What is a Thriller?

What is a Thriller?

Thriller is a type of film GENRE.

Genre is a class or category of artistic endeavour that has a particular form, content or technique.  

Genre allows an audience to know what type of film they will be seeing. For example, if the genre is comedy the audience will expect the film to make them laugh. Therefore the genre allows an audience to have some knowledge of the main ideas of the film before they see it, as all films in the same genre have similar themes. Knowing the genre of a film and marketing it as that genre is important to film institutions. For instance, a film production will not market a horror film to a young audience, as they know that the genre is not suitable for young children. Consequently, film institutions market their film based on its genre, as they can more easily appeal to different segments of the market. 

Although thriller is a genre in itself, there are many different types of thrillers. This is different from most other genres, because many thrillers look entirely different from each other. This contrasts with the Western genre for example, as the majority of Western films are very similar to each other. However, if you compare two thrillers you will find that they are very different. 

For example, Shutter Island directed by Martin Scorsese is very different to Limitless directed by Neil Burger. 

Shutter Island is physiological thriller about the U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels who is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding nearby. The film leaves the audience in suspense, with the question of whether Teddy Daniels is actually insane, or if he has been turned insane. The film builds suspense throughout, and shocks the audience with the use of flashbacks and music.



On the other hand, Limitless is techno-thriller about a mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100 percent of his brain abilities. A struggling writer obtains the pill and becomes a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with lots of dangers. In the end the writer ends up at the top, after beating all his enemies, but the question is raised at the end whether he is actually off the drug or whether it is just a front. 










However, although the plots of these films are entirely different as well as the use of camera in them, on a basic level they are similar. As a thriller, they both create suspense as well as an exciting,unsettling and intense atmosphere. 

A thriller is designed to keep the audience on the 'edge of their seats'. Usually tension arises, when the the main character of the film faces a mysterious or threatening situation. The menace is often unclear, adding to the suspense of the film as the audience are unsure of who to trust. A thriller often concludes with the main character winning and justice being served, but with a slight source of doubt on whether this is really the end.

Therefore, both the thrillers above follow this general idea of the thriller genre. So even though they seem entirely opposite they are bonded together by the basis of the word thriller. Even though the source of "thrill" is different in both films, both films create an intense atmosphere and suspense.

THRILLER: FIRST GROUP MEETING

THRILLER: FIRST GROUP MEETING

We settled on our groups, so began to go over our ideas for our opening sequence. 

After going through all our possible ideas, our group became stuck on two ideas. 

IDEA 1: (which is mine)

The opening sequence would involve numerous close up shots of a girl preparing to hang herself, including a diary which shows that she has attempted suicide many times before. The end would be a wide shot, to finally show a whole frame of the girl, and would be of her actually hanging. 

IDEA 2:

A man is washing his hands thoroughly in a bathroom to wash off metaphorical blood. He is politician/business man, and he then walks down a corridor, receives papers from his secretary which he signs, then continues down the corridor out of shot. The whole sequence would make the audience feel on edge, with the use of music, unfocused shots and disorienting shots from different angles. 

Our group became stuck on these two ideas for many reasons, as they both has positives and negatives.

IDEA 1:

PROS: 1.creates a more exciting sequence

      2.would be interesting to learn how to use a harness while         hanging someone in order to not actually hurt someone

      3.would allow for a wider variety of shots and use of               strange lighting

CONS: 1. gives slightly too much away for opening sequence

      2. issues with being achievable in one day

IDEA 2:

PROS: 1. more realistic for an opening sequence

      2. more achievable

      3. leaves room for detailed filming

CONS: 1. may be hard to convey a 'thrilling' aspect

      2. not very exciting for a opening sequence

Our group needs to choose one of these ideas in order to proceed with the planning process. We will weigh up each pro and con in order to make the best decision possible. 

Thriller Ideas

THRILLER IDEAS

IDEA 1 : 

whole film synopsis: 

A girl, around 16, is suffering from mental health issues. She is fixated upon the idea of how she can push the limit of near death experiences, without actually dying. The film would consist of numerous suicide attempts, and the audience would be kept in suspense over whether or not she would succeed in killing herself.

opening sequence:

The girl would be up a tree and the sequence would end just before she goes to jump off the tree. Low angle shots would emphasise the height of the tree, and extreme close ups would convey the nervous thrill of the girl. Also a shot of a notebook filled with her other near death experiences would be shown to give an idea of the plot. 

IDEA 2 : 

whole film synopsis:

A young innocent girl, around 13, befriends an older guy at her school. His friendship seems harmless at first, and she confides in him the issues of her home life, and he comforts her. However, he begins to lead her astray, into a world of drugs, violence and prostitution.  The girl becomes pregnant and falls into depression when she has to have an abortion. The film would be a series of flashbacks of her innocent life, her life with the boy and her current life in hospital (recovering from depression). 

opening sequence: 

To show her life before it all turned bad, the opening sequence would be of her in a fairground with her friends, but the end of the scene would see her walk off with the older boy. The main emphasis would be on light, and the colourful lighting during the fairground and the growing darkness as she walks away with the boy. 

IDEA 3: 

whole film synopsis: 

A family has just moved into an isolated rural village in which there is a mass murderer. The film focuses on how the family try to make friends with the village, and how the murderer is never known so everyone is suspicious of everyone. The film ends with the murderer killing the parents of the family, and then their daughter kills the murderer in a revenge attack. 

