Analysis of the opening of 'Donnie Darko'.

• Helloooo :)
  I have analysed the opening five minutes or so of the film, 'Donnie darko'. I have to tried to answer the question, 'How does the opening of 'Donnie Darko' fit the codes and conventions of the thriller genre?'. I've also put the clip that I analysed up here so you can see how much i watched. I watched up until 4.10.
  Another thing, I haven't done it in essay form, but I've analysed it in chunks. I've done paragraphs on Lighting, sound, location, editing etc.
  So, enjoy!
  
  http://youtu.be/h8SrDiySfEc
  
  Camerawork
  
  
  
  One of the first shots we see is an establishing shot that zooms in to see him lying on the ground. This launches the audience straight in on the action but also establishes location as well. It also helps emphasise the desolate landscape and the lone shots of Donnie represent how alone he feels. This also gives the audience who to identify with at the very start of the movie. For the first few minutes, all we see is Donnie. This establishes the protagonist nicely and gives the audience someon to identify with for the rest of the movie. This is emphasised by the use of tracking shots on Donnie throughout the whole opening sequence. We always know where he is and what he's doing. Also, the use of low angles and POV on Donnie gives him power in the opening sequence. It also makes the audience believe that he is a 'good guy'. The fact that he is on his own and he is being given power through the use of angles establishes him as the main protagonist.
  
  Mise-en-Scene
  
  Location
  We are first introduced into a desolate landscape in a very remote area. We don't see any people or buildings. This is used to insinuate how alone Donnie Darko believes he is in this location. After the opening estalishing shot, the only other character for the first few minutes is Donnie, influencing the fact that he believes he is truly alone in this location. However, halfway through Donnie's journey home, the location suddenly changes from a very lonely mountainous area to an over-populated town area. This contrast in location is disorientating for the audience, because it is confusing when we are constantly changing location. Also it reflects the fact that Donnie doesn't really know where he is supposed to go. This influences the fact that he is a mysterious character.
  
  Costume
  When we first see Donnie he is very neutral colours. This doesn't give away any insights into his character. However, he is wearing pyjamas and he is barefoot. This gives him the connotations of being confused or mysterious. This is also a narrative technique, to be introduced to our main protagonist as a mysterious character. We are then introduced to a whole town of bright colour and busy people. A prime example of this is when we see two joggers, both wearing neon clothes. This could represent the fact that Donnie believes that he is completely opposite to everyone in his town. It could also represent that everyone in the town is happy apart from him. This just influences the fact that he is a 'mysterious character', a typical narrative convention of the thriller genre.
  
  Lighting
  In the first location, we are outside and it is early morning. This lighting is bright but has a slight 'foggy' effect. This gives the atmosphere of being early morning and we are confused as to why we are there in the early morning. The confusion carries on because we are then introduced to the location of the busy town. Also, the time seems to change because very heavy sunlight comes in. This contrasts to a few shots before with the light sunlight. We are sometimes shown direct shots facing the sun. This is confusing because it is as if Donnie has just come from his own world in the half-light to the bright world of everyone else.
  
  Props
  Regarding props, I only noticed one major factor. This was the book that donnie's mum is reading when he comes in from being in the mountains. It is a book called 'It' by Stephen King. It's about a boy that is pursued by a supernatural force in the shape of a clown. This foreshadows the story of Donnie because it is his story except he is being followed by a giant rabbit. Also the fact that Donnie's mum is reading it and is very interested in it contrast to when Donnie comes in. When Donnie enters the house, she just tuts but she is engrossed in this story. It reflects how uncaring his mother is in her own son's story.
  
  Editing
  In this opening sequence, all the shots we see, even when Donnie's on his bike, are really long and quite slow. This is to help the audience see more of the story and more detail in the story. The only fast cut that we see is when we switch location. It then goes back to extrememly long shots of Donnie on his bike. This fast cut is to emphasise the switch in location. Another thing that relates heavily to editing is the fact that when we are introduced to the rest of the family (Father and Sister then Mother and younger sister) reality is slowed down into slow-motion. It then speeds slowly up into real time again. This is foreshadowing of the events that will happen to the family and Donnie.
  
