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.