Thriller Research Casino Royale

- digits sounds of car
- white lighting
- non-digetic hum pitch
- shot reverse shot in elevator
- low angle establishing shot
- camera is hidden - point of view (?)
- reactions shots creating more of an intense atmosphere
- music increases in action/fight scene
- foley sound of walking (pitch and volume increased)
- very high contrast lighting in flashbacks
- this contrasts to shots of their conversation
- black and white opening (could suggest that it was int he past and creates greater contrast between light and dark)
- makes you want to know what happens (mysterious)
- the opening gives you what you want from a bond film - successful
- divided sequence (crosscutting)
- music is only noticeable through the flashbacks
- key lighting for side angle (film noir type feel)

Thriller Definition

Thriller definition

-      -  exciting plot

-      - thriller films are films that primarily use action and suspense to engage the audience

-       - they emphasise nervous tension and anxiety

-       - distinct from horror and action movies although can give links to these types of genres

-       - often involve topics such as crime (small scale fraud or a bank jobs etc.)

-       - disaster movies (?)

-       - includes something which is dangerous and creating suspense

-       - Hitchcock: thriller means that they can put ‘the common man’ into the protagonists position

-       - hybrid genre (?) – suggestion

      http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html

Thriller Research Manhattan

Manhattan 

• multiple number of still establishing shots 

• trumpet like soundtrack overlapping all of the shots, staying on the same tune through out 

• dialogue then fades over the still shots 

• contrapuntal sound

• more movement is developed through out each still shot 

• using an open shot on the people 

• mid way through the opening the music increases dramatically 

• carries on again with high establishing shots 

Thriller Research Now You See Me

Now You See Me 

• shot reverse shot in the first edits 
• key lighting coming from a strong side angle 
• filler lighting on the pack of cards 
• sound track is faint in the background 
• fast music 
• all straight shots
• mainly slow speed editing 
• tilt upwards to the building 
• music increases in volume (parallel sound)
• only light shown is the building, shot at night (mysterious)
• high pan of the building showing its hight
• straight cut to the eyes of Woody 
• dramatic light change
• music cuts quiet as the edit changes 
• Woody always staying in shot, the person we focus on 
• key lighting is coming from the same place as when Jesse is filmed 
• helps tie them together 
• closed frame on Jesse then on Woody 
• as Woody guesses the first name of a women it matches with multiple close ups of the mans face 
• creating intensity 
• edits slow down as he guesses it 
• soundtrack stops until the next scene with an establishing shot of the river 
• more obvious hand held filming, showing more about his character
• long edits 
• uses natural top lighting from the sun 
• loud atmospheric sound of the boat and talking 
• suddenly around three short closeup frames of Jack Wilder as his trick was worked out 
• some point of view shots of the audience 
• cuts then from a really light scene to a dark club like setting 
• key light is under the water from below 
• spot light on Isla 
• mainly the sound of the crowd is heard 
• using open shots of the crowd meaning that you do not focus on one person apart form her 
• the music increases in volume as the crowd got quiet 
• fairly high speed editing towards the end 
• through out the opening it is all crosscutting as they all have something in common, telling us that they will meet 

Thriller Research Collateral

Collateral
(editing notes)
Dreamworks
- long edits
- focus only on him - main character
- cross cut before they meet
- eyeline match
- pictures to tell the story - no dialogue allowing the audience to 'write' in the missing/unknown
- soviet montage
- point of view/over the shoulder shot with Cruise
- fast edits
- tilt
- long shot of talking
- hand held filming in the cab

What the opening achieved:
- mystery - enigma to draw in the audience
- establishes characters
- Cruise - professional, serious
- the switch - something was hidden
- Jamie Foxx - humanises him and stands out from the other taxi drivers
- the body language shown shows a lot about each of their characters

Sound track:
- beat gets louder and faster
- voices coming together
- cuts to different atmospheric sounds
- beat stays the same suggesting that some action is going to occur
- monotonous rift (repetition)

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task 
From 20 to 40 seconds
This task is to show my knowledge of different filming techniques and action shots. Through this short bit of filming we each had to include:
- match on action
- shot reverse shot
- showing you understand the 180 degree rule
My shot was the second one shown in this clip. I starred Fred Morris to be the main role in this short film, I also wanted to include a very short bit of dialogue to show a shot reverse shot but also being aware of not breaking the 180 degree rule. It is a rough bit of filming and editing but was only to show simple editing and each of the points we had been told to include. 

