An analisis of a thriller opening. The Day after Tomorrow

Camera
The first shot we see is a pan over icy water. Setting the scene and location.
Establishing shot after the pan, helps to set the scene more, which then revolves around a small camp.
Close up of an American flag, which then pans down to show to men from behind.
Mid close up, coming from the side, of both men. They are dressed in large coats.
One man (Jason) is appears to be younger than the other. The older man is operating something, then Jason steps up to do the same, hinting that he is an apprentice of the older man, or is being taught by him.
Mid close up of older man's hands as he picks up a silver tube, emphasising the importance of the tube as a prop.
Third man is introduced inside a small room, with a mid close up, he is using some form of scientific microscope instrument, hinting that the men are scientists.
Close up of a drill spinning and breaking the ice, followed by a mid close up of the ice cracking, hinting that the two re connected. A tracking shot, which then turns in to a pan/rotate up follows the crack as it spreads across the ice, towards Jason.
Brief close up of Jason's face, which quickly cuts to his hands as the drill suddenly shoots down.
Close up of Jason as he looks over his shoulder.
Mid long, high angled shot if Jason and cracking ice, making him look weak and venerable.
Reaction shot of third man, and older man in single mid close up.
Tracking rotate as the third man steps towards the door.
Over the shoulder shot (from third man) of Jason.
Reaction shot of third man.
A quick mid long shot of Jason as the ice breaks, which quickly cuts to a crane long shot of whole camp.
High angled mid shot as the older man and the third man try to save Jason, which becomes steeper and pans forward in to a birds-eye view of a huge hole in the ice.
Close up of third mans feet as he jumps over the hole.
Mid shot from the side of third man jumping.
Close up of his feet as third man lands.
(shot reverse shot)-Over the shoulder reaction shot from third man of older man.
(srs)-Reaction shot of third man.
(srs)-Reaction shot of older man.
Pan over hole in to a birds-eye vies of third man.
Long shot of third man hanging and ice collapsing.
Over the low angled shoulder from third man of the other two.


Editing
Simple black and white text is overlaid as the titles are displayed during the ice pan.
Continuity, slow paced at first, but becomes much faster when the ice starts to break.
Cuts are used to make it flow easily.


Sound

Before any visuals (excluding text) is shown, a faint tune, of a choir singing with classical string instruments is heard in the background. This gives of a mysterious atmosphere.
The ice cracking is slightly exaggerated to emphasis it more.

The Day After Tomorrow is a disaster thriller and it has many conventions of one, firstly, a disaster thriller revolves around a disaster, either natural or man made, during the opening five minutes it this becomes and obvious theme as the men nearly die due to collapsing ice. Another convention supported by this film is the use of continuity editing, that uses cuts and gains pace throughout the scene. This is often use because it builds suspense and grips the viewer while not confusing them with rapid scene changes or disorientating jump cuts.
Also, disaster thrillers usually start with some sort of scientific tests, which we can assume is happening here due to the scientific equipment, such as the microscope. The tests are usually being carried out in a far,m distant place, usually a very harsh environment. In The Day After Tomorrow the opening scene is set in an icy area, presumably near the north or south pole, this is used to give a feel of isolation, and, as those conducting the tests often discover a warning of the natural disaster, it stops them from warning the rest of the world.
The opening credits of thrillers usually try to make as much tension as possible, using dramatic text and colour types, however, in The Day After Tomorrow the text is simple, and the text colour black or white. The music though, ties back to the usual conventions as the choir/classical string style music is strange, mysterious and quickly builds as the scene progresses. Thrillers also often like to identify the heroes and the 'red shirts' (a term that means characters that are only there to die so as to build tension and present a sense of the danger the protagonists are in in the viewer) quickly, usually by placing the 'red shirts' in mortal peril and having a hero save the day, we see this in the opening of The Day After Tomorrow, as one man, Jason, almost falls to his death while the other two have to save him. Thrillers also use age as a guide to who the heroes are, in a disaster thrillers, the youngest scientist in a project is usually the least experienced and the first to go, The Day After Tomorrow supports this as Jason, who appears to be the youngest, is the first to be placed in danger.
The Day After Tomorrow seems to support this, as all the characters we meet in the opening sequence are obviously scientists. Another thing about most disaster thriller heroes is that they tend to be American, which we can easily see in this opening as it features an American flag, which is emphasised with a close up of it.

