Questionare (Version 2) Analysis

We created this secondary questionare to follow up and get elaboration on our previous questionare.

We asked this question so that the sub genre of thriller that we chose wouldn't be too common at the moment and therefore would stand out in todays film market. 

Initial Ideas for our Opening Sequence

Over the past few weeks we have been researching and developing an understanding of the thriller genre so we can either use the set codes and conventions or challenge them to create something slightly more original.

From the sequences that have been analyzed we have come to the conclusion that depending on the sub-genre of thriller the conventions applied can vary because different sub-genres have different objectives that need to be fore-filled so that the audience don't come out the movie unsatisfied or disappointed media that has been created. Due to the sub-genres being create by mixing two or more genres together we really wanted to play around with new ideas instead of just going for the obvious psychological thriller etc. 

Georges idea (helped by me) is a war time thriller based in WW2 because this is a always a topic easy to relate to. Furthermore from our research everyone wanted a psychological thriller however because we don't want to follow this typical idea of thrillers but could still include psychological damage within the opening sequence, which would have something recognizable to the audience. However this is just the opening two minutes so we may not be able to to get this point across.
My initial thoughts include a tracking shot following a single soldier while hes being shot at with the non diegetic music in the background which at the moment I'm thinking would be an up beat WW2 song like this "Run Rabbit Run".  I would like to use this idea because the two contrast each other however this may not build enough tension so it the music may fade with gun fire etc taking over, this could create an interesting mix of non-diegetic and diegetic sounds. 

My individual ideas included a spy thriller an intense conversation between an adult male sniper and the leader of the group such as M.I.5. head or leader of a gangster group. The sniper would continue to tell whoever was on the other end of the phone about their little sister. Then the sister would take out the group therefore challenging the conventions. The soundtrack could include heartbeat and Bourne Identity style music.

Katy's ideas include Asylum within maybe set in a WW2 concentration camp focussing on the struggle of survival of the protagonist or maybe the decay of the characters humanity.

My Doctor Who Gender Essay

Gender Portrayal in the 2009 OCR Doctor Who Clip

In this extract from Doctor Who, the primary protagonists of the Doctor, the Master, and Martha are used to portray perceptions of gender in the media. The extract can be broken down into five sections, the opening shots of the clip, when Martha is told to kneel, “any last words”, “the resistance knew”, and Countdown finale. In each of these key parts of the scene I will be analysing the camera angles, editing, sound, and the general mise en scene.

The clip starts with Martha being forced to walk up to the bottom of some stairs, which the master is standing on top of. This use the dolly shot follows Martha around. Making the audience feel empathy for Martha as it puts them in her shoes. Because Martha is at the bottom of the stairs she has to look up to see the Master, and he looks down on her. This is before she even has to kneel. This demonstrates how he looks down on her while  she is forced to physically look up at him. In terms of editing, there are a lot of eye line matches and cut away shots to Martha’s loved ones. In amongst this the Doctor has the most screen time, telling the audience that he is the most important and dominate character in the scene. Throughout the clip Martha defies the convention that all women present themselves as girly and feminine in that she is wearing a black body suit and her hair is pinned up off her shoulders. The ambience music in the beginning is a choir singing, giving off the feeling of lost hope. It also foreshadows later in the scene where people around the world echo the word “Doctor”, in order to free him.

When the Master tells Martha to kneel there are a mixture of close up shots and wide shots. The wide shots are to help establish the scene since it still is quite early in. The wide shots help the audience see emotion, which is a stereotype of women that they are very emotional beings. The sound is important in this part of the scene, in terms of gender. The machines that are obeying the master’s command have a female voice, because they are seen as the evolutionary weaker sex. The Master also uses a deeper voice when addressing Martha, trying to impress and scare her. Having a deeper voice is thought of as a male trait.

At the next significant point in the scene, continuing on with the importance of sound, the Master continues to talk down to Martha. To which she continues to say nothing back to, until she snaps and laughs at him. This is a very unconventional thing for her to do, even forgetting gender stereotypes, defying and mocking the person who has threatened her life and made her kneel in front of them. Before this though when he asks her if she has any last words his sonic screwdriver makes the noise of a sword slicing through the air. This again is a very masculine noise, as executioners in the past would only have been men. This reinforces the idea that as the man, he has the power.

