Costumes for our actors for our opening sequence:

This type of dress code will be applied to Kirrill (Head of the Terrorists), to show that he can be associated with wealth because he is smartly dressed. And that he doesnt do any of the dirty work.

For the other two terrorists they will be dressed in army kit, to show that they have to do all the dirty work, and dont have the same wealth as Kirrill.

This type of clothing will be applied to Simon the spy to show that he dresses up casually to blend in with other citizens, not to let anyone find out his true identity.

Life of a Thriller Film:

The life of a thriller film that I researched on was Superman Returns, which is possibly one of the most famous films in the world. The film cost $209 million to make, and it stayed in the US Box Office from the 2nd of July to the 29th of October ’06, and in the UK from the 16th of July to the 27th of August ’06. The film took from the Box Office worldwide $391,081,192, and most of that came form the US which grossed alone $200,069,408. They also made around $30 million through selling the DVD. The actors who stared in the film are names such as Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey and Tristan Lake Leabu. The primary target audience was for everyone from ages 12 and above, because Superman is a hero to everyone not just children. We know its an action heroic thriller, by the fast action aced scenes it has, and with the mise en scene, the music, the lighting and the fantastic camera work. The whole story line of superman returns with romance, and fighting scenes, there is a huge variety in the film that makes it a thriller.

Public Enemies Analysis Without Sound

In the very beginning of the trailer we see men in raincoats holding guns, waiting for an airplane to land, the lighting is also very dark with just the light from a few cars which are parked near the runway; straight away we know it’s a thriller, by the guns and dark lighting. We then see a man in hand cuffs with seven other men with guns walking around him walk out of the plane through an aerial shot, to show the dark and tense atmosphere of the whole scenery. After that there a mid shot of the man who was in hand cuffs, standing by a mug shot with lots of people around him, and by the way his body language is we see he is leaning a police officers shoulder while being interviewed by pres. From this shot the audience again can see it’s a crime comedy thriller, by the criminal man leaning on the police officer and knowing is a crime thriller too because he is surrounded by police officers with guns and is behind bars. We then see the editing speed up as the trailer goes on, the audience sees that he escapes from the prison and there is a lot of shooting and running, with quick camera shots of the man and other characters in the film. We see with the camera shots that he is always holding a gun, showing that he is dangerous, and from the scenery we see that he is always on the move by snow and then sun, this is done by the mise en scene. The audience then sees that the man and another group of people start robbing different banks again showing that it’s a crime thriller. The audience then sees the man kissing a woman, sowing that not only is it a crime comedy thriller to, but there is also romance involved. So throughout the whole trailer the audience gets to pick up a lot of fast paced editing and mise en scene showing that it’s a thriller, and we see this even if we watch it without any sound.

Analysis of a foreign language trailer 3:



Audition:

The very beginning of the thriller we see a girl sitting on the floor next to a telephone, with a bag with something in it, possibly a dead body? This is done by a long shot, there is also very little lighting giving the audience a dark mood. Her black hair is covering her face; the black hair shows to the audience she might have a dark and dangerous personality, and that she is covering her face she doesn’t want to show it. So to start off with we don’t know who this girl is, we don’t know what’s in the bag whether it’s a dead body and why she is covering her face. So just by the mise en scene we know that it’s a dark mysterious thriller. Also there is dark non diagetic music staying at one tone, which gives the audience the feel that tension is building up as the tone gets louder and louder, which builds up suspense to the audience. This is all broken by the phone ringing, and a zoom in on the telephone, showing there is an importance to the phone ringing. Then from here the whole pace speeds up, with the music having different beats, making it all up beat, and also the editing speeds up, with mise en scene of a finger in a cup of water, and a lady holding and staring at an injection. This all gets the audience more focused and intrigued by the fast action pacing trailer, with still a tint of mystery because there is no dialogue. We then see a fast mid shot of the woman inserting the injection into a mans stomach, with a reaction shot of the man in pain. So this little clip again warns the audience this could be a horror because it questions the audience whether she killed the man, and to why she would do it? Leaving the trailer full of mystery and a little unnerved.

