Friday 30 January 2009

Sub-Genres

Thriller
"A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not always)"

So, when i blogged this convention in the previous blog: Thriller Conventions, i thought about Sub-genres which means a genre that includes other elements of other genres.

Crime Thriller: "This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients." [Wikipedia]

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Action Thriller: "In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place. These films often have elements of mystery films and crime films but these elements take a backseat to action." [Wikipedia]

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Horror Thriller: "In which conflict between the main characters are mental, emotional, and physical...What sets the horror thriller apart is the main element of fear throughout the story. The main character(s) is not only up against a superior force, but they are or will soon become the victims themselves and directly feel the fear that comes by attracting the monster's attention. " [Wikipedia]

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All quotes come from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

Therefore, there are many thriller that have different elements of other genres in them. This could be applied to our Thriller, which we are in the process of producing, however, we must distinguish it more of a thriller element.

Thriller Conventions

In my Media Class, we discussed Thriller Conventions, to establish what aspect of a film make it a thriller.

  1. a crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not always)
  2. a complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions
  3. a narrative pattern of establishing enigmas (problems) which the viewer expects to be resolved
  4. a protagonist who is systematically, dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by an antagonist.
  5. Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situation
  6. Themes of identity
  7. Themes of mirroring
  8. Themes of voyeurism
  9. Protagonist with a "flaw" which is exploited by the antagonist
  10. Titles often reflect an aspect of the protagonist/antagonist's psychological state
  11. there is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril
  12. Mise-en-Scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist plight

Protagonist - is the main/central character of a story, the leading actor; it doesn't matter whether they are the hero or the villain.

Antagonist - is the character that is opposed/ a rival against the Protagonist

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Thursday 29 January 2009

A Comparison: Horror vs. Thriller

I’m going to compare two trailers, one a horror and the other a thriller. The Horror I will be ‘reading’ is Hostel (2005). The Thriller I will be ‘reading’ is Phone Booth (2003). This is so that i can establish the difference between them, so that when it come to making our Thriller Trailer, it will not be mistaken as a horror trailer, due to the fact that they contain similar qualities.

The Horror: Hostel (2005)
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In Hostel, the setting is very dark and gruesome (Film Noir: a black film, which is a key feature in horror films). Moreover, we see rooms, which are clearly used for torturing people, which contain blood and weaponry. The music being played, which is non-diegetic, which is very...it begins slow, however begins to speed up and then become a fast pace, which creates and sense of suspense. The use of diegetic sounds, such as the scream, cries and the slicing of knives, makes the audience consume the fact that it is of a horror nature, making us also feel terrified or even make the audience jump. The use of lethal props, such as drills, knives, clippers and a bloody chair, alerts the audience the dark, deathly, deadly and horrific nature of the film. We begin to understand that it is a torture, “a place/ where all your darkest/ sickest fantasies/ are possible/ where you can experience/ anything you desire/ where you can/ TORTURE/ PUNISH/ OR KILL/ for a price” (these are the captions that appear through the trailer, which give emphasis to the film. In editing, there includes a mixtures of fade in cuts, fade out cuts, straight cut and flash cuts. The fades, creates suspense and then builds up to straight cuts and flash cuts, which creates and an adrenalin rush effect, making it fast pace to initiate the feeling of terror. No dialogue is used in this trailer; however, sound effects such as screams, shouts, slicing and weaponry songs are used. Montage is used; we see a toe nail in between clippers, and then it fades to black and we then heard a scream, and we immediately assume that the toe nail has been cut off, and therefore assume torture.
Therefore, Hostel creates the feeling of dread and darkness, Horrors tend to make the audience feel terror, disgust and frighten. The fast pace music, create adrenalin rush, which causes emotions of horror.


