Treatment for my thriller

Our Thriller name is - Phonecall!

Outline of idea's:
1 man - Who is the killer/murderer
3 girls - 2 innocent, 1 not
1 phone call, to one girl

The resources that we will need:
4 mobile phones
1 male, 3 female actors
3 bedroom settings
3 front door settings

Justification of ideas in relation to the genre:
Mystery
Mysterous phonecall
Young naive protagonist

Thriller survey

Below is my thriller survey, please take a few minutes to fill in this survey.
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MISE EN SCENE

Is a French term meaning 'what is put into the scene or frame'. A simple shot of a tree can be made to look threatening by stripping of its leaves, adding a creature or some lightening and shooting it in darkness.
The same tree can be given a different look if it is surrounded by children and shot in a sunny light.

Settings
The settings used in a film are very rarely just backgrounds to the characters' dialogue and we will often see shots of places without any action taking place. Settings can also be used to manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then the action turns out different.

Props
Props is the term we give to objects in the setting which play a part in the action, rather than just being part of the background.

Costume
Costume plays a large part in the mise en scene because it can be an instant indicator to us of a characters personality social status and their job. It also tells us whether the film is set in the present and what society or culture it will centre around. It could also provide a clue to part the part the character will play in the action.

Make-up

In the early days of the cinema, makeup was used to highlight facial features as black and white film stock could not register detail very well. Some certain genres traditionally use make-up more than others.

Consideration of target audience

Target Audience -

Age -

• what age group of people go to the cinema?

Gender -

• What appeals to women?
• What appeals to men?

Women:

Physcological

Music

Story

Interesting Characters

Men:

Fighting

Gory scenes

Horror

Being drawn into the film

If known stars are presented in the film

Thrillers on currently in the cinema (24th January 2012) are:

Haywire - released on the 18th January 2012



The analysis of a past students work

Hide and Seek -
This is one of the AS 2011 media studies thriller videos:

Format of video:

At the beginning of the video they have placed their school they attended and the course number, then the next part they had their full name and their candidate number.

They also used 'Livetype' for their logo animation at the beginning, the titles were presented in a animated format.

They also had to use non copy-right music, this is because they would have had to have payed to use a 'well known' piece of music, the website where they got the non copy-right music was from www.mobygratis.com this is a well known music site and has non copy-right music on there, they had to ask the owner of the music for their permission to use the music and if they replied telling the individuals they can then they were allowed to use it.

Thriller Openings

Momento:

Conventions –

• Weapons
• Enigma – When the Polaroid goes backwards

Camera –

• Close up shot

Editing –

• Black and white scene – this resembles a dream or a flash back

Sound –

• Depressing, slow music

Mise-en-scene –

• Black and white – which means a dream or flashback
• Also this scene is very dull and dirty

Brick:

Conventions –

• Curious character
• Flash backs

Camera –

• Out of focus at the beginning
• Zoomed

Editing –

• Short sequence
• Graphic match – Bracelets and the past

Sound –

• Lively music

Mise-en-scene –

• Dull colours

Zodiac:

Conventions –

• Curious car driving around
• Weapons in scene
• Man killed for no reason

Camera –

• Long shot

Editing –

• Didn’t see the man with the gun, so they edited him out

Sound –

• 3 different types of music
• Digetic and non digetic sound, the song resembles the film

Mise-en-scene –

• Town setting, dull and dark

Cliff-hangers

Cliffhangers are sometimes, although not always used.

Often feature a main character in a precarious or difficult situation or confronted with a shocking revelation.

This can entice the audience to keep watching in order to see how the situation resolves itself.

For example – The Italian job (1969), Gives a witty example of this in its famous ending.

Red Herrings

A red herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance, an example of this is source code.

For example – in ‘saw’ two characters spend time imprisoned in a room in which a third character lies dead. Throughout the film, both characters appear to be guilty of a series of murder, until it is discovered at the end that the third person in the room is not actually dead, but is in fact the killer.

Enigma's

This refers to a puzzle, something mysterious or inexplicable or a riddle or a difficult problem.

In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.

Formula's and Devices

Use of continuity editing

The clear establishment of cause and effect plotting which establishes character motivations and helps tell an interesting story which proceeds logically and steadily.

The Physcological thriller

An example of this is 'The mind, conflict and the past'

The suspense created by the physcological thrillers often from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds either by playing deceptive games with other or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state - e.g. Notorious.

Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them, e.g. Spell bound.

Rope (1936)

This tells the story of two young, wealthy men, Brandon and Philip, who strangle and murder a friend of theirs just to see if they can get away with it.
They then invite other close friends (including the murdered mans parents) to there apartment for dinner, whilst hiding the body in their sitting room, just to see if they can get away with it.

