What is a Thriller?

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular.

The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies^.The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods.

Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and obsession.

Elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers. some argue, though, that the thriller genre is simply a pseudonym for the horror genre, both using suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences.



"Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller."  A thriller is villain-driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles that the hero must overcome.

The thriller genre can include the following sub-genres, which may include elements of other genres:

• Conspiracy thriller: In which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she recognizes.
• Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes.
• Disaster thriller: In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster.
• Legal thriller: In which the lawyer-heroes/heroines confront enemies outside, as well as inside, the courtroom and are in danger of losing not only their cases but their lives.
• Mystery thriller: Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or involved in, a mystery.
• Political thriller: In which the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him.
• Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical.
• Supernatural thriller: In which the film brings in an otherworldly element mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists.

Although most thrillers are formed in some combination of the above, there are some however that are formed with other genres, which commonly are the horror genre, spy genre and the action/adventure genre.

Preliminary task final sequence

Preliminary Task Post Production

After shooting our preliminary task last week I have now learnt how to access my footage from the final cut server. This is done by selecting the server and the footage, then clicking check out to take it out of the server and putting onto the desktop. We also learnt the purpose of continuity editing, which means making the sequence as easy for the audience to understand as possible, the scene needs to be smooth and flowing to ensure that the story line is clear. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. In terms of our scene, when the male character keeps encouraging the female character to do something, we made sure we included a shot of the keys to show the audience what the scene was really about. We also had to make sure that if one of our actors rolled up their sleeves, they would be the same for the next shot.

We started out the editing process by entering the Rushes bin where the raw footage is kept; we then opened this in Final Cut Pro to begin editing. We then went through each shot and chose the best of each and placed them in the log bin; where all our chosen shots are kept. We made decisions to select or reject the different shot choices to make sure that our scene was smooth and also to check that the any errors had been rejected. We needed to find the shot that fitted best with our other shots for the sequence. We had to choose shots that had suitable eye line matches with others, shots that ran smoothly without any bloopers and shots that had clear sound and good lighting; we also had to choose shots that we all liked.

We then had to organise our shots. We needed to choose which shots were selected to best tell the story of the scene, also to influence the audience to take sides with a certain character. We had to make sure we followed our story board to ensure that the story line was clear for the audience to understand. Another choice we had to make when organising our shots on the time line was to make sure each take had an eye line match between the characters, if it didn’t the audience would find it confusing to understand who the characters were talking to as the continuity would be messed up. By giving the male more screen time and always looking up to him the audience feel intimidated just like the female character. We always see the female character sitting down; we also angled the camera to look down on her to put her into victim status. The extreme close up of the female character allows the audience to fully connect with her emotionally. Even though we privileged the male character with more close ups we wanted the audience to see him as ‘evil’ by how we placed him in hero shot and the female in victim status, the final shot of the sequence was of the female character looking down sadly, making the audience feel sorry for her and take her side. We then had to focus on the shot order to make sure that the sequence had continuity and made sense. We had to make sure that the wide shot was at the beginning to make sure the audience understood the location when we changed to close ups of the characters. We also needed to place our shots into an order on the timeline to check that they fitted together smoothly without pauses in the middle of the sequence as we changed take.

Editing in final cut – We chose to cut from a wide shot of the male character leaving the room to an extreme close up of the female characters eyes to fully understand her emotion and to allow the audience to connect with her, encouraging them to be on her side. Another editing choice we made was to cut to a shot of the keys whilst the male character was talking to show the audience what the entire conflict was about, making the continuity and flow of the scene clearer.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Last Friday we began filming our preliminary task shoot. We filmed for an hour in the media class room which had many advantages and disadvantages. It worked as a location for our task as we had easy access to desks for props and also doors and exterior shots for scenery. However the disadvantages of this were that there was not much space to move around in and also the scene did look a little like it was taking place in a class room. During filming we each shared out the roles equally and in a rotation. So for one shot someone would be directing, another would be operating the camera, someone would be checking continuity and the fourth person would be checking off a list of things to be done before filming. I did all of these about two times each and found I learnt a lot from each of them. When I operated the camera I learnt to white balance and also zoom and focus. When I was directing I learnt all the terms of filming and put them into action. For continuity it required a lot of focus to remember how things were in the previous scene, the check list was really important to make sure our take went smoothly.

When it came to lighting we wanted to make shadows to create a spookier and intimidating atmosphere. We wanted harsh lighting to cast across our actors. This was important to the scene as it made the male character seem more dominating and vindictive, whereas the female character was seen as smaller and more nervous. It was effective as it really helped create our wanted atmosphere and helped show the characters of the scene. We used blonde lights to create the lighting and turned off the overhead lighting to balance it.