David Fincher - Thriller Director

David Fincher is a successful thriller director, he has directed films such as Se7en, Fight Club, The Game and Panic Room. When he was 18 years old he went to work for Korty Films where he worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981 - 1983 however left there to direct his own television adverts and music videos. Fincher then made it to directing films by founding Propaganda in 1987. 


Fincher has some trade marks that he uses in his thriller films such as a single inserted frame, for example in Fight Club he used several single frames that flashed on the screen in the middle of a scene. He also uses he characters as silhouettes during a scene in the shadows so you cannot make out their faces such as Kevin Spacey in Se7en. Fincher's films often end in suicide whether it be attempted or successful. They also often have green or blue tinted colour temperature and low key lighting. And his most used shots are low angles and wide shots.


Here is a list of all the films David Fincher has directed so far in his career;
- Alien 3 
- Se7en
- The Game
- Fight Club
- Panic Room
- Zodiac
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Social Network
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

"People will say, 'There are a million ways to shoot a scene,' but I don't think so. I think there're two, maybe. And the other one is wrong." - David Fincher.

Analysis of Thriller - After Life

After.Life

After Life is a psychological and supernatural thriller. The name suggests a supernatural however while watching the film there are 'mind tricks' involved as you do not know whether the girl is alive or dead or in the afterlife.

Conventions

For psychological

-Anna wakes up and is being told she is dead however she is breathing and talking therefore we do not know the truth about her identity.

-Anna has the trauma of her life and the car crash which she still has nightmares about.

-She is not sure if she is real or not. 

For supernatural

-The antagonist is said to have an ability to see people between life and death.

-There is a plot twist at the end where we do not know if this is true or if he is the one killing them.

Mise-en-scene

Props - The first scene the antagonist only has four items, a flower which he puts on the dead man's suit, and a needle, medicine, and a camera on a table. The next scene there are very little props as they are in a apartment where the only prop used is a cigarette. The scene changes again to a school where there is are chicks in a class room which also makes diegetic sound. As this is parallel editing the scene flicks from Anna to Mr Hutton. Anna has props such as paper, pen and also a pot of pills and Mr Hutton has a coffin and a board showing his profession.

Costume - Anna - a red under garment. The colour red was a good colour to choose as it stands out from the rest of the white apartment and is also the colour associated with death and blood. She later has on working clothes of a school teacher of dull colours.

Paul - wears a suit for work which also has dull colours apart from a blue tie which stands out showing he has importance in the film.

Mr Hutton - He is also wearing a suit with all the colours different shades of grey showing his relation with death.

Body Language - Mr Hutton also stands up straight with pride as if he were better then others. Paul is more slouched however is trying to reach out to Anna by putting a hand on the glass she is showering behind. Anna also stands up straight however more with tensions then pride however there are times when she seems to each up, this is when she slouches against her desk.

Editing

-The opening of this thriller uses parallel editing, showing the protagonist and the antagonist in their lives before they have met each other. 

-The main transition used is a cut. When the filming goes from the antagonist to the credits there is a flash dissolve to a white screen using a flash from a camera as a link. The same transition is used to go back to the storyline.

-The credits are red writing on a white background where they dissolve slowly in and out of focus. 

-A dissolve is used each time the filming goes to a different location. Making the change in location important.

Camera work 

The different distances of the camera goes from one extreme to the other, this makes you anticipate as you feel someone bad is about to happen, it also makes you disorientated. The different angles of the shots lets you see who is the important character in the scene for example at the very beginning of the film there is a low angle shot of the antagonist and a high angle shot of a dead man who he is talking to. This shows that the antagonist has the power in this situation has control on the man in the coffin. In a lot of the shots there is a small amount of movement that could be described as hand held however it is too smooth and precise to be. The movement seems to follow the movement of a character, this also makes it disorientating and makes you feel as if you are really there watching them. They also use some slow zooms. Here is a list of some of the shots in sequence;

Cantered low angle

extreme close up

close up high angle

Pan of body

birds eye view close up, zooming out moving to side

...

establishing shot

over the shoulder

extreme close up

slow zoom

hand held

extreme close up

establishing

long shot 

over the shoulder

...

tracking 

extreme long shot

long shot

extreme long shot 

close up 

extreme long shot

close up 

Sound

At first there is no soundtrack which makes the scene creepy as the only sounds are diegetic such as foot steps, water dripping and a sudden camera flash is well as speech. After the camera flash the sound track begins with the credits. The sound track is mainly played by the piano in a slow minor key which makes it mysterious, upsetting and very eerie. There is also heavy breathing and cymbals this adds to the feel of the music. The music then turns quiet however is still played over the footage and non-diegetic sound for a little while until it stops at the change of location. When the soundtrack starts again it is very quiet however builds in volume for a few minutes until it then stops to the sound of echoing footsteps and lights fuzzing then sparking out.

