Opening Sequence Timeline - The Others

Sub Genre Opening Sequence Analysis.

Psychological Thriller: The Talented Mr Ripley

Total Running Time: 2 minutes 12 seconds

Introduction to the character type: Black screen with slits through it so we only see part of the characters face (Matt Damon). His whole face is slowly revealed.

Introduction to theme tune: Slow classical music playing with a close up of the main characters face. Directed by Anthony Minghella.

Indication of place or location: a dim room, sat alone. Tracking shot of the main characters face to show the scenery around him.

Film Title: the Talented Mr Ripley

Details of cast and crew: Matt Damon, Gwenyth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymor Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini.

Enigma:  Why is his face hidden? What does the classical music represent? Why is he playing a piano at a wedding? What makes him so ‘talented’?

Information on genre:  At the very beginning, there is a dark dim room with little light which gives a mysterious atmosphere. The character looks as though he is in deep thought.

Sub genre conventions

Mise en scene:  The dim room creates a mysterious and questionable beginning. It makes the character look guilty of something.

Camera Techniques: The close up of the character makes the scene very personal and exposed.

Editing Techniques: The long shot duration gives us time to ask questions about the character that we are seeing. The slow revealing of the characters face adds to the curiosity and mystery of the man.

Sound and music: Non diagetic classical music adds to the atmosphere. It contrasts with the dark dim room with the shady looking man. The classical music continues as we go into the next scene, at a wedding.

Opening Title Sequence Timeline

Sub Thriller Genre Analysis - 'The Resident' and 'Safe House'

Sub Genre Analysis

Psychological Thriller – ‘The Resident’

Set in modern day New York, Dr. Juliet Bliss Devereau works in a New York hospital and has recently ended her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and is looking for an apartment for herself. She finds an old apartment building owned by Max who she thinks to be sweet and handsome and one night she misinterprets his signals and dates him. However she decides that it is too soon to have a love affair and she asks Max to leave her apartment. However she does not know that Max is a deranged man obsessed with her and he spies her from secret openings throughout the building and her apartment. Later on in the film, Max begins to drug Juliet every night and starts to sexually abuse her. Juliet has then found it hard to wake up in the morning to go to the hospital and decides to install a monitoring system in her apartment and later learns the truth about Max. As it is a psychological thriller, the resident has stereotypical psychological generic conventions.

The protagonist has a stereotypical representation as they are vulnerable and the victim throughout until the end of the film. Juliet in this film The Resident is the protagonist because she has become vulnerable as she is unaware that she is being targeted, drugged and sexually abused.

The Antagonist however is usually the character in the film that has power and control over the Protagonist at any given moment in the film. For example, Max is the Antagonist as he drugs Juliet in her sleep and then sexually abuses her without any control on her part making vulnerable.

Action Thriller – ‘Safe House’

                A young CIA agent Matt Weston is ordered to look after a most wanted CIA rogue agent Tobin Frost in a safe house to be put into questioning. Whilst Frost is being interrogated, the safe house in then attacked and they both find themselves on the run to find another safe house away from gunmen who also want the fugitive.

                The protagonist has some shifts in representations in this case. In Safe House, the protagonist is Matt because, even though he is a CIA agent, he is barely experienced in this work and finds himself in helpless situations on attack of the gunmen.

                The antagonist in the beginning of this film is Tobin as he is being chased by the CIA as he is a rogue but so the audience later on find out there were reasons for Frost to become a fugitive from the CIA. Now because of this shift again in representation, the antagonist almost also becomes the protagonist along with Matt as they are both being attacked by gunmen from other groups and even from the CIA.

Comparison of Psychological and Action Thrillers

                Psychological Thrillers and Action Thrillers have similarities and differences. In Psychological Thrillers, there is conflict between the main characters and is mental and emotional rather than physical. The Resident is an example of a Psychological Thriller because of its suspense of the two main characters (one the antagonist, the other the protagonist) as the antagonist demolishes the mind of the protagonist to question her own mental state. The main theme of this particular psychological thriller is mind because the antagonist becomes obsessed with the protagonist and quite obviously makes him show to have a mental unstability.

                In Action Thrillers, there is a lot of guns and explosives and an obvious antogonist. An example of an Action Thriller would be Safe House. This is because the are huge amount of gun use and also because the motive of the storyline of Safe House is secrets due to the fact the protagonist is exposed to CIA secrets and questions the reasons in him staying. The exposure of these secrets are because of the once antagonist, but after they were unleashed the antagonist, from the audiences point of view, becomes the protagonist against the CIA.

