analysing saw opening title sequence

In this title sequence it reflects what is going to happen in the film by giving hints about things to come, for example the fuzzy television, which is a big part of the film as it begins the start of many tortures over and over again. Also, there a brief images of the torture equipment which also relates to the rest of the film and gives the audience a clear indication of what will happen during the outcome of the film. The music is very slow but tense which along with the flashing random images creates tension, reflecting the theme of thriller. During the opening, there is a 'caution' sign also reflecting the outcome of the film as it gives hints to the audience about what may happen and to be on the edge of there seat because they never know when something bad will happen. The writing in the foreground flashes to emphasize tension and creepy atmosphere to the audience, the font is in a sort of scratched style which also emphasizes the thriller theme.

Mise-en-scene

Props - in our opening sequence we are going to need a few things such as; sofa, television, belts, chair and torturing equipment.


Here is an example of someone being tied up and tortured which has been successful in the film saw, this is kind of what we want to end up achieving in our thriller opening.

Costume -

Casual clothing is going to be for the innocent victims of the attack as they are just watching a film at home, and black clothing + a balaclava for the two kidnappers.




Make up - ketchup or fake blood is going to be used in our scene as an example of blood and bits of dirt and dust etc around the set to make it more realistic




Lighting - At the beginning, it is going to be normal house lighting (few lights on) then suddenly they all go out and they flash into pitch black, then candles will be enough illuminate the room this is when the kidnappers take them. In the torture room it will a dark cold lighting atmosphere to make it more realistic and represent the theme.




Sets - It will be set in a house for the start of the scene (lounge) so the audience can relate to it and then further on when the kidnappers take the couple we exchange into a dark shed to give it a more isolated feeling.

This image we have chosen represent what we want to achieve in the kidnapping there is normal activity in the living room then the kidnappers come in and take them.


Colour - we will use black clothing for the kidnappers to represent the antagonist and evilness. therefore, casual bright colours used for the innocent victims to represent them as protagonist.

Protagonist/Antagonist in Batman

During Batman there is a good example of each, an antagonist and a protagonist. The protagonist during The Dark Knight would be Batman who is trying to stop the evil Joker (Antagonist) from performing his evil deeds.



This shows how the Antagonist is provoking the good guys (police) to get annoyed and to react in a harsh way.



This trailer briefly outlines how the Batman is trying to prevent the plans of the Joker by trying to get one step ahead of him or just to hunt him down and stop him once and for all.

The Joker

This character is relevant to the antagonist in our film as they both dress up and are quite frightening yet witty in their approach to terrorising their victims. Furthermore, they both enjoy mentally-affecting their victims which will give them an edge and make the audience acknowledge that they are the antagonists. This antagonist is trying to provoke the Batman by attacking mass amounts of people whereas ours will be just focusing on a few victims that will be mainly attached to the protagonist.

Batman

This character is the protagonist who tries to prevent the bad occurrences during the film. This will be the same during our film as the antagonist is provoking the protagonist by torturing his close friends, so this will force the protagonist to react and to perhaps make a wrong mistake which will lead to the antagonist gaining superiority over the protagonist.

Pitch Ideas Feedback

We were only asked two questions; "Where will we be filming our opening scene?" and "What costumes will we be using?"

In answer to the first question, we shall be filming round Julian's house as he has the right setting for what we need to be able to produce this opening scene effectively.


The second question is quite straightforward as we shall be using home clothes for the victims and for the torturers we shall be using dark clothes and clothing that symbolises burglary and antagonists.

Pitch Ideas

Our Pitch Ideas

Genre

Crime Thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients.

Psychological Thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical.

Our idea is based around a psychological thriller where the characters are watching a video on the TV, but then the TV goes all fuzzy and one character has a look to see what the problem is but then people break in, there's a struggle then a black screen which then fades into a shot of the characters who were watching the TV are tied up and being tortured psychologically.

During the section where the characters are tied up, the people who are torturing shall be doing a voice-over to affect the tied-up people mentally.