The Thriller: Phone Booth (2003)
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In Phone Booth, the trailer uses different types of editing, including spilt screens, jump cuts and straight cuts. The splits screen are used to establish the fact the amount of people who have phones and was also used to show the reactions of the characters when certain actions happen, and to show the intense situations. At the begin of the trailer, the speed of editing is fast as it establishes “New York City/ 12 Million People/ 22 Million Phones/ 1 Billion Connections a Day”, these captions appear in between the shots and edits, to give a relative amount of information to the audience. The pace shows how busy and fast the lifestyle is in New York. The pace of editing then begins to go to a medium pace, as we are introduce to the main character, the pace allows us to concentrate on this character, identifying his as the one. The pace remains medium, creating suspense and then gradually, towards the end, starts to pick up pace, creating a rush of excitement, making the audience curious to what will happen to the man in the phone booth. In certain shots, a point of view shot is used, however we never see the face of the man who it is, and this creates curiosity as we lack identification of this person. The non-diegetic sound is relatively fast, but it contains a gradual beat, which is heard underneath the dialogues and voice-over (which give the audience an understanding of the plot), which create suspense. There is a series of shots, in which the music suddenly become intense and slow to build suspense up again, this is played underneath the dialogues. Then a diegetic sound of a gunshot is used, and underneath the dialogue again, the sound of a thumping heart is builds up, again creating suspense and a sense of adrenalin. Then the non-diegetic sounds become moderately upbeat, which gradually becomes fast. At the end of the trailer, the sound of laughter gives a mysterious feel to the trailer.
Therefore, Phone Booth is an extremely suspenseful and gripping film, a quality possessed in thriller films, and often causes waves of a different emotions, such as adrenalin rush, which keeps it gripping and exciting.


Some aspects of thriller and horror films are contained in both Hostel and Phone Booth. However, is it clear to distinguish them, as Hostel is of a gruesome, bloody and dark nature, which is the key aspect of a horror. Whereas Phone Booth is very thought provoking, mysterious and suspenseful film, a key factor of a thriller.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

The Difference between Horrors and Thrillers Films

I realised today that a horror film and a thriller, although different genres, contain elements which can be seen as very similar. So, I decided that I will research into horror and thriller trailers, in the hope that when me and my fellow colleagues comes to produce our thriller trailer, that it will not be mistaken as a horror trailer.

According to Wikipedia:


"Horror films are movies that strive to elicit responses of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of the supernatural. Horror movies also usually include a central villain....Some horror films incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, mockumentary, black comedy, and thrillers." - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film]

"Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres...Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively." - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)#Film]

Types of Horror Films:
  • Psycho
  • The Shining
  • Nightmare on Elm Street
  • The Exorcist
  • Saw

Types of Thriller Films:

  • Phone Booth
  • The Silence of the Lamb
  • The Da Vinci Code
  • Psycho
  • Se7en

The fact that Psycho is seen as both a horror and thriller film, shows hows similar they are. Jaws (1975) is also seen as a horror and thriller movie, along with many other films such as Saw (2004) which have multiple genres.


I wondered; what is the difference between a horror and thriller movies? And according to wikianswers.com;


Thriller shows someone specific being chase or stalked and not much killing but horror is basically killing throughout the whole movie!


Im going to compare two trailer, one a horror and the other a thriller. The Horror i will be reading is Hostel (2005). The Thriller i will be reading is Phone Booth (2003). I may also compare two horror trailer with each other, and two thriller trailers with each other, to see the similarities between them and what makes them that certain genre.

Sunday 25 January 2009

Welcome

The name is Fletcher, Carla Fletcher. Anyway,WELCOME to the blog.

The Group:

Hannah Poole
Shaunica Lynch
Carla Fletcher

Today we was assigned with thriller, and automatically started to thing ideas. We were all very excited about the prospect of making our own trailer and ideas were buzzing. We all decided that we work amazingly well together and came up a brilliant idea as soon as we all got together: a good start, i felt very confident with the group. The idea was thought, firstly by Shaunica,

These are just the begining of our idea, which will be developed.

STORYLINE
People open up an email and have to re-arrange the code. The code could possible read "By the time you have unscrambled this email, I will already be with you". We see this happen to 4 people and possible others and they will be shown in split screens. It then goes one person, and we see them bang their head on the Keyboard; they are dead. The KILLER scrolls down and reads "your dead" OR shows a youtube video of them dying.

MUSIC
Dramatic music - Instrumental
tense/ beating instrumental


LOCATIONS
School
Home of the character
Friends house (2)

PROPS
Computer at Sixth Form
Laptop
Fake blood
Leather gloves

POSSIBLE TITLES
Dangerous Email
C.O.D.E
Death by Email
The Email
Anagram

Editing
Spilt Screens
Over the Shoulder
Point of View
Straight Cut


We also drew a storyboard of how our thriller could possible look like, however this will be uploaded sometime later next week. hopefully :D

Wednesday 21 January 2009

The Brief

To produce the titles and opening of a new film in the thriller genre to last a maximum of 2 minutes.
  • Planning
  • Research
  • Evaluation

(must be included!)