Title Sequence Evaluation

Title sequence evaluation edit from joegrogan_96

Thrillers: Sub-genres

Romantic Thrillers

Hitchcock's 1958 direction of "Vertigo" is exemplary in manifesting the key themes and ideologies that constitute a romantic thriller - although "Vertigo" is sometimes regarded as more of a psychological thriller, it can be credited as a romance influenced thriller. Romance thrillers work very well in terms of suspense as it presents a 'will they/won't they' question.

Political Thrillers

Political thrillers thrive on the notion of a group of people (syndicate) fighting against another group of people trying to establish an equillibrium. It assumes that a specific group of people (most commonly weaker) are fighting against a more powerful group of people advocating evil policies through totalitarianism.

Evalutation

Overall, we produced a comprehensive and relevant thriller film that adhered to the codes and conventions of contemporary thriller films. We ensured that the editing involved making our lighting very dark through the use of colour correction and contrast. We realised that in order to priduce a successful thriller meaning had to be built through the Mise en Scene. Another essential in thrillers is the use of non-diegetic sounds - we used these to our advantage and used resources that provided non copyrighted horror sounds. These were prolonged noises that culminated in sharp, intense sounds. These sounds were inspired by Hitchcock's Psycho. In terms of our camera work, at times we were sloppy: we sometimes cut segments of peoples head out of the frame of the shot (although our opening scene requires the antagonist's identity to remain concealed). This is something we would change if we were to shoot our opening again. We would also have liked to obtain an image/some footage of a full moon to use as a graphic match to Daisy's necklace. This would have meant we could include more complex editing processes in our feature.

Research: What makes a thriller and famous examples (Analysis of "Se7en" opening)

Thrillers are said to elicit excitement, and an intense adrenaline rush that creates a compelling atmosphere that has the audience demanding to know more. Famous examples of thrillers (in terms of contemporary conventions) Silence of the Lambs (1991), Se7en (1995) and The Mechanist (2004). As alluded to previously, the conventions of genre are forever changing, meaning films are subject to change classification due to the conventions being altered on a regular basis. For example, if Silence of the Lambs had been released in 1960, it would unquestionably been branded a horror, due to the content that was being produced at that time. Thrillers can be subdivided into lots of categories, such as: psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, romantic thrillers, historical thrillers, political thrillers and action thrillers.

"Se7en" (1995) Opening Analysis

Intriguingly, the director has ommitted the use of long/establishing shots in the title sequence. This is most likely because the director does not want to give any ideas of where any of the settings/locatins in the film will take place - a technique that has been used to build suspense. This technique seems viable and our group feels it could benefit our feature due to the nature of our horror/thriller genre, and we wish to maintain some of the conventions used. In terms of Mise en Scene and the activity taking place in the opening, it seems as if someone is collating evidence using books, files and making notes - which denotes detective work is taking place and hints at some of the themes/ideas that may be prominent in the film. These objects/props are displayed through extreme close-ups which fill the frame, presenting them in great detail. It also obscures the identity of the person utilising these objects and also the environment in which it is taking place. The lighting is dark (low key lighting) which, again, obscures certain objects in the frame, whilst light is casted over other objects in the frame which builds suspense. There is also a scene in which photos are being developed (which links back to the idea of evidence being collated) and the lighting is a dark red colour, which suggests danger and has been employed to ensure this idea resonates through to the passive audience. Other than this part of the opening, though, black and white is used - most probably to reinforce the danger of red as black and white are very simple colours, however the darkness connnotes danger. In terms of editing, the opening uses a sequential selection of different shots together. Between the shots there are many normal cuts, and some that dissolve into darkness before making the transition to another shot. This suggests that all the clips are relevant to each other and the investigation which is taking place. The shots are relatively short but slow motion effects are used in order for the audience to comprehend what is happening in the shot, although these shots speed up towards the end of the opening, which builds suspense for the audience. Locations and identities are kept annonymous throughout the entire opening - this keeps the audience guessing, a technique that has come to typify thrillers and one which we intend to use in our opening in our short film, as we have made a preferance for the horror/thriller genre.

