Newspaper Task ( Practicing using Camera)

The aim of this excercise was to film somone reading a newspaper in a thrilling and exciting way by creating an atmosphere of suspense and mystery in a minimum of 12 shots.We had to use a variety of camera shots and film the footage through the choice of shot distance, choice of camera angle and movement of the character.

We first had to make a plan and decide what each shot would show and what type of shot would be used.

The plan for our film was about :

- A man Running to find a Newspaper. This would be shown using a tracking shot of the man running & also a low angle shot to his feet.

-The man Turning straight to the back of the newspaper to play Sudoku.This would be shown using both a mid shot and an over the shoulder shot.

-The man would come across a murder headline story. This would be shown using both an over the shoulder shot and a close up.

-Close up of the man's eyes. Shown using a close up.

-The man would then circle the Headline of the Murder story. This would be shown through a point of view shot and a close up and the film would conclude with a close up of the title of the newspaper.

The roles with our group was:

Adam- The person Filming.

John- The Man that reads the newspaper.

Michaela- The Director.

Millan- Acting

When we all came to an agreement on the context of the footage and the type of shots that would be used we then began filming. Unfortunately as we did not have enough time and half way threw filming changed our idea we were unable to complete filming this footage.

The next lesson , we were given the opportunity to film the remaining of the previous footage. Unfortunately a member of our group , who was one of the main characters within the footage was absent so we then had to plan a new idea and replace the main character from the previous footage.

This was the end result:

Thriller Sub-Cultures

A thriller uses everyday characters to create suspense and the suspense is used to create a trill.

A hybrid is when two genres are joint together, a sub genre is when a film falls into a main genre category but has recognisable features that allow it to be classified a sub genre. There are sub genres within a thriller, these include the following.

• Action Thriller- For example 'Unstoppable' (2010) an unmanned train heads towards a city, an engineer has to race against time to prevent the catastrophe.
• Romance Thriller- For example, 'The Tourist' (2010) an American tourist visits Italy to mend his broken heart, and then a woman deliberately crosses his path.
• Supernatural Thriller- For example, ‘Skyline’ (2010) Strange lights descend on a city and people are attracted to it like moths,
• Psychological Thriller- ‘Devil’ (2010) a group of people trapped in an elevator realise that the devil is amongst them.
• Acquired Identity- For example, ‘13’ (2010) a naive young man assumes a dead man’s identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of violence and power.
• Political Thriller- For example, ‘Legacy’ (2010) a virtual-world worker looks to take down the master Control Program.

Codes and Conventions: Things we expect to see in film depending on its genre. For example in a Romance thriller we usually expect a rivalry between two love rivals and maybe a woman being centre in the rivalry. Moreover in Action thrillers we expect to see explosions, chase scenes and maybe Good vs. Bad scenario.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual reference between films. Quite literally, films 'borrow' from each other, and you may recognise certain camera angles, aspects of mise en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing in some films that you have seen in others.

The movie 'Psycho' a classic thriller which has the famous shower scene has inspired other thriller movies to have some ideas and techniques of the film. Famous films like 'What Lies Beneath', 'Fatal Attracton' and 'The Stepfather' has used ideas from the film Psycho which makes the scene more traumatised to the audiences. The movie Psycho is about a woman in the shower when suddenly a man approaches the shower curtain with a knife and draws the curtain, stabbing her constantly.

Intertextuality Research

Different thriller movies are inspired by each other. There are a variety of film makers that have used different elements from the movie 'Psycho' in an attempt to make their movie successful, we call this method intertextuality. Intertextuality is a term used to describe films with visual similarities and similar narrative conventions. Film makers take different elements from different movies and place it within theirs. This could be camera angles, sound, mise en scene and characters .

The 'Fatal attraction' is a film about a woman who is mentally unstable, un-stability is a personality trait used in many thriller films, this was taken from the movie 'Psycho'. We normally associate the word 'Psycho' with person who is mentally unstable.  During the scene that i watched in class i noticed that the leading lady Alexandra Forest (Glenn Close) is dressed in a white gown, white connotes purity and truth. This element of mis en scene is very similar to 'Psycho', being that the leading lady was wearing a white robe in the shower scene.

The 'Fatal attraction'  uses similar sound clips to 'Psycho', when Alexandra is struggling to breathe she runs to the kitchen sink and turns on the tap. Non - digetic sound clips are used to add emphasis within the clip, this has been taken from the famous shower scene in 'Psycho'. A narrative convention for thriller movies is that male characters are usually the attackers, in The 'Fatal attraction' this gender role stays the same (stereotype). 


Other intertextuality elements are the shiny knife, white lighting, close ups to see facial expressions and fast film score music. 

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term used to describe the visual references between different thriller film.Films often borrow elements from other films that have been seen , to be used in their own film. These elements include aspects of Mise en- scene,Editing, Characters and Sound. 

A variety of films have borrowed aspects from the film " Psycho" in an attempt to keep the thriller genre within their own film and also to include their own spin on what happens throughout the film. I have looked at clips from different thriller movies that borrow aspects on the film " Psycho". 

Psycho is an American psychological thriller film. Like Psycho, "What lies Beneath" is another thriller film about the wife of a university research scientist, who believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost ,or that she's losing her mind. In this clip, I watched the husband drugging his wife which makes her paralysis and carries her up to the bathroom upstairs. This is an aspect of Mise-en-scene that is borrowed from Psycho, as it borrows the same location. The use of the location follows the genre of thriller as this is where we normally see tension between the vicitim and the killer.

A narrative convention for thriller movies sterotypically protray woman as victims and men as killers/ attackers. This is another element borrowed from Psycho.In many Thriller films woman are protrayed as a defenseless victim, whereas men are protrayed as being vindictive and manipulative characters who at end upas killers. 

The stringy music is an aspect of sound borrowed from Psycho as it builds up the suspence for the audience ,leaving them wondering whats going to happen next.The sound of the water being turned on is an aspect of sound borrowed from " Psycho". The sound of water is a built up sound used to create suspense. It also creates tension as an action is being demostrated in the film. The colour "white" is another aspect borrowed from Psycho.The colour "white is used to suggest purity/innocance which could be linked to the vicitim,as they are un-aware of whats around the corner or what is going to end up happening to them.

A preview of the Film " What Lies Beneath"

Other Intertextually aspects consist of camera angles, A shiny knife, White shower curtain being pulled, Dramatic change of sound, Point of view and close up shots.