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.