What is TV Drama?

   There are many things included in the genre of TV drama. In simple terms, TV drama is fictional action in narrative form. TV drama splits into many different sub-genres in modern broadcast, and it is important to understand how and why.

Examples of TV Drama; Wallander, Doctors, Made in Wales, Eastenders, Holby City, Doctor Who, Lip Service, Being Human, Sherlock, Casualty, The Vut, Middletown, Lennon Naked, Made in Wales. (Broadcast on BBC)

Examples of TV Drama mixed with another genre; CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Heartbeat, Inspector Morse. Many of these are crime, detective or police dramas. The reason for this combination is because police shows and action often go hand in hand; therefore you get a police drama, this way it's action in real-life context.

Different kinds of TV Drama; Comedy Drama, Police Drama, Detective Drama, Medical Drama, Historical Drama, Political Drama, Romance Drama, Legal Drama, Sci-Fi Drama, Supernatural Drama, Military Drama, Children's Drama,


*Needs Finishing*

Thriller Evaluation - Full Version

Here are the written pieces for questions 1-7 of my thriller evaluation.

Media Evaluation Final.

View more documents from MissBehaviour.

Also, here are some annotated stills from our thriller in relation to Question 1. (They were too large to fit in to the text document).

Here and here .

The Finished Product!

Here's our finished edit of our thriller, 'S1'.

Body of Lies

I
   This is my second full case study on Body of Lies. This is a crime/spy thriller based on a terrorist plot of planting bombs all over Europe. Three men work with and against each other in order to unfold this plot and track down the terrorists. It's basis is the novel written by David Ignatius; an american journalist and novelist also in association with The Washington Post (therefore it might be assumed that he's an established writer with wide experience, and perhaps capable of creating a commendable novel). His book was published only a year before this film was made, Warner Bros bought the rights in 2006 and altered the name of the book to be published in 2007 - the film was then released in 2008. The three men are played by Leonardo diCaprio (Roger Ferris), Russell Crowe (Ed Hoffman) and Mark Strong (Hani). With such big names involved in the film it can again be assumed that the makers had high hopes; the film was in fact nominated for two awards (London Critics Circle Film Award and Satellite Award). The film was directed by Ridley Scott and the film company primarily involved with the production was Warner Bros. The filming locations were Maryland, USA as well as various locations in Morocco. The film was rated R in America and 15 in the UK for violence, torture and strong language.

II
   As previously mentioned, this film was rated 15 in the UK for strong language and violence. Therefore in guideline terms this film is intended for anyone over the age of 15. However, age aside, because of the heavy political and terrorist complexity of the film in my opinion I would say this film is targeted at the politically interested and perhaps intelligent. Having not seen the entirety of this film myself and reading up on the plotline it appears that the story is quite complex. Therefore I would think that adults would find this film the most engaging and interesting as they would be the ones most 'savy' with politics and the like. However that isn't to say that younger people wouldn't enjoy this film, I would watch this film myself if I had the opportunity. Here is a review from IMDb.com put forward by a viewer that thought the film was quite impressive :

Engaging, intelligent

11 October 2008 | by jemps918 (Philippines) – See all my reviews

V. well-made; everyone from the cast and crew pulled their own weight in Body of Lies.

Director Ridley Scott's genius shines through what could have been another unpalatable, trite topic of the US' relations with the Middle East and terrorism. He expertly unravels the story of CIA operative Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is assigned to flush out an evasive terrorist who is blowing up public places all over the world. Ferris is increasingly frustrated with his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe)'s impatience and double dealings, which more than once puts himself in jeopardy, challenges the trust he is trying to build with Jordanian leader Hani (Mark Strong) and his budding romance with the pretty Palestinian nurse Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani).

DiCaprio just keeps getting better and better as he is now more able to lose himself in a role and successfully shed the pretty. Crowe does well in an understated but dangerously quiet role as a Washington-based puppetmaster. The versatile Italian-Austrian Andy Garcia-lookalike Strong is fantastic as the powerful Hani, while Farahani's face lights up the screen and turns in a memorable performance as well.

The attention to detail in this movie is just awesome; the action sequences are not over the top but satisfactory enough to not lose the main storyline despite the complex thread of subplots. Overall, an engaging, intelligently-made film.

   From what this viewer has written it seems that this type of film is quite a popular one to be made, and therefore they are not always made well. But it seems that this film in particular is favourable to the public as is awarded a 7.1/10 on average on this particular website. It is understood that this viewer has picked up on the amount of effort put into this film in order to emphasise the possible reality of the situation. However, here is an extract of a review written by a person who thought the film wasn't so well made :

Is the movie over yet?, 19 October 2008
Author: PWNYCNY from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Maybe being a government bureaucrat is not the most glamorous way of making a living but it's still a way to make a living. However, after watching this movie, one may come away believing that every government bureaucrat is a lazy, bloated, conceited, paper pusher who lives exclusively to partake of his next lunch break. Not exactly a pretty picture, but this is the picture that the audience has to endure when watching what is nothing more than another tedious, noisy, overacted action movie. Just what the doctor ordered ... right? How many more of these movies has Hollywood made? One thousand? Two thousand? The formula for making these movies is so beaten into the dust that by now it should be completely unrecognizable. The locales change but the plots remain the same, and with the same shallow character development and the equally shallow acting as trained performers are asked to devolve into pseudo-cartoon characters and act accordingly. This movie seemed to run-on interminably. "When will this movie end?" I repeatedly thought to myself. Leonardo DiCaprio was totally unbelievable as a CIA operative, but what has to be one of the great gaffs of miscasting, an overweight Russell Crowe plays a CIA bureaucrat...

   This viewer seemed to think the film did conform too much to this kind of sub-genre and that it was too boring and repetative of other films that it was barely worth watching. Perhaps this viewer had seen too many politically based movies. Although this review seems quite severely negative, it can't be denied that the majority of viewers that posted on IMDb gave this film a positive review.

