would you believe how many sub genres there are!?

I looked into the different sub-genres of thriller and made a list as there was quite a few.

-Action thrillers
-Conspiracy thrillers
-Crime thrillers
-Disaster thrillers
-Drama thrillers
-Eco thrillers
-Erotic thrillers
-Horror thrillers
-Legal thrillers
-Medical thrillers
-Political thrillers
-phsycological thrillers
-Spy thrillers
-Techno thrillers
-Sci-fi thrillers

Luke

Research into history of Thrillers

In my time i have had for doing some research i have looked into books, used the internet and watched films. For now i have been basing my reseach around the history of thriller films and how they have changed etc.

The following information i got from the book "Cinema Today - By Edward Buscombe)

The film, The God Father (1972) earned around $86 million with a budget of $40-50 thousand. The film was shot in a murky half light to resemble an underworld.

The film: The Terminator 2 (1991)
was the biggest box office success of 1991 and earned over $514 million worldwide with a budget of £80-100 million.
*awarded an oscar for best visual effects and makeup*

It looked like the films which began to introduce clever visual effects and SFX makeup were the ones which were more successfull and made more money overall.

I have also looked at some stills from different successful thriller movies.


above is a still from a film called Dressed to Kill (1980) its a murder in the shower scene where a stranger smothers the woman in the shower. The interesting camera angle gives the viewer a blury vision of the killer which creates a lot of tension as the victim is clueless.

There was also a shower scene in the film Phsyco 1960). Where the woman was murdered, the same way as the other film.


By Luke

Thriller Research Introduction...

Westerns, musicals, horror and science fiction are easily distinguishable to the public; however, thrillers cover more aspects and genre such as mystery, murder, suspense and shock. Although there is no certain criteria which labels a thriller, they often share a comman similarity - this being to thrill the audience or at least to make their pulse race a little faster. For example,this is usually achieved by the focus being concentrated on the victims of crime trying to escape a crazed killer, or to clear their name of a murder they didn't commit, the victim in danger therefore keeps viewers on the edge of their seats!

History of Thrillers

Throughout the years thrillers have been based on true-life events and scenarios or have even been set during significant periods of time which have been part of history. For example, many thriller films have been set during the time of the Great Depression, the Cold War as well as the Prohibition period,etc. Basing films on actual events means that the audience can easily relate and become more involved with the film, drawing a larger audience as the storyline attracts attention as it is recognised as a realistic and historic event. (A few films which have been based on true-life events are shown below.)

• 'M',(1931) is based on the true story of serial murders that took place in Dusseldorf in Germany.
• Both 'Scarface',(1932) and 'The St Valentines's Day Massacre',(1967) are based on the historical St Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929 when members of one gang were violently murdered by another gang.

Becky.

Filming

    On September the 30th we begun filming for out Preliminary video. Because we had already made our storyboards and mapped out our ideas in order of how we wanted our video to flow, we had a clear idea of what shots we needed. Due to another group also using the t.v studio, we had an alicated time slot which was after the other group. Because of this we stayed to watch them film so that we had an idea of what we should and shouldn't do. From this we learnt that we must ensure that the audio swaitch was on before filming as we learnt from the other group's mistake, which ended up with them having to re-film due to them not having sound. 

   When it came to our alicated time, we set up the cameras fairly quickly. Our first shot takes place outside the actual studio, so it was difficult to wait for the right moment to film where it was quiet and not many people were about as this could distract from the main shot focus. The start shows a girl, (Amy) approaching the studio, then looking up at the 'on air sign' and then opening the door. These 3 different shots, we filmed about 2 or 3 times so that we had a reliable amount of film to 'play' around with when editing. 

    The next shot was from inside the studio where we picked up from where Amy opened the door from the outside. This meant that the door had to be open at the same angle that it was originally opened from the outside. This was an example of match on action. The following shots showed Amy being welcomed onto the film set as if it was a t.v show, where the host (Luke) continued by questionning and interviewing her as if it was a chat show. 

    During this scene we thought about the 180 degree rule and we included many 'over the shoulder shots' in order to make the video more diverse and interesting to watch. In the end shot we slowly zoomed out as the host closed the show, thanking the guest. This shot is accompanied by cheers as if the audience which were in fact cheers from the other group which stayed to watch us film.

