Friday, 21 December 2012

Third and Final Movie Spoiler Review

Fight Club


Fight club is a modern physiological thriller about an organisation created by Tyler Durden and the main character. In which we do not learn his name. Throughout the movie, the enigma code is "Who is Tyler Durden?".
The basic plot of Fight Club is that a man who suffers from Insomnia meets a man named Tyler Durden on a flight and he dramatically influences and changes his life. The main character decides not to care about anything except fighting in the club himself and Durden create. Fight club is an illegal meeting where grown men beat each other up. 
To quote the film; "You're not a real man until you've been in a fight".
Eventually, the members of fight club are so committed that they, under the influence of Tyler Durden, commit illegal anti-Governmental acts. Once the main character realises what is happening, he wants to stop Durden but he is no where to be found.
At the end of the movie, we discover that the main character is Tyler Durden and he is a schizophrenic man with alter egos.
The film in my opinion is engaging and very cleverly directed 





Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Level 3


This video is a level 3 in my opinion
The camera is held free hand
The acting is also not realistic.
It hasn't drawn me in.

A level 4



I would give this video a level 4.
It has a range of good camera shots and angles and an enigma code.







Thursday, 11 October 2012

Thriller Film Openings for Analysis

Shutter Island

Sub-Genre - Sci-fi/Crime thriller
Characters -  Police Marshals (High Aurthority)
Typical scene - Death or disappearance 
Location - On a boat, traveling to a remote area, different to usual thrillers
Linear- There was a flash back
Restricted
Who started the fire that killed his wife and four other people?
Why are they going to this Island?

Minority Report

Sub-genre - Crime thriller
Typical Scene - Technology/ Aliens
Characters - Murderer, Future Police
Location - In a house, In Future police station
Non Linear
Omniscient
Who were the people in the water? 
What were the balls that Tom Cruise was holding?

1Hr Photo

Sub-genre - crime thriller
Typical Scene - Death/murder scene
Characters - Criminal, police inspector
Linear
Restricted
What was on the photographs?


Donnie Darko

Sub-genre- Mystery thriller
Typical Scene -  Unanswered questions
Charaters - Boy, mysterious
Linear
Restricted
Who is this boy?

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

SE7EN movie spoiler 2

SE7EN is a crime thriller staring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman who both play police inspectors. Freeman plays an older inspector who is waiting to retire and Pitt is a rookie just starting out in New York for the first time. One of the first scenes in the movie is of a very obese man who is dead with his head in a spaghetti dinner. As the inspectors look closer, they can see that he has been tied up and has died from over eating. It becomes clear that his death was murder. Someone made him eat and eat over 2 days until his insides literally burst. Over the next seven days, horrible murders and acts of torture take place. On the third day, the inspectors find a man who had been tied to a bed for exactly one year. His rotting body is scared, full of bed sores and is frankly quite disgusting. It is found out that he ate his own tongue  due to starvation. As the week progresses and the fifth murder is uncovered, The killer (Kevin Spacey) turns himself in even with the Sins envy and Wrath incomplete. He says he will go to prison and do his time if The two inspectors go with him to where he wants to go. They agree because he could plead for insanity and get off on easier terms. The inspectors take the killer in the car to the location he wants and all he keeps saying was "today will be remembered" and "I'm so jealous of your life" ( directed to Brad Pitt's character). When they get to the location, a truck arrives with a package. Inside the package is the rookie's wife's head who was pregnant with his unborn child. As a result of her horrible death, Pitt shoots the killer in the head and is taken away to be arrested. 
Collage of SE7EN

Monday, 8 October 2012

End of M1 Review

Level 3
13/20?

I need to work more on my presentation skills. I need to turn large photos into collages to make it look neater and less cluttered. 
I need to go through every post and annotate.
I need to give more detailed comparisons.

Monday, 1 October 2012

Quiz

21-28 Impressive. You are thinking around elements we have discussed in class and have clearly been studying around the topic and applying your knowledge rather than just remembering. I'm expecting a good Thriller from you.
Now comment on your blog: Self evaluation
  • How many did you get?
  • Are you meeting the expectations of an A Level student by taking responsibility for your achievement/grades?
  • How much do you know - how effective has your note-taking in class?
  • What was the activity that stood out that helped you remember (watching student work, making the se7en edit, studying own film examples, or the mind map)?
  • How effective has your 3 hrs Independent Learning (H/W) been? 
  • How will you improve?