Overcoming Problems

After we were informed that Dan had broken his leg we were rendered with a number of ramifications: we were no longer able to use him as our lead male actor and therefore we would have to resume filming with me assuming the role of the lead male actor. Although in the shots that we had filmed previously, we had concealed Dan's face as much as possible to build suspense and create ambiguity, we had to reshoot te shots that involved Dan's face though, including one in which he asks Daisy to join him for dinner - any close up/establishing shots had to be refilmed using me as the subject. We were able to film scenes by which we could ommitt my face (such as the scene where I prepare some cloth and chloroform) with ease as long as we concealed my identity.


This is me preparing to shoot the scene in which I prepare blue roll and chloroform for Daisy's kidnapping.

As is evident in the above picture, it was important that we maintained the themes of our feature throughout to retain continuity - therefore I had to wear darker clothing - black trousers, dark/navy hoodie etc.

Post Production Evaluations

After submitting our final product, throughout endless editing and reshooting, we felt we must analyse and evaluate what went well and what didn't. 

Camera Work

Many of our shots had to be revised due to lax camera work, one or two of which are still evident in the piece: There were some shots in which segments of peoples head were not in the frame of the camera and looked sloppy and unprofessional:
















Depicted above is an example of sloppy camerea work, part of my head is not in the frame of the shot. We managed to identify most of these mistakes, however unfortunately, this remained in our final cut. There is little else with the shot apart from this fault, however, it is still poor camera work. However, one thing that can be praised in this scene was our ability to adhere to the 180° rule, we never broke this rule and therefore retained a sense of continuity throughout our production.




It could be argued that this is a poor shot: nearly the entire torso is ommitted from the frame and the camera is tilted at an angle. However, the ambiguity that this shot presents the audience with is actually quite favourable when considering the context of our film: at this point the audience aren't supposed to know who this person is, which adheres to the codes and conventions of thrillers - the opening sequence of a film is designed to establish character and narrative context, however, it is important that we retain some level of enigma - questions that would be answered later on in the film/text. Therefore, this sense of uncertainty plays into our hands, as it expresses the essential features of our production such as uncertainty and evil.

We set out to make "Dinner For Two" a pastiche of Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) with undertones and elements of "Taken" (2008). We feel we have acheived some of the effects that Hitchcock employed such as non-diegetic sounds that allow the audience to get an insight into the mentality of the victim, and also build suspense and provoke a reaction. Primarily, we felt it was important that we manipulate a passive audience, as is typical with thrillers - the audience have a relatively good idea of what may happen - they just don't know when it will happen.

Through the process of planning, our thriller developed into a horror thriller as we were inspired by the effects/techniques used by films such as "The Purge

Location

We had to select our location carefully, it had to be somewhere that looked isolated and obscure. An ideal location used in conjunction with editing techniques on Premiere such as colour correction and contrast will form a perfect horror/thriller location. We intend to use Prentice's house for Daisy's house, and a small room in the art corridor that with editing from premiere and careful lighting, will look like an abandoned warehouse.

Graphic Match Alterations

As discussed previously, we initially wanted to use a graphic match of the moon that could dissolve into a pearl on Daisy's necklace. However, we experienced a few ramifications with this technique, and we were forced to abandon the idea. In order to trial the idea, we found a still image of the moon that we used against a midnight blue background in order to act as a dummy run. The trial delivered great results, and therefore we proceeded with this idea and felt we should record real life footage (a house and sky) to add verisimilitude to the scene. However, three days later when we head out to film this seen, adverse weather conditions meant that we were unable to achieve the desired effect. The moon was barely visible due to cloud, so we instead opted to represent time lapsing and show the lighting become gradually darker. We simply placed the camera on the tripod, and filmed Prentice's house from 19:30-20:00. Although we didn't initially plan this, the footage delivered a desirable effect, and when played in conjunction with some horror sound effects, we were able to achieve a trademark thriller/horror effect.

Above shows how filming the house in the evening, and adding colour correction/effects on premier can create a 'haunted' effect that typefies horror/thriller films. As it has been highlighted, dark lighting is imperative in a horror because black/dark light renders some objects in the frame with shadow and obscures parts of the environment - building uncertainty.


The picture above manifests why dark lighting is so effective in thriller/horror films, dark lighting used in conjunction with black clothing/attire (Mise en Scene) has obscured the subject's identity and light is projected from a single source.

