New Shot List: Opening to Thriller

• Longshot esablishing locations, scene and characters. This introduces the two characters to the film.
• Cut to a tracking shot of the girl walking towards the man, sat at a table.
• Cut to an over the shoulder shot of her approaching the man, and the man putting his newspaper down on the table.
• Cut to a high angle/Close up shot of the girl picking the empty mug up, close up (using the rule of thirds) showing the newspaper headline. (Relating to rape/murder)
• Cut to an extreme close up of the date, showing this part is in a flashback.
• Cut to a zoom out of close up into a high angle shot of the man and girl.
• Cut to a point of view shot of the girl walking away, using shot reverse shot between the girl and the man to connect them. Girl goes into the kitchen.
• Cut to a tracking shot of the mans feet as he gets up and starts to walk.
• Cut to a low angle shot of the man approaching the door.
• Cut to a worms eye of him opening and closing the door.
• Cut to an extreme closeup shot of him bolting the door.
• Cut to a panning shot of the man walking towards the counter and crouching, out of sight from the girl. The girl comes out of the kitchen, scans cafe and switches most of the lights off and walks towards the door.
• Cut to an over the shoulder shot of man walking towards the the girl whilst she's looking for her keys.
• Cut to a man standing directly behind her, cut to transition/panning shot of the girl to man, in a different scene/location.
• Cut to a transition shot continues to over the shoulder shot of the man attatching photo of the girl to a wall.
• Cut to a close up panning shot showing all the photos of different dead girls.

Further Development to our Thriller Idea

     As a group, we decided that our idea would be too complex just for an opening, as from our case studies we can see that a lot of Thriller films that conform to the genre have very simple openings with minimal changes to setting or characters. Therefore, we have taken our original idea of the cafe, but focus more on the interior of the cafe itself because a dark, ominous cafe will work very well in the Thriller genre. Also that if we keep to just one location, the audience will not be confused and it means that the audience can connect with a character more closely in one settings before it is changed - also just having one location will make it easier for us to maintain the 2 minutes we need.  

   

Developments:

• It will begin with the young girl working in the cafe, however the difference is that the man will be inside the cafe sat down having a drink, instead of being outside watching her.
• The man will be sat at a table reading a newspaper with 'murder/rape' headlines on it.
• The girl will go to collect his coffee and the camera will catch the headline of the newspaper - foreshadowing the rest of the plot.
• She will take the coffee from him and begin to close the cafe for that evening.
• The date on the newspaper will imply that the scene is a flashback once the audience has established the date later in the film.
• The girl will then return to the kitchen with the coffee cup - during this the man will approach the front door of the cafe, open and close the door to imply that he has left, leaving the girl to continue to lock up.
• An extreme close up of the bolt sliding across the door will be next - to show she has been locked inside the already small/claustraphobic space of the cafe.
• He will then walk to crouch behind the counter, so that the girl does not see him.
• Once returning from the kitchen, the girl will switch off all of the lights and slowly walk toward the door, searching for her key in her bag/pocket.
• We will show a shot of the man stood closely behind her, slowly closing in on her in a threatening way.
• We will then use a transition shot to conclude to the next scene - using the back of the girls head, fading into the back of the mans head. He will then place the girls picture on his wall of many other pictures of young girls.

We will have a shot of the man pinning up photos of girls and also the girl in the film, much like in the image (left) - portraying the man as a sadistic killer - the influence coming from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. Thus the rest of the film will be an investigation into the murder/disapprence of the girl from the cafe and perhaps having the man as a very onmisent and enigmatic character in the film.

Overall - I think this idea is much simpler and will be able to fit into 2 minutes a lot easier as we have less to film rather than having to film a lot and then cram it into the time limit - which could confuse the audience because there is so much location change. Therefore, with only one location, possibly two if the man is filmed walking into the cafe at the beginning, the audience can see the narrative structure and characters much easier.

Thelma & Louise (1991) - Image Analysis

     Directed by Ridley Scott, this film was released on 12 July 1991. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards (USA) - but only won 1 of the nominations for 'Best Writing'. It was also nominated for 8 BAFTA awards. 

     Ridley Scott utilises Thriller conventions in an interesting way to establish the genre, but he also mixes them with unusual conventions to challenge the genre and the social context at the time that the film was made. He achieves this by manipulating usual Thriller conventions and changing them to something unexpected; especially in the conformity and representation of gender. 

    One of the ways that Scott uses these Thriller conventions is through Location. The location of a car park behind a bar is perfect for a Thriller and is a typical convention of the thriller as it is an enclosed/claustrophobic space, but feels open because it is so large, although barriers are present when in a car park. This could be used to represent that Louise has enclosed the man to this point, in location and time, and therefore he has nowhere to go both literally and metaphorically - thus this is used to make the location and scene much more threatening towards the man. Another Thriller convention used here is the enigmatic white van behind the man - which could represent that the man himself is an enigma as he is unknown to the women in this film, but he is trying to become known to them - the same as a white van is used to create mystery and an eerie feel to a scene. 

