Spoiler Review- 3 of 3

Fight Club

The nameless narrator is a traveling automobile company employee who suffers from insomnia. His doctor refuses to give him medication and advises him to visit a support group to witness more severe suffering. The narrator attends a support group for testicular cancer victims and fools them into thinking he is a fellow victim, this helps him find an emotional release that relieves his insomnia. He becomes addicted to attending support groups and pretending to be a victim, but the presence of another impostor, Marla Singer, disturbs him, so he negotiates with her to avoid their meeting at the same groups.

After a flight home from a business trip, the narrator finds his apartment destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler Durden, a soap salesman who he became friends with on the flight, and they meet at a bar. A conversation about consumerism leads to Tyler inviting the narrator to stay at his house; outside the bar he requests that the narrator hit him. The two engage in a fistfight, and the narrator subsequently moves into Tyler's house. They have further fights outside the bar, and these attract a crowd of men. The fighting moves to the bar's basement where the men form a "fight club".

Marla overdoses on pills and phones the narrator for help; he ignores her, but Tyler answers the call and saves her. Tyler and Marla become lovers, and Tyler warns the narrator never to talk to Marla about him. More fight clubs form across the country, and under Tyler's leadership, they become the anti-materialist and anti-corporate organization called "Project Mayhem". The narrator complains to Tyler that he wants to be more involved in the organisation, but Tyler suddenly disappears. When a member of Project Mayhem is killed by the police during a botched sabotage operation, the narrator tries to shut down the project, and uses evidence of Tyler's travelling to track him down. In one city, a Project member greets the narrator as Tyler Durden. 

The narrator calls Marla from his hotel room and discovers that Marla also believes him to be Tyler. He suddenly sees Tyler in his room, and Tyler explains that they are disassociated personalities in the same body. Tyler controls the narrator's body when the narrator is asleep.

The narrator blacks out after the conversation. When he wakes, he discovers from his phone call log that Tyler made calls during his blackout. He uncovers Tyler's plans to erase debt by destroying buildings that contain credit card companies' records. The narrator tries to contact the police but finds that the officers are members of the Project. He attempts to disarm explosives in a building, but Tyler stops him and moves to a safe building to watch the destruction. The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that in sharing the same body with Tyler, he himself is actually holding the gun. He fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. Tyler collapses with an exit wound to the back of his head, and the narrator stops mentally projecting him. Afterward, Project Mayhem members bring a kidnapped Marla to him, believing him to be Tyler, and leave them alone. The explosives detonate, collapsing the buildings, and the narrator and Marla watch the scene, holding hands.

I would rate this film 4 out of 5. This is an effective thriller as it leaves question in your head the whole way through the film. It uses mystery very well, it also keeps the viewer at the edge of there seat waiting for the answer to the enigma code to be revealed. 

Marking previous opening sequences

I have given this opening a high level 2/ low level 3.
The positives are that they have used some understanding of the rule of thirds and reasonably good use of match on action.
Although the elements holding it back are that they have used the camera hand held which has then made this poor quality and also they have not put in much effort of making the camera straight or into there props or locations. Also they have not included as many titles as they should include.



I would give this opening a high level 3.
It is a good opening as they have built up suspense and mystery throughout so it is effect in being a thriller movie.
The aspects holding this opening back from being a level 4 would be that they have not used the rule of thirds very often and also they haven't used match on action, instead they have just cut between the characters.




I would count this opening as a level 4.
They have used the location to there advantage and they have used  a variety of shot types and angles, also the miss en scene in this clip is amazing and they have really put the effort in. They have also used a good variety of foley and soundtracks.

Foley- falling down sequence

Here is a sequence in which we added all of the over the top of the video, as foley. This will help when making my own title sequence as it was good practice for getting the sound to fit in with the sequence and the timing.

End of Module Report 2

I would mark my current efforts as an E1. This is rather disappointing as this is a very low mark. I have allowed myself to get this mark as I have been lazy and not completed all of the work set for my individual and group blog. I now need to work really hard to bring my blog posts up to date and improve the standards of all of my work.

spoiler review- 2 of 3

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I have used the format of a prezi for this spoiler review of the girl with the dragon tattoo.

seven opening title sequence edit

We had been set a task to make an opening title sequence in the style of the renowned thriller film seven.  We have made this by the program final cut, we have layered different pictures and video clips and overlaid the sound track from the original seven title sequence. We have used techniques such as the sharp changing of image and the effect of the image jumping around the screen. I feel this has been successful as we have tried to keep the pictures and video clips used to a specific story line and we have also edit the titles. To improve this we should of made sure that we had cut the music as we left it at its original length so therefore carries on playing even when our video is over, also we could have made the images to change to the beat of the music to give it more effect.