We were thinking that the best location would be to film in one of our houses then to film the scene where the characters are being tied up in a dark room or shed, this would add to the psychological genre as the characters who are being tied up wouldn't communicate with the torturers face-to-face.

We will mainly be using people from our group to have as the characters, but may have involvement from our friends. We will need 3 characters to film.

Furthermore, during this opening sequence we shall include opening credits, title, introduction to the main characters, music, variety of shots, establishing the location and finding out who the antagonist is and the protagonist is.

Our film would be based around the film 'SAW' where there is a lot of psychological effects such as torturing the characters, we will be using voice-overs to create this type of thriller and to instill fear into the characters minds.

We made a mood board to help with our ideas.



This is the sort of setting we would like our torture room to be like.



This is the effect we will use on the t.v when the lights go out and film goes off.
To help with the sudden effect of the tv going fuzzy, we will use diagetic sound from the tv to create a more scary atmousphere.


This is an example of a person tied up on a chair, however our person will be tied up in a more tense environment.

You & Eye Production Ident

This is our ident which has been compiled from a picture off google images, then cut out the eye and made it brighter also darkened the hand and made a greater contrast between the hand and eye. we made up a title and added it using the font northwood high.

Analysing ident for other companies

The opening ident starts off with the audience identifying the producers in the film with there opening ident that is shown in every film that they produce. This represents the type of genre that the film is showing, for example the music is very old fashioned but up beat, this type of music reflects the upcoming movie as to be old but music like as it is taken from the musical 'grease'. Also, the stars that go round the mountain represent the originality and uniqueness of the ident to further help the audience recognise the type of genre that the film is going to be.

Trial on GarageBand

Today we have been practising creating tracks on GarageBand.

The task that we had to do today was to create a track that would match the images that were shown from a clip from 'Identity'. This film fits the genre 'thriller', which helped us along the way to find dramatic and tense music clips that would fit the film sequence. Non-Diegetic is mainly being used during this piece of music as there is no sound coming from the film.

Analysing Other Student's Work

This thriller opening shows the audience the location and consequences of what is occurring at the start. The opening is set between two different places which are completely opposite, one is at a party and the other is set in the woods. The editing cuts between these two locations to show the aftermath of the party, furthermore during the party there is a focus on the feet to show the viewers that there is similarities and to acknowledge that the person in the woods is the same person who is attending the party. Throughout the opening sequence, there are many different shot types being used for example, during the wood clips there are high angle shots on the woman laying on the floor to show that she is not dominant and afraid. There is also use of medium shots during the party to show the viewer the location, which are also used during the woodland clips to show the change in location. The music is non-diegetic but the viewer can tell that during the party clips there is going to be that type of music playing. There are different editing techniques used to show the credits to the audience, for example there is a black screen to set the credits apart from the film yet the viewer still feels in touch with the opening as the music continues to play during the credits. At the end of the clip, the title "Daiquiri" appears, with different editing effects, for example it is put on its own black screen to make it stand out from everything else and the title also fades in and out to draw attention to the audience, furthermore the title is in time with the music to give it a more prominent appearance.

Analysis of The Return

By the opening scene of this thriller, you can see that they have used a variety of shots and camera techniques including long, medium and close up shots. The first few seconds of the scene show all of these. The camera is used effectively and held steadily throughout the clip. The location for the opening is appropriate for a thriller theme, the forest setting creates a more isolated location, making a more tense atmosphere. The interior setting of the candle being blown out, uses editing to make it look more flickery. The whole scene uses this flickering effect which captures the attention of the audience as they need to focus more to see it.
The music is also appropriate to the thriller theme as it creates effect as well as the images.
The titles used work effectively with the background music and flicking camera edit. They make the film relate more to the thriller theme. They have used appropriate mise-en-scene for the thriller theme. We think that out of 60 the mark for the piece would be around 45 to 50.

marking criteria

Level 4 - top grade 48/60

demonstrate excellence in recording voices clearly
- in studio/interior sets
- on location

holding a shot steady
framing a shot
using a variety of shot distances
shooting material appropriate to task set

Editing, so meaning is apparent to that viewer
using varied shot transitions + effects
using sound with images
using titles appropriately.

