Wednesday 15 December 2010

RESEARCH: suspense/genre


Thriller and Suspense Films:


 These are types of films known to encourage intense excitement, suspense, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually identical and interchangeable categorisations, with similar characteristics and features.

If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that rentlessly pursues a single-minded goal to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character/s is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy. 

Tuesday 14 December 2010

RESEARCH

Suspense; Pleasurable excitement and anticipation regarding an outcome, such as the ending of a mystery novel.

Sunday 31 January 2010

RESEARCH:Intertextuality and what interests me

The meaning of intertextuality is when some scenes or ideas are borrowed and used in another film, many films uses this technique.
For instance the shower scene from Psycho, the idea is used in The Stepfather when David grabs a knife and chases Susan around the house, Susan heads up to the bathroom and slashes David in the throat with a piece of glass. He falls into the bath whilst holding on to the shower curtain, the curtain falls. This is just like Psycho when the woman is in the bathroom having a shower she is stabbed to death and dies in the bath holding on to the shower curtain.
This bathroom scene is similarly used in What lies beneath as she is dead in the bath.
The whole idea of using bits from other films helps the audience to identify and realise what they are watching and can make reference to the familiar scenes/ideas.
What interests me is that the women are always the vulnerable ones in the bathroom.     

Thursday 28 January 2010

RESEARCH:How is suspense created in the film The Stepfather

In class we watched “The Stepfather” which is a thriller film and consists of many suspenseful scenes and tense situations such as;

Example one: 
The first suspenseful moment I saw was from the beginning of the movie where we see “David” transform his appearance by altering his hair colour and from having a fully grown beard to a very clean shave. This is shown by several numbers of close ups, the first thing we see is his tools as the camera slowly panes across it, this creates suspense for the audience and makes them think. We are also shown quite a lot of close ups of the different parts of his body, for instance when he shaves and accidently slips and cuts himself, another example would be when he puts on the blue coloured contact lenses on. The audience are shown these specifics to make them think what this man is up to and raise questions in their head building the tension. I also believe that the non digetic sound/s have the same affect because it sounds spooky and mysterious it all adds up to the suspense.

As he then comes downstairs the song "silent night" is played. He makes breakfast and all seems good until we see the camera tilt on to a little dead boy sitting on a chair with his head on the table. This to me shows the contrast of the sweet calm song to the terrible murder of the boy. We then are exposed to more dead bodies.
Finally just before he leaves the house he has a flash back and the audience can see a girl screaming and sadly that is all we see leaving the audience to figure he is a murderer.

Example 2:
 The second suspenseful moment would be when Mrs Cutter the old vulnerable lady was murdered this shot is through her point of view which makes us jump when we see the cat jump out of the blue. We see what she sees which adds to the effect as well, this point of view shot makes Mrs Cutter vulnerable and makes it seem likes she is being watched, we are automatically expecting this to be David, and sadly we are right as he stands behind Mrs Cutter while she shuts the storage door and we see him in the mirror this is an over the shoulder shot. We see her struggle to get away from him, unfortunately she is pushed down the basement and then is suffocated to death.    

Example 3:
The final suspenseful moment for me was towards the end when Susan enters the kitchen and asks him what's going on and why he is shouting. He tells her that he can't take it anymore and wanted her to be Mrs. Grady Andrews, to which she asks him what he said. He then realizes his slip-up and says I meant David Harris, and she screams as she sees him grab a knife. He chases her through the house, as she is screaming Michael is down in the basement struggling to get out. Susan heads into the bathroom and slashes David in the throat with a piece of glass that David throws at her. It looks like he is dead as he falls into the shower and she heads out, backing away and hugs Michael and Kelly. This whole sequence is chaotic with so much happening adding to the suspense.

Thursday 21 January 2010

RESEARCH: Title Sequence Anyalysis



The title sequence clip I watched was À la folie... pas du tout (He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not) a French film released in 2002 directed by Laetitia Colombani starring Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihan and Isabelle Carre.
This sequence does not contain a lot of information like other clips I have seen so far. It only contains vital information such as the production, distribution companies and the cast.

The clip begins by showing the distribution company which is optimum releasing ident this appears for 10 seconds, after a short pause another company is shown is the UFD fox distribution and then finally one appears in the middle of the screen in blue. then the production companies are shown in the following order Telema (co-production), TF1 Films Production (co-production, TSP Cinema (with the participation of), Confimage 12 (in association with).

The opeing scene, (Audery Tautou) buys a single pink rose at a flower shop to be delivered to her lover. after this the cast os shown one by one begining with most important to the least. the film title is placed at the end of all this including the all rights reserve.

Sunday 17 January 2010

RESEARCH:Thriller Sub-Genres

Thriller genres can include the following sub-genres, which then can include elements of other genres:

  • Conspiracy thriller
  • Crime thriller
  • Disaster thriller
  • Legal thriller
  • Medical thriller
  • Mystery thriller
  • Psychological thriller
  • Romance thriller
  • Supernatural thriller
The genre that inspires me at the moment is psychological thriller because it engages the audience in a way that makes them think about the actual situation.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Defintion of suspense




The dictionary definition is "a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitment, as in awaiting a decision or outcome,usually accompanied  by a degreeof apprehension or anxiety". However to me it's more of a physical feeling having your heart pounding and yearning for more wanting to know what happens next.