Alfred Hitchcock was born in England on 13th August 1899 and died in America on 29th April 1980. He is often referred to as 'The Master of Suspense' because of his success with the Thriller genre. Hitchcock studied at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After graduating, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company. At the same time, Hitchcock became fascinated in photography which led to him working in film production in London, where he worked as a title-card designer for what today is massive film production company Paramount Pictures. He recieved a full time occupation designing titles for silent films in 1920 at Islington studios. In just five years Hitchcock went from being a title designer to film director and by 1930, he was on of the most appreciated and famous film directors in the United Kingdom.
Alfred Hitchcock's past years and childhood often plays a part and are influenced in many of his films. Several times when he was a child, Hitchcock apparently was sent to the local police station by his father where he would be locked away for 10 minutes. This would have been his punishment for when he behaved badly. The idea of being wrongly accused or treated harshly is represented frequently in many of Alfred's films. Another way in which Hitchcock's childhood influenced his films is the way his mother treated him. She would often make him stand at the foot of her bed addressing her for three hours sometimes. The experiences of Alfred Hitchcock were used for the portrayal of character Norman Bates in one of his most successful and well known films, Psycho which he made in 1960.
Some of Hitchcock's films consisted of were:
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When making our thriller opening film our group research the thriller genre in general and analysed various films in order to get an idea of what makes a thriller and the objective of the director. From this we understood the general techniques and conventions used in Thriller films in order to create tension and suspense upon the audience. Despite the thriller genre being very versatile and having many sub-genres within the category, we decided not to challenge the conventions and techniques a great deal but stick to making a typical thriller opening keeping the themes quite normal.The four main techniques used in thriller films to create tension and suspense are - mise-en-scene, sound, camera angles/shots and editing, therefore we focused on these aspects greatly and ensured that each technique was used to it's greatest ability in order for us to meet our aim. One convention that we concentrated on a lot to create suspense and to keep the audience on the edge of their seats was sound. This is as we believed it was one of the most important ways of creating the atmosphere in thriller films as it helps connect with the audience feelings and emotions. Often, film companies with large budgets in Hollywood etc, make their own music for their films meaning it would be perfect. But as we were an A-Level media studies group this obviously wouldn't be possible, therefore we researched some of the most successful and iconic thriller films in order to find out what type of sound worked well to create tension and suspense upon the viewer. We found that orchestral music was very effective and used quite commonly in typical thriller films. Dan in our group who focused on sound, ended up researching music of this genre to find some suitable and appropriate musicthat would work well with our final product once completed. Despite our film and many others using sound as a main factor to create tension and suspense, many films - e.g, No Country for Old Men, use the absence of sound to create the same effect, which in fact works veryeffectively. However, we decided to stick to making a typical thriller film that included sound.Typically in Thriller films, the protagonist is shown as weak and the audience are encouraged to feel his emotions and feelings whilst the 'bad guy' is presented as an evil character who the viewers are meant to dislike. We used this idea in our film as we felt it was a good way to get across the the audience and make them feel tense and possibly in a state of subtle depression. The main techniques we used to create this aspect in our film was the use of different camera angles, shots and positioning of each character.
Here you can see an over the shoulder shot facing the protagonist over the evil characters shoulder. It presents the idea that the 'shadow' has more power and is looking down on the 'good guy', this could make the audience want to tell the protagonist that someone is there watching him as they build a positive relationship with the main character. Other points in the film that use camera angles/shots and positioning to create the same effect is when the protagonist is sitting at the bottom of a tree and the camera is looking down on him. This gives the audience the idea that the evil character is above and looking down on him, again this brings up the contrast of power between each character and makes the audience want to tell him that someone is above him.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our thriller opening does not specifically represent particular social groups and we did not aim to target certain social groups either. One way in which our film could be typical to a certain social group is the costume of the main character. He is wearing smart black shoes, smart jeans and a smart black jacket which could suggest he may fit into the middle/upper class social group. This could bring up the idea and suggest that he may have been targeted by the evil character for his wealth or maybe even his association with certain people of power. The 'shadow character could fit into various different social groups too. His costume consists of black trainers, tracksuit bottoms and a black hooded jacket, suggesting he could fit into the youth social group. Some people stereotypically associate youths with crime, this could again portray that he fits into the youth social group. Our thriller opening's location is Cannock Chase which is a forest welcome to anyone, so this doesn't particularly represent any social groups the film or it's characters may fit into.
