induction unit. different camera shots.

G321 thriller research.Case study. The French Connection

The French Connection

Director: William Friedkin

Release Date: 9 October 1971

Genre: Action/crime/thriller

Awards: 5 oscars

Country: USA

I watched ‘The French Connection’ at home to get some ideas for our own thriller. Although I watched the whole film I mainly focused on the beginning (and made notes).

The beginning of ‘The French Connection’ is a black screen with opening credits. There is quite disturbing music with high pitched sounds, which may be an inter-textual reference to the beginning of Physco as they sound quite similar

Once the music stops, the audience sees a very unglamorous location. After the music stops there is only diagetic sound. The silence is very disturbing and adds towards suspense. Though the audience sees men talking they do not hear what they are saying, as it is from the point of view of the man watching them. The main sounds heard in this opening are cars and at one point a child wailing, both of which seem very background and unimportant. As the man walks down the street the silence is very unnerving even though he seems quite relaxed and care-free. Once the man enters a building, it is almost completely silent.

The audience then see a hand holding a gun pointed towards the man. There is then quite a long close up of the man’s face, giving the audience a chance to go from feeling shocked at the sight of the gun and then process this into what will happen next, causing even more tension. The camera then shows the man holding the gun’s face, and the gun’s trigger is pulled. There is a very brief but horrific shot of the man’s bloody face before he falls to the floor.

I found watching the beginning of this film quite useful as it helped me to see how our group could create more tension at the beginning of the film. Both the music and the silences were disturbing, and the contrast between the two also helped to emphasise the silence once the music had stopped. The close ups also gave me ideas on how we should shoot our film as we have also planned on using a lot of extreme close ups in our story boarding.

G321 Thriller research. Case Study. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

Name of film: Psycho
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Date of film release: 16th June 1960
Country where made: USA

Hitchcock’s Psycho is filmed in black and white as a tribute to classic 1940s noir thrillers.

Hitchcock focuses on music to create a scary atmosphere. The sound graphics used in the credits also help to create this kind of chilling atmosphere.

The film begins with an Ariel pan shot. The time and place appears at the bottom of the screen to help to give an idea that day has some importance.

The camera then zooms into a hotel window. Hitchcock does this to show that he feels that cinema is voyeuristic. It also creates a sense of no privacy and being watched.

There is then a shot of a woman lying in bed, with a man standing in front of the bed and getting dressed. The first impression this stimulates from the audience for the woman is that she is a whore/sex object. It also suggests the woman as a femme fatale: deviant and manipulative.

The conversation that then follows suggests a secret relationship and also shows the woman as vulnerable.

Hitchcock uses an unglamorous, claustrophobic setting (a cheap hotel). These types of settings feature in many different thrillers.

When we see the woman (Marion crane) in this scene, she is wearing white underwear. This indicates purity. (Later on in the film, when Crane decides to steal the money, her underwear changes to black. This indicates corruption, temptation and moral descant.)

Another (very famous) sequence in Psycho is the shower sequence (and the conversation between Marion Crane and Norman Bates shortly before this).

There is a repeated theme of birds throughout the film. Bates has lots of stuffed birds in his office, and Hitchcock often has shots where they seem to be part of his body. This gives the audience a sense of entrapment. The names of the two characters give clues to their personalities and fate. Marion ‘Crane’ suggests she, like the birds, will die. There is also a link between the birds being passive and her character being passive. ‘Bates’ (or ‘baits’) suggests he lures prey and is predatory.

This predatory nature also appears when there is an extreme close up of Bates’ eye watching Crane through a hole in the wall.

In the shower sequence, Hitchcock uses close ups of Crane’s legs to show how vulnerable she is. The shower implies she is trying to wash away her sins. Again, the use of a confined space is used for intimidation and claustrophobia. Although as an audience we don’t actually see Crane getting stabbed, the implied violence is just as scary. We only see a shadow of the person who is stabbing her, which adds mystery.

Induction unit. Perfume advert

My plan for my perfume advert is 'English Idol'.
I wanted to focus women aged between 16 and 25, and then explored what typically 'british' things would appeal to them. I had the idea of TV talent shows, as these are huge at the moment and it seems everyone wants to 'live the dream' and become a TV-made celebrity.
I then decided that I wanted a woman who had become successful through a TV talent show. (This was quite difficult because not many of these women are still famous.)My first idea was Lenona Lewis, but then i decided on Cheryl Cole, who won popstars the rivals with successful band 'Girls Aloud'. This seemed perfect because many young women like Girls Aloud, Cheryl is now a judge on The Xfactor, and although very attractive she also looks like a 'girl-next-door'.
I decided on'English idol' as it is similar to 'American Idol' (an american TV talent show) and Cheryl is also an idol to many of my target audience.