  •  25
  • I believe that I am. I try and maintain high marks by having consistent high marks. 
  • I know quite a few once I think about it
  • The SE7EN ReEdit really helped me! But so did Dexter and Lock Stock! I'm a doer
  • My independent learning has been effective as I have been watching Thriller movies to broaden my knowledge
  • I will improve by constantly being aware of thriller terminology and the aspects needed for a good one.

Thursday, 27 September 2012

Paranoia Practise Film


Evaluation of First Shoot

Task - To shoot nine shots successfully to create a short suspense film named "Paranoia"


Nicole's group:
  • Shot 1 (Lift shot) is white-balanced
  • Shot 2 (Looking Awkward scene)looks yellow. White balance has not been done.
  • Shot 3 (Balcony Scene) White balance is okay, low quality focus, poor brightness, looks like sillouettes
  • Shot 4 (Walking Shot) White Balance is good, bit too bright because of the background and window light.
  • Shot 5 (Zoomed in face) Everything looks pretty good. 


Finn's group:

  • Shot 1 (Holding bag) Everything seems pretty good
Difficult to evaluate as tape is corrupt
 

Wednesday, 26 September 2012

How Can You Tell If A Film is a Thriller From It's Intro?


How Can You Tell If A Film is a Thriller From It's Intro?
  • The Music - Music in thriller film introductions/titles are usually classical, orchestral pieces or tones that are in a low key.
  • The Lighting - The lighting in Thriller movies are almost always very dark and the signature colour is black.
  • The Font - The font in the titles is usually distorted or hard. They are certainly not the "bubbly" fonts such as Comic Sans MS.
  • The Shots - The actual clips in the titles are usually on screen for a short amount of time and change rapidly.

Inception Spoiler


Inception

The movie Inception is a psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and many other actors. The movie appears to be set in modern day times. The date of the movie isn’t given, but everything seems similar to the times of today except for one big difference, there is technology available which allows individuals to enter the mind and the dreams of people and influence their ideas subconsciously. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio’s character) is the con artist who enters people’s dreams. He, as well as his team are asked to manipulate the thoughts of a man named Robert Fischer because he has just inherited his father’s energy company and Saito (the man who has hired the team) wants to be in soul control of all the energy in the world. In order to place the idea into Robert’s mind, the team must enter his dream and then enter a dream inside a dream. This is called Inception. The further a person goes into inception the harder it is to wake up. If people go in too deep, they enter a state named Limbo. Once you reach this stage, it is almost impossible to wake up and the dream feels so much like reality that the mind stops trying to wake up and accepts what is now the “real world”. Cobb is an individual who was previously stuck in limbo. Him and his deceased wife were stuck there for (what felt like) years, until they aged and turned old together. Once they eventually left this state, his wife Mal could not believe they were in reality and kills herself (that is one way to wake up from a dream). Cobb had been accused of her death and had to flee America. His one wish is to go home and see his children.  Eventually, he does arrive home, or so we think. At the end of the movie, Cobb’s spinning top totem (which shows him if he is in a dream or not) is still spinning. We will never know if he’s in a dream or reality.  The film is a fantastic thriller as it involves dreams and the impossible, literally anything can happen. The music in the film is full of dark ominous tones which makes it seem incredibly dark.



Thriller Mood Board


SE7EN Title Edit


Match on Action


Thursday, 13 September 2012

Slates in "Se7en" - Intorductory Credits


Se7en Slates



 0.03 
 
0.07 

 
0.10
0.14 
  
0.18
0.24
  
 0.29

0.33 
 
0.38
 0.42
 0.46
0.53
0.56
1.04
1.11
1.16
1.21
1.24
1.25
1.34
1.39
1.43
1.50
1.54
1.58
2.04

Monday, 10 September 2012

Art of the Title


Titles of Seven Analysis


This is the first image is of the opening titles of the thriller SE7EN, it gives us the idea that the movie created world the audience is about to enter is dark and creepy.  The book seen gives the impression to the audience that the character is old fashioned.

Image 2: The font text is shown to be almost hand written and stencilled with a scruffy, scrawled type of writing this shows the character to be messy and abnormal. The fact this is in different fonts is quite unnerving to the audience.

Image 3: This photo shows an illustration of some hands which do not look quite right. They fingers look like they have been broken and the actual skin of the hand shows a lot of veins.

Image 4: This image is quite disturbing. It shows a man scraping skin off of his fingers with a razor blade. Normal people don't do this! This certainly gives an impression to the audience that something is not quite right with this character we've been introduced to.

