2. GENRE RESEARCH
Crime
Political Psychological
THRILLER
Conspiracy Supernatural
Action/Sci-fi
3. FILM THEORISTS:
• Levi Strauss – Binary Opposition
• Todorov’s- Equilibrium
• Syd Field- 3 Act Plot Structure
4. Crime Thriller
We chose to do base our film on the sub-genre of a crime thriller. The following
are some more specific codes and conventions that we researched relating directly
to this Sub-genre.
Most common
Props such as shots: BCU, M2S, Editing: quick and
gun, knife, LS AND OTS obstructive, eerie
sheriff badge. music and different
transitions
Crime Thriller
Plots including:
Characters: gangsters, Lighting: high
abduction, murders
victims and detectives. contrast lighting or
and robberies
low key.
5. Opening Sequence
I looked at three different opening sequences
which all the sub genre of crime thriller. The
three are called?
• Taken
• Se7en
• The Entitlement
In order to carry out my genre research effectively I ensured that I looked into the different sub-genre’s of a thriller. Noticeably, like many other genre’s, a hybrid can attract a different target audience. For example, political thriller may attracts people who are interested in this subject, whereas a supernatural and conspiracy thrillers may attract a target audiences enjoy these conventions. When completing my thriller Genre research it was clear to me that the importance of building tension was vital as it will keep the audience intrigued throughout. This can be done by including many twists within the plot, an example of what the most recent batman films demonstrated well. In thriller films there was a sustainable amounts of common codes and conventions which the audience expect see. These include: high contrast lighting, quick cuts, expressive colours and obstructive editing. All of these I believe that I have implemented into our film opening.
Moreover, when researching into the different types of film theorist it was obvious to me that these three were the most common types of theories that were relevant to thriller films in specific. The binary opposition created by L. Strauss can be applied to any film, an example of thriller film is Spiderman where the oppositions are Good vs. Bad. However these can range from human vs. earth and human vs. technology. In our film we implemented the good vs bad binary opposition as Lily represted the good, and Joesph the bad. Todorov’s equilibrium basic structural purpose can be changed in order to bring twists and turns to keep the audience amused throughout. We decided that we would start our film in the ‘disruption’ stage as we wanted the audience attention to be captures right away. Field’s 3 act plot theory, another structural based theory, highlights the typical Hollywood style movie whereas the stages go through the set up, confrontation and resolution. We have created the opening minutes of a thriller film therefore this would be the part of the set up which is used to capture the audience attention which I think we have done effectively.
Me and my partner decided to focus on the sub genre of crime-thriller as the tragic news of the abduction of April Jones has surfaced across the news. This gave us the inspiration and idea to use this plot as the base of our thriller film. As you can see on this slide the conventions are more related to this specific sub-genre, for example the props such as guns and knife are criminalised weapons although they may be relevant in further Genre’s such as horror, or political thrillers. The editing, lighting and shots were similar to the overall typical genre’s so we clearly understand the significance of these shots.
When deciding what films would be the most suitable films openings to analyse I made sure that they all had the similar plot of ‘abductions’. This was because I wanted to see how they shaped the opening and how the hinted at the plot in the opening sequence. I found by editing these films I was able to compare and contrast what was relevant in all three openings and what really stood out also. I found the title scene for se7en very interesting as it was very different from anything I have seen previously. The analysis of this opening titles highlighted the various codes and conventions that was already included. The opening of Taken was different also, I learn mainly from this the importance of the use of lighting and colour representation. For example the use of the high key flashback lighting and then the sudden cut to low key lighting. The Entitlement was different from the others, the opening was set in four different locations during the first two minutes showing the simplistic time changes and how they could be portrayed.
By conducting all of our research it was clear that we had a lot that we could implement into our film opening. We used a range of codes and conventions including colour representation, quick cuts, the uses of high contrast lighting and low lighting etc. All of these things which may catch the audience’s attention. We also used a range of camera shots especially the ones that were typical to the genre including close ups, long shots and over the shoulder shot which are often used to build tension and show expressive behaviour. During the editing process we made sure that the cuts were quick as this was stressed throughout researching and the obstructive editing seemed difficult but I believe that this was done efficiently by the different shots that we used.
This slide shows some of how our research has been implemented into our film opening.For example, the high contrast lighting that is used, the strong colour representation that is used and the use of time change.
Although we did not do anything entirely to challenge the Genre as this was a heavily researched based, whilst editing we came across the chance to use blackouts for some of our title credits which we did not think about beforehand. Me and my partner decided that we would use this method over irrelevant clips as it help to retain the dark, mysterious tone we wished to set. I believe that we this did this efficiently as it allowed the audience to focus on this but not drawing them away from the audio in the background which was important.
These are the 9 main key parts that I believe are the most significant in the opening.