Later on after Martha laughs at him, she explains how she got where she is, using flashbacks. These flashbacks have a slight echo on them, they are colourised to be bluer, and have vinaigrette around the edges, to make it clear to the audience that they are flashbacks. During these flashbacks Martha talks about how she crossed continents “all on my own”, therefore emphasising her individual bravery to travel by herself, without the companionship of anyone,  which is more commonly done by men than it is by women in their mid-twenties. This relatively masculine approach changes when she explains the reason why she did it. “Because I love him” (talking about the doctor), confessions of love are seen as a more feminine thing to do, which contrasts with her masculine side. This also gives Martha more screen time, affirming to the audience that she is a very important character. While she is saying this, in the flashback, she is sitting on some stairs, half way up. While this would not normally seem significant, however, stairs have many added connotations in this scene, providing powerful symbolism to the power struggle between genders. So in this flashback, while Martha is in her own comfortable environment, it may seem strange that she isn’t sitting at the top of the stairs (where the power is). However the director is simply making a point that in today’s society women can’t sit at the top, because of their gender.

After this, the Master moves half way down the stairs, this indicates that he is aware that he is losing power, and therefore his movement are replicating the power struggle between himself and Martha. Martha, also sending this shift in power, stands up. As she stands her face moves into a white light connoting her as being pure, innocent, and in the right. When it cuts back to the Master’s face, you see that he has a red sort of shadow cast across his face, eluding to his dark evil side.  When the Doctor is freed he has a white glow surrounding his whole body, this not only presents him as good and pure, but also a god like, as he starts to levitate. This again relates back to the power struggle in the scene as he rises above the Master and forces him down the stairs.

To conclude, the character Martha breaks many gender conventions and stereotypes in the scene, yet also complies with others. The characters of Master and Doctor, however, both completely fit with typical male gender conventions.  

Mark Scheme For the Film Opening

Video

Level 1 0–23 marks

The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the

creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:

• holding a shot steady, where appropriate.

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.

• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate

• shooting material appropriate to the task set.

• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.

• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

• using titles appropriately.

Level 2 24–35 marks

There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical

skills:

• holding a shot steady, where appropriate.

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.

• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.

• shooting material appropriate to the task set.

• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.

• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.

• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

• using titles appropriately.

Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

• holding a shot steady, where appropriate.

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.

• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.

• shooting material appropriate to the task set.

• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.

• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.

• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

• using titles appropriately.

Level 4 48–60 marks

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

• holding a shot steady, where appropriate.

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.

• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.

• shooting material appropriate to the task set.

• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.

• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.

• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

• using titles appropriately.

Audio 

Level 1 0–23 marks

The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the

creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:

• recording voice(s) clearly in studio/confined setting.

• recording voice(s) clearly in location/outdoor interviews/presentations.

• accurately using language and register.

• integrating recorded material, as appropriate.

• editing and mixing sounds appropriately.

• editing to create continuity and meaning.

• integrating jingles, music, location sounds and sound effects, where appropriate.

Level 2 24–35 marks

There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical

skills:

• recording voice(s) clearly in studio/confined setting.

• recording voice(s) clearly in location/outdoor interviews/presentations.

• accurately using language and register.

• integrating recorded material, as appropriate.

• editing and mixing sounds appropriately.

• editing to create continuity and meaning.

• integrating jingles, music, location sounds and sound effects, where appropriate.

Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

• recording voice(s) clearly in studio/confined setting.

• recording voice(s) clearly in location/outdoor interviews/presentations.

• accurately using language and register.

• integrating recorded material, as appropriate.

• editing and mixing sounds appropriately.

• editing to create continuity and meaning.

• integrating jingles, music, location sounds and sound effects, where appropriate.

Level 4 48–60 marks

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

• recording voice(s) clearly in studio/confined setting.

• recording voice(s) clearly in location/outdoor interviews/presentations.

• accurately using language and register.

• integrating recorded material, as appropriate.

• editing and mixing sounds appropriately.

• editing to create continuity and meaning.

• integrating jingles, music, location sounds and sound effects, where appropriate.