III

   In regards to technology, this film was released only 2 years ago and so modern technology has been apart of it's advertisment. Here is a link to the film's official website that contains the film's trailer and other various details towards the bottom of the page. As is viewable, the website looks very sleek and modern and although it does not contain many extras as might be usual to a website it has links to where you can now purchase the film on DVD and BluRay. So the website that was previously used to advertise the film's release and other details, is now used to advertise accessible purchasing of the film. There is also a link to Warner Bros Movie and DVD updates; further advertising the production companies products. There is also a Body of Lies page on the Warner Bros webiste found here which provides an interactive screen in which you can click to view descriptions of characters as well as watch the movie trailer. There are also features such as a photo gallery. The fact that this was available before the film was released meant consumers that were interested in the film were able to read up fully on characters, locations, etc. Therefore technology in the medium of the internet provided/provides a well-laiden website of features available to the public that may draw them in to watch and/or purchase said film. The trailers and cast interviews can also easily be found on websites such as YouTube. Website such as Google also provide features of looking up books, which in this case is relevant as Body of Lies was of course based on a book. Since info on the novel is in circulation, viewers can easily get linked up to the motion picture through this also.

IV
   As I have not watched the entire film, I have decided to analyse the first 3 minutes of Body of Lies. As the film begins we are confronted with an arabic man; the combination of his clothing and language lead us to the fact that he is obviously middle eastern. He points towards the camera as if he is speaking directly to the audience about his operation, the use of an unfamiliar language makes the audience feel as if they are intruding in on something they shouldn't be. And the gestures and speech given by this man threatens hostility and therefore a dangerous situation. Middle eastern style music is also played in the background to add to the atmosphere of unfamiliarity in the setting of "Manchester, England". We are then lead around a flat or house that is very dark and run down, we still hear the man talking in the background - his voice is distorted as if coming from a radio. The darkness of the shots give the setting a very dingy look, perhaps suggesting that not only is the area dark but the deeds going on within are dark also. We see evidence of intelligence amongst the inhabitants; one has a book laying on him (a religious one perhaps? Gathered from the previous reference to Islam, etc), chemicals and equipment are laid out and one man is wearing glasses. The aforementioned bombings (from the Arabic man in the beginning) lead us to think that perhaps these chemicals are associated with such acts; we can perhaps draw the conclusion then that these men are terrorists and that something thrilling is about to happen. All this is received by the viewer quickly and they are therefore absorbed into the plot very quickly as they are engaged. It is conventional of a thriller to primarily present a situation that is perhaps at first in need of some deduction, and therefore the viewer is drawn in straight away by using their brain to understand or work out what's going on.
   Moving on from the shots inside the house/flat we can see police attempting to infiltrate said house; confirming our suspicions on their activity. What I picked up the most from the this part was that the digetic sound of fences rattling, the milk bottles in the truck and the dog barking etc were all made to sound much louder than usual in a shot of this kind. The police footsteps etc were made very quiet, this high contrast of loud and quiet sound emphasises the stealth of the police. An explosion then follows as those inside the house hear the police regardless of how stealthy they were. The explosion is yet another loud noise that accesses the viewers ears as well as their eyes to keep them enthralled. To be presented with conventional characters such as police force members and potential terrorists conforms this film very much to the crime thriller sub genre. The dark, run-down setting makes us think that who ever inhabits this place must not care for appearances and in our kind of society people are very judgemental about these sorts of things, leading us to think that these inhabitants aren't quite usual inhabitant if their windows are smashed.

Click here for an annotated screenshot mentioned.
Note : The windows behind this character could suggest that light or good is behind him; in the sense that he is fighting for a good cause or in the sense that he has left good will behind.

V
   There is not much to be deduced in the way of social groups or women in the first 3 minutes of this film. However what can be commented on is the representation of ethnic minorities; in this case the muslim community in Europe. The fact that in the first 3 minutes of this film the only muslims shown are thought to be terrorists; this could send out a bad message. However, this is relevant to current and previous events that have happend globally in reality; muslims have been found to be suicide bombers, terrorists and the like. I think this film is simply a representation of this to emphasise effect. There is also a man shown who delivers milk to the door of the flat who is wearing a turban, another ethnic minority in the country of England. Not much can be concluded from his part in the film as he is only in it briefly, perhaps the fact that he is a milkman makes him seem unimportant and that his meant to be the representation. The rest of the people we see in the opening of Body of Lies are all disguised in police uniforms. Therefore it's difficult to draw any conclusion from who they represent. Also, no women are shown in this opening. Perhaps the film makers decided not to include women in the opening as the first few minutes of the film are filled with danger and violent acts - and women are perhaps not associated with this in the public eye. Therefore, with only men in the shots it gives a much more uneasy atmosphere. This sort of representation could also be taken to say that women are not or shouldn't be concerned with matters such as these, which is slightly derogatory. However, this analysis is only drawn from the first three minutes of the film so can't really be taken seriously until justified with evidence from the rest of the film.

Thriller Research: How it's influenced our thriller construction

 I've conducted a fair few pieces of research that I've posted on my blog, but I wouldn't say much of it would be worth anything if I hadn't used it to develop ideas for our own thriller project. So here's a post on the ways in which my research has influenced my ideas.

 This piece of research (click here) was conducted very early on during my AS media course and was quite important in our group's development of ideas. The information on composition allowed us to create shots that were in balance and appropriate to the atmosphere of the scene. There is a particular shot at the end of our opening in which Rhys (Jos) is to the right third of  the frame and is walking towards the camera, the view of the track in the wood in the background is in the rest of the frame and is then added to as the Lady in the Gas Mask appears on the track some distance behind Rhys. The rule of the thirds helped us to compose shots like these well resulting in clarity and balance of the shot - and in our satisfaction. The knowledge of digetic and non-digetic sound also helped us create the atmosphere we wanted in our opening. We decided to mute all of the digetic sound and only use non-digetic sound. We thought this technique would make the soundtrack seem more applicable to the feelings of the audience and make them feel like they were really there. In a way it depersonalises the characters on screen or makes them seem more far away, which could also make the viewer feel like they are pursuing/stalking them (also adds the convention of isloation..).