Image 5: This is the main title of "Se7en". It doesn't appear straight away, it has an introduciton. The word itself flashes on and off and changes in sizes. It has different layers of text over each other. Just the word and the font is very unnerving.

Image 6: This photo shows how much writing this character has done. The double image also implies insanity. This is backed up with the actions that he has been doing in other slates.

Image 7: This Scene involves the character adding finishing touches to his journal that we have witnessed him (or her) creating. Photographs are being added.


Image 8: This photo is of the character binding the book together. His final touches to something he has spent a lot of time on mean that he will need a new hobby! This is unsettling and implies to the audience that something bad is going to happen.


Image 9: This final slate we have created is of a very disturbing image.. The image is of a man with a metal devise drilled into the back of his head. People usually wouldn't have this laying around where they live. It is a horrible image, which a man who is this arranged should not have!

Thursday, 6 September 2012

Thriller Analysis

What makes a good thriller movie?


Thriller is a movie genre that has been popular for a very long time and will continue to be. Thrillers can have different aspects in them but can still equally be engaging and addictive. I am an individual who is hooked to this genre. 
 
One of the first thrillers I will talk about is a film I have seen very recently called "V for Vendetta". This was a British film with twists and turns about what the Government could do if they have enough control. The movie has quite a lot of violent scenes in it but not too much blood for the injuries "V" causes. This movie is quite far fetched but this is actually a good thing. Rather then allowing the viewer to have to use their imagination, they can visualise it. This means they can not interpert the film incorrectly. This movie does have a message, a sort of warning about what could happen in our future. This is an interesting element to play on as it makes people be wary about the kind of world they are living in and what could happen, even in the near future.
 

 The movie Shutter Island has to be one of my favourite films. It's very complex and involves a lot of concentration. The movie is very creepy and has a certain fear factor to it, (though it is not a horror movie). The movie is about two police officers sent to "Shutter Island" to investigate the disappearance of a woman. The island itself is used for one thing only, and that is to harbour the criminally insane. The mysterious thing about the woman's disappearance is that it is impossible to escape. On the night of her disappearance, there was torrential rain and she was in bare feet. Her cell was locked and there is only one way off of the island. The movie is set in the 1960's and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo. From the minute the movie starts, it is gripping, especially as you learn the island only takes the most dangerous and damaged patients because there is no other hospital that can manage these people. From about 15 minutes into the movie, we can tell there is a conspiracy occurring. It appears that the doctors are experimenting on the patients and Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is going to "blow the roof off this place" but things don't quite turn out the way they are supposed to. With spooky flash backs and clever angle shots, this movie gives people the shivers. The music in this movie is possibly the most terrifying music I have ever heard.


 
 Eagle eye is a thriller staring Shia LaBeouf. When Jerry Shaw arrives home to find thousands of dollars worth of ammunition and bombs, he receives a phone call from an unknown number telling him that the FBI are on their way. As the story continues, it becomes apparent that the mysterious woman controlling everything is manipulating more then just one person. As the film progresses, viewers can't help but want to find out who this woman is and what does she want with all these people. The woman dominates their lives and sets them on a dangerous and life risking tasks. She does this by blackmailing the people. This movie has a lot of action scenes in it and a couple of nasty deaths.

These three movies are very popular and have many similarities and differences. In V for Vendetta and Eagle Eye, stunts and effects are what make the movie very addictive, where as in Shutter Island, it's a more physiological thriller. The movies all have a male lead who has to do something, whether it's find jusitice for a nation, or complete the tasks of a (spoiler alert) evil computer. The movies all have a wonderful soundtrack which plays a massive part in thrilling audiences. One thing I tend to find with most thrillers (excluding some, E.G. V for Vendetta), is that the endings are disappointing. This is because it is very difficult to sum up an adrenaline pumping movie with an interesting yet settling ending.

Still Photo Analysis

The photograph, we believe could be set in an urban place. The costumes that the people are wearing vary. The lady at the bottom left of the screen is a police officer. She appears to be wearing a black skirt/dress with a police hat and smart shoes. She appears to have an issue with the lady at the back. This lady is wearing shabby clothes and from first impressions seems like she has no money. The ladies body language implied that she is desperate and frantic as the man is taking her baby. The man is someone from social services taking away the woman's baby. The costumes imply that the social classes come into play and that is is set in the 1980's. We assume the lady is a bad mother and that she is trouble. The lady is outnumbered. We can tell because of the triangle position that the police woman and the man are on the same side. There is a separation and conflict, this is shown by the triangle composition. The police woman seems like she is protecting the man. We assume that she is a law biding woman.