Analysis of a foreign language thriller 2:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:

In the very beginning of the trailer it starts off with black ink being squirted into water with a white background, which gives the audience a feel that innocence has been tinted with darkness. Then it cuts to a tracking shot of a person on a motor bike driving very quickly, this is obviously done by a tracking shot, there is also very little lighting and the motorbike and motor wear and helmet are all black. This type of mise en scene shows that the black and dark colours show a mysterious and dangerous mood to the audience, it gives the feeling that it’s a dark thriller. Also there is very dramatic non diagetic music which emphasizes that it’s a mystery crime thriller, and the music gets louder and more fast paced with different camera shots of quick editing from a woman running away to a man holding a gun and aiming it at another human being. This once again shows that it’s a fast paced movie with quick editing and fast paced music, with big basses, making it seem more dangerous. There are also a lot of extreme close ups on different actors’ eyes, and this makes it very mysterious because we do not know what they are looking at.

Analysis of a foreign language thriller 1:

The Secret in Their Eyes:

In the very beginning of the sequence we hear non diagetic music in the back ground. The music is very mysterious and dark, already giving the audience an expression that its a dark thriller, with secrets involved. In the first camera shot we see a woman who is sitting at a desk, with lots of papers on the desk, the mise en scene shows here she is some type of lawyer, and her job is very time consuming. This is done by using a mid shot camera view. The next shot we see is a man writing on paper and the camera zooms in on the paper, showing that whatever he is writing has a level of importance to it. Also there is a lot of dark lighting, giving it a mysterious and quite scary mood to the audience. There is then another shot of a dead woman on the floor, straight away with a woman screaming, which is a diagetic sound. This instantly gives it away to the audience that it is a crime thriller. We then start to see the editing pace pick up with faster edit of camera shots and the music becomes more up beat and action like. As the trailer goes on we see men shouting and arguing, making the audience feel more tension within the trailer, thus getting them focused on what happening, we also see from the mise en scene the actor’s facial expressions of disappointment and sadness. Showing the audience that this crime film, will have sad moments. Just as the tension rises it is broken by a tracking shot of a man walking into a room and shooting someone behind a curtain, while this happens the up beat action music stops for that very moment showing the importance of that scene.

Why we changed the Script:

We changed the script because we felt that using a piece of paper in our opening sequence would be unrealistic to our audience as it wouldn't relate to any past events in todays society.  Therefore, we chose to relate our opening sequence to the war for independance in Chechnya where Russia essentially bombed and killed thousands of Chechnyan people. 

Our Final decision was therefore, to have Chechnyan terrorists who were questioning a British Spy (their hostage) on the British Government involvement with the Russians about this war.  We found that England was also unrealistic as our location because if terrorists went to another country, they wouldn't linger:  they would make their attack and then leave the country as soon as possible.  Because of this, we chose to have a British Spy who was working and living in Russia (with his family) for the Government after the Cold War. 

From Wikipedia: (summary of event we are relating our opening sequence to)

Grozny was once again the core of fighting after the outbreak of the Second Chechen War, which further caused thousands of casualties. During the early phase of the Russian siege on Grozny on October 25, 1999, Russian forces launched five SS-21 ballistic missiles at the busy central bazaar and a maternity ward, killing more than 140 people and injuring hundreds. During the massive shelling of the city that followed, the majority of the Russian artillery were directed toward the upper floors of the buildings; although this caused massive destruction of infrastructure, civilian casualties were much less than in the first battles. The huge scale of the devastation prompted numerous comparisons with Hiroshima and other cities leveled during World War II.
The final seizure of the city was set in early February 2000, when the Russian military beckoned the besieged militants to a promised safe passage. Seeing no build-up of forces outside, the militants agreed. One day before the organised evacuation, the Russian Army mined the path between the city and the village of Alkhan-Kala and concentrated most firepower on that point. As a result, both the city mayor and military commander were murdered; a number of other prominent separatist leaders were also killed or wounded, including Shamil Basayev and several hundred rank-and-file militants.  Soon after, the Russians slowly entered the empty city and on February 6 raised the Russian flag in the centre. Many buildings and even whole areas of the city were systematically dynamited. A month later, it was declared safe to let the residents return to their homes, although demolishing carried on for some time. In 2003 the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on earth.

