What is a Thriller?

Our coursework is to make an opening sequence to a thriller, so it is very important to understand what thriller is.
Thriller is a genre and not only for films but also for literature. As for me, I am not a big fan of this genre as it always seemed too tensive to me. In fact thriller films should make the audience feel suspense, anticipation, anxiety.
Thriller has different sub-genres such as action, comedy, conspiracy, crime, erotic, horror, legal, political, psychological, spy, supernatural, techno. Moreover I would say that it is just the most popular according to Wikipedia, and you can find more of them online.
This genre is quite old and has its history. There are films from 1920s-1930s, the most famous and legendary are Alfred Hitchcock's films. Actually the peak of his career was in 1950-s after the thrillers "Vertigo", "Real Window" etc. However, I haven't seen any of his films yet, but I'm going to catch up with this soon.
As I have already mentioned I am not really into the thriller movies but I have seen some of them: "Black Swan" which is a psychological thriller, "Fight Club" I should say that I have even read the book, "Secret Window" which is also a psychological thriller, "Everest" this was too emotionally-hard for me, "Divergent" both parts and it is an action-thriller, "Before I Go To Sleep" which is a mystery thriller and actually I enjoyed it a lot, "Need For Speed" an action thriller,  "Deadpool" and some others. seen some of them:

Even that I am not so interested in movies of such genre, I like to watch different thriller TV series. For example "Supernatural", "Prison Break", "Breaking Bad", "The Walking Dead",  "Game Of Thrones", "Sherlock". I don't know why, but I prefer series even in this genre.
I think the reason why my list of films that I have seen is small because this genre is close to a horror, which I don't really enjoy either.

Prelim task video

Prelim Editing

On Thursday lesson we were editing our prelim shoot. All class was separated in pairs and i was together with Kate.
Firstly we have made a quick recap of what we have learned to do and then started to edit our own rushes.

To start with we decided to look over everything we had. We chose the best shots which we wanted to use and started to put them together according to storyboard. However in couple cases we decided not to follow storyboard. For example, on words "it's got to be done" "I can't wait for you" we replaced close up on over the shoulder shot to stay longer on Kate so the audience will feel more sympathy to her. Also we have replaced Miranda's close up with Kate's over the shoulder. We were also working hard with shot of closing door as we should cut it before my reflection with camera would be seen.
At the end we had to options to choose from: with shoot breaking 180 degree rule or without.

Account of Prelim Shoot

On that day we were going to shoot our story. Our group was finally together, so we explained everyone what we are going to do. We decided to shoot in one of the classrooms as we thought that such background will look very natural. However, later on, we understood that the lightening there is poor and very difficult to work with so it may look different in different shots. While our actresses were preparing and learning there lines, we were thinking how we are going to shoot.
Firstly, we decided to take the wide shot. I think, it was the most difficult one as the girls haven't learn theirs roles yet and didn't know how to behave. Hopefully, we were already familiar with the camera so we knew how to cope with it. On that moment we have all realized that "to keep everything simple" was a good idea because we didn't have to worry a lot how to express the idea and meaning of that scene. We had just one lesson, so we were a bit in a rush. When finally we made our wide shots, the work became easier as everybody already knew what to do.
We faced different problems like lightening, which I already have mentioned, keeping everything silent except the dialog, making people stay out of the shot (sometimes people were passing and it was seen in the window) and making sure that every shot is the same in action and there is nothing irrelative in the shot.
In my opinion, all the shots we have made were quite successful, especially for the first time. When we have finished, we even had an extra time. That's why we decided to take some extra shots which weren't in storyboard. In one of these shots we have crossed the 180 degree line. We knew, that it may look horrible, but we decided to try.  We even have submitted it with the teacher. The shot looked very nice as the perspective and width looked very interesting.
Anyway, this lesson was a good practice for all of us and it helped us to prepare for our coursework. Now I know what to expect from it and look forward to edit it.

Prelim task: planning and storyboard

On that lesson we were told that we are gong to make our own story, but it should follow the scenario:

It was quite banal, but still dramatic in a way.
We were divided into groups, but unfortunately half of my group was away and there were only two of us to decide what we are going to do. The fact that it wasn't the whole group, limited us in discussion. As a consequence, we decided to keep it simple and do not overload it with extra information. Our final idea was that the person is forced to go outside, but she can't. She is nervous and afraid of it. This idea may be not the most interesting one, but it gave us an opportunity to think more about the shooting process, rather then acting. We decided to make different shots of each character: close-ups, over-the-shoulders and the wide shot. To conclude, we made our own storyboard with all actions, sounds and shot-types to make it easier to explain our group what we are going to do.

First Edited Sequence

Here is our first edited sequence:

Intro to Editing

On the 29th of September we had our first attempt in editing. We took our shots from the lesson in studio and worked in a different groups to cut it and put everything together. This was a first time in my life when I was doing it, so I needed to remember and understand a lot of things.

Firstly, we have found all rushes that we have made that day. We decided which of them we are going to use and then we we taught the basics of editing. We were using the program called Premiere Pro CC. In my opinion it is not too complicated, so I managed to understand how it works. We were using different tools like trim handles , selective tool which is on V on the keyboard to switch any tool to a mouse, a blade tool or razor which is on C on the keyboard to cut the rushes etc. Also we were told that it is better to cut shots in a movement as it will look more natural and it actually works. Overall, we tried our best so hopefully our first attempt wasn't that bad.

