Other the past two lessons we have been looking at examples of unique and different Title Sequences, this is so we have decent ideas for when we have to create a title sequence for our thriller opening. We looked at films such as Seven and The Panic Room and The opening sequence of 'Seven' sets a scene off mystery as the music is set to a smooth tone of a two beat continious cycle. The filming is deliberately shaky and poor, this could be to show the audience that the characters might not be in a perfect situation. The careful cutting out off pictures and words may describe that one of the characters is a very precise person, who has to do everything perfectly. The cut out pictures of dead people also adds to the idea that things may not be right, adds mystery.
The opening sequence of 'The Panic Room' is interesting as some of the names of the actors and actresses are shown before the title of the film and some more names of the actors and actresses are shown after the title of the film. Its an unconventional technique, but interesting. Also the titles are all on a backdrop off skyscrapers, and large buildings. this is clever as it fits in with the title off the film, because there are lots off rooms in skyscrapers, which fits in with the name in "panic Room"
Tuesday 21 December 2010
Monday 13 December 2010
Sabotage (1936) - 6/7
The sequence of the Hitchcock thriller 'Sabotage' that i watched in class to observe the use of Suspense.
Sabotage (1935)
I researched an Alfred Hitchcock film to observe certain techniques i can use in my Thriller opening. In his 1935 hit 'Sabotage' Hitchcock uses Suspense to great affect, so well in fact that now days he is known as 'The master of Suspense'
The plot of the film in short is that a young boy has to deliver a film canister to his uncles film studio by 12 O'clock, however the dramatic irony is that we as the audience know that the film canister is actually a bomb, that is set to go off at 1:45 pm. This creates suspense throughout the film as we as the audience are hooked to the film as we want to know whether the boy delivers the film, whether the bomb goes off and whether the boy gets harmed or not.
Hitchcock uses music to create the suspense, he uses music like a clock ticking to build up the tension of the bomb going off as we don't know whether the boy is going to get to the film studio in time or not.
Throughout the sequence Hitchcock keeps showing shots of a clock followed by the ticking music (the sound of the music is parallel and Diegetic music) the clock emphasis the tension further as we keep seeing the time getting closer and closer to the time the bomb is due to go off.
The fact that we as the audience know that the bomb is in the film canister and that the young boy doesn't is a use of Dramatic irony. The dramatic irony is that we know the boy is carrying a bomb but the boy doesn't. This means that we get really tense when we see the boy taking his time around a busy london as we don't want the bomb to go off and kill everyone.
The plot of the film in short is that a young boy has to deliver a film canister to his uncles film studio by 12 O'clock, however the dramatic irony is that we as the audience know that the film canister is actually a bomb, that is set to go off at 1:45 pm. This creates suspense throughout the film as we as the audience are hooked to the film as we want to know whether the boy delivers the film, whether the bomb goes off and whether the boy gets harmed or not.
Hitchcock uses music to create the suspense, he uses music like a clock ticking to build up the tension of the bomb going off as we don't know whether the boy is going to get to the film studio in time or not.
Throughout the sequence Hitchcock keeps showing shots of a clock followed by the ticking music (the sound of the music is parallel and Diegetic music) the clock emphasis the tension further as we keep seeing the time getting closer and closer to the time the bomb is due to go off.
The fact that we as the audience know that the bomb is in the film canister and that the young boy doesn't is a use of Dramatic irony. The dramatic irony is that we know the boy is carrying a bomb but the boy doesn't. This means that we get really tense when we see the boy taking his time around a busy london as we don't want the bomb to go off and kill everyone.
Thursday 9 December 2010
Shadow Of A Doubt Part 1/11
The opening sequence of Hitchcock's thriller, Shadow Of A Doubt. In this sequence we see Hitchcock's great use of music, camera angles and lighting and colour.
Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
Shadow of a Doubt is yet another example of Alfred Hitchcock's ability to create a great Thriller film opening. Hitchcock starts telling us about the character 'Uncle Charlie' straight away, we find out he is rich in the first 4 minutes of the film, by the way the character leaves huge wods of cash lying around his bedroom. The way he is dressed also (in a smart suit) emphasis the wealthyness of the character. Hitchcock uses sound to great effect in the opening. The change of music when the blinds were pulled down, tells the audience that the atmosphere is changing. Before the blinds close there is no music and the light through the window, tells us as the audience that everything seems ok. When the mistress closes the blind, Hitchcock cleverly changes the music to an eerie, tense music, which shows that something may be about to happen. As well as the eerie tense music 'Uncle Charlie' gets up and throws his glass violently at the wall, to show all is not right with him, and that he may have some problems. The way Hitchcock reveals something about the character, but keeps somethings hidden is a clever ploy as it keeps the audience in enthralled into what is going on.
Hitchcock builds up a great anti climax, which he emphasises with the music quickening as 'Uncle Charlie' walks towards the two men on the edge of the street. It gets the audience entranced as they believe they are going to see a confrontation, however 'Uncle Charlie just walks straight past them and down the road. Hitchcock uses a great camera angle behind the two men and looking over there shoulder at 'Uncle Charlie' walking away as it shows they are now following him and accomponied with the rhythmic two time beat of the piano, it keeps the audience interest as they want to know what the two men want with 'Uncle Charle'.
All these techniques show Hitchcocks brilliance in setting a scene and attracting the audiences interest within the first few minutes of a film. This will also help me when it comes to creating my thriller opening, as i will now have good ideas into how i create my camera angles, music est.
Hitchcock builds up a great anti climax, which he emphasises with the music quickening as 'Uncle Charlie' walks towards the two men on the edge of the street. It gets the audience entranced as they believe they are going to see a confrontation, however 'Uncle Charlie just walks straight past them and down the road. Hitchcock uses a great camera angle behind the two men and looking over there shoulder at 'Uncle Charlie' walking away as it shows they are now following him and accomponied with the rhythmic two time beat of the piano, it keeps the audience interest as they want to know what the two men want with 'Uncle Charle'.
All these techniques show Hitchcocks brilliance in setting a scene and attracting the audiences interest within the first few minutes of a film. This will also help me when it comes to creating my thriller opening, as i will now have good ideas into how i create my camera angles, music est.
Snow.
Sorry for the lack of blogging at the moment, we have been hit in Dagenham with a lot of snow, so filming was put on hold for a week. I spent the week at home because of this, which meant lack of blogging. I'll back date my posts to make up for lost time.
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Preliminary Exercise.
On the 18th of November we created a preliminary exercise in our groups. We had to create a short clip of film , to be filmed anywhere in the school, which showed a loose idea on what a two minute sequence of Thriller fillm may be like. We were given a video camera and a tripod, so that we could film the exercise, and within our group we decided to stage the sequence in the 6th form block and the toilets. By staging it in two seperate areas it taught us good skills in editing techniques and how to cut the film quickly and precisely. The filming took us around about an hour too do, and there were three of the four members of our group starring in the film sequence (the fourth was the person filming)
On the other side of the filming aspect we had too edit our film (like our voxpops) on the computer software 'Final cut express.' This was another good way to prepare ourselves for when we film our Thriller film, as it meant when we came to edit the Thriller we were more experienced and better at doing it. As a group we transferred all our raw film off the video camera and onto the final cut express software. Then we spent time cutting and putting together our film sequence so that the final outcome looked smooth and professional. We had too add a bit off film at the start of the exercise which was a frame with a black background, with white writing, which read 'Preliminary exercise' followed by a list of our names, showing who was starring in the fil and who was directing the film. We did this to make the film look professional and too tell the people watching the film, the names of people involved in the film and what the film was.
On the other side of the filming aspect we had too edit our film (like our voxpops) on the computer software 'Final cut express.' This was another good way to prepare ourselves for when we film our Thriller film, as it meant when we came to edit the Thriller we were more experienced and better at doing it. As a group we transferred all our raw film off the video camera and onto the final cut express software. Then we spent time cutting and putting together our film sequence so that the final outcome looked smooth and professional. We had too add a bit off film at the start of the exercise which was a frame with a black background, with white writing, which read 'Preliminary exercise' followed by a list of our names, showing who was starring in the fil and who was directing the film. We did this to make the film look professional and too tell the people watching the film, the names of people involved in the film and what the film was.
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