Thriller posters analysis (target audience)

This is a poster of a thriller which i analysed. One of the first things you see when you look at this poster is the girls face, who is looking straightr on at the camera with a determined look on her face, and she is wearing red liupstick which signifies danger. We also see how the girls face is well lit, in comparison to the sillouette of a man which we can see smaller on the poster, this is trying to show us that the woman is good and the man is evil. Another thing which stands out on the poster is the titel, GONE. This gives us a hint at the plot of the movie, that something or someone goes missing. The colour skheme used in the poster is mainly red, white, and black. The red is used to signify danger and death, the black also signifies danger but also has an aspect of mystery, and the white is used to symbolyise innocence. Another thing which is seen on the poster is the sillouette of another girl, cut carfelly at the girls nose so that we wont see her face. This girl looks different to the other girl so we suspect that it is another person, and we also see how he figure is mainly in black which shows that she is either dangerous or in danger. From this poster we can tell that the target audience of this film is for teenagers/young adults, maytbe of similar age to the girl seen in the picture. We can tell this from all the factors which i have mentioned above, which show it may be a jumpy kind of spooky film, not a childerns film.

Another thriller poster which i looked at was Piranha 3D. One of the things which stands out about the poster is the contrast between the top of the poster where the woman is lying on the lilo looking layed back and relaxed, and the piranha's underneath her, who looking terrifying and visciuous. We also see the contrast in the different colours of blue in the bottom and at the top. At the top the blue of the sky is bright and almost cloud free, which along with the girl on the lilo looks like a nice summer holiday. The blue of the sea underneath her is a much darker clour, even slightly black, which signifies that the Piranha's are dangerous and most likley the girl is going to die. The writing of Piranha 3D is written in red, which is a clour which signifies danger and death, and is also the clouor of blood. The lilo is also this colour. The target audience of this film is most likley a teenage audience, which you can see by looking at the girl on the lilo and the words 'sun sex (..and blood). By looking at the piranhas you can tell that this would not appeal to a audience of children and the fact that the girl on the lilo symbolysis that it may also be about a teenage holiday means itr would mst likley not appeal to adults.

My idea for a thriller opening sequence

An idea which i came up with for the opening sequence of a thriller was tho have a whole family in the back of a car, with a driver in the front driving them somewhere. From the beginning i want it to be evident that the wrong man has started driving there car and they are injured and scared, squished into the back of the car. So that the audience is also unaware and kept in the suspense of who the man is, i would have some low angle shots looking up at the man, showing that he has priority but the lighting of the car is so dark that its not possible to see what he looks like. I would then switch to a shot of the family in the boot of the car, which would be a farther and two young daughters, and the father is clutching his stomach with blood on his hands and the daughters faces look petrified. The back of the car would be more lit up that the front, so you could see the faces of the people in the back. This therefore would show a clear contrast between the  good and the bad divide in the car. The dress of the man in the front of the car would be all black, maintaining the mysterious atmosphere, and he would have a phone in his hand and be talking into it in Russian. The children in the back of the car would be wearing school uniform, to resemble that up until now it was just a normal day and also that they are quite young, and the man in the back of the car would be wearing a suit as if he had just returned home from work. The outside of the car would be dark and the only other lightswould be the lights of cars and overhead lights, showing that they are maybe on a busy road or a motor way, and the car would be travelling very fast down this motor way they are in a rush. There would not be a lot of conversation in this opening scene as to not give much away, apart from some screams from the girls, and the father telling them to keep calm. The non-digetic background music would be a fast action song, in order to show the genre of the film which is an action thriller.

Prelim Tasks

In our prelim task, we film a man and a woman having a conversation, with the man trying to convince the woman to do something she didn’t want to do. In this instanced, we used the idea of the man trying to persuade the woman to smoke. One of the things I liked about the prelims was the fact that we were able to use the camera to film something for the first time, which I found very interesting, and also how we were able to use a proper set, and experimenting with the different props to use in order to make the shots look as realistic as possible. One thing which I learnt about the process of making a film was that it takes a very long time to gather all the different types of shots, as I thought it would be a quicker process but the realised that a lot of shots were necessary in order to make the film look as good as possible. One thing which I didn’t like about filming was how we didn’t get a chance for everyone to have a go at different roles (director, filming, managing continuity), as i would have liked to try out every one of these. I thought as a group we worked very well together, and all agreed at the beginning that we wanted to film as many extra shots as possible in order to have as much material as possible to be edited. I worked with another member of the group on filming the shots, and we filmed about half each, and then when we weren't filming we watched the other film so we could try and gain more knowledge/see what we were getting wrong by looking at the other person. If i had the chance to do it again i would have wanted to make the scene a bit longer at the end, to see what the woman did once the man had left the room. I think we could have filmed close ups on her face and the cigarettes in her hands in order to convey her emotions and portray a slightly bit more of the story. Our choice of location was a set of a room in a house, which had a door on window on one side and another big window on the other side. Our props were a cigarette and a lighter. The use of these allowed us to shoot a close up of the exchange of hands of the cigarette and lighter, which is useful to cut to and makes the film more interesting, and also makes it clear to the audience what is being passed between them. The fact that there was a door enabled us to have the man walking through the door, which meant he was filmed entering the room and therefore maybe the fact that he had more screen time implied that he was a more important character. The window opposite the door was also used for us to film through, because we wanted to give the impression that there was someone outside watching their conversation. We shot as many different shots as possible during the time we had, for example, we filmed a whole run through in a wide shot (as wide as we could film outwards while still including all the set). We also shot a high angle shot on the woman, trying to make her look inferior, a close up shot of each character, over the shoulder shots (keeping the 180 degree rule in mind), low angle shot on the man to make him look more important, as well as the shots which were required of us. In the group i filmed some shots, which were, the low wide shot, and the over the shoulder shots, and also the shot through the window.