Opening sequence: 

The daughter has to walk home everyday through a corn field and the opening sequence would emphasise the isolation of their home. From filming from a low angle it would show that in the corn the girl was hard to see. By playing slow music and having the sounds of the grass rustling it would create a creepy atmosphere. 

IDEA 4:

whole film synopsis: 

The film is set in a convent, that follows a strict Religion. The convent is filled with a variety of people of all ages, and the film follows the highs and lows of living in a tight nit group of people, who all follow an extreme Religion. The main focus would be on the head of the convent discovering that two of the younger members are breaking the rule of abstinence, and the severe and twisted punishments the head installs upon them. 

Opening sequence: 

The opening sequence would show a boy entering the convent, through an initiation. The initiation would be to walk through a fire. The build up would be of lighting the fire, and music becoming louder and louder. Close up shots of the Convents logo would showcase that the boy was entering something different and peculiar. The screen would go dark before he steps into the flames but the thought of him stepping into it would be created.

Coursework definition

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Final Edit for Prelim Task

FINAL EDIT

We finally finished editing our piece and this is the finished result.



KILL BILL

KILL BILL - SOUND EDIT

Sound is key here in creating the atmosphere of this scene. 

In the first part of this scene, the  diegetic sound of the nails being hammered into the coffin is very effective. It is a steady repetitive sound that informs the audience that the men are really going to bury her alive. The sound is from Beatrix's point of view, so is louder then what it would normally be. This heightens the dramatic effect as the audience can sympathise with her the terrible sound of being sealed into a coffin, alive. There is a pause between each nail being driven in, which builds tension as the audience is waiting for the noise to begin again, and for her to become completely trapped. 

The non-diegetic sound of the Western music, is very melancholy and mournful, suggesting that her fate is sealed and that she won't live through this. The whistling is high and piercing and unsettles the reader as it contrasts from the low sound of the hammer hitting the nails.

The screen then goes black and all the audience can hear is Beatrix's breathing. This showcases Beatrix's fear as her breathing is out of control and punctuated by sobs. Following this, we hear scraping sounds, which implies that the coffin is being dragged. Even with the screen still black this message is passed across clearly by the sound. By not seeing the coffin being moved, only hearing it, it allows the audience to use their imagination, and picture for themselves the sight of the coffin being moved. A pause, and the sound of a man's groan and of rope being pulled through hands, implies that the men are now lowering the coffin into the ground. This meaning comes across easily, as the sound is very accurate and allows the audience to fully understand what is going on. All the while under this sound is Beatrix's breathing and crying, which makes the audience keep in mind that it is her whose in the coffin and that she is still very much alive. 

After the coffin has been lowered into the ground there is a pause. This creates so much tension, as the audience are waiting for the first sound of dirt to hit the coffin. Firstly, their is the sound of one pebble hitting the coffin and then a massive thump as a heap of dirt falls upon it. Again, the sound is from Beatrix's perspective so is very loud, which intensifies the situation. There is a pause between each shovel of dirt, and each time the sound of it hitting the coffin becomes quieter.  This implies that she is becoming fully submerged in the ground and can no longer hear the sounds above her. Also, her screams become more violent which shows her desperation and fear. 

Sound is used more in this scene than visuals to create meaning. Without actually seeing her being buried, the idea of it is clearly put across by only the use of sound. This produces a very unsettling atmosphere, and makes the audience feel part of the scene as they themselves have to use their imagination to visualise what is happening, therefore dragging them into the horrific scene. 

Editing Preliminary Task - Part Two

Editing Preliminary Task 

We carried on with editing our preliminary sequence until we had a finished film. 

We continued editing, by adding different shots. We cut to over the shoulder shots from over both characters shoulders and used extreme close ups to emphasise the characters emotions. We became better at cutting a shot during a movement, so our piece began to flow much more smoothly. 

However, we ran into a few difficulties during our editing process. Unfortunately, we realised that we had not filmed a shot to show the girl actor reaching for the projector button, only a shot of her stretching for the button. This mean't that when we came to editing the piece, we had to use a jump cut from the boy actor leaving to the girl stretching for the projector. This made the piece seem very ambiguous and disjointed, as the last shot didn't flow with the rest of the piece. We tried to include a second of black screen in between the boys exist and the shot of the girl, but this made the jump shot more apparent, so we left it how it was.

Due to this problem, we had to alter some of our other shots to make the last shot seem more fluid. We decided that if we zoomed in on the boy characters exit, and then cut back to the girl, it would imply that time had passed and the girl had already reached up above her. However, we didn't have a close up shot of the boys exit, so we had to do it on Final Cut Pro. This lead to the shot becoming unfocused and reduced the quality of the piece. 

Additionally, we had problem with sound as one of our shots had "cut" said before the end of the shot. This meant that we had to cut sound from another similar shot and added it to our chosen shot. This was complicated as we had to ensure the continuity of the sound, so we spent a while making sure it sounded correct within the piece. 

Moreover, we realised that we had made the boys exit very ambiguous as we had not filmed what he was clambering over. This would have been easily fixed by tilting the camera down a fraction, but we only realised the problem when we came to editing. We couldn't do anything about this, so we had to deal with the fact that the boys exit would have to be vague.

For all the problems we faced, I was quite happy with our final piece. It wasn't as good as I hoped, due to us missing some vital shots, but as our first go at filming and editing a piece I was really pleased.

I also learnt that next time we need to ensure that:

 1. Plan out all the shots we wanted to do

 2. Make sure we film movements, with editing shots together in mind

 3. Make sure there isn't empty space in a shot

 4. Wait until the shot has completely finished before saying "cut"

 5. Remember to re-focus the camera before each shot