Filming Analysis

Good Points 

• We had our actresses assigned long before our filming began
• We didn't have to retake many shots because most were successful the first time.
• We had all props close at hand from planning.
• Our actresses had previous experience in amateur dramatics so they were confident.
• We worked well within our group and took on different roles to best fit our personal skills.
• We already had two locations available which were perfect for our scenes.
• Our two locations were easily acssessable as they were owned by members of the group.
• We had effective costume and make up.
• We got all the shots we needed from the shot list.

 Bad Points

• The actress who played Jade got very cold, her arm actually going numb due to the unheated location used for the hideout scene.
• We had to wait for it to get dark before we could film the kitchen scene, to avoid continuity errors.
• Some of the shots in the hideout scene were too dark and had to be manually lit with a torch or edited in Final cut to make them visible.

Target Audience

The target audience for Disconnected would be teenagers and young adults. This is because conventionally thrillers are aimed at this age range. Younger children may find scenes disturbing.we are going to appeal to our target audience through the micro elements.

Focus test.

Certificate Rating

Our chosen certificate for Disconnected is a 12 because it conforms to the criteria of a 12 film from BBFC, which include:

Discrimination: Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.

Drugs: Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail.

Horror:Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained.

Imitable behaviour: Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free.  Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language: Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language must be infrequent.

Nudity: Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet.

Sex: Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme: Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.

Violence:Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.

Story board

How we'll get high marks.

-Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate:
During the house scenes, we have already thought about this, as we have planed to have a few shots of centering around the phone. Because we want the audience's focus to be on the phone, the only prop in the for ground ill be the phone. During most of these shots we will also have the mother in the background, so as to communicate how oblivious she is to the phone call.

During the kidnapper's hideout near all of our shots will be close ups, or extreme close ups, of Jade (Holly), this means that the rest of the room is generally hidden from audience view.

-Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate:
This one may be a slight problem, as a lot of our shots will be close ups/mid close ups of Jade. However, although the shots in the house are close ups of the phone, they are also long shots of the mother, also, because the shot distances have to be appropriate, and most of the time the most appropriate shot for our scenes would be close ups, then we still fit the criteria.

-Shooting material appropriate for the task set:
Seeing as we will only film previously planned material, which is all task appropriate, we will be able to avoid inappropriate content.

-Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting objects and setting:
As said in the first point, during the home scenes, we will make the phone the key prop, so will dominate most scenes.

The walls of the house are yellow, which communicates a happy and positive atmosphere, which would contrast the greys of the hideout. The clothes of the mother also give off a homely feel as she will be wearing a red apron, blue jeans and a light green jumper., all these articles of clothing and colours are friendly, and the apron gives off that she's stero typical mother.

Jade will wear ripped leggins and a white top. The white top shows her innocence.

Font Research

Test Shots

 

The video above shows different shots, transitions and sound that we may use for our thriller opening. 

When editing the shots together we need to make sure the black screens inbetween shots are shorter then the film it self and so they keep the interest of the viewer withour being boring. In this video we have used a 'Fade in, Fade out Dissolve' for all transition between black screens, on the video this gets very repeatative however as there are going to be less shots in our opening we are going to keep the 'Fade in, Fade out Dissolve'

We tried different angles for the shots as we could not decide which would look the best, after watching through the test shots we have decided on which angles and distances we now want. For example, an extreme close up of Jades eye instead of a close up. a birds eye view shot of Jade lying down and with the phone next to her instead of a a straight angle from the floor. We also tried two panning shots, one using a tripod and the other hand held we decided to go for the use of a tripod.

The sound in this video is of 'Audio Track 33' which is of ambient sound, it was not long enough to fit to the end, therefore we had to have another to the end, however it does not truly fit as it goes quieter after building up the tension. In our opening we will either have a different sound or we will cut it so that the tension stays the same. 

