Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock (Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock) was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen, whilst remaining a British subject. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in his whole career.

Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13^th August 1899, Leytonstone, London and sadly died on the 29^th April 1980 (aged 80).

Hitchcock's films sometimes feature characters struggling in their relationships with their mothers. In North by Northwest (1959), Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant's) is an innocent man ridiculed by his mother for insisting that shadowy, murderous men are after him. In The Birds (1963), the Rod Taylor character, an innocent man, finds his world under attack by vicious birds, and struggles to free himself of a clinging mother (Jessica Tandy).

Preliminary Task

Preliminary task:

The Preliminary task is not awarded any marks, but if you do not complete the task you lose marks.
The preliminary task is a demonstration of continunity editing.
It must show you can successfully use;

• Match on action
• Shot/reverse shot
• 180 degree rule
• eyeline match

Key Edits:
Match on action - We see a character start an action in one shot and then we see them continue it in the next.

180 Degree Rule:
The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline that states that 2 characters (or other elements) in some scene should always have the same left/right relationship to eachother.

If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the 2 subjects, it is called crossing the line.

In the sequence we should see the following action unfold:

• Character A walks towards a closed door
• Character A enters through the door and crosses a room in where character B is seated

This means character A and B have a dialogue, one eyeline match and either character A or B exits.

This is my preliminary task:

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal activity was made in 2007, it lasts 87 minutes and the genre is a Horror/mystery. This film was released on 25^th November 2009 in the UK.

The film is about a couple moving to a Suburban home, then the couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

Director:

Oren Peli                              

Writer:

Oren Peli

Stars:

Katie Featherston , Micah Sloat and Mark Fredrichs

This film cost them £15,000 (estimated) to make, this is a good budget to have as most Hollywood films cost over £100,000 to make so therefore Paranormal Activity is a very cheap film to make and because of this they earn a lot of profit.

The main problem in the paranormal activity films are that they make supernatural seem believable, other films that also have this problem are ‘the exorcist’.

The suspense is achieved by many screens in daylight is them analysing what happened throughout the night.

The amateurish filming makes it believable, so like we could do it ourselves.

The ways the director makes us believe the film by:

·        Bringing an expert in

·        Dr Fredericks and Dr Abraham

The handheld camera they use within this film makes it seem more realistic, also it becomes our eyes as we are watching through the camera to see when any spooky events happen. Also we are watching them sleeping, this acts as in we are in the film too.

Also in this film there is no non-digetic sound, also simple noises become scary. Furthermore there is an effective use of light/shadows/darkness, which creates evilness as we can barely see what’s happening so we struggle like the main characters do.

Finally in this film we are waiting all the time for the demon to strike, as this is what happens all throughout the film so therefore we expect it.

127 Hours

127 hours is a 2010 biographical adventure film co-written produced by Danny Boyle.

The film stars are James Franco as mountain climber Aron Ralston, who became trapped by a boulder in Robbers Roost, Utah in April 2003.

127 Hours is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he can be rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers, family, and the two hikers he met before his accident.

This film lasts 94 minutes, the ‘threat’ is not from a person, it is from nature for example Rock, sun, thirst and water. This film makes the audience sympathize the climber Aron Ralston because he is in a troubled situation and it seems like a matter of life and death.

This film is a simple story that grips the viewer and makes them want to carry on watching the film. When the arm is first trapped we notice the effective of the music and how it makes the scene feel more tension building than what it actually is, also we notice how the effective use of silence increases tension at the appropriate moments.

Finally there is an effective use of close up and detail during this film, especially when he cut off his own arm.

Source Code 2011

Source Code is an action thriller based on a solider who's in the body of an unknown man, and who was on a mission to find the bomber of a chicago bomber train.


Director:


Duncan Jones

Writer:

Ben Ripley

Stars:


Jake Gyllenhaal
Michelle Monaghan
Vera Faminga
Russell Peters
Jeffrey Wright

This film had its world premiere on March 11, 2011.

Budget:

$32,000,000 to make this film, over the opening weekend it made $14,312,000 (USA).

Review:

'I was very fortunate to be at the World Premiere at SXSW in Austin and attended the Q&A after with James Duncan, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ben Ripley. The story line keeps you on the edge of your seat and adds in enough humor to make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. There is amazing, subtle chemistry between Jake and Michelle which really is the star of the film, performances by all the actors are excellent. Beautiful cinematography that will make Chicago proud. The ending brings up more questions than answers, but it feels right, so that's OK with me. I am not a big sci-fi fan, but this film delivers on romance, suspense, mystery and thrills. Highly recommended.'

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian candidate was made in 1959 by Richard Condon. This film is a political thriller novel. The son of prominent is political family who is brainwashed into being an assassin for a communist party.

The Manchurian candidate (1962):

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver. The picture was directed by John Frankenheimer from an adaptation by George Axelrod of Richard Condon's 1959 novel. This film was directed by John Frankenheinner, the film is in black and white.

The Manchurian candidate (2004):

This film was directed by Johnathan Demme, the stars in this film were Denzel Washinton, Live Schreiber, Meryl Streep and Kimberly Elise.

In this film there is one main (resourceful hero) Major Ben Marco, he is trying to regain and unravel his sanity.

