A Mother's Son

This ITV two-part drama has an interesting title sequence, full of suspenseful music, diegetic sound and an array of camera shots.
Everything is dark blue, suggesting either twilight hours or dawn, set on a coastal area. Birds caw ominously and circle, and a crab shot of the pebbles and fast paced feet marching across them, accompanied by ragged breath, all set the scene for something to go wrong.
The camera pulls focus a lot, usually away from the girl in order to put in a credit. High pitched noises alongside the music picking up tempo suggest that things are going wrong for the girl and that things are probably not going to go well for her.
She stumbles through long grasses shown by a crane shot, which slowly pans upwards to show the isolated location which she is in. It is evident that the character is following the typical horror and thriller convention of the character, trying to flee, travels to a place which is going to be totally devastating for them; for instance going up the stairs or another inescapable location.
The camera then pans down a little to show how easily she has disappeared in all the tall grasses, and this further supports the idea of her being totally isolated. She is evidently in pain of some description from the way she clutches at her stomach.
Quickly changing scenes and dramatic music show the terrible predicament she is in and forces us to acknowledge the unfortunate fate of the girl. Crab shots of her stumbling feet, the sound of her gasping breaths and the bright red stain leaking over her school uniform all sum up to a dim future.
The brightness of the girl's blood contrasts hugely to the rest of the sequence, which is all dark blue and faintly lit. This is clearly something which is very important in her story.
The quickly changing shots, from her feet to her face to the back of her head all show how near to the end she is, what with the way that they pick up pace and how the changes are spaced closer together. This creates a sense of panic and confusion, alongside a lot of tension, which is broken smoothly as the girl falls down.
We hear the gurgle in her throat, and then footsteps still moving nearby. This reveals how she is being followed and suggests that the person is the one who has caused her injury.
An extreme close up of her eye reveals the reflection of someone standing above her. This shot makes the girl seem incredibly vulnerable and makes her fate look even more doomed.
She whispers an apology in her dying breath which makes for the show to be interesting - why is she apologising as she dies?
The camera then goes to show a variety of shots of the landscape she is in, further establishing just how alone the girl is.

Opening Title Sequences

The Shining
1980
Stanley Kubrick

The opening for this film starts with low, brass music, taking us across a lake in which there is a tiny island. The scene is magnificent and unconvential for a thriller film, what with the calm, clear lake, attractive surroundings, bright sky and breathtaking mountain view. The camera sweeps across the lake, in a straight line, until it reaches the island, at what point it takes a sudden change in direction. This could be symbolic in terms of the rest of the film; everything going well until something as small as the island sets it all off and causes everything to change.
Accompanied by the sombre tone of the music, reminiscent of a death march, the scene is unnerving. With all the grandeur on the screen, the soundtrack does not quite fit with the beauty which we are experiencing.
The music then changes slightly, with an almost electronic sound being put over the intial music, similar to striking a tuning fork. As the car follows it's winding road further and further into the mountains, the music begins to suggest that things will change for the people travelling inside the car, and not necessarily in a good way.
The car is dwarfed by it's surroundings, a small yellow VW Beetle on a narrow road, looking miniscule in comparison to the imposing mountain set behind it. This emphasises just how small the vehicle is and instills a sense of how alone the travellers are on their journey. Being in an environment like this and being so insignificant in comparison highlights the isolation which is likely to be drawn upon throughout the film.
The inital scene is stunning, welcoming, warm and breathtaking, yet as the car progresses through the landscape turns into something much colder and less desirable. The steep drop to the side of the road is a stark contrast to the flat plains which the car previously travelled on, and alongside the music, which sounds almost ghostly with the high pitched noises it includes, we get the sense that not everything is okay.
Through the entirety of the opening scene, everything changes, even from the types of trees which we see. At the beginning we see deciduous trees, but as they reach their destination they are replaced by much hardier coniferous ones.
The font used for the credits are an unusual choice due to their bright hue and sans serif font. The cyan tone certainly stands out over the various different backgrounds, but it is so bright that it makes the viewers question themselves as to why this choice was made. It is a startling colour and contrasts deeply to the scene it is played over. This could be understood as portraying a startling change which is likely to occur.

