Film theories

In order to discover as much as we can about film techniques and tips I have been looking into different film theories:

Auteur's theory - 

This theory has been debated since the 1940s, however, Andre Bazin and Roger Leenhardt presented the theory that it is the director that brings the film to life and uses the film to express their thoughts and feelings about the subject matter as well as a worldview as an auteur. An auteur can use lighting, camerawork, staging and editing to add to their vision. This theory sees championed filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Nicolas Ray, Howard Hawks etc. as absolute auteurs of their films.


This theory then promotes the idea that the making of a film is more than just filming different events or for marketing purposes, it is an amazing opportunity to send a message to whoever your audience is, something we will try to emulate in our thriller opening.

Todorov's Narrative theory - 

Todorov's theory basically states that most story's or plot lines follow the same pattern or path. There are 5 different steps to this pattern:

• Equilibrium - The first part of the story will display a happy start, where the majority of character's are content and everything is as it should be.
• A disruption - The second part of the story will feature a problem or some things will disrupt the happiness.
• Realization - This part of the plot is when everyone realizes the problem and so it dis sends into chaos.
• Restored order - This part of the plot is when the character's attempt to repair the damage and restore the problem.
• Equilibrium again - And finally, this is the final part of the plot where the problem is resolved and normality can resume again.

Although this theory does apply to the majority of films, mainly, thrillers don't usually conform to this theory. One that perhaps does is Joel Schumacher's American pyschological thriller 'Phone Booth' largely conforms to this theory although there is a twist at the end which suggests that equilibrium has not been completely restored. However, other thrillers such as Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises do not follow this theory as that film openes up with disruption and chaos rather than equilibrium. In our thriller opening, we also start out in a state of confusion and disruption, therefore not following Todorov's narrative theory like a lot of thrillers similar to ours.

Apparatus Film Theory

'Apparatus' is another word for the means in which a specific production is created. In the case of film/cinema, the film projector and the screen. Apparatus Theory is a model of spectator ship and institutions. It argues that cinema is idealogical (based on ideas) because the films are created to represent reality. This means that because film is created to illustrate different ideas, everything has meaning - from the camerawork to the editing. It argues that ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature (through the viewer) and it shapes how we think.

In film theory, the idea is that representation must include the mechanics of film, for example the camera and editing. The production of meaning in a film text, the way a text constructs a viewing subject and the mechanics of making a film all affect the representation of the subject. This theory is that the central position of the sepctator/viewer within the perspective of the text is also idealogical - it is reproduced reality and the experience of cinema influences the viewer on a deep level.

 

Thriller opening scenes

In order to ensure that we have utilized the best possible techniques for our thriller opening I decided to analyse a few thriller openings so as to gain inspiration for our own product:

This is the opening for David Fincher's American psychological thriller film Seven:

In this particular opening, Fincher uses a very stylized and eerie theme to convey different thoughts and emotions throughout the opening. For example, he uses quick, jolting cuts which speed up as the titles go on creating tension and suspense for the rest of the film.

Also, Fincher uses the lighting in this opening to convey a sense of danger and seriousness, this is as most of the shots are shot indoors using low key lighting, setting a dull and suspicious feel which is emulated throughout the rest of the movie.

Fincher also uses sound in the opening to create tension. At the beginning of the clip, the beat and rhythm of the soundtrack is slow and ominous at the start, however, as the sequence goes on it speeds up and intensifies creating a tense and chilling atmosphere for the audience preparing them for the rest of the movie and setting the tone of Fincher's film early on. In our product, we tried to emulate Fincher and uses a slow soundtrack at the beginning of our opening and as we progressed the music we used was a higher paced beat which continually builds up tension for the rest of the opening.

Another technique we attempted to emulate from Fincher was the use of text in the opening. As the opening is itself, the text used in Seven's title sequence is very stylized and is useful in setting the tone and atmosphere for the movie. For example, the text is shown in the sequence as very erratic and nerving creating a strong sense of unease and tension. In our own opening, at the beginning of the sequence, to match the soundtrack, we had our text slowly fade into shot as we didn't want a fast paced and tense start at the beginning as we were aiming for the tension to be slowly built up over the opening.

