Rope (1948) 

Rope is an Alfred Hitchcock film that tells us the story of two young,
wealthy men, Brandon and Philip who strangle and murder a
friend of theirs just to see if they could get away with it. They then
hide his dead body in a chest in the front room, and pass the chest
off as a table, whilst they have people round for a dinner party.
They invite close friends, including the dead mans parents, and alot of
this scene is filmed, with them crowding this chest... table*

Suspense and Shock. 

Suspense and shock can be easily mistaken, yet there is a big difference. Think of a scene in a film set in an ordinary everyday place, for example, a cafe. There are people working in the cafe, people eating in the cafe, tables, chairs etc.
The camera then reveals to the audience that there is a bomb placed somewhere in the cafe. So now the audience is expecting there to be an explosion, but suspense is built through them waiting for it to explode. 
THIS IS SUSPENSE.


Now think of the same scene set, in the same cafe, people tables etc..
but this time, with out any warning or revealing there is an explosion out of nowhere.
No one was expecting the explosion to happen, and maybe even made
the audience jump as they were watching it.
THIS IS SHOCK. 

The Birds.(1963)
starring:
Rod Taylor
Tippi Hendren
Suzanne Pleshette

The birds is another Alfred Hitchcock horror thriller story, written by 

Daphne Du Mauerier in 1952, and the screen play was written by Evan 

Hunter. It is set in Bodega Bay in California and,

the story is of a wealthy socialite from San Francisco who follows
her potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town, that shortly
after her arriving takes a turn for the worst when birds of all kinds
suddenly start attacking the people and as the film goes on, the number
 of birds increase, and so does their vicious murders. This thriller 

shocked the audience especially because the deaths were brutal
 and even women and children were killed. 

The scene near the end of the film where Tippi Hendren is ravaged and
brutally attacked, almost to death, by the birds who had evaded the house took a
week to film. The birds where attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so
they could not fly away, and she did end up with some genuine injuries.

The Preliminary task is not awarded any marks, 

but if the task was not complete marks will be lost.

The preliminary task is a demonstration of continuity editing.

It must show you can successfully use:

-Match on action

-Shot/reverse shot

-180 degree rule

-eye line match

Key Edits: 

Match on action - We see a character start an action in 

                                  one shot and then see them continue it in the next shot.  

Eg, We see them push the handle of a door,

 then see them walk through the door from the other side.

180 Degree Rule: The 180 degree rule is a guideline that states 

that 2 characters, cars, objects etc, in some scenes should

always have the sameleft/right relationship to each other in the frame.

If the camera passes over an imaginary axis connecting the 2 subjects,

it is called ‘crossing the line.’

In the sequence we have filmed,

you will see the following action unfold:

-Character A, walks towards a closed door.
-Character A, enters through the door and confronts
character B who is embarrassingly dancing on the table.
-This means character A and B have a dialogue,
eye line match and Character A, exits again.




This is my Preliminary task;

North by Northwest.

Starring:
Cary Grant,
Eva Marie Saint,
James Mason.
Alfred Hitchcock
Ernest Lehmon.

     North by Northwest is a typical 1959 American Thriller set mainly in New York. Starring Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, an innocent advertising executive, who is mistaken for a government agent names Mr Kaplan,by a group of foreign spies.  He is then pursued across the country, trying to prove that he is not Mr Kaplan, and stay alive.

     Thrillers are characterised by fast pacing frequent action scenes, which there are many of in North by Northwest. For example, the scene when Roger Thornhill is on the coach, and there is a crane shot view of a long straight deserted road, in which a coach is driving down which is a particularly calm moment without any music and barely any noise, which was setting up the next scene by building tension. Thornhill is then standing awkwardly across from another man who he believes he is supposed to be meeting, the man then gets on a bus in the opposite direction, and he is then left standing alone. At this moment the audience is left confused and tense for what is going to happen next and why he is left alone. He is then attacked by an aeroplane that had been flying in the air and making a noise in the background throughout the whole scene. After a few attempts of swooping down and trying to kill Mr Thornhill, control is then lost over the aeroplane and it the crashes into a lorry that is carrying a petrol tank, causing a deathly explosion. At this point, we think the main part of action in this scene is over, until it carries on further where Mr Thornhill the steals a passer-bys car, in order to get away which is holding the suspense in the viewers.

Devices such as Suspense, Red Herrings and Cliff-hangers are used frequently and extensively throughout Thrillers. The red Herring in this thriller is Mrs Kendal, played by Eve Marie Saint. She is firstly portrayed as, and misleads to be innocent which later on in the film, the audiences expectations are then tested by making her out as the villain. Which even further into the film, their expectations are then twisted again when she turns out to be the Hero in the plot.

The Macguffin is a plot element that captures the viewers’ attention and drives the story along, The Macguffin may be ambiguous undefined generic left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. For example, in North by Northwest the Macguffin is the microfilm; the whole story is evolved around the microfilm.

"Under the strong Influence of Hitchcock, thrillers often begin with a crime and the accusation of an innocent bystander. Were the accused to the authorities, no doubt the case could be promptly solved, but instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeoprodizing life and limb."

-Rick Altman-
film Genre

Alfred Hitchcock, The master of Suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13^th August 1899 in Leytonstone in London,
where he grew up and first started making silent black and white movies.

"The only way to get rid of my fears
is to make films about them"

From 1955 to 1965 Hitchcock produced and hosted the television
anthology series 'Alfred Hitchock Presents' where he would talk
about his new movies that were coming out.

 "If its a good movie, the sound could go off
and the audience would still have a
clear idea of what was going on."

