Music for Pandora

since the middle and ending seqence needed to be changed i used garage band software to create two simple piece for example the middle section had only two different sounds to represent the main protagonist journey until the caffe scene where the tempo becomes more up beat and interesting this music has flowed with flash back scene to create a more action seqences.

News paper article

Here is the news paper article taken and redesign from the metro newspaper to fit into our storyline.
This is to answer the enigma codes from the start of the film when Michelle was running in the woods

Power point on Characters

and

Mise-en-scene

Costume design:


Character :pandora
Age:26

Character:Michelle
Age:26


costume list:
since the two characters are going to be around 26 years old, they will be wearing trendy clothing (whats fashionalbe that season) however the actoress who plays Pandora (the protagonist) will have to wear more mature clothing such as long cardigans and jeans while her facial appearences will be with her wearing glasses connoting intelligence (love of books) and maturity, This can show her being more reserved than Michelle. her hair will be place in one as a 26 year old she doesn't want to spend as much time groooming herself like other 20 year olds.

However Michelle will be the opposite she is the more trendy one with brighter clothing then pandora i.e brighter coat top cardigan ect her hair will be placed in two with a fringe showing more awareness to her body then Pandora, she is more of the happy type withn her self and a love of music is shown through her bright head phones.

We might use make-up if the final outcome isn't mature enough.

props:

Pandora props will mainly be her glasses connoting intelligence and the news paper to follow the story through.
she will also have a bag or (most likely) a back pack.

While Michelle will have a set of head phones that match the coat.

There might be extra props on the day of the filming such as coffe cups ect.

Thriller Fonts

These fonts reminded me of the eerie credits at the beginning of the film such as psycho or flight plan with these fonts it will give me a basic idea of how it will represent my theme genre such as psychological/thriller films flight plan had used special effects to draw the audience into the film compared to psycho. This is a beneficial thing as the director will lose the audience interest if it has no enigma code.

Recent thriller reviews.

These are recent thriller reviews of films that i have watched.

Memento: Christopher Nolan (2000)

By Empire: 4/5 stars

Plot:

Former insurance investigator Leonard has short-term memory loss. He can't remember anything or anyone from only moments before. He knows who he is, and can remember everything up to the attack that killed his wife and left him in this condition but everything else is a haze...

Review:

For once you don't have to worry about giving away the ending, since this story starts there, with protagonist Leonard killing a man, and takes us backwards, scene by scene, to the beginning. Or rather, it's a beginning of a particular sequence of events. Although Harold Pinter did this in Betrayal, this is still something special, imaginative, and challenging, Christopher Nolan's exploration of memory and time toying with narrative and structure.

Reversed scenes overlap slightly so we know where we are, and there is crucial exposition stylishly conveyed, in black-and-white links of Leonard getting his bearings, revising his mementos and recalling the past as the story gathers momentum and takes both chilling and laugh-out-loud turns.

It's based on a short story by Nolan's brother, Jonathan, and the sneaky boys get the audience to enjoy speculating on questions about reality, the workings of the mind, self-awareness, identity and time, all within the context of a compelling murder mystery.

The actors do a great job messing with perceptions, with both Moss' enigmatic femme and Pantoliano's impatient sidekick - new to Leonard every time he encounters them - swinging from friend to foe and back again. Pearce is remarkably good, holding this together with an intent blankness across which flicker bewilderment, frustration, despair and fury.

Just try to remember that everything we think we know about Leonard - perceived from his clothes, his car, his cash, his compulsion, and his moral certainty - is as reliable as everything we think we know about ourselves

Memento's denouement is made inescapable by the fact that it has, of course, already happened. All thrillers thrive on shifting sands, self-contained nowhere worlds where allegiances change, crosses double and nobody is ever who they claim to be. Nolan's simple stroke of genius was to add the old literary trick of an unreliable narrator and thereby kick away the last remaining prop an audience could rely upon. Watchable or not, it is compelling and fascinating.