Thriller Conventions

Camera

Tracking Shots and Pan Shots are most commonly used in the opening scenes of thrillers, this is to ensure that we engage with a certain character/group of people that are important and relevant to the narrative. The framing used in the shot is also extrremely important as is evident in Se7en and Kill Bill vol. 1 - close ups seem to be extremeley popular amongst these features to capture the intensity of the character's expressions. Long shots are also used frequently to allow the audience to observe the environment in which the action will take place. There are also a vast variety of camera angles used to meet the conventions of thrillers, such as the high angled/low angled shot to represent superiority and inferiority, for example in Terminator to suggest that a character is superior to those around him.

Mise en Scene

Lighting is a key part of a thriller, as it impacts the ambience of the audience and must stay relevant to the themes in the film, for example, in Terminator lighting is reflected off of machinery as robots/androids are a key feature in the film and so they adapt the lighting to the key themes in their feature.

Editing

Jump Cuts are used very freuently throughout thriller films to maintain intrensity, a set of sequential jump cuts often culminate into something important that happens in the narrative. Jump cuts often fill in the audience with events that they are not aware of and therefore retain continuity. Essentially, a jump cut is when two sequential shots are taken of the same subject at pace and from slightly varied angles.

Sound

Non-Diegetic sound is used in every single thriller film, no question. This is because without the use of short sharp sounds that build tension before the scene culminates, there would be no suspense built. However, silence can also be used to build suspense in thrillers: moments before the murder takes place in the famous shower scene in "Psycho" (1960), there is complete silence until the shower curtain is drawn and the murder takes place.

Props

Today was a process of contemplating props to use to create a sense of verisimilitude within our feature, that creates a sense of realism to disturb the audience. We understand that props are essential in building meaning as it forms part of the mise en scene. We decided that a chair was an essential prop, as  the pinnacle of our feature centres on the scene in which Daisy is tied to a chair, portraying a 'damsel in distress' with a sinister twist. We intend to use a chain to anchor Daisy to the chair, fulfilling a sense of verisimilitude - a piece of cloth/string would seem easy to break free from, whereas a chain suggests completely the opposite. It was also suggested that Daisy should wear a pearl necklace (which we plan to use to create a graphic match with the moon) in order to create a clear binary opposition: the white pearl will signify innocence and purity, which contrasts the dark, sinister environment she finds herself surrounded in. As a more subsidiary prop, it seemed appropriate to use a dog lead when shooting the scene in the woods/park to provide the environment with a purpose/reason - we felt this would still be a contributing factor in building a sense of verisimilitude and realism into the narrative. Guns and hammers where thrown into the equation, however, we didn't feel this would create the right ambience when taking into account the title of our production: "Dinner for Two". We had filmed a scene in which Dan places the chair, some rope and a rifle into the room Daisy would be held, however, we felt that since there was no gun shown in our opening scene (revealing Daisy being held as a kidknapp victim), it was pretty irrelevant to include a gun in this scene. We created a relistic design for our chloroform bottle, and glued it around a hairspray can to add realism and verisimilitude, using colours that made it clear to the audience that the substance I was handling was indeed very dangerous.

Above: Our self-made chloroform bottle.

final opening 2 minute sequence

This is our final two minute opening, after weeks of shooting and editing this is our final product. An evaluation will be carried out to assess the good/bad bits of the video and discuss what we would have done differently.

Sounds in Thrillers

Thrillers often use a combination of fast paced compositions combined with sharp music that sends shivers down the spine. For example, the iconic "JAWS" soundtrack is comprised of only two notes alternating very quickly to build suspense and generate a sense of uncertainty. We feel this style of music would benefit our production greatly, as it has proved successful in building suspense. Therein, it is clear that non-diegetic sounds are effective in adhering to the codes and conventions of a thriller: we will be using a combination of short sharp sounds with sounds that seem quite at first, but become faster and louder in conjunction with the events in the scene, eventually culminating.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's thriller "Psycho" also manifests why sound effects are so important in contributing to what is on screen: in an iconic shower scene, no music is deployed until seconds before the murder takes place, a series of short sharp high pitched sounds are played in conjunction with the rhythm/pace at which the victim is stabbed. We have employed this technique in our production, as we feel that if we can keep the audience in suspense until the scene climaxes, it more likely the audience will invest a sustained interest in the feature.