Sub Genre Psychological Thriller – Shutter Island & The Dark Knight

Shutter Island Analysis

Drama set in 1954, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess that escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding nearby. Being a psychological thriller shutter island uses the stereotypical generic conventions of a thriller movie, to emphasise the psychological aspect.

The protagonist is Teddy Daniels, throughout the film he is misconstrued as an investigator of this missing murderess and as time goes on the antagonist Dr. Cawley reveals an ulterior storyline that teddy is actually insane. Teddy is deceived throughout this film as we do not find out the real reason as to why he is actually on the island himself, and this is because he himself has a mental disorder. This shows he is extremely fallible.

He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he has been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors. The antagonist end up making Teddy feel isolated and confused after telling him the truth and the fact he is on the Island, never to leave it again. There is no particular antagonist.  We would class the whole of the team that teddy is working with as the antagonists, but then some would also class Teddy himself as an antagonist before we realise that he is in fact insane. Throughout the film Teddy is occasionally seen in ‘peril’ for example when he is violently attacked by one of the psycho patients. Teddy's investigating skills soon provide a good lead, but the hospital refuses to let access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. Teddy begins to doubt everything from his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

I feel that there isn’t actually a physical object when it comes to reflection and mirroring but I think that there is an illusion, like when teddy is told about the case, it is classed as an illusion and its not real, throughout shutter island there is not any mirroring or reflecting, and there also isn’t any theme of voyeurism in shutter island either.

The Dark Knight Analysis

            Set in 21^st century Gotham; The Dark Knight focuses on Batman’s struggle against criminal organisations that plague the city and endanger the people of Gotham. Lieutenant James Gordon and the new district attorney Harvey Dent work along side each other to rid the city of the criminals however; Batman’s help is soon needed when The Joker appears; a menacing, distressed psychopath wreaking havoc in Gotham. The film follows Batman’s ongoing personal struggle with the Joker as he attempts to bring peace back to the city.

The Protagonist in the film is Bruce Wayne; an American millionaire, industrialist and philanthropist who is most famously known by his alter ego, Batman. Throughout the film he is displayed from both angles. At the beginning of the movie, the two identities seem completely separate from each other, however as a love interest is put in danger; we see Batman’s duty to the city become more of a personal matter.

The obvious antagonist is the Joker. He is a quick thinking criminal mastermind, able to think up complex schemes quickly and is almost unstoppable, however batman is just as quick and is able to keep up with The Jokers elaborate plans. Throughout the movie the audience questions the jokers sanity, his fearlessness is terrifying and his intense psychopathic mentality entices the audience for the whole 153 minutes.

Comparison

Between the two thrillers they both have similar componants; both films have action scenes, the protagonist with an 'achilles heel' and the antagonist trying to bring down or catch out the protagonist.

In The Dark Knight and action thriller movies in general, there is an obvious antagonist. The movie usually bases its self on fight scenes, explosives and gun fights. The dark knight is an obvious action thriller due to its intense fighting and action scenes.

In comparison to The Dark Knight in shutter island the fight between the protagonist and antagonist is on an emotional and mental level. Despite having some action scenes the film is dependant on Teddy Daniels' mental state, as the film goes on Teddy starts to question his own sanity. It plays with the audeinces minds and builds suspence thoughtout the whole film.

Thriller Generic Convention - Taken 2008

Taken (2008)
The narrative –
A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and depends on his skills to save his 17 year old daughter who has been kidnapped whilst on a trip in Paris with her close friend.
The protagonist-
The protagonist of Taken would be the father of the kidnapped daughter Bryan Mills, he would be classed as the main character throughout the whole of the film. The film centres mainly on his ex CIA skills and how he can put them to use to investigate who has ‘taken’ his daughter and her whereabouts.
The title-
The title Taken, reflects his situation in which someone has ‘taken’ his daughter. This title is short and straight to the point; it gives a clear idea to what the film will be about.
The protagonist in peril-
The protagonist, Bryan Mills endangers himself throughout the whole duration of the film. He is constantly at risk and in danger as scenes move from fight to fight, on the search to find his daughter, Kim.
The Antagonist ensnares the protagonist-
As the film is almost solely based on Bryans struggle to find his daughter, there are multiple antagonists presenting him with different situations and obstacles to overcome. These struggles end when he finally meets the leader of the antagonists at the end.
The narrative presents ordinary situations in which extraordinary things happen-
Bryan Mills is an ordinary divorced father, to a girl name Kim. He is a protective father and is hesitant on letting his 17 year old daughter travel Europe with a friend without parental guidance. The extraordinary happens when she arrives in Europe, she is approached by a stereotypical French man who offers to share a taxi with them. The man gives their details to the antagonists to which the two girls are later kidnapped by.
Micro elements-
The micro elements throughout the film all combine together to create realism and suspense. There are many close ups, and short shot durations which add to the drama and keep the audience interested and pulled in. the short snappy sounds effects and repetitive music throughout the scenes where she is about to be taken adds to the thrilling aspect of what is about to the happen, this non diegetic sound is parallel to the fear she and the audience feels just before the antagonist comes in. the mise en scene includes the clothing, make up, setting etc, these all help to create an atmosphere and so the audience feels engaged with what’s going on.
Themes of identity-
During the film, Bryan’s daughters Kim is stripped from her identity as she is forced into a world of prostitution, drugs and violence. Also Bryan is forced to reincarnate his CIA agent identity, and use his set of skills learnt from this profession to find his beloved daughter.
Themes of seeing, reflection and mirroring-
There are themes of reflection within the film Taken. We can recognise this from the main character reflecting upon the situation and his broken relationship with his daughter on his journey to find her when kidnapped in a foreign country. 
The audience of a thriller is placed in the ambiguous position of voyeur-
The film focus' on kim ande her friends being sold and used as prostiures
A series of/ one important enigma(s) are/is set up in the opening sequence of the film-