In our thriller opening the kidnapping scene will be darker and Jade will be wearing torn and muddy clothes.

Analysis of Production company & Film comparison

For our Thriller Project the production company that would distribute our film would be 'Lions Gate Entertainment' as they do a range of films from comedy, such as 'Dogma' to horrors like 'The Descent' and thrillers like 'Crank' and 'Gamer'.
Because Lions Gate Entertainment has a wide audience from producing various different genres in film, this would come to our advantage as people will trust Lions Gate with previous films they've enjoyed.

Our Thriller opening is similar to the film 'Taken' which was produced by 'EuropaCorp' in 2008.
 'Taken' is about a former spy who relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been forced into the slave trade.
Our film is similar to this film because a girl has gotten kidnapped and all the mother has left is a voice mail, and struggles to find her daughter with barely any help from the detectives, and in 'Taken' the daughter is kidnapped and her father takes matters into his own hands to find her.

Call Sheet

Location
- Kayla's house, Isleham.
-Alistair's pig sty, Isleham.

Props
- Mobile Phone
- House phone
- Rope
- Washing up plates

Kit
-Camera
-Tripod

When to Film

 

Film the kidnapping scene on a Tuesday.

Film the kitchen/house scene on a Wednesday.

Why Thrillers Thrive

The public visits the cinema to see life reflected on the screen, however not real life which we experience but life with a difference or 'thrills'. we feel that we need these 'shake-ups' to make life iinteresting, but not experiencing them first hand, so we experience them artificially, so that we feel safe and secure. although we feel involved in the experience, and feel the characters 'thrills', in a well made film we not only spectate it we participate in it.
the audience thrives on thrills, the cinema thrives on the audience, the director thrives onthe cinema and everybody is happy.
however horror films are very different to thrillers. thrillers are wholehearted and exciting, the authentic thriller will live and thrive and the horrow film will die.

Action and Crime Thrillers

Sonic mood board

Why thrillers thrive

Summary of 'why thrillers thrive' article.

The majority of people who go to the cinema to see thrillers, don't go to spectate the film but to participate in the film while watching and that's the main way people can be filled with adrenaline, without having to be put in a dangerous situation themselves. A thriller is designed to thrill people by showing the audience something scary like a plane crashing from the safety of their seats fully knowing they're secure. Blackouts can be used to unnerve the audience when something dangerous or worrying has just occurred and thrillers can convince the audience there's danger with good camera shots and editing. I feel like the article was a little bit bias when talking about horrors when compared to thrillers, as it stated that thrillers ''will live and thrive''whereas horrors ''will die'' because the public at the time the article was written had rising opinions against horrors being created and the person who wrote the article said that the public is ''healthy-minded'' making that a reason why they feel horrors were ''bound to fail'' but i don't feel that is a supported enough reason against horror films, and their prediction that horrors would fail was quite wrong as today horrors are a big section in the film industry. But despite the bias view on horrors and thrillers, the article mentioned that the main difference between horrors and thrillers, put simply, is that thrillers are created to excite the audience whereas horrors are designed to scare the audience.

Script

 Jade: (Whispering) please pick up, please please pick up

Mother: (voicemail Service) Hey you've reached the Camden Residence, sorry none of us can reach the phone at the moment
Jade: (voice mail Service) MUM!
Mother: (voice mail service) guys shhh.. im trying to record the voicemail, oh i will just do it later, (hastily) please leave your message after the tone... GUYS!
Voicemail service: BEEP

Jade: Mum, help me, please, im scared, please mum help me, you need to tell someone, im in a barn, i dont know where, theres two men, im so scared, mum, i love y-

Potential Risks and Hazards

Why "Thrillers" Thrive

We, as people, like to experience thrills, some would try things like B.A.S.E jumping or skydiving, but most try the experience it in the cinema. Thrillers show us dangers, that in real life would terrify us greatly. People rarely get to experience the sort of things they see in thrillers for real, and rarely walk away after wards if they do, so for a well made film, people don't watch it as much as experience it as the camera work often places the audience in the danger zone. The other part of a thrill is where the character, who has won our sympathy, is in danger, like when Charlie drowns in Lost.
Neither of these can be as fully achieved on stage as they can on screen with the simple fact that the cinema can do more. On stage you can only hint at danger, as for the danger to be seen by the audience it would have to be real, while the screen has many more tricks up it's sleeve, such as CGI and green screen.
Thrillers and horrors are two different things, both place characters in danger, but horrors do it so much more violently, not trying to thrill the audience as much as terrify them, the problem with this being that, although we like to be scared a little, most healthy minded people don't want to be completely terrified, so most horrors need to tone it down a tad, which removes some of the scary and exciting elements, where as a thriller doesn't. As a thriller can go all out they will always survive longer than horrors.