3) What type of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our opening to a thriller film obviously couldn't be distributed by worldwide companies such as Warner Bros, Paramount and Universal as it's an independent film and doesn't follow certain rules or meet guidelines of what a large company may typically go for and decide to distribute. As our budget is on the smaller scale and they would be more interested in distributing a film like our own, we would consider using media institutes such as New Line Cinemas and Working Title. Despite being cheaper to distribute than worldwide companies such as Universal, these smaller media institutes still offer a good and professional service, including production of high quality work and on-time delivery of the film within budgets. Also, due to these types of institutions having a good reputation, if they were to distribute our film, the audience would be drawn in the watch it from not just th
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Under the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) strict guidelines on their website I would place our film in the '15+' category, meaning anyone under the age of 15 is not permitted to watch our film. Therefore we would generally be targeted people around the 15-18 age range despite the film being suitable for people of all ages. The BBFC website states that in '15+' rated films - "
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury". The fact that our thriller openings main point is focusing on violence upon the protagonist suggests it should be a '15+' rated film, instead of '12+'. It is important that young people are permitted to watch the Thriller film as we would plan to use websites used by younger people such as 'Twitter' and 'Facebook' to promote, if BBFC put the film in the '18+' category it would be a lot harder to get it out to the audience. The fact that the film probably wouldn't be rated a '12+' wouldn't have a major effect as people below that age probably wouldn't be interested in our specific film anyway. When thinking of the idea and plot of our film, we didn't want a very specific audience and generally wanted to make it so it could be watched by people of different tastes and ages. Also, despite both characters being male, I believe the product would be suitable for both males and females to watch.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
If we came to promoting our thriller film in order for it to get out to our audience we would have to consider various different types of advertising. The three that we came up with during group discussion were viral marketing, television marketing and cinema advertising.
Television Marketing
One way we could promote our product is through television advertising. If we did end up promoting our product through television we would ensure that we advertised it on the right channel. The channels we would choose would be those that our target audience tended to watch on a regular basis, for example, channels like Channel 4, Film4 and the music channels (Kerrang, MTV). In order to get our product out to as many young people as possible these adverts must be suitable to be shown before watershed, otherwise we would have to broadcast them after 9pm potentially resulting losing possible customers/viewers. Some things the advert would include are a trailer containing a taster of the film which would tempt people into wanting to go and watch it, information on release dates and where it can be watched, BBFC ratings and links to websites and social networking pages. Despite television marketing being one of the best ways to advertise, it's very expensive and might not be in our budget range. But we would benefit from it in the long term if we were to take up this type of marketing to promote our film.
Trailers and Posters
A type of advertising we could use to promote our product would be making trailers and posters to get the film out to our target audience. These trailers and posters could be used in various different ways to advertise our thriller. Trailers can be played in cinemas for example. This way you automatically have an advantage as you know the people watching are interested in films. To meet the right audience, we would ensure our trailers were shown before films of a similar genre like Thrillers and Horror movies. However, showing trailers before films that's BBFC ratings are lower than our actual film wouldn't be beneficial as the wrong audience would be being targeted. Posters are also a great way of advertising. They can be placed almost anywhere, but we would especially target places where our target audience may be or visit. For example, again cinemas, DVD rental stores, Universities, Colleges and Schools. Our posters would include similar information to our trailer (release dates, venues, BBFC ratings, links to it's social networking pages etc). Trailers and posters are particularly good way of advertising as they are cheap to make. Posters can be mass produced for a small price and then placed anywhere for free or little money.
Viral Marketing
Probably the most important thing we would do in order to market our underground thriller film would be listing it on the online film rating website 'imdb.com'. This is as many people like film critics and potential viewers of our product use IMDB to look up details for any film ever made before watching. Putting it on IMDB would allow people to see images of the cover/posters/screen-shots/actors etc, who the actors were in the film often with links to their own personal profiles and reviews and ratings of the film from other members of the audience. We could use other types of viral marketing too in order to promote our product, with links to IMDB from there. The main examples of viral marketing that we would use are Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. These types of social networking websites would help our film go 'viral' and we could also recieve feedback and advice from viewers of it. We chose these three websites to promote as there are a large amount of young people that use it, meaning the vast majority of our target audience would be able to easily gain access to our film. On these websites we would post images and trailers related to our product to promote it as well as possible. The main advantage of viral advertising isn't just that it's probably one of the best forms of marketing but also completely free of charge.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing these products?