The shots used, such as the extreme long shot when the car finally arrives at it's destination, an isolated hotel in the middle of a harsh looking winter, manage to capture how truly alone the characters are, perhaps the only convention in the entire opening sequence.

 

Dexter

2006
Showtime

Dexter is a TV show and hence the opening sequence is the same used for every episode. For this reason it must portray a recurring message and this one is done particularly well through various semiotic features.
The opening begins with the image of a mosquito landing on someone's arm and then the character smacking down on it violently. There is a red stain left on his arm. The camera then pulls focus away from the bug and onto the face of the man who crushed it, who is smiling proudly. This could be seen as reflecting the characters nature and how he takes pleasure in even the very smallest things such as the victory over such a small creature.
There is then a shot to implement the name of the show, (referring to the image above) whereby the characters name is written out in what seems to be watery blood, swirling around inside the letters and even spilling out, what with the blot beneath the 'X' and the splashes to the bottom right. This is evidently going to get the viewer interested because it is an unusual scene and we are naturally going to want to find out what made this character, Dexter, so bemused by the killing of an insignificant mosquito.
The next scene is of the character standing in front of a mirror. We only see the back of his head, not his face which is not only pulled out of the focus but also rather blurred. There is great detail shown of the back of his head though, which could be understood as showing a certain anonymity.
The music in the background of all of this is eerily upbeat, contrasting hugely against the anonymous mosquito killer and the bloody words. There is both a mysterious undertone and then a Latin style instrumental mixed together which gives off the sense that there are two differing sides to Dexter's story.
We are then taken on a journey through Dexter's everyday routine, with an extreme close up of him running his fingers over his stubble to test whether or not he will need to shave today, then to an unnerving shot of him angling his neck in order to shave properly. This unnerves us as viewers because not only is it a close up shot at an angle which we would not ordinarily experience, it is a delicate area and he is holding a razor to it. The way in which there are two shots of this; one of him finding the appropriate location to begin, then switching to him dragging the razor up the throat, suggests a certain caution and apprehensiveness, as well as a calculating side. He is calculating where he ought to begin and this trait comes across throughout the rest of the opening sequence due to the way in which he does each individual activity.

When Dexter begins to prepare breakfast we begin to question him, due to the shot of him slicing through what looks like flesh with a serrated blade. The darkness surrounding the object which he is cutting does not help his case as it gives off the impression that he is doing so in a darkened room, meeting typical thriller style conventions. Yet this is not the case and we see him dropping a piece of what appears to be bacon steak into his frying pan.

The mundane task of preparing breakfast is not so mundane throughout the title sequence and we see him splattering his plate with ketchup, a few fast shots of cutlery griping through food. Seeing him chew and hearing the diegetic sounds of him doing so make him seem more human.
A shot of blades spinning in a coffee grinder emphasise an 'at-ease' attitude towards sharps of all sorts; razors, knives and even the rotating blades of a coffee grinder.
We see strong hands pushing down on a pump, cracking an egg, slicing a grapefruit. All these trivial things combine to portray the image of an unusual person preparing his breakfast and getting ready for the day.

This shot of a grapefruit being sliced and then squeezed also emphasises the power inside this man, from the extreme close up of the blade cutting through the fruit and the low angle shot of the juice flying out to the way in which he reduces the half into next to nothing in the space of a few cinematic seconds. The fruit inside being red is also semiotic because we expect the fruit he is slicing to actually be an orange due to the tone of it's skin, but it releases a red pulp when squeezed, referring back to the blood and red theme that is prominent throughout the entire opening. This gives off the impression that Dexter is not all that he seems and that his insides do not match the exterior which he gives off.
The shot of the now squeezed grapefruit half is gruesome, the flesh looking abused and mutilated. This image is a good one in terms of iconography and hidden meanings, mainly because the inside of the fruit is referred to as a "flesh", which has been exposed when it has been cut open.

There is also an emphasis on Dexter locking the door behind him, shown through the way that there is an scene showing this, despite it being only 1 second long. Most of the time in shows and films we do not see this standard action and it is this which makes us realise that there is definitely another side to him which he is evidently trying to keep away from the outside world, through visibly locking it away.