  Sound
  From the very start of the credits, we hear sounds of a storm. This creates a very creepy atmosphere for the start of the movie. It then turns into a sound bridge, turning from a storm to the sounds of brids chirping, as if in early morning. This is very disorientating because there is a stark contrast in the atmospheres that each sound creates. Another important thing relating to sound is the fact that there was no dialogue or sound effects when he gets on his bike and when an actual song comes in. It is a typical eighties tune and something that teenagers of the time would listen to. It reflects youth and innocence by influencing the fact that all teenagers know is music. It also shows that Donnie can lose himself in a world of music. The fact that there is no dialogue, even when characters are clearly speaking, means we can't get the full atmosphere that the other characters create. The only character we've seen where music isn't playing is Donnie, all other characters have music playing instead of the audience being able to hear their dialogue. This tells the audience to focus purely on Donnie and not to bother with what the other charactes are saying because Donnie is the only important one. Also, it could reflect the fact that Donnie doesn't care for his family because he doesn't care what they are saying to him. He only cares what he says and about himself. This influences the fact that he is a 'mysterious character' but also that he is troubled. Both are narrative conventions of the thriller genre.
  
  Thanks for reading! :)

Silence Of The Lambs opening, detailed analysis!!

The Silence of the lambs opening analysis

As a class we watched the opening of 'The Silence of the lambs' and took notes, I decided to use this opening clip to analyse in depth to pick out codes and conventions that I know fit with the thriller genre. I've added some print screens to show certain parts I thought were really effective or used a code or convention well! This is the clip we watched.. but not mirrored :D

The sound in the opening of SOTL is stereotypical of a thriller film, it begins with slow, tense, non diegetic sound which sets the mood and atmosphere as mysterious and tense. When Clarice first comes on screen we can hear her breathing heavily which makes the audience wonder if she’s running due to being followed, however we gather from the assault course she is not – but her heavy breathing makes the audience feel uneasy as we’re not sure exactly why she is running and out of breathe. The fact that she makes struggling noises introduces Clarice as a hardworking, strong woman who wants to get things done as she is not giving up on the course. As the opening goes on, the music becomes louder and faster and eventually quite erratic, this causes suspense and makes the audience think something bad is about to happen to Clarice. The music then becomes light hearted and soft after Clarice has a conversation – this anticlimax causes the audience to feel nothing bad is going to happen, the contrast between how the audience felt 10 seconds earlier is like an emotional rollercoaster, which is how thrillers are supposed to make their audience to feel! Throughout the clip there is not much music when conversations are happening, this makes the scene more realistic. Whenever there is a tense moment, for example when Clarice see’s the pictures of the killings, the tense music starts again which makes the atmosphere mysterious and sets the scene up for something bad to happen.

Camerawork is used in the opening to introduce characters and give an impression of what they are like or how they’re feeling. The first shot on Clarice is a high angle shot, which immediately makes her look small and belittled – this is conventional of a thriller as women are often seen as damsels. However as Clarice carries on the course, there’s a tracking shot from behind here making the audience feel as if we are in her shoes and also showing she is a main character as the shots of her only. The tracking shot could also foreshadow situations later in the film where someone is following her. Contrasting to the high shot of Clarice, when she is climbing over the net (which is stereotypically a masculine thing to do) there is a low shot of her, which all of a sudden gives the impression that she is powerful and strong – therefore the audiences view changes and they see perhaps she is not weak as we first expected. The mid shot where Clarice is in the elevator surrounded by tall men suggests she is out of place in her society, and isolated a lot, it foreshadows that she is singled out and treated differently due to being a woman through the film. The close up on Clarice’s face when she see’s a picture of the woman Hannibal attacked highlights her facial expression, concluding in the audience understanding how bad the situation is, which makes Hannibal seem like a terrifying character.

