Title Sequences

On this post I will be writing about title openings of Thrillers.
We will be looking at the Idents such as:

MGM, Pixar, Paramount, Dreamwork, Colombia,
20th century, Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers, Disney.

And then we will see the way the movie titles start as shown below but it doesnt mean they always follow the order.

Walt Disney

1-Product company


2-Directors name

Universal .

3-Main stars


4-Title of the movie


5-Other major casts

20th Century Fox

6-Sounds, editing, script, make-up etc...


7-Producer


8-Director

I will be looking at other examples and looking at order of their opening sequence.

'Se7en'

Production company / Ident
Film by (David Fincher)
Main stars
Title
Other cast members
Sound, Editing, Make-up, Costume, Lightning etc...
Producers
Director

'Panic room'

Production company / Ident
Main actors
Title
Other cast members
Costumes, Sound, Make-up, Editing etc..
Producer
Director  (David Fincher)

'Godzilla'

Production company / Ident
Directed by (Gareth Edwards)
Main stars
Other cast members
Costumes, Lightning, Make-up, Sound etc...
Director
Title

Past Student / Thriller

On this post i will be judging 3 past students short films. The rating numbers are:

1 - Poor
2 - Basic
3 - Good
4 - Excellent



The Routine-
The story line to 'The Routine' made perfect sense to me. The camera shots they used were good as for example the camera placed on the floor to see his feet when he woke up every morning & the time when we see the victim drop on the floor, they both show the body language of the victim and show what he is doing and what is happening with him. The sound at the beginning suits his daily routine, and when everything starts to change the music stops and we only hear drum beats when something bad happens which makes it more dramatic for the viewers. They have used the props properly and carefully to make everything seem real.






The hunter -
I rated this a 4 because they had a good use of camera,props and sound. They had lots of different camera shots which made it interesting to watch and when the PE teacher hits the detective with a baseball bat the the camera was in front of the detective so we didn't exactly see the hit but the way the camera was positioned made us believe he really did get hurt. The sound was suitable on most of the shot that they used sound in which made it more interesting to watch.




Power cut -
Power cut was a short film that was shot on the last minutes which from my point of view is an example for the other students doing their films of what to not do while shooting.
The film is in black & white which is not necessary as it has nothing to do with olden days or anything that the colour black & white should be used.
Camera was unsteady in some shots, sound was used appropriately with the high and low volume which put the audience in suspense. As a overall the story line didn't make sense to me as a viewer so for that I gave it a 1.

North by Northwest Review

North by Northwest is a Thriller film that was made in 1959. The film is about Roger O. Thornhill having a normal life and all of a sudden being mistaken for someone else in a restaurant. This all lasts for a while but it all ends with Roger O. Thornhill saving the day.
This film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Ernest Lehman.
The main actors in the film are:

Cary Grant as Roger O. Thornhill,
Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall,
James Mason as Phillip Vandamm.

North by Northwest fits the Thriller Genre because it has a Hero that doesn't need any props to save his life or other peoples lives and a Villain that has all the props needed but yet doesn't win. We notice that we have both Hero and Villain from the beginning of the film.
There are 'Fast pacing, Red herrings, Cliffhangers,' and other thriller conventions which make North by Northwest fit in the Thriller genre.
These are some of the Thriller conventions that show how North by Northwest fits in as a Thriller film:

Fast pacing which is used appropriately in scenes that it needs to be used in, this heightens the tension.

Red herring is used in the cafe where Eve pretends to shoot Mr O. Thornhill and he falls down and gets send away by the ambulance.

We then see a Cliffhanger when Eve falls of the cliff which makes us the audience think that she fell something has happened to her but yet we don't know if she is dead or what happened to her until we are shown.

North by Northwest applies to Todorov's Narrative Theory as it follows the narrative patterns as shown:

1- Equilibrium
North by Northwest contains Todorov’s theory of equilibrium where the beginning sequence seems to a classic example of an everyday scene.The character carries out his day to day routine where at this point it gives the audience an initial equilibrium.

2- Disruption
The crime then occurs as kidnapping takes place with the wrong person, and of course this is the mistaken identity of Rodger Thornhill, the protagonist of the film.
An untimely coincidence of Rodger O. Thornhill raising his hand for a waiter caused the two men of Phillip Vandamme’s gang to mistakenly think that he was George Kaplin, a federal agent.Upon this misunderstanding, Thornhill is kidnapped and is taken to Townsend to Phillip Vandamm’s house.

3- Recognition
After Vandamm labels Thornhill as Mr. Kaplan, Thornhill is confused as to why they think he is Mr.Kaplan. This enigma code is created, which lasts throughout the whole film as the audience question, ‘Who is George Kaplan?’, and ‘Where is he?’ This makes Thornhill realize that something has gone wrong but that they do not know.