G321 thriller research. Case study: Se7en (seven)

name: se7en
director: David Fincher
date released: 5 January 1996
made in: USA
awards: saturn award, Empire award, MTV movie award, NYFCC Award

I watched se7en at a friend's house to get some more research for our thriller.

The idea behind Se7en is the story of a serial killer who kills off his victims in the style of the 7 deadly sins.
The main characters in se7en are men, Brad Pitt and Samuel L. Jackson. The only woman who really plays any part in the film is the girlfriend of Brad Pitt's character, who is quite clingy and (although smart) doesn't seem to understand the importance of the case her boyfriend has to spend so much time on. The only other issues concerning her are that of her secret pregnancy, again causing her to appear as though she is a typical, maternal, female character. When we find out at the end of the film that she is dead, the sympathy is much more toward her boyfriend. (Because of this I think the film is aimed at men, aged between 18 and 35.) I think the characters in the film are very stereotypical, but despite this I wasn't offended. The different characters worked well in the film, the girlfriend was an interesting sub-plot and I don't think the film made all women look this bad. However I think it would have appealed more to the female audience if it had a positive, less absent female character.
The focus on the psychological aspect of the film was the most interesting. The irony of each victims death is almost justified by the killer's logic.

Males rated this film the same higher than women. The biggest difference was between males and females aged between 30-44, with men voting it higher. I think this is because of the gory images and the plot. Aspects of the film that might appeal more to women than men could be the friendship that grows between the two men and the sub-plot about the girlfriend. Brad Pitt could also be a key to the female viewers as such a wellknown, good-looking actor.

G321. Our Thriller research/audience research. Questionairre

We wrote a questionnaire to find out what aspects of the thriller genre our target audience would most enjoy so we could incorporate them into our own film.

Media studies thriller Questionnaire!
1) What is your age?
15-19
20-25
26-30
30+
2) Are you male or female?
-Female
-Male
3) Which thriller film do you enjoy the most?…………………………………………………………….
4) What do you enjoy most about thriller films?
- Gangster
- Violence
- Storyline
- Action
- Suspense
5) Do you prefer to watch a male lead role or female lead role in a film?
-Male lead
-Female lead
-Dont Mind
6) Do you enjoy ambiguity or a give away plot line? E.g psycho (where you don’t find out until the end who the killer is) or Kill Bill (a bit more of a giveaway.)
-ambiguity
-give away
7) Do you prefer classic or modern day thrillers if so why?-Modern day
-Classic
-Don’t Mind
Why? ………………………………………………………………
8) Do you like films in colour or films in black and white?
-Colour
-Black and White
-Don’t Mind
9) Where do You most like to watch thriller films?………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
10) What’s your preferred length of a film?
60-90min
90-120min
120+

G321 thriller planning. Our sequence of shots

1) The film will start with a dark room. Close up of a man's eyes. This will be accompanied by a heartbeat sound that is the beginning of our music and heavy breathing.
2) An outside close up of red/black heels and dark, lacy tights walking along a track.
3) A shot from man on floor of crate perspective: a shadow on the floor and the door of the crate opening.
4) A close up of a woman's red lips smoking.
5) A close up of the man, eyes whimpering, wearing a cross.
6) Shot of two heavy men by the crate door.
7) Wide shot of the men, holding a gun and a cricket bat, the woman walks into crate.
8) The woman comes out of the crate with a cross necklace.
9) The henchmen drag the man out of the crate, the woman steps over the man and drops her cigarette into his blood.
10) The woman gets into the car.
11) The woman looks into the car mirror and sees the man's body on the ground.

G321 thriller planning. Our Plot, Characters and thriller influences

Our main character is Monika Quiero. Monika was born in Turkey but her mother was English. Monika's Father was in the drug trade, and buisness partners with a man called Mr Suri. Monika's father mysteriously died and Monika and her mother fleed to England (taking most of the buisness money).
10 years on and Mr suri's son (Ali) is in England, wanting some of the money back from Monika.
Through the film, Monika tries to get rid of Ali's henchmen through sexual manipulation, resulting in many secrets from the past becoming unveiled.

Monika is our main character and is a typical femme fatal. Some of our influences for this character from other films are Pam Gier in Jackie Brown and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

We have decided on our thriller being a gangster thriller, such as 'Lock Stock...' and 'Essex Boys'.

My media studies AS course

Hi I'm Holly and this is my CNS media studies AS course. My media work will be published onto this blog along with film annotations, clips, etc.