My group and I have learnt alot about technologies from making our thriller opening. In my opinion, the most important technology needed when making an underground film is the internet. Web 2.0 is the best way to get a film out there and can be done on a very little scale through social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Not only is the internet important for film for promotion but the internet was also an essential part of our product when doing research. Without finding research on sound, camera angles/shots, directors, etc, we wouldn't have had the final product that we managed to make. YouTube has also been a great help as we uploaded videos such as our continuity, directors commentary and behind the scenes. We also recieved all of our feedback off YouTube.
The camera we used was the Kodak Playsport HD which had a picture format of 1080p, this was the best quality of camera we had access to. The final product benefited greatly from having a good high quality camera and helped get the emotions and feelings across to audience in order for them to experience the tension and suspense. Next time, in order to get the picture on the screen even more of a high quality we could use up-scaling software such as Sony Vegas in order to give it that little extra touch and crisp finish.
Dan edited the final product on iMovie 09 on a Mac Computer. This allowed him to do things other editing software would not, such as slowing and speeding clips down or up. In the end this played a great part in several different shots in our film - e.g. the very last arm shot at the end. This helped give the effect that the main character was dead without showing his whole body but just his arm. The software also helped with continuity and allowed the clips to flow well without anything not looking realistic.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression to the final product?
The main thing in my opinion that our group learnt from our continuity task is the planning of the film. In the original task, we did very little research and planning and went straight into filming without an objective or aim. This had a negative effect on the product as we were not aware of many of the shots we were going to film and ended up filming them at random. We also didn't come prepared when filming the continuity piece, and on various days came without certain props and often actors were wearing different clothes to what they had previously worn when filming. This resulted in some days of filming having to be cancelled. However, we learnt from this when filming our final product, we ensured all the right props were brought and that clothing was consistent between the actors. Also, we did thorough planning and research and had a good idea of what types of shots we would film. It is quite obvious that we benefited from doing these things when looking at the quality between the continuity piece and the final product. In the continuity piece also, we used a different editing software than what we used in the final piece. Instead of iMovie 09, Windows Movie Maker was used, this had it's defects on the product as it meant many of the visual effect were not accessibly. Also, there were several issues with continuity in the product that we learnt from - e.g. when Jonny walks through the door at the end, the door actually opens twice instead of just once. Despite there being a large difference in quality between the preliminary task and our final thriller opening, the initial task was very important to us. We managed to become familiar with the camera and it's equipment. - e.g. Learning to use tripod and the different camera features. In our final product, we did alot more research and spent alot more time on music and sound as we didn't do this in the preliminary task. This benefited the film greatly and managed to create tension and sound to keep the viewer on the edge of their seats. Also generally, we realised that no enough time was spent on the continuity piece in order to create a good high quality piece. We took this on board when making the final piece and spent longer all the aspects of production (sound, filming, planning, research etc), this paid off and we ended up with a great product that we were pleased and very proud of.
After completing our final Thriller opening product the first and most important thing we had to do was put it on worldwide website YouTube. We did decided to post it on YouTube instead of other online video websites as generally it is the most popular and YouTube is the first place younger people (our target audience) go to watch videos.
Posting our video online would benefit our product in various different ways. It would allow us to recieve immediate feedback off our viewers so we could find out what people thought about it and whether there were any ways they thought it could of been improved if we chose to repeat and make the thriller opening again. After the video was posted, we asked our family and friends to watch the video and give us some feedback on the positives and negatives of our thriller opening film. Here is an example of the feedback recieved from our audience:
As a whole we were very pleased with the feedback recieved. As well as many positive comments we were also able to take on board the comments offering ways the thriller opening could potentially be improved. It also highlighted the ways in which we achieved our product aim and how things we may needed to add to it in order to do this.