When it came to filming we had a lot to remember from our practice of the shoot. We remembered to set up the tripod correctly and bubble it to ensure the tripod was level. This is very important when filming on location to ensure that the camera is level and steady and not tilting to one side. We made sure the shot was framed correctly each time making sure the special relationships were accurate and remembering to include the rule of thirds and eye line matches. We had to make sure that our lighting equipment was not in shot by moving around them remembering them 180’ rule and not losing our way of how we wanted the scene to be lit. We then had to choose the appropriate angles for the shot following the guideline of the story board. This was important to ensure that the frames flowed into each other and also to make sure that we didn’t break the 180’ rule or the line of action. When we began filming we started off using a wide shot to have both characters in the same shot, then we moved to an over the shoulder shot of the male character and filmed this, we then zoomed into the male character and filmed his close up, after this we moved the camera around to film the over the shoulder shot of the woman and then her close up. We did two correct takes of each shot to make sure that we had variety when it came to editing. After the practice shot the week before we had to remember not to cross the 180’ rule. We made many notes to ensure that we kempt to it to make the scene flow more and also to keep the line of action. Before recording each shot we used the appropriate terminology for example ‘stand by’ ‘standing by’ ‘roll camera’ ‘camera rolling’ ‘action’ ‘cut’ leaving a lead in and lead out in the recording to help us when we came to editing. By doing this we everyone on the set knew what was happening, it also made the atmosphere on set seem more professional. We were able to film extra shots away from the storyboard like an establishing shot of the building and a close up on the main prop of the keys and an extreme close up on the eyes of the victim making her look more scared and also more threatened.

Overall we have learnt a lot from the practical lessons of film making. We worked really well as a team and were able to agree and equally disagree together making the whole process of filming much easier and calmer. I have personally learnt a lot about what happens on set about filming for instance with the appropriate terminology and lead in and lead out. I also learnt how to set up the camera in terms of bubbling and frames. Another thing I learnt was the importance of the story board and how useful it is to help the shot flow.

Pre-Production Planning For Our Pre-lim Task

When it came to planning our preliminary task, my group and I had to think of a senario for the basic script that we were given. We also had to think of props we would need, cast, costumes and a location.

We first of all chose to put the script into the scenario of a car robbery. The script really allowed us to do what we wanted with it; a car theft seemed like an idea that no one else was doing with the script. It could be interpreted in it's own way but the basic idea was given.

As the idea was based around a car theft, we knew that we would need keys to represent the car. We also decided on a stack of documents that someone could be sorting through, these represented the information of the owner of the car.

We wanted a man and a women to make up our cast. We chose a man to be the character to encourage the theft, this was more stereotypical as he was looking down upon the woman - we thought that we could use a hero shot of the male to show his dominence and then look down on the woman to place her in victim status.

We werent sure where to place our film. In the end we were given a classroom to film our sequence in.

Using a video camera

This week we have been learning about how to correctly use the cameras.

We started off by learning how to set up the tripod, including bubbling, setting the height and securing the camera. To bubble the tripod we had to adjust the levels and make sure the bubble in the spirit level was in the centre of the selected circle. Using a tripod has benefits including creating a steady shot and also keeping it very still. However you can also work the camera from handheld, with is beneficial when wanting to create a unstable view for the audience.

We then learnt about the different functions and options of the camera. We first learnt about the time code, how film is measured in hours, minutes, seconds, and then how many frames have been shot in a 25^th of a second. We then learnt to white balance by placing a white piece of paper a few inches in front of the camera to set the colours for the shot. Aperture settings taught us how much light was getting into the camera, the bigger the hole the more light will enter meaning it will become more exposed, the smaller the hole means the less light making it under exposed. We learnt to focus by zooming in on the shot fully and then focussing by twisting the focus wheel until it was clear and focused before we zoomed out to the shot we wanted.

Then we moved onto basic filming skills such as camera shot types. We learnt about the differences of close ups, long shots, medium long shots. We also learnt about the rule of thirds and how to place a shot into the rule. When having a close up of a person you need to include head space and make sure the spaces in the shot are equal. We need to remember continuity to make a cut between shots look seamless and flowing. Like if your hair is behind your ear in, in one shot and then not in the next it will look stilted.

In our practice shot we made many mistakes by crossing the 180’ rule. We didn’t think about this whilst filming so when we came to look at our takes the sequence was stilted and confusing. Our close ups were also shot from the side and not directly on. When we come to shooting again we will remember to set up the 180’ rule and not cross it by making sure that each actor is on the right side of the camera. We will also re-place our camera for the close ups.

 

We were also taught some film making terminology:

STAND BY / STANDING BY - readys everyone into position for the take. The AD calls STAND BY and the response tells them that everyone is prepped

 TURN OVER / TURNING OVER (Roll film/Rolling etc) The director tells the camera operator to start filming - a few seconds of film is then run as the camera gets up to speed - this is often referred to as LEAD IN. Once done the Camera operator will respond TURNING OVER or ROLLING (etc) to indicate being up to speed

 ACTION! - Cue for the actors to perform the take, and the crew to do their jobs. It is good practice for the Director to let the film run on a further few seconds after the take is completed before cutting - this is referred to as LEAD OUT

 CUT! - Cue for the camera to stop running film. Industry practice expects that the camera operator does not CUT before being told

The move from taking still camera shots to using a video camera was fairly simple but the setting up of the camera and tripod was a little confusing at first as there was so much to do. Setting up a still camera is different as you only need to hold it with your hand for most shots whereas for the video camera you need to put it on a tripod for most shots. They are similar in the way they both have aperture and focus.

Storyboarding

Storyboards are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity.

 

The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at the Walt Disney Studio during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.

 

A film storyboard is essentially a large comic of the film or some section of the film produced beforehand to help film directors, cinematographers and television commercial advertising clients visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. Often storyboards include arrows or instructions that indicate movement.

 

Here is an example of a storyboard: