Essex Boys Opening Scene Case Study

Essex Boys Opening Scene Case Study

In the first shot of the film, we see the protagonist opening a garage door and getting in to the car we see in shot. He is seen a shadow because of the positioning of the light and how he is hidden behind some objects which are in the way of him. The only source of light is on the back wall and is a typical use of chiaroscuro lighting which is evident in most thriller films and a classic convention.




This shot establishes the other main character: Jason. This is a typical thriller shot because it reveals an enigma as towards who is this man and what is he doing standing there? We do get a little intro narrated by the protagonist and that sets up what is going to happen for the rest of the film.

 

 

In this shot we see the protagonist and Jason in the car going through Dartford Tunnel. The reflection of the lighting on the car is foreshadowing what will come for them and suggests that they will lead a life of crime.

 

 The long shot of the car entering the tunnel and looking down it could represent the barrel of a gun and foreshadow what the lives of the characters involved are going to embark on.

 

 

This classic POV mirror shot is also a well constructed shot because it shows Jason and a guy he obviously knew having a scramble and is shot from the POV of the protagonist in the front of the van. This allows us as the audience to learn and pick up on things about this character as well as him chucking acid into the unsuspecting mans face.

 

Possible Thriller opening ideas

1. A man is standing on the hillside by a railway track as a train goes past. He turns around and heads back through the cemetery towards the grave of his wife. As he is walking towards the centre of the cemetery he is confronted by a silhouette of a man. Then another silhouette appears behind him and the man drops dead.

2.  A man is standing on the hillside by a railway track as a train goes past. He turns around and heads back through the cemetery towards the grave of his wife. As he is walking towards the centre of the cemetery he is confronted by a silhouette of a man who is holding a knife.

3. A man is standing on the hillside by a railway track as a train goes past. He turns around and heads back through the cemetery towards the grave of his wife. As he is walking towards the centre of the cemetery he sees a statue of an angel. He walks over to it and gazes at it. As he turns around he sees a man sitting on the bench by the angel and he is holding a knife.

4. A girl is placing flowers on her granddads grave. Whilst she is doing this there is a shot of a man getting into a car. the next shot is of the girl walking down the road by the cemetery with her headphones in and listening to music full blast. She goes to cross the road and as she does a car comes round the corner and hits her. There is no footage of the car hitting her but simply a black screen with the sound of the car hitting her and speeding off. Then the title of the film comes up and is left on a cliff hanger.

thriller locations (continued)

How Sergio Leone establishes and develops the thriller genre conventions within mise-en-scene.

Two locations that are within the opening few minutes of once upon a time in America that establish the thriller genre are the dimly lit, wet street and the old style lift and the shaft. The wet street which is dimly lit is used to show the dark side of a thriller and can produce a menacing shot for which the audience feels overpowered and scared. Also the lift would be used because a low angle shot can make the lift look menacing and dangerous and makes it out to be a symbolism of death and pain.

Two archetypes that Sergio Leone used in the film are those of mobsters on the rise in New York and those of gangsters who liked hurting and killing people. These archetypes are used in most generic gangster a mobster films and they are the some of the most generic archetypes. He also uses Eve as the generic archetype for a femme fatale. Normally femme fatales are used in most noir and mobster thrillers. The name Eve relates to the biblical character Eve who is mischievous and daring and in the film Sergio shows her to be someone who is a bit like that because of how she enters the room carelessly and not checking to see if anyone is in there and how she just casually draws back the sheet of the bed to see the outline of a body. This shows that Sergio was trying to create a link between the two characters and try portray his character Eve out to be the same as the biblical character. Another archetype that is used in quite a lot of thrillers is death. Death is used a lot to create a suspense and chilling feeling of seeing a dead body on the ground. Another thriller that uses death well to create suspense and a nerve racking feeling is the movie ‘Time Lapse’. The killing of the friend by the husband creates a plot twist and gives a chilling feeling to the audience because you don’t expect that to happen.