Non-Diegetic Sounds are essential in thriller films, it is these sounds that create the ambience required to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. We intend to omit the use of ambient sound, as this refers to sounds in the background such as traffic in a scene filmed on the pavement, whereas we want the audience to assume that the location is obscure and free from interference.

We have obtained our music from a source that provides non copyrighted sounds/audio effects for an array of different genres/topics.

Editing Processes

After collating footage in premiere, I decided to tweak the colour/contrast of the film we had collected in order to make it relevant to our task and maintain some thriller conventions. After cutting the footage using the slice tool, we used the colour and contrast button to lower the brightness to add a sinister tone to the clip, dark lighting is an archetypical feature in any thriller that centres around horror/disturbing themes and so I felt this was adeqaute.

By turning the brightness down but toning the contrast up, we were able to acheive a desirable effect, as we have specifically refrained from adding high key lighting that may come across as vibrant, and mask shadows that contribute to the horror/thriller effect. My research has shown that low key lightning is far more popular in thriller films, as this technique relies on one light source - it may cast light over one object whilst leaving others in darkness/shadows. Although I opted for more low key lighting, I understood that the brightness tool should not be neglected and that it was important to maintain some balance throughout the feature, we didn't want our feature to seem as if it was poor quality. Depicted below is an example of low key lighting.

As is evident, the light is cast from one particular source whilst other objects in the frame are shadowed, this adds a sense of verisimilitude to the feature whilst maintaining the codes and conventions of thriller films. By casting light over one side of an object whilst the other remains in shadow, it creates an ambiguity, an uncertainty that is absolutely essential in a thriller/horror production.

Depicted above: This shows the alterations I made to the brightness/contrast after editing our footage, I also added a hint of blue to the colour balance - again, decreasing the brightness of the shot and applying some typical conventions of thriller films. The blue added to the footage also makes the clip appear less dull and engages with the audience more, whilst the brightness/contrast adds an element of shadow to certain objects in the frame, for example, the chloroform bottle - a key feature of this scene, which is why we felt it was relevant to place emphasis on it.

Title Sequence: First Edit

The first thing we noticed about the first cut of our title sequence is the lack of music/sounds. This makes our title sequence less appealing and fails to create any significant suspense throughout the audience. Since formulating the title sequence we have also agreed that the title enters far to early, and does not give the audience a chance to process the activity in the background. However we feel the distorted background is fitting for a thriller as it is extremely difficult to decipher what is happening in the background, which creates uncertainty and we managed to draw comparisons between our title sequence and the 'SAW'  title sequence. In addition to this, we also feel that the typography does not encapsulate the essential features of a thriller/horror and we feel it is therefore misleading. The sequence is also far too short, it fails to build suspense as it seems rushed and there is a sense of urgency about the sequence. We have recognised there is a correlation between thriller title sequences: they all centre on the theme of distorted and abstract images - as these create an uncertainty that provokes a reaction from the consumer, forcing them to question whats going on, and continuing to watch the feature out of shear curiosity. The colours employed in our title sequence excentuate the themes (codes and conventions) of our selected genre: black, most obviously signifies darkness and impurity, whilst red symbolises danger, caution and blood.

Media Conglomerates

A media conglomerate is a media company that holds ownership in an array of other mass media sources e.g. television, radio, film, internet etc. In terms of revenue alone, The Walt Disney Company is America's largest media conglomerate due to it's eclectic range of media. Staggeringly, only six media conglomerates own and control 90% of the media that we view today, which enables them to passively inject it's consumers with messages that represent their views and opinions. 

Platforms

Media is delivered to us (consumers) on many different platforms e.g. newspapers/magazines, television, radio, internet etc. This allows congolmerates to reach their target demographics in a number of different ways.

Analysis: Thrillers from around Europe

Camera Angles

One technique most thrillers share is the use of camera angles - they are often deployed to conceal identities, for example, the use of a birds eye view shot does not disclose a persons identity as their face is not shown, however, their surroundings are made clear. This technique is used to build suspense and uncertainty, evoking an inquisitive psychological hunger from the audience who demand to know more in order to deconstruct the plot. Similarly, extreme close ups are used as to disclose as little information as possible. A classic example of this is a focus on a specific object, or most notably, an eye from a face - obscuring one's identity. Low angled shots are generally used to represent characters of less importance.

