Genres
To figure out what genre we are going to do for our film opening, we first all sat around the table and each person said which genre they all had in mind and we enjoyed to watch the most. We then listed all the genres on a piece of paper and placed a tick to four genres we all agreed on. These genres were action and adventure, thriller/horror, psychological thrillers and crime. We then all picked one genre to research and after researching bringing it all together so we all had the same information, this speed up the time as we want to have a lot of time to create our film and start planning on that. I was assigned to research thriller/horror as it the genre I'm most interested in and frequently watch.
Thriller/Horror
Thriller can be defined as 'a novel, play or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime espionage'. Thriller is my favourite film genre the reason being it contains both horror and action. When researching about thriller I found that it was the most popular genre of 2013 with 124 releases.
Click the button below to show the statistics of where I got information of popular genres
Click the button below to show the statistics of where I got information of popular genres
Insidious: Chapter 2
Insidious chapter 2 hit the theatres Friday, September 13, 2013 nationwide and then released on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, December 24, 2013. It was directed by James Wan who is director of 11 films and the first Insidious, he has also directed other thriller films such as The Conjuring and other well-known films such as Saw and Dead Silence. As-well as being a director he was also a screenwriter of Insidious 2. In total James Wan is director of 11 movies, screenwriter of 4 movies, producer of 2 movies and executive producer of 2 movies. FilmDistrict is the institution that released both the Insidious films and the production companies were Alliance Films and Blumhouse Productions. The Film was given the rating of PG-13 because for its intense sequences of terror and violence and thematic elements meaning parents are to be cautious ad some material in the film may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers. The Film has the running time of 1 hour 45 minutes.
In the movie opening the type of lighting is dark, this is something that is most common in horror/thriller movies. In the image above uses the Split Lighting technique, this is a sinister extremely dramatic type of light. It divides the face in two, one half in shadow, the other in light. To get this type of lighting the camera had to be directly in front of the character at eye level and then have the light 90 degrees left or right in this care on the right. This is an element that we may use in our film opening to make our character Vince/Larry more dramatic in mid-shots.
Storyline
Insidious chapter 2 is a terrifying sequel, which follows the haunted Lamber family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. The couple and their son are confronting the demons that possess the young sons.
In the movie opening the type of lighting is dark, this is something that is most common in horror/thriller movies. In the image above uses the Split Lighting technique, this is a sinister extremely dramatic type of light. It divides the face in two, one half in shadow, the other in light. To get this type of lighting the camera had to be directly in front of the character at eye level and then have the light 90 degrees left or right in this care on the right. This is an element that we may use in our film opening to make our character Vince/Larry more dramatic in mid-shots.
Storyline
Insidious chapter 2 is a terrifying sequel, which follows the haunted Lamber family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. The couple and their son are confronting the demons that possess the young sons.
The Purge
The Purge hit the theatres Friday, June 7, 2013 nationwide and then released on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, October 8, 2013. It was directed by James DeMonaco a not so well known director as he has only directed The Purge and is to be the director of The Purge: Anarchy to be released Friday, June 20, 2014. He was a screenwriter of 5 film which include both the purge films. Universal Pictures is the institution that that released the film and the production companies were Blumhouse Productions, Platinum Dunes and Why Not Productions. The Purge was rated R because for its strong distribution of violence and language. The film contained adult material that was not advice for young viewers, in the film they is a lot of violence with people dying and people killing others throughout. With rated R films as some thrillers would be rated parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them if they wish to. The Purge had the running time of 1 hour 25 minuets
Storyline
The Purge is a thriller that follows one family over the course of a single night, in the movie four people are tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home. 'In an American wrecked by crime and overcrowded prisons the government has sanctioned an annual 12 hour period in which any and all criminal activity including murder becomes legal this means that the police cant be called and hospitals suspended help.'