The film is considered an example of a film noir. In the opening scene when Eve walks in through the door it is black and the only lighting is on her pearl necklace and part of her face. Pearls are mean to symbolise tears which are related to death. The effect of this is to make her seem mysterious. The use of white on black shows that it is a noir film because white on black is a generic convention and a generic archetype of film noir is the use of black which is used to be mysterious and also to symbolise death and pain.

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Thriller location ideas

Media Preliminary final cut coursework

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Question 1

Before the making of the film we planned out what we wanted to do by making a story board which shows how the film was going to take place and how it should flow, it also showed the different camera angles needed for the film and how those different camera angles would affect the final cut. With shots like the sot reverse shot, that is used when two characters are talking to each other and helps the audience understand which person is talking and to who and also adds to the effect of the dialogue.  We also planned out the dialogue that was going to be needed for the film which made it easier for the actors because they didn't have to improvise and it made things flow a lot easier and quicker. One problem we had was getting the actors to wear the same clothes for each filming day because we needed to have continuity because we couldn't get everything filmed in one day so having to film it over several days meant having to get them to wear the same clothes for each day we filmed and if they forgot then we couldn't film that day which really slowed down the filming process.

Question 2

The 180 degree rule is so key to any filming piece because you must not break it. It is in place to stop the audience feeling disorientated when watching the piece and if it is broken then it can have bad effects on the audience. The only time it can be broken is when the piece of film is made to be very motion sick like on a boat that been hit by something and is sinking or a rocket going into space, the rule can be broken because it fits the piece well, but apart from these special circumstances it must never be broken. It is used on a right left axis so that if two people are talking it is clear as to which sides the people are talking are on and so the audience doesnt get confused or disorientated by the camera angles keep changing. It is also for when two people are talking and the shots are over the shoulder and it has to be the same shoulder for each person because it can disorientate the audience if not.

Question 3

We used a number of different camera shots and angles for instance when we filmed our character walking we used a tracking shot which then turned into watching him walk away from us and round the corner into a tilt shot. This was very effective because it made it look like someone was following the character by peering around the corner and watching him walk off and down the stairs. Also we used shot reverse shot which is effective because it shows the two characters who are exchanging dialogue and it allows the audience to follow and understand clearly which people are having a conversation. But in this shot, the 180 degree rule is so important because if it gets broken then it can disorientate the audience and be really off putting for them.

Question 4

Before I started this task I had no idea about editing or how to use effects on pieces of film. But now I know quite a lot and how to edit fairly well, for example I know how to make a short snippet of the film into a slow motion, I know how to fade to black or fade to white and I also know how to change the audio quality and how to make the audio stay the same in the slow motion piece without it being slowed down too. I feel a lot more confident about using the editing software now and feel confident and ready for when we have to edit anything else. There are some areas I need to improve on but that will come with the practice I get by using this software.

working title fact file

Working title

The main people in charge are Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner who has been there since '92. The company has been going since '83 and has made over 100 films which have grossed a whopping 6 billion dollars! Their films have collected an impressive 10 Academy Awards and a huge 35 BAFTAs. Tim and Eric have also been awarded CBEs for their dedication and service to the British film industry. They have worked on big collaborations with Richard Curtis, the Coen Brothers, Stephen Daldry, Paul Greengrass, Edgar Wright, and Joe Wright; and actors Rowan Atkinson, Cate Blanchett, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson as well as other big names too. Tim and Eric are the 41st most powerful people in the film industry to date.

Some of the biggest films they have made include, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Anna Karenina, Love Actually, About Time, the Bean movies, Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. These are just some of the biggest films that have braced the help of Working Title and have contributed towards that 6 billion dollars income.

Also with the success of the film Billy Elliot and the popular demand of the public, the movie was turned into a theatre production which won many awards and has been such a big hit that it managed to last for many years at the west end and as a touring live show. It has won 81 theatre awards internationally and has been seen around the world by over 9 million people.

They also managed to create a Working Title TV called WTTV which is based in London and LA and is part of NBC.