Other tools on YouTube that we used to gather feedback and opinions from our audience was the 'like/dislike bar' just below the video. If a member of the public enjoyed the video but didn't have time to comment they could simply press the like button, alternatively if they didn't like it, they could press the dislike button. This bar has become very important on YouTube as people use it before clicking on a video. If the bar is mainly green, it suggests that the video is 'legit' and generally good, but if the majority is red, it may prevent people watching the video and people could be let away from it.
Here is our 'like/dislike bar'. As you can see only one person has currently 'liked' it but the bar is 100% green which could attract potential viewers to watch the video.
As a group, we decided to do director's commentary for our opening to a thriller film that discussed various different techniques and conventions we used to create suspense and tension including editing, camera angles/shots and sound. Each member of the group contributed towards the in debt discussions of our final product also focusing on how we grabbed the audiences attention and how the scene was set. Before recording the director's commentary we decided as a group to focus on four main subjects. The subjects were:
Sound
Camera angles/shots
Editing
Mise-en-scene
Then we wrote down some detailed notes on each subject and talked from those for the commentary. Our commentary was recorded using the Voice memo's App on an iPhone 4 and then edited together using iMovie.
Before our group came up with our film idea, as the task set was create the opening to a thriller film I decided to do some research into the openings of various different successful thriller films. The two films I carried out my research on were 'No Country for Old Men' and 'Memento'. I looked at various different aspects from each opening including sound, acting, and shots/camera angles. I used my research from each film to go on to help my group and I come up with an idea for our opening thriller.
No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men starts with the digetic sound of a police officer narrating in the background, for the opening 1:30 minutes of the film, all the shots are various different extreme long shots that are used to establish the location the film may be set in. At 1:40 in the clip, characters are introduced. The camera cuts to a medium shot of the back of a police officer leading a 'criminal' towards a police car and he is put in the back. The face of the criminal isn't visible to the audience and hidden through the dark lighting in the back of the car. This puts the viewer into anticipation as they want to know who he is and what he looks like. Mise-en-scene gives the audience a little idea of the criminal. He appears to be wearing all black clothing with could suggest he's a villain, also the officer places what appears to be some kind of flamethrower. At this point the viewer is in suspense and the idea rises that the man could of committed a brutal murder with the 'weapon'. The criminal is driven away by the officer and the next shot is inside what appears to be a police station. There is a medium shot of the officer at a desk on the phone talking about the criminal. The camera slowly zooms in and as this happens the villain character slowly moves towards him. Here, it makes the audience want to tell the officer that someone is behind him and keeps them on the edge of their seats. This portrays that the criminal is already seen as the 'bad guy' whilst the officer the good. The villain in black clothing pounces on the officer and begins to strangle him with the handcuffs he's wearing. This puts the audience in a state of distress as the officer tries to free himself, then, blood poor from the mans throat which is again quite horrific for the viewer to watch. During this, the camera focuses on the murderers face and he appears to be showing no emotions despite strangling a helpless man. This is also quite disturbing for the audience. The opening sets the film to unfold, and we get the idea that it may be focused around this horrible man and potentially based on the murders he has already committed. No Country for Old Men uses the absence of sound. This creates a dramatic effect and works very well. Despite typical thriller films using sound to create tension and suspense, this isn't necessary and the director (Ethan and Joel Coen) achieve their aim of getting the audience on the edge of their seats well.
Memento
The opening scene in Memento begins with an extreme close up of a mans hand holding a photograph from a polaroid camera which appears to be the image of a blood covered room. Already the audience are questioning why he has this picture and what it is of. They are left in anticipation waiting to find out what's happened after just the first few seconds. The shot of the man holding the picture is present for around a minute, and he starts to shake it after around 20 seconds which again gets the viewer thinking and raising questions that this must of happened very recently. However, instead of the photo fading into a clearer image, it becomes unclear and eventually just turns white. Here the audience are left quite puzzled and confused, but realise that the clip is being played backwards when the camera cuts to a close up of the mans face as he puts the picture into the camera and it flashes as he takes a picture. Extreme close ups of various different objects and mise-en-scene are then shown to set the scene of the room. Things such as pouring blood, a bullet, and a deceased man on the floor suggest that this is a murder scene and are in suspense to find out what has happened. Also, the sweat and blood on the main characters face puts forward that he may be in a state of shock after committing a horrific crime or murder. As the opening unfolds and the film 'rewinds' we see the main character shoot the man that before appeared to be dead on the floor. The music at this point gets progressively louder as the sequence quickly 'rewinds'. This creates tension for the viewer as they finally find out about the previous things that occurred in the room. At the end of the opening, the audience are left wondering why the scene was played backwards, this leaves them on the edge of their seats wanting and waiting to find their answer later on in the film. Unlike in No Country for Old Men there is music throughout the opening of Memento which is consistently quite mournful up until the events unfold. This creates a sad and negative atmosphere for the audience and possibly suggests to them that something horrible has happened.