My review:

This was one of my favourite films as it challenges the conventions of a thriller film where it starts the enigma code of who's going to die and who's the killer, this thriller starts from the end and works it way forward leaving the audience in a guessing game by his actions to how he got there, I had enjoyed the tension of memento the camera movements made me feel as if i am right next to the character, the is also non-linear of his traumatic past (him and his wife were hold as prisoners at there home, this lead to them to being attack leaving the protagonist Leonard head injury) this made me sympathies due to him later getting short term memory loss.

Spy Game.
I found Spy Game, an espionage thriller, really confusing. The introduction of the film showed Brad Pitt (Tom Bishop) in one country, the climax starts off good but it suddenly goes into the credits which made me baffled as to how the film is now set in a new country but it’s not clear why or how we are there.
The Micro elements were poor in some scenes. For example, when Robert Redford () had a flashback of the Vietnam War, it was cut straight to the scene. What should have been created perhaps is a helicopter sound effect while the camera is still on him, until it cuts to the Vietnam scene this non diegetic sound could connote a soon-to- be flashback. Once again the Vietnam War showed little micro elements when it came to the mise-en-scene, but the costume design didn’t fit into the time line or events. Both main actors had only bad hair wigs to indicate their so called “youth” but only made them look much older than the present day. The time line was off since Robert says he met Brad Pitt in the Vietnam War (1968-71) to the present day of 1991 yet a twenty year jump suddenly had high technology and futuristic buildings which came in the mid to late 2000. This poor research cuts the integrity of the film by half.
However some scenes were dragged out leaving me in a bored state. Such as when they were in the conference room; the conversation was unclear. They referred to things that the audience had no idea about; for example “operation side show”?
I have already watched most of this film and I probably won’t want to watch it again; in my eyes this was a big disappointment as I enjoy watching espionage films to me this had made Brad Pitt lose huge amount credibility.

production posts

24/1/10 during the lesson we were asked to create do's and don't's to a thriller film; This is to help us in our future filming.


:Do compose original music making sure that it is suitable for the genre.
:Do create interesting text. (so the audience would read it)
:Do create theater of the mind, red herring, enigma and action codes
:Do think about the mise-en-scene

:Don't have to much dialogue
:Don't film in or around school

25/1/10 during the lesson we made a list of what makes a good thriller we then watched 2 opening scenes where we wrote down the conventions of a thriller film.

-Suspension
-Character performance/cast
-Narration/plot
-Action/enigma codes
-Micro elements as the opening scene is more visual then verbal
-Relate to the movie
-Shows theater of the mind
-A problem to solve/guessing game
-Restricted Narration.


What is conventional about flight plan :
-Dark light/grey atmosphere
-theater of the mind about the woman in the station which creates suspension
- noise from the train that had been amplified by sound effects with cross cutting from the train to the woman makes it unexpected for the audience
-vulnerability factor of the woman being isolated
-cross cutting to flash backs show the narration to be non-linear

Whats conventional about panic room;
-Master shot to show the city location
-tense music
-not a lot of back story, this makes enigma codes by showing normality.

The best thriller opening i have seen today is flight plan due to the tension of sudden sound effects and cuts would involves the audience.

29/1/10 what is a film treatment?-:To communicate the main ideas-:To foresee problem-:To plan/make a time table.
A film treatment is:-A full account of a films narrative written in continuous prose (continue writing)-Strong sense of how the film looks -to sell an idea to production executives vivid ideas on character, action and setting generally using only small dialogue.

26/1/10
- As a class we had discussed different kinds of thriller treatment ( this is when the story boards come up with a synopsis to attracted audiences) Redoing treatments helps us to: Know the main ideas (micro aspect , to foresee problems, to plan/make a time table.

27/1/10
- starting our first treatment. I was the first person to do the treatment after she had a more vivid idea of what the film is going to be. However this didn't work during our presentation Mrs Berry and Mrs Khan understood had interest in the ideas however the story plot was to simple for people to get interest in.

