Thriller sub-genres

I did some research into the sub-genres of thriller films so that i could gain a better understanding of the genre to help me whilst creating our thriller opening.

Supernatural- Thrillers that include a otherwordly element to them. One of the main characters will often have some sort of psychic ability and they usually overlap with the 'Horror' genre.

Psychological- Psychological thrillers often have a storyline that builds up slowly and usually ends with a large finale, usually towards the end of the film. The slow build of a storyline often leaves rooms for audiences to overthink and create stories themselves, adding to the building tension throughout the film. Some examples of these include se7en and the silence of the lambs.

Medical- In medical thrillers, often a disease will break out and the film follows the story of the protagonist seeking to cure and get rid of the disease. examples of these include awake and flatliners.

legal- The leading characters in legal thrillers are usually lawyers and their employees with the justice system playing a massive role in the development of the plot. 

political- Political thrillers often include an important person misusing their post high up in the government. Their plots often surround large political struggles. 

Religious- The plots of religious thrillers often surround a sacred book or artifact that can pose as a threat to the characters involved in the storyline.

Pictured below is a bubble diagram that i found online outlining even more sub-genres of thriller films.

Planning the continuity

In our lesson, our teacher spoke to us about what we needed to do to ensure that our piece went as well as it possibly could. The advice she gave us was as follows:

1. Ensure that the camera remains steady throughout the shots
2. Use a storyboard and a script to plan for the final piece
3. Strive to include a wide range of shots throughout your piece 

Josh said that he would produce a script for our piece and Caitlin and I volunteered to draw up the storyboard. We had already decided on the narrative that the piece was set to follow, so we decided to create a storyboard as it would allow us to create a foundation for the piece that we wish to film.

Before we were able to begin filming, we learnt how to set up and use the equipment that we were given to produce our film. Our teacher ran through this with us, showing us how to set up the camera and tripod, to ensure that we were confident and happy with the equipment before we were left to begin filming. I found this very useful as running through how to use the materials effectively allowed me to become more confident, allowing me to be able to provide more input within the group decisions, as I had more of an insight into the filming process.

Once we had learnt how to use the equipment given to us, we decided to try out some shots, to help us to get used to filming with the camera we had been given and to try out different shots that we may wish to include in the sequence. Whilst doing this, we chose to film a close-up shot of Caitlin's eye as this was a shot that we were all very interested in including within our piece.

Using camera shots

Saul Bass

To help to improve my knowledge and understanding of thriller openings, I decided to research Saul Bass.


Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and academy award winner. He is best known for his designs of motion title sequences, corporate logos and film posters.

Saul started his career in Hollywood during the 1940s, creating print adverts for many different movies. During his career of 40 years, he worked with many of the top filmmakers. These included Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Billy Wilder.


Much of his work is very similar in style as he uses vibrant, eye catching colours throughout them all. His reason for this would be to draw attention to the poster to attract people to encourage them to go to watch the film being advertised. 


Some examples of his work are below:

I was very surprised to see that Saul Bass had designed posters for the Back to the Future franchise as these are some of my favourite movies of all time. I really like the style of Saul Bass' work as it is vibrant and bright. This makes his work very obvious and eye catching, perfect for the advertisement of a film that you wish to promote. 

Thriller film directors

Whilst reseaching thriller film directors, I found this useful presentation on slide share. It talks about the lives and main achievements of some of the top thriller directors in history. 

Link to original source

What does 'Thriller' mean to you?

Create a collage to demonstrate what 'Thriller' means to you 

Brief

preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of diologue. This task should demonstrate match-on-action, shot/ reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

My blog should take into consideration all of the key areas:

• Forms and conventions
• Production context
• Role of technologies
• Audience/users
• Representations

Introduction

My name is Hannah Martin and I am studying AS level media in Pencoed sixth form college.

Today had been our first lesson of Media this year and the first thing we have done is set up a blog using Google+. After setting up our blogs, our teacher discussed with us our thriller opening sequence and what we were planning to do. We then proceeded to turn back to our blogs to begin customising them.

I will be using this blog to track my progress and to record any research that I have carried out regarding our thriller opening sequence.