story boards

location pictures, maps and commentary

location pictures

a shot of the area from a high angle (overhead)

side view shot

Ad

shot from ahead

Essay 3 - Textual Analysis of a Similar Film

A film similar to ours would be Kidulthood. I think that this film would be good to analyse because it contains many similar elements to ours.

Mise-En Scene - Props

There were a few different props that we had to use in our film.

• we used a pellet gun in our film to pretend to be a gun. We chose this because it was all black and looked very realistic. It would have been very unbeliveable if a character gets shot with something that looks like a toy - this is why the gun had to look realistic.
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black bin bag, this prop was chosen as a reason for Theo's character to walk down the stairs and find the gun. The bag needed to be big enough so that it would not fit through the bin shoot, meaning that Theo would have to walk down to the bin room where he finds the gun. 

Simon's character makes a short appearance on a skateboard before he is shot. We chose the skateboard as a prop for Simon's character because he needed a way of entering the shot at speed and grabbing the viewers attention.

door key

Film Opening Storyboard

9 Shot Analysis

Essay 4 - Analysis of a similar AS film opening

analysis of previous AS year film.

Mise-En Scene - Costume

With regards to costume we decided to choose clothes that suited the characters roles in the film.

The character with the gun is going to be a younger character, the inspiration we took from the film Kidulthood was the urban-youth culture and we thought that this should show through in the costume of the character with the gun.

• trainers
• hoodie/jacket
• jeans/tracksuit bottoms 

These were the clothes that our group came up with for the character holding the gun. We had a limited budget for our film so we decided to use our own clothes. I decided to select trainers that would be a common brand and went for these.                                        ----> 

We decided to opt for a black hooded jacket that zips up to the chin. This goes with the idea that this character is running from the law and has his hood up, and is all zipped up to hide his face whilst running. 

This is the jacket we chose in the end.

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These are are tracksuit pants the 'criminal' is wearing, we both decided that they were suited best for the chracters personality.

                                             

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The gun we used was a real pellet gun that shoots little plastic bullets, this worked really well for the film because it looks authentic.

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Essay 2 - Conventions of a thriller genre

Conventions of the thriller genre, analysis of 2 thriller openings

We have decided to analyse two film openings, these are from the films; Collateral and City of God. These two were chosen particularly because of their similarity to our film in terms of genre and plot. Especially Collateral due to the spontaneous storyline and how innocent people become involved in situations.

To begin with the conventions of the thriller genre, particularly the sub-genre of action thriller are made clear in the openings of Collateral through the camera shat and angles, sound, editing and mise en scene.

The opening of this film begins to conform the conventions of the thriller genre initially, the mise en scene of the opening; the setting for this film is in Los Angeles. Thrillers are often set in large cities; also the main character appears to be a cab driver, this simple and ordinary profession is also typical of the genre. The recurring theme of juxtaposition – unusual things happening to ordinary people is typical of the thriller genre and this ordinary job combined with the slow paced editing of the opening sequence creates and calm mood which is going to be contrasted with something chaotic later on in the film. This comes in the form of an unknown character who offers a lot of money to be driven around all night - this in itself could be considered the out of the ordinary occurrence. 

This mystery character appears to be an assassin - the inclusion of this profession or theme of organised crime is also a convention of a thriller. The clothes and props used by this character are that of a bussiness man, he is wearing an expensive suit, looks well groomed and carrys a briefcase. The clothes, props and look of Tom Cruise's character make him appear stong and powerful, another convention of the typical "bag guy" character in a thriller film, this creates a large contrast with the clothes and props of Jamie Foxx's character - the cab driver. He wears casual clothes, wears glasses - a prop that give a sense of vulnerability to his character contrasting with the powerful character of Tom Cruise. This direct contrast between the good and bad characters is typical of any film let alone a thriller. 
In the film; City of god, there are many elements that are typical of the thriller genre. This film falling under the sub-genre of action thriller. The sound in the opening seconds of the film alone portray the contrast between the calm (the non-diegetic sound of the background music) and the high tempo (the diegetic sound of a knife being sharpened on a rock). The contrasting sound combined with the flashes of video on the screen  furthers the idea of contrast and juxtaposition in the thriller genre. This initial portrayal of contrast between calm, everyday environments and violent, shocking events foreshadows to the viewer that the film is a thriller as they have been shocked within the first few seconds of the movie. The inclusion of knives in the opening few seconds of the film also introduce the idea of violence and crime to the film very early on - another typical convention of a thriller.