North By North West

1959
Alfred Hitchcock

The opening of the title sequence is the opening credit of the MGM lion, but following that is a bright green screen with lines coming in both horizontally and vertically. They seem to be following some kind of a patterna and they move slowly, which could be construed as imagery representing the idea of "everything coming together". This is only the beginning but it does not have to be taken as suggesting a happy ending; it could instead be taken as a suggestion that there are many different parts of the story which come together gradually to put together a bigger, more interesting picture.
The music behind this scene is high pitched, orchestral, almost like a string quartet, although there are undertones of deeper, more bass music following the highest noises, almost suggesting that the plot will have many climaxes and that each one will be followed by a decrease in excitement until the next interesting part.
The way which the credits appear on the screen - coming in sharply from various sides, lingering briefly before darting out of shot.

There is then a match cut, with the grid like lines turning into a glass window. Although it is really just a window, the numerous lines fill the thriller conventions of bars on the windows well.

This window shows the busy life going on in the reflection of them, but does not show what is on the other side. Also, we know these are windows and hence we do not know what is going on inside, due to the mirrored effect on the panes. This could be taken to imply that there is a secret side and that there are various hidden aspects to the plot and it's characters.
The title sequence is split into three distinct parts. The third part is a ground level long shot which shows the relationship between the people in the city and their surroundings. It creates a sense of anonymity, what with the people walking by each other, not acknowledging anyone around them, yet from them all you get some kind of sense of story, be it from how they are dressed, what they are carrying or how they are walking. This emphasises how easily one can get lost in such an environment and reviewing the plot for this film in order to help me in understanding the sequence it also shows how easily people can be mistaken for others, because of how little knowledge the people who commute together every day actually know about eachother. The first shot is of doors to what is presumably an office building, with many people leaving, entering and passing them in a hurry. It then turns to a scene of multiple people hurrying down into what is probably an underground train station. The fact that there is no people leaving, nor is there a method to get out visible, instills a certain sense of danger and almost claustrophobia. One cannot help but worry for the people piling into this small space with clearly little to no thought about this.

  The final shot shows a man running for the bus only to have the door shut in his face as he approaches the step. This shows the cold nature of people in the city and how they merely want to get their job done and go home, with little regard to how anyone else achieves this themselves. This suggests that there will be a rather unsympathetic tone throughout the film.

Camera Shots - Preliminary Task

Our first practical task on different camera shots and angles, using tripods and tracking dollys.

Preliminary Task 1 - Camera Shots & Angles

The initial experience of setting up the equipment was a daunting task, due to me not having used any of the equipment before! I managed to set up the camera including turning it on and setting up the tape but there were more experienced members in my group who took control of putting the camera on the tripod and rewinding the tape.

We went out to the foyer and started off with an over the shoulder shot. We worked through the shots and various angles, but due to equipment limitations we were unable to do a crane shot.

The next lesson we used a tracking dolly to make our tracking shots and panning shots a lot smoother. Our dolly was slightly damaged and hence it tried to fold up when it the legs of the tripod were not gripped firmly. When we did a tracking shot this was easy enough to do, however the small wheels on the carpet meant that our shots were slightly wobbly. Thanks to the dolly we managed to get a good establishing shot of the inside of the building. 

Plot Analysis - No Country For Old Men

No Country For Old Men, 2007

Directed and written by Seth and Joel Coen
Miramax Films
US Box Office: $74.2M
Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson

This film is about a veteran from Vietnam stumbling upon 2 million dollars in the aftermath of a awry drug deal. Set in Texas, the veteran, played by Brolin, finds a pick up truck full of bullet holes, uncovers the cash, alongside a considerable amount of heroin stashed in the back. Later, a hitman, played by Bardem sets out to recover the loot, deciding the fate of the veteran with a flip of a coin.

Following the pair is the town sheriff, who struggles to contain the sudden escalating violence.

The movie won several awards, including: AFI Movie of the Year, 2007; Oscars in Best Achievement in Directing, Best Motion Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role, 2008. It was nominated for numerous prestigious awards.

Thriller Film Posters

Chatroom, 2010

The poster for this film is generally very dark, which indicates that there is a dark theme in the plot. The main character is shown as being quite a lot bigger than the other characters and he is also in the middle, which implies that he has a lot of power over the other characters shown. They are all looking towards him with negative expressions on their faces, including intimidation, fear and worry.