29/1/10- was told to redo our treatment. Me and Shapali created a new treatment for the film, because our first positive criticism went bad this had taken longer then needed things like the audience interest and time kept us from doing things such as filming a girl walking from the bus stop to the train station.
1/2/10
-had an extra day to finish off treatment
2/2/10
- we set out a treatment viewing where we would advertise our stories to the rest of the group for advice and insights to their opinions.
3/2/10
-we had finished off our second treatment for the viewing tomorrow; this is for another positive criticism.
5/2/10
-Me and shapali had another production meeting by doing another story and treatment as our previous one was reviewed by our class as too simple and wont keep the audience interested. Due to doing redrafts this help us understand how the producers in the film industry works to create a popular film.
8/2/10
- the group decided to have a small recee this was to find certain areas so then we could save time and report back to the teacher. This was a basic idea of our filming wear abouts.
9/2/10
- we had a production meeting explaining our final draft to our teacher and our story boards this is where we draw different scenes with a brief detail about what will happen. This will be a planning sheet for when we are filming.
10/2/10
- went on a reece trip for our sequence: this is where we asked Shapali if we could film at her home for the opening scene: This was accepted and now on Wednesdays and Fridays we film due to more free time.
11/2/10
- went on a "ask the audience" where we asked different people about there thoughts on thriller: we filmed short clips of random audiences from different ages and gender about their opinion on thriller.
12/2/10
-went to do auditions for our sequence: we had gathered a group of people from different years we then asked them to create a short little place to show their acting skills however this didn't due to their timetables so we decide to use people from our group.

past thriller work

20/1/10 -:To watch past thriller work and evaluate their work.

"Above the low” started with a shot of a car driving through the motor way in the early hours of the morning it then cuts to the back of the car more of a pov shot to represent us as an audience within the story. This use of restrictive camera shots would intrigue the audience to what had happen. The sequence follows of shots in the forest this can represent the car moving further away from civilisation. As the car grinds to a stop the main "protagonist" (using a red herring and he is actually the antagonist) drags the dead woman’s body around there is no flash backs of the characters relationship to give us clues to way she is dead this can create theatre of the mind as to whether the woman knew the antagonist before she died enigma and action codes of whether the antagonist is going to get caught later in the film. The final scene ends with two detectives talking to each other while the crime scene investigators search in the background for clues the cheap surprise was of the murder (antagonist) being a dective as well showing the conventions of police corruption in crime genre.

Overall a high level 2/ low level 3. the cinematography could have been used more for example the crime scene all was shown was of the two police detectives talking in the foreground with a shoddy shot reverse shot what they should of done was cross cut in between the crime scene and the two detectives creating a more crime thriller scene. The bad editing that let them down such for the shot reverse shot scene where the editing was too slow letting the audience get confused and had also broke the 180 degree rule. There is only one sound track throughout the sequence which even though keeps you more focus on the film presents little effort. Yet the opening had good enigma codes (except for poor text credits of just white font) the audience can decode the rest of the sequence such as a man and a dead woman driving into the forest this would leave the audience in a guessing game as to what happened to the woman in the past events.


One more kiss narration was simple and easy to decode after a couple of minutes, the story of a small flat in the middle of London where we are already placed in the disequilibrium scene where the man calmly fixes himself a drink while looking at himself in the mirror before he goes to the phone and compose him to create an performance of panic and distress we are then shown flash backs of the couple fighting but we can’t hear what they are fighting about this is then later added with a tracking shot towards the door the theatre of the mind comes to what’s behind the door and why is it so important to have that scene alone. The is a sudden cheap surprise at the end when the audience presumed that the woman is dead through the man’s performance of shock she suddenly opens her eyes when the scene goes black this cheap surprise create a enigma code of the remaining of the film of revenge on the husband.

the production design showed little thought and the result of poor recce gave them a less better output, the house was small and was not cleaned enough as there were some poor camera works where the position was of making the audience focus on the background more than the main character making them less powerful. the editing showed simple transitions of cross cutting to the past and showing the two couple fitting this editing create understanding for the audience however was used to much and became repetitive. The flash backs has of the two couples fighting the sound of them arguing didn’t fit always into the scenes plus the soundtrack was simple which can show little effort into the post production the mise-en-scene was at its best at the end of the sequences when we get a close up of the woman’s beaten face with the well dim lighting the shot became more realistic and what had happen previously. Although it had intention of enigma codes: why the man was acting suspicious at the start of the film, why is he calmly phoning the police to the wife death and what kind of relationship did he have with the woman.
Level 2/3

19/1/10:For media homework we were assigned to find trailer clips of thriller films. these are trailer clips that i decided to link to the main theme genre, thriller, i will be looking at sub genres such as psychological, espionage, sci-fiction and medical thrillers.