The research I gathered from each of these thriller openings helped my group towards coming up with a story of our own. Different aspects of each clip gave me different ideas and broadened my mind when mind-mapping various plans, plots and storylines
Both Todorov and Propp are well known and play a big part in the making of films. They believe that all or most stories, narratives or films follow specific patterns when it comes to the characters and plot of them.
Every film, story, or narrative has a beginning, middle and end to it. They always involve typical things that are ever present in all kinds of films such as, problems, conflicts, good guys and bad. Which is what makes films so interesting otherwise they wouldn't be as popular as they are today.
Todorov and Propp both came up with their own theories or ideas of how films should be made/structured and what they should include. They then broke them down and found the basic foundations of how they were structured.
Vladmir Propp
Vladmir Propp was born in St. Petersburg to a German family on April 17, 1895. He was a russian soviet formalist scholar published a book in Russian in 1928 called 'Morphology of a Folktale'. His Theory involved:
Preparation
Complication
Transference
Struggle
Return
Recognition
Included in Propp's theory were different character types that he believed were evident in every story.
Hero - normally the main character.
Villain- the character the hero is trying to stop.
Prize - what the hero gains at the end. Mentor - the character who helps the hero all the way through.
Helper - the character that aids the hero.
Blocker - the character that delays the hero from getting what they want.
Dispatcher - the character that sends the hero on his journey.
Tzvetan Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on the 1st March 1939. He is a French-Bulgarian philosopher and writes essays and book on literary theory, thought history and culture theory. Todorov's theory included:
Equilibrium
Disruption
Recognition of Equilibrium
Attempt to repair disruption
A return of new equilibrium
In conclusion, both Tzvetan Todorov and Vladmir Propp's theories character types can be put with almost any film, literature, narrative, etc of any genre. Following these men's theories will allow my group to create suspense and tension in my film and give us some guildline when planning the storyline or plot.
Our assistant camera man Callum Reay recorded the 'behind-the-scenes' footage of the production of our film 'The Shadow'. Despite filming over a two day period, this footage is only from the first day as we experienced technical difficulties with the other camera on the second day. This four minute montage of clips shows us having detailed in-depth discussions of what we planned to film, how we would edit the clip on iMovie in the future and actual footage during filming.
Linked from YouTube above is my groups final piece. When thinking of an idea of the film, we each came up with an initial idea and brainstormed them to get a better view of our ideas. Together, we combined each idea and created a story board of what we planned to film, etc. We filmed the footage over a two day period but ensured all lighting and setting was the same in order to maintain it's continuity. The protagonist was myself and the shadow type villain character was Daniel Summers. Jonathon Lovelace had the role of main camera man while Callum Reay was our assistant camera man who filmed in depth discussion and the actual filming of our final piece. (This can be seen elsewhere on the blog). Generally, we were very pleased with our final product and felt the collaboration of each others ideas was essential in making the thriller opening as successful as it was. The sound, lighting, camera angles and shots all worked together to help achieve our objective of understanding the key techniques and conventions needed to construct a typical and successful opening to a thriller film.
With reference to Psycho and other thrillers studied, discuss some of the key conventions used in the thriller genres
There are many different sub-genres within the thriller genre, such as both crime thrillers and psychological thrillers. Despite these sub-genres all thrillers end up sharing the same forms and conventions to create their own unique story. The most successful thrillers form from the plot being clear as this enables the audience to follow the story throughout, meaning that when the twist does come it will be unexpected as the audience will be that focused on what they think is important they won't be able to see what is really about to happen. This is a key aspect as its what makes the thriller stand out and appear more intelligent to other genres. The three films from the thriller genre that I studied were Psycho, No Country for Old Men and Shutter Island.
