound.

The empty Grey box is where videos will be dragged into so we can watch the film play while adding sounds and sound effects to it so we can add sounds at the correct time and moment of a film.

Analysis of title sequence of "MEMENTO"

Thriller Sub-genres

The thriller genre can include the following sub-genres, which may include elements of other genres:

Conspiracy thriller: In which the hero confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she recognizes. The Chancellor Manuscript and The Aquitaine Progression by Robert Ludlum fall into this category, as do films such as Three Days of the Condor, Awake,Flightplan, Snake Eyes, Edge of Darkness, Absolute Power, Marathon Man, In the Line of Fire, Capricorn One, and JFK.

Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosses. Some examples of crime thrillers involving murderers include, Seven, A Perfect Murder, No Country for Old Men, Firewall, Hostage, Silence of the Lambs,Kiss the Girls and Copycat. Examples of crime thrillers involving heists or robberies includes The Asphalt Jungle, The Score, Rififi, Ocean's 11, Entrapment, The Killing and Reservoir Dogs.

Disaster thriller: In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster. Examples include Earthquake, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Poseidon, Knowing, Deep Impact and Twister.
Erotic thriller: In which it consists of erotica and thriller. It has become popular since the 1980s and the rise of VCR market penetration. The genre includes such films as Basic Instinct, Chloe, Color of Night, Dressed to Kill, Eyes Wide Shut, In the Cut and Lust, Caution.

Legal thriller: In which the lawyer-heroes/heroines confront enemies outside, as well as inside, the courtroom and are in danger of losing not only their cases but their lives. The Runaway Jury by John Grisham is a well known example of the type. Other examples include The Client, Fracture,A Time to Kill, Primal Fear, A Few Good Men, Presumed Innocent and The Juror.

Medical thriller: In which the hero/heroine are medical doctors/personnel working to solve an expanding medical problem. Robin Cook, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Crichton, and Gary Braver are well-known authors of this sub-genre. Nonfiction medical thrillers are also a subcategory, comprising works like The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Films such as Extreme Measures, The Experiment, Anatomy, Coma and Pathology are other examples of medical thrillers.

Mystery thriller: Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or involved in, a mystery. Examples include Flightplan, Mindhunters, The Number 23, Unforgettable, Shutter Island, Secret Window, Vertigo, Identity and Memento.

Political thriller: In which the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him. The success of Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel, The Day of the Jackal (1971) by Frederick Forsyth, and The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon established this sub-genre. Examples include, The Constant Gardener, Rendition, The Good Shepherd, Topaz, Syriana, The Interpreter, Proof of Life and The Ghost Writer.

Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. The Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt, and Strangers on a Train and David Lynch's bizarre and influential Blue Velvet are notable examples of the type, as are The Talented Mr. Ripley, "Orphan", House of 9, Phone Booth, Breakdown, The Collector, Panic Room, Don't Say A Word, Frailty, The Good Son, Dead Calm, Funny Games, and Misery.

Rape and Revenge films: Out of the sub-genres of exploitation film, this focuses more on the thriller elements such as suspense, tension, some action and fast-pacing rather than scares and the supernatural. Some famous rape and revenge films are The Last House on the Left, Irréversible,Thriller - A Cruel Picture, Baise-moi and I Spit on Your Grave.

Religious thriller: In which the plot is closely connected to religious objects, institutions and questions. While suspense stories have always shown a significant affinity for religion and philosophical issues (G. K. Chesterton's novel The Man Who Was Thursday has been called a "metaphysical thriller"; and Umberto Eco's novels The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum both display thriller characteristics), Dan Brown's 2003 best-seller The Da Vinci Code has led to a current boom in religiously oriented thrillers. Other examples include the film version of The Da Vinci Code, The Devil's Advocate, The Ninth Gate, Angel Heart, The Sin Eater, The Omega Code and Angels & Demons.

Supernatural thriller: In which the film brings in an otherworldly element mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists. Sometimes the hero and/or villain has some psychic ability. Examples include, Lady in the Water, Human Trace, Possession, Fallen, Frequency, In Dreams, Flatliners, Jacob's Ladder, The Skeleton Key, Signs, What Lies Beneath, Unbreakable, Rosemary's Baby, The Others, The Gift,The Dead Zone and the TV series Medium.

Techno thriller: A suspense film in which the manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples include The Thirteenth Floor; The Matrix; Jurassic Park; I, Robot; Eagle Eye; "Terminator"; Hackers; Futureworld; eXistenZ and Virtuosity.

Although most thrillers are formed in some combination of the above, there are some however that are formed with other genres, which commonly are the horror genre, spy genre and the action/adventure genre.

I have been mostly inspired by the sub-genre Crime Thriller as this creates an atmosphere where the audience is engaged to the film from the beginning. The movie Seven (Se7en) is a great example, the angles, the faded tones, the close-ups and quick cutting to intense music were all so unusual and disconcerting I was caught off guard. I immediately felt both mesmerized and at risk. And that was just during the opening credits. 

The situation is formulaic, but director David Fincher contrives a stylish, intentionally ugly look that transcends the pulp narrative.