Jackie Brown 1997

     The use of characters is another Thriller convention, but challenges the genre in the roles of these characters. Firstly, upon looking at facial expression we can see that the man teeth are gritted and his eyes are looking back towards Louise and her eye direction is directly towards him. This is used to establish a negative relationship and that she has a negative attitude towards him, but his eye direction is still quite sly and sadistic like he thinks he is still going to get away with it because he's a man and she's a woman. However, the audience can see that the woman is very dominant in the shot although there is a clear height difference. The difference in height is used to challenge gender conformity in that although she is significantly smaller than he is, Louise still is dominant and makes him show fear. Showing that just because someone is larger than you, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are stronger or more dominant, which challenges the social context for women at the time as the Femme Fatale and woman dominated men in film was unknown at the time. This reminds me of the scene in 'Jackie Brown'  (above) when she pulls a gun out against the dominant man in the scene - showing a reversal of gender roles and also challenging the representation of women. 



Heavenly Creatures 1994

       Furthermore, lighting is another Thriller convention used in this shot. It is non-ambient lighting, meaning that studio lighting has been used to increase the amount of light in the shot - we can see this from the lighting being a bright white lighting and evening lighting or ambient lighting from indoor lights would have a yellow tone to the light. A similar technique is used in 'Heavenly Creatures' (right) to add more light to the scene. This type of lighting is used to put the audience's focus onto the characters in the foreground of the scene. It also dulls the background even more to make sure the audience doesn't stray off from the action to a brighter object in the background, therefore the background is kept dark and unlit. This lighting puts a lot of focus onto the gun as it makes it the brightest part of the shot and a person's viewpoint will always go towards the brightest part of a shot before looking at the rest of it - therefore it establishes the situation very clearly and abruptly to the audience. Another use of camera and lighting is that a depth of field is used, meaning that the background is blurred/out of focus, as the foreground remains in focus. This technique is used in Photography a lot - shown by the ladybird (above) - as Photographers will want the audience to focus on a specific point before looking at the rest of the image. This is a concious decision as the background could be in focus in the photo (above) and the Ridley Scott's shot here. Therefore he chose to use the blur in this instance to make the audience focus very clearly on the situation and characters in the shot. 


     The use of camera angles is key to this shot/scene as it establishes the characters. This shot is a medium close up of the two main characters of this scene. In the shot as a whole, Louise is very much more dominant in the shot and her arm is stretched out, thus making the man have to stand straight and still, being less dominant in the shot. This is used to show her overall dominance in the situation and that she has the upper hand by having a gun pointed to his head. This camera angle is also used to make it much more limited in the use of space as not much of the background is used - meaning that the these two characters are very important and that they are the only two characters that matter in this shot. 

Essex Boys 2000

    Props are also used in this scene which have Thriller conventions. The gun is obviously the main conventional prop used here and is used to show violence and establish Louise as a 'Femme Fatale'. It also challenges the genre because it is not normally women who hold guns or shoot people in films or Thrillers even though the Femme Fatale in not uncommon, shown by Jackie holding the gun in 'Jackie Brown'. The clothes are a key prop as the man's shirt is white in colour which is a colour that connotes innocence and purity, however the colour is more of an off-white colour - showing that he is a not innocence or pure, but he is trying to appear to be. This is shown when he tries to 'kiss' Thelma as an innocent act, but then turns violent when the act is refused. The blue jacket that Louise is wearing is used to show a complete contrast between her and the man. The use of prop in film to represent a character is used a lot as it can compliment or contrast their character and personality, which reminds me of Jason in 'Essex Boys' as he is wearing a very loud, obnoxious shirt - which is used to reflect his obnoxious, selfish and vain personality. 

Key Thriller Conventions - Camera

Camera Angles - The use of strong and visually interesting camera angles is essential in encapsulating an audience and adding tension or mystery to a scene. I think we should utilise camera angles with utmost priority.

Examples of good use of camera angles:

Close up:

   The close up here in Witness is used to add to the tension and suspense of the atmosphere of the scene at this time and make the audience sympathise with the boy as he is struggling to close the door and could be killed if he doesn't - making the audience fear for his life. This is used to great effect and makes the audience feel more connected with the character of the boy.

   The close up used in Animal Kingdom is to make the audience directly associate with the main character, 'J'. As the film progresses, more and more close ups are used to directly associate the action with 'J' and to make the audience feel as if they are experiencing it from his perspective.




Long shots/Landscape shots (used to establish location):

    This long shot of the Australian landscape is used in Animal Kingdom. It is used to reflect the character in the scene as a morally corrupt, in that the landscape seems endless and limitless - reflecting that his morality, or lack of such, has no boundaries or limits and he will continue to do whatever he wants without consequences. Also the desolate wasteland that is shown in this image shows that his mind is in the wrong place and his judgement is wrong and he's gone insane with worry and anxiety. This kind of representational image could be used in our Thriller as we have the facility and idea to use a limitless landscape of the countryside.

