Our target audience is 18-30 years old. We plan to keep a young adult age for our movie, due to the actors being a young age, and the audience is able to relate to some of the issues and events that will come. We will need to keep to 18 plus due to the violence we plan to have in our film, but due to our equipment, we will have only suggestions of it, rather than showing the graphical scenes. We will keep our audience hooked with our suspense that seems to last from the beginning. This is similar to some of Hitchcock’s greatest films. He was restricted to 10 minute filming scenes, due to the cameras, and he overcame this with a dark object passing by as he put a new camera reel in. This meant he could keep the audience in suspense for more than 10 minutes without making them bored. We plan to do it for 2 minutes. We will use editing such as fast transitions, but only before the suspense breaks, and we plan to keep a lot of the POV so the audience is kept as close to the danger as possible, and only know what the characters know.
The 3 actors will engage in typical conversation that people of that age would have, to keep to our target audience. We also plan to keep the idea of having them camping out with a camera to record their journeys, which links in with the target audience as well.
Opening titles The titles are typically worn away, and are fairly dark. The titles are bold, faded and quite distort. The font is very thick, and has a print effect to it, as if it’s been painted on a long while ago. The title sequence is dark and spooky, where the music is building suspense to the tune of the titles. The titles and music works together to create tension and fear for the viewers. This is because when we typically think of a zombie thriller/horror we think of a worn down civilisation close to its end, with a zombie outbreak destroying everything. The titles seem as if they have been there for a while and are worn down by the destruction of it all. The titles are often a prologue to the events that have jsut happened in the past, such as a disaster that mankind was almost wiped out by. This is to inform the viewers of what happened.
Music The music is typically eerie and jumpy. Lots of drums and always needs to build suspense. The music comes on when the monsters near.
Mise-en-Scene Location: Typically urban, either close to civilisation or completely isolated. This is to link in with the theme of the end of the world. Lighting: Ambient lighting, dark, and never enough light when you need to see things. The monster is always near when something malfunctions. This is to keep suspense and only show enough to scare people. They fill in the rest of the ideas. Props: Normally many props in an urban area, such as plastic bags and destruction, but if inside, quite minimal, due to the isolation theme. Costumes: Casual clothing, to standardise the daily life that has gone wrong. Narrative: The protagonist is exposed to a world on its edge, where the antagonist thrives. The protagonist stuggles to survive, usualy alone, against the overwhelming antagonist, and succeeds in the end. There is usualy an equilibrium in the end, unless the movie plans on a sequel, where some of the issues are unsolved.
Thrillers are made up of many different amounts of sub genres, making them viable to appeal to almost anyone. We also like the jumps and rushes we get from watching a character being chased or walking slowly to meet their demise. We know what will happen, but not how, or when, giving us suspense to look forward to. A thriller is also very common for showing the suggestion of something scary, but then we find out later, it was nothing, but we know there was something there and still is. A thriller can take part as the point of view of the main character(s) or it could be a sort of documentation of something that has already happened, showing the viewers more than what the characters know.
The characters are typically seen as very good at their job, very strong and quite heroic looking, but the villain is always better equipped, and seems to be cleverer than the hero, until they are inevitably caught. You can either get the ‘I don’t care’ thriller lead, or the ‘all I think about is my job’ lead, and the villain always sees the flaw in the hero and at one point or more in the movie, will exploit it, such as in the movie face off, his son was shot by the villain, and it is frequently brought up on the hero. The themes of thrillers are almost always exaggerated and only include crimes in a much larger scale, such as an alien invasion, mass murder, terrorists or assassinations, identity,
Main plot points include violent confrontations, saving the Femme Fatale, themes of mirroring past events, and recent, or the villain mocking or arguing against a flaw in the modern society that they do not like. More modern types of thrillers are psychological thrillers, where the villain could be less superior to the hero, but knows well of the heroes flaw, and is stronger only intellectually, making a whole new different way of scaring the audience. The monster in psychological thrillers could be anything; an inferior physical force made superior only by their intellect, a supernatural entity, aliens or serial killers.