Dead Man's Opening

This is an opening scene of a British thriller "Dead Man's Shoes". This scene gives us some first clues and suggestions about what the film is going to be about through editing, camera, sound and mise on scene.
Mise en scene is a French word which means 'put into the scene' or 'everything in the frame'. It encompasses the most recognized attributes of a film-the setting, actors, make-up, props and all the other natural and artificial details that characterize the spaces filmed.


At the beginning of the video, there is a screen with a little black filtering which shows us this is an old shots from about 1970 or 80 and all the color that used in this scene suggests the different time period.

When they were kids they used to smile and laugh all the time. However when they grew up, they have become more serious, they don't smile or even talk to each other, which may suggest that something happened between them.

The difference in how they behave in the past and present make the audience be sorry for them and their relationships as we see how they were close to each other in childhood. Also it creates an interest as we want to know what has happened between these characters.



This scene shows two men walking in the countryside and this is the main setting in this video. It looks like a peaceful and beautiful painting. They use depth of field to show that they are far away from us and they need to walk for a long time. We cannot see their faces clearly so audience will build interest to see who are they and how do they look like.

The colors in flashbacks are warm and bright so it gives us feeling that their childhood was nice and happy, when the colors in their present are much more darker, which creates a feeling of sadness and hopelessness. The use of lightening helps to build an atmosphere of the film and the mood of the brothers.





The narrative implies us that they are brothers because they grown up together, always play with each other, and have the same family; also they always were together through many important celebrations like Christmas.

This is the fading process from the walking scene to their childhood. The whole process for fading has a long time duration (shown on pictures). This is because production wanted us to notice it as it is the main thing which helps us to understand that they are brothers and these are theirs memories. Also they use cross-cutting a lot in the whole opening which suggest the idea of memories for their past and action in character mind as well.

Moreover, when they were children they have been surrounded by family and friends, but now they are lonely and haven't got any support. These two scenes create the binary opposition between the atmosphere of their past and present.

This scene shows the brothers closer and now we can see them better. Looking on them closer, the man in the front should be the elder brother as he leads the way. We can suggest that he is a military because of how he walks and carries his bag. However he wears casual clothes which means he is not working now and italics quite old-fashioned. The second brother wears more sporty clothes. His movements are much more simpler (e.g. he has his hands in pockets). Even the cloths of the characters shows us that they are different.

This is the ending of the video. In here it nearly go to the ending and they nearly arrive their destination as the shot is side shot and they are moving toward the house and away from us which is showing their destination is that house stereotypically. If you think through the whole narrative, I think that house is their home, they assume to go home. Actually this is a warming ending as everyone will want to go back to their home. This might solve the question that where they going, this ending tell us their destination, but audiences will still have the question that why they are going to there and what happen between them, so these are the key question for audiences to find out in the film and help them to build interest to watch the film and solve the questions.



The editing of the opening title sequence was done very smoothly. This helped us understand the genre and we felt involved into the movie straight away.

We felt the connection between the different scenes because of the brilliant editing. The edits were done on movement of the something in the scene and this made the movie flow and it helped us to connect everything together. This is actually a rule that we learnt about edits, all edits have to be done when something in the scene is moving. We even had an editing practical lesson where we learnt how to edit smoothly and we will blog on this lesson later on.

One other thing which helped us connect different scenes together was fading, one scene faded into the next one and this made us understand that the scenes are massively related to each other.

There were also a bunch of effects used which helped us understand the timing of the different parts in the movie. For example, the flashbacks had colour changes and effects on the screen which helped us recognise that the baby scenes were shot a long time ago.

At the end there was a fading into a black screen which helped us understand that the opening title sequence has finished.

This is the fading process from the walking scene to their childhood. The whole process for fading has a long time duration (shown on pictures). This is because production wanted us to notice it as it is the main thing which helps us to understand that they are brothers and these are theirs memories. Also they use cross-cutting a lot in the whole opening which suggest the idea of memories for their past and action in character mind as well.

Camera

Firstly, we have some shots from the past which are shaky. They seem to be taken by someone in the family, but when we see present shots they are more stable, professional and more from the side, so we don’t think that there is anybody except them.

Most of the shots when they are walking are over-the-shoulder so it creates an intrigue and tense.

The bits from the past look very natural for that kind of film as a lot of work is needed to take them. So we may assume that they are true tapes from someone’s family.

When two brothers are walking in the present we can see that the depth of the field is very deep. This gives us an opportunity to see the background and where are they walking.

However, the shots from the past are close up, so we see their emotions, how happy they are.

Through all the journey the direction in which they are walking creates a feeling that they are returning, probably home.

Most of the shots are wide, so we see both brothers even if they are far apart from each other.

The sound throughout the first scene is all non-diegetic music which carries on till the end of the opening sequence. Even in the flashbacks and different shots the music stays the same.
The music gives a happy but also unsure mood in the scene. As it flashes back in and out of the two characters’ childhood, the country sounding music makes the journey of the brothers seem long, boring and never-ending.

Also the lyrics of the song have an impact. The lyric "on the run" is repeated many times during the song. Not only does this give a slow and long effect on the scene but tells us that these two brothers are on a journey and perhaps running away from something.

At one point in the scene the music in the song goes from slow and sad to happy and jumpy. Just as this is happening the shot changes from the boys walking to a video of them with there family when they are younger. This shows that there past is probably much happier than their present and that there have been big changes.

The fact that there is no sound from any of the characters during this opening is odd as well. The two brothers don't speak which is weird considering how long the walk is that there going on. I think this might be a sign that something is wrong between them.