Successful film director research

A very successful film director who has directed some amazing thriller movies is Christopher Nolan. Christopher Jonathan is a British-American film director, writer and producer. He was born 30 July 1970. Christopher Nolan began making films at the age of seven using his father's super 8mm camera and an assortment of male-action figures. He first collaborated with Wally Pfister, who would photograph all his subsequent films.

 After directing Insomnia (2002), Nolan pitched an idea for a reboot of the Batman film franchise to Warner Bros., eventually making a successful trilogy. Inception (2010) was an original screenplay by Nolan, a heist film set in the world of "shared dreaming." Nolan co-founded Syncopy Films with his wife, Emma Thomas, and they have produced all his films since The Prestige (2006).


I have chosen this director as he is one of the most successful thriller directors ever alive this is because this director has directed the most famous movies such as Momento (1998), Insomnia (2000), Batman Begins (2002), The Prestige (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010).

Christopher Jonathan is a film director who would entertain the audience throughout the long movies, he uses and thinks completely differently to other directors and always has a way to cheer the audience. The way Christopher Jonathan directs the movie is like the audience is involved in the movie which makes it more interesting.

bbfc rating system

BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is a non-governmental organization, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games.

I and my group have shared different ideas which movie rating we should give our movie. We all decided on how our movie rating is going to be 12 as this would provide us with more audiences. As this is a thriller genre we believe that children over 12 would enjoy as we have many suspense moments. 

Below are the criteria we have to follow to make our final product, as its a 12 rating movie, we have to follow the listed below.

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 (for example, ‘fuck’) 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.

 

Narrative

What is narrative?
Narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. It is the way the story is told to the audience.


The conventional narrative structure pointed out by Tzvetan Todorov as a rule has five stages though this can be rudimentary broken down to three stages, a beginning (state of equilibrium), middle (disruption to the equilibrium) and end (reinstate the equilibrium).

Tzvetan Todorov

The conventional narrative structure complete with five stages:

Stage 1
A state of equilibrium is defined.

Stage 2
Disruption to the equilibrium by some action or crisis.

Stage3
The Character recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve problem.

Stage4
The Character attempt to repair the disruption, obstacles need to be overcome to restore order.

Stage5
Reinstatement to the equilibrium. Situation is resolved, a conclusion is announced.

Propp’s Theory

Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are:

1.       The hero

2.       The villain

3.       The donor

4.       The dispatcher

5.       The false hero

6.       The helper

7.       The princess

8.       Her Father.

He did not state these characters were all separate people, for example the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types. Once they have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden etc) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.

Barthes’ Enigma Code

The narrative will establish enigmas or mysteries as it goes along. Essentially, the narrative functions to establish and then solve these mysteries.

Thriller Research

Thriller genre is one that contains many different aspects mostly including murder, blood, and action. This is the basic of thriller movies and must be included. A lot of tension is created with very dramatic scenes which make the audience feel for the characters, this is mainly achieved by targeting women or children or innocent people in the movie. Thrillers mostly consist of an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime, murder and they show the society as dark, corrupt and dangerous. However on the other hand, they very often end with a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested. Thrillers heavily use things such as plot twists, which mean there is always a twist at the end, for example we as audience might think the villain is one person but it ends up as he was the innocent one and the innocent one was the villain.

There are many different genres of thrillers some of them are:
Mystery - Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or involved in political.
Crime- is mainly hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes
Supernatural- when the movies element is mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists
Psychological- the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical.
Action- where is conflict between to different people.
Disaster- main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes.

Genre

Each genre follows its own kinds of conventions - language, characteristic signs and sign systems. However, genres are fluid and not fixed and under constant renegotiation between media industry and audience through the combination of the familiar and the unexpected


Why is genre important?

•Gives a pattern for construction, a template
•Genre pieces have an established audience who are easy to market to
•Certain personnel can develop their skills working within a particular genre (e.g. horror make up specialists)
•Stars can associate themselves with a particular genre e.g. Jennifer Aniston is known for a certain type of romance comedy, and her facial expressions on a poster instantly tells audiences what kind of movie they are likely to see if she is in it.
•Fans of a genre know the codes, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time.

