Rope

Unknown

Summary
A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.
The movie structure mostly follows the Classic Hollywood Narrative because the movie is linear, it shows a beginning middle and then an end. But it could also be shown as following Todorov's theory of  equilibrium – disruption – resolution – new equilibrium. The movie is fine at first then it goes wrong because there is conflict with no one knowing who he is and they people try to kill him but he kills them then and it ends by him remembering his identity and everything is brought to a new equilibrium.


The trailer displayed all the key elements of a captivating thriller in order to engage the audience and foreshadow what would be happening in other scenes of the movie.




 The McGuffin provides the basis of the story but the viewers are only in the main character - Liam Neeson. This links back to the importance of a trailer because without one then the audience would not show such interest in the movie.

Key scenes of tension:
• Film has essential characteristic of a good thriller - moments of high tension.
• e.g. The hospital scene reaching for scissors leading to murder.
1. Soundtrack effective – disorientating sounds
2. Use of close up.
3. Fast editing leading up to the escape.
4. Analyse the scene in the Flat.

The Club Scene
This scene is effective because:
• Loud booming soundtrack – disorientating  and threatening
• Screen dark – only shadows – indistinct – the viewer shares the main character’s confusion.

In this film White Western people are portrayed as the dominant group and the immigrants are the subordinate group we know this because they are frightened of being deported and they have very low paid jobs. This archetype represents ethnic minorities and it is a negative representation of the opposing race.

This is an interview of Liam Neeson talking about the film.

"erm it might be interesting to play someone who is confused all the way up until the last 20 minutes of the film" - 1:50. This reflects on Todorov's theory especially in the 'disruption' faze.
                                                                                                         

Animatic

This is my animatic for my final piece.


 

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles Cinematography: Denis Mise-en-scene: David Sound: Temitayo Editing: Nadine

Title: Mask

Synopsis: MASK (story outline)  - a guy with a mask on wakes up and doesn't know where he is - he sees a blood trail and follows it till he ends up in a room - he then finds a dead body and runs out of the building in panick - where he is greeted by a strange person

Key Genre Conventions:      -            set in the morning and light blinds his eyes      -       a lot of P.O.V shots so most of the thriller openings

Storyboard

This is our groups storyboard, next lesson we would be turning this into an animatic.

Shot List

Shot List
Scene	Shot Number	Description
1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13	P.O.V/pan - main character is looking through a mask around the room. Looks at his hand and sees hand close up - on face, trying to take off the mask but he fails establishing/pan shot - shows the room medium shot - the guy stand up P.O.V - looking at his feet then seeing a blood trail tracking shot - follows the trail extreme close up - showing fear long shot - phone vibrating then camera stays still while boy walks towards phone P.O.V - picks up phone, sees message 'where are you' sent 2 days ago medium shot - continues to follow blood P.O.V - opening door outside shot through a window seeing the mask and opens the door extreme close up - scared and shocked he falls to the floor tilt of dead body running out, finding himself outside crane shot - portrays his isolation over the shoulder, long shot, exreme close up, P.O.V, 360 degrees spinning shot of the                  world around him

3rd Production Meeting

Now we have started filming, we have got to the midway point of our opening. Throughout, we have a lot of takes that are not going to be any use to us, so we have started deleting the shots that went wrong and picking the shots that went smoothly. We have also looked through our filming to ensure we have all the different types of shots in our shot list, we enquire to make a good thriller opening.

2nd Production Meeting

My group has moved on further, Tayo and I have now created a shot list and storyboard for our thriller opening. Our production is named 'Beautiful Insanity'. In the second image we have discussed and noted down our main storyline for our project, the name of the production and our production company. Along with the contrapuntal music we will be using throughout the final piece, we decided on the music now because we have a strong idea and we needed to get the basics finalised.

1st Production Meeting

Tayo and I were previously working with two other boys in our class but due to the inconvenience of different visions of what we wanted in our final piece, we decided it is best if we split groups. Although we had already confirmed our initial ideas, Tayo and I have started another film opening.

We have decided on a new idea that could possibly be based in school as it is easy to access a convenient and will involve some of our classmates for extra help with any filming we will need.

Initial Ideas

Introducing Our Group

Tayo - right side                                                                                 Nadine (me) - left side
She is in charge of costume and                                                 I am in charge of directing as our
props as I will be using her                                                         thriller opening was initially my idea
folder for filming.  She is also in                                               so I feel like I can bring the idea to life. charge of the location that we will                                             I am also in charge of filming as I will
be filming at and the she was responsible                                  be adding some of my point of view
for recruiting some friends of ours that                                      shots. As there are only two members
will be our actresses.                                                                  of our group we have decided to do                                                                                                           joint editing.

How to Film a Thriller

There are certain thriller conventions that are very common in a thriller, all these techniques of camera work is what makes a thriller what it is. These are listed below:

* reverse shots
This shows the character and then what the character sees. Thrillers can be quite hard to keep up with so this helps the viewers keep up to date with what the full surroundings are.

* fast pace shots
Fast pace shots build up suspense when something bad is about to happen. It keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for a climax to build.

* non-diegetic music/sound
This creates tension AND suspense by using sinister music, this could be associated with death, misfortune and fear.

* extreme close ups
This usually creates curiosity because the audience aren't usually familiar with their identity.

* point of view shots
These shots are used to make the audience feel like they are part of the thriller, the viewer is put in the same situation as the character. This causes a "thrill.'

* diegetic background sound
When diegetic sounds are included it makes the scene more realistic as nothing is left out. Seeing as this thriller above is shot outdoors, the sound of nature was recorded; the scenes feel more natural.

* dark lighting
Dark lighting is usually associated with "scary" things, even being in your bedroom in the dark makes your heart beat a bit faster. This is why directors of thrillers love to put their characters in dark scene
* tracking shot

* high-angle shot
This shot is used in thrillers to make the character look isolated, weak and vulnerable. The minute they are put in a high-angle shot is when the audience know something bigger and stronger could attack them. This then makes the audience get emotionally attached to the character and

* hand held camera shot
The technique has been used to heighten tension and give realism to countless films and television programs. 

Titles (thriller examples)

After the IDENT use a FADE IN. 
The titles should then be in the following order:
(1) 'Your Production Company' Presents
(2) A Film by 'One name - usually the director'
(3) Starring or With
(4) Male star
(5) Female star or other way round
(6) Title of film - or could be at the end
(7) Also starring - 2/3/names - each on seperate title
(8) Then 3/4/5 of the following - you choose - each on seperate title
Editing
Music
Cinematography or Director of Photography
Casting
Set Designer
Costume Designer
Script
(9) Then Producer(s) - can be more than one
(10) Always finish with Director - one name, usually the same as A Film By ...
(11) Could put title here
Remember to use LiveType and try to make titles interesting. They can be either over black or superimposed over your film. Space them out over the two minutes of the film.Give the audience plenty of time to read the titles. 
(12) Finish with a fade out & fade music out


Seven Trailer
At the beginning of the trailer the production company was shown so it indicates to the audience where the movie has come from and if it is a universal ident or an independent ident. The red writing corresponds with the red cross shown in the thriller. Rather than the title being written in words it was written in numbers which gave a visual effect because we remember the word 'Seven' more. The associations with red could be the devil, blood, danger or hell so it gives a sinister effect. The words are jaggedy and the uneasy text shows us the thriller will not be peaceful so the words give a good insight to the movie.