Star Theory and Semiotic codes associated with Thrillers

I've made a presentation which gives examples of stars who Star Theory can be applied too- The theory that stars are just products used by institutions to construct an audience

Here's a link to the powerpoint presentation I've made;

Linky!

~JB

Survey results

Out Questionairre Results presentation can be found at;

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?fupsn590g05908d

~JB

Audience of Auteur's Profile

Based on the survey, we identified that our target audience is people in the B/C class which showed A definite interest for the virus attack plot we showed them. they prefer more Action thrillers to Other Sub-Genres.
We'll be attempting to appeal precisely to an audience of people age 20-25, which is our primary audience, who are well educated and enjoy a more intricate plot rather than one which is more eye catching with lots of effects.

 ~HS

Audience Theory

 

I did a presentation about Audience Theory. The presentation can be found below;

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?8bh7xvu03pmdngq

~JB

Analysis of Auteurs Thriller openings

The Birds

Camera shots

Mid shots. full body shots and panning are mainly used in the opening sequence. This is to show to use her focus what she’s looking at and how the other characters and seeing her.

Editing

The editing speeds up as the seen progress but it’s still a slow cut between the characters this lets the audience see all the detail. In the seen.

Sound

We can hear the birds chirping in the store and it’s a loud background nose to have in a seen showing the size and granger of the store.

There is no music or other nose except the dialog and the birds fouling your attention on them specifically.

Lighting

The store is well light and has lots of exotic birds showing that there all very expensive and that higher class people can only afford them higher class like her.

Props costume set

She is portrayed as a stereotypical B or A class person with lather and fur close and expensive sports car and a refined and expensive taste. She not only higher class but she thinks she beater higher up than everyone. And she lies thinking she’s smarter that everyone but she gets tangled in her lies and gets caught. 

~HS

Auteur Study

 

    Alfred Hitchcock
"I suppose it must have all started when I was in my mother's arms at the age of six months, and she said to me, "Boo!", and scared the something out of me, you know."

-An English Film Director.

-Career lasted for more than half a century.

-Pioneered use of camera made to move in a way mimicking persons gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism (Definition filtered).

-Shots framed to maximise fear, anxiety or empathy.

-Used innovative film editing

-Stories often featuring fugitives on the run from law, with blonde female characters.

-Twist endings and thrilling plots which feature violence, murder and crime.

-Strong, Sexual overtones

-Borrow themes from Psychoanalysis

-Appeared in Cameo appearances in own films, interviews, film trailers and had a programme named Alfred Hitchcock presents.

Films

-Psycho (1960)

-vertigo (1958)

-The Man who Knew too Much (1956)

-The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935)

-Frenzy (1972)

-Family Plot (1976)



Common Themes;

 I've looked into a few common themes of Alfred Hitchcock's films, things which we may be able to use in our own film.

• Birds- Alfred Hitchcock usually used birds in his films in some way, the most prominent examples being; -"The Birds", in which the plot revolves around birds
  -"Phycho", which is set in Phoenix, Arizona, Marion's last name is "Crane" and Marion is described as "Eating like a bird".
  -"To Catch a Thief", in  which Alfred Hitchcock makes a cameo appearance, carrying a birdcage.
• Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances- Placing ordinary people in Extraordinary circumstances is another common theme in Alfred Hitchcock's films.
• Shared desires- the relationship between characters is represented through "the Double", where two people want the same thing, but only one character actually takes action to achieve it. It shows they're in the same situation, but with very different personalities. In Phycho, Norman Bates wants to run away, which Marion Crane does after stealing $40000.

~JB

Analysis of Thriller Openings

2010's; Inception (Hrysto)

Camera shots

Close ups and extreme close ups bring objects of importance to the audience’s attention and show/state there importance to the character e.g. the totems they use to determine if there in a dream.

Over the shower shot makes the audience fall close to the action and focuses attention on that actor. This is so the audience knows how to focus on.
His role is of an outside the box thinker that does not say that can’t be done. And this is supported by the shots used to show him making him look a little eccentric.  

Editing

The story is non linier as in memento. This enhances the puzzle element of the story.

Be twine the different dream levels the cuts change from a chase with jump cuts to a slow smooth cut of the hotel. This is to add suspense between the different situations.

Each dream has its own style of editing as a different story and the editing in each story converge to a point of importance in the how story of the main character.

Sound

In the temple opening seen there is no sound no background nose. This early silence focuses the attention of the audience to the dialog so that the audience picks up the facts and clues and also adds tension.

But as we get into the dream levees we transition between one to the other with sound bridge taking smoothly into a completely different situation.

Lighting

Three are many transitions between high key lighting and low key lighting. And the dreams generally look brighter and beater to live in suggesting that he hates his life and prefers to live with his wife in a perfect dream.

The temple seen we enter the dim light room from an completely dark corridor suggesting that he is entering into the light and to a new life in a way.

Costume props and make up

In the opening scene the close the extractors are wearing get more and more cattail the closer they get to waking up. This suggest how there different as people in there dreams and as personalities.

His totem is his withes spinning top which douse hot stop spinning showing how he can and douse not what not to let go of her and the memory of her. This subject that his stuck in his past and can’t escape from is like from a dream.

In the Japanese  man’s dream there dressed for a sophisticated diner party and approach three subject of what they’re doing as a job as a bias-ness.

~HS

Inception (Joseph)

Inception uses Camera movement, angles and composition, as well as Editin, Sound, effects and Mise-En-Scene very effectively.