class work

sub-genre- crime thriller
typical setting- police station
characters- theres usually a police officer or detective
typical scene- usually a crime scene
linear- this is linear because you are starting off at the beginning of the story with them
the enigma code would be- who did the crime?
restricted because we know as much as a character



sub-genre- sci-fi thriller
typical setting- in the future
characters- some sort of technological person or alien
typical scene- a scene involving technology
non-linear- because you see a crime happen and then it goes to the future
omniscient
the enigma code- who are the people in the water? what was the wooden ball that the character picked up?


 sub-genre- psychological thriller
typical setting-isolated location
characters- usually a detective
typical scene- a disappearance
non-linear- because we are dropped into the story
restricted- because we only know as much as the character knows
the enigma code would be- where are they going? what happened to his wife?


 sub-genre- crime
typical setting- isolated place
characters- murderer, detective
typical scene- interrogation scene
non-linear- because we have been dropped in after the crime has occurred
restricted- we only know what the character knows
the enigma code would be- what has this man done? why did he do it? what are the photos?

spoiler review- 1 of 3

The Tourist

The film starts with the main character Elise being followed by the police who have spent years searching for her old lover Alexander Pearce, who owes 744 million in back taxes. At a cafe, Elise receives a note from Pearce instructing her to; board a train to venice, pick out a man who resembles him and make the police believe that this decoy is him, Elise then burns the note and evades the police and boards a train.






On the train, Elise picks out Frank Tupelo a community college teacher going to venice to get over an ex lover. They begin to spend a lot of time together and appear to create a romance. Elsie invites him to stay at her hotel room, the next morning she abandons Frank who is then chased by a group of gangsters who are also looking Pearce, whilst on the run Frank is picked up by the police who then take him in for his own safety on to have a corrupt police office turn him in to gangsters. Elise rescues Frank and sends him the the airport with his passport and money, urging him to leave for his own safety.


It is then revealed that Elise is in fact an agent from scotland yard who may have become Pearce's ally. She fears for Franks safety so therefore agrees to a sting operation. Elise later attends a ball where she assumes the real Pearce will be. An envelope is placed on the table in front of her and the man hastily walks away, she assumes that this is Pearce and promptly walks after him. On her pursuit Frank intersects her and declares his love for her. He is then hauled away by the police, Elise opens the envelope from Pearce to find a note mentioning rendezvous point, she heads off in boat to rendezvous point, but is tailed by the gangsters and closely followed by the police, who have Frank tied up in there boat to stop him from obstructing the investigation.

When Elise arrives at the hotel room she is taken prisoner by the gangsters who are demanding to know where the money that Pearce owes them is being kept. The police are monitoring the situation through audio and video that has been pre set up, despite Elises peril the office in charge refuses to take other offices advice to intervene with the snippers. Whilst the officers are monitoring the situation Frank finds a way to escape the police boat. He gets into the room and confronts the gangsters by telling them that he is Pearce the gangsters are sceptical and tell him if he really is Pearce he should open the safe, the chief inspector arrives on the boat and over rules the man in charge and tells the snipers to intervene, killing the gangsters.

The final scenes you see the police let Elise leave her job, and they think they have found the real Pearce but when they get to the scene and talk to him he is simply a tourist being payed to pretend to be him via an anonymous source. Back in the room Elise tells Frank that she loves him but also loves Pearce. Frank then walks over to the safe and enters the correct code, therefore revealing that he is in fact Pearce.

I have given this film three stars due to the fact that the film did not create much mystery or suspense throughout and mystery and suspense are the main qualities that a thriller should possess. Although I like the twists in the plot that the film threw up such as the fact the Elise was actually an agent and the answer to the enigma code, 'who is Pearce', was effect as you did not expect him to be Frank. 

production company logo

mind map- conventions of the genre

I have composed a mind map to brain storm all the different iconic features of a thriller film. 

Thriller Concept

The Plot:
Based on the minimal budget i have decided to make a Crime thriller. The thriller will be based around corrupt police and a criminal organisations. The opening scene will take place in two locations, one locations will be a room with a swat team getting ready to stage a police raid and the other will be a dark abandoned room where the criminals will be planning. A secret message will be recieved by one of the members of the organisation letting them now that the police are on them. This will then introduce the enigma code, who is sending the messages? throughout the film we will meet a variety of characters who act as though it could be them, the will create the mystery and suspense. The message recieved will then trigger events that will be leading to big event, this will be a drug trafficing event but as we are building to this there will be many events where the organisation recieve messages letting them know what the police know this sends the story into twists and turns. The final scenes of the film will convey the big crime and the police turning up at the wrong location you will then see one of the police offices helping with the trafficking this will then reveal who was sending the messages.