Below them is a setting with five people sitting around on chairs, which suggests that this is the main theme or situation which the characters are in. There is a lot of green writing behind the characters at the top of the poster, which is very small and is blurring together. The writing being green reflects the classic “Matrix” style typing. The theme of the Matrix is about altering reality and predicting what will happen in the future, and this is reflected in the poster in the tag line, "Control.Alter.Delete". The eyes either side of the poster signify that someone is constantly watching over the characters and the sinister nature of the eyes imply that this is definitely not a good thing.

Eyes also make people feel rather uncomfortable usually and judging from the rest of the poster this could be something which the creators of the poster wanted to achieve.

American Psycho, 2000

The poster for this film is also very dark. It looks sinister and the expression on the man's face indicates a certain steely nature and an unfeeling. He does not seem at all phased by the large knife in his hand, and it appears that he is turning away from it as if looking for his next victim.

The way that the title is partially obscured could be signifying that the "psycho" side is hidden from society and that it is a secret side to him.

In the main image, the character looks well dressed and well presented, yet in his reflection in the blade is distorted, haggard and the clothes look different too. This shows that when he is presented with a weapon, such as the knife, his entire demeanour changes and he goes from what is most likely a suave professional to something that is unrecognisable.

The entire image is surrounded by darkness, which suggests that he has hidden an awful lot of his personality from a lot of people. They say that the eyes are 'the window to the soul', yet these are totally obscured, yet most of his face is visible. This could be perceived as showing how devoid of a soul this man is.

 Alien, 1979

This poster is shrouded in darkness which it seems is a common theme in thriller movie posters. The blackness in this image shows how isolated the main focus of the movie, the egg, is. The typography used is very spaced apart and this further instills the notion of isolation, which apparently is a very dominant feature. The egg is very old looking, due to it's neutral colour and full of craters, and it has cracked open to reveal something which is greatly juxtaposed to it, due to the bright green hue and eerie looking light coming from within it.

The image below the egg, at the bottom of the image is brought to our attention by the fog descending onto it, which indicates that it is secondary to the main image. This is further supported by the way that it seems that there are humans below, who seem to be bowing down to the egg. This enforces an idea of subordination. As humans are atypically at the top of the food chain, as so to speak, this is an uncomfortable image as there is seemingly something more important than them. Aspects of the humans are unrecognisable, such as there being no clear limbs shown, only skin, which suggests an idea of mutation and abnormality.

What is a thriller film?

A thriller film is one which creates a sense of suspense, excitement and tension for the audience. There are many themes of thriller films which recur throughout the genre.
In a thriller film, there is usually some form of crime or illegal event which the entire film centres around.

Themes
Themes of a thriller film could include terrorism, murder, stalking and situations where the main characters lives are put in danger. The key difference between thriller films and horror films is the distinct lack of gore and heavy violence. Thrillers generally have more of a plot and lower film ratings, meaning that they are suitable for a wider range of audiences.

Characters
There is a wide variety of characters in thriller films which makes it harder for their market to become saturated unlike genres such as action, which can become more cliche over time. Among the typical characters are femme fatales, criminals, assassins, stalkers, police, and those involved in twisted relationships. Thriller characters, unlike those in horror, usually have detailed backgrounds and these are likely to be included in the plot.

Semiotics
There is iconography which we generally associate with thriller films, such as weapons, barred windows, flickering lights, shadows and the colour red. These are all icons associated with danger and can be construed as a warning to the protagonist when he or she comes across them prior to the disequilibrium.

Setting
Settings of a thriller film are usually abandoned buildings, such as warehouses or factories. They are settings which are not usually frequented, like old buildings or alleyways. These sort of settings are chosen because they are ones which our instincts would tell us are dangerous, so it is surprising for the audience that the protagonist will put themselves into this situation.

Little Talks

Quite possibly my favourite song at the moment. Not only is it a beautiful song, the music video is visually stunning.

My First Post

Hello,
My name is Chloe and this is the blog which I will be using to put together my Media Studies portfolio.
I can't wait to put together my thriller piece and I'm looking forward to the course.