Plot

A thrillers plot must be somewhat distorted, ostensible in a way to retain suspense. The plot must be revealed gradually. A bold move in the film industry was made when Hitchcock whilst directing "Psycho" (1960) decided the star name and main character is killed off by Michael, leaving the audience perplexed as to how the film will culminate.

Characters







Conventions




Subcategories 

Romantic Thrillers: Hitchcock's 1958 direction of "Vertigo" is exemplary in manifesting the key themes

Camera Techniques

Camera movements are imperative in media texts, as they have an impact on how the consumer interprets the material they are viewing. It ensures that the consumer's attention is drawn into what the director feels are pivotal moments in the production.

There are a number of camera techniques/movements used throughout the film industry all used to construct different concepts/meaning within the media text, it is important we explore the nature of different shots as they could benefit us in our feature.

Tilt Shot

A tilt is characterized by a camera lens moving up or down whilst anchored to a horizontal axis. In essence, a tilt is not too dissimilar from nodding your head. Below is an example of a tilt shot, the Sistine Chapel being the subject of the tilt.

Pan

A pan shot, similar to a tilt shot, is specified by it's rotation on an axis that remains anchored. However, it differs in the sense that it moves horizontally, left and right.

Tracking Shot

A tracking shot requires a camera dolly - a set of rails on which the camera (supported by a stand) coasts across in order to follow a subject that remains within the confines of the shot frame.Tracking shots are utilised specifically to draw attention to a specific subject in order to manipulate the audience. A variant of the tracking shot is an 'onride' shot - a shot that involves filming whilst on a vehicle or amusement ride, to document a route.

Dolly Zoom

Dolly zooming is a cinematic technique employed to zoom either in or out of the backdrop whilst simultaneously maintaining the size of the subject within the confines of the camera. This gives an abstract effect very appealing to the eye.

The Process of Story Boarding

Storyboarding is a process that many film production companies utilise in order to organise scenes into seperate shots, allowing them to ponder ideas before actually shooting a scene. The process involves collating a number of different sketches and assembling them in a chronological fashion to form a full scene taking into account the lighting, camera, mise en scene and editing that is projected to be used in the scene whilst annotations are made to get ideas across clearly. Joe Ranft was a very famous storyboarder/voice acotr/screen writer who worked on every Pixar animation project from 1980-2005 before he tragically passed away. He would collect a plethora of sketches that eventually form the basis of the storyboard, before selecting which shots seem most viable and organising them accordingly. Storyboarding is an incredibly beneficial process financially, as it means actors on lucrative salaries are not being paid for more hours than they are actually required for as the scenes have been planned.

The photo above depicts Joe Ranft organising one of many storyboards for Disney Pixar.

Researching story boarding is certainly relevant to our project is it could save us time when filming, as we will have prepared an array of sketches that represent camera angles that we project to film, and will therefore allow us more time to edit/re-film certain scenes. We are going to devise a storyboard with annotations, that is meticulous and takes into account every camera angle/editing techniques we are going to use.

Storyboarding will benefit us greatly in our task, if we have a clear plan as to what we want to shoot, it will make filming more concise and therefore we have more time to edit. The storyboard can be a short sequence of pictures, or an intricate and comprehensive plan that includes almost every shot the director intends to use.

Analysis of thriller title sequences: The Godfather

"The Godfather" (1972) opens with an authentic soundtrack known as 'The Godfather Waltz' in conjunction with a plain black background, which although sounds fairly mundane, is made ambiguous by the music. After accrediting the film production companies, an emblem is revealed that reads "Mario Puzzo's: The Godfather", above which a hand bearing a puppet string that attaches to the title, presumably a signifier that makes reference to the control the Corleone family hold over the city and how they are able to manipulate the law regardless of governing bodies.

The opening titles are reeled off slowly, building suspense combined with the background music (played elegantly on the accordion). A pause is then held on the plain black background, before dissolving into the opening scene - dark lighting coupled with the use of a close up. However, it must be stressed that film technology was still fairly inchoate and production teams suffered limited resources in 1972,