Sub Genres Action Thrillers consists of a race against the clock, lots of explosions and chases. The antagonist is exposed the whole time, and the protagonist is usually searching for something. The hero isn’t always a good guy in this; they could be someone who we just cheer for due to his characteristics. A Crime Thriller is usually based around the crimes the villain creates, rather than the characters themselves, we are only given the characteristics of the villain by what crimes they create. The good guy is usually very good at his job, and it is his last job he has to solve, but always the worst. A Disaster Thriller is based around natural events where the protagonist may be a group of people who are stranded and the antagonist is not a physical being, but the idea of the reason why the natural event came, such as in The day after Tomorrow, the antagonist is us, due to global warming. A Drama Thriller is based wholly on character relationships and twisted plot lines. The crimes in these are usually quite controversial, and take a very long time to develop. A Horror Thriller is a mix between physical, mentally and emotionally conflict between characters. The thrills are created through fear and gruesome images rather than a psychological wait created by suspense. The protagonists are usually up against an overwhelming force, and will soon become victims themselves, and the antagonist is a monster, of physically or mentally being. A Psychological Thriller is based on an emotional and mental side of the heroine’s character. The antagonist exploits the flaw in the protagonist and eventually, they have a showdown where the flaw is overcome by the antagonist’s defeat. A Spy Thriller is much like an action thriller, in the fact that the hero is often a government agent who has to take action against an overwhelming force against the government. There is also Science-Fiction Thrillers where the villain is an alien or supernatural force. The hero in this is usually well equipped with powerful weapons, or completely exposed with only their intelligence and coincidental events that assists in the defeat of the villain, such as in Signs and Jurassic Park.
Seven, also known as Se7en was directed by David Fincher in 1995. There are many conventions and semiotics that suggest to us the genre of the film in the opening of the film.
To start, we know it is a thriller by the soundtrack. The music is quite distorted. This gives us a sense of the films substance, where the narrative is shown to us through what we know as media students is a scary soundtrack. It starts off with a pendulum ticking. This reflects the personality of the character and makes the audience seem unsettled, due to this regularity of the ticking. The soundtrack is slow at first, with very eerie creaks and a low drum sound. The squeaky sounds give us the idea of dementia, as well as the things on screen showing this as well. The music slowly builds with drum beats and eerie sounds through out, and ends with the words “You get me closer to god!” in a distorted voice. This reflects the narrative of the film, where the murders are related to the seven deadly sins. Religion is used a lot in thrillers, as it gives the audience a sense of a higher being, far superior to them who are in control of the antagonist making them bend to the religions “rules”. The rules may not be the actual rules, but the antagonist bends them making them seem correct to them. There is a lot of digetic sound in the opening sequence, such as the yelling of people outside the window, the sirens of the police cars, the car alarms and the barking dogs. These sounds are all taken as conventions of a crime genre, and we know of them as a danger. These all contrast to the formality of the ticking of the pendulum.
The lighting in the whole title sequence is all through lamps or torches. It is very dark and is hard to see throughout the whole of it. The light always seems to focus on the important parts of the scene as well, and darkens out the rest of it. There is flashing lights throughout, which are very unsettling and makes the objects on screen seem threatening. We would think that the room the person is in is very dark, and all they have to see is a lamp, which barely works. This may work with the religion theme, of having only what you need, bare necessities.
The location of Seven is unknown from the title sequence, but it seems to be a run down town or city. We know this by the typical set of an apartment, and the yelling and sirens of a police car. You only see the sets of 2 apartments, both of the 2 main characters, where they both contrast, the messy, informal man with his wife, and the neat, formal man on his own. We do not see the setting of the antagonist, which gives us the sense of not knowing what it to come. It is also typical of a thriller to not give any valuable information on the antagonist at the beginning of it, or else it would ruin the plot. We are more scared of a thing which we don’t know much about.