Thrillier, Analysis

Catherina

The fact that the film is a thriller is shown firstly by the shots that the camera films from outside the car, showing mystery and also that its trying to symbolyise that the man in the car is important and the dark lighting on him also shows mystery. The music playing at this point creates suspense and sounds like the music is a typical thriller. When the camera changes to shots of the girl you see the gun before you see her face, this signifies that she is dangerous - she is also wearing red lipstick and red nail varnish which symbolysies death and danger. There is a shot from the window looking down on him, possibly showing that she is watching him. The room which she is in is quite cold and empty, which could be suggesting the same about her. The camera then films from behind her out the window, showing she is aiming down at something. The slow heartbeat music suggests she is calm and relaxed - possibly used to killing people. The things i liked about film were how the mans face wasn't shown until he was about to be killer, and also how calm the girl was. Something i thought could be different was darker lighting on the girl as it would make her look more mysterious and threatening.

Children of Men, Analysis

We looked at the poster 'Children of Men' and the connatations of it. You can tell straight away that it is a action/thriller, from the red writing which symbolises danger, and cracked glass which represents violence. We also can see that the film as a futureistic setting as it says on the poster it is the year 2027. We also saw the word children writen in white, which symbolyses innocence, and the mans face is lit up, which shows he may be a good charector.
The film is a hybrid which means it is a cross of two different genres.

Hanna

How is sound used to reveal narrative and character information?

What do we hear and what does it mean?


We looked at a clip from Hanna to awnser this question.
There are two different types of sound, digetic and non-digetic. Digetic sound is sound that the actors can hear on the set, and non-digetic sound is sound which is added in after while editing, for example background music.

Examples of digetic sound in the clip of Hanna that we watched are footsteps, talking, doors closing, crying, gunshots, and glass smashing. Some sounds such as the heavy breathing are amplified to create a greater sense of distress and possible danger. Also the digetic sound of  the flashing sirens which go off when they are looking for her signify the panic when they are looking for her. The digetic sound of her scraping on the walls shows her sense on desperation not to get caught. Also another digetic sound which is amplified is the neck breaking, which is done on purpose to show that Hanna is not such an innocent character as we thought before when she was crying, therefore it makes a shift in us seeing her as a little girl.

Non-digetic sound is also present in the clip we saw, the first non digetic sounds which we hear is the sound of the well moving and opening which turns into the beat of music, this music changes from the heartbeat music when she is being chased, to a slower song which creates a calmer mood and signifies that she isn't in as much of a panic to get away. The non-digetic background music also changes when she looks at the papers which tell he something about herself she didn't know before, which shows a character shift and shock. Finally all music, digetic and non-digetic, music stops when she breaks free, signifying escape.

Working a camera

Recently in our lessons with Simon and Matt, we learnt how to use a tripod, how to bubble a tripod, and also how to change how the film will turn out by changing the shutter speed, exposure, focusing, white balance, and zooming.We also learnt about the rule of thirds, this is that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that the main focus of the shot should be places where these lines meet or across the lines.  We also learnt the 180 degree rule, the 180 Degree Rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right.
We also learnt how to film a close-up, wide shot and medium close up.

The Conversation, Analysis



Another one of the film posters which we looked at was The Conversation.

One of the first things that you see when you look at this poster is the selective use of colours, red, black and white. Black is usually used to symbolise darkness and evil, red is used to symbolise death and danger, and the white normally suggests towards a more innocent character or plot. Another thing which we see straight away when we look at the poster, is the location of San Fransisco. When looking at the poster, we see an man in the top left hang side, looking down on two people on the right hand side of the page, these two people come across as a couple, as they are close together . They are in the middle of the focous of a camera, and it seems as if the man looking down on them is the one taking the photo. The conversation title also suggests that the man taking pictures is not just watching them but also listening to the. The city and the man are both in black and white, signifying darkness and danger. The fact that camera is taking a picture also suggests that the film is shot from someone else's perspective.

The Shining, Analysis

In class we look at many posters of different films and worked out the connatations by looking at the front cover of them. One of the films which we looked at was The Shining, and we looked at this poster;



We could tell straight away that this was a horror film, firstly by the fact that the man had an axe in his hand which was going through the wall, trying to get the woman. The way the womans mouth was open showed us that she was terrified and shocked, and was a contrast to the derranged look in the eyes of the man, and the crazed smile on his face, suggesting that he has gone insane. The fact he is sweating profusley suggests that maybe he has been chasing her around for a long time and the way he is looking towards her shows he is trying to get her with the axe which he has shoved through the wall.  The woman is trying to get as close into the wall as possible, suggesting that she is scared, and she is holding a knife which would be for protection. The woman is also surrounded by white, which symbolysis innocnece, and the man is syrrounded by dark which is asscoicated with evil. The knife that the woman is holding in her hand would normally be associated with violence, but in contrast to the axe which the man is trying to get through the wall it is obvious that she is holding it as a weapon of defence, and is probably too scared to use it.

About Myself

My name is Camilla Hampson, i previously studied at Cranleigh school and am now studying at Hurtwood House. My favourite movies are mean girls and taken, and my favourite band is bastille. The reason i am studying Media is because i am very interested in finding out how films are made and i had been reccomended it by other students who had studied it at hurtwood, i also recently worked as a runner on a film set for work experience which i found extremely interesting.