Location Photographs

Kitchen
The kitchen location is where the mother will be washing up and singing, contrasting with the kidnapping scene where the girl will be. Here are some photos from our found location...

 

 Kidnapper's place

This is the location where the girl is being held. It's darker and less inviting than the kitchen. This are some images from the location we'll use (we'll move some of the stuff out of the way).

Shot list.

 BARN. KITCHEN. EDITING.
Compose
1. Black screen
2. Black screen with added pale blue coloured text (Tiger Door productions)

3. CU Jade's muddy bare feet

4. Black screen, with text (directed, edited and produced by....)

5. CU knees

6. Black screen, with text (Holly playing Jade)

7. CU of bound hands

8. Black screen with text (Michaela's mum)

9. CU of the corner of her mouth

10. Black screen with text (balaclava actors)

11. CU of eye

12. Final Black screen

13. Mid-long shot of girl on floor

14. Mid shot of torso, phone in shot next to face ("pickup, pickup")

15. Mid Long shot of kitchen, mother at sink washing up, outside of house
16. Long shot of kitchen, mother at sink washing up, inside, turns radio up
17. Match on action radio turn up

18. Mid shot torso of girl, phone in shot, distressed

19. Long shot kitchen from hallway, phone ringing, mother singing

20. CU of the phone lighting up as it is ringing and shot of it beeping and voice mail service

21. Over the shoulder shot of girl on the floor, with the phone in view 

22. Mid close up of girl from the front, leaving a voice mail.

23. Half way through the voice mail message, cuts to kitchen CU of phone.

24. Over the shoulder shot of Jade looking at kidnappers in doorway.

25. CU tracking shot of kidnappers feet moving towards mobile phone.

26. CU of kidnapper's foot crushing the mobile phone.

27. Black screen with title 'Disconnected'

Thriller Pitch Feedback

- No need for a gun, effect can be acheived with the use of camera work.
- Refrain from cutting between scenes as much.
- Have the music continuous over the parallel scenes.
- Shoot from floor level.

Thriller Pitch - Disconnected

Disconnected is a crime thriller film, the story line follows a daughter who has been kidnapped by two men and a mothers struggle to find her child, with the seemingly useless help of the detectives.

Camerawork
The scene opens with a black screen with titles, with low bass tones with the sound effect of a house phone ringing. The title sequence fades in and out of close up shots of the girl, Jade, on the floor tied up in a dirty empty barn. The girl is lying on the floor with a battered phone close to her face. The scene then cuts to a shot of the girls mother in a clean colorful kitchen, washing the dishes with her back to the camera. It cuts back to the girl in the barn, who is trying to call her mother and is whispering to herself 'pick up, pick up, pick up' and a close up of her fingers crossed. Back in the kitchen the house phone is ringing but it's clear the mother can't hear as she's singing to Bob Marley on the radio, and the audience can hear the voice mail that the girl is leaving her mother. The voice mail cuts short when one of the kidnappers walks into the shot of the girl on the floor and crushes the phone while the girl is halfway through saying 'i love you'. The screen quickly goes black when the boot crushes the phone and the lyrics in the song 'everything little thing is gonna be alright' echoes and then the sound effect of a disconnected phone service.

Location:
The kidnappers are based in an abandoned barn, and the mothers scene is held in a family home kitchen.

Costumes/Makeup:
Jade:
-bruised and bloody face and body, bags under her eyes to suggest she hasn't had much sleep.
- her clothes will be ripped and stained.
-no shoes
 -white top and black leggings.

Mother:
-yellow rubber gloves.
-apron
-glasses
-slippers

Kidnappers:
-balaclavas
-black clothing
-big, black boots.

Props:
-house phone

-mobile phone
-hand gun

-rope
-washing up & dishes
-radio

Soundtrack:
the soundtrack throughout the opening will be of low bass tones except in the Mothers kitchen where diagetic music is playing (bob marley - three little birds). sound effects include: phones ringing, radio static and disconnected phone service.