The mise-en-scene sets the film atmosphere and suggests things about certain characters; Clarice has her hair tied back and is extremely sweaty, also she is in a grey hoodie which connotes masculinity due to the colour grey and the lack of stereotypical fashion sense Clarice has. In the opening clip, any man that Clarice talks to is taller than her, therefore suggesting she is belittled in the world and society she lives in for being female – due to this we get the idea that Clarice is trying to succeed in a male dominated society. Throughout the clip all the colours are very dull, and dull colours connote sadness, dreariness and sombreness, showing this is how the world and storyline is portrayed throughout the film. In each scene, the males take up the majority of the frame, insinuating that males are higher in the hierarchy and have more power over women; this is typical of a thriller film where men are usually seen as the powerful strong characters.

The lighting starts as quite dark which immediately sets a dark mysterious atmosphere, which is continued throughout the whole film. The fog in the forest connotes mystery and evil which accompanies Clarice being alone and isolated in the forest. In the beginning the lighting is all realistic, creating a realistic atmosphere therefore the audience is more likely to believe and be intrigued by the opening. In contrast, the lighting inside the FBI building is realistic and extremely bright suggesting that at this moment in time Clarice is safe from danger, it also connotes happiness and safety which makes us feel that when Clarice is surrounded by people she is safe, as opposed to her being in danger when on her own. Chiaroscuro lighting is used on ‘mysterious’ or ‘dangerous’ characters for example the man who shows Clarice round where Hannibal is kept has chiaroscuro lighting which makes him come across as slightly strange, also Hannibal has chiaroscuro lighting on his face, therefore making him seem mysterious. Another time lighting is used to set the mood and atmosphere is when Clarice is about to meet Hannibal there is a red light which fills the shot, red connotes blood and danger, concluding in the audience feeling that something bad is going to happen, and foreshadowing the fact that Hannibal is linked with danger and blood.

The credits are extremely simple and in black and white, they flash onto the screen and then go off with no transition just a simple cut. They are large on the screen meaning people will easily see them and be able to read them quickly

The opening of SOTL is extremely effective and achieves what a thriller opening should; it draws the audience in, there are red herrings and enigma codes already. There is narrative retardation so the audience want to watch on to find out what happens, there are conflicts that are not resolved for example we want to see if Clarice succeeds in her task and if she becomes successful, and there are relationships between people that the audience want to see develop. SOTL opening fits with a number of different codes and conventions of thrillers, such as the woman being isolated, the use of camera shot types are all conventional of thrillers. Red herrings and narrative retardation are used which are conventional and the use of lighting!

Studying SOTL opening in depth really helped me understand exactly how many different conventions and codes are actually used in just the opening, I think it gave me a better idea of certain aspects I could use that I didn’t think of before and I got some ideas for lighting, colour and mise-en-scene that we could use in our thriller opening.. yaaaay :D

Discuss the ways in which ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ fits the codes and conventions of the thriller genre.

This is a short analysis of the entire film of 'Silence Of The Lambs' I will watch the opening on it's own and write up a deeper analysis of the opening, but I wanted to watch and analyse an entire thriller film first to get a better idea of codes and conventions throughout the film.

Discuss the ways in which ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ fits the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. Does it do it successfully?

The use of music in ‘Silence of the lambs’ fits the usual conventions of the thriller convention. In thriller films the music usually fits with the scene and the intensity of the scene, for example when the scene is tense the music usually accompanies the scene by being fast paced and gradually getting louder. This is what the music is like throughout ‘SOTL’ for example; in the opening scene the music is mysterious, and although it is quiet it still sets the scene as being menacing. Throughout the film, whenever there is a ‘normality’ scene, there isn’t any music, only diegetic sound, this is to make the normality scenes seem more realistic to the audience- this is stereotypically what happens in all thriller films, again showing that ‘SOTL’ fits in with the conventional thriller films.