The British film industry in 2013

The British film industry in 2013 
What films have recently addressed these two growing film markets?
-       third largest consumer market for filmed entertainment in the world 
-       the British economy film industry and contributed £2.9 billion in 2012
-       annual UK cinema admissions (2001-2013) 
-       lowest 2001 – 2006 
-       highest 2002 – 2009 
UK box office receipts in 2013 were £1,083 million, down 1% on 2012 which UK cinema admissions were down 4% on 2012. Why might revenues and admissions be flat year-on-year? 
-       2013 were the lowest since 2008
-       early 2000s attendances were fairly flat (ranging from 165 – 170 million)
-       in 2013 revenues exceeded £1 billion for the third year in succession 
-       some 698 films were released at the cinema for a week or more, an increase of 51 on 2012 (7%) What might explain the long term decline of cinema admissions since the end of the Second World War? And why has it picked up since the 80s?
-       highest earning film – Despicable Me 2, grossed over £47 million
-       big success in the box office:Les Miserables, over £41 millionGravity, over £31 millionFast & Furious, over 25 million
-       top UK independent films at the box office were:
Philomena - £11 million
Rush - £10 million
-       tops the list of the highest grossing film in the UK box office but no place in thee top 20:
Skyfall
-       Animation is the highest earning genre but accounting for only 5% of releases but took 21% of the total box office
Animation is now our favourite genre. Why might that be?
-       446 specialised films were released in the UK in 2013
-       This earned £110 million
-       46 3D films were released in 2013 which was more than the amount which were released in 2012 (43)
-       the revenue generated was 207 million pounds
If DVD/Blu-ray continues to decline and VOD grew but not for films, how can you explain the increase in the VOD market? What might be holding back the VOD market?
-       The film market decreased slightly but by a smaller amount than previous years
-       This means that the digital film idea market will increase
-       Video sales and rentals in the UK generated around £1.1 billion in 2013 but film revenues from on-demand films reached £323 million
-       The value of VOD services grew by 37%UK talent leading the world
-       UK films and talent won 26 major film awards through out 2013/14Including 6 Oscars13 Baftas  -       The film Gravity won 4 baftas (including sound and visual effects)
-       UK film, video and TV post production turnover accounts for 22% of total film industry turnover and has grown by 67% since 2008 to 1.6 billion pounds
Tax Relief
-       plays a major role in attracting international productions
-       provides support for UK independent productions
Film Production in 2013
-       35% of all films released were from the US
-       these film accounted for 73% of box office earnings
-       over 86% o f films which had a budget which was less than £500,000 failed to secure a theatrical release.
Film Distribution in 2013
-       theatrical market place is dominated by only a few large companies
-       the top ten distributors (D) generated 1.14 billion leaving the rest £42 million
-       week days account for 41% box office
-       top 10 D had 96% share of market (highest ever)
Why do you think that there are more people going to the cinema during the week day?
The most common time for someone to go to the cinema would usually be in the holidays. A lot of people also want to avoid crowed and find it easier travelling to the cinema on a weekday.
Less popcorn, fewer profits
-       Concession sales were £289.7 million in 2013
-       Decreased by 2% comparing it to 2012
-       Most of the cinemas income comes from refreshments and drinks, the issue is the less people who go to the cinema due to the access of downloading films fast means that they make a lot less profit
-       VOD film market was worth £323 million in 2013
-       This was greater than television-based income
-       Apple was the highest earning VOD provider
Film Audiences
-       15-24 year olds make up the greatest proportion of the UK cinema admissions
Summarise three of the most important things you have learnt about the UK film market?
One of the most noticeable things that I have learnt about is the change that people are making and being forced to make by not going to the cinemas and being more dependant on videos on demand. Although people are aware of this change, I was personally not fully aware of the extent by which the cinemas are being effected. According to studies and patterns which have been observed, it is estimated that by 2017 electronic home video streaming will overtake cinemas as the biggest contributor to the film industry regarding the total turn over. Due to video on demand sites they have quickly changed the dynamic within the film industry and have created a completely new way of watching what you want, through tablets, phones, computers and your own television.
Another recent change in the film industry through out the UK is the development of the web 2.0. This is because it has enabled film companies to share short clips of their films to the world through one button. It has also created the idea which there is usually a big run up towards a thought to be popular film. A clear example of this is the new film Spectre, this film is the most recent James Bond film. As the Bond films are very well known through out the UK they have used different types of social media to create a hype around this knew one. One way that they have advertised their film was through Snapchat, this is an app on iPhones and Androids which they put up different clips and teasers from the film.
An interesting point which I found was the the optimum age group that usually goes to the cinema is around 15-24 year olds. This was surprising to me as I would have assumed that they are also the most popular people to use these video on demand sites to watch their movies and different TV channels.