Analysis of the use of sound in different thriller openings

1. Memento Opening:
the title sequence in Memento is made up of stringed instruments, such as violins to build up tension towards the opening scene. The slow pace of the music brings out the very tragic and mournful tones in the minor key, the music gives the feel like soemthing traumatic has happened. As the opening progresses the music supports the scene smoothly with bass and timely beats.
The sound effects include: The Polaroid picture being shaken, the camera taking the photo, the gun being shot and loaded, the sound of the blood mving up the wall, things that have fallen to the floor (such as glasses) moving backwards, a man shouting, the narrative of Leneard speaking, the movement of the key in his hand, the picture sliding off the countertop, the man chewing gum, the door opening, background dialogue and distant cars.

2.

Our Thriller Film Plot

Our Thriller conforms to the subgenre of Crime thriller.
Our film opening starts with an eerie, slow and mournful soundtrack, there is a black screen with titles, which cuts quickly between that and shots of a girl bound with ropes, she is dirty and slumped against a shed wall, she looks distressed. Then the scene is of a houseproud woman cleaning her kitchen, doing the washing up, the music is happy and cheerful. then her phone rings, however she does not hear it straight away, there is then parralell editing with both the mother getting on with the washing up and the the girl (her daughter) in distress with loose  ropes on her in the shed with a phone to her ear, she is whispering, begging her mother to pick up the phone, there is no one else in the room. by the time the mother eventually hears the phone the phone has gone to voicemail and it stops ringing, so she goes back to the cleaning. shot of the girl scared when the voicemail comes on. then there is a shot of the phone, with the voicemail coming from it, with the mother in the background, however she cannot hear the phone. the shots cut between the mother washing up and the girl in distress.

Use of sound in our own opening sequence

In the opening to our thriller film we plan to use a variety of both diagetic and non diajetic sound effects as well as soundtracks.
The possible sound effects we will need include:
- a phone ringing,
- a disconnected phone tone,
- distant birds ,
- gun sound effects,
- voice mail,
The sound tracks we will use are:
- An eerie, mournful and slow sound track at the beginning of the sequence, behind the titles and shots of the girl suffering,
- An upbeat and cheery peice of music for the scene where the oblivious mother is cleaning in the kitchen,
- Followed by a very contrasted soundtrack to accompany the traumatic scene with the girl and the two men after she leaves a message for her mother.

Thriller Opening Sequence Ideas, Alistair.

Insert name here- A scientist, pouring chemicals, have shorts of liquid dripping down, on to the camera. Basically he's trying to find a cure for something, but ends up making a chemical that makes people go insane. The whole sequence will be him, in a lab, mixing chemicals and doing tests and things like that. At some point throughout he'll answer a call on his mobile.

PDS-(psychological) follows a survivor of a terrorist attack at an airport in which his brother was killed. He is needed to find the identity of the terrorists, but suffers from post dramatic stress and selective amnesia (he's blanked parts of the attack). The opening sequence  will be him, in a small room, sitting behind a table, alone. There would be a couple of flashbacks showing him and his brother in an airport, and people in balaclavas come in. 

Thriller Opening Secquence ideas

Idea 1:
A woman is at home in her kitchen making soup, there is then a close up of a bottle of blue liquid labled, toxic, she pours it into the soup. the scene then cuts to when her husband gets home and serves himself some of the soup, the wife peers around the door to spy on him eating the soup. the opening ends with him dead on the kitchen floor. the wife then rings the police but doesnt say anything on the line, before fleeing the house.

Idea 2:
The scene starts with a normal family, a wife and two children, eating dinner around a table, the wife is clearly worried, but tries to act normal to the children, after the meal is finished we see her peering ut the window, and clutching her phone, the scene ends with a shot of the missing husbands phone in a drain on a street with loads of missed calls from 'The Mrs'

Thriller Opening Sequence Ideas

Idea 1
- A Runaway - A girl runs away from home and finds mysterious gypsies on the outskirts of the city. There would be hand held camera running through the town center and through alley ways, with fast cuts back to her family and home showing her mother and the police in panic. This would be a Action Thriller as she is going on a journey to a new and scary life with gypsies. The music would be mainly a loud drum bass, building up tension.