Another way that ‘SOTL’ fits in stereotypically with the thriller genre is the use of camera shot types throughout the film. Some common shot types used in thrillers are; close ups of victims, tracking shots of victims or antagonists, close ups of people’s faces during tense conversation, and point of view shots from the victims or antagonists eyes. All of these shots are used during SOTL, which means it fits the conventions of thrillers, for example; when Clarice and her boss are having a conversation about what Clarice has to do, the shots switch between each of the characters faces to show their expression about the conversation, this means the audience can see how the characters feel when they are talking about Hannibal- they seem serious and worried, so the audience know that they should be scared of Hannibal. Another camera shot in SOTL that fits thriller conventions is when Clarice is in the warehouse- which is a tense, scary scene and to make the audience feel the way Clarice feels a point of view shot from Clarice’s eyes is used, enabling the audience to feel as though they are actually there experiencing it.

Lighting is another aspect in ‘SOTL’ that fits with the thriller genre conventions. Lighting is an important factor in thrillers, it can set up how the audience are supposed to feel about a certain place, person or setting; lots of dark lighting is used in thrillers, key lighting and back lighting is used lots, along with rim lighting and chiaroscuro. All these types of lighting are used in ‘SOTL’ like the second time Hannibal and Clarice meet, there is mild chiaroscuro lighting on Hannibal which makes him come across as quite an evil character, but as he is still in the light and not completely in darkness he does seem to have a different side to him- which is how the audience is supposed to see him. In the scene when Hannibal strings up one of the policeman the most significant use of lighting is used, when the police open the door they see the body clearly because of the harsh backlighting used which outlines the body and the room brightly. Each time Clarice and Hannibal meet, there are shadows on their faces and also in the settings they are in- this connotes that the storyline is mysterious and things are being hidden from us.

I think ‘SOTL’ uses conventional lighting, camera shots and music very effectively and all these aspects are used to create suspense and tension for the audience really well. The lighting sets up certain characters to be mean, kind or mysterious and also to show certain settings in particular ways for the audience, the camera shots used tell us more about characters and the story, or perhaps in places conceal information from the audience and the music sets up the scenes well, and builds suspense and tension effectively.

Questionnaire results analysis!!

My individual analysis on what we found from our audience research!! :D :D

Our target audience is age 14 onwards, and any gender. Therefore we asked a variety of different students from our school, both older and younger than us. This enables us to get an idea of what our target audience like to see in thriller films, and what they don't like to see!

Heres my evaluation of the questionnaire results:
Q.1 It's good that we got all 'yes' so we know the results are from people that take an interest in thrillers as opposed to just guessing and making up answers.

Q.2 Most people said that their favourite sub genre was 'Psychological'. However our idea for a thriller opening was a hostage sub genre, and I personally think we still should use a hostage situation, because the initial storyline we have come up with would be a suitable opening and also, I think a majority of thriller films are in the Psychological sub genre, so doing a hostage opening will prehaps be more challenging for us.

Q.3 This was a great question to find out exactly what aspects we should include in our opening, our target audience said that violence and a kidnapping definitely make them want to watch on, also a deadline, dialogue and music. However only one person said romance, therefore we will try to include violence, kidnapping, deadlines, dialogue and music in our opening, but not romance!

Q.4 We need to ensure we don't do any of the things people said would make them not want to watch on in our thriller opening. So I have come up with ways of trying to make sure none of these things happen!
-Bad editing: Thoroughly check editing throughout the editing process, perfect any match on action, special effects, continuity etc!
-Bad acting: Decide on specific actors, and discuss as a group any directions and dialogue each actor has to say or do!
-Bad special effects: We won't be using many special effects, if any, apart from title and credits, however we will make sure these fit with the theme of the opening.
-Obvious storyline/too much information revealed/boring storyline: To ensure we don't give away too much information, but enough to make our opening make sense, we will storyboard and plot the opening thoroughly so ensure it hooks our audience and makes them want to watch more!
-Death: Our storyline has no deaths in it, as we felt this may not hook the audience as much as we want, also the suspense and tension in our opening will be due to the audience not knowing if characters are going to get killed or not.
-Too many characters: Although this is not a specific amount of characters, our initial idea does not have an excessive amount of characters, and due to this answer we will keep it in mind when deciding on our final characters.
-Slow to start: As we only have a specific amount of time, we will need to make our opening grab our audience, therefore it definitely wont be slow starting!