In the early days Eric and Tim spent the majority of their time raising money to create films, the spent 90% of their time raising money and 10% of finding a director and scripter.

football 180 degree rule

This is the 180 degree rule which is not to be broken when making a film or on TV.

media questionnaire

Media Questionnaire by ryan brown

Marilyn Manson - No Reflection

 once again the disturbing factor of drinking ink and dying from it interests me and i want to also include something like this in my thriller.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

 this is a creepy video of marilyn manson.   i want to include the weird and disturbing parts of this in my thriller.

camera shot experimentation

 low angle shothigh angle shotlong distance shotmedium close upclose upover the shoulder shotbirds eye viewworms eye viewextreme close up

all of these can be used in any film or TV production.

Working title and Rush analysis

Working title

Working Title Films, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, is one of the world’s leading film production companies. Founded in 1983, Working Title has made over 100 films that have grossed nearly $6 billion worldwide.

Rush

Working title packaged this movie as an action/drama because of its high tempo and fast paced action throughout the whole film. The trailer only shows snippets of the film but as you can see from it that it is a movie for all fans of motorsport not just F1 but it is also for people who around when it happened. Also with most of it been filmed at snetterton and brands hatch, it shows that it wasnt all CGI and it was actually tried to be as close to the orginal as possible. It's captivating and draws you in and makes you want to watch it. Also having the love story makes it that bit more exciting because you get to see how it messes with hunt's head. The rolling titles at the begging try and show how good the film looks by being quick and fast paced and this sets the tone for the whole film. Also with Hunt being a cocky driver it draws in the american audience aswell because they like making fun of us british and it would be perfect for them to use.

Top 10: Gore Scenes thriller research view at risk

 some really disturbing thriller and gore clips that could potentially be used in my thriller

Secret cinema

 

The secret cinema is a monthly gathering of film nerds and lovers of film who get together to celebrate great films of the past. The company largely focuses on creating experiences based around popular films, with the film's story being incorporated into an event before the film itself is eventually screened. This is where the nerds and film lovers can dress up and meet fellow nerds to chat and have fun before they actually watch the film. It is always secret so only people who are signed up to the website know about where it is being held. It can be anywhere in the world and they show old blockbuster films like Back to the Future.

labels

summer task

Summer task:

The two clips I looked at were la noire and casino royale. Both clips had some common features like they both were set up like an action sort of shooter type of scene, where they both showed like there was going to be action and shooting/killing in them. They both looked like there was going to be lots of death and a shed load of blood. They both had a slow start to the opening scene but both looked like they were made in good conditions with plenty of money spent on them.

But la noire and casino royale looked different because la noire is a game and casino royale is a movie. La noire looked really western and old fashioned whereas casino royale looked more modern and more up to date. Casino royale looked more of an action whereas la noire looked gangsterish and didn’t show the sort of action and fast paced movements that action movies need.

Casino royale’s story line is shown as a fast paced and quick heart thumping action movie if it follows all of the bond films before, it shows it will be full of blood, killing and running after criminals and probably some explosions.

Whereas la noire looks like a slow paced gangster movie where it has a slow build up and will not be very good but will still have the death and bloodshed that a bond movie has.

The themes of casino royale are; bloodshed, killing, death, action, heart thumping and fast paced movements with a bit of romance thrown in as well. This means it will be like a typical bond film and typical fast paced action film, which means the audience will enjoy it if they like all of the bond films of before.

The themes of la noire are; gangster, a bit of romance, fighting, shooting, bloodshed and a thrill to kill. This means that it is a bit like a typical gangster film in where they don’t have the fast pacedness but to have the fun in killing people because it’s how a gangster film should be.  

The TOP 10 Scariest Movies of All Time ! thriller research

some more videos for my thriller research

thriller pics

these images show the disturbing side of music videos and bands and i want to include their ideas into my thriller.

thriller research links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEEasR7hVhA this is a link to a music video that has a bit of a thriller side to it.