Idea 2
- Skitsofrenia - A girl would be talking to her friend having a normal conversation, when someone else comes up and asks her who she is talking to, when she looks back around her friend is gone/disappeared in to thin air. Her friend then gets her to do dangerous and stupid things but her friend was never really there, she had died five years ago. This would be a psychological thriller as it is all in the mind and the flaw is that she is seeing her past friend.

thriller opening ideas

1. a girl is captured by two men wearing black masks over there faces, the girl is taken to a shed/barn and they force her to call her mother saying she's fine and shes just staying at her friends house. her mum then calls her friends mum who tells her that she isnt there.

 2. a postman discovers a door is open and inside the house is dead body in the hallway, and an investigation is launched. 

Analysis of previous students thriller openings

'Out of the loop' Thriller opening by: P1-03

Positive comments:
-well used mise-en-scene. Appropriate use of costumes, classic looking suit. Silver locked briefcase adds a serious atmosphere. appropraite use of location, grand arcade.
-The titles that overlay are quite appropriate for the clip, digital looking.
-match on action is used frequently and well.
-use of fast forwarding very effective.
-steady shots held when appropriate.
- use of hand held camera really effective.
really appropriate soundtrack and effects.

Criticism:
-Use of scope view effective, but it doesn't match to the prop gun used as there's o scope on the gun.
-the gun prop is brightly coloured becuase it's a toy gun and makes the opening appear a little less serious and in-effective.
-Laughter is heard while filming the character walking throught the grand arcade, ruins the atmosphere.

Marking Criteria

Level 3: (36-47 marks)
There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:
-Holding a shot steady where appropriate.
-Framing a shot including and excluding elements as appropriate
-Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.
-Shooting material appropriate to the task set.
-Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, props and setting.
-Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.
-Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.
-Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
-Using titles appropriately.

Level 4: (48-60 marks)
There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
-Holding a shot steady where appropriate.
-Framing a shot including and excluding elements as appropriate
-Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.
-Shooting material appropriate to the task set.
-Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, props and setting.
-Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.
-Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.
-Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
-Using titles appropriately.

Crime Thriller Conventions for Fargo.

Conventions included:
-Events in the film revolve around a crime.
-The main character is an ordinary man in extra-ordinary situation.
-Following the criminals story rather than the 'good guys'.
-Something goes wrong with the original plan.
-One approach to crime thrillers is containing two henchman and adding a slightly humourous element by having inadequate pair of henchman with an especially dodpey henchman who is clearly subordanate to the other.

Characters:
-Jerry Lundegaard is first introduced and is the main character, he has an ordinary job at a car dealership and is need for money. This need for money has caused him to see two dogdey henchman to kidnapp his wife for ransome from her father.
-Carl Showater is the dominant henchman and appears to get a little aggitated by the other henchman. The two henchman are introduced in the bar.
-Gaear Grimsrud is the second more dopey henchman who is always smoking.
-Jean Lundegaard is then inttroduced when Jerry comes home, she is first seen in the kitchen and is seen alot in the kitchen, most likely to depict her as a very stereo-typical wife.
-Wade Gustatson is Jerry's Father in Law and he's first introduced watching the ice hockey on the television and appears to be detatched from Jerry as he says hello.
-Scotty Lundegaard is the teenage son of Jean and Jerry and comes across like he doesn't really care much for being with his family as he leaves his dinner to go to macdonalds.

Memento Analysis

Thriller Conventions of Memento:
-Stream of conscioussness: unreliable narrative of Lenard's internal thoughts talking to the audience, asking questions.
-Set of Intrigues: Leonard tattoo's himself with the important information of his wife's murderer all over his body because he has no other way of remembering and so has to follow these clue-like enigma's.
-The protagonist has an Achilles heel of not being able to store new memories, which makes him vulnerable and easy to manipulate as well as being potentially dangerous. There is writing on his hand which indicates that he needs to remind himself of important information, which links to the title 'memento'. He also has cuts and bruises on his face indicating that he could either the victim or the attacker and he will be unaware of these cuts unless he glances in a mirror.
-The perception of time is distorted by being played in reverse and the scenes are placed in reverse order to create a point of view effect on the viewer as if they are seeing life how Leonard would.
 -The close up of Leonards hand holding the photograph of a dead man in the beginning scene creates a voyeuristic feel, as if the viewer is being let in to something secretive.
-The black and white scene indicates the clip is a flash back which is technical device used in thrillers.

At the beginning of the title sequence there is a blank screen with moving titles coming in and out of view, suggesting how new memories come in and out of Leonards mind.