Q.5 As these are some of the answers our target audience gave us, I will definitely look at each of the openings of these thrillers and analyse them, hopefully getting some good ideas that may give us inspiration for our opening!

Q.6 After looking at these results, I think we should have music that starts slowly, and as the tension builds the pace and volume should build, leading to a fast, tense, climatic ending. This music would fit all the things our target audience said they liked in thriller opening music!

Q.7 Although most people chose 'busy city' for a preffered setting, this was not a setting we imagined for our thriller opening and it would not fit with the opening we have planned. Our opening is set in a warehouse and family home, and some of our target audience did choose these settings so I think they will still enjoy our film just as much.

Q.8 Looking at our results, we will keep in mind all of these answers and therefore our antagonist will most likely be;
-male (due to the majority vote this, our antagonist will definitely be male)
-psychotic (again a majority vote),
-we will try and make him unexpected but due to the short time we have there isn't time to develop a character therefore characters need to be established quickly.
-young (we had in mind a reasonably young antagonist and our results show that he should definitely be quite young)

Q.9 We were stuck on what title to call our thriller opening so the questionnaire helped us decide, 'deadline' got the most votes, and therefore we will most likely call our thriller opening 'deadline'.

I think the audience research really helped us narrow down certain aspects of our thriller, and gives us a better idea where to start with things like music, characters and settings. Now that we've done some research I will look at some different thriller openings which will hopefully give us some ideas, and then we will be able to start storyboarding and plotting our thriller opening!!!

Questionnaire analysis - group blog

After creating our questionnaires, we gave them out to 30 people in our school, we made sure there were a variation of ages and gender, therefore we would get a variation of results. Here is an example of our questionnaire, and an analysis of the results we got.

Results;

Q.1 Do you enjoy watching thriller films? (tick 1)

Yes: 30

No: 0

Q.2 Whats your favourite sub genre out of the following choices? (tick 1)

Hostage: 4

Romantic: 0

Psychological: 19

Crime: 7

Q.3 What aspects of a thriller opening make you want to watch more? (tick all that apply)

Violence: 15

Romance: 1

Kidnapping: 14

A deadline: 9

Dialogue: 8

Music: 9

Q.4 Is there anything specifically in a thriller opening that would make you not want to watch on?

- Bad editing

- Bad acting

- Bad special effects

- Obvious storyline

- Too much information revealed

- Boring storyline

- Death

- Too many characters

- Slow to start

Q.5 What are some of your favourite thrillers?

- Taken

- Dark Knight

- Seven

- Inception

- Zodiac

- Bladerunner

- Shutter Island

Q.6 What music do you think suits a thriller opening best? (tick 1)

Slow: 7

Fast: 5

None: 0

Climatic: 7

Mellow: 0

Tense: 16

Q.7 What location would you prefer a thriller opening to be set in? (tick 1)

Warehouse: 6

Family Home: 7

Open Space: 2

Busy city: 15

Q.8 What makes a good antagonist?

Male: 21

Female: 6

Normal: 5

Psychotic: 24

Expected: 2

UNexpected: 25

Old: 7

Young: 20

Q.9 Which of these is the best title?

Situation 00:00: 7

Deadline: 14

00:01: 10

Our thoughts on our preliminary task

Hello!

This is just a quick post to tell you our thoughts on our preliminary task. It won't be in one hundred percent detail only because we want to go into more detail in our overall evaluation.

