seven opening sequence

CEMS OF SEVEN

CAMERA

In the opening 2 minutes of seven they use many close ups for eg they show close up of  pair of hands using blades to cut and a needle and thread , they also show close ups of writing, these close ups show importance and significance to specific objects and their role in the film. it also shows a close up of a knife cutting out the word god from an american dollar, this shows a relation to religion and a  significance to money. 

EDITING

Through out the opening scene there are many cross cutting shots having these different shots gives clues to the audience this can make the audience wonder about what will happen in the film, it will also help draw in an audience, as its the opening scene not much is given away in the form of identity. An eg of a cross cutting in the opening scene would be when it cuts to the main character lying in bed with his partner.

M.E.S

In the opening scene there are many different props used, these props could signify something that may happen later on in the film, such as the needle. Through-out the opening scene one of the characters is sowing, his hands are wrapped in bandages and plasters, this could also imply something that may happen later on but also it says a lot about the characters life style, having rugged hands implies that he works with tools such as knives etc.

story board

1: Opening Titles
2: child running through woods; gloomy setting,
over shoulder shots of child looking back,
POV shots from pursuer looking down on the child running,
 child shouting for help in russian
3: person waking sharply up; close up on eyes opening, morning time,
 heavy breathing, medium close up of man sitting up on a bed in a cluttered room
4: person getting dressed; close up of his reflection in a mirror doing up a tie,
slightly gloomy as curtains are still closed. (MUSIC STARTS)
5: person getting ready; close up on his hand picking up a toothbrush,
close up of him brushing his teeth
6: person starts packing; starts packing clothes, close up on suit case,
opening credits start to appear on items he is packing
7: person starts packing more sinister items; packs items like wire cord,
cling film and knives.
8: person packs a gun; medium close up of him reaching under bed, pulls out a gun,

(MUSIC INTENSIFIES AND SUDDENLY STOPS)

Plot overview

Lead character: Dimitri Chenkov

supporting character: Christopher Williams
2nd supporting character: Abdul Sahid 

Plot: 

Beginning: Christopher Williams is living in England working as a private Security Guard after retiring from the army 4 years ago. when the client he is protecting (Abdul Sahid) is almost killed in a car accident, something doesn't seem right. 

middle: After 5 months nothing else happens and the police can find no evidence to assume it was nothing more than an accident.  

Movie opening second thoughts

Our orrigional idea for our film opening was going to be
a girl running through some woods, but after some audience
feed back we decided that it was a to typical opening.

so we have decided to change it to a child running through
the woods (or something similar) with some one or something
chasing him/her. there will be a noise (though what exactly we
are undecided on at present) and it will jump to someone waking
up sharply. The person will then get dresed and start packing a
suit case with normal items then move on to stranger items before
finaly packig a shocking item (a weapon of some sort)

a story board will apear soon along with the general plot

jelly baby thriller

1. we started our jelly baby thriller with a shot of an ambulance coming on to the scene of two jelly babies that had been beaten up.
we started off with this shot, and then swapped the time code in the next shot, to create suspense. this would create suspense because the viewers would be unaware of why this is happening.

2. we then changed the time code to earlier when the two jelly babies had been running away from a group of bad jelly babies.

this shot is an enigma code because the audience will question why the jelly babies are running away from the bad jelly babies.

3.

this would be a high angle shot looking down onto the scene and clearly shows the comparison of numbers within the two groups which would hopefully make the audience feel bad for the

4. this shot would be an up close shot of the two jelly babies getting beaten up by the bad jelly babies.

5. this would be a high angle shot looking down onto the group of fighters.

 

6. this again would be a high angled shot to show the jelly babies walking away from the scene.

 

This jelly baby exercise was to help us think of some themes and conventions of thrillers. it also made us aware of the type of setting and camera angles we would need to use to make an effective thriller film.

1st production meeting

Movie Opening Plan: girl running away from two mysterious men. the girl gets shot in the leg and falls to the floor. The two men tie her up and put her into the back of a car/pick up truck.

Theme-mystery thriller

Plot- Annie's kind act in helping a friend rapidly turns bad and before she knows it she gets caught up in a drug war beyond her imagination.

Setting- in a wood

Props- hand gun, car/pick up truck, rope, fake blood, black hood.