Storyline
The Purge is a thriller that follows one family over the course of a single night, in the movie four people are tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home. 'In an American wrecked by crime and overcrowded prisons the government has sanctioned an annual 12 hour period in which any and all criminal activity including murder becomes legal this means that the police cant be called and hospitals suspended help.'
Action & Adventure
The Terminator
Terminator is one of the classic action and adventures and even though this movie was made in 1984, it still has many action and adventure conventions which are still used in movies today. I chose this still from the opening because it clearly shows that the movie spent a large budget on technology and that is what action and adventure films are most popular for, their amazing special effects and stunts. This still clearly shows that they spent a lot of money on making the set
Mise- en- scene - Lighting
what you see in this shot is the lighting being made up of different shades of dark blue, this then creates the atmosphere which makes the audience more aware on the genre with portrays what the movie is highlighting.
Mise- en- scene - Lighting
what you see in this shot is the lighting being made up of different shades of dark blue, this then creates the atmosphere which makes the audience more aware on the genre with portrays what the movie is highlighting.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
This is a still shot from The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty which is one of the new movies which have come out, this movie is interesting as you would think that it is more of a comedy than an action and adventure but i noticed that it has many of the action and adventure conventions in this film. This establishing shot shows that the place is isolated and shows clearly that they are on a adventure. I like this shot because it creates the atmosphere of suspense and loneliness. It is also really slow paced, it had no music just the sound of the water and the footsteps/ The reason i like this shot is because for our opening we want majority of it to be slow paced and look like everyday life therefore this shot inspires me to have a shot like this which seems to be very slow and peaceful.
Safe
Cinematography
This shot from the film Safe, i find this shot powerful because it shows everyone in the background acting normal and everything is blurred yet the young girl is standing with an expression which is a binary opposite from the people behind her. I want to use a shot like this our opening film because i like the way it is structured and the amount of emotion is holds.
This shot from the film Safe, i find this shot powerful because it shows everyone in the background acting normal and everything is blurred yet the young girl is standing with an expression which is a binary opposite from the people behind her. I want to use a shot like this our opening film because i like the way it is structured and the amount of emotion is holds.
Music
The music that is used at this point in the film is fast paced but is quiet at the same time. What i mean by this is that the tempo of the music is fast and with irregular beats which make the audience feel uncomfortable but it does not have a variety of instruments such as drums. This inspires us in our film opening because we have our scene in our opening where the main character is murdering a homeless women. Our aim for our film opening is for it to be slow paced, therefore when the main character is killing the homeless women, we do not want loud music to randomly come out of nowhere, but want music similar to Safe, where the music makes the audience feel uncomfortable but the music is quiet at the same time, therefore it as the same effect a loud piece of music would do.
The music that is used at this point in the film is fast paced but is quiet at the same time. What i mean by this is that the tempo of the music is fast and with irregular beats which make the audience feel uncomfortable but it does not have a variety of instruments such as drums. This inspires us in our film opening because we have our scene in our opening where the main character is murdering a homeless women. Our aim for our film opening is for it to be slow paced, therefore when the main character is killing the homeless women, we do not want loud music to randomly come out of nowhere, but want music similar to Safe, where the music makes the audience feel uncomfortable but the music is quiet at the same time, therefore it as the same effect a loud piece of music would do.
Location
This establishing shot of shows us that this film is set in New York, this adds action to the film because New York is a iconic place in which majority of people know. Therefore this will make the audience much more interested because if a Action and Adventure film is set in a iconic it is most likely to have many people from the city in danger. This will be very different to our opening as it is set in London but an unknown side of London which is not as popular as Central London. But we are inspired by this shot and are hoping to use an establishing shot which is similar to this in our film opening.
This establishing shot of shows us that this film is set in New York, this adds action to the film because New York is a iconic place in which majority of people know. Therefore this will make the audience much more interested because if a Action and Adventure film is set in a iconic it is most likely to have many people from the city in danger. This will be very different to our opening as it is set in London but an unknown side of London which is not as popular as Central London. But we are inspired by this shot and are hoping to use an establishing shot which is similar to this in our film opening.