This film is made up of different Genre’s, they are as follows Political Thriller, Paranoid thriller and physiological thriller.

The director elaborates and makes the film bigger than life, also sadder than life and darker and bigger. This film is a manipulation of the human life.

This version differs from the original version, where the drowning in the water creates a dreamlike state by the remote lake. The director wanted to symbolise the fact that the main characters were drowning.

In this version the use of Non-diegetic music enhances the tension when Raymond approaches the lake to kill his next victim, this is the key to the thriller scene.

At the end of the film Raymond decides to sacrifice himself. Also we noticed that there was an inappropriate relationship between Raymond and Eleanor.

I preferred the 2004 version as this version was the recent one and so it wasn’t in black and white and also the film just seemed more realistic as it was up to date.

Physco (1960)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Joseph Stefano (Screen play)

Robert Bloch (Novel)

Stars:

Anthony Perkins

Janet Leigh

Vera Miles

Marion Crane is fed up of the way life has treated her, so she steals the £40,000 and runs away with it, the weather was terrible so she stops off at the Bates Motel.

We initially think the hotel is managed by a nice young man, also he appears normal at the start.

This time the external threat is a mad man, with a deranged mind.

There was a few big scenes these were the shower scene in this scene we see blood, water and a women’s naked body but in them days they had to sensor the private parts by putting legs in certain positions, there was also the car scene where we wonder whether the car is going to sink or not.

In Physco we can say there is actually not a hero, we initially think that the detective is the hero but then he gets killed by the mother so then there is no hero.

Physco flouts expectations, also there is two major surprises one is the shower murder scene, because you don’t expect her to get murdered, also at the end of the film you don’t expect the mother to be a copse as we thought she was a normal person as she was speaking in the film but then we realise it was the son all along.

Also in this film the screenplay tricked us, Marrion was the main character but she gets killed off. Furthermore there was no advanced screenings of Physco, because they tried to hide it.

Out of the many Hitchcock’s films this is the one that has had the most hits in America. Bernard Herrmann’s strident discordant music has been used in countless other films.

Finally in this film we see blood, water, and a women’s naked body.    

The Birds (1963)

This film is 119 minutes long, its genre is a Horror/Thriller.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock.

Writers:

Daphne Du Mauerier (Story)

Evan Hunter (Screen play)

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a man to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the worst when it gets surrounded by birds.

In this thriller the threat is from nature, thrillers are characterized by fast pacing movement. There are many moments that create suspense, for example there are long quiet moments, then you hear the birds flutter and automatically know something is going to happen.

The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by the birds near the end of the movie took a week to shoot. The birds were attached to her by long nylon threads. The movie features 370 shots. Also there were a number of endings that were considered, furthermore the film does not finish with the usual ‘The End’ because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of an unending terror. Hendren was actually cut in the face by a bird in one of shots. Finally there is no musical score for the film except the sound of the birds.

North by Northwest (1959)

A New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is perused across the county while he looks for a way to survive.

Director:

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Writer:

 ERNEST LEHMAN

Stars:

CARRY GRANT

EVA MARIE SAINT

JAMES MASON

Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action. The man (Mr Thornhill) was deserted waiting for Kaplan, film maker builds tension by having cars drive by and a man waiting for the bus to make us think that Kaplan but then Thornhill is attacked by a person in a plane and then the plane crashes into a petrol tank and it explodes this creates tension and this grabs the attention of passers-by so they stop and get out of the cars and Thornhill steals one of the cars to escape from the villain.

“resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains” – this is true because he stole the man’s clothes on the train so he was undercover and it would of took them a longer time to find him.

Devices such as suspense red herrings and cliff-hanger’s are used extensively in north by northwest by when he was hanging off of the cliff this was a cliff-hanger and was a suspending moment because we didn’t know if he was going to die or not. Also when Eve Kendal took Roger Thornhill into her room we thought she was in on it, but we eventually find out she wasn’t.

A Thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome. MacGuffin is a plot element that drives the plot along, in North by North west they had to protect the microfilm, so this drives the plot along because you wonder whether they are going to lose it or not. The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do anything and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, in some ways also unimportant to the plot, common examples are often money, victory, glory and survival.

The MacGuffin is common in films, especially thrillers commonly though not always the McGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act. It may come back into play at the climax of the story but sometimes it is normally forgotten by the end of the film.

Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience “to put their tow in cold water of fear to see what it’s like” The genre is flexible and can engage the audience through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social and political tensions.

Media Studies Introduction

Course Outline AS

Media Studies AS

• Assessed by coursework
• 50% of AS level
• Two pieces of coursework
• Preliminary Exercise - short filmed sequence demonstrating basic understanding of film language.
• The titles  and opening of a new fiction film in the thriller genre.

Key Media Concepts

• Written Examination
• Two hours
• 50% of AS Level

Section A

• Textual analysis and represent unseen extract of a television drama program.

Section B

• Institutions and Audiences
• A case study of the British and US film industries
• Looking at films such as; avatar, shifty, The kings speech and looking for Eric

AS Coursework

• Marks are awarded for demonstrating excellence in the following criteria:
• Holding a shot steady
• Framing a shot
• Using a variety of shot distances
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set

Welcome!

Welcome to my Media blog, this blog is going to chart my progress as i complete my Media coursework.