Costumes- Girl: casual clothing
                  Gunman and helper: casual clothing, hoody/jacket, balaclava
                  Driver: baseball cap and sunglasses

Self Assesment

One main point i need to improve on is i need to
stay focused on my work (expecialy when im
doing posts) as i know that i am easly distracted.
I also need to try and make fewer custom videos
as they take a while to do and prevent me from
geting on with regular posts (there is only one
custom vid on at the moment as i have 2 on
the go which have been put on hold.

over all i would say i am puting reasonable effort
into our group and i am pleased to say i am
enjoying the course (so far...)

North by Northwest

 Plot: A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. (taken from IMDb)

North by Northwest is a clasic thriller with all the usual elements (a lot of fast racy music etc.) it also has an unpredictable plot line that least you on so you think you know what is going to happen but then your whole assumption is smashed and replaced by a new one.

like most films from its era the main character is portrayed as a dashing, hansome man and is acompanied by a beatiful blond. along with this the sets loo relatively cheap and there fairly poor special effects (but this was the tecknology of the age and was seen as he peak of industry at the time.

Audience, as usual the voting is dominated by males aged 18-29, but the groups: females 18-29 and males 30-44 are no more than 3000 votes behind.

Movie Ideas

although it is not a thriller i chose to have a look at the spiderman opening as i liked the way they had done the credits. as you progress throught the credits it shows vivid images of characters and key elements to the movie, it also has a consistent effect right throught the credits (spider webs). i thought that my group could utelise these factors when creating our own film opening.

Fan Made Content

The use of the internet has revolutionised the film industry, the main thing being fan-made spoofs re makes, alternate endings and trailers. These fan-made media scripts are a huge sources of publicity for films as people (me included) will be enclined to watch the movie and compare it to the actual event in the film, spoofs can range from complete re-makes of scenes like the joker interview form the dark knight spoof above to people taking snipets from films and transforming the into songs such as the Lord of the Rings song below named 'potatoes'




many production companies are openly encouraging regular people to create fan-made content and movies such as snakes on a plane are almost entirely based on fan input. although not exactly fan made, there are spoofs tha include profesional actors expecialy jack black such as in this spiderman parody

Preliminary Review

.

One of the main thing you will notice is the dissapearing gloves (after siting down over a series of re-takes i decided to take them off) another fault in the film was that when i came through the door the teacher who was having a lesson in the room next to us had a go at me for constantly going in and out of the room. Another Point than is wrong is that hollie keeps on smiling. We also need to remember our lines better (an exaple of this would be me forgeting who was suposed to be murderd and improvising and using the name of one of my classmates.  

The Da Vinci Code

Sound

The music used from the begining of the scene sounds a bit like a church choir. This is possibily foreshadowing the fact that the semantic field of this film is religion. Also the music is played while the character is running away from another character. this may have been used to create suspense.

dialogue was also used in the opening scene. When something important was said it was muffled so you couldnt hear what was being said. i believe this was done to make the audience more intrigued and make them want to watch more.

Sound effects were also used. other than the music, foot steps are the first thing you hear, which is an effective way of creating suspense.

Camera work

The use of close up shots was used in the opening scene of The Da Vinci Code. The first close up i noticed was of this painting of a woman, there are several close ups like this that give the impression that the paintings are watching whats going on. 

There is also an extreme close up on one of the characters face, however the lighting was very dark and created heavy shadows on his face making it difficult to see him and know what he looks like. i think that this was done on purpose because at this point he looks evil and they may have done it to let the audience know that he was the 'villian' in the film.

An ariel shot has also been taken. It looks down upon the building that the actions are taking place in.

Mise En Scene

The setting of the opening scene seems to be in some kind of gallery. we can tell this by the close up shots of various pictures and paintings.

One of the characters is dressed in a sort of monk style robe, this may suggest that the film involves religious themes. his bright blonde/ white hair contrasts with the dark clothes that he is wearing, this could pragmatically suggest that he is in conflict with his religion as brightness is a symbol of goodness and purity (heaven) where as dark colours are used to symbolise bad and evil, (hell).

Title analysis

00:01-01:00- Columbia, Imagine, Sky Lark (Producer/ compaines involved)
01:15- title
01:50- movie starts

as there are not much titles (in the form of the actors) it
leaves the viewer to build up there own understanding of the
actors as the film progresses (and many of the viewers will
already know who the actors are).