This is the opening to Christopher Nolan's superhero action thriller the Dark Knight Rises:

This opening is effective because Nolan thrusts his audience straight into the action, instantly generating suspense for the audience. One particular technique Nolan uses like Fincher is the soundtrack. However, unlike Fincher, Nolan starts straight off with a fast paced tense soundtrack which constantly builds as the scene goes on only slowing when Bane's character is unveiled, showing that this is a dramatic and important moment in the movie. When the scene climaxes and the plane the interrogators are on is instantly and brutally attacked the music climaxes and becomes much louder. This satisfies the audience's built up tension and suspense and provides an effective and powerful moment when the situation of the scene completely changes and the interrogators who are initially shown as the powerful figures of the scene are overturned by Bane's henchmen. 

Also, while the soundtrack throughout the vast majority of the scene is fast paced and intense, in the closing stage of the scene while Bane is hooking himself and his captive to the larger plane the music is building up to when Bane activates the explosives on the plane and two characters are left suspended in mid air high above the ground. At this point, the music stops completely and only the diegetic sound of the wind and the plane falling can be heard. This intensifies the danger the captive of Bane is and creates further suspense for the audience. We attempted to use this technique in our thriller opening when the chaser in the scene, slowly turns round the corner while the soundtrack in the back-similar to the soundtrack in Nolan's opening- is fast paced and building up to a climax, and when the chaser turns the corner the soundtrack stops alleviating the suspense and tension built up in the scene.

This is the soundtrack used in the opening to the Dark Knight Rises, as it is fast paced and steadily builds as it goes on it creates tension and suspense for the events that come later in the scene. We have tried to use a similar method with our soundtrack.

As well as the soundtrack in the scene, Nolan uses camera work to make the audience feel like they are right in the action, this is important in creating suspense in the audience as they feel like they are in amongst the danger. Nolan does this by using a hand held camera to give the scene a more chaotic look, a technique we used in our opening to ensure the audience felt as if they are close to the action. 

Evaluation Questions:

The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification. This is an important area to analyse as the BBFC gives what they see as the appropriate age rating to your film and it is important for the thriller genre especially that you get the age rating right otherwise you may attract the wrong audiences.
As my thriller opening I would personally class is a 15+ I will be analysing the BBFC's conditions for a 15 rated movie:

What does the 15 symbol mean?

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Are there any limits on what sort of theme a work can have at 15?

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

What might I see in a 15 rated film or video?

Any of the following:

•   strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

How much strong language is allowed in a 15?

There could potentially be a great deal. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (e.g. ‘f***’).
Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (e.g. 'c***'), depending on the manner in which they are used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification. However, continued or aggressive use will not normally be passed 15.

What about discriminatory or offensive terms?

There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this.
However, at 15 the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

How much sex and nudity is allowed at 15?

At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category.
Though nudity may be allowed in a sexual context there will usually be no strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
There can be strong references to sex and sexual behaviour, but especially strong or crude references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context.

Sex and sex references are treated the same irrespective of sexuality

Can there be strong violence?

Yes, at 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

What about sexual violence?

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.

What about horror works?

At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat.

Can you see drugs in a 15 rated film or video?

At 15 drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail).
The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances like aerosols or solvents is unlikely to be acceptable at 15.

What about dangerous behaviour or things teens might copy?

We consider the risk of potential harm to impressionable teenagers. For example, dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.
Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting.

The reason I believe our thriller would be given an age rating of 15 is because in the opening we have included strong suggestions of strong violence and e.g. the blood in the shower scene, although I do not think it would be given any more than a 15 as we don't include in the opening any suggestions of drug or sexual abuse as well as not actually showing the impact of the violence. It is important that we attempted to focus our thriller on a particular age rating as it is essential in ensuring we are aiming at the right audience for our project.

A Level Media Studies Continuity Piece

This our continuity piece, it took us about two visits to the location to finish this and we filmed it in a abandoned studio location.

The Crew-

• Victim- Ollie Locke
• Interrogator-Jack Chadwick
• Camera Work-Tom Silverwood
• Editing-Ollie Locke (Movie Maker)
• Lighting-Ollie Locke, Tom Silverwood, Jack Chadwick
• Music-Ollie Locke

In our continuity piece, in preparation for our thriller opening, we wanted to make sure this piece contained thriller elements. We decided on an interrogation scene involving a violent and unpredictable interrogator and a scared and confused victim. This would give us the chance to experiment and test some ideas on how to create the necessary elements involved in creating a successful thriller opening.

In the piece, as it is shot in a very dark and abandoned studio, we decided to maximise the use and effectiveness of lighting. For example, the interrogators face is never shown and is always in darkness. This creates mystery as it makes the character completely unknown and unpredictable to the audience, and adds suspense as the interrogation proceeds.

