Match On Action:

As Group work we has to each take a task to write about. I chose to write about Match on action.


Match on action is vital to producing a great film. We learnt into todays lesson (26.09.11) that with out match on action, also know as ''Match Cutting'' or ''Graphic match'' our audience will grow frustrated and confused which will distracted them from the story behind the film.
    match on action is when two shots are cut to make sure that they ''flow''  together. this is linked to continuity because the idea is to make sure that the film looks true to life.
  And example of good match on action is presented on the youtube link below. in this scene there are two different shots which have been cut in order to give the the appearance that the scene is flowing and that there was not a cut between the scenes.  
   Match on action can also be used in other scenes such as a conversation. In one shot we could have character talking to another with and over the shoulder from said character. then, when the other character replies there could be another over the shoulder shot but of that character looking at the other.


Here is a example of match on action:

Tagging Thriller Conventions: Unusual Suspects.

In groups of two we were asked to watch a title sequence and edit in any common thriller conventions that we see. I worked with Katie. I have leant a lot from this. I learnt how to immediately spot the common aspects of a thriller and why they are relevant. For example: The colour red is commonly used in Thriller films as they symbolise anger, danger and murder. These elements are relevant to a Thriller because a typical Thriller story line has elements of death, anger and danger. This is because they are broadly used to appeal to Men and men prefer a more violent action-packed film. I also learnt how to used different parts of Final Cut Pro as this was the software we used to tag the conventions. We learnt how to edit the sequence so that we can add text, there were demonstrations on how to put effects to the text as well, we decided against using effects in order to finish our tagging promptly. See video below:

The Sub-Genres of a Thriller:

In taking a deeper look into the thriller genre we see that there “sub-genres”. This is a way of identifying the content of a film. There are characteristics which form the genre of a Thriller for example the use of blood, violence and typically the audience will be kept in suspense, not know how the plot will thicken etc. Yet, certain details in a thriller can picked out and used to form a sub-genre. These are used to associate different thrillers with her, with mutual elements such as plot ect.

I used www.wikipedia .com to research these sun-genres. Please note that sub-genre’s within thrillers may have elements and characteristics of other genre’s such as horror, yet are still classified as a thriller. The sub-genres are as follows:

Action Thriller: Action thrillers often have elements of mystery and crime films. They are full of action, contains large elaborate sets, explosions and guns. There is often a time element to them, with fare-fetched scenarios such as there is two minutes to stop a mars bar from derailing a train, with energetic, strong and ambitious male characters saving the day. For example “James Bond” (see below).

Conspiracy Thriller: Often containing a Heroic character who challenges the darker side. The storylines are mostly political, with beliefs that there may be more to an event than meet the eye, an example would be “Fight Plan” (See below).

Crime Thriller: This genre is extremely hard to place as there is a very fine line as to what is a thriller and as to what is a crime film.  Usually these films are crime films with an added suspense or mystery to a failed crime. They are commonly filmed from the criminals point of view. They focus on actions as oppose to the psychological side of a criminal. The commonly include murders, robberies, shoot-outs ect. For example “Seven” (see below).

Eco-Thriller: The main conflict in these thrillers is due to a disaster whether it be true to life or Science-fiction. Floods, earthquakes and nuclear disasters are all possible storylines. The science fiction element to these, often consist of storylines about problems that may occur in the future.  An example and Eco-Thriller is “In The Blue” (see below).

Erotic Thriller: These thrillers are a mix of the typical characteristics of a thriller and erotica. Becoming more popular since the 1980’s, this genre includes “Fatal Attraction” (see below).

Horror Thriller: These thrillers contain conflict between characters which is mental/emotional and physical. There is also a very fine line between what is a thriller and what is a horror as most horrors have a sense of the “unknown” which is most common in Thrillers. The main elements throughout a Horror thriller are fear and mystery. There is often a superior being or force which the main character has to outsmart, the main characters commonly become victims at one point or another. An example is “28 Days Later” (see below).

Psychological Thriller: commonly, the conflict between main characters is mental and emotional as oppose to physical. A person may have a mental defect or is mentally unhinged causing them to act the way they do. “The Orphan” is an example of this (see below).

Supernatural Thriller: Characters in a supernatural thriller often have abnormal powers of some sort. These thrillers combined the tension accosted with a normal thriller but with added horror aspects such as ghosts and other such phenomenon. An example of such film would be “Carrie” (see below).

When researching this information i learnt a great deal about which thriller will fall in the which sub-genre. This will help me a great deal when planing the final sequence because i will understand which elements make a sub-genre and then can there fore give a clear representation of said genre.

Connie.

Emotions And Atmospheres Created By And Opening Sequence: Memento

In this lesson Mr. Barton asked us to watch the opening of a sequence and decide which elements from it create an atmosphere. He asked us to work in groups of two and assigned us a Thriller opening. I worked with Ashleigh and our opening was from Memento.


We found that the soundtrack in the sequence ascended to create tension and that the classical music creates suspense. We also looked at the camera and editing techniques and found that the sequence has been edited in reverse to create suspense and mystery, the audience will be asking themselves why the man was shot and that will entice them into watching the full picture. 


This is the video clip that we watched:

When doing this task i learnt that an opening sequence should information towards the story-line of the film in order to set the mood and entice the audience. I must bare this in mind when it comes to planning my own opening sequence.

Title Sequence Analysis: Vertigo.

In this lesson we were asked to watch a title sequence which he assigned on www.artofthetitle.com and printscreen the most important 9 frames. 
Mr. Barton asked us to note down any important things we see under the categories Editing, Image, Style, Visual Effects, Font, Animation and Image. I decided to recored my information via mind map:

This is the title sequence which I anaylised:

More detailed Mind-map: Vertigo

This is a more detailed version of my mindmap.

Examining the opening scene of Orphan:

As a homework assignment we were asked look at the opening scene of a thriller and answer some questions about it. We were asked to take a print screen to back up the points we are making. I chose the psychological thriller called Orphan, before watching this film I googled it to see what it was about.

A brief description of the film from www.IMDb.com reads:

"A husband and wife who recently lost their

 baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who

 is not nearly as innocent as she

 claims to be."

The questions we were asked to answer were:

What is expected from the film by what information you are given in the opening scene?
What makes it a Thriller?
What atmosphere, moods and feelings are presented?

Right from the start. Even at the menu's Orphan shows that there is a dark side to this film. The hidden message might be that things are not always what they seem because the menu flashes from being a very normal film menu to a dark and twisted sight. The music used at the backing track for the menu is very violent and created a creepy atmosphere:

These dark effects are also used in the production company logo's this will set the mood for the film making the audience feel a little on edge as to what might happen:

The use of red in the menu may make the audience expect murder or blood and violence of some sort.

In the opening scene we see blood which makes the audience expect murder, a pregnant woman which may lead the audience to believe that there will be children within the film:

The use of blood will may make the audience feel a little scared and start them asking questions about why there is a blooded baby? ect.

Other questions the audience will be asking through out the scene is why is the husband recording the womans miscarriage, this is unusual:

There are other odd elements to the film like the blurring lights, and the exposure of some shots:

The blurring lights and the strange way the doctors/husband are acting as well at the creepy backing track all make the atmosphere eery and mysterious which are key conventions found in thrillers this and the fact that the audience do not know exactly whats going on which keeps them guessing all add to the reason that this film has been categorized as a thriller. 

The mood throughout this scene is uncomfortable and weird, because of effects like the blurred lights. 

What the audience might expect from this film is violence/murder ect.

From watching this and anaylising it i have learnt that the use of lighting and lighting effects such as blurring in Thrillers can create moods and set atmospheres such as mystery. And that an eery sound-track can do the same thing.