Hitchcock liked producing, and one of his ways of doing this was by making an
appearance within the first few minutes of some of his films.

"Always make the audience suffer,
as much as possible"

He was known as the Master Of Suspense, whose films come to be
the benchmark for 'phsychological thrillers'.

"I am a typed director.
If i made cinderella the audience would
immediately be looking for
a body in the coach."

Film Language

Film Language
Camera framing

Camera framing is what we can see within the frame of the camera screen.
We concentrate on how far the camera is from the subject and from what angle the shot is taken.
There are different types of shots these are; Long shot, Close-up, Point-of-view shot and Mid shot.
Different types of shots are used in combination to give you information about where and when something is happening.

Camera Movement

Camera movement is used in the same way that framing is used to enhance out involvement in the film action, as the way the camera is moved can be used to direct our attention to a particular viewpoint.
Camera movement includes:

A panning shot - this is where the camera moves slowly across from side to side from a fixed axis

A tilt shot - this is where the camera moves up and down from a fixed axis

A crane shot - this is where the camera is mounted on a crane moves around at a distance above ground level

A tracking shot - is where the camera follows the action

A rolling shot - is where the camera moves diagonally, which makes the image askew

Mise En Scene
Is a French term meaning 'Everything in the Frame'
 A simple shot of a tree can be made to look threatening by stripping of its leaves,
adding a creature or some lightening and shooting it in darkness.
Giving the Mise En Scene a deathly, haunted atmosphere.
The same tree can be given a different look if it is surrounded by children and shot in a sunny light.
Giving the MiseEn Sence a happy, normal atmosphere.

Settings

The settings used in film are very rarely just backgrounds to the characters' dialogue and we will often see shots of places without any action taking place. Settings can also be used to manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then the action turns out different.

Props 

Props is the name we give to objects in the setting
which play a part in the action, rather than just being part of the background.
It can also be used to complete someones costume eg, a man in a suit carrying a breifcase.

Costume
Costume plays a large part in the mise en scene (everything in the frame) because it can be an instant indicator to us of a characters personality, social status and their job etc. It also tells us whether the film is set in the past, present or future, and what society or culture it will be about. It could also provide a clue to part the part the character will play in the action, througout the film.

Make-Up

In the early days of the cinema and film, makeup was used to highlight the actors facial features as black and white film stock could not register detail very well and detail would be lost, especially in their faces. Some certain genres traditionally use make-up more than others.
And make-up can also be used to create different atmospheres and mis en scene, and could be used to create a more surreal look eg, zombies, dead people etc.

Thriller Conventions:

-Young naive character
-'Goody' and 'Baddy'

-Resourceful character

-Antagonist/Villian which normally starts with more power

-Suspense throughout the whole of the film

-High tech gadgets

-Mysterious phonecall

-Fast pace action scenes

-Flash backs

-Hero is normally victorious

-Children and women are rarely killed

-Hero always meets a girl or falls in love

-Mystery that needs to be solved

-False hero

-Reason for conflict

-Distraction throughout the film
-McGuffin- what the plot evolves around
-Conspiracy theories
-Mystery that needs solving- Enigma

Do films follow rules?

-Some film makers will claim that there are 'no rules' or that 'rules are there to be broken'.

-However, most would agree that there are certain conventions that mainstream films observe in order for them to be acceptable to the mass audience.

The Rules

-The Roadrunner cannot harm or upset the coyote,

 except by going 'MEEP, MEEP'.

-No outside force can harm the coyote,
only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products.

-The coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic.

-No dialogue ever, except 'MEEP, MEEP'

-The roadrunner must stay on the road;
otherwise logically, he would not be called the roadrunner.

-All action must be confined to the natural environment
of the 2 characters. The southwest American desert.

-All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical convenincies
must be obtained from Acme corporation.

-Wherever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy.

-The coyote is always more humilated by his failures than harmed.
-Chuck Jones.-

"When you enjoy something you must never let the logic get too
much into the way. Like the villans in the James Bond
film whenever Bond breaks into the complex -
'Ah Mr Bond, welcome, come in, let me show you my entire evil plan and then put you in a death machine that doesn't work' "-Jerry Seinfield-
(sein language, 1993)

What is a Thriller?

Some different films that are classed as Thrillers are;
-North By Northwest 
-Psycho-Paranormal Activity

-Birds

-127 Hours Manchurian Candidate
-Seven

                                                                                   

All different films with in the Thriller Genre are

then seperated by different types of Thrillers, such as;

-Spy

-Political

-Conspiracy

-Psychological
-Legal



"Thriller is a very difficult genre to pin down

 because it covers such a wide range of films,

Thrillers are films of suspense that are supposed

 to instil the terror into the audience"Susan Hayward -
Key concepts in Film Studies.

Coursework Brief.

Course Outline AS
Media Studies AS

 -Assessed by coursework

-50% of AS level

-Two pieces of coursework

-Preliminary Exercise - short filmed sequence demonstrating basic understanding of film language.

-The titles and opening of a new fiction film in the thriller genre.

Key Media Concepts

 -Written Examination

-Two hours

-50% of AS Level

Section A-Textual analysis and represent
unseen extract of a television drama program.

Section B

 -Institutions and Audiences

-A case study of the British and US film industries

-Looking at films such as; avatar, shifty, The kings speech and looking for Eric

AS Coursework

 Marks are awarded for demonstrating excellence in the following criteria:

-Holding a shot steady

-Framing a shot

-Using a variety of shot distances

-Shooting material appropriate to the task set

Welcome to my Blog! 

This Blog is going to chart my progress as i 

complete my media Coursework!