 The notes made from these thriller openings have contributed to our thinking of editing our thriller opening. I believe I made comments on all them regarding hue and darkness. Most of them had fairly dark frames with high contrast of small amounts of light and large amounts of dark. The hue was also often blue to give a sense of unwelcome and cold. We'll most likely follow these existing thriller examples in order to conform to thriller conventions and audience expectancy.

 My case study on Ginger Snaps didn't provide too much insight for me into our own thriller as it's a fairly different sub-genre. Although, there is a point in Ginger Snaps where the two main girls are attacked in the woods and our thriller opening sequence basicaly consists of Rhys being attacked in the woods. Therefore you could say we're using a classic basis for a sequence in a thriller, an example being in Ginger Snaps. The characters in Ginger Snaps also seem innocent but fairly liable to being attacked or victim to unfortunate circumstances. Such is the same for our main character.

 My analysis of The Coin Toss scene from No Country for Old Men was based on semiology, this let me understand the importance of objects and signs in thrillers. We used props such as the gas mask to invoke mystery and uncertainty about one of our characters. The trees on location also symbolised bars and hence entrapment of the main character.

 And of course the research into what a thriller actually is provided us with a general feel of film that we wanted to give to our own. By using all the different aspects of thriller conventions (locations, iconography, themes and plot lines) we have created our own version of a conventional psychological thriller.

Feedback Session Results

 Today we screened our thriller opening to an audience of about 20+ people. We handed out 10 of our feedback sheets. A lot of people had a rough idea of what was going on in the opening, which is always positive. Good points made by the audience were things like camera shots/angles as well as the use of music. A favourite aspect of one viewer was the sense of isolation + desolation created by the setting and music. They also seemed to find the characters relatable and enjoyable, not many disliked the characters. From this we have gathered a lot of positive feedback overall, which is good as we ourselves are pleased with our edit so far.

 In our group we have already decided on certain things we still have to edit, and at what point in the opening we'll add in the credits, title, etc. We hoped to get more improvement points from our feedback sheets but not many people put down serious suggestions. Although we had already decided the majority of things we wanted to change, it would have been helpful to receive a wider view. One improvement that was put forward was not to spend too much time panning the woods at the beginning of the opening. This added to our own thoughts and therefore we have decided to add in credits at this point in the film.

 Overall, the feedback session was fun and fairly informative as we were able to look at other groups thrillers as well. It's good to know that our age group seem to have a positive opinion of our product when it isn't even finished yet.

Comment on Location

Original post on location can be found here.

 We had decided, when first planning our film, that our thriller opening was going to take place in a wood. This was the only location we ended up needing as all the scene was to be set there. We all had a few ideas of local areas that could be suitable, but when it came to 'going on location' we visited two of the ideas we though would be best. The first location was along Marriot's Way, Reepham in the wooded areas. Although we found a suitable crater in the wood for our sense of entrapment and intimidation, the area was very overgrown and difficult to get to and walk around in. Thus we dubbed this location a bit useless. However, our second location was Cawston Heath - another public area commonly used by dog walkers, etc - and this was a heavily wooded area but was more maintained and therefore easy to navigate. There was also a crater in this wood where we ended up filming most of our opening. The grouping and types of trees (as well as the weather and season) was suitable for the desired effect of our filming. When it comes to the final edit of our opening, we will probably make all the shots darker as many of them are fairly light. It would have been difficult to film at a darker point in the day without professional equipment (and as I discovered by working with another group -as an actress- one becomes very short on time when attempting to film when it's dark but not too dark).

 Woods are a part of popular thriller conventions of entrapment, a feeling of being lost and therefore isolated.
Here are some examples where woods have been used as locations in thriller films:
                                     
                                                          Dog Soldiers

Blair Witch Project                                                                                    Evil Dead

What is a thriller?

A small piece of research into what a thriller actually is...

What makes a thriller a thriller? What sorts of characters, settings, narratives? According to thefreedictionary.com this is the definition of a thriller :

thrill·er

n.

One that thrills, especially a sensational or suspenseful book, story, play, or movie.

Quite self explanatory.  

A film under the genre of 'thriller' does tend to scare, excite or of course thrill the audience to which it is shown. Sub-genres include that of Horror, Psychological, Science Fiction, Crime/Detective and sometimes 'Action Thriller' - all of which tend to invoke the above feelings or emotions. So it goes without saying that there are many, many films out there that belong to this widely spread genre. However, what are in fact the characteristics of a thriller?

Conventions/Plot

  There are many basic storylines or plots that act as guidelines for thriller films, and hence are thriller conventions. For example, a situation of a lone person or group of people that are found in an isolated area where there are not many other people around - isolation. The convention of isolation is widely used in thriller films, especially horror. Films such as 28 Days Later use this convention very well; the main character (played by Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital with nobody around, when he goes out into the streets of London he still finds nobody. The effect of isolation makes the characters the audience are watching seem very vulnerable and helpless to whatever may 'come and get' them. Other popular conventions are that of voyeurism; being watched or followed. Sometimes the viewer is made to feel like they are looking in on the characters, or that they are unwelcome perhaps by using the technique of filming the shot behind bars or a fence. Other times the viewer is simply observing the characters being watched or followed by others. This sort of convention raises questions in the viewers mind immediately, such as : Why are they following/watching them? Are they going to capture them? What's going to happen? This kind of engagement is exactly what film makers want to happen, so that the viewer is absorbed into the thrill straight away. Yet another widely used part of plot/storylines is the 'red-herring'. This is when there is partiuclar emphasis put onto perhaps certain characters of the film, leading the viewer away from what is truly going on. Thus leading to plot twist in the long run. In our own thriller film, there are parts where the camera is panning up the body while violent flashbacks interupt the panning. The flashbacks (due to their violence) make it seem like the body on the ground could easily be a corpse, however our character then wakes up and therefore is in fact alive - this was our version of a red-herring.

