The Missing Analysis

I really feel that this is a good clip to look at to see how to use different techniques and how to use them  effectively.I think that this is so good that just from looking at the clip u can tell what the series is about without the music included although it is very effective and works well with the clip ,the thing in  particular that I like with this clip is that it starts off with a bang portraying that something has already happened or is taking place at that current moment. The first thing we hear is that " we pray each day may you come home and be okay" so here already we know that somebody has gone missing . The sounds in the background of the woman singing are different to say the least but this is done to create tension and at the music ends with a ringing noise maybe signifying the child and its parents are being separated further and further as the journey goes on.

Throughout the clip we see a lot of hints at what may have happened to this child as we see a few different locations such as the woods, swimming pool busy city houses these places are where possibly the child went missing or maybe where they were taken to once missing. The driving around pf the car shows the parents searching for the missing child and u see a clip of a  teddy in the back of 

the car giving slight memories of the child for the parents. 

 One thing that I noticed that I liked in particular was how most of the shots referred back to the missing child there were a lot of low angle shots and these shots were effective in this case as it is done to almost show it from a child's point of view of how the child would have seen it 

Thriller Music Analysis

To have a  successful and effective thriller your music must be good and link to the genre and this is something that can make all the differences in a good thriller film and a great thriller film. below is a clip of some typical thriller music and then I am going to give an analysis on thriller music and how  it has an effect on thriller films.

As for most music is thriller films it starts off quite slow paced and often quiet this is a good way for the producers/ film makers to build up tension within  the piece and to give it that sort of feeling for the audience that something is about to happen and when the music begins to get louder ( sometimes the pace will get quicker) then at this point in the thriller something has happened to the main character or the music will key in reflecting back to the genre .

I have an example of thriller music withing a film and here is the youtube clip for it :

In this clip at the start there is no sound then the music slowly starts to  come into the clip slowly and quietly as the story line is unfolding and you see the change in the music as it hits the peak ( 2:01) just as the lady jumps off the window ledge from up high , its almost  as if the music changes as the situation changes the more dramatic is becomes in the clip the louder the music becomes and the pace of it quickens. the music starts slowing down as all the memories come back  of this women and this was good as it builds up more of an emotional  feel to it .

Typography Analysis

Typography is such a simple editing technique and has to be  eye catching always this is to enable it to stand out from all that is happening in the background , the best way to do this is to incorporate it into the background in a way that the audience will focus primarily on the typography and this can be done through using bold colours or fonts  that also can link to the genre of the movie or by creating a contrast between the titles and the background so the titles become clear to the audience.

 Above is the  title sequence for zombieland  and this is a great example for effective typography and has all the qualities mentioned above from the start the titles are clear ass there are shown in red and this isn't just so the audience an identify the titles but it done purposely to link to the film itself, there are two different font colours  red and white , the red font symbolizes the danger and the blood that the zombies bring in the film and this also gives an insight towards the genre of the film . the white titles are to signify the innocent people are scrambling away for their lives this could also be said that this is why the rules on how to survive are titled in white helping the people survive from the zombies.

In order to make the titling effective  the editing of the typography was made to look like it was part of the scene and an example of this is the picture above the typography stands out enough but not to much that it looks out of place so it being editing to be made like it is part of the scene is very clever and creative.

 Another thing I noticed in terms of the editing of the typography was that the titles would shatter as an innocent person interfered with it , I felt that this was very effective as it portrayed to the audience how much of an affect the zombies had on these people and all the chaos that the zombies are/have been creating.

Location Analysis

The opening scene for my thriller film will be set in a house this is going to be done because we are going to introduce to the audience what the main character is like that he enjoys playing with hiss brother and getting out with his friends and it gives it that mysterious feel with the audience not knowing what may happen it also gives the audience a little taster of his lifestyle on a day-to-day basis. We also chose this as it is part of the storyline where he gets an unexpected text from his friend asking him if he wants to go and play some football. Filming this character in his house gives you a real insight in to what this person is like you can tell he is a chilled and humble character which again builds it up for when the problem occurs later on., with us using the house as a location it was also a good opportunity to use match on action when filming to show his journey when leaving the house .It will also be located in a park with a few shots and on a long road at when it is dark and a short alley way and these are great as these are things represented with thriller films and a good way of alerting the audience that something is going to happen at this point.
 when filmed in the house the lighting will be light as the lights will be on in the rooms and the scene in the park will also be filmed during the day and this will be done to give it that realistic feel to it..

