Monday 16 December 2013

What would Hitchcock do?

Top 5 Thrillers

Top 5 Thrillers

Bellow is list of the Top 5 Thrillers which appears on IMDb's official website. From this I was able to understand certain things about the Thriller Genre and also what these things tell me about the audiences Thriller's reach and what conventions make a popular Thriller.

5. Goodfellas (1990)
4. Inception (2010)












3. Waar (2013)












2. Pulp Fiction (1994)

1. The Dark Knight (2008)


All of these films were released in the 1990's or later. This tells me that currently Thriller genre is reasonably popular. Furthermore, I am also told by this that the genre is still evolving and it's very difficult to outline a specific set of conventions. All of these films are very diverse however all of them have certain psychological aspects to them which play with the viewers minds. In addition to this all of the films have a much more mature cast as well as a mature storyline (a clear example of this is the dark nature of the 2008 bBatman film The Dark Knight' which was far removed to the more colourful Batman films preceding this).

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Death Proof

Death Proof


Death Proof was a 2007 action Thriller directed by Quentin Tarantino. Although much more extravagant than something I would be prepared to produce the film contains similar ideas such as following and intrusion of privacy as well as various psychological aspects. The film follows two stories of two sets of girls both who are attacked by a villain with a 'death proof' car. The reason this film inspires me so much is it illustrates the idea of revenge and also shows 'the bad guy doesn't always win' whilst still showing downfalls of the protagonists.

What does this film suggest about Thrillers?
  • Wide range of victims with one major antagonist
  • Tension building
  • Isolation
  • Females as victims
  • Action
From this film I am most inspired by the idea of dramatic irony; the fact that the audience has more insight about that villain than his victims creates a feeling of frustration within the audience. This places the viewer within the film. Furthermore I like the twist on conventions and how african-american black women defeat the villain who is a grown white man giving power to the minorities. 

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Thriller - Logo changes

Initially my partner and I intended on creating a drama film. As we continued to brainstorm we noticed that we began to create a psychodrama which later evolved into something which fitted more conventions of a psychological thriller. However, at the same time, many aspects of our film didn't fit the conventions of a thriller. Some of the conventions of a thriller are:

  • Anticipation
  • Uncertainty
  • Conflict
  • Possibility of a non-chronoligcal time frame
  • Urban Setting
  • Fast paced editing
As this theme was much darker we also went on to change the colour scheme of our logo.


We felt using a much darker colour scheme as well as a shadow introduced the idea of dark themes as well as a feeling of mystery. These are two themes which we wished to be mirrored throughout our title sequence.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Found


After some brainstorming me and my partner decided that without a doubt our film would come under the drama genre. Following this we decided we wanted something deep and gritty. After thinking about a few ideas we noticed a common theme throughout and this was the invasion of peoples privacy and security. It would interest us to create a title sequence that involved someone being followed or possibly even having their identity stolen.

This lead us to create our first idea 'Found'. The basic story line would involve someone being constantly stalked by someone; this would in turn lead to them attempting to find their own stalker and the methods they go through to track them down and work out how they know where she is.

Something that appeared in our brainstorm was the idea of location settings on a phone which allowed us to create a logo as well as a method for the stalker. We feel this is a strong idea as it has the potential to appeal to a wide range of audiences, contains current themes and also from a media students perspective creates lots of interesting ideas for credits and titles. 

Monday 2 December 2013

Drama

My favorite Dramas.

Cloud Atlas

File:Cloud Atlas Poster.jpg


Cloud Atlas is an 'epic drama' released in 2012. It is based on the 2004 novel with the same name and at a budget of $102 million is one of the most expensive independent dramas to be produced. The film features different time periods all linking to there own drama 'sub genre'. The characters within each time period have their own story line but are indirectly liked to characters in other times. 

What do I like about this film?

  • The film is very original yet somehow manages to feel familiar and draws some similarities with other drama films such as Love Actually.
  • The film explores different sub-genres and really turns the conventions of a drama film on its head. 
  • The films score doesn't change throughout even though the audience is being presented with a range of very different and contrasting images.
What can I take from this film?
  • Visual imagery is important. A bland scene and set will give  'bland' feeling to the viewer.
  • There are multiple sub-genres to be explored.
  • Costume, hair and make-up all contribute to the realism. 
Overall view

This film is useful to explore sub-genres within Drama. However, the extremely large budget is something I won't personally be bale to mirror. Furthermore the complex story line is something I wouldn't be able to fit into one individual title sequence. After looking at this film, I do have a greater respect for visual imagery and feel that it's vital to give a correct representation of Mise En Scene as this does impact the view of the film that the audience receives. 


Sunday 1 December 2013

Plots

Amelia and I brainstormed some ideas for the film that our opening title sequence will feature around.