Characters

 Popular groups of characters to be found in thriller films are often good guys and bad guys. This could be in the form of murder vs. victim, aliens vs. world, man vs. his mind, etc. There is often conflict. As a result, many a character found in thriller films are in fact murderers - either that of a human nature or otherwise. There are many examples of this, Mike Myers from Halloween (+sequels), The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Aliens from War of the Worlds, Jason from Friday 13th, etc. And of course there are victims to these killers, which in teen slasher films is often a mixed-gender group of teenagers (such as in Scream..). There are also the classic damsels in distress, and perhaps a person that is a victim of their own mind - as our character Rhys is. Of course not all thriller films go by this convention, as said above Crime/Detective films are also thrillers and these (as well as others) don't always play out with a murder and their vulnerable victim. There are also detectives, gangsters and other characters to consider - where conflict is a little less one sided in strength. There are of course many a different character in thriller films, but this is a brief and generic summary.

Iconography/Setting

 The items and settings are also a very important factor in making a thriller film what it is. Iconography would generally include things such as running water, bars/fences or perhaps street lamps. Running water is meant to be assoicated with death, as it may be draining away like a life or perhaps symbolises blood. Bars and fences give a sense of imprisonment and therefore isolation which links to the conventional atmosphere of a thriller. A type of setting that links into the idea of bars is that of a wood, as the trunks of trees with light shining through them could easily symbolise this - we in fact used this idea in our own thriller opening. And lastly street lamps, these (at night, of course) show only a small area of light in a frame which puts emphasis on the fact that there is a lot of darkness around. Plenty of darkness in a frame adds unease to the atmosphere, as no one can be sure what may be lying behind that darkness. Classic settings for thriller do heavily link to that which has already been mentioned - the feeling of isolation and imprisonment. For example locations such as woods, lakes, mansions and the like all have a daunting and creepy air about them - especially when it's night time. However usual locations are also used in thrillers, such as cities. Settings such as these I think are used in order to show that unusual and/or thrilling things can occur in a very ordinary and busy place. Psychological, crime or gangster films often take place in cities which seems to bring the madness closer to home; it makes the viewer feel like strange or violent things that happen within these films could easily happen in reality.

Music/Sound

 Music and sound (digetic+non-digetic) contirbute greatly to the suspense of a thriller. If you want the viewer to be anticipating an event in a film such as a Horror, it is easy with the clever addition of music. Often, the music and sound will go quiet with perhaps a high-pitched instrument in the background that keeps one on the edge. Following this could be the climax or shocking part of the scene shown in unison with strong and loud music not only thrilling the eyes but the ears as well. Music helps bring the atmosphere of the film directly to the viewer, so they feel as if they were in the film themselves. The classic bass part for the film Jaws will always be remembered by most.

 These are the factors I think help to make a thriller exactly what it is. And by conforming to these, film makers are giving audiences what they expect and love from thriller films. Therefore, we have taken great care in making sure we have considered and utilised the conventions of the thriller genre in our own thriller opening.

Screening Our Rough Edits

On thursday 25th November (tomorrow) we're going to screen our rough edit of our thriller to other media and college students. We hope to gain constructive criticism as well as some positive feedback from this session so we can make our final edit the best it can be. Results will be posted soon after :)

Here are the feedback questions that will be handed out to viewers:

What did you think was going on during the film?


What do you think the rest of the story might be?


What are your thoughts on the characters? (whether you liked them, your interpretation of them)


Do you think the music was appropriate for what was happening in the film?


What was your favourite aspect of the film?


What improvements do you think we could make to the film?

Comment on Storyboard & Shooting Schedule

The storyboard to our thriller & our shooting schedule can be found here on Becky's Blog.

 Regarding the storyboard, to being with we all had some input. Becky soon took over as the individual with the best drawing skills and idea of what the content of the opening was to be. However when it came to what would be contained in the shots of the flashbacks, we all helped come up with content (Jos/Rhys being hit with a rock, dragged, etc). We also decided it would be a good idea to neatly present the storyboard by scanning it and re-doing it in photoshop to improve clarity. Becky put a lot of thought into camera angles and used ideas from other thrillers such as Predators and The Book of Eli (similar to our panning of trees in shots 1-2 and the panning of the body).

 In comment of the shooting schedule and storyboard, we forgot to bring along our storyboard along with us the first time we went filming. Thus, we forgot to film some of the shots leaving us feeling like we didn't have enough footage to work with. As a result we planned to film not only on November 6th but on thursday 11th November when we had a double media lesson. However, it then was raining on this thursday so we had to delay filming until the following thursday, November 18th. On this day we remembered our storyboard and therefore were able to film all the remaining shots as well as re-film some parts we weren't satisfied with the first time round. Now all our filming is done and out of the way, and footage is currently being edited.

No Country for Old Men Analysis

This is my analysis regarding semiology of The Coin Toss scene from No Country for Old Men.

Clip found here

No country for old men semiology

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Thriller Questionnaire Analysis

Here is our analysis of our questionnaire results :

1) Please select your gender…

·        We asked for this information to identify the gender of the majority of thriller viewers, different genders would probably require slightly different content within a thriller film.

·        We found that within our sample group the majority of thriller film viewers was male.

2) What age category do you fall into?

·        We asked for this information to be able to suit our thriller to the majority age category, different age groups will require different content.

·        We found that most of the asked audience was aged between 16-18

·        Our thriller is intended to be aimed at this audience, as we have included violence and more-adult themes.

3) What type of sub genre (of thriller) do you prefer?

·        We asked this question in order to establish what most popular ‘sub-genre’ was among our selected group. We will then be able to write our thriller to suit our target audience.

·        The results show that the most popular sub genres are horror and psychological thrillers.

·        Our thriller film is going to be psychological.

4) What would you be looking for in a thriller?

