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.

comparing three thrillers..

I was presented with the question 'what makes a thriller?'. At first thought I was quite confused and considered this as a trick question because the thriller genre is quite an open genre. I decided to watch a few thrillers to gain a better idea of the conventions of this genre, as soon as i started watching them patterns began to appear. i decided to choose 3 thrillers to focus on, these were shutter island, salt and seven.

'Shutter Island' is a psychological thriller in which the main character Teddy is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient at a mental home. Teddy begins to find leads in the case but the hospital refuse him access to documents that he desperately needs, which puts suspicion on the hospital itself. Puzzling clues multiply and Teddy begins to doubt his memory, his partner and even his sanity. At the end of the film it is revealed that Teddy himself is a patient at the mental hospital where he was hospitalised after killing his wife when she drowned their three children, and the whole film had been a role play experiment to let Teddy live out his delusional fantasy so that he could come to grip with reality. The treatment worked, but in the final scene he relapses into his delusional state and the hospital decide to lobotomise him. It is implied that he is faking the relapse so they lobotomise him because he doesn't want to live with the guilt of knowing what he did. This film is known as a thriller because it relies mainly on suspense and uncertainty. The idea that you don't know who Teddy is looking for and the fact that most of the important information is kept from the viewer keeps the audience on the edge of their seat, this also makes the viewer have to think about whats going on and try and figure out the ending which helps the audience to feel involved and interact with the film.

'Salt ' is also a thriller but is more of an action thriller. The main character Evelyn Salt is an American CIA agent who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent sent by a man named Orlov to destroy the United States by assassinating the Russian President. The CIA decide to detain Salt whilst they investigate the claims but Salt escapes and manages to get to the building where the Russian president is speaking, she detonates an explosive and the president falls through the floor where Salt then assassinates him, it now seems as though the man was right and Salt is a Russian sleeper agent. She then meets with Orlov and the other KA agents in a barge where they have detained her husband. To check her loyalty Orlov has her husband killed and Salt seems unfazed, Orlov then tells Salt the next part of the mission, after this Salt kills Orlov and the other agents, which then leaves the audience confuse about which team she is on. At the end of the film there is a twist when we find out that one of the other CIA agents is also working for Orlov this agent tries to fire missiles at mecca and tehran which would then initiate America in war, Salt tries to convince him to let her help when the news report shows that the Russian president isn't dead and that she had used spider venom to give the impression that he was dead, there is a struggle but Salt finally stops the missiles just as the CIA agents get there. Salt is then caught but in the final scenes we see her fellow agent let her escape to capture and kill the other sleeper agents. Unlike shutter island, salt uses action to keep the viewer entertained and on the edge of there seat.


'Seven' would be known as a crime thriller. The main characters consist of two detectives, one of which, David Mills, has just moved to the city with his wife so that he can tackle more important cases and the other, William Somerset, who is just weeks from retirement. Mills' first case and Somersets last is more than either of them bargained for when they when they become aware of a gruesome serial killer who is targeting victims that represent each of the 7 deadly sins. First, an obese man is forced to eat until his stomach ruptures to represent gluttony, then a wealthy defense lawyer is made to cut off a pound of his own flesh as penance for greed. Somerset initially refuses to take the case, realizing that there will be five more murders, ghastly sermons about lust, sloth, pride, wrath, and envy presented by a madman to a sinful world. Somerset is correct, and something within him cannot let the case go, forcing the weary detective to team with Mills and see the case to its almost unspeakably horrible conclusion. The film up until now has constantly shocked the audience with the horrifying scenes of the graphic murders. The conclusion consists of both detectives and the serial killer 'Doe' being at a specific location together, a package is delivered and Somerset goes to claim it leaving Mills and Doe alone. Whilst Mills hold Doe at gun point Doe mentions how much he admires him, Somerset opens the package and the look of horror rushes across his face, he races back to tell Mills not to listen to Doe but its too late the killer has already informed Mills that his wives head is in the box. This part of the film relies mainly on suspense as when Somerset first discovers what is in the box the audience is unaware and all they can see is the horrified expression on his face, which leaves the audience in suspense wondering 'what is in the box?' Doe claims to represent the sin of "Envy"; he was jealous of Mills' normal life, and killed Tracy after failing to "play husband" with her. He then taunts the distraught Mills with the knowledge that Tracy was pregnant. Somerset is unable to contain Mills as he unloads his gun into Doe, becoming the embodiment of "Wrath". This ending is a major shock to the audience and this makes this a very iconic scene. 

As you can see a pattern begins to appear in the way that all of these thrillers involve some sort of mystery, which keeps the audience guessing throughout all three films, this is known as the films enigma codes. Enigma codes are a fixed feature throughout the thriller genre. Each film also include a lot of suspense, which keeps the audience on the edge of there seats and keeps them engaged in the plot of he film.