The Birds

In the opening scene of 'The Birds' all the credits are shown before the actual film begins. whilst the credits are appearing, in the back ground there is flying birds which creates a link with the title of the film.
in our thriller opening coursework task we will probably incoperate the credits within the film as we dont get a long time filming.

Mise En Scene
It is quite obvious that the film is set in America. Firstly one of the first things we see is a tram which is associated with cities in America. also there is a panning shot of the first character we see, the woman, and it passes a poster which says 'San Fransico'. it is also obvious that the movie was filmed a long time ago because of the costume and hair style of the main woman.

the imdb ratings show that 'The Birds' is most popular amongst males between 18-29.

preliminary task plan

alex turner: camera man
hollie chapman: interviewer
sean farrell: interviewer
setting: interview room (E block corridoor)

1: interviewer walking down corridoor
2:jumps to close up of interviewer turning door handle
3: jumps to inside the interview room and interviewer entering room
4: shot of the interviewer sitting down opposite the interviewee
Dialogue:
interviewer- Interview start 18:13. hello Mrs Stuart. Im here to ask you about on the night of the 23rd January.
interviewee- I was at my parents house.
interviewer- We have several accounts of you being seen entering Auto Repair on cambridge road at 20:15.
Interviewee- I dont know what your talking about...
interviewer- dont play games with us Mrs Stuart. i want to know if you have any connection with the death of Bradley Turner.
5: fades out

law abiding citizen

Law abiding citizen


Law abiding citizen is about a man who at the beginning of the film has to watch as his family are murdered in front of his eyes. He then tries to take it to court but is not satisfied with the outcome of he trial. Ten years on he returns to murder his families killers and all the people involved in the trial but, commits most of his murders from inside his jail cell trying to bring the whole system down in an epic thriller

Dark Knight Trailer

How Dose This Trailer Appeal to the Audience


the trailer immediately gives you the impression that this is going to be quite a dark and deadly film, through the use of lots of dark images that are only on for a second each (each snipet gives you a snap shot from the film) 

Fight Club Review

Story Line

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion. Written by Anonymous on IMDb.

Characters

Fight Club contains famous actors such as Brad Pit, Edward Norton and Helena Carter so the Audience (in knowing that there were several talented and respected professionals in he film) would be more inclined to see the film.

The Film in One Line: an adrenaline filled fast paced film with a sudden twist.

The Main Audience for a thriler

To try and find out the main audience for a thriller I looked at several thriller films of various types and compared them:
The Godfather, the main characteristics of this films audience (based on IMDb votes) were:

• males 
• people aged from under 18 to 29
• American's (more than any other country)

females also gave, on average, lower votes and there were significantly fewer female votes (around 260,000 less than male)

Die Hard, the main characteristics of this films audience (based on IMDb votes) were:

•  Males
• aged under 18 (Although they were fewer than males 18/21 they gave a higher rating overall. 
• Fairly evenly spaced between Americans and non Americans (possibly slightly towards the non Americans side)

Alien, the main characteristics of this films audience (based on IMDb votes) were:

• Males (beginning to see a theme developing)
• again although there were fewer males aged 18 and under they gave a higher rating than the 18/29 year olds.
• there were twice as many non Americans as Americans but you have to take into account that 'non Americans' applies to the rest of the world.

The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect is about a boy who blocks out harmful memories of his life. As he grows up he finds a supernatural way to remember the lost memories and to alter his life.
This film would be classed as either a Mystery Thriller or a Supernatural Thriller.
The main characters are played by well known young actors, Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart.

According to the IMDB website, this thriller movie has a higher interest of men rather than women at any age. The chart on the website also suggests that the films biggest audience is people from the age of 18-29.

Conventions of a thriller and thriller themes

Conventions of a thriller
• Scary (jumpy)
• Dark music
• Sometimes action packed
• Thrilling
• Unexpected
• Sometimes violent
• Anticipation and uncertainty
• Build up tension and suspense
• The Da Vinci Code
• Scream
Thriller themes
• Mystery
• Crime
• Investigation
• Life and death
• Murder
• supernatural

Sean Farrell 1st post

a title sequence analysis for Se7en

From the analysis in the video i can conclude that in making
my opening