4- Attempt to repair
Thornhill tried to fix this by trying to call the police and get Vandamm and his team caught. They didn't believe him as he is all over the news as a killer.

5- a return of new equilibrium
It is later revealed that there is no George Kaplan, and this may lead the audience to ask further questions for example, ‘If Kaplan isn't real, then why did they think Thornhill was Kaplan?’
That is where everything gets to an end and it all goes back to normal and Roger O. Thornhill and Eve Kendall get together.

Mise-en-Scene

On this post I will be writing about 'Mise-en-scene' which is the French meaning of " Everything in the scene of frame".

The five elements of the Mise-en-scene are:

Setting and Props
Settings and Locations have an important part in the film making, Setting can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then taking a different turn.

Costume, Hair and Make-up
Costume, Hair and Make-up lets us understand what time the film was made eg; present days, society or culture.

Facial expressions and body language

- lighting and colour
- positioning of characters and objects in the frame.

Colour works on the subconscious mind to create mood.
For example in the movie 'We need to talk about Kevin' we see the colour red a lot. This shows us the whole way through that there will be death even that we do not see anyone die or any blood but we hear that he has killed so many people and the colour red has been representing that the whole way through the movie.

Denotation - the literal description of n idea, concept or object
Connotation - what we associate with a particular idea, concept or object

Positioning of Characters and Objects within a frame

Objects and Character can be in the foreground middle - ground or background. This can emphasise the relative importance of the object or character.

Deep focus

Where both foreground and background are in focus. This enables the audience to choose where to look.

Editing

Editing is the process of looking at the footage shot during the making of a film / TV programme and placing it in the desired order and joining it together.

Speed of editing -

In a film each scene may last a matter of seconds, or it could continue a for minutes but the length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along.

The speed of editing will help to determine the mood of what is taking place on scene.

Style of editing - 

How shots are linked together. The movement from one shot to the next is called a transition.

Straight cut-

Most common and invisible form of transition. One shot moves instantaneously to the next without the audience noticing. Straight cuts help retain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Dissolve-

Fading one shot while another shot is fading in. The audience will be able to see both short on the screen at the mid-point of the dissolve.

Fades-

A gradual darkening or lightning of an image until it becomes black or white one shot will fade until only black or white screen can be seen.

Wipes-

One image is pushed odd the screen by another, images can be pushed left or right. Used for a sense of time using forward.

Jump cut-

The audiences attention is brought into focus on something very suddenly. This occurs by breaking the continuity editing, this is known as discontinuity. It appears as if the section of the sequence has been removed.

Graphic Match -

The film maker can chase to place shots in a certain order so as to create a smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next.
Two consultive shots are matched in terms of the way they look, this is called a graphic match.

Continuity editing-

A sense of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward.
May use flash backs / forwards but the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way.

Eye-line match-

We see a character looking at something off screen and then we see what they are looking at.

Match-on-action-

We see a character start an action in the first shot and then we see them continue that in the next shot.

180 degree rule-

A guideline that states that two characters in the same scene showed always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, this is called crossing the line.

Shot/Reverse shot-

Used to show a conversation / argument between two characters by showing their faces continuously.

Preliminary Exercise: Detention

In this extract we were trying to show how some students do not have respect towards the teachers or their peers. For example in this extract, the student is in a detention class and while the teacher reads the reasons why she is in detention for, she gets angry at the teacher and leaves the classroom. While she's walking down the corridor she bumps into a innocent student on purpose which shows how she doesn't care about anyone, even the innocent people that have nothing to do with the situation going on.
We didn't include all of the listed techniques because we didnt have a proper conversation so there was no way of using a 'Shot, Reverse Shot' but we did use the rest of the listed techniques.

In our extract we created an 'Eye line Match' which was shown at the beginning where the camera is looking at the teacher which lets the audience see what she was looking at and then we get a second shot, which is a point of view of what the teacher is actually looking at.

 A 'Graphic Match' was used where we see the clock then we see the watch on the students hand. this is used to show how time passes and that she has been there for some time.

We then created a 'Match on Action' of the student walking out of the classroom. we first see her walking out from the inside of the classroom and the next shoot is from outside of the classroom of her coming out.

The '180 Degree' rule was used all the time while we filmed inside the classroom. We used all the techniques accurately but at some point of the extract, while we were filming we went across the '180 Degree' rule but that was fixed on the computer when we edit it.

As a overall I think we did well and I like the 'Graphic Match' we did with the clock and watch which went perfectly well with the story we were doing, I liked the 'Match on Action' of the student walking out of the class and the way she walked out made her seem careless and rude. For next time I think we should have more ideas and make it longer than this, other than that, everything else is great.