It will be set in a park like the picture shown above and as a group we felt it would be good to set a scene in a park as it would be a good way of building up tension as it will be empty and with the main character being in the park by themselves it will give a slight hint to  the audience that something may begin to happen. However although we wanted to locate our piece in a park we also wanted to do this at night because we know that it'll give it that edgy feeling and there will be a good chance to show some watching shots and it would be more effective at  night as oppose to in the daylight .

Thriller Moodboard

Thriller moodboard from danz97


On this thriller moodboard are photos that are from the thriller genre , all of the pictures above on the moodboard link to the thriller genre in one way of or another. Most of the pictures seen are in a dark scenery the background is dark and this here suggests thriller because it is all about the building up of tension in thriller films.

One thriller convention is an dark alley and as you can see I have included a dark alley as one of my pictures and this was put here to show that there is danger coming up as dark alleys in films tend to suggest something is about to happen.

I also added words that are associated with the thriller genre and I thought that I would do this because these are also key things which make up the thriller genre with all the other conventions and I also think that these three words are the main things in creating a thriller. within a thriller film you will always come to a point where the main character is in some sort of danger , there are always moments of suspense that has you on your toes which is why I included the word suspense. The final word is plot twist and this is what makes up a thriller when there are many twists in the plot it seems as if it is going one way then there is a complete twist in the plot hence why the word plot twist is written on the moodboard.

True Detective Analysis

Whilst watching the opening scene of 'True Detective' I picked up that in terms of lighting it was mostly bright throughout the whole piece. Although I thought he editing was very good , the typography was well placed and the use of double layers was very effective as well.

There was a lot of black and white and this gave it a depressing feel , there is one image shown which has 3 images  in one ( triple layered ) with a house a power station and a girl and it is almost as if the girl is sort of watching over the house but the house doesn't look like a nice place to live in linking back to the depressing feeling idea.

The image of the man half black and half white who we think it a detective , we find this an interesting image as it suggests  to us that his true identity hasn't been revealed that there is still a lot that needs to be found out about this character and whether he is actually a true detective or not relating back to the title of the film. Another thing is that there is a contrast between black and white linking to the contrast with good and evil o the half white and black could signify  him  having both a good side to him and an evil side

There is another picture whereby we see another double layer but the main layer is an eye and we see another picture within this eye and this is telling us a story from this persons perspective and what they were thinking this was important as it gave us another idea and made us think differently as oppose to some of the other shots. 

At the end of the title sequence there is a crucial long shot of the two cops just standing as if they are watching over the city looking like they are in control where in actual fact their are not in control, however the long shot is effective as it makes the cops look more powerful which is the intention in this case they look more powerful because the area that they are watching over looks much bigger because it is a zoomed out shot .

Character Profile (old)

One of the characters in my thriller opening will be the an ex police officer who has gone crazy and out of control for which reason nobody knows and to get the best out of this character in terms of image we think that this guy is going to have rough hair and  a rough beard this can show signs of his lack of control and will make him looking crazy more believable to the audience.
 I also thought that he would wear a red piece of clothing what piece of clothing that is hasn't been decided yet an the reasoning for this is that the colour red symbolizes danger so we are trying to reach to the audience and signal to them that he is the one who is carrying the threat the one who is causing danger  below is just some example of red pieces of clothing.

I also felt that him wearing some clothes whether it be a jacket or shirt but i thought that it could be ripped up , this showing the audience just how crazy he is and making them think what has been done for his clothes to look like that and what may happen next from this character.

This character is quite reserved and likes to keep himself to himself ( a man of few words) but that can quickly change and so can his attitude and actions he will be very short tempered and anything can flip his mood , along with the red piece of clothing worn by him the fiery attitude will also be a sign of  how dangerous he can be.

I also thought that this character may wear a straight jacket the significance of this is to show the real dangers of this character and show to the audience just how dangerous he actually is



Barthes Code Analysis with examples

One of the two codes is called the 'Hermeneutic code' also known as the enigma code is the unanswered questions within a story , the unanswered questions that the audience want answered in a film . The other code is the 'Proairetic code ' and this code is the action that suggests further action/reaction this is also known as the action code.