The editing in the opening scene of City of God is very fast paced, it contains elements of montage editing all focused around the killing and preparation of chickens, this shows the viewer a theme of death and violence and combined with the fast paced non-diegetic  background music creates an intense atmosphere for the start of the film and gives the viewer the feeling that the film is building up toward a climax.
The chase scene where the chicken is being pursued through the favela by the group of kids is a take on the typical convention of the "chase scene". The inclusion of this scene in the film shows an almost cliched convention of the thriller or action-thriller movie.
The setting of this film opening; in a favela - is also typical of a thriller, the favela seems to be the place where the bad guys live in. It is typical because the evil characters are often portrayed as living in lower class and run down areas. 

Risk Assessment

Mise En Scene - Setting

We filmed our clip in windsor, we decided to film in windsor due to the fact that it was closer for all of my group members to access and also its near our school which gave us the benefit to come and contact the teachers if anything went wrong. The place where with shot our film was in a block of flats (Ward royal), the reason why filmed in the block of flats was becasue of the the stereotypical opinions of people that gun crime happens around block of flats. We filmed on a cold day which indicated that something is going to happen, this added a tension to our film and we didnt get give to much away at the beginning, which once again engaged the viewers to our film.

Essay 1 - Conventions of a thriller opening

Conventions of a thriller opening.

There are a few recurring elements or themes in a film that are typical of the thriller genre. These include; violence, crime, drug use and tension. These themes are conveyed to the viewer through the use of camera, sound, editing and mise en scene.

Another key point to mention about films falling under the thriller genre is the recurring use of juxtaposition, this means the inclusion of extraordinary events in ordinary circumstances and is something that is a common convention in a movie under the thriller genre.

The opening to a thriller film is what we are planning on doing for our coursework, and to make our film more believable and true to the constraints of the genre I have decided to analyse the openings of two thriller openings. 

Die Hard 4.0 is a typical action thriller, its opening introduces the viewer to the typical elements of a thriller. Initially the main character, played by Bruce Willis is a way of displaying the general conventions of a thriller to the audience; the clothes and props used and worn by Willis in the opening sequence of this thriller are typical of the genre and make it clear to the viewer the type of film it is. The open scene shows Willis using a police badge and wearing typical masculine clothing, jeans and white t-shirt. The use of the police badge shows the involvement of the theme of crime in the film - making it typical of the genre.

The lighting and setting of this scene is also typical of the genre, the lighting in the dingy apartment is low-key, giving the scene a dark and depressing feel. This is a typical thriller setting, the underground or slightly derelict scenes or setting.

The comparison that the audience automatically makes between the protagonist – Willis and the inhabitant of the flat is another aspect of the thriller genre, and more specifically the action thriller genre, the sidekick character. This situation is typical and is more stereotypical because of the differences in stature between tall, rugged looking Willis and the thin and short sidekick character make this situation of sidekick and hero more clear to the audience.

The props used by the skinny character in this opening scene are also typical of the genre, the inclusion of the computers and the images shown on the computer screens make it obvious to the viewer that he is a computer hacker and the theme of cyber terrorism is one that occurs in many thrillers and is again something typical of the genre.

These individual elements of a thriller film, all occurring in the opening sequence are no doubt included to help the film to fit into certain stereotypes and to fit certain expectations of a film falling into that category of action thriller.