Firstly, we tried to use several different shots in our film. This includes a match on action, a close-up and a shot reverse shot. We thought this would give the film diversity and make it different from everyone elses. We also tried to stick to the 180 degree rule which I think we did very well. We got some feedback from the class and this was one of the things that they pointed out as us using very well. They also said that they enjoyed the establishing shot of me and Kath at the table because it set up the conversation and was a really nice opening shot to the film. A couple of things they didn't like was the fact that our close-up was too close. We checked this and discovered that it was true. We accidently cut Kath's thumbs up off and the top of my head. This is something to consider for our Thriller opening.

A few things that I thought we could have improved on was making the frames at the start a few seconds longer. I thought the frames were a bit too short and you couldn't see the start of the match-on-action shot. Also the fact that Kath looked like she was walking from nowhere looked very odd. We could have used a longer shot to establish where Kath was walking from.

We learnt that we can use slower shots in our films and also that we should use a bigger variety of shots in our film.

Hopefully the other two should post comments about their thoughts on our preliminary task!

Our preliminary task :)

Thriller director research - Roman Polanski

Hello again!
This post is about Roman Polanski, the famous actor/director. We actually did a presentation in class about our chosen thriler director. But unfortunately, the powerpoint I showed to class won't upload to blogger so i've typed all the information up for you! It's lucky I'm nice isn't it really?






Roman Polanski

• He was born France in 1933, but his parents were Polish, they were trying to escape from the Second World War.
  


• In 1939, both his parents were captured by the Nazis and sent to different concentration camps. His father survived but his mother was murdered in Auschwitz.
  


• In 1945, he was reunited with his father and his father sent him to technical school which he didn't enjoy.
  


• In the 1950's, he took up acting, appearing in Andrzej Wajda's 'A generation'. (1955).



• He then studied at Lodz's film school in Poland.
  


• His feature debut 'Knife in the water' was the first Polish war film not associated with the war.
  


• He then moved back to France where we became a long-time collaborator with scriptwriter Gerard Brach.
  


• His next two films 'Repulsion' and 'Cul-de-sac' won silver and then golden bear awards at the Berlin film festivals.
  


• In 1968, Polanski went to Hollywood, where he made psychological thriller 'Rosemary's baby', one of his most famous films to this day.



• His wife was brutally murdered by the infamous 'manson gang' whilst she was eight months pregnant with their first child.
  


• In 1974, he made a US release, 'Chinatown', which began a promising career in film, but he was then convicted with the statutory rape of a Thirteen-year old girl.
  


• Afterwards, he fled from the US to avoid prison and made the film, 'Tess' which then won several Oscars and Caesar awards.

His filmography:
'Macbeth' (1971)
'Che' (1973)
'Chinatown' (1974)
'The Tenant' (1976)
'Tess' (1980)
'Pirates' (1986)
'Bitter moon' (1992)
'The Ninth gate' (2000)
'The pianist' (2002)
'Oliver twist' (2005)
'The Ghost writer' (2010)
'Carnage' (2011)

These are just a few of his films, if i posted them all, I'd be here all night!

Here are some reactions to his films and what audiences and thought of them:

• Many of his films were described as 'brooding, maccabre and eccentric.'
  


• Rosemary's baby was declared to be 'disturbing and convincing.



• In his film 'Macbeth', the scene with the murder of Macduff's family was said to have very realistically depicted his own family's Manson slaughterings.
  


• His 2002 film, 'The pianist' was given very positive reviews and said to be one of the most 'emotionally riveting films of the decade'.
  


• His 2010 film The ghost writer received mainly positive reviews and was said to be 'an intense thriller that doesn't let the audience relax.

This is a case study of the film 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968):

• Genre: Horror.