Typography Rules

1. The four most im­por­tant ty­po­graphic choices you make in any doc­u­ment are point size, line spac­ing, line length, and font (pas­sim), be­cause those choices de­ter­mine how the body text looks.
2. point size should be 10–12 points in printed doc­u­ments, 15-25 pix­els on the web.
3. line spac­ing should be 120–145% of the point size.
4. The av­er­age line length should be 45–90 char­ac­ters (in­clud­ingspaces).
5. The eas­i­est and most vis­i­ble im­prove­ment you can make to your ty­pog­ra­phy is to use a pro­fes­sional font, like those found in font rec­om­men­da­tions.
6. Avoid goofy fonts, mono­spaced fonts, and sys­tem fonts, es­pe­cially times new ro­man and Arial.
7. Use curly quo­ta­tion marks, not straight ones (see straight and curly quotes).
8. Put only one space be­tween sen­tences.
9. Don’t use mul­ti­ple word spaces or other white-space char­ac­ters in a row.
10. Never use un­der­lin­ing, un­less it’s a hyperlink.
11. Use cen­tered text sparingly.
12. Use bold or italic as lit­tle as possible.
13. all caps are fine for less than one line of text.
14. If you don’t have real small caps, don’t use them at all.
15. Use 5–12% ex­tra let­terspac­ing with all caps and small caps.
16. kern­ing should al­ways be turned on.
17. Use first-line in­dents that are one to four times the point size of the text, or use 4–10 points of space be­tween para­graphs. But don’t use both.
18. If you use jus­ti­fied text, also turn on hy­phen­ation.
19. Don’t con­fuse hy­phens and dashes, and don’t use mul­ti­ple hy­phens as a dash.
20. Use am­per­sands spar­ingly, un­less in­cluded in a proper name.
21. In a doc­u­ment longer than three pages, one ex­cla­ma­tion point is plenty (see ques­tion marks and ex­cla­ma­tion points).
22. Use proper trade­mark and copy­right sym­bols—not al­pha­beticapproximations.
23. Put a non­break­ing space af­ter para­graph and sec­tion marks.
24. Make el­lipses us­ing the proper char­ac­ter, not pe­ri­ods andspaces.
25. Make sure apos­tro­phes point downward.
26. Make sure foot and inch marks are straight, not curly.

Questionare (Version 2) Link

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9CYCQWZ

Non Stop - Opening Analysis

(http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ydny7_non-stop-2014-opening-sequence-trailer-addict_shortfilms)

In the opening sequence of Non Stop the opening shot is a close up however within the editing it has been blurred or  put out of focus not revealing the character sat in the car. The mystery in this shot immediately builds tension for the audience because of the questions raised. Questions are raised like: "Who is this character?" and "Where is this scene taking place?". These questions are raised because the audience aren't provided with an establishing shot straight away instead they have a blurred title revealing no information on the scene. This could connote that the protagonist doesn't know what's about to happen to him and is distorted due to his alcohol problem soon to be discovered by the audience. As the scene progresses eye line match is used between his drink and him to show this characters weaknesses. This is different to the conventions in most thrillers because the audience need confidence in the character and by presenting his weaknesses first the audience may not have the same confidence in the protagonist because they want to know that he has the correct skill set for the plot ahead. This could foretell the trust issue later in the plot between the people the protagonist is trying to save and himself because he is accused of being the antagonist by his own agency.

The use of slow motion exaggerates this weakness and pushes the idea that the protagonist doesn't want to get on the plane at all, this is further supported by the real time diegetic air traffic control mixed with the radio which contrasts to the slow motion. This is therefore creating a sense of slow releasing panic because the audio sounds much faster, when in fact is at normal speed. In addition to this build up of sound there is a constant diegetic sound of a planes flying overhead giving the audience information on where the scene is taking place. The following close up reveals a little girl that the audience can link to being his daughter which gives the protagonist something to fight for and the audience something to fear him losing adding to the tension built up by the music. I would like to include this in opening because it keeps an audience gripped due to them being able to relate to the protagonists feelings.

The use of rain in thrillers seems vital to setting the tone because it allows for more overlapping sound for building tension and further adds to the blue colour correction providing the film with the on edge blockbuster feel. In addition this film used blur to make the protagonist stand out but it may also link in with the protagonists drinking problem again showing his weakness. The use of extras to show the protagonists feelings is used near the beginning so that the audience know he has suffered heartbreak and is most probably alone therefore leaving him free to see other women adding yet another set of questions into the audience's mind. This idea is pushed forward when the protagonist ignores another character because he is distracted by these thoughts and the editing uses muffled voices to achieve this.

