For the present day scenes in the cafe the witness and killer will be dressed in ordinary clothes; jeans, top and jacket. The witness will be wearing the same coat as he was wearing during the estate scene, as will the killer be wearing the same shoes. These items of clothing may seem everyday but will allow the audience to identify the different character between the scenes. This will be particularly useful when the pace of the opening scene is at it's quickest showing second long shots.
In the estate scene, which will be shown as a flashback, the mob members will be dressed in dark clothing; jeans, hoodies/jumpers and balaclavas. The mob all wear the same type of balaclava, which I must admit I first thought wouldn't work due to the unlikely organisation. However once we got our cast together the look of them all having the same balaclava works really well, and creates a sense of unity and solidarity. A crowbar and metal pole will also be used as props in the scene, the main killer will have one of these props to highlight his importance.
The use of guns was discussed, but it was felt they would take away the realistic features violence scene. Also making it more an action thriller rather than the psychological thriller that we are aiming for. Clothing of the cafe and estate will be different apart from the witness's coat and the killers shoes, as mentioned before. The reason for changing the clothing is to show a change in day between the two events.
Sounds are used in thrillers to create a certain atmosphere for the audience, so they know what type of emotion to be feeling as each stage. A thriller film can control how the audience react with what type of sound or music they decide to use. Some sounds are used to build tension, others to build a sound bridge, some are even used to emphasis the reaction the audience has to the actions of a character.
The most common type of sound associated with thrillers are dark eerie pieces of music which build suspense, they tend to start slowly and then gradually grow. Such as this scene from Inception, which begins with slow music and on-edge tones and then the pace quickens the action becomes more intense. Also in this scene there is the use of non-diegetic sounds, such as the rain and gun shots, these are non-diegtic so the sound is emphasised so the audience takes more notice of them.
In this scene from The Departed there is no music or sound scape playing. The focus is on to what the two men say. Here the dialogue is more important. The scene also uses non-diegetic sound to emphasis the noise that the elevator is making and the gun shots. This scene isn't as suspenseful as the inception clip but shows how thrillers can use dialogue to be suspenseful and how they can have a dramatic twist.
Here the film The Dark Knight uses a range of sounds to build suspense. There's the music of strong deep notes that links to the actions and follows the pace of the action, the use of non-diegetic sounds such as gun fire, punching and batmans cape to emphasis these actions, and the use of dialogue to inform the audience of what's at stake, as we learn that the hostages have been mixed up and that Gorden's family are in trouble.
The preliminary task is set by the exam board OCR to allow us to show our skills both filming and and on Imove editing the footage. The preliminary exercise was; to create a video including;
Continuity - a system of cutting used to suggest a progression of events in real time and space (no flashbacks, fade out dissolves etc JUST CUTS)
Match on Action - where a shot of a character starting an action and the completing the action in the next shot
Shot/Reverse shot - this is an editing pattern that cut to the view in the opposite direction (used most often for dialogue)
The 180 degree rule - Camera should be positioned on one side of the line of actions (within the 180 degree arc). Do not cross the line of action (place the camera on the other side of the line line of action).
As I am A bit of novice with using Final Cut Express I decided to practice using the program, editing a piece of footage. This also gave me the opportunity to using my Camera, which I will be using during filming as it is a higher quality then the schools cameras, so I also got to play around with the cameras filming functions. Below are a series of effects that I applied to the video, I found practising using final cut was really helpful and has me more confident for when it comes to editing the actual thriller opening.
The scene starts with the ship coming out of the fog heading towards Shutter Island, this creates an enigmatic atmosphere around the Island with out actually showing any of the island. Once on the island clues are left for the audience to take notice, some are very subtle for only the keenest fanatic will notice, where as others are shown to the audience either by the use of the camera directing the audience with close ups of objects/settings or by Teddy mentioning things, such as the barbed wire on the wall of the building.
In the opening sequence we are introduce to the main character Teddy Daniels on board the ship, the important feature about the ship is that it's a prison ship, and Teddy is willingly staying in the prison courtiers. The audience will be questioning why he is in this section of the ship. We see that the suit Teddy is wearing is slightly scruffy and ruffled, suggesting that he is not use to what he is wearing or is uncomfortable in the environment he is in.The lighting on Teddy's face has a chiaroscuro effect suggesting that the character has a split personality, or a hidden maybe darker side to his personality. The establishing shots of the boat through the fog creates an enigma to the narrative and who is on the boat. This is continued with the close up shots of Teddy talking to himself in the mirror. Editing of the opening scene is relatively slow paced, as the film is just establishing the narrative and locations.
Reservoir Dogs The opening scene of Reservoir Dogs is unconventional in comparison to what is expected of thriller films. The Film starts with A group of men in an American dinner, just finishing and about to leave. The costume of the men ranges from suits to casual wear, this suggests a variety of personalities with in the group, but nothing overly enigmatic or tension building. The as the men are walking down the street ,the fairly upbeat song Little Green Bag byGeorge Baker begins to play and the credits begin. This music is again not connvetional for music used within a thriller, as it does not build tension and make the atmosphere eerie instead it makes the group seem cool and friendly to the audience. The the screen goes to black as the rest of the credits shown over the song. Yet as the credits are finishing, we hear in the background a person in pain screaming out. You can just about make out "I'm going to die". Suddenly the film has taken a dramatic turn, and created a confusing narrative. This will keep the audience interested as they will want to find out what happened to the man.
Psycho The opening of this film relies heavily on the use of music of the opening credits which instantly creates tension with its high notes. The lines that go across the screen symbolises prison bars and highlight at this early stage of the film the sense of entrapment, warning the audience someone will be in danger. When the film starts the camera goes through the window of the building and connotes the the idea of voyeurism the audience feel as if they are looking in on someone, this can suggest that the people in the room may be doing something they shouldn't, as it feels as though the audience is spying in on them. As we are introduced to the character no real information about them is told to the audience and it make the characters more mysterious. The audience will be wondering who these people are and why they are there. Building tension around the couple.
From analysing these films I have notices four key conventions of thriller openings.
Titles -
The opening titles are very important to set the tone of the film.
Storyline -
This is important with an film opening, however with thrillers the directior has to capture the attention of the audience with action and suspense, with out giving to much of the narrative away.So they still build tension.
Camera angles/shots -
How the camera is used is important in the opening of a thriller as it can tell the audience a lot about a location or character quickly. And when used effectively can build tension.
Music/Sound-
What music or sound scape is played at the start of the thriller can tell the audience a lot about the mood and tone of the film and can also build tension, like in Psycho. Or the film can challenge building tension and tell the audience that its going to be different, like in Reservoir Dogs.
This was a task to test how much we know about thriller conventions, we made two lists one for General narrative theory and the other specific narrative theory for thrillers.