There are a few props we see in this sequence, such as a bible, pen and sharpened piece of metal. These are powerful semiotics that tell us of religion and danger, which are themes in this film. It looks like a bible what the first book shaped figure that appears on screen, or it may be a diary, but either way, we do not know, and we cannot read what he writes, except the words “D 35” which appears on screen. This is unknown to us at this moment, but later on we find out is a record of one of the murder plots. The sharpened metal is used by the person to cut the skin off his fingers. This is to hide finger prints they may leave behind. It also tells us that they are sick and twisted as a person, to do it. The pendulum shows us the formality of one of the characters, which is part of his characters personality, which is a contrast to the other character. The pictures the person is cutting out are actually pictures of one of the victims of one of his murders.
The transitions are all very fast during the part with the unknown person. It starts off with a sort of establishing shot of the room. It then shows us a close up of the pendulum and then the characters glasses being placed on the bedside table beside him, then moves up following his hand, ending on the pendulum. The next shot is a slow zoom into the character who may be reflecting on the sound of the pendulum or the sound of the sounds outside. It then quickly changes to the pendulum again, then continues the zoom on the character, and then finishes zooming slowly on the pendulum. There is then lots of fast paced close ups of the unknown persons work place, with the book/diary, pen, pictures and fingers. The sequence closes on the other main character waking up next to his bed as a medium shot. There is lots of fast, almost subliminal shots of important props and signs through out the sequence, which is very chaotic.
The titles are all shown in black, contrasting to white. The text is worn down, and is very shaky. When the text Se7en is shown on screen, it is first shown really far away, and then is immediately forced closely to the screen, and shakes with distortion with rapid white lines flashing. The font is very worn down, and looks ruined.
The 2 main characters are very typical of a crime thriller, the cop who is very good at his job, and the one who is very “unsettled” where you can see that the antagonist will provoke this flaw, where as the cop which is calm, has no visible flaw. The antagonist, who is the person we are not told of in the sequence, is not shown in any way, but the music, lighting and other conventions and semiotics we see tell us he is a bad character, who is sick, and twisted.
Se7en is a thriller, but has signs and slight overlaps of the conventions of a horror. We get the sense of suspense, but we also get the visible gruesome graphics of a horror.
Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he was best known for his work in film title sequences. Bass has worked with many of the world’s greatest directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, who also is a famous director known for his work in title sequences. Bass is also a graphic designer, is well known for designing logos, such as the Quaker Oats and the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, in America. Bass studied at the Art Student's League in Manhattan and during his work there, he realized how important film title sequences can be.
Bass was a very well experienced film maker by 1959, where he created a title sequence for one of Hitchcock’s best films, “North by Northwest” which is suspense film about identity. Hitchcock was well known for keeping the audience well in their seats with his choice of music and camera shots. The title sequence in this film shows a grid of lines that are laid out to give the effect of a building which appears after it. There are many clues in the theme of this film by the opening titles, such as the mirror reflection on the glass of the building as a theme of identity.
Bass was also responsible for one of the most well remembered murder scenes, which includes a silhouette of a person being killed in a bathroom through the curtains. You only get shots of locations in the room, such as the plug with the red water running down it, giving you a clue as to what has happened.
Life and Awards Alfred Hitchcock was an extremely famous film maker and producer. He was particularly famous for his techniques of creating suspense. He directed more than fifty films in his life, and remains one of the most well known producers of all times. Being very famous, Hitchcock did receive many awards, such as Best Director for Psycho (1960), Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945) and Read Window (1954). He was also considered as the ‘Best Film Director of all time’ by The Screen Directory, and, was knighted in 1980. His most famous works were; Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, and Psycho. When Hitchcock was young, his father sent him to the local police station asking them to lock him away for ten minutes as a punishment for behaving badly. The idea of being treated harshly or wrongly accused, and many other life events Hitchcock experienced were reflected as plots in his films. His father died when he was 14, and that same year Hitchcock left to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in London. Once he had graduated, he became a draftsman and an advertising designer for a cable company. While working there, he became more and more intrigued with photography, and began to work in film production in London as a title-card designer for what would become Paramount Pictures. He eventually received a full time position at Islington Studios as the designer for titles of silent movies.