Becky.

180 Degree Shot

In our lessons we have been learning about the different camera angles and camera shots that we can use to make a film more interesting. I have fond this useful because i had no knowledge before of any of this shots and angles. One of the shots we have learnt about is the 180 degree shot. This is where the cameras are usually all on one side of the 180 degree line. Below is a diagram i have found to show the shot.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/camcorders/review/2007/12/08/Top-Camcorder-Tips/p4

Below is an example of the shot that camera one would get.

Reference : picasaweb.google.com/.../ i-pyfeMw_9y_fc0CimVtLQ

Camera 2 would get a shot like this ;

blog.joshuaeichorn.com/.../ ?C=S;O=A

The 180 degree shot is one of the most common shots to use when filming an interview or a conversation between two people. This is why we have been introduced to this shot first because we are in the process of filming our conversations between people in our preliminary exercise. Its a good angle to use because you can get a shot of the interviewee from over the interviewers shoulder, or the other way round and you can also get a full shot of both people.

Becky and Luke.

then and now.

Hi. I thought i would make a post about something i did about a year ago for my media studies btec work. I had to create a 3 minute film trailer for a thriller film. Below is the YouTube link to the video. Take a look!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5yv241HnA

As you can probably tell its very amateur becuase it was the first bit of filming and editing i have ever done.



(above are some stills of the movie that i used when making posters for the final film etc...)

Looking back on the trailer now and along with the new things i have learnt about filming techniques etc especially in thriller films i would have done a lot of things differently. I didnt use many interesting angles or camera movements that make films effective for the viewer.
I also didnt really have a strong story board and only had a rough idea, meaning i had to make some up as i went along.

I should have done much more reseach into thriller trailers too so i would learn exactly what makes it interesting. Not just with the filming but other aspects such as the sound, lighting and editing process.
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In the first two lessons of Media AS, we studied the opening sequences of various thriller films such as: Momento, One hour Photo, The sevens and The usual suspect.
I recorded into the table my views of the different openings to the films. We had to talk about:
titles, shots, camera movement, generic themes, sound, costume, location, setting etc.

All of the films had the common thriller techniques but each one was unique in its own way


Thanks for reading!
Luke :D

Momento opening sequence

Above is the link for the opening sequence of Momento, one of the films that we watched in one of our first media lessons as part of an analysis exercise. Below is my analysis of the opening scenes...
Memento, (starring Guy Pierce and Carrie-Anne Moss) opens with blue, spaced out lettered titles which then fade out onto a black background, accompanied by orchestral backing music. These colours and sound automatically gives us the sense of a dark, intense,eerie and cold atmospheric type film which automatically puts the audience on edge. The first visuals displayed, is a close-up shot of a photograph; the development of the image however is shown in reverse. This continuing generic theme of the reverse of action,(of what appears to be the scenes of a murder) is effective as it is imprinting action into people's memory. Following on from this, more close-up shots of a camera,blood and a bullet are shown. The use of close up shots on these objects empathises and makes it clear to the audience that the objects may have significance and importance, leading the audience to want to know the answers, therefore drawing the audience to watch more.

Becky.

Today we started the preliminary exercise. The exercise is going to be the first piece of filming we do as a group. It is a simple conversation between 2 people in a room.  The point of this exercise is to show the examiner that we can use basic skills to create a short film. When we create our thriller video later on this year the examiner will be able to look back and see how much we have improved.  

In order to get familiar with the camera we had 30 minutes in our group to take the camera away and experiment with the different shot types and settings on the camera. During this time we made a short extract of a tv presenting type show. We enjoyed this exercise because we got to know the camera better. We also liked the idea of the whole presenting thing so we took into account that we could actually do that scenario for our preliminary exercise.

Group.

Welcome

Hi!  There is 2 of us in the group, Becky Puddick and Luke Absolon. Becky has not had any previous experience in media, However Luke did GCSE media & a BTEC in media. Gaining a  B at GCSE and 2 A's in BTEC. The course taught you how to create and edit film trailers and gave an insight into the different film genres. This is our 1st group blog entry since starting the course. This blog will allow us to keep an ongoing record of research on thrillers,  and how we are progressing on the course.

Luke and Becky.