My first trailer is a famous film by Alfred Hitchcock "psycho". the opening shows of restricted shots which we can assume is in the bathroom due to a dead woman's body in the shower while a man who's faces has been restricted off through dark lighting slowly walks up to the camera with a knife in his hand . this already gives of enigma codes that there is something unusual going on. Yet the editing and sound has a non-deiegitc soundtrack (of the famous psycho music) setting the audience a basic understanding of what genre is as the quick pace action in non linear shows confusion and tension this relates to the movie yet not giving the plot away this create theater of the mind. The font of the title matches to the climax at the ending with "psycho" written in braggadocio white blocks with strikes red in the background connoting blood.

with most psychological films there is always one mentally ill person, who might have a traumatic experiences such as Norman Bates who was attached to his mother until she died thus making him have two personality's. This is a psychological film i would like to base my own thriller on having the main character with mental problems would give a suspension on what actions and movements they will make almost as they are playing a chess games with the victims.

Spy game is set in America where Brad Pitt (a espionage) getting himself caught in china. This leads to Robert Redford to save him.

As the major label appears on screen the logo shows of jogging special effects while there's a sound effect of a mans voice over we are directly introduced to the main protagonist as theres a action an tell where the film has been set through the master shots of America buildings.

The cut is also fast pace to show action codes to the audience the espionage genre is one of my favourites however can be easily made into a cheesy comedy or pure rubbish's. Spy film are supposed to have lots of quick editing and spacial effects although needs to still looks more realistic this can be the most downfall of sub genres in my mind due to the "Hollywood make over", exaggerated things such as "spy game" with Brad Pitt hair piece making him seem to be "younger" only to make him older.

other thrillers such as sci-fiction can be more difficult to make such as Jurassic park, since i don't have time or money to create a realistic film either having a futuristic feel or something that happen back in time would be complicated due to the amount of props that would be brought or made. The mise-en-scene is set in the past such as huge forests companied by dinosaurs, most sci fiction would be filmed in exotic areas (such as the Arttic or rain forest)

Se7en essay

Se7en Essay: What makes a thriller and how is this evident in Se7en? A macro/ micro analysis of “se7en” (David Fincher 1995).

In this essay I intend to answer the question by formulating the uses of codes and conventions of the thriller film through the macro and micro elements, I will also summarise my argument on how evident is Se7en a thriller film.

A mainstream film by New Line Cinema, Seven was directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Walker, The budget of the film was 30 million dollars yet the gross outcome came around 316 million dollars from around the world, having a large sum of money they were able to place more time to the text of the films. Theses factors such as using it for advertising on television or the radio, promotions of trailers and teasers to make the audience intrigue and anticipating of a new upcoming film. having a marketing scheme of using publicised famous actors like Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman that would have been interviewed from this and other previous films that had made a huge profit in the box office.

Se7ven was mostly targeted at a mass audience, focussing mainly on American or British males as the conformant is of two main protagonists but this can be made openly wider to both genders and other ethnic backgrounds who are highly educated; as their interest may be in theatre of the mind films or hobbies like psychology, law or the relationship between police versus the criminal side. The age range for this film would be 18 to 25 years who might be university students, who likes the genre of thriller films, and who might also like hybrid crime and psychological films. This reason is through the graphical violence that is used through the film, for example when we shown a mise-en-scene of a whore house, we can tell this by the product design of cheap fabric and posters that had sexual themes on it, we can also tell by the costume design of the woman dressed in pink, white and red clothing that was also revealing, this can connote sexuality and smuttiness, it can also represent the opposite of white pureness by which they would have already been unpurified while being used as a object. We are shown a view of a bedroom, where a woman is lying on the bed dead and bloody, we can assume that the body was so massacred that the two main protagonists used their heads to cover it up, this would represent enigma codes and theatre of the mind due to the vast amount of blood around the bed.

