Thrillers

There are certain types of thrillers:
- Spy Thrillers, James Bond, The Bourne Supremacy
- Political Thrillers, Manchurian Candidate, Enemy of the State
- Conspiracy Thrillers, Taken, Salt
- Legal Thrillers, Pelican Brief, A Few Good Men
- Psychological Thrillers, Gothika, Psycho

Susan Hayward, Key Concepts in Film Studies,
"The 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 terror into the audience"

Suspense and Shock

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. 

Shock is a feeling when something happens very quick without any warning what so ever. So it basically grabs our attention or it can empathise that moment in the scene because it has shocked you then you can remember that scene very well as it has implanted in your brain.

Chuck Jones and 'The Rules'

Chuck jones is an animated director who worked at Warner Brothers for decades making short movies including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and company. He also made the Road Runner cartoons and from the first episode he made a set of rules:

- The Road Runner cannot harm or upset the coyote except by going 'Beep Beep'
- 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 from 'Beep Beep'
- The Road Runner must stay on the road, otherwise logically he would not be called the Road Runner
- All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters, The Southwest American desert
- All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from Acme Corporation
- Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy
- The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

James Bond Thrillers

Recipe for James Bond Thrillers

Like his famous shaken-not-stirred martinis, all you need is:
- A dashing, sexy and heoric secret agent
- A eecentric villain of equal strength
- Gorgeous 'Bond' girls
- Exotic locations and plot devices
- Eye popping, stuntdriven action of absurdity

The James Bond film series is a British series of spy films based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond (code designation 007), who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines. It is one of the longest continually-running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present (with a six-year hiatus between 1989 and 1995).

James Bond Men:

1. Dr. No (1962-Sean Connery)
2. From Russia With Love (1963-Sean Connery)
3. Goldfinger (1964-Sean Connery)
4. Thunderball (1965-Sean Connery)
5. You Only Live Twice (1967-Sean Connery)
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969-George Lazenby)
7. Diamonds Are Forever (1971-Sean Connery)
8. Live and Let Die (1973-Roger Moore)
9. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974-Roger Moore)
10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977-Roger Moore)
11. Moonraker (1979-Roger Moore)
12. For Your Eyes Only (1981-Roger Moore)
13. Octopussy (1983-Roger Moore)
14. A View to a Kill (1985-Roger Moore)
15. The Living Daylights (1987-Timothy Dalton)
16. Licence to Kill (1989-Timothy Dalton)
17. GoldenEye (1995-Pierce Brosnan)
18. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997-Pierce Brosnan)
19. The World is Not Enough (1999-Pierce Brosnan)
20. Die Another Day (2002-Pierce Brosnan)
21. Casino Royale (2006-Daniel Craig)
22. Quantum of Solace (2008-Daniel Craig)
23. Skyfall (2012-Daniel Craig)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

A former Korean War POW is brainwashed by Communists into becoming a political assassin. But another former prisoner may know how to save him.

Director: 

John Frankenheimer

Writers: 

Richard Condon (based on a novel by), George Axelrod (screenplay)

Stars:

 Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh 

This film is basically about a soldier (Raymond Shaw) who has worn the medal of honour and then the other soldiers (Marco, Melvin) start having nightmares about the war and having suspicions that they were brain washed to think that Shaw saved them all in the war. Marco then starts digging things up about the war. Mean while, Shaw gets controlled when he starts playing solitaire and he can get controlled to do anything, he kills his newly wed wife and her father. Then at an election, his mother makes assigns him to kill a Presidential nominee in his speech, marco tries to persuade shaw to break the links of the brain wash and instead of killing the nominee, he kills his mother and his stepfather and then he kills himself.

 This film was a thriller as well as psychological included. In this film, they had a quite few sequences where the soldiers were seen being brain washed, one bit of the sequence would be at a sort of tea party with ladies and another would be the korean soldiers.

Preliminary Task

This task is demonstration of continuity editing.

We had to show match on action

shot/reverse shot

180 degree rule

Eyeline match

In my group, I had me, paige and georgia. We had georgia come into the room, and going over to paige and then them two having some dialogue and then paige storming out. I was in control of the camera and then paige done the editing.

Terminology

Denotation : What is in the scene
Connotation : What this can imply
Diegetic Sound : When you can see the source of the sound on screen
Non-Diegetic Sound : You cannot see the source of the sound e.g. sound effect
Mise-en-scene : What is literally 'In the scene'. Everything that appears in that single shot.
Montage : Putting together of visual images to form a sequence.
Narrative : The way a story is put together within a text, traditionally equilibrium- disequilibrium, new equilibrium, but some text are fractured or non line.
Props : Objects that are used in scenes.
Characters : People in the film/play.

Camera Movements, Angles and Shots

Birds eye view, Worms view, Normal view, Low Angle, High Angle, Pan , Tilt, Tracking, Crab, Long shot, Extreme Long shot, Medium shot, Close up, Extreme Close up, Over the shoulder shot, Point of view shot, Steadi Cam shot, Hand Held shot, Crane shot, Aerial Shot.

Lighting

Back Light : Back Light separates subject from background, saints from sinners, and one pro from another. Angle: toward the lens from above and behind the subject, or above, behind, and slightly to the side of it, high enough to cut lens Flare. Also used to make silhouettes.
Far-side Key : In relation to the camera, the main light is set on the far side of a model's nose which leaves the camera-side of her face in partial shadow. Far-side Key*, Ear-side Key*, and On-the-Nose Key* are terms which, if they don't exist, should, because they are fast descriptions of dramatically different lighting-looks.
Fill Light, Filler : Fill is used to lighten shadows and control Contrast and Lighting Ratios. Tip: Avoid Hard Light fill and Over-kill Fill*. Angle: usually close to the lens, on the side opposite the Key.
Floodlight, Flood : A wide, semi-soft source often used for general illumination or to bounce light.
Key Light, Main Light : The key may determine the character of the lighting, but often a strong Back Light for example, sets the Mood. The key should usually be Motivated by a source like the sun or a window
High Key : The light that is used to take away shadows on the face or object.
Low Key : The light used to create shadows.
Top Lighting : When the main source of the lighting comes from above highlighting the features - used  to create glamorous look.
Underlighting : When the main source of lighting comes from below the subject. Used in thrillers and horror films.

Camera Exercise
This is another camera exercise we did with Mr Johnson. Where we experiment using camera angles and movements in an interview.

In this exercise we used a shot and reverse shot, and we used cuts to cut out anything that was not important. we also used over the shoulder shot to get the audiences attention to the character's eye line.

Thriller

BIRDS
A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Daphne Du Maurier (story) and Evan Hunter (Screenplay)
Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette

The threat in this film is nature, as the birds started attacking people and causing them to stay indoors.
in a screen where Tippi Hedren gets attacked by birds she literally is getting attacked by real birds and she did not know that this was going to happen and was traumatized .

This sequence gets the audience in tension as she goes up the stairs slowly only showing the light and the music gets the audience tensed, then when she opens the door the camera is on her hand when she opens it which implies that something bad is going to happen, she then finds the hole in the roof and then turns around and all these birds start attacking her. The shots are very fast cuts which shows action and this also sets the mood for the audience, as some of the shots are shown as if it was her point of view and the audience can feel like how she felt in her shoes.