Why is audience important?

Audience is a very important concept throughout the media environment. All media texts are made with an audience in mind. Media is the first question producers should answer before making any other move. They need to plan what type of audience the films going to aim for, for example adults’ teens or children. After the question is been made, the producers need to ensure that it reaches the audience it is intended for. All media texts will have some sort of marketing campaign attached to them.

Analysis of Momento

The opening scene starts up with a non-diegetic audio. The first shot the audience see somebody holding a photo. After awhile the audience can see a more photo as we see that that it seems to be a blood. The audio that plays behind the scene gives an idea to the audience that the genre the film can be a thriller, as the tension being played by the non-diegetic soundtrack. Furthermore the picture can give us an indication of the genre of the film as the picture contains bloody images which are often related to thriller/horror.

The opening credits are placed in the middle of the scene which makes the credits stand out more. The first credit shows the audience what the film title is, 'M E M E N T O' this is an unusual way of lettering the title. This is all written in capitals and is placed in the middle of the frame. This is clever way of presenting the lettering because it stands out towards the audience and is eye-catching.

As the camera angle changes from the photo towards the man who is holding the picture is a medium shot of the actor. As the audience see the character we can see he is tensed. Also by looking at his face we see cuts and marks on his face. This could indicate that he has been involved in some kind of fight.

Diegetic sounds start to starts as the camera flashes, a close-up shot appears of blood dripping down a wall. The audience can see the male’s glasses on the floor along with a bullet, giving the impression it has been used. Then a little flashback comes on the scene so we the audience can see what really happened and who killed the man. The camera shot then changes into a medium-shot from behind a male at a high angle. The scene changes to black and white and we hear a narrative (the character) talking.

To conclude I think in my opinion Memento has a very clever/unusual opening sequence. The camera shots were very clever and involved many different angles which made the sequence look even better. The editing was also very good especially when we see the flash back and when the shots were reversed. Was a very clever way of making it, so the audience knows what happened before he died.

The usual suspects analysis

The opening scene starts off with a close up on some matchsticks as they are lit, the camera is tilting up to a medium close up of a wounded character. A panning shot is used to show a barrel and its fuel, the fuel within it is flowing out straight next to the wounded character. The wounded character drops the match to light the fuel. As the fuel is lit a series of cuts are used to show the flow of the fire towards the direction of the fuel barrel. As the fire flows, throughout the cuts, in the background the camera shows a dead body laying there, this explains parts of the story of the movie, as it shows that the opening sequence is a crime scene.

Niccs Task - Bourne Identity

Analysis of 'Silence of the Lambs'

The opening scene of the video started off in the woods, with a dull atmosphere which gives the audience a tense feeling. The shot was a median shot with a high angle and slowly went down the tree. The fog made the images look cold and misty- which indicates to the viewers something is going to happen.

In this shot the title of the movie came up on top of the video and followed with credits that appear on the video in the centre of the shot. The colour and font of the title could give the audience a clue to what type of genre the movie is ; as the titles appear on the screen the camera begins to go downwards from the high angle and showing the character holding on to the rope and pulling herself up. This straight away makes the audience think something is happening.

When the character starts running, the audience may think that she’s running away from something which again builds up the tension to the atmosphere. There is calm music theme playing in the background, and as the character gets closer we hear her breathing heavily and she looks very scared. The close up shot of the female character where she looks around, and seems like she is running away from something. The quick changes of the camera shots make the audience tensed up due to the range of close up shots;

The camera angles switches quickly from a close up medium shot of her running on the side and then changes to the front and she is running towards the camera. The close up of her legs indicate she is still running and that she is still in the woods. When the women speeds up and begins to jog as she is jogging the camera is speedily tracking her from a side a close up medium shot as she is running towards the camera.

As she carries on running, she ends up running into the fog. The camera is just focused on her, so we can see her face clearly. In this camera shot it is close up shot of her face, which shows the audience her reactions. In this scene it makes the audience become more tensed as we are looking out for something as she is running away. The tracking camera of the women running is fast, which indicates that the character is feared of something.