 

This very barren landscape in Essex Boys is used to connote very similar meaning, in that the man is beating up a 'friend' as it is describe by the voiceover, although we can tell this is not true. The limitless landscapes reflects his limitless personality and morality in that he's just come out of a sentence in prison and the first thing he does is nearly kill the person who meant he went into prison. Although this is very graphic, the idea and connotations behind it are very strong and could be used in our thriller.

    Planning:

    In our Thriller I do think that we should focus very clearly on trying to use some of these generic camera shots as it would add more to the film rather than just having simple camera shots - as we only have 2 minutes so every shot and every detail must mean something, as I think that we should use clever narrative techniques, such as foreshadowing and connotations.

    The use of a long shot to establish a location could definitely be used as the girl is walking home as it would show her location, and it could be used again to show the man's house. We have already decided on using an establishing shot near the beginning of the film to show the girl in the café and establish the location and the whole café to the audience.

    As we develop our shot list further we will be able to establish which camera angles we are going to use and why we are going to use them. Such as a long shot to establish location or a high angle shot to show dominance in a scene.

Mainstream and Independent Film

Mainstream:

·      Target a mass audience for maximum profit

·      High budget – in studio

·      Profit oriented

·      Easy storyline to follow

·      Popular genre

·      A-list actors

·      CGI & SFX

Independent:

·      Have a specific target audience

·      Low budget

·      Plot oriented

·      Complex storyline

·      Specific genre – focus on cinematography

·      Unknown actors – give authentic feel

·      Sponsorship deals

·      Product endorsement

·      Distribution and TV deals

Cinema City: Independent

·         Own programme

·         Arthouse/Independent/Specific/Specialist

·         Elements of mainstream & independent

·         Part of the PictureHouse network

·         Funding from Europa Cinemas

·         Shows European films

PictureHouse:

·         Leading independent cinema operator in the UK

·         Network – not a chain

·         18 cinemas

·         City locations – university towns

·         Diverse programming

·         Blend of arthouse & mainstream

·         Encourages educational films/events

·         Offers Cinema City legal support

Europa Cinemas:

·         Network of cinemas over Europe

·         Gives subsidy to Cinema City – up to €16,000 p.a.

-       Only gets money if 35% of films are European and from at least 6 different countries. No more than 50% from one country.

·         Holds an archive of films

How was 'Animal Kingdom' a marketing success?

Animal Kingdom was an independent film, funded by the independent Australian based producers – Porchlight Films. The estimated budget was around $5,000,000 (AUD) – which is very low budget for a film, thus showing the fact that it is an independent film. The only mainstream aid to this film was the American distribution by Sony Pictures Classics which is an area of Sony Pictures that deals with independent film and producers. Although this could be seen as mainstream interference it does not take away the fact that this film was solely independent as the first screenings the theatrical release was done through Porchlight Films and Sony Pictures only interfered to help distribute the film the US audience. Another producer was Madmen who helped to fund the film. They are also well-known film producers so therefore people will know that they would only back a film that is worth seeing and a film that is going to make a profit. Another key aspect of the marketing was that the film has won the ‘Sundance’ Film Festival award – which is a reputable festival known across the world, meaning this would have been a key selling point for the producers to get across to the audience.

On the theatrical release, in Australia, it was only shown on 40 screens instead of the usual 160 screens that a mainstream film would show. This is because this is appropriate for a film of such a low budget, as there might not be many people going to see the film on the release date as there are no A-list actors used and the director is fairly unknown, therefore most people would not set out to see the film initially so the use of only 40 screens is used to make sure they don’t overestimate the popularity of the film. So far, as of 17 March 2011, Animal Kingdom has grossed $6,793,982 (Worldwide), which is staggering amount considering that only $5,000,000 was initially spent on it.

Animal Kingdom was a marketing success due to the viral marketing used. They aimed to encapsulate their audience by selling the film online via social media such as Facebook and Twitter. This is commonly used by independent films due to that fact that is very cheap to market a film online and you can create viral buzz if you have a good trailer and focus on the storyline as a selling point and this is just what they did with Animal Kingdom. The trailer focuses on the storyline and the genre to sell the film to the audience. It uses the ‘Sundance’ Film Festival logo to show that they won the award – meaning they are showing to the audience that this film is worth watching. The use of an Animalistic lexical field – words such as ‘Hunted’, ‘Survival’, ‘Weak’, ‘Strong’ and ‘Creatures’ – is used to reflect the title ‘Animal Kingdom’ and show that the meaning of the title is shown throughout the film. It also uses the reviews from L.A Times and the Independent UK to show a positive review of the film. As the L.A Times said it was “Immaculate” and the Independent said it was “remarkable”.

All of these marketing techniques together have resulted in the film being a marketing success. The utilisation of the social media was used to great effectiveness and was used mainly due to fact that it is very cheap marketing.

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Thriller Planning