A close-up of the watch shows that it is an object of importance in the scene, and brings it to the audiences attention. It is shown through the watch that time is seemingly being distorted, seconds going from quicker to slower than what it is meant to be. This shows common traits of a Physiological thriller- Something strange is occurring, and the viewer, hasn't a clue what is causing it. It seems mysterious and bizarre, as if from a hallucination or a dream. This may symbolise the instability of the protagonists mind, or lack of control over the events taking place. This may show the audience that this character has suffered from some trauma, which is making him less stable-minded.

The spinning top represents the protagonist as being someone who perhaps has a nostalgic outlook. The spinning top is a children’s' toy, something that you wouldn't expect a man such as the protagonist to be carrying around, unless it was of great importance to him. This spinning top may have belonged to him when he was a child, or perhaps to one of his children. This icon symbolises nostalgia, perhaps thinking on how life once was. He misses a time when things were simpler, when a child could gain such entertainment from such a simple object. Maybe he lost his family, or somebody of great importance to him, which may be why this simple item means so much to him. This would also fit in with the purpose of the flashbacks in the first scene. The flashbacks are of children playing in the sand. They have been edited, seemingly filmed with an old camera. The quality of the film is low and blurry, with a slightly yellowed look, as if it has aged. 

~JB

2010's; Limitless

Camera shots

Gump cuts follow him as he walks down the street. Meets his ex-wife’s brother in the dark pub where they talk about how his life is not going so well. Reaction shots of him reacting to the new pill. When he’s under the influence on NZT 43 he has a fish eye shot of the world all mouse like he has eyes on the back of his head? Everything is speed up or slowed down from real time letting him see everything.

Editing The pace of the editing speed up when he takes NZT  Showing its effects in a way the busy the need to keep moving and doing something constantly but when he is of off  NZT everything is slow and looks horrible and much more difficult and time consuming.  Sound The sound track plays every time he’s on NZT to start the new happy pace. And there is a serial sound variation for every seen. To meet the demands of it some are slower and quarter some are more dramatic but non diabetic sound decently plays a big role in this move  Lighting His life is show is this dark horrible pale that he is trying to escape from and when he’s on NZT his life is bight with high key lighting. This is to show the contrast between NZT life and his normal life so the audience can see what he means by I was bling but now I see. Costume props set The sets change drastically from a non-working stilly class apartment to an A+ class House and jet. This is to show how he is improving his life. His neighbourhood also changes from the gang streets to the most expensive and higher class buildings in the city. ~HS

2000's; Memento

Sound

Dramatic sad music reflects mood in the opening seen.

Background music adds realism example radio broadcast to the radio in the car.

Dialogue of Lenard and his way of thinking foreshadows what’s going to happen.

Non diegetic sound only in the opening and scene where a past experience of his is shown.

Editing

The story is show to the audience backwards this adds to the puzzle quality to the story and to the main character Lenard. Since of his faded memories show the repletion of his life and the difficulty and his conditioning and how it helps him to live a semi normal life

Camera shots

Opening shot is a point of view shot of the photograph developing in reverse. This is to show how his memories fade with time.

Followed by close ups of the camera and blood. These close up frame things like in his photos.

Shots normally show characters in a mid-shot or close up of the face this is to emphasize the emotions on the characters.

Lighting

His world is drack and sad and the lighting reflects that but when they show something his forgotten it is in black and white. This gives drama to the seen because it enhances the contrast between the dark and light bits on his face and the room where his siting this adds to the puzzle because the light in which the character is show suggests where they are good or bad and this darkness makes us as a audience think is he bad even do his handicapped.

Costume make up props

He has no new memories so he uses photos to remind himself what’s his car or his room and those are the main props he uses as well as the camera. This is an object associated with capturing memories and it’s used for that purpose by him. Everything he owns is involved in his system his training from the tattoos to the photos to the mind maps folders verifying he has shown an organised life style but the asperses of his things is morel like something someone has put together last mined to try and keep their life.

~HS

1990's; Pulp Fiction

 Many techniques, codes and conventions are used in Pulp Fiction, and many of which are typical of many Thrillers. These include camera techniques, such as camera angles, movement and composition, as well as use of editing, sound and Mise-En-Scene.

 At the very beginning of the film, a hand gun is shown in the intro. It is the subject of an Extreme close up, as it is slammed against the table with exaggerated power. The Extreme close-up on this object shows that this object will be of importance in the scene, as it will be used in order to rob the coffee shop. The gun itself is also a symbol, which symbolises violence, crime and death, therefore showing the audience that this scene, and likely the whole film, will have some relation to this theme. It also shows us it's likely that the couple who possess the gun are likely to be shadier characters, perhaps the antagonists of the story.

 Some effective techniques are also used to give the conversation a very real feeling to it. Many of the shots were taken from behind the characters, as if from other chairs in the coffee shop. This places the viewer in the scene of the action, making it feel more real. It's almost as if you're listening into that very conversation. Also, casual dialogue is used throughout the scene, Although there is a lot of swearing in the scene, it isn't very dramatic. For example, the man in the scene describes robbing liquor stores as not being “The giggle it used to be”. This use of language takes the theme of the scene and makes it seem much more everyday and ordinary, which is rather striking, as it is usually something heavily exaggerated in drama in other films. They are also wearing very casual clothing. This also adds to the effect of realism. This suggests that the scene is just an ordinary day out at a restraunt.

~JB

1980's; Die Hard

Thriller Moodboards

Our more in-depth moodboards can be found after the break- Click below to read more;

Tzvetan Todorov's Narrative Theory

(Image of first slide, look below for link)

Our powerpoint presentation about Todorov's Narrative theory can be found;

>>HERE<<

~HS