Edited Script for Media:

Characters: 3 bad guys, spy, spies’ wife and daughter.

Main bad guy = Saeed

Spy = Simon

Saeed:  Tell me about your involvement with the Russians.

Simon: What the Fuck are you talking about?

Saeed:  This is no time for games. Tell me about zulu 101 or your family will die. 

Simon reacts by spitting at the terrorist

Saeed: Hits the spy and phones his colleague, says in foreign language “Get them ready”

Saeed: My family and all my friends are dead because of your people and now a member of your family will die because you have not obeyed my orders.  (Holds up camera phone to Simon) Choose which one will die now. Your wife or your child?

Simon: (crying) please…don’t do this.

Saeed: (interrupts his crying) do what I say!

Simon: (Silent)

Saeed: (foreign language “Kill the wife”)

Simon: (looks at the camera and sees wife getting shot, starts screaming and crying) Noooo!

Saeed: (Puts the gun up to his daughters head) Tell me or your daughter will be next!

Simon: (Stares at the camera and sobs)

Screen fades into black and title appears

THE END

 

Mise en Scene

The mise-en-scene is the most important part which we had to think in depth about as if we don’t have a realistic set, props, make-up and clothing our thriller wouldn’t look professional. The mise-en-scene sets the scene for the audience, allowing them to connote the messages we want to portray to the audience subconsciously.

Simon, (spy) will be wearing a casual suit; jeans with a shirt, and a long blazer as he will be thinking that he will be going to work that morning.  He will be wearing posh shiny shoes, his hair will be short and black; it will be clean and have a small amount of gel in, to keep it off his face and he will be clean shaven looking very smart. But when he is on camera his hair will be messy and his face will have small bruises on it and some blood, his shirt will be slightly ripped conveying that there had been a struggle also. His clothes will be slightly wet from sweat.            

Saeed, (terrorist) will be dressed the smartest as he is the main terrorist and has the most dialogue.  He will be wearing a full suit, (black suit, trousers, white shirt, black blazer and black shoes.) he will have a beard and maybe be wearing a small gold chain and a few gold rings.

The other terrorist will be dressed slightly more casual wearing black baggy jeans (or dark blue) with a black t-shirt with a big black coat. The two of them will be wearing balaclava’s disguising their identity.      

The wife will be wearing a t-shirt cardigan and jeans, her clothes will also be ripped and will have sweat on them looking slightly wet. The child will wear a pink t-shirt with a print on with either skinny jeans or shorts and tights.

There will not be any artificial lighting as we want the set to be dark. So we will use natural light and maybe a spot light directed at Simons face. This will be harsh on his face and will allow the audience to see clearly his fear and sweat on it.

For make up, we will be using fake blood, which will be applied onto Simons face and shirt: it will also be applied onto the wife and child. This will be used to allow the audience to connote that there has been violence before they were captured. We will use stage make up to give the effect and look of bruising, which will also reflect the struggle. We will use a small amount of black eye liner on Saeed to exaggerate his eyes making him look more sinister and evil.

We will need two fake rifles, which the terrorists will have around their body.  This will allow the audience to connote that they have power over their hostages. Saeed will have a hand gun, which he will have in his hand at all times again being a symbol of power. We will need three chairs, which Simon, his wife and child will be tied to. They will just need to be ordinary wooden chairs with no wheels; we decided this so there is no way they would be able to escape. We will need plastic ties also so we can attach the hostages’ hands together; this will make the hostage situation seem more real and believable. We will also attach their ankles to the chair legs ensuring they won’t be able to move once they are in the chair. We will need a video camera on a tripod situated in front of Simon, which will also be recording but with the camera display up. There will have to be a mobile phone that Saeed will have that he will use a few times when contacting the other terrorists.

We decided to set our thriller in the green room as we will be able to set the background to anything we want. As we will only be shooting in one room we decided it would be easier to just set the green room the way we wanted. We will be able to place Simon in the centre of the room or maybe slightly in the corner. We can make the floor dirty and make it look as if it was in a desolate house in a room secluded from reality.

