Mise-en-scene

1) Lighting and colour -  Lighting helps the audience assume what type of genre the film is through the way the lighting is displayed. for example there is low key lighting (which is usually used in thrillers) and high key lighting. In my group we are going to be using different levels of low key lighting as this creates a mysterious atmosphere. Colour is also a convention for mise en scene as it associates emotions with different colours. For example:

• White typically represents purity and innocence
• Green typically represents envy 
• Black represents evil or danger through the darkness 
• Red represents lust or love, anger or danger, blood or violence
• Blue represents coldness, sadness or depression
• Yellow-represents sunshine or happiness

In our thriller film opening we will use colours such as red, black and white to symbolize love, violence, blood and death.


2) Costumes and make-up/hair - The use of costume and make up make actors develop more as a character which creates a forced judgement  on how the audience perceive them. The costume may include things like style of dress, garments, accessories and hairstyle. Make-up can make characters either seem more appealing/glamorous or normal (without makeup). Make up in the earlier years of cinema was used to highlight facial features as black and white films could not show every detail. In thriller films make up is used to create a fearful effect, for example by smudging their make up it will make women look more in need or in danger. Ripped costumes give the impression that something bad has happened, suits can make a character look more important and black clothing can make someone look more sinister.

3) Setting and props - Location is key when it comes to mise-en-scene as it sets the tone of the film. This can be an outside location or an inside location. With a thriller film the typical conventions of setting would be a dark ally or woods. However these conventions have been used to much making them become cliched. Props  can help determine the narrative, identity of character and genre. Semiology can come into this as well such as by using to a gun to symbolize violence. 

4) Facial expressions and body language -  By using this the camera is able to capture the emotion of the characters. This includes hand gestures, postures, and facial expressions which is shown clearly by the physical, mental, or emotional actions. With the non verbal communication the audience is able to assume characteristics about the character on how they are feeling by not being directly told. For example, if a character is scared we can tell by their worried facial expression.


5) Position of characters and objectives in a frame -  The way characters are positioned within a frame can tell the audience a lot about the character. This includes levels of social status by which how the characters are centered and angled. In thriller films, a murderer usually the dominates the scene and the victim  which can be displayed by staging the levels of the characters.

Thriller Questionnaire

Our thriller questionnaire overall got us back some good primary research. The questions we asked were more related to our idea and the feedback was good although some of the questions were hard to understand if you didn't know alot about thrillers which caused us to sometimes influence the answers that were given or otherwise they were left blank. When we asked our audience wether they preferred 18 or 15 rated films the majority of them said 18 because the content is not limited, they also said that they would not expect to see anything explicit in the first two minutes even in an 18, this tells us that we should just build up the suspense and atmosphere in the opening. Further more we also found out that our audience would rather the setting be somewhere unsuspecting like a normal day-to-day scene. Rather than a woods or a usual aery atmosphere because it has been done to many times and it is typically associated with thrillers. For the protagonists and antagonist we found out that they would prefer the protagonist to be normal looking and attractive, and the antagonist to look normal too, this creates the effect that the antagonist could be anyone.
We also found out from our research that the titles should be black or red this ties in the the thriller feel. We associate black with darkness, and red with danger or anger. We also asked what their favorite thriller films were, although some people were unsure of what films classified as a thriller this enabled us to go away and watch these films to get ideas of story lines. We also found out that are audience like to be in suspense for the first part of the film, to keep them interested and thinking.
I think we gained some good information from our questionnaires although some of the information was vague, I think we could have done a group discussion to improve this that way we could have gone into more detail.

In thursdays lesson we looked at some thriller openings that previous years had created. After watching them we had to think about what grade they would be given, this helped me to focus on everything that happened in the clip, including camera, mise-en-scene, sound, editing and titles. Some of the clips had really good ideas and pulled them off well but some didnt, this made me realise that it was going to be difficult to get everything perfect. When we graded them we had a mark sceme to help us, I found this helpful to look at as it had everything you need to include to enable you to get top grades. I noticed when watching previous openings that some of the same story lines had been used variuos times this made me think that our opening needs to be different.

Things that we have to focus on while filming/editing our opening

Framing a shot, making sure we include everything we need and take out things that atre not improtant.

Use a variety of shot distances, this will give the audince variety and ensure they dont get bored watching our opening.

Be sure to look at the brief we have been given and make it relevent to it.

Choose appropriate mise-en-scene that relates to the theme, including colour, figure, lighting, objecte and setting.