• Synopsis: An american couple plan to concieve a baby, and on the night, Rosemary falls unconcious and has a dream about being raped by a demonic presence. Her husband then tells her he had intercourse with her whilst she was asleep in order for her to concieve. She soon falls pregnant, but odd things begin to happen, as in the craving of raw meat etc. There is a massive discovery by one of her friends about one of her friends but the friend then mysteriously dies and Rosemary is left to work it out on her own. She is believed to be delusional and goes into labour after being chased by several doctors. She awakens to be told the baby died but then hears the cries of an infant and doesn't believe the doctors. She follows the cries and finds a coven of her next door neighbours crowded around er baby son. He is born with a hideous deformity and disturbing eyes and the coven tells her that she has borned the son of Satan. She is horrified when the coven try to beg her to be a mother to her son and tell her that she doesn't have to join if she doesn't want to. But, the film ends with Rosemary cradling her baby and adjusting her son's blankets.
  


• Mia Farrow plays Rosemary.
  


• Ruth Gordon plays her freaky next door neighbour, Minnie Castevat. Ruth won an oscar for her performance in this film
  


• Was universally given four stars.

Thanks for reading!

Thriller director research- David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg

To become the director and creator of a thriller opening, I wanted to get inside the head of a well known thriller director, hopefully to understand why they love thrillers, how they got into making thrillers and their views on society and the world itself. I chose David Cronenberg to look at.. and here's what I found!

• He was born in Toronto, Canada in 1943, and is classed as a filmmaker, screenwriter and actor


• David is known as one of the originators of 'body horror' due to his exploration of pyschological and physical themed thriller films


• His father was a journalist, and his mother was a pianist - he used parts of his parents characteristics and aspects of their lives to create characters in some of his films which I think is really interesting


• From a young age he had an interest in literature, and apparently he wrote a number of gruesome horror stories as a child and teenager


• He got a degree in literature but after making two sketch films and two short art-house features, he went into partnership with Ivan Reitman and from then on has been writing and directing a number of well known thriller films


• His films often involve horror by mutation, parasites, or medical conditions, when he first started making thriller films, a lot of them were based on science experiments going wrong, or mutation of the body making someone become some sort of monster. However through his career he has expanded his genre and is now known for thrillers based on pyschological as well as physical storylines


• He has turned down oppertunities to direct; star wars, top gun and robocop


• David has said his films should be seen from "The point of view of the disease."


• He got the 'Special Jury Prize' at the 1996 Cannes Film Festical, and in 1999 he was inducted onto Canadas walk of Fame


• He is an atheist and doesn't believe in the afterlife - I think this could be an interesting fact and would probably have an affect on his films


• - After reading and watching interviews with David Cronenberg I think he has a unique outlook on society and life and he said so many interesting things, this is my favourite quote that I found; "Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos."


• His films include; A dangerous method, Eastern Promises, To each his own cinema, A history of violence, Spider, Short6, Crash, M. Butterfly, and Naked Lunch.


• I decided to look into one of his films, to look at the storyline and significant events. I picked at random 'Eastern Promises'; It's about a british midwifes interactions with the mafia after finding a Russian diary on a young girls body who died during childbirth, the midwife tries to track down the girls family in the hope that the baby will have a family to live with. The film appeared on several 'Top 10 films' lists in 2007, and the film has been noted for it's plot twists, subjects of sex trafficking, violence, and realistic depiction of Russian career criminals. 'Eastern Promises' won several awards, including audience prize for best film. Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassell all appear in it and 89% of critics gave the film positive reviews!!

Thriller film research

So, My first post. Thought I'd give you a little insight into the world of....

The thriller genre!

What is a thriller?

A thriller is a film genre that uses intense emotion and should leave us on edge and exhilarated. It also uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The thriller genre includes many sub-genres: Mystery, crime, psychological, political and paranoid. There are also many types of thriller films; e.g. police, spies, religion, etc. Thriller films usually create an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and sinister situations. Society is usually seen as dark, corrupt and dangerous. Many literary devices are used in creating a typical thriller film such as; plot twists, red herrings and cliff hangers.