Mise-En-Scene (Costume)
The young girl shown in this shot is seen to be wearing very innocent colours such as light baby blue and baby pink. This links to her personality as she is a innocent girl who is clueless on what to do. Her light coloured clothes make the audience sympathise for her much more as if she were to wear dark colours, the audience would find it hard to understand that she is the victim. In our opening, we have planned for the homeless person to be wearing white during the murder scene, this is because white represents innocent and the homeless women is innocent and therefore the audience can tell just by the colour of shirt she is wearing, that she is the victim.
The young girl shown in this shot is seen to be wearing very innocent colours such as light baby blue and baby pink. This links to her personality as she is a innocent girl who is clueless on what to do. Her light coloured clothes make the audience sympathise for her much more as if she were to wear dark colours, the audience would find it hard to understand that she is the victim. In our opening, we have planned for the homeless person to be wearing white during the murder scene, this is because white represents innocent and the homeless women is innocent and therefore the audience can tell just by the colour of shirt she is wearing, that she is the victim.
Psychological Thrillers
Memento
Memento's film opening includes only one shot throughout the whole of it. It is one shot of a man holding a picture with the opening credits slowly coming on the screen. This shot lasts one minute long with string based music with a slow tempo. This movie is obviously not aimed for a target audience who watch Hollywood based films, as Hollywood movies usually open with upbeat music and all the action is shown from the start. However, straight after the opening scene is over, there is a man whom the audience do not know and then shots another man on the floor for something the audience do not know. Therefore, the audience will have to watch the rest of the film to know why the man shot him. By watching the opening, you cannot tell what the genre of the film is. We did not like the fact that the genre was not easily shown because this makes audiences with a short attention span, which is majority of teenagers, not be interested with the movie.
The reason why we picked Memento is because the opening is slow paced and not much action happens until after the opening credits are over. This links to the idea of our film as the start of our opening has long shot durations and not much is planning to happen until the opening credits are finished. We are also thinking of incorporating something like this shot into our film opening as we have planned that the first shot of our film opening is a radio. The picture in Memento is an object which keeps the film going and our film opening is going to need a radio as an object to keep the film going. We are also thinking of using the idea of having a long shot on an object later on in our film opening when the main character is placed on the tube. The main object is going to be a newspaper which the main character will be reading. The newspaper will drop on the floor and then the character will fall asleep. The newspaper would be the object which shows the audience that the character seems to not have much control and is tired.
The reason why we picked Memento is because the opening is slow paced and not much action happens until after the opening credits are over. This links to the idea of our film as the start of our opening has long shot durations and not much is planning to happen until the opening credits are finished. We are also thinking of incorporating something like this shot into our film opening as we have planned that the first shot of our film opening is a radio. The picture in Memento is an object which keeps the film going and our film opening is going to need a radio as an object to keep the film going. We are also thinking of using the idea of having a long shot on an object later on in our film opening when the main character is placed on the tube. The main object is going to be a newspaper which the main character will be reading. The newspaper will drop on the floor and then the character will fall asleep. The newspaper would be the object which shows the audience that the character seems to not have much control and is tired.
Seven psychopaths
Seven psychopaths is a very interesting movie, the move consist of A-List actors and urban locations therefore the movie had a big budget backing it. The movie starts off with one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, the scene consists of two actors on a dam waiting to kill a passing woman, as they are talking, a figure approaches from the distance wearing a red mask, as the figure gets closer it is clear that he is holding two guns and his intentions aren't pure against the two characters. When the figure gets within the killing distance he pulls up his guns and shoots the two men in the head. The reason this scene interested me so much is because its not like any other killing scene, the scene is very realistic, from the practical effects to the time and location of the shooting. The film opening was very intriguing to the audience as they want to find out why this masked red vigilante shot these two characters in the head, from the dialogue between the two characters, the audience has a back story on why there were at the location and what their intentions were.