• We require this information in order to gain ideas for our thriller, we will consult these ideas (the most popular and relevant) when it comes to writing our thriller.
• The most popular themes within a thriller was gore, unexpected endings and twists.
• Our thriller will therefore include violence and ‘red-herrings’

5) What is a recent thriller film that you have enjoyed?

• This question was asked so that we can get a rough idea of what sort of thriller our main audience would enjoy, we can therefore take inspiration from these films.
• The most popular film was ‘Shutter Island’, selected because of it’s suspense and plot twists.
• We will therefore include these conventions within our thriller to suit our audience.

6) What kind of characters would you expect to be featured within a thriller?

• We can utilise the answers from this question in order to design our characters and what good character conventions an audience is looking for.
• We found that mainly people expect murderers, psychopaths and victims within a thriller.
• We therefore will include these characters; we have created both a villain and a victim.

7) How would you describe an ideal villain? Visually and personality wise.

• We need the information from this question to give us an idea of what our audience is looking for in their ideal villain; we can then meet these expectations when it comes to character design.
• Our results showed that people generally wanted a villain with intelligence and mystery about them.
• In our thriller our villain will be female, dark and mysterious.

8) What is an ideal location for a thriller film in your opinion?

• We can use the information given to determine the best location for our thriller film, according to our audiences expectations.
• Our results identified that people generally wanted a space that was normally associated with safety, in order to make the audience unsure and no longer feel safe.
• One of the second highest rated locations was a forest, where we will be filming our thriller as we feel it fits the story line better.

9) Where is you favourite place to view a film?

• We can use this information to determine what the best hypothetic release for our thriller would be; cinema release, straight to DVD, or simply an exclusive internet release.
• The highest rated place to view a film was the cinema.
• This means that if we were to release the film the best way would be to release the film in the box office, so that it would attract more of an audience.

10) Which would you rather do? (Various different places to purchase or see a thriller film)

·        As the previous question, we can use this information to determine what the best hypothetic release for our thriller would be; cinema release, straight to DVD, or simply an exclusive internet release.

·        Again, people chose to view a film once at the cinema.

·        This means that we would release our thriller in the cinema as it would probably be more successful that way.

Our Script (or lack of)

 As may be deduced from our storyboard and lack of script posting, our thriller opening doesn't contain any dialogue. Only two characters are featured in our opening, one of which is a figment of the other characters imagination which partly explains why there is no speech. Half of the sequence is a combination of a pan of Rhys unconscious and flashbacks of violent scenes, which also expresses no need for dialogue. The fact that our thriller is intended to be that of a psychological nature, the lack of dialogue adds to this effect. This is because of the uncertainty of whether events are happening in Rhys' mind or in reality, and of course there is no actual speech inside a person's mind. These are the reasons that brought us to the decision of there being no dialogue in our thriller sequence. Therefore only the storyboard has been needed in order for the actual shooting of the film to go ahead.

 Also, regarding thriller conventions, the fact that there is no speech makes the sequence slient & eerie - and therefore makes the character(s) seem more isolated. Isolation is a widley used thriller convention and therefore a good situation to use the ensure our thriller is to audience's expectations. There's also the aspect of voyeurism, being watched or perhaps followed, which is also expressed by the hallucinogenic Gas Mask Lady silently stalking and harming the main character.

Thriller Questionnaire

Here's the actual questionnaire we gave out to people:

Media Questionnaire

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Thriller Questionnaire Results

These are our compiled results for our thriller questionnaire. We asked 15 people in total as one of our group members was absent and unable to take part in questioning people.

Thriller Questionnaire Results

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The Death Note Opening (2)

  This is the second opening to Death Note, a psychological/supernatural thriller anime (originally a manga) that I have watched many times. I couldn't find the first opening on youtube, but this one is just as good. The anime itself is to do with a young japanese student called Light Yagami who stumbles across a Shinigami's (Death God's) Death Note, a notebook with which you can kill a person if you write their name within it while thinking of their face. He decides to try and become 'the God of the new world' and kill all the criminals in the world. Predictably, the world's police force including the greatest mind in criminal investigation decide to stop Light (or 'Kira' as the name he adopts, derived from the english of 'Killer"). The greatest mind being a man known only by 'L'.

  The anime is fairly slow paced as it introduces characters and lengthens the chase and capture of Kira, spread over 37 episodes. Quite a contrast to the fast paced and hectic opening theme. In my opinion this is effective as it represents the psychological test undertaken by Light and L, as their obsession with the case manifests and becomes more dangerous. Evidently this anime is more psychologically violent as oppose to physically or graphically.

  This is one of my favourite japanese animes (as watching them is a hobby of mine) of all time and have re-watched it and watched the live action film versions. I also have the two openings and endings on my iPod..

Other Elements

The soundtrack should also be found here on Jordan's Blog

And the synopsis and details on location here on Jos' Blog

Casting Choices

Rebekah Bigwood as The Lady in the Gas Mask

    Becky from our group has been chosen to play The Lady in the Gas Mask. Our reasons for this include the fact of convenience, as it's easier to choose somebody from our group to be apart of our film as then we don't need to sort out filming schedules with a lot of people. By view of appearance, Becky is a good choice as she has a feminine build to clearly show that the character in the gas mask is a woman. She is also fairly tall, which adds to the character's feature of intimidation and power – this goes against many film conventions of women being submissive and powerless to the comparison of men.  Also she has longish brown hair which is a feature we wanted for the character, and extends on what she and her features represent i.e. brown hair is fairly generic and not necessarily modern which could build on the fact that gas masks were also used in wars a long time ago which perhaps could represent the duration that this woman has existed. There is also the point that Becky owns the appropriate clothing and props to be used for her character.
    In high school I worked with Becky in making videos for certain subject projects and she is a very agreeable person to work with and also holds fairly good acting skills.