Thriller methods

There are many different methods for exciting thriller openings. For instance;
-Crime: Ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge kidnapings.
-Mystery: Investigations, 'Whodunit technique'.
-Psychological: mind games, stalking, confinement, deatn traps, horror of personality, obsession.

Thriller characters

Alike with Thriller methods there a lot of interesting characters we could use for our Thriller opening:
-Criminals, stalkers, Assassins, psychotic individuals, escaped convicts.
-Menaced women, innocent victims, private eyes, world weary people.
-Cops, people involved in twisted relationships.

After researching many different types of different thriller characters, i found that characters are often not binnary opposites, so good and bad for example. The good and bad charaters of thriller films are more of a mixture and we are often confused about which side the characters are on.

There are many different narrative techniques for Thriller films. Here are just a few:
-Multiple lines of action
-Flashbacks
-Narrative retardation
-Misdirection


Institutional use of genre

-After researching thriller films, I decided to research the term 'genre' as a whole. Here's what I found:
-Film producers use genres as a means of minimising the economic risk in making films.
-Film distributors/exhibitors use genre as a means of advertising and promoting films.
-Both depend upon audiences foreknowledge and past experience of the films included in the genre.

Thanks for reading!

What makes a thriller a thriller?

Codes and conventions of thrillers.

So it's the first post! and where better to start than at the beginning?! Before we start even coming up for ideas for our thriller opening we need to research existing thrillers to find out about typical narrative and technical conventions, these are basically what the audience will expect to see in a thriller film, and therefore what the makers of the film will need to incorporate in the film.

Firstly when looking into the thriller genre I found that there are a lot of various sub genres of thriller including; legal, spy, action, medical, hostage, police, political, high-tech, crime, psychological and paranoid.
I discovered that unlike horrors, thrillers should make the audience think about the plot and how it will be resolved, the audience has to concentrate at all times to understand whats going on.

After watching clips of some thrillers, and some full movies I found the atmosphere is often menacing throughout and there are many scenes of violence and crime, also society is often seen as corrupt and dangerous.
Literary devices such as plot twists, red herrings and cliff hangers are used to trick the audience and keep them guessing constantly!
Some well known directors of thrillers are; Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubri, Orson Welles, Ridley Scott, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Tony Scott, and John Carpenter.
Inception, Fight Club, Silence of the lambs, Dark knight, The departed and Taken are all good examples of stereotypical thriller films, and they all include many of the codes and conventions highlighted in this post.
Methods or situations often found in thrillers are things like: ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings, investigations, mind games, stalking, deathtraps, and obsession - one of more of these will be found in a conventional thriller, and sometimes the entire storyline will revolve around things like obsession or kidnappings.

Conventional characters in thrillers; criminals, stalkers, assassins, psychotic, escaped cons, menaced women, innocent victims, private eyes, cops and people in twisted relationships. There's also a protagonist and antagonist, however sometimes these characters are more complicated in thrillers, for example in Silence of the lambs the antagonist also helps the protagonists.

Technical conventions:
* Tracking shots
* Reveals (zooming or tracking to reveal significant detail)
* Low key lighting and shadows
* Close-ups (sometimes for concealment of information of anything outside of shot)
* Dramatic angles and framing
* Editing pace changes for climax
* Eerie, tense music, often builds in tempo, volume and pitch to create sense of danger
* POV shots
* Harsh lighting (chiaroscuro and high contrast often used)
* Effects to signify flashbacks, disorientation and dreams
* Use of silence
* Exaggerated sounds

Narrative conventions:
* Enigma codes
* Deadlines
* Complex characters
* Retardation
* Mysterious characters
* Red herrings
* Flashbacks
* Cross cutting
* Plot twists and turns

After researching into the thriller genre, it gives us a much better idea of a plot to come up with for our opening, and the kinds of things we should try to include in our opening. I will continue watching a lot of thrillers to get more ideas and to grasp a better understanding of the genre, and I will be researching a specific director for background information of who comes up with these thrilling films!

Chow! :D