Analysis of James Bond - Die Another Day (Action Thriller)

James bond, Die Another Day is an action thriller. Within the first few seconds of the opening scene you can see the main character, James with his colleagues. The theme of action is immediately displayed by the extreme surfing they are doing. They use this to get into the enemy grounds, unseen.

The obvious antagonists are the officers at the base, who are collecting the diamonds.

There is a race against the clock scenario when James is found out to be an intruder, and has to save himself . Lots of special effects and graphic detail are used to show all the shooting and blowing up of helicopters and hovercrafts.

Crime analysis of rocknrolla

film features robberies, murders, shootouts.
it is set in large crowded cities to offer an insight in to the world that the criminals live in, you can see the rise and fall of the criminals. the music also sets the atmosphere as it is in time with all the action to get the viewer to feel the tension etc.
also, the location is mostly set at night, seeing as most of the action is secret work which relates to the darkness as it is secretive.

The Interpreter (Political Thriller)

Conventions of a political thriller

• Threat is set against a back drop of a political power struggle


• Plots are designed to give political power to someone


• Different characters are setup to try prevent some people recieving power

Fight Club - Psychological Thriller theme analysis

Psychological conventions;
drama/mystery
danger on a mental level rather than just physical.
2 or more characters preying on one anothers minds or one solitary character with mental struggles.
Characters will have fear or fascination with death.
Characters try and discover own purpose.
Narrative confusion over what is real and what is not.

During Fight Club, many of these conventions are represented, for example there are two characters who prey on each others minds and are always trying to out-do one another, also there is a mental illness with one of the main characters as the audience finds out at the end that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Furthermore, both characters have a fascination with death as they continuously fight each night. The film also does well to fool the audience with a confusing storyline which only becomes apparent at the end of the film when the real truth comes out. The main character is lonely and suffers from insomnia, so his mind begins to play tricks with him and he starts up fight club showing a psychological effect on him.

se7en opening analysis

In this opening clip there is a lot of non diagetic sound throughout, firstly, the city life outside like cars etc. also, diagetic sound such as the conversations during it. At the end of the clip there is a clear indication as too what morgan freeman and brad pitt are representing (police force, detectives) this is because of the sirens and the talk of going back to the precinct. There are many different camera angles; low angle shots on morgan freeman and brad pitt to show they are the dominant figures in the film, also, medium shots down the corridor during conversation with another detective. We also see a lot of close ups during the credits to indicate the killers actions, witha high angle shot on the dead person to show that he/she wasn't dominant.

There are many different editing techniques used during the opening sequence of se7en. The first one used is an over the shoulder shot in the mirror of Morgan Freeman to show the audience how he is being portrayed in a strong-mannered way. As the opening sequence progresses, during the conversation sequence there is a shot reverse shot section between Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, which resembles them as the dominant characters. Furthermore, there are jump cuts into different rooms to show how the main characters continue with their lives in se7en. During the credits, there is a montage of clips and pictures that gives the audience an insight into what type of genre this film is. There is a range of costumes being used by the main characters, Morgan Freeman is wearing a suit which establishes him as the dominant figure whereas Brad Pitt is wearing a less casual suit without a jacket to show his less dominant, casual approach to his work. Finally, Morgan Freeman wears glasses which would resemble to the audience that he is intelligent and clever.

classic thriller analysis

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At the beginning of the film, there are opening credits which establish the theme of the film, in this case, thriller. There is intense music during the credits which creates suspense and intensity.


Furthermore, there is a close up of an eye which highlights the thriller theme this is backed up by a red tint that represents danger and fear.
After the credits have finished it goes straight into the action, as a man is being chased on the roof tops. the tension and suspense is increased by the gunshots and also the police officer slipping down off the roof.


The police officer hanging from the roof looks down and is scared, this reflects the name as the name vertigo which means being scared of heights.