The suspense is created through the body in the chest box.

Suspense and Shock

Summary of Children of men - Children of men is a 2006 British-American science fiction film loosely adapted from P. D. James's 1992 novel The Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. In 2027, two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse. Illegal immigrants seek sanctuary in England, where the last functioning government imposes oppressive immigration laws onrefugees. Clive Owen plays civil servant Theo Faron, who must help a pregnant West African refugee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) escape the chaos.


An example of Shock is - 'Imagine a scene in a film similar to this (classroom, students, teacher). The camera reveals that there is a bomb under the table to the audience but we students are aware of it.


Summary of Sabotage (1936) - Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent. It should not be confused with Hitchcock's film Secret Agent released the same year, or his 1942 film Saboteur.


An example of Suspense is - 'Now imagine the same scene except that instead of the camera revealing the bomb under the table, it without any warning explodes and kills all present'.

Chuck Jones - The rules

The Rules - Chuck Jones

• The Roadrunner cannot harm or upset the coyote except by going 'MEEP, MEEP'.
• No outside force can harm the coyote, only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products.
• The coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic.
• No dialogue ever, except 'MEEP, MEEP'
• The roadrunner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called the roadrunner.
• All action must be confined to the natural environment of the 2 characters. The southwest American desert.
• All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical convenincies must be obtained from Acme corporation.
• Wherever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy.
• The coyote is always more humilated by his failures than harmed.

Do films follow rules?

• Some film makers will claim that there are no rules or that rules are there to be broken.
• However, most would agree that there are certain conventions that mainstream films observe in order for them to be acceptable to the mass audience.

Thriller Conventions:

• Young naive character
• Resourceful character
• Antaganist/Villan
• Suspense
• High tech gadgets
• Mysterious phonecall
• Fast pace action scene
• Flash back
• Hero mostly wins
• Cant kill children
• Hero always meets a girl
• Mystery that needs to be solved
• Curious character
• False hero
• Reason for conflict
• McGuffin

Normal opening to a Thriller

Scene setting - Normality - Isolated - Vulnerable

Point of view shot - Camera moving - Element of mystery

Introduction of discordant non - digetic music

Viewer anticipates what will happen

People scared - (Vulnerable people audience identify with)

Element of mystery.

MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is a plot element that catches the viewers attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction. The aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.

'We have a name in the studio and we call it 'MaGuffin' it is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories its always the papers.' - Alfred Hitchcock

The Thriller - Alfred Hitchcock

The aspects of the thriller - Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense whose films came to be the benchmark for 'Psychological' thrillers.
Hitchcock was knows as the master of suspense.

"The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them"
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it"
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"
- Alfred Hitchcock

"Under the strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock often began with a crime and the accusation of an innocent bystander, were the accused to contact the authorities, no doubt the case could be promptly solved but instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardising life and limb"
- Rick Altman

The Thriller

What is a Thriller?

• Physco
• The birds
• Paranormal activity
• Point break
• North by north west
• 127 hours
• Source code
• Saw

'Thriller is a very difficult genre to pin down because it covers such a wide range of films, Thrillers are films of suspense that are supposed to instil the terror into the audience' - Susan Hayward, Key concepts in Film Studies.

Different categories of thrillers:

• Spy Thrillers
• Political Thrillers
• Conspirisacy Thrillers
• Legal Thrillers
• Phycological Thrillers

"When you enjoy something you must never let the logic get too much into the way. Like the villans in the James Bond film whenever Bond breaks into the complex - 'Ah Mr Bond, welcome, come in, let me show you my entire evil plan and then put you in a death machine that doesn't work' " - Jerry Seinfield.

Film Language

Camera framing
Camera framing is what we actually see within the frame of the camera screen, we concentrate on how far the camera is from the subject and from what angle the shot is taken. There are different types of shots these are; Long shot, Close-up, Point-of-view shot and Mid shot. Different types of shots are used in combination to give you information about where and when something is happening.

Camera Movement
Camera movement is used in the same way that framing is used to enhance out involvement in the film action, as the way the camera is moved can be used to direct our attention to a particular viewpoint.
Camera movement includes:

• A panning shot - this is where the camera moves slowly across from side to side from a fixed axis
• A tilt shot - this is where the camera moves up and down from a fixed axis
• A crane shot - this is where the camera is mounted on a crane moves around at a distance above ground level
• A tracking shot - is where the camera follows the action
• A rolling shot - is where the camera moves diagonally, which makes the image askew