Also, we decided to shoot the film in black and white instead of colour to again emphasise the lighting on the piece, we gained this inspiration again from 'Psycho' and specifically the parlour scene, which uses shadows and lighting brilliantly in order to make the audience uncomfortable and in suspense of the situation, an effect we wanted to emulate in our continuity piece.


Also, we wanted to use mise en scene to create our desired effect. We decided on making the interrogator where dark clothing -in this case we got him to wear a black coat- and the victim to wear a lighter coloured jumper -a light blue one- this should have a subconscious effect on  the audience that due to the interrogators dark clothing as opposed to the lighter clothing of the victim, he is more mysterious or has darker intentions.


In our continuity piece, we could of improved on the camera quality as it was fuzzy and we weren't able to get the same quality of shots as we wanted, meaning we couldn't capture the light and effects that we wanted. As well as this, we could have introduced the use of sound effects/music to add extra effect.


We learnt a lot of things from our continuity piece, most notably what we could improve on, for example we made an effort to get a better quality camera which drastically improved the quality and professionalism of our work. Also, in the editing process, we learned to add more sound effects after to try and provoke extra emotions among the audience as well as being able to significantly improve on our cutting and editing of clips to improve our continuity.


All in all the continuity piece has been a very useful project in helping us in preparation for our thriller opening and has helped us learn useful techniques and tricks in order to make our thriller opening as effective as possible.

Thriller audience:

So as to know who to try to appeal to with our thriller opening I need to know the target audience it is going to be aimed at. Thrillers are aimed at an older audience that most films, especially the sub genres such as psychological thrillers, which require strong subject matters usually making the audience think. A recent psychological film that I have watched is 'Under the Skin', this film appeals to an older audience of peoples aged over 18. 'Under the Skin' particularly would only appeal to an older audience as it is highly interpretational. In many ways, like other thrillers, 'Under the Skin' goes against the stereotypical mainstream film that would be aimed at a large audience consisting of most groups of society. For example, many mainstream films such as Action/Adventure films consist of a glorified hero or protagonist whereas in thrillers usually the protagonist or central character of the movie are depicted as more lifelike and/or less heroic. In 'Under the Skin', the central character is an alien who, unless it is speaking to other humans, shows no emotions or feelings that the audience would require in a mainstream film so as to relate to them. The film also offers no clear storyline as there is very little dialogue, the shots involved mainly include a hidden camera style of filming which makes the audience feel like they are observing the events unfold themselves instead of being delivered a simple plot from the characters and watching the story unfold through them.

Plot Summary (spoilers)

When thinking of the plot to our own thriller opening, it was important that we try to stick to the guidelines and conventions of the thriller genre in order to make our opening successful. First of all, the opening consists of a chase between two unknown characters. This lack of clear narrative as well as not conforming to Todorov's narrative theory of beginning with equilibrium will excite our audience as they are thrown straight into the action and are clearly shown that this film will not conform to basic film conventions and will instead be a challenging, exciting thriller which is what they have come to see.  We chose to involve a pursuit as a chase is usually very dramatic which is one of the main thriller conventions. The first character we are introduced to is the one who is being chased, he is shown to be holding a bag. In the entire opening, we make sure not to give the audience nearly any information or background on any of the characters, this leaves the audience second guessing and does not leave them with a clear protagonist-antagonist situation which would usually be found in most films.


 We made sure the audience never sees the contents of this bag as we wanted to add a sense of mystery, even in a shot where we show the first character's pursuer actually opening the bag, we do a low-angled shot so we can only see the reaction of the character. As the pursuer closes in on who he is chasing we deliberately chose a slow tracking shot of the pursuer coming towards the camera as he looks for his target, this is to add suspense to the scene in order to again link with the standard and most important thriller convention. Also, when the chaser goes over to the changing rooms in pursuit of the runner, we deliberately choose to keep the camera at a position where the bag, although not being involved int he action, is still in shot. This suggests that the contents of this bag is still of some significance to the following events.


Finally, when the camera pans across to one of the victims of the target the pursuer slowly approaches only for the character being chased to come from behind to attack him. Although we do show the attacker approaching the pursuer we make sure not to show the actual attack, this technique was similarly used in Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller masterpiece 'Psycho'. As well as copying this method from 'Psycho' one of the final shots of the opening is that of a drain with supposed blood draining into it, this is to leave the opening on a suitable climax and relieve the audiences suspense and tension.