Jos Banham as Rhys

    Again, for convenience we decided to choose Jos to play the character Rhys to prevent having to arrange a filming schedule with people outside of our group. Rhys is a character that looks fairly normal but in fact is not; and Jos is pretty ordinary looking and has a fairly casual personality which fits the appearance of our character. As Rhys is meant to look fairly ordinary, but in actual fact is not. He is also relatively tall and has dark hair, so could come across as frightening and suspicious is filmed in the proper way to emphasis this. We chose this kind of character in order to show the audience that ordinary-looking people can have severe background stories and problems; the casting of Jos allows us to create this illusion of a normal person.

Character Background - Rhys

Rhys’ background is very much covered in the film synopsis. Rhys has always heard a voice inside his head; the voice of a woman; as a result of his schizophrenia. He was not diagnosed with this illness until he became 17, and so, much of his behaviour has been incomprehensible to his peers and he therefore has become rejected by society as he’s gotten older. However, as a result of his late diagnosis Rhys’ condition has developed and worsened as oppose to being treated. With the combination of his drug habits his illness has manifested itself in his mind; his smoking of cannabis since he was 13 and recent mixture of prescription drugs with LSD at a certain rave. This manifestation included the production of a visual hallucination to go along with the voice in his head; this being the woman in the gas mask. This covers Rhys’ mental situation.

Rhys’ family and friends are hardly that which you would call them- they have become too afraid to be in close contact with him and therefore Rhys is a very isolated character which contributes to his lack of acceptable social behaviour and thinking. It’s a mystery to why his condition wasn’t recognised earlier in his life – probably because he was fairly secluded to begin with, so no one was really close enough to him to notice.

Drugs and music is how Rhys tries to cope with his abnormal life, in actual fact he fails to realise what is normal or reality. His mind is so distorted that he is unable to conform to the regularities of human behaviour. Perhaps his relation to music is an exception to this- as most people do enjoy music as a form of expression. Aside from this, he is quite out of the ordinary.

This character doesn’t care for appearances, or doesn’t understand the need or desire to, and thus dresses very casually and perhaps fairly scruffily. Clothes are clothes to him; material objects don’t hold much importance in his mind. In his spare time it is apparent that he spends quality moments with himself – either held up in his flat or out on walks to goodness knows where. Nobody really knows what he thinks about or what he gets up to. 

Initial Ideas (Brain Storming)

Here's a mind map with some of my initially brainstormed ideas for our thriller opening and plot. Eventually we went with one of Rebekah Bigwood's ideas as we all preferred hers to our own.

Thriller opening ideas mind map

View more presentations from Catrin Hamer.

Prelim Task Finished.

Here is the end product of our Preliminary Task :

(Posted a little late..)

Comment on Synopsis

Film Synopsis (Jos' Blog)

 We all discussed what the main plot of the film would be, and how our main character would end up in the woods according to our opening. We went through ideas of a childhood hallucination or imaginary friend being carried on into adulthood, and as Rhys got older people tried to convince him this character wasn't real. This made him angry and hostile, and overall put in chosen seclusion from other people - in turn this causes the creations of his mind to become violent (and this is how the Lady in the Gas Mask would differ from in the mind and in reality). This was one of our initial ideas.

 However we then collectively came up with the idea of drug involvement, and Jos came up with a storyline that combined a mental illness (schizophrenia) with drug abuse and we all agreed that this was an appropriate storyline (click above link for details).

 Me and Jos also discussed that if this was the background story, and the character was in the forest (having run away) in the beginning - what would happen in the rest of the film? Therefore we decided that the end of the film is what is to be shown in the opening - and the background story is therefore unravelled in the rest of the film (the drug taking, development of schizophrenia etc). So, evidently the film's structure is jumbled- with the end at the beginning. This is often a popular narrative (such as in Brick, 2006) as it catches the viewers interest with an exciting scene that is yet to be explained (makes the viewer want to watch the rest of the film to understand what on earth happened for such a shocking climax to occur at the end of it).

Character Background – The Lady in the Gas Mask

This character dresses in dark clothing and a gas mask. This is meant to portray her mysteriousness and the audience's (and other character's) unsureness of her. The character is in fact a long term hallucination that is manifested by the main character, Rhys. The Lady in the Gas Mask is first brought into existence by Rhys' condition of schizophrenia. At childhood, Rhys' mind only holds this character as voice in his head. When he mixes his prescription drugs for his condition with LSD at a rave, his hallucination changes to a visual which continually develops it's 'power'; eventually her existence differs from in his mind to in his reality. Consequently, she can not only manipulate his mind but interact with him physically as well. 

Rhys' relationship with his family and friends decreases significantly over time, making him more secluded, paranoid and hostile as his mental illness and drug abuse takes over. In turn, this causes the uncontrollable part of his mind to also become more hostile, resulting in The Lady in the Gas Mask becoming violent.

This idea was derived from the character of 'Frank' from the move 'Donnie Darko'. In this film, the main character (Donnie) is kept in the company of his sort of 'imaginary friend' which is a large grey bunny rabbit with a scary face. Donnie seems to change over time in the film and ends up doing crazy things, he also goes for therapy sessions and hypnosis as a result. At the end of the film we meet a character that supposedly exists in reality that looks like the bunny Frank, in reality it is a normal man called Frank in a halloween costume. The idea of a character moving from in the mind (in intellectu) and in reality (in re) appealed to us as a group and therefore decided the derive our own character of a similar nature - but with our own little quirky twist.

Thriller Opening Costume Ideas 2

Here are the original annotated sketches and image compilations of the other main character's (Rhys') costumes.
We will probably go ahead with these ideas as we want this character to appear fairly simple and scruffy, therefore his outfit is not too complicated.

Sketches

Image Compilation

Thriller Opening Costume Ideas

Here are the original sketches and computer application of costume ideas for one of our characters (the lady wearing the gas mask).
A character background with details on casting should follow shortly.