Their social economics will be very low (around D or C) as they wouldn’t earn much money due to them being students, most students would be the target of mass audience as the film has a publicity factor of two well known actors from Hollywood - Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. This would of made it a big hit in the box office through other well known films.

The narrative is a chronological line of two male cops who are represented as the protagonists due to their fight for justice against the criminal world. Here they hunt down a mass serial killer that admits the killings were inspirations from the seven sins. In most traditional thrillers the genre would usually be in a linear time line and show a more dramatic but realistic side also enigma codes so the audience can understand and follow the whole story. The theory of a traditional thriller film would have only one male protagonist who would somewhere through the film go through a traumatic event; this would support the Todorov’s theory and would create a new equilibrium to the story of the protagonist always winning the damsel in distress while the antagonist would usually be mentally unstable through their ego, inflated minds or their sense of great importance to this world.

However the film Se7en was challenging the traditional conferment of a thriller film by not creating a happy ending for the protagonists wife was killed off right at the end of the film. yet the antagonist of the film was a strong conformant as he believed that the world was filled with sins and being the “chosen one” to clean the world of sinners; this shows the audience of a stereo type of a mentally unstable character that has a huge egotism and self importance which we can tell by the calm piety which relates back to the religious side of the seven sins. This subverting of the protagonists and a conformant for the protagonists can be represented by a different approach of the thriller world with good always winning over the evil, nevertheless in this film the killer “Doe” won by manipulating the protagonist in to doing on what he wanted which was to kill him in the end. He did this by killing the wife and cutting off her head “We try playing house while you were gone but she wasn’t up to it” he then concludes “So I took her head as a pretty souvenir” with sinister satisfaction.

The conventions of a thriller film has a sense of normality, a realistic but dramatic side to the world but also a theatre of the mind from thrills and action through hidden mystery and tension which gives enigma codes that would intrigue the audience giving them a sense of being on the edge of the seat. This challenges the audiences on what’s happening during the film while the hybrid theme of the genre is psychological thriller where they use theatre of the mind.

The representation of Detective Somerset is portrayed as the more mentally calm person; his character out of the two main protagonists, as his verbal codes, shows him as the voice of reason. His visual codes shows him wearing dark clothing of greys and browns, this can denote a sense of uniform by wearing something reserved or connotes no personality; that he shows a serious or depressed side. Mills is the complete opposite by showing a more fiery side against Somerset. While his verbal side is passionately swearing at people and is always angry, his visual codes shows him wearing a lighter shade of clothing compared to Somerset. This can denote a sense of conforming to his team but can also connotes a serious but positive attitude to his work. While Doe had shown a clam but confident outlook, mentally unstable but showing an intelligent side of his nature as he gives a lot of enigma codes for the two detectives to find him. His verbal codes shows him talking slowly as he wants to aggravate Mills in an eerie and sickly way, while Doe’s representation to mis-en-scene shows him wearing a red jail suit outfit and this can connotes a dangerous warning to the audiences while can also represent a hatred of the world and a deep rooted anger.

We see all three personalities in the last scenes where they come to the outback of America that shows a large open space, on the other hand doesn’t show much detail as Doe admits to killing his (Mills) wife. The editing and camera shot starts of as a slow pace show signify a climatic build up to where the fast pace begins till he finally shoots and kills Doe, this represent a edge of the seat reaction for the audience as we see Mills being manipulated and stoop to the killers level so the audience becomes much more focussed on how the characters reacted towards one another, we see how each character plays the final act though the audiences already knows a tragedy has happen and a new equilibrium will occur.

In conclusion, the thriller aspect to Se7en challenges the ideology of ideas of happy endings and values of good always winning against evil, a traditional thriller film. By creating a new but sad equilibrium from Todorov's theory this represents a subvert the codes and conventions by using omniscient narration for example in most traditional thrillers they would only have one protagonists as the main character yet in the film Se7en, both main protagonist had a different lead in the film (Brad Pitt as detective Mills as a aggressive man who passionately swears and Morgan Freeman as detective Somerset as the voice of reason.) toward the audiences. In my opinion I agree with the fact that Se7en is a evident thriller however is a modern version.