In these thrillers the power is never balanced its always shifting and this is one of the reasons its so tense because sometimes the protagonist is in control other times its the antagonist.

The Bourne Identity - Opening Analysis

In the opening scene of the film Bourne Identity the films starts with the non-diegetic sound of wind and rain suggesting danger for the protagonist. This is use of danger is used throughout the thriller genre to ensure that there is tension in the film to keep the audience gripped.  However in most cases the protagonist is given the skills to deal with the danger given to him/her in the film but in this case the character is left helpless, which defies the conventions and is what I would want to include in my opening because it upsets the equilibrium without any major changes to the narrative.

Then opening then straight cuts to wide low angle shot of Jason Bourne in the sea. This shot is interesting because low angles are usually used to present the character as powerful however in opening Jason Bourne is helpless to the ocean and overwhelmed by its power because of how wide the shot is this means he requires help this could connote that although he may seem helpless he is infact always in control, which is an idea associated with secret agents. The shot further connotes that he is infact an agent because of the mystery behind him. This is because the shot doesn't show his face presenting this idea of mystery which is another convention in thrillers that can be used to create tension.

When the shot pans down into the boat the lighting is much brighter connoting safety for the protagonist. The characters in the boat are filmed with the camera shaking from above which could be a sign that they are at mercie to the sea and their lives are unstable also backed up by the fact they are playing cards which is a sign for luck. These characters contrast to Jason Bourne which means the audience has no idea what will happen if they come into contact. It is this uncertainty that adds to the tension.

When these characters first come into contact a shot reverse shot is used along with eyeline match between the protagonist in the water and the fishermen. This is used to show that the protagonist is about to receive help which is further shown in the fishermens clothes which contrast to the dark windy storm and the black clothing of Jason Bourne, which may connote hope. In addition to this the non-diegetic sound increases in volume to tell the audience that something is going to happen. The music then reaches it's peak and the next shot focuses on Jason Bourne showing his military clothing before cutting to the titles.

The titles used came in muddled up before organising themselves which connotes military or C.I.A training further supporting the fact that the protagonist is an agent. The title being mixed up could further show that the plot or the characters fate is yet unknown creating more mystery. Lastly the font is military showing that the film is based around this concept.

Credit to George

Death Note - (Japanese film) Opening Analysis

(The video above is the whole film because I could not find just the opening sequence online, I'm counting the opening as 00:00 to 01:54)

1. Many many production companys.

2. Credits in the centre of a black screen in a white font.

3. Dark clouds, camera appears to fall through them. clouds are symbolic of mystery and forthcoming darkness.

4. Thunder storm- prophetic fallacy (typical thriller convention)

5. The city of tokyo from above at night, low key lighting, darkness, mystery.

6. Low angle tilt up to a tall building, colour red symbolises danger

7. High angle shot of a book falling onto pavement, camera zooms into book, the words "death note" fade onto the book.

This opening has no real narrative, and does not introduce the main protagonists.

This opening, however, is really good because it is highly ambiguous, and mysterious, keeping the audience hooked on the film as they want to find out what is happening.

The Dark Knight - Opening Analysis

The use of Ice within the sequence begins to build the movie up to be dark and mysterious and keeps a high level of ambiguity. As it is a psychological thriller they use the codes and conventions in the style of Cooper's work. There is also use of macro footage, jump cuts, and flickering of the camera to build suspense.

The use of dark colours within this shot shows the mystery within the whole scene as the colours of the scene are set to only black and white. This shot is very mysterious as is the whole scene as it is quite hard to predict what is about to happen and decipher what is actually happening.  Therefore the convention of being highly mysterious has been kept too, and henceforth  added suspense throughout the narrative in this scene.

Within this clip shown, the glass has been broken or partly destroyed showing that there is a disturbance within the equilibrium. This could be giving the audience an insight into what is about to happen as well as they word 'warns' been magnified by the ice as well as the word 'Gotham'  which is the city Batman protects therefore leaving the audience in suspense that something has happened within the city. This further disrupts the equlibrium, setting the film up to repair order in the form of creating a new equilibrium.