Preliminary task.

Thriller timeline

Types of thriller.

Mystery Thrillers
Mystery thrillers are a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.
Eg. Shutter island..

Crime Thrillers
Crime thrillers are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies. Eg. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation..

Psychological Thrillers
Psycohological thrillers are a specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. Also, occasionally this genre will border into the also wide-ranging horror genre. Eg. The Confessional..

Political thriller

A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of political power struggle. They usually involve various plots, rarely legal, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him from getting it. They can involve national or international political scenarios. World War II is a favorite scenario, as are US presidential elections. E.g JFK..

What is a thriller?

Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psycological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies.

Year 13 Preliminary task.

In class we watched some of last year’s preliminary tasks. We looked at the positives and negatives of each of them and what they could do to improve.

The first task we watched was I found in this one that the introduction music was very effective , the lighting was very dark which worked well and represented the thriller genre. They had a close up shot of a mouth saying "sit down" this was effective as it was very clear and it enabled me to feel what kind of mood the character was in. The improvements could have been used by instead of filming solely by hand, the use of a tripod would of made it seem a bit more professional and easier to watch and pay attention to exactly what was happening.

Next we watched the second piece, it was set at nigh time outside which really set the mood of what was being filmed and helped the audience get into the mood of the clip. I enjoyed the clip, but it could have been improved by simple things like the first one and the use of a tripod.

The third clip I found very exciting. The close up shots of the girl lying on the stairs made it effective and the blood on her wrists. There was a few framing shots that were shot through the doors, which gave a great effect. The music they chose was also a good choice as this worked with there piece.

The fourth clip, had some great introductory music, this task was very different from the others but I enjoyed it just as much as the rest. There was no element of tension or horror.

After we watched the fifth task, this was also another one that was different from the rest. I loved the music they used during the shots on the stairs, towards the end I though the acting was great and really liked watching it. I found the beginning a little confusing, so I’d have to say that’s where they would need to improve on most.

The Sixth and final clip was a really interesting a deep clip, it seemed as if you needed to concentrate hard in order to understand what was going on. They could have improved the sound, that would have made it much more exciting to watch.

Our first project.

Our first project was to practice filming and get to grips with using the camera and editing our piece. We filmed it within the school building, we had to film somebody walking along a corridor, walking in and out of a room and then to film two people having a conversation. This was a challenge considering there was only two of us that were doing the task so it made filming difficult. Meg filmed me walking down the corridor and walking in and out of a room, this helped her get a feel of the filming. When it came to having a conversation it was difficult as we had to plan who would turn the camera on to come and sit down without making it look like they'd just turned on the camera. When it came to editing it was also a new experience as neither of us were used to using the equipment, some of the effects we added really made a difference to our clip as it added suspense and tension when needed. Having done this task, its now given us a feel of the equipment and technology we have to use and next time we film it will be much easier. We also have decided that next time we film we will work in a group of more than 2 and will therefore make filming much easier.

Clip coming soon..

180 Degree Rule.

The 180 degree rule is used when two or more people are in conversation with eachother, the camera stays on one side of the conversation and does not move acros the 180degree line.
This makes the position of the characters clear to the audience, and not lead to confusion of where in the room the character is standing.

Top Rated Thrillers

The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Inception (2010)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Rear Window (1954)
Fight Club (1999)
Psycho (1960)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Se7en (1995)
Memento (2000)
North by Northwest (1959)
Léon (1994)
Taxi Driver (1976)
M (1931)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Vertigo (1958)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Shining (1980)
The Third Man (1949)

Thriller Directors

Martin Scorsese
1. Taxi Driver (1976)
2. Departed, The (2006)
3. After Hours (1985)
4. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)




Quentin Tarantino
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
3. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
4. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

James Cameron
1. Aliens (1986)
2. Terminator, The (1984)
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
4. Abyss, The (1989)

Steven Spielberg
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
2. Jaws (1975)
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)



Alfred Hitchcock
1. Rear Window (1954)
2. Psycho (1960)
3. Vertigo (1958)
4. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Collateral

Collateral
what makes ''Collateral'' a thriller? .
In collateral the actor uses very uplcose filming to the actors especially in emotional scenes, there is also alot of shouting and swearing throughout the film to try to enable the audience to understand the drama that is takeing place in the plot.

There lighting is very peculiar in Collateral. torches are used in one scene to focus on the actors faces and to let the audience have a clearer view of whats happening.

Perfume

Perfume, the story of a Murderer.

what makes 'Perfume' a thriller? In 'Purfume' the thriller isnt so in your face compared to some of the other thrillers you get, but the deeper you look into the story the more spine chilling it is.

The majority of the film is shot in candle light which can be scary in itself due to not being entirely aware of your surroundings. It also brings your full attention to the actors because the candle light is fixtured on their faces.

This film is also Narrated throughout the film which can help the audience to understand the plot to avoide confusing scenes.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight

Why is ''The Dark Knight'' a Thiller?

In ''The Dark Knight'' the terrorists are Masked which in my opinion scares the audience due to not knowing what their identity is,which also makes the audience question the reason why they would need to hide their identity.

The director uses upbeat fast music prior to a dramatic scene about to occur in the film to keep them alert to the drama that is about to begin and builds up suspence.

Many of the scenes where there is alot going on are shot from above in the birds eye view so none of the action is missed by the viewers.

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho -1960

Psycho is a Thriller staring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles and Janet Leigh.

what makes ''Psycho'' a Thriller? 'Psycho' is a very intense film with a pretty easy plot to understand, it consists of alot of tension and suspence, the director of this film used good bakground music to build up the tension in the film and used diffrent angles when shooting a dramatic scene which gave the audience a clearer view of what was going on. Throughout the film the lighting was rather dark which gave it the mysterious effect, appart from when there was an important scene where the lighting was fixtured on the faces of the actors to draw all attention towards them.