Make sure the photogarphs are the right size and are apporpriate to the opening.

Make sure the language that is used is approtate and relevent.

Show a varety of fonts and designs, that will be related to the theme.

make sure the opening is edited well and the filming and cutting is profectional.

Camera Shots

Different types of shots

long shot - shows entire item or human and some suroundings
extreme long shot - subject is small, shows all suroundings
panning - stays in one place and camera moves
tracking - camer on wheels moving
low angle - looking up
high angle - looking down
point of veiw shot - what the charcter sees
medium shot - full length of subject not much surrounding shown
two shot - two people
shoulder shot - looking over one characters shoulder at another charcter during convsation
shot reverse shot - cut to each charceter while in convosation
birds eye veiw - looking straight down at a scene
worms eye veiw - looking stright up

Brainstorm for thriller opening

When we come to make our thriller opening we need to consider a few important things like:

The music - should be tense and quite, and non diegetic, I think it would build the tension if the music got louder and then sudenly stoped at the end, this would create a sence of unknowingness, and intrest the audince.

The mise-en-scene - should reflect the music and should set the scene well for what people would expect to see in a thriller opening the lighting should be eary and almoast quite dark, there should be approprate props that realte to our theme.

Titles - The titles should not interuped the opening of the movie, e.g should not keep cutting to title and then back again this would not allow the audince to focus on what is happening.

Characters - The characters should realte to the theme, in our case there should be a victim - murdered/injured, detectives and whitnessess.

Location - The location could be somewhere insuspecting e.g in a family home or somehwere like that. 

Continuity Editing Task

For this task we had to create a short clip focusing on the camera and editing. This was to improve our skills and try out what we had learnt in lessons. The task had a set of rules which were:
- you must not break the 180 degree rule
- you must include shot reverse shot
- you must include a variety of camera angles
- you must edit so continuity is apparent and clear
- you must include more than one location
- you must include interaction between characters

- you must include non-diegetic sound




The first thing we did was made a shot list,
this included every shot that we were going to
film. This gave us a structure and made it easy
to apply and think about all the rules which were set.












Then we made a story board, this enabled us to
gain a better understanding of what our clip
was going to be about and in what order we were
going to film it in, it also made us think about different angles we could us like a low angle shot to make the 'bully' look bigger.





















After we finished planning the clip, we started filming and then producing it. By looking at our shot list and our story board it was easy to get an idea of how we wanted to do it. After we did every shot we looked back at it to see if we could make any improvements, e.g. if the camera wasn't straight or if it was shaky, or if we could just do it from a better angle, this enabled us to have a wider selection when we cam to edit it. Acting in the clip was Danni, Lauren and Ashley, while Hannah and I were filming it. However we all contributed ideas. when we were filming the clip i found a couple of thing quite difficult but most of all was trying not to break the 180 degree rule, we found ourselves always thinking about what angles would break the rule, although towards the end of the task it got easier and we understood it more. By doing this task it has made me realize how difficult filming and editing is, and has given me a better idea about what it is going to be like to do our thriller opening.

Conventions of crime and psychological thrillers

Crime films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or gangsters, particularly bankrobbers who work outside the law, stealing and violently murdering their way through life. In the 1940s, a new type of crime thriller was created which became more dark and cynical. Criminal and gangster films are similar to film noir or detective-mystery films. Crime films include:

• Suspense to create tension between characters- keeps audience entertained
• Murders/robbery's/shoot outs/double cross/crime related scenarios
• Can include the rise and fall of a criminal  which is often based on real people
• Location is usually in a large city to provide the viewer with an insight into a secret world
• Main characters have an ambitious for desire for success or recognition
• Rivalry between binary opposite characters is strong
• Dark night clubs lurid neon signs, fast cars, piles of cash, sleazy bars,
• Exotic locales for crimes often add an element of adventure and wealth.

Psychological thriller films is a subgenre of thriller fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot. The titles are usually formatted in a white text agasint a black background

• The central theme of 'identity' which can be mistaken identity, stolen identity, dual identity, doppelgangers, confused identity and amnesia
• The theme of 'perception and reality' gives the sense of seeing the narrative from the perspective of multiple characters
• The theme of 'memory' can often involve the torture of an individual with a traumatic memory or specific last memory
• 'Technical devices' such as flashbacks and repetition in editing are common. 
•  Imagery is used such as a close up of eyes
• Creates effects to entertain the audience