Thriller Research Silence of the Lambs

Explore the use of film language for effect in an opening sequence to a thriller. How does the director engage the audience?

I chose an American thriller created in 1991 called ‘Silence of the Lambs’, which was directed by Jonathan Demme, taking part mainly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The weekend in which this film was released, ti made a gross of $13,766,814 managing to exceed its own budget in the first week. It was displayed by Orion Pictures.

I decided to start analysing the film around five minutes into the start as it means that it captures the moment where we first see Hannibal Lecter.  The scene starts with a close up on Clarice Starlings face as she looks closely into the camera building intimacy with Starling and what she is looking at, she appears to be in the centre of the closed frame carrying the weight of the edit. Starlings face is lit strongly using high key lighting from the left of the frame at eye hight, which gives the impression that what she is looking at has an affect on her and takes away any interested in the back of the scene. The camera slowly tilts up while zooming into her face that overlaps with non-diegetic synchronous sound of classical music slowly increasing in volume as the Starlings face fills up more of the frame. This creates a slight build up for the audience. The camera then reverses to show a point of view shot pans towards the left showing a board filled with photos of the deceased appearing to be partly skinned. The music stays the same through out this scene and includes mainly long edits. It cuts to Starlings profile with light shinning on her face coming from above, she fills up the left hand side of the frame while a figure appears behind out of focus. Filler lighting behind Starling is used to draw attention to the figure. The focus then changes rapidly from her face to Mr Crawford, the camera appears to rotate around Starlings, following Crawford. As he reaches his desk the frame stays static using an over the shoulder shot. During Crawford's’ dialogue the music starts to fade. Through out their conversation both of them stay in frame cutting from one over the shoulder shot to another. This shows that Crawford is not in control of the situation and over powers Starling. As they sit down, Starling is shot on her own separating both of them, although, when it cuts to Crawford he takes up dramatically more of the frame that she does, which helps assert dominance, his position is also very laid back, taking up a lot of space. This contrasts from her behaviour as the camera is slightly above her face creating an intimidated, shy atmosphere. All the lighting through out this scene comes from above, giving natural lighting from the ceiling, to plighting may suggest innocents, which contrasts to the topic of Hannibal Lecter. 

This intense scene between Starling and her boss is broken up suddenly by an establishing long shot of a forensic hospital. Staying on this shot their is an overlay of dialogue of a man whom has not been in the scene yet and diegetic sounds of birds creating an eery atmosphere, helping to build up a chilling ambience which continues through out this scene. The dominance seem to change as the camera stays below Starling through out the first scene of her arriving, in contrast to Dr Chilton who is show from the point of view of Starling. The first scene in the hospital uses very warm, brown colours which is used to contrast to later on as it is all shot with white lights replicating a hospital, asylum feel. The shots have very long edits as the camera tracks and pans to follow them. Mainly long shots are used, despite a moment where Dr Chilton shows Starling a photo of a nurse, the audience does not see this photo although there is red light being used and extreme closeups of the characters faces. This creates a slight mysterious feel to what Hannibal Lecter does to his victims, which allows the audience to imagine it themselves which can make curtain things more scary. As she steps inside the camera uses a dolly shot to pan around the room from her perspective stopping on Barney. There is a high pitch alarm during this edit adding to this slightly ghoulish scene. It also creates other unanswered questions. The sounds of the gates and locks as the close appear to be louder than anything else you hear drawing your attention to the security of the building. Classical music starts to build as she steps closer to the chair. The camera work starts to get more obviously hand help and shaky which helps to portray her fear. The camera tracks as she walks showing gated prison like rooms, the characters inside resemble a stereotypical view on what psychopaths are like. As the camera pans towards Hannibal Lector, the music increases although his room is well lit, and it is much more organised than what you would have expected. He is positions in the middle of the frame with top lighting that is usually related to innocence, it somehow creates a slight liking towards the character which foreshadows later events.