One of the examples looked at was the film minority report and the examples of the hermeneutic code in this are questions such as where are they, why were they there, why was their a man hiding in the bath tub what's happening and why and sorts of things like that there were many answered questions within this piece and this was good for drawing in the audiences attentions. The examples of the proairetic code was the when the bubble rises up the water and makes a popping type sound and this was a good example as it was a action that caused another reaction which was the spiders had turned around and come back through under the door and this was another action and an example of the action code which in then caused a further piece of action which was the spider scanning the mans face.

A second example that was looked at was I am legend the questions that the audience wanted answered ( examples of hermeneutic code) are why is the city so deserted , what is/has happened , why is he the only human that we can see and why are all the cars packed up like this. The proairetic code comes where he is driving after the animals and where he has his gun out about to shoot. The action code is important as it is what would intrigue the audience to watch the rest of the movie so the Barthes codes are important .

Thriller Opening Treatment

From the beginning of the thriller opening the music we chose to  use would be playing to build tension from the start and we will see the character who has gone crazy walking to this dark room in the police station we will do this using match on action showing him on his way to the questioning room this will make the audience think what is going on and what has happened. The only thing the audience will hear is the music and possibly the footsteps of the main character emphasizing how isolated the area is , there will be a lot of match on action until he gets into a room where he will be met by the investigator, as he enters the room it is going to be dark and stay blacked out for a bit then a bright light coming from the corner will be flashed upon his face almost blurring out his face so the audience cannot see him until both characters arrive in at the same time the bright light shone on the character then makes him the focal point, the investigator will then walk into the room shortly after the  main character  he is looking around to see his surroundings and looks lost and at unease. As the questions are being fired towards him he starts to become more and more impatient to the point where he is almost about to flip out and cause havoc.

From the beginning until the main character reaches this dark  room we will not see this guys face we will see parts maybe such as a beard or like an extreme close up of an ear or eye this will be done so that it keeps the audience guessing to what this character may look like. We will use an over the shoulder shot at the beginning where he is on his way to the room where by he is being questioned this we be crucial in showing everything from  his perspective further making the audience question what is unfolding.

The main character flips out and it gets down to the point where  he pulls out a knife threatening the investigator as things are starting to get the better of him. By the end he starts having flashbacks to what happened to him and what got him  into  this state after some threating there will be a blackout and the opening will end there and all you will hear is alarms going off with red lights flashing

As the opening progresses you will realize that red lighting or just the colour red in general starts appearing more and more often this is because they colour red can symbolizes love and danger and in this situation danger is symbolization from which is been shown through the colour red

Difference between Horror and Thriller Films

There are many people who don't really think there is a difference between " horror" and " thriller" films but in actual fact there is .

The big difference  between the two is that with horror films you tend to see more blood and more gore these are the movies that are out there to try and scare the audience and get you thinking what is going to pop out at around the next corner what will happen at the end of the movie . Also within horror films you will find that there will be at least one chase scene to  this would be done to build the tension.








Here is an example of a horror film " Fright Flick and cut" just by looking at the front cover of this film you can already tell that this is more of a horror as oppose to a thriller with the amount of blood there is and you can see the characters face already bleeding and cut and there is also a use of a convention of a horror film and that being the knife .Also how the word "Flick" has been written this some good typography because it is written out as if it was drawn with blood  and blood is one of the main things that feature in horror films one of the main associations.

Here  is another interesting front cover as we see  all the blood and gore all over again but this time we only see the knife and a hand so already just been looking at the front cover it gets you scared thinking what has happened and how that it get to that stage. 

Thriller films these are the more action packed story line that look t create suspense rather than to  try and  scare you , it provides a sudden rush of emotions , excitement an exhilaration that drives the narrative it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats  with the sensation of hanging off a cliff as the plot builds towards a climax. Thrillers tend to use literary devices such as plot twists and cliff-hangers. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot whereby he or she prevents obstacles that the protagonist  must overcome

"Unknown" this is an example of a thriller film this is full of plot twists and action the sort to keep you on the edge of your seat not for the wrong reasons ( being scared) but to make you want to know what is going on and what is going to happen next. the title " unknown "that in it own could suggest to you that this is a thriller film because it is all about solving a mystery and as said before a thriller is more story line based.