Films Shadow of a Doubt is one of Hitchcock’s personal favorite films. It features a young woman who suspects her Uncle of being a serial murderer. It was filmed in Santa Rosa, California, which is portrayed as a peaceful, small American city.
Psycho is without a doubt one of Hitchcock’s greatest films. It was acclaimed as one of the most effective horror films, and is now a genre defining film, and almost every scene is legendary. Many of the scenes have been copied or parodied, including the hugely controversial scene of the shower murder, which has been studied, discussed and analysed countless times on how it is so truly horrifying. The scene shows only three, almost subliminal frames of film showing the penetration of the knife. This gives it a whole new look into the psychological side of the thriller/horror genre, making you suspect the worse, never actually seeing much. There was also the music to take account; the short stabbing high pitched screeching sounds, as if it’s the knife piercing the air or skin. This tune is probably one of the most well remembered conventions for the music of thriller/horror having almost anyone who knew the film remembering it.
Psycho is without a doubt one of Hitchcock’s greatest films. It was acclaimed as one of the most effective horror films, and is now a genre defining film, and almost every scene is legendary. Many of the scenes have been copied or parodied, including the hugely controversial scene of the shower murder, which has been studied, discussed and analysed countless times on how it is so truly horrifying. The scene shows only three, almost subliminal frames of film showing the penetration of the knife. This gives it a whole new look into the psychological side of the thriller/horror genre, making you suspect the worse, never actually seeing much. There was also the music to take account; the short stabbing high pitched screeching sounds, as if it’s the knife piercing the air or skin. This tune is probably one of the most well remembered conventions for the music of thriller/horror having almost anyone who knew the film remembering it.
North by Northwest is a suspense film about a tale of mistaken identity where an innocent man is perused across America by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out some microfilm. (Tiny Documents). It could be seen as one of the first James Bond films, due to the main characters characteristics.
The Birds is about a wealthy San Francisco playgirl pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness. It is a horror film based on a book by Daphne du Maurier around the theme of the revenge of nature.
Hitchcock used a specific camera zoom in many of his films, one being remembered as the Hitchcock Zoom, which has the camera on a dolly zooming back where the main picture stays the same, but the background moves,. This was best known in his film called Vertigo, where it gives the effect of Vertigo, an emotion causing the person so see images distort and change in panic.
Another of Hitchcock's devices is incorporating the number 13 into scenes for its superstitious nature. For example, in Psycho, Norman Bates first chooses cabin 3, then turns to cabin 1, for Marion Crane. She is spotted driving in a car where the license plate numbers add up to 13. 13 being an unlucky number, you know what will happen to them, if you can spot it. Hitchcock also used suspense much more than surprise in his films. In surprise, the director assaults the viewer with frightening things. In suspense, the director tells or shows things to the audience which the characters in the film do not know, and then artfully builds tension around what will happen when the characters finally learn the truth. Hitchcock once said "There's two people having breakfast, and there's a bomb under the table. If it explodes, that's a surprise. But if it doesn't..."
Placing an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances is a common element of Hitchcock's films, as well as the mistaken identity as a common plot device (such as the plot of North by Northwest). Sexuality often came in as a strong theme in many of his films, such as the plot line of Psycho; the sexual feelings are expressed with violent behaviors. To emphasize suspense, he commonly used Silent Scenes, where he used graphic rather than dialogue to portray the narrative.
Famous Quotes “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” "There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it." "In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man." "Suspense is like a woman; the more left to the imagination, the more the excitement." "I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it." "Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints." "I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach." "Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table." "The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture." "Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.
Welcome to Group 4's AS Media Production blog. The team consists of Adam Marshall and Simon Holland. We plan on creating a hybrid genre of a thriller and a horror film. We will include the suspense from the Thriller genre, and the conventional narrative of a Horror genre to create our movie. We hope you enjoy our movie and blog, thanks!