Analyse how each micro element creates meaning : spiderman 2

The sounds reflect the thriller theme in this clip for example peter parker sees the fire there is diagetic sounds from the fire and falling building we know this because in the clip we can see where it is coming from, also, there is lots of panic from people around the area which also diagetic, this creates alot of suspense in the clip due to lots of screaming and the fire burning. when peter parker goes into the building to save the child we can hear non-diagetic screaming coming from the child but do not know where it is coming from this creates tension as you do not know whether he will find the child in time.



also, in this photo there is tension and suspese created as there is non-diagetic music in the background and thunder, also, his facial expression after the lightening is shown with a close up of his face so we get an understanding of the atmosphere he is feeling.



in this photo there is a low angle shot of the special powered man who takes control over the normal man and it shows domination through an over the shoulder shot so we get the initial view of his sight so it shows the audience the special mans powered dominance.



here violence is shown through the special powered character to see his 'special powers' reflecting the theme 'thriller' also in this shot he is threatening and over powering the other man in this situation to show domination also we see a flash off lightning when he is talking to create more atmosphere and effect.



a reaction shot is shown here in face of peter parker (spiderman) and another random man, this is showing fear of the characters an creating anxiety amongst the audience as we get the impression he is scared and weak.



a bit of comedy/humour is shown in this scene to cut tension during the clip to make it more accessible to a younger audience in this case.

Analysing the micro elements in Batman: The Dark Knight

Sound

The non-diegetic sound at the beginning of the clip creates suspense for the viewer. It is then mixed with diegetic sound when the window is smashed, to show the impact. The non-diegetic music is used throughout the duration of the bank robbery to create a more intense opening. Sound effects such as gun shots and screeching wheers els add to the scene to introduce the main theme in the film, good vs. evil.

The characters use short and intimidating speech to cause an uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience. The criminals only talk to one another just before they are about to kill each other, highlighting the 'thriller' theme to show to the audience that the film is already setting up the theme.

Camera Angles



This camera angle, an establishing shot, shows the audience where the film is being situated, in a city. As the clip progresses, the scene moves to inside a bank, where the camera angles differ and focus mainly on the characters instead of the surroundings.



This is a close up of one of the criminals trying to open the vault, it shows the viewer exactly how the robber is opening the door.



There is another close up that shows the audience the good person in the scene, one of the workers in the bank attempts to stop the criminals.

Mise-en-Scene

Throughout the clip, there are many different props and settings that make up the scene. For example, each of the criminals has a 'Joker' mask to show that throughout the film there will be one main enemy for Batman and the audience can establish that the Joker sets out his attacks in a very coordinated fashion.

Preliminary Task

This is our second preliminary task, which we found a lot easier to do compared to our first Preliminary Task. This was mainly due to the fact that we were used to the setup, how to edit the video in Final Cut Express, and the shots that we needed to perform. Due to this, we completed the task in a lot quicker period than the last Preliminary task which gave us more time to edit it in Final Cut Express.
This has also given us more experience and has readied us for our Thriller task which is coming up, the way in which the camera works has become a lot more familiar to us and how to perform different shots which we can use to effect in our Thriller piece.

Storyboard for Preliminary Task

Our storyboard shows each individual shot and how we will use them.
Actor - Julian
Actor - George
Camerawoman - Chloe
Actor - Alex

We will be shooting the task around college.

Preliminary task

We have found examples of each type of shot that is being used in the preliminary task.
Firstly, there is an establishing shot:
This shows the audience where the film is located and what type of technology is being used.

There are many close-ups, and reaction shots in this next clip:


These close ups emphasize the actors facial expressions and the action of how they use the props. There are also many reaction shots in this clip to show how the action and other characters influence the body language of the characters in the shot.

Match on action shot:


This clip shows match on action shots from many different views, for example when sherlock holmes kicks the other fighter there are many different camera angles in use.

A long shot being used in Sherlock Holmes gives the audience an insight of the characters situation and surroundings.


Filming a conversation shot:


This clip shows how a 180 degree rule is used to hide the camera from the audience but shows each character at the same time.