Dexter Morning Routine Analysis

Dexter is a man who is a serial killer but only kills people who have committed bad crimes or have done something bad and he never gets caught doing so. Although he is a killer and people normally dislike them sort of characters but Dexter is a very like-able character which is weird for a character that is a killer

 The first thing I noticed was the mysterious sounding music and it went on throughout the whole title sequence and matched the thriller/horror genre as it was quite creepy music. The music plays a major part in this because it gets louder(crescendo) as it goes on as if something bad is going to happen  but it doesn't so it does a good job of building up tension

At the beginning the font 'DEXTER' looks and is written as if it were written in blood and we know that he is a serial killer  the bloody font links him to be a killer and suggests the genre which is a thriller .have the font written in blood is effective because blood is associated with death and killing so the typography links to what he does because he draws blood from his victims.


Because we know that Dexter is a serial killer I think that it is great how they make all his daily routines look sinister but they turn out to be just normal things and what helps this are the extreme close ups they are very effective and make the sinister routines look otherwise. There are 3 examples showing these effective close ups one of them being when he is tying his shoe laces  it is made out to look like he is inflecting pain on someone.

The second example is with him when he is eating ham it looks like he is eating someone's flesh but we find out that he is just eating his breakfast , at this point we start to see a  pattern developing in which he is just going through his morning routine.




The third and final example is where he is putting on his t-shirt over his head this seems like he is suffocating someone but we see that he is just getting dressed for whatever he is doing. this is an good example as it as shows how such a basic routine or action that is daily done can be made to look so sinister.

At the end of the title sequence we see Dexter with a grin on his face after the morning routine is over and he then just walks off this grin could be a symbol of the evil side he has to him but we also know that he is a very likeable character  

 

Thriller conventions

A convention in term of media is a object or item that is associated with a type  of genre or just things in general that are associated with a genre for example in a romantic film you will see flowers chocolates just to name a few so below you will see some thriller conventions.

Some conventions of thriller films could be knives, masks, fake blood, dark lighting, dark alleys set in cities common locations.

Knives these are one of the main things that you see appear in a lot of thriller films sometimes you just see them with blood on it and that creates the mystery  these are the sort of props that keep the audience on the edge of their seats and this what thrillers are all about.

Masks are another convention of thriller films these are what cause the thrills sometimes because the tension is been built up and when u get the people jumping out with mask it gives you that thrill and it is a good way of making you think who is under the mask and why they are wearing the mask.

You also  find a lot of dark lighting and dark alleys in thrillers and this is done to again build up the tension and these are always good in creating plot twists because you think something bad is going to happen through a dark alley but nothing happens then the thrill comes.

 

 

 

 

There is also a high emphasis on the location this sets the scene  and is important in knowing

whether there is a thriller or not because thriller are set in the same places most of the time you find them set in cities or a common location .

 

Another convention of thriller films are twists in the plot this keeps the audience guessing

keeping them intrigued and leaving them with questions that they want answered.

Seven Opening Scene Analysis

The first thing I observed whilst watching the title sequence of seven over again was the lighting and the first thing that I had realised was the dark lighting and I thought that it fitted the psychological thriller genre this is because the dark lighting makes you think what's happening why is lighting dark. Later on  we see that there is some bright lighting and this was the focal point drawing in the audiences attention , the rest of the shot had been excluded maintaining the mystery , intriguing the audience and raising questions  it made me think what wasn't being shown and why wasn't it being shown. Another thing noticed in terms of lighting was there were a lot of edited flickers throughout  the opening scene and I came to the conclusion that it suggested confusion not only in the eyes of the audience but confusion from the man in the opening scene.

I felt that the different camera angles were very effective , a shot in particular that was the extreme close up on the this came along when looking at the papers and the character in the scene and this meant that you  couldn't see the person or what was being written again linking back to how intriguing the title sequence is and it makes the viewers think and question things. Here is an example below of one of the close ups.

Editing was also took into consideration whilst watching the clip and typography was a big thing , the typography was hand written creating the sense of chaos in the way that it was layered out and where it was placed. I would describe the editing as fast paced as each image was not up for long enough it was hard to focus on a specific image as they kept changing very quickly this was also effective because it made you as the viewer want to know what is going on and why you cant see each image for longer than it was shown for . There are several examples to look at below to see the child like typography creating the confusion.

 There was a variety of sounds the pace and volume was increasing as the  title sequenced progressed which had then increased the intensity of the piece. Unusual noises in the background was a regular occurrence and this again represents how messed up this man is , the unusual noises could also relate back to the confusion of the character.