When deciding what the props will be we watched parts of a few films which people have been tied up by either by burglars, police or just messed up people. From ‘Taken’ we got the idea of sweaty clothes and being tied onto solid objects. From ‘Strangers’ we got the idea of hiding their identity but instead of using masks we have decided to use balaclavas. From ‘Saw’ we decided to use the blood aspect making the hostage situation seem more real. From ‘Hostage’ we decided to use the idea of the hostages being tied onto chairs in an empty room. This was good research on making the mise-en-scene for our thriller as realistic as possible.        

 

The Antagonist

1. The Antagonist

2. No where to run. No where to hide.

3. The spy: Simon, who is a trained military agent and his family and him are taken Hostage by the terrorists.
    Terrorist 1: Saeed, who is the head of all 3 terrorists and does all the talking.
    Terrorist 2: Rashid, takes orders from terrorist 1.
    Terrorist 3: Aziz, takes orders from terrorist 1.
    Spies’ wife: Diana is killed by the terrorists.
    Spies daughter: Sophie, held hostage by terrorists and is threatened to be shot.

4. Simon is the main character, he is taken Hostage and they threaten to kill his wife and daughter if he doesn't tell the Terrorists top secret military information. This situation happens in present time. The location is in a warehouse.

Script for Opening Sequence of Thriller

Characters: 3 bad guys, spy, spies’ wife and daughter.

Main bad guy = Saeed

Spy = Simon

Saeed:  Read it.

Simon: what is this?

Saeed:  this is no time for games. Read it or your family will die. 

Simon reacts by spitting at the terrorist

Saeed: Hits the spy and phones his colleague, says in foreign language “Get them ready”

Saeed: My family and all my friends are dead because of your people and now a member of your family will die because you have not obeyed my orders.  (Holds up camera phone to Simon) Choose which one will die now. Your wife or your child?

Simon: (crying) please…don’t do this.

Saeed: (interrupts his crying) do what I say!

Simon: (Silent)

Saeed: (foreign language “Kill the wife”)

Simon: (looks at the camera and sees wife getting shot, starts screaming and crying) Noooo!

Saeed: (Puts the paper in front of spy) Read it or your daughter will be next!

Simon: (Stares at the paper and sobs)

Screen fades into black and title appears

THE END

Ideas for our Thriller 3

Britain's involvement in the “so-called 'war on terror'” is “genocide” and a cover for military expansionism to take over the resources of Middle Eastern nations, a leading British anti-war campaign group says.

“The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia,” the Stop the War Coalition said.

“This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists,” it added.

The campaign group, which is credited with organizing the largest ever anti-war demonstration in British history against the invasion of Iraq, said on the occasion of Remembrance Day -- observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces killed on duty -- that Britain has been complicit in subjugating of nations “from Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia.”

It added London has been complicit in “supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan” yet it dares to call locals, terrorists and insurgents, “for resisting rape and pillage.”

We decided to use this article, because it explained a different side to the story of terrorism, which could educate the audience. This whole problem politics, and it links into out play because the main reason why the terrorists have abducted the military mans wife and child was because of the conflict between the Middle East and West.

Ideas for our Thriller 2

In the first speech by a Foreign Secretary about the work of the secret intelligence services, Mr Hague will say that terrorists would have had “free rein” to harm British people at home and abroad were it not for their intervention.

His comments come following accusations that the intelligence services were involved in torture and providing questionable information about Iraq. It represents the first official acknowledgement that fatalities have occurred recently.

Mr Hague will say that after working closely with the spies he believes they represent “the finest values of the UK”.

“Many agents and sources risk their lives — some lose their lives — to give us the vital information to keep us safe,” he will say. “We have a duty to protect them.

“The reason that the agencies operate in secret is so that we can protect the lives and identities of those who we rely on to carry out this dangerous work for us, and so that we do not reveal details of how they do it.

