Film Rating - Target Audience

The classification of a film is a very important part of the process, and ensuring the right age classification of our opening sequence is vital as it not only dictates our target audience, it also sets the precedent of what kind of content our film will contain. In order to see what kind of rating our thriller opening should have I looked at the British Board of Film Classification (bbfc) website and found it very helpful in deciphering the kind of ratings our film should be given.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15

A 12 and a 12A are able to contain moderate violence and initially we had thought that our thriller opening may be classified as a 12A given that it is not a particularly gory sequence. However, after reviewing the bbfc's policy on violence,  "There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood"  we have decided that a 12A would not be a suitable rating for our thriller opening given the strong 

suggestions of revenge, violence and murder. 

As as group we feel that a 15 rating is better suited to our thriller opening, given the gun sequence and close up of the bullet wound, this would be classified as too strong for a 12 or 12A but would come within the guidelines outlined by the bbfc for a 15, "Yes, at 15 violence may be strong"  and we feel that the classification of a 15 best fits the tone of our thriller opening. 

After looking at what is expected from a film classified as an 18, I feel that our thriller opening would not be at all suited to this classification given the expectation by the bbfc of an 18 , "Yes, at 18 violence can be strong and be portrayed with strong detail. There may even be dwelling on the infliction of pain or injury, or scenes of strong sadistic or sexual violence."  After reviewing this we feel sure that a film classification of 15 is the best for our thriller opening. 

Sources: www.bbfc.co.uk

Editing Process 1

After filming our thriller opening, this week we moved on to editing. Initially, we spent the first lesson reviewing and cutting down our footage, as we want our sequence to be fast paced and to have lots of short, sharp cuts. 

As can be seen from this screen shot of our work on Final Cut Pro X, after cutting down the footage that we need, we moved on to changing the colour of the sequence. The way that we imagined to have our thriller opening is to be predominantly black and white, with red being the only visible colour, as it is symbolic and plays a central role in our story line.   

However, converting the footage into black and white but keeping red, is proving to be more difficult than we previously imagined so we have been experimenting with a number of techniques to achieve this. Such as, colour masks like the one shown in this screen shot which work effectively in regards to colour but need to be moved each time the character moves which is a long process.  

We used other processes than the colour masks, such as highlighting the colour red with a dropper and filtering out any other colours, the only problem with this method, as can be seen from the screen shot of our main character, this tool is very sensitive, picking up the faint red hue, hence it has picked up on the pink in our actresses' complexion and means that her face is not totally black and white.  

Within this scree shot the effect of the contrasting red upon the black and white background is shown and, we feel looks quite effective. Another technique that we used was to achieve this was to add the 'Black and White' filter from the options of filters and apply this, then slowly filter colour back in to the shot. 

Overall, this week as a group we have been experimenting with the editing software and getting the basic colours in place, before we go back and improve them. After cutting down the footage we also feel that our sequence may be a little short, therefore we intend to storyboard and film an extra scene to add in to the original footage to improve our thriller opening. 

Filming

After much planning and story boarding our group finally filmed our thriller opening on Saturday the 8th of November, we spent around 2 hours trying to capture everything . After deciding that we want to create our thriller opening to be in black and white with the only colour showing being red, we knew that this would come from the editing process, but we needed to take extra care not to include anything red so that it would not show up and ruin the shot when we filter out all of the colour apart from red. This was quite a challenge and meant that we tried to be extra careful/ aware of the entire shot, not just the action we intended to film, but the background also. 


What went well

On the day we felt that certain elements of the