Sketches
Image Compilation

Ginger Snaps

(Movie Theme)


I
 My first Thriller case study is on the werewolf classic; Ginger Snaps. Subcategorised as a horror, it easily fits into the thriller genre. It's in fact one of my all-time favourite films, and I've seen it numerous times that I almost know every line.. It was released primarily in Germany and Canada (2000) - Canada being the country where it was filmed and made (Ontario, Canada) - and in 2001 in the UK. The main production companies involved with the film were Copperheart Entertainment, Water Pictures and Motion International. Not many main characters are actually featured in the film, but those who are were played by Katharine Isabelle (Ginger), Emily Perkins (Brigitte) and Kris Lemche (Sam). The Director of Ginger Snaps was John Fawcett, a Canadian who also directed "The Dark" (2005) and "The Boys Club" (1997) - both of which are also of the thriller genre. Additionally, the budget was estimated at $5,000,000 and during the Opening Weekend end in the UK the box office pulled in £27,049 (1st July, 2001 - 17 Screens).

II

 The film itself is rated 18, but in my opinion if this film had been made this year it would have received the rating of 15. In general, most film ratings have been lowered as the thriller/horror genre expands; as more shocking content is brought onto our screens previous content we have consumed seems less serious. I watched this film for the first time when I was quite young (perhaps younger than 10) as my sister was very much into films such as these; and I followed along. Having watched it many times since then, I believe that most films released in the recent years that are rated at 15 contain just about as much violent content as this one. Therefore I would say that, in my opinion, this film is probably mainly aimed at young teenagers or simply teenagers in general as an age group. The time period in which it was released (early 2000s) was in fact when the sub-culture of ‘goth’ seemed most popular in my opinion (having first-handedly experienced it from my sister). As the film’s main characters are in fact two goth-like girls who are social outcasts in their mini-society of high school it could be assumed that this film was also intended to be relatable to such an audience of this time (Goth subculture).  On the website of IMDB the general user rating this film is given is 6.9/10 (12,752 votes). Verging on a 7/10, I would say this film has been received rather well by the public. One of the user’s that rated the film 10/10 said this :

“ Finally something fresh and original.
3 June 2002 | by HumanoidOfFlesh (Chyby, Poland) – See all my reviews
I'm so happy that I watched this brilliant gem of a horror movie two days ago.In those politically correct times where idiotic MTV-oriented teen slashers and comedies are made in the US,it is really good to see such original film like "Ginger Snaps".Why?Because it has some excellent suspense sequences and a rather high amount of blood and gore.The werewolf is really cool looking,the acting by two lead girls(Emily Perkins,Katharine Isabelle)is excellent and the direction is well-handled."Ginger Snaps" is a pure horror film,that is to be taken seriously.I think it ranks up there with Daniel Attias "Silver Bullet" and Joe Dante's "The Howling".10 out of 10-a perfect film for the jilted generation! ”

After reading this review, it becomes apparent to me that at the time of its release many other types of horror films were being made very similar to one another (teen ‘slashers’ – which let’s face it, get repetitive). It seems that Ginger Snaps was an interesting new take on a classic werewolf movie and was generally well received by its intended audience.

III

 As this film was released in 2000, it’s fairly obvious that what we now call ‘new’ technology wasn’t necessarily around to provide the sort of access to this film as we would have now (e.g. iPhone apps, etc). There was an official website made for the film though (http://www.ginger-snaps.com/) containing information on sequels, interviews with the director, soundtrack downloads, etc. Although as we can see, the website seems fairly dated and not exactly modern. However, there are aspects of technology that make this movie very accessible in our modern day - and this would be Youtube. On Youtube we can find all manner of clips to do with Ginger snaps, these include; official trailers of the movie, the actual film split up into parts (very handy when your sister owns the dvd), user made music videos and interviews/auditions with the cast. All in all, the main protagonist of technology used to make people aware of this film and to provide access to it is Youtube (and evidently Google).

Links:

Main Part of Opening Sequence (Death Montage)
Trailer
Film
Auditions
User Made Music Video

IV

 I decided to analyse the opening of this film in order to assess the codes/forms and conventions of the thriller genre (as it would be a definite task to analyse the entire film). I chose roughly the first 3 minutes to make notes on, and ventured into the next 3 minutes for screen shot annotation, etc.
    To begin with, we are presented with rooftops- endless, it seems – which to me acts like a vast landscape that is meant to make the audience feel small and isolated in a large suburban area. It is then followed by a shot of a field with wind blowing through it; again no people are shown giving a conventional feel of isolation. Accompanying these shots is in fact no soundtrack, only the digetic sound of a dog barking far away. This does not only give a feel of loneliness, but also makes me think of the connection with the film type. Throughout the first third or so of the film it is realised that some form of creature or ‘big dog’ is killing domestic dogs in the neighbourhood (this is of course the werewolf). The fact that this dog is barking could be foreshadowing of events to come; that of the killings and the general incident of the girls and the werewolf. A panning shot is then shown of an ordinary scene in a garden of a mother raking leaves and her child playing in a sand pit. In the background, we hear the sound of crows cawing perhaps bringing about an appropriate sense of death- as the child then finds a bloody paw in the sand box which leads to the finding of the family’s rather half-devoured dog. The scene in general is rather quiet up to this point, where the mother screams. It is perhaps a slightly unexpected short climax. The shot then blackens and the title of the film is shown. Relating to thriller conventions, it seems that a quiet scene of seeming calamity which is then quickly followed by a sharp shock is a feature of a typical thriller opening.
Parts of what happens in the next 3 or so minutes I have decided to annotate screen shots from.

Screen Shot Annotation

This second image is a series of stills taken from the ‘death montage’ in the opening of Ginger Snaps. The montage is in fact a sort of death project (a play on a project title set for the main characters which is “Life in Bailey Downs”) that the girls compile using pictures of themselves committing suicide/homicide.

'Death Project' Annotation

The fact that during the whole film there are few characters- this in itself gives a conventional feel of isolation. It makes the girls seem even more alone in their struggle with being bitten by a werewolf. Social outcasts are also a very common sort of character to include in a thriller film, as they appear vulnerable and are not likely to be helped. Woods scenes are used as a classic scene of entrapment and no escape. A busy party scene is also used near the end of the film where the audience knows almost none of the characters there which is relatable to a viewer’s sense of isolation – nobody likes to be at a party where they don’t know anybody, it’s almost scary.
The narrative structure of the film is fairly basic , it’s linear with generally no flashbacks or point of views of other characters. Although this is rather ordinary for a thriller, to me it’s appealing as it is a classic progression of a storyline in which you want to know what is happening. The audience isn’t confused at following bazaar narratives and flashbacks of characters; the storyline is straight forward and to the point.