One thriller that i studied that had a huge impact on me was Psycho which was produced by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960- it conveys all of the typical conventions and more.
The first thing I noticed was filmed in black and white which suggests it could fit into the 'Film-Noir' sub-genre. By doing this I believe that on the whole it helps add to the tension and suspense of the film. A key convention of many thrillers is to mislead the audience, Hitchcock achieves this very well as when we first see Marion she is stealing the money from her boss to enable her to run away with her lover. At first, this portrays that this film will be based on a love affair. However, we soon forget about this as we are then focusing on the money throughout. This misleads the audience into thinking that the money is going to be playing a major role in the film. Hitchcock does this as he wants to lure us into a sense of false security. Something that did come to a shock to me was that the main character Marion, dies a third of the way through the film. This is unusual because it doesn't usually happen and up until this point in the film the audience has seen it from her point of view which from now will change.
Another key convention key convention is giving the audience false suspense. Hitchcock achieves this by using the policeman as we know that he is following her, and the audience thinks this is due to the theft of the money making it their only concern. The officer following Marion wears sun glasses which creates a sense of suspense. This is as the audience cannot make eye contact with him and may feel un-easy or insecure.
The next convention that Hitchcock uses in Psycho is the use of enclosed spaces. We see this when Marion is in the shower which appears to be her own personal space so therefore the audience assumes that she is in no danger.
The suspense is cleverly built up at this point as we immediately see the door open and a shadow approaching her which she is not aware of. At this point, despite obviously not being able to do this, the audience feel they want to make her aware. As Hitchcock manages to make the audience feel this way towards the film, he has achieved his objectives successfully. During the murder, there are extreme close-ups of Marion's eyes, which puts the audience on a more personal level to her and can see that see is suffering through her emotions shown.
Another film I studied that fits into the Thriller genre was No Country for Old Men by Ethan and Joel Coen in 2007.
One major convention that makes No Country for old men different to other of it's genre is the sound. Usually, typical thriller films use sound to enhance the tension and suspense that have an effect on the audience. However, this film is unusual and doesn't use a soundtrack although the directors still manage to keep the audience on the edge of their seats simply by the brilliant acting, the storyline, the setting and the adult content.
The character Anton Chigurh makes the film particularly thrilling as he's a psychopathic killer. He manages to play his role perfectly as he hasn't gone over the top with the acting so much that it looks unrealistic but kept the balance just right. He shows no emotion throughout the film even when he's killing, this makes him seem almost inhuman and also helps create tension and emotion as the audience are always wanting to know what's going to happen next. For example, at the end of the film when he walks out of 'Carla Jeans' he shows absolutely no emotion at all, so the audience are left wondering if he killed her or not. This also contributes towards the adult content as it's not a childlike and predictable film, as the audience are left to draw their own conclusions on what has happened.
The other main character in No Country for Old Men, Lewelyn Moss, is a typical character to the Thriller genre. The audience sympathise with him despite taking money that didn't belong to him. We do this as after committing the theft, he then goes back to the site with all the bodies in and gives water to an injured man, which then gets himself in trouble. This shows that in comparison to the other main character, Anton, he is very human like who shows lots of emotion unlike Anton. After a long chase, Lewelyn moss is finally killed by Anton, which is quite surprising to the audience as they get the idea that he had eventually got away.
The final thriller film that I studied was Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorcese
The fact that the film's story is based on a dubious mental hospital on a shady island already brings up cliches of the Thriller genre, and perhaps the sub-genre, Psychological thrillers. Also, the idea of two detectives being stuck on an Island in the middle of the sea investigating a case in a mental hospital may shock the viewer.
The very first sequence in Shutter Island, the ship scene on route to the Ashecliffe institute uses various different conventions to create tension upon the audience. This scene is very important as it manages to create a dispirited atmosphere which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats before the hospital gates have even opened. Whilst on the boat, the two main characters/detectives 'Daniels' and 'Aule' discuss their task and what may be ahead of them. They conclude their dialogue by suggesting that their destination is a mental hospital only for the "mentally insane", this again could put the audience experience quite subtle distress of what is to come. The camera then pans out to an extreme long shot of the island, and there is a sudden change of ambiance. The shot, (which is pictured below) is of a dark misty island and fills up most of the frame. It portrays the idea that the island is a inhospitable and mysterious place that perhaps the protagonists should not visit. The audience automatically get a negative vibe about Shutter island, and potentially feel sympathetic to the task that is ahead of the main characters.