The reason why we picked this is because we plan to make a very realistic film opening. The film opening of this movie is also very simple and easy to do (comparing to the other). We want my film opening to be very simple but yet shocking just like the film opening to this movie. The technique of using a really long take isn't commonly seen in many Hollywood movies, it is most commonly seen in indie films so it was very surprising seeing it in this movie.
The reason why we picked this is because we plan to make a very realistic film opening. The film opening of this movie is also very simple and easy to do (comparing to the other). We want my film opening to be very simple but yet shocking just like the film opening to this movie. The technique of using a really long take isn't commonly seen in many Hollywood movies, it is most commonly seen in indie films so it was very surprising seeing it in this movie.
Fallen
In the start of this film opening it makes you feel immensely uncomfortable as the viewer. It achieves this through the fast paced music and the voice over which begins the second the institution companies opening credits finish. The first thing you see after the pitch black screen are blurry images and these finally cut to Denzel Washington crawling on the snow. Following these few shots you see a constant shot reverse shot of him trying to run and his blurry surrounding until he falls to his knees and then continues crawling, eventually being paralyzed on the ground he continues to struggle in the snow. Overlaying this transition you have a quick cut of the night sky in sync with another voice over which is followed by a flashback and the panning of cop cars. The panning then cuts to an ariel view of the black cars. Which then cuts to an extreme close up of a hand rolling a coin.
This links to the idea of our film as the start of our opening has long shot durations and not much is planning to happen until the opening credits are finished. We are also thinking of incorporating something like this shot into our film opening as we have planned that the first shot of our film opening is a radio. The picture in Memento is an object which keeps the film going and our film opening is going to need a radio as an object to keep the film going. We are also thinking of using the idea of having a long shot on an object later on in our film opening when the main character is placed on the tube. The main object is going to be a newspaper which the main character will be reading. The newspaper will drop on the floor and then the character will fall asleep. The newspaper would be the object which shows the audience that the character seems to not have much control and is tired.
This links to the idea of our film as the start of our opening has long shot durations and not much is planning to happen until the opening credits are finished. We are also thinking of incorporating something like this shot into our film opening as we have planned that the first shot of our film opening is a radio. The picture in Memento is an object which keeps the film going and our film opening is going to need a radio as an object to keep the film going. We are also thinking of using the idea of having a long shot on an object later on in our film opening when the main character is placed on the tube. The main object is going to be a newspaper which the main character will be reading. The newspaper will drop on the floor and then the character will fall asleep. The newspaper would be the object which shows the audience that the character seems to not have much control and is tired.
6 Souls
6 Souls was released the 9th of April 2010 in the UK, USA 1st March 2013 on the internet and USA 5th of April 2013. The original title for this was Shelter with the tagline of 'The sheltering has begun'. It's main characters are Julianne Moore who acts as Cara Harding, Jonathan Rhys Meyers who acts as David / Adam / Wesley and Jeffrey DeMunn who acts as Dr. Harding. For our idea we have the main character who has problems and is always imagining things which are mentally disturbing, such as murder. We thought that the character in this movie which also has the same problem would link hugely to our film opening and we could gain a lot of inspiration.
American Psycho - Character Research
This interview is very interesting, it reveals the true characteristics of the character that Christian Bale plays.
The character is very similar to the character within my story with many similar personality traits, however there are also many differences. This will give the character that will be playing Larry Bjarne more insight into the character, they can also watch the movie to see the way they speak about himself, and holds themselves.
The character is very similar to the character within my story with many similar personality traits, however there are also many differences. This will give the character that will be playing Larry Bjarne more insight into the character, they can also watch the movie to see the way they speak about himself, and holds themselves.
The way the character has no emotion while speaking, no enthusiasm as if they cannot sense these emotions which is what Christian Bale was describing in the first youtube video. A quote from the movie that really stood out to me is " there is an idea of a Patrick Batemen, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something of a losery. This appealed to me as it describes the characters true self and their own perceptions of ones self.