 V


 In general, what can be said about representation of social groups in this film generally refer to that of social outcasts, goths and women. For example, the two girls are shown to only make company with each other and not many other characters – there is also definite aggression shown between these characters and those that seem popular in the high school setting. Goth as a stereotype is related to dark, evil, black, death, etc. These conventions of the sub culture are met religiously in this film – especially with the violent scenes of blood and gore as well as the ‘death project’ at the beginning (in addition, the conversing of a suicide pact between the sisters in the beginning). The lack of main characters in the feature also help represent the seclusion of being a teenager, and how teenagers hide their problems and try to deal with them on their own (or how they must learn to do this). The entire film is almost like an extreme exaggeration of teenage life (as it says on IMDB, “This film uses werewolfism as a metaphor for puberty. One of the Fitzgerald sisters, suburban goth girl outcasts, gets bitten by something in the woods (and it ain't a neighborhood dog).”). Regarding women, there is both contrast and agreement with conventional representations of women in this film. The main two female characters are rather different from what we may consider a conventional female character; they do not appear as sex objects nor do they appear deceptive. They appear strong, secluded and almost vulnerable – we sympathise with them and wish them the best. However, there are also minor characters in the film that perfectly fit with the representation of women as sex objects (a character that is involved in heavy aggression with the two girls) – one of the main characters (Ginger) in the film even refers to women in society “A girl can only be a slut, bitch, tease or the virgin next door.”.

Thriller Opening Analysis (Gothika, The Book of Eli, Brick)

Gothika (2003)

At the very beginning of Gothika everything seems to be in a dark, blue hue - even the company logos (Columbia Pictures). Blue conventionally represents sadness, calm and cold - since the blue is dark I would assume the main representation is mean to be sorrow/eerie-ness. Once the credits begin we see that they are out of focus and are then brought in to focus, which I percieve as a kind of foreboding of events to come - perhaps something happens that is unclear or distorted to us and the characters in the film. Also, there is a double bass in the background which is also associated with sadness. When the scene opens, we are met with two figures. One looks worn and pale, perhaps unhealthy, and the other looks groomed and calm. The camera shots at the beginning (reverse) only shows one of their faces' at a time- making them seem more divided or seperated. Through speech, appearance and camera shots they almost seem like they are isolated in their own worlds from one another. We also see that they are surrounded by fences or bars- classic iconography of a thriller that gives a sense of entrapment. Throughout the scene the camera is often passing these bars, and 'looking' at the characters through them- which makes the viewer feel like they are intruding upon a perhaps intimate or private conversation. The entire scene is also generally shadowy and dark, which gives an eerie feel and a sense of the unknown (also a popular thriller convention).



The Book of Eli (2010)

The beginning of The Book of Eli starts off with an eerie and isolated feeling. We can hear the sound of a wind blowing (in perhaps a barren/lonely place) before we can even see the first shot. When the first shot does open to a wood, there is a short and deep bass sound that's fairly loud and almost makes you jump or feel like your heart is pounding. The trees we see almost look like bars forming a cage, furthering the sense of isolation and no escape. Music is also building in the background all the while, partnering the building anticipation. The camera pans the floor of the wood, we're met with a gun and a body- we perceive death and violence. There are also slightly out of place parts to the scene; the ash that's falling from the sky as well as the domestic-looking cat that walks along and sniffs/nibbles the body. This adds an unknown element to the scene, as does the man in the gas mask as we cannot see his face. It makes the viewer as continuing questions in their mind about what is going on/will happen/has happened. The character in the gas mask also appears to be camped and waiting for something, or watching for something/someone - therefore a sense of voyeurism is also felt. As this character pulls back an arrow to supposedly kill this cat that has come along, the music continues to build - the character then laughs and it appears to be an anti-climax. However, the audience is fooled and a very strong sounding arrow is released to kill the cat. This also has the effect of surprise on the audience and is quite alarming with the obtrusive sound (perhaps this is foreshadowing twists and turns of events?). Also, the arrow is followed in slow motion - giving us a sense of direction of where it's going and making it more dramatic or significant. Once again, the scene is extremely dark and has a blue hue - which makes the atmosphere cold and uninviting, as if there is no time for emotion or kindness (like war? - linking to the gasm mask/army tent/etc).


Brick (2005)

The music at the beginning of Brick (xylophone? + acoustic guitar) is almost calming but sad, as oppose to something that builds suspense. We are met with what seems to be a part further on in the film chronologically, a sad event (assumed death). It fits in well with the blue hue we are first given, which gives an image and atmosphere of sorrow and accident. We can see running water and a dark tunnel, rather popular iconography associated with thrillers and helping to emphasise the possibility of death and that there is a sense of the unknown. The male character we see is wearing glasses, often associated with a character of intelligence and his facial expression appears to be sad as well as though his mind is trying to make sense of the situation. At the beginning, as the camera pans the first part we see of the man is his feet, and the camera often goes back to soley film this (as he walks to his locker, etc). For the female character, her braclet is the focus - which also lets the audience know it is the same girl that put the note in his locker that is supposedly dead. I interpreted this as his feet are his sort of symbol or focus, and the braclet is hers- this could represent that he is chasing or trying to reach her as well as what has happened to her (physically and mentally in pursuit). Moving onto further in the opening, there is a great sense of isolation centered around the man- there a few people seen at the school or along the road, etc. The phone booth is also a confined space, which could represent that this character is trapped by something (not neccessarily physical). When the dark car drives past, a cigarette is tossed out of the window- a cigarette is linked with smoke and fire; danger, or a trail to follow (no smoke without fire)?