Throughout the film, there are some shots that are particularly disturbing for the viewer and could put them in a moment of distress creating a tense and subtle atmosphere An example of this is when the main protagonist Leo is first walking through the mental asylum with his partner. He looks across to the right and the camera slowly moves across showing the media shot of an old, fragile, and ill looking lady chained up. Slowly, as Leo looks across, she lifts up her index finger and 'shushes' Leo as if to keep quiet about something. Himself and the audience appear to be shook up and in a slight state of depression by this demented looking lady. Also, the idea that this women could be real makes this clip particularly tense for the viewer. From seeing this shot in the film, the audience may get the idea that she could play a vital role in the film, however, this is not the case. Later in the film as the story and twists unfold, the reasoning for the lady shushing becomes apparent to the audience.
Another convention that creates tension and suspense in Shutter Island is the effect of sound. The use of dramatizing non-digetic music creates soundscapes that reinforce the suspense inherent to the image on the screen. As well as this, the digetic sounds are used to alert and sensitize the viewer, increasing the sounds potential effect. An example of how these are used in the film are during the boat scene. The digetic sound of the wind on the boat, paired with use of the non-digetic dramatic music constructs a threatening atmosphere upon the viewers. Only until they are provided with narrative information does they know what to expect from the island.
Besides this, editing techniques are thoroughly used and play a big part in creating tension. Fast cut sequences are employed by Scorsese which help to increase suspense by change the tempo of certain takes. As well as this, mise-en-scene conveys suspense and tension in Shutter Island, along with the acting. The character's facial expressions signify what they're feeling and their emotions, which can again have an effect on the audience watching. Regularly in the film, Scorsese uses the effect of low key lighting in central parts of the film, and are included to make a 'film-noir' like ambiance, with anxiousness and the anticipation of impending danger.
All three thrillers I researched and talked above above, use various different techniques and conventions of the thriller genre effectively. Together, these contribute towards making the audience feel psychologically and emotionally distressed, and put them on the age of their seats for the rest of the film. They all use similar types of music typical to the horror genre which contribute towards putting the viewer in a case of suspense. As well as this, various shots, camera angles, acting, and editing techniques help towards making these three Thriller films high in suspense and tension.
Before coming up with an idea of our final idea, my group and I did some research on different types of camera angles, camera movement and shots. We did this in order to ensure that we got the best out of our opening thriller piece and could make it of the best quality as possible. We planned to incorporate both basic and advanced camera shots and angles to create our piece.
Camera Shots
The main objective that camera shots have is to demonstrate different aspects of a film's setting, characters and themes and are the amount of space that is seen in one shot or frame. As a result of this, camera shots are very important when shaping a meaning in a film.
Examples of Camera Shots:
Extreme Long Shot
An extreme long shot often contains a large amount of landscape and is used to set a scene or establish a location, which is called an establishing shot. These types of shots are often used to show mise-en-scene in the scene.
Long Shot
Long shots are similar to extreme long shots but are much more specific and give the audience a more specific idea of the setting. In these shots, the emphasis is on the environment and generally includes the characters whole body in the scene.
Mid Shot
Mid Shots contain just the characters bodies or a someone from the waist up. In these types of shots, the audience can see the characters faces much more clearly than in extreme long shots and long shots. The interaction between different customers can also be seen in mid shots.
Close-up
Close ups contain only one character's face. Also known as personal shots, they allow the audience to capture the character's feelings and emotions and enables them to feel empathy for the character in the film.
Extreme Close-up
Extreme close-ups show just one part of a person face and are quite common in Thriller and Horror films. These types of camera shots show emotions of the character in great detail and create an intense mood which provides interaction between the film and the audience.
Over the Shoulder shot
This shot is taken from behind a character's shoulder, towards another subject. Depending on how much of the subject is show in the shot compared to the person who's shoulder is being film over, the audience can tell who the inferior or superior character is. For example from an elevated/birds-eye view, over the shoulder the subject would appear inferior and a worms eye-shot over the shoulder would make the subejct seem superior.