This article that was released today by the The Telegraph, gave us the knowledge that terorrists prefer targetting soldiers and spies instead of innocent civilians, so this is the reason why we based the military character as the main role, instead of having a normal persons family abducted. We thought it would be more realistic for the audience to believe that something like this would be more likely to happen.

Ideas for our a Thriller 1

Three Norwegians accused of plotting, with al-Qaida's help, to bomb a Danish newspaper for printing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, have pleaded not guilty to the charges in an Oslo court.

The alleged ringleader, Mikael Davud, learned how to use explosives at an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan and made "an agreement" with group to blow up the offices of the daily Jyllands-Posten newspaper, prosecutor Geir Evanger said on the first day of the trial.

The three acquired bomb-making ingredients such as hydrogen peroxide and acetone, and two of them may also have planned to kill a Danish cartoonist who had drawn Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, Evanger said in his opening statement.

"This is a ground-breaking case in Norway," Davud's lawyer, Arild Karl Humlen, said. "It is the first full-scale test of new [Norwegian] terror laws and the first time they [the prosecutors] are linking a terror conspiracy to an international organisation."

In this article published by the Guardian, we took the idea of turban arabs taking the wife and daughter, because we wanted to make the opening sequence as real as possible. In todays time its mainly the Middle East that does terrorist attacks in the West, so we thought it would be appropriate for our opening sequence.

Account of our first production meeting

We changed and adapted our idea since our powerpoint because we realised that the idea would have been unrealistic. One of the main problems was that we needed a lot of grown up actors, and we didn't have enough adults to perform these roles, since most of them would have had to be teaching during the day. We also realised that the location would have been too difficult to film at, originally we wanted to film at Gatwick airport which we weren't allowed to do, unless we paid them a large sum of money, which we didn't have.

So this would have been more time consuming and a lot more pressure on all of us, which could have ended in a bad shoot for the day. So instead of doing a drug deal in a car outside Gatwick, we decided to scrap the whole idea and go with a Military mans child and wife getting abducted and held hostage for a ransom of top secret information.

So that in the end of our opening sequence the audience would be left with a cliff hanger, because the terrorist group kill the wife and child, so the audience are left with the question, is the military man going to accept his defeat or will he take vengeance? We took some ideas from the film Abduction and Taken, this gave us an idea for our opening sequence.

My Powerpoint of Snatch

Snatch

Taken

The film Taken, is an action thriller. The poster makes it seem like an action thriller because of the font, the colour, the lighting, and the actors facial expression. The font is in big red writing saying Taken, the colour red causes the audience to think of danger and blood, so already we feel that the actor in the picture, Liam Neeson, is a dangerous man. Not only by the font do we see he is dangerous, but also he is wearing a leather jacket, which is usual for action thrillers, and the leather jacket is black, so its as if he trying to blend into the dark and not be seen. From the poster we can see it is night time, so we feel the film could be dark and brutal. In the background we see the photoshopped Eiffel Tower, which is Paris' tallest building, so we know where his location is, not only that, but it could be metaphorical, that this man could take down the Eiffel Tower if he had to as he looks the same size as the tower. He takes up most of the poster making it obvious to the audience he is the leading role in the film. He also has a gun in his hand making it obvious he is dangerous, and possibly some type of assassin, when you include the leather jacket. Also on the poster it has a tag line saying "They took his daughter. He'll take their lives", two words "their lives" is highlighted in red, meaning there will be blood when he kills them. Also those two lines already gives the audience a short summary of what the film may be about.

Inception

Inception is one of the most accomplished films worldwide, it has grossed over $825,532,764, it is one of the best Psychological Thrillers ever made. There are a number of traits we can pick up by watching the trailer that it will be a thriller, by the sound, the camera work, the editing, and mise en scene. Firstly the sound is a very big give away its very deep tones which increase in speed as the drama of the film gets more intense. The camera work changes from establishing shots, to two shots, to shot/reverse. The pace in the trailer of camera shots and cutting is very fast showing it is a fast paced thriller, making the audience wanting to watch it. In the trailer the audience can see the incredible special effects, showing a lot of money had been invested in trhe movie, which would make the film better, making it more pleasing to the audience.

What is a Thriller?