As she is running we hear a male’s voice and then he gets into the scene. This is known as the a Non-diegetic sound as it is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. As she carries on running after seeing the male character, she runs towards a big building- this is a long shot, as the audience can see an overall picture and get an idea of what is happening in the scene.

As the camera moves, the location changes now the audience can see the buildings. As she enters the building the theme music fades away. Now we can hear what we can see which is a diegetic sound. As she gets out the lift the camera moves towards a board saying “behavioural science department, this tells the viewers that she is some kind of scientist.

Overall the editing of the opening scene of the first six minutes of the video is a mixture of different edits. For example the first couple of minutes was full of quick and close up shots and tracking shot of the women running the woods. As she meets the male character the camera shots becomes slower than it was at the beginning. The sound used throughout the video was very smarty done as diegetic and non diegetic sound is used. For example diegetic sounds includes the natural sounds of the woods, the birds, and non diegetic sound included the man out of the scene talking.

Th art of editing - Enemy of the state

This sequence is used to build up tension to the audience. The camera angles and the editing has build up tension even more, for instance when the two characters were having a conversation, the camera angles change quickly to show each characters facial expressions. The sound track also used throughout the video also builds up tension to the audiences. The camera angle when the characters were talking was put at the same angle, so when the characters changed talking it was still at the same camera point.

This close up of the man’s hand is very effective; as this shows the audience what he is doing is something important. The quick camera angles of him putting a memory chip in and taking it out makes the audience think something is going to happen/suspense.

This median shot makes the audience see both the characters and their expression on what they are doing. This makes people see what is happening as he puts the memory chip. Mainly this median shot was taken for the audience to see the environment the characters are in and to show us the atmosphere there.

Shot one has been a very quick shot and a tracking shot of the man running with armed weapons. The camera locations changes to what is happening outside the building and changes back quickly to what is happening inside the building – this builds tense towards the audience. The music also makes the scene more tensing.

 Shot two this shot is a close up to the computer he is using after he has loaded the memory chip. This builds up tension as you can see the characters more serious.

The editing of this sequence fits in rather well with the thriller genre because of the soundtrack in the scene of the men outside. The tone of voice also helps as it does not sound excited and is a sort of serious tone of voice. Also the editing from one setting/scenario to another also adds to the thriller effect. Overall, the editing of this sequence fits in well with the thriller genre of the film.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

These two camera angles where taken at similar places which break the 30 degree rule and ended up with a jump cut. However the jump cut ended up to go with the flow of the music and story.

This shot was the match on action, the camera angels where good as you see the character opening the door handle, and then a close up of the door angel. However the it was an jump cut as the camera angle was on the same place but zoomed in.

This scene was a jump cut but in this video it looks good because as it builds up tension to the audiences.

This is the reversed shot conversation, which shows both the characters speaking from their shoulder view camera angle. the camera angle changes as the characters speak.

Preliminary task - Final video

Preliminary Task Pre-Production

I am working with Anujan and Aymen in a group of 3. We will be making a simple scene, which has a simple storyline but contains many different camera shots and with different angles. The story is a about a student who is insulted by another student from school. And what the student does when he finds out, that his class mate has been talking about his mother. 

This video will contain and match on action and a conversation between the two students.

The first scene is going to contain a student running to Anugan complain that Aymen has been talking about his mother.

The second scene will contain Anujan getting really angry – this builds up tension to the audience.

The third scene will show a match on action when Anujan storms out the door and walks down the stairs.

The fourth scene will show Anujan walking towards the classroom where Aymen would be

The fifth scene will show a close up of Anugan’s hand opening the classroom door

The sixth scene will show Anujan from a classroom view from a different camera angle, the same shot will show Anugan getting angry with Aymen

The seventh scene will show the conversation between Aymen and Anujan from a high angle

The eighth scene will show a close up of the conversation

Ninth scene will show a point of view shot from a student’s point of view

Tenth scene will show Anujan going out the classroom and reporting it to a teacher to the head of 6^th form