The music that introduces the scene is quite tragic and dramatic which represents the tension that builds straight away in the opening sequence.

The disorientating opening signals to the viewer what to expect in the rest of the film.

Evaluation of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' is a Classic Thriller that is based around voyeurism. The protagonist character 'Jeff' has been made temporarily immobile from an accedent that occured whilst he was photographing for his work. As he cannot leave the house he becomes obssessive with observing his neighbors through his window and is convinced that one his neighbors has murdered somebody and is trying to undercover it, putting himself and others in danger in the process.

Conventions:

Voyeurism is a convention of classic thriller films, where by a character witnesses something they shouldn't, in 'Rear Window' Jeff witnesses his fellow neighbors perform their daily business, something which shouldn't usually be observed by onlookers outside the home. For instance when the camera is panning round the flats from the window, to resemble the man spying on the neighbours. It point of view shots momentarily pauses to watch a lady in a window brushing her hair then later on in the clip, the camera again looks in the woman's window, to show her making her breakfast, however she is portrayed as a sex object as she is shown making her breakfast in minimal clothing an with her leg stretched on the worktop. Also when she enters the room her top comes off and she bends over to retrieve it, again objectifying the female character, as the man spying in the window is looking at her body, she is shown in the kitchen, this is a typical representation of gender. A second convention of thriller films is that the protagonist is fallible and often has an 'Achilles heel' that is exploited by the antagonist. In 'Rear window' L.B.Jefferies (Jeff) is portrayed as helpless as he lays sweating in the heat in his wheelchair, he has a broken leg, this could lead to clues in the narrative, furthermore on his cast written words read  'Here lie the broken bones of L.B.Jefferies' this death reference could relate to the later narrative as well, it also shows an element of humour in the film. Additionally the film conforms to the convention that there is an everyday situation in which something extraordinary happens, for example, in this film, the narrative is set in an ordinary town setting.The protagonist is fallible and has an 'Achilles heel' that is exploited by the antagonist.

Micro-Elements:

Sound: 

Soundtrack: the soundtrack is quite fast and consists of a minor keys which are played by string instruments with loud random drum beats. The soundtrack is quite light and creates an atmospherical image of a person tip-toeing, to be unseen; like the main character who is spying on his neighbors through the window unseen.

The music lowers and a radio show hosts voice dominates over the scene until a man fiddles with the radio and static is heard which fades into a similar piece of music as to what was playing before.
Sound Effects include: a cat's 'meow', an alarm clock, kids laughter, passing cars and birds.

Camera Work: the opening begins with an establishing shot of three windows opening which hints at the theme of the thriller. It then goes on to another establishing long shot that is slowly tracking a cat as it walks up the steps where the camera then lifts up and pans across the building scanning through various windows, almost like a point of view from the main character. The speed and movement of the shots are quite slow.

Editing: The titles fade in and out over the first establishing shot and the words dissolve into eachother. continuity editing is being used with simple cuts for transitions.

Mise-En-Scene:  

Location: the opening scene is of apartments.
Costume: the costumes show that the weather is very hot as the characters are wearing little for example a woman in her apartment wearing shorts and a bra, the children in the streets playing are in their swimwear and Jeff, the main character has his pj shirt un-buttoned. The costumes also show that it's morning because their are people in pj's and an early milkman in his uniform.

Props: The alarm clock that goes off that is tied to the balcony indicates it's the morning as well as curtains being opened and morning tasks are being carried out such as shaving, eating and listening to the radio. The thermometer reads at 94*F showing it's really hot. There is evidence that the main character's profession is photography with the various props around his apartment such as the large photographs on the wall, several camera's including a broken one that indicates his accident evolved around his work and a negative of a picture that appears on a cover of a magazine that is placed on the table.
Body Language/Positioning: Jeff is very slumped and reclined as he is wheelchair bound and he is clearly unhappy about it, beads of sweat are on his forehead which help show the audience it's hot.

Psychological Thriller Conventions

- Central theme of identity - an example of how this theme is explored include mistaken identity, amnesia, stolen identities, duel identities.

- Memory is another key theme. The torture of an individual of bad or traumatic memories. The trauma of a lost memory.

- Reality and perception. A persons perception of what is and isn't real is also explored. Events are shown from the viewpoint of multiple characters.

- Stream of conciousness. - Voice over / Internal thought.

Preliminary task.