Thriller Generic Conventions Analysis: Total Recall (2012)

Thriller Genre Conventions

Total Recall 2012

The Narrative: Its about stolen identity which leads to nurmerous confrontations and actions scene of fighting and realisation. Main character Doulgas Quaid played by Colin Ferrel, has a recurring dream when infact later on in the movie he realises it’s a memory of being a spy.

The Protagonist: Is Doulgas Quaid who previously was a spy but had his identity stolen. The protagonist is in peril when he is being in targeted also by spies. He has been targeted because he was not supposed to find out that the UFB has implanted him with false memories.

The Title: Total Recall implies a complete memory after Quaid gets his memory taken from him.

The Antagonist: Is UFB Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen who is played by Bryan Cranston. He implanted false memories into the mind of Carl Hauser who was the orignal name of Douglas Quaid who was previously a unknowing spy.

The narrative presents ordinary situations in which extraordinary things happen: Quaid comes home from work at the UFB (United Federation of Britain) and his wife of seven years, played by Kate Beckinsale, (who secretly has been monitoring him while working for ‘the antagonist’) attempts to kill him.

Micro Elements (Trailer): There is a fades in and fades out throughout the whole trailer, it creates a contrast in suspense during the action moments as a breather for the audience. There is also very specific lighting in a dimmed low key area in action scenes which grips the audiences attention as it comes across quite negative. There is also high angles used throughout the narrative as the main character showing he is vulnerable as he doesn't understand who he is. The sound during the action scenes is very amplified and fast paced which can express tension and drama in the narrative.

Themes of Identity: Throughout the narrative, the main character struggles to find his original identity as he has been given a new one unknowingly.

Themes of seeing, reflection and mirroring: At the very beginning of the trailer, Quaids wife comforts him after having a recurring nightmare, she is manipulating him because we find out later in the film that she has been monitoring him as she is on the antoginists side.

A series of/ one important enigma(s) are/ is set up in the opening sequence of the film: The audience might question why he entering a room where memories are stored. Shortly after we then question why the sudden violence has occured and also how he has suddenly got these amazing fighting skills and being attacked and chased all the time.
 

Preliminary Task Evaluation

1) How well do you think you created your preliminary?

We think our preliminary video was fun, entertaining and included all of the shot types that we needed to include. We all had different roles in the making of the preliminary for example, camera work, acting and editing. We worked well as a team and the making of our preliminary went smoothly.

2) Did you find it difficult to use the technology and what technology did you use?

We used a Canon video recorder and a tripod. We found it challenging to work the tripod as we could not figure out how to place the camera on it. After a few goes we got the hang of it and filming became easier. We also used the editing programme 'final cut pro' to edit our video; using final cut took some getting use to but it allowed us the experiment with different transitions, cuts and editing techniques.

3) Did you stick to the brief? How long was the preliminary?

We included all shots that were required for the preliminary. On our storyboard we also included some extra camera shots, however when we were filming/editing we realised that some of the extra shots we had chosen to include, did not work with the flow of the short video. We took out a cut-away and a long shot of the car. As a group we feel that taking out these clips was for the best. Our preliminary was 33 seconds long.

4) What did you learn from this task that you would use for your actual production?

In our preliminary, was unintentionally broke the 180 degree rule as the girl (jade) walks to her car. We realised this after when editing and have learnt the importance of the rule. We learnt the basics of using final cut pro which give us creative freedom when editing for the thriller video. We also learnt the importance of time keeping when filming as this is a vital part of the actual video and keeping a steady level tripod.

Preliminary Task Video

Storyboard for Preliminary Task