Thrillers are essentially about the battle of justice vs. injustice. Another defining characteristic is that there is often a price to be paid for the conclusion of the story. They can be defined by their Point Of View (POV), e.g. those solving a crime (detective story), those perpetuating the crime (caper), a tough guy’s POV (film noir), a psychologist (psychodrama). Each possible protagonist in such a drama can have both major and minor character roles. There are many different genre of thrillers, such as; spy thrillers, political thrillers, military thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, technothrillers, medical thrillers, legal thrillers, forensic thrillers, psychological thrillers, serial killer thrillers, romantic thrillers, supernatural thrillers, and horror thrillers.

An example of a Psychological Thriller:

An example of a Horrow Thriller:

 



An example of a Drama Thriller:





An example of a Spy Thriller:

Unknown

In the thriller film called Unknown, we can see that it is a thriller by the poster they use. The picture makes it obvious for the audience that it will be an action thriller, not only by the objects in the picture but also the name of the film. The name Unknown for a film would already get the audience guessing what the film would be about, already making it a thriller, because no one knows about the Unknown. The main actor in this film is called Liam Neeson, who takes up most of the photo showing his importance in the film, the lightinmg half shadows out one side of his face, while the other side of his face we can see. This could make the audience think that he has a dark and light side to him, this would question the audience to ask what does he do to make him so mysterious. The whole poster is very dark, adding mystery to the film. He is also looking straight into the camera, showing that he is very serious and does not mess around. We also see a gun in his hand, making him seem dangerous, and even a killer. In the middle of the poster we see a few small faces, of other actors who will be supporting actors, and their facial expressions seem mysterious too. The whole poster is very mysterious, and indulges the audience into watching it.

Shutter Island

We can see from the poster that it will be a thriller by the colour the actors facial expression, the weather and the location. Also the actor in the picture is Leonardo di Caprio, who is well known for being in dark twisted thriller films. The colour of the poster is very dark and almost gives the audience a dangerous feel. The only light we can see from the poster is the lit up match that the actor is holding in his hand as he looks to the side in a very serious stern way. This is obvious from his facial expression that he is trying to solve a mystery, so it attracts the audiences attention even more. The weather in the background is very rainy and stormy, which is a usual for thrillers, this emphasizes it that it will be a dark thriller. Also in the poster the location is incredibly remote, as it seems to be a small island with a lighthouse and small building on top, in the middle of the ocean, again this shows the audience that it is not safe and far away from help. Also on the poster it has a tag line saying "Someone is missing", showing the audince that there could have been a muder or a person may be lost on the island, this line makes the audience think of the fim, making them intrigued to watch it.

Preliminary Task Review

In our preliminary task, we used nearly all of the basic camera shots, from close ups, to long shots, to mid shots and even extreme close ups. There was a wide variety of camera shots that were used in our task, each shot was meant to represent a different view to the audience. So the close ups were meant to draw the attention to the audience of the actors facial exdxpressions. While our mid shots were used to show the actors facial expressions and body language, to give the audience a better understanding of how the actor was feeling. We used a long shot, when the actor was entering the building to show the scenery and setting, so the audience could have an idea of where this scene would be taking place. We used a two shot, where the two actors were in the frame, this shot was used to express the relationship the actors had with each other. Half way through the actors coversation, we used low/high angle shots, to show which actor was superior and which one was inferior to the audience.

Human Centipede

The Human Centipede trailer makes it obvious that it will be a thriller, through certain traites that it does e.g. in a remote area. There are two american girls in germany for their first time, and they are trying to find a party but get lost and their car tyre gets punctured. During all this there is a dark solemn music which is going around, and the weather is rainy and stormy another obvious thriller trait, They find a house in the middle of nowhere, another thriller trait, and where they find a creepy mad scientist another trait to a thriller. In the house there are painting of siamese twins, which is extremely weird, leading up to a twisted thriller. All these points are signifies of the genre and part of the codes and conventions of the thriller

Camera shots and Movment

About Myself

I have a house in London, and I got to school at Hurtwood House. I enjoy acting, business, media and music. I have a good life!

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