G321 independant research into the thriller genre

G321 thriller research. Case Study. Pulp Fiction

Name: Pulp Fiction
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Date Released: 21 October 1994 (UK)
Made in: USA
Awards: Won Oscar. Another 43 wins & 40 nominations


Overall as a film, Pulp Fiction has many of the codes and conventions of a thriller. For instance, the majority of scenes are in unglamorous settings, and the themes in the film include identity, gangster crime, drugs and sex.
I will be discussing two scenes that represent this thriller influence, ‘Mia’s adrenalin shot’ and ‘Butch, in taxi after fight', and the film as a whole and how it has influenced the thriller genre.

Mia's adrenalin shot...
(Vincent finds Mia after she has overdosed and drives her to his dealer’s house for help. They decide to give her an adrenalin shot but neither have done this before.)

Tarantino uses an extreme close up of two hands on the syringe, and this zooms to an even further close up of the needle of the syringe. This helps to build tension and scare the audience. There is then a point of view high angle shot of Mia unconscious. Tarantino uses a close up of the red magic marker blotch (used to show where the needle will be inserted) on Mia’s heart/bust. This red colour signifies danger. This scene objectifies Mia, and causes her to appear vulnerable, as we literally know where her heart is. Mia also appears as exposed, as her shirt has been ripped open and her underwear is revealed. It also signifies Mia’s deviance and her sexuality.
Tarantino uses a countdown to three to increase the tension: 1) close up of Mia’s bloody face, Vincent panting, zoom into face, needle. 2) Two men’s faces, extreme close up of pen mark. 3) Close up of Vincent’s face, raised hand.
As the needle is stabbed into Mia, she awakes and there is a close up of her face as her eyes open wide and she screams. This helps to shock the audience, as the shot is so quick in contrast to the slow countdown.

Butch, in taxi after fight.
Tarantino uses a black and white background outside of the taxi as an inter-textual reference to film noir. Tarantino uses gender reversal, as the taxi driver is female. The driver (Esmeralda) is a typical femme fatale. Men killing men intrigue her and her appearance is very sexual. She is also surrounded by smoke (this can also be seen in female characters in other thrillers, such as Fight Club).
Tarantino raises the issue of Butch’s identity in this scene. Tarantino uses the sentence “I’m an American honey, our names don’t mean shit”. This shows that Butch feels he has a lack of an individual identity and his only identity is that he is an American.
Esmeralda is a more contemporary representation of a femme fatale. She is similar to the ‘Buffy’ (the vampire slayer) character in that she represents contemporary women, for example her tradionally masculine job (taxi driver). Her words are darker and in some ways less obviously sexual than, for example, Mia’s (for instance, “So what does it feel like to kill a man with your bare hands? It's a topic I'm very interested in.”). Esmeralda’s costume is less sexual than Mia’s. Her character represents an independant woman who still maintains her sexuality. She also has the mystery of a femme fatale, for example she says she is from Columbia, which is a referral to cocaine as it is where it is mostly made. Mia is a contrast to many of the original femme fatales and shows the way feminism has changed the way women can be presented.

The film as a whole
The whole film is extremely modern for its time, especially when it's pop culture and cinematic references are considered. The (non-linear) unconventional structure has helped it lead to being named one of the most influental postmodernist influences in cinema. Tarantino used this film to influence many others, such as Reserviour dogs (Vincent from pulp fiction is brothers with Vic "mr. Blonde" Vega, and Tarantino uses the fictional resturant 'Big Kuhuna Burger' in both films. There are similar links to 'Jackie Brown', for instance Jackie Brown wears exactly the same suit as Mia's and drives the same model Honda as Butch.

G321 audience research/ G321 thriller research. Graph results.

Our results show that the favourite aspect of a thriller of males we asked is action.

Our results show that the favourite aspect of a thriller of females we asked is both violence and suspense.

Our results show the majority of the females we asked don't mind if a lead role is male or female.

Our results show the majority of males prefer a male lead in a thriller.

Our results show that the majority of both the males and females we asked prefer ambiguity in a thriller.

Our results show that females prefer a modern day thriller.

Our results show that the majority of the males we asked prefer there thriller to be in colour.

Our results show that the majority of the females we asked prefer colour in a thriller.

Our results show that the majority of the females we asked prefer to watch a thriller in the cinema.

Our results show that the majority of the males we asked are split between preference of watching a thriller at home or in the cinema.

Our results show that the majority of the females we asked prefer a thriller to last between 90 and 120 minutes.

Our results show that there is no specific prefered length of time of a thriller for the males we questioned.

These results have helped us to decide:

* we are going to have our film in colour

* we are going to set are film in modern day

* we will include ambiguity in our thriller

* we will keep our female lead role but also include some males with important parts to play throughout the film.

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.

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+