Story board pictures

end of module one review

I have been self evaluating myself and i feel as though my blog is only worth around 10 marks which would only be a level 2. I feel as though i need to put a lot more detail into my work and I need to make sure that all pieces of work are complete. I also need to find new ways of presenting my work rather than just writing it as a block piece of text. I also need to go through and embed the link for my seven titles remake onto my blog and i need to upload my 'falls down' sound edit and my lock, stock remake.

Self Evaluation

We completed a quiz in a class and my final school was 26 out of 28 this is the description of this score, Impressive. You are thinking around elements we have discussed in class and have clearly been studying around the topic and applying your knowledge rather than just remembering. I'm expecting a good Thriller from you.

I think that I am meeting the expectations of an A level as I take into consideration to work outside of class and watch thriller films in my spare time to help me understand further what a thriller and get to know the components.

I think my note taking in class is effective as I make mind maps to set out clearly all the information but I do feel that i could take better notes, as i dont really take notes without him telling me. I feel as though I probably should start doing this. 
 

Evaluation of First Shoot

Today we 
example 1
the group havent rewound the tape so therefore made it hard for the editor to find the tape.
shot coming out of the door- the shot is slanted so therefore can not be used.
shot of the girl looking paranoid with a bag- this shot is also slanted and the white balance has not been done properly.
close up of face looking paranoid- good shot but used a low angle instead of high angle

example 2
this group have also not rewound the tape so therefore makes it hard for the editor to order.
girl holding bag awkwardly- good medium long shot
close up of face- they have deliberatly changed the shot to have the man on the phone behind her.
a little bit dark need to sort out eposure.
had to cut short because the tape was corrupt.

Iconography of a Thriller

Whilst evaluating what makes a thriller i have been looking at the iconography of the genre, here I have put together two mood boards, one of which is made up of things that you would connect with a thriller film and the other is made up of examples of thriller films. The collage on the left is full of iconic thriller movies, i have included films such as salt, shutter island, the game, the matrix, texas killing fields, fight club, memento, the girl with the dragon tattoo and seven. All of these films include the iconic features of the thriller genre. The second collage is based on these iconic features, for example the crime scene tape to show that they are usually based around some kind of crime that has or will occur. Also there is  picture of a shadow to reflect the suspense as with shadows you know that something or someone is there but it is not completely clear what and in thrillers you know that something is going to happen but again your not sure what. I have also included pictures of things such as a detective and money because there is usually a detective involved and thrillers quite often revolve around money. Other things i have include are things such as the london skyline, because thrillers usually take place in an important place such as one of the most important cities in the world, other locations i have include are things such as the MI5 offices in london as this is recognisable as somewhere that there would be important people such as spies and are in charge of some of the most dangerous undercover crime operations and i have included a dark alleyway as crime usually takes place somewhere very dark and abandoned such as an alleyway.

Art of the title

As part of my media course we have been looking at how important the titles of a film are and what they do. So I chose to look closely at the titles of the American thriller 'seven' and have chosen 9 frames  to evaluate. 

 This is the first frame I have chosen and is also the first thing the audience sees when they watch this film. The style of the book and the lighting they have used has a creepy and old-fashioned feel to it, which gives the audience the impression that the film is going to be dark and creepy.

Here is a frame that looks like a kind of trace or drawing of hands, the hands look distorted or broken and a lot of detail has been included. This puts questions in the viewers mind as they would wonder what these hands mean and what they have to do with the plot.

 This frame shows a man scrapping skin off of his fingers with a blade. This shocks the viewer and makes the audience think that the film is going to a gruesome edge to it. Also the fingers are very dirty which insinuates that he probably doesn't have much money or lives somewhere dirty.

In this frame you can see a picture being placed on a piece of paper, but the thing that stands out the most about this frame in my opinion is the hand. If you look at the hand closely you can see that there is a plaster or bandage wrapped around the thumb which shows some sort of injury.

 There is two aspects of this frame that could reflect the storyline of the film, the first is the most obvious one of the picture with the eyes being crossed out. Usually in thriller or horror movies or when you hear about someones eyes being crossed or scratched off of a picture they have been killed or are planning on being killed. The other aspect is the style of writing, it looks hand written, it also looks scruffy and untidy which could resemble the personality of the character.

 Here we see the character binding something together, most probably all the sheets of paper that we have seen up until this point. This shows that he has finished what looks like the planning of something, which could imply to the viewer that he may put these plans into action throughout the film. which could strike fear.

 The character here seems to be sewing paper together which shows that whoever it is he is not a professional at what he is doing otherwise he would have the proper machinery to bind what ever he making together.

Here it looks as though he using parts of different newspapers to spell out a sentence. This is usually done in crime shows so that the crime is untraceable, this gives the audience the impression that some kind of crime is going to happen.

Panic Room Title Sequence

These are the opening titles of the film 'panic room'. I have gone through the opening of the film and individually screen shotted each of the titles, this will help me with my own title sequence as it has helped me understand how many titles I will need and the order in which they should be shown.