Camera Angles
People often get camera angles and shot mixed up, but they are not the same thing. Whilst camera shots are used to establish settings, show emotions and themes, camera angles are used in film to position the viewer in order for them to understand to relationships between different characters.
Examples of Camera Angles:
Birds Eye Angle
A bird's eye angle looks directly down on a scene from a so called view from a 'bird's eye'. These types of angles are often used as establishing angles to establish the setting of the scene.
High Angle
High angles look down upon a subject or a character. These types of shots are used to make people look inferior, vulnerable or small as if someone is looking down or standing above them.
Low Angle
Low angles look up at a character or subject in film. It is the complete opposite of a high angle and makes the character look inferior instead of looking superior, it can also make the audience feel vulnerable or small by looking up to the character.
Camera Movement
Camera Movement is used in films to shape meaning.
Examples of Camera Movement:
Panning
Panning is usually used to set the scene or setting of a film and gives the audience a panoramic view of the set.
Tracking Shot
Tracking shots used 'tracks' to move and are most common when exploring a room such as a restaurant. They are used to give the audience a detailed tour of the current situation of the characters. Tracking shots can also be used to follow a character.
Crane shot
These types of shots are often used to signify the ending or finale of a film. The outcome is achieved by the camera being placed on a crane which can then be moved upwards to create a zoom out effect.
There are 8 main elements of the Thriller genre. They are:
1. The central protagonist's faces death, their own or someone else's.
2. The forces of antagonism must initially be clever and/or stronger than the protagonist.
3. The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or the character who cannot be put down.
4. The main plot-line focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
5. The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of view.
6. All action and characters must be credibly realistic/natural in their representation on screen.
7. The two major themes that underpin the Thriller are the desire for justice and the morality of individuals.
8. One small but significant aspect of a great thriller is the presence of innocence in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world.
Thriller is a type of genre that concentrates and revolves around anticipation and suspense. The aim of a general Thriller film is for the audience to be on the edge of their seats and the anticipation of what is to come. It is a large and diverse genre, with many different thrillers having a wide range of interests for their audiences. Thriller films fall into different sub genres. However, whatever sub genre this might be they will all emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces.
There are six main sub genres within the thriller genre, these are:
Action Thriller
Crime Thriller
Film-Noir
Psychological Thriller
Science Fiction Thriller
Religious Thriller
Action Thriller
Physical action is used to create suspense in Action Thrillers. These types of films will include continuous motion and physical action such as physical stunts, chases, fights, battles and races. The protagonist danger that he is facing will be contributed by these various different scenes in action thrillers.
Crime Thriller
This sub genre incorporates suspenseful aspects of a thriller with a crime film plot and usually concentrate on a serial killer, murderer, manhunt or a robbery. Despite being similar to traditional crime films, this sub genre's storyline usually focuses on around the protagonist and the criminal. Physical and action aspects are also used in Crime Thrillers to create suspense and tension.
Film-Noir
Not only is 'Film-Noir a sub-genre of the Thriller genre, but a term used for a specific, stylistic type of crime-drama or thriller that was popular during the 1940s and 1950s. With the main character usually being a cynical hero, this sub-genre relies on various flashbacks and a narrative voice to explain the intricate plot. The sub-genre gets it's name 'noir' from the black-and-white style with stark lighting effects used.
Psychological Thriller
As well as the attributes expected in a normal thriller, Psychological includes elements of drama and mystery into the sub-genre. Physical threat and the mind are used to create tension and suspense in this sub genre and the protagonists in these films must use their mental resources to solve the situation or plot. Often due to their nature, films in this sub genre cross over towards the Horror genre.
Science Fiction Thriller
Science based and hypothetical themes are incorporated to create the plot for Science Fiction thriller films. Traditionally, heroes, villains, fantastical quests, advanced technology and unexplored locations can be incorporated into this sub-genre to be used to create anticipation and suspense. The 'future-gone-bad' theme will often be explored in Science Fiction thrillers as well as plots that revolve around alien invasions, super-diseases and dystopian scenarios.
Religious Thriller
Religious themes, objects, ceremonies and questions are incorporated to create a Religious Thriller. Many films inside this sub-genre include supernatural experiences not focusing on a certain religion despite some Thrillers revolving around a specific religious place, such as a church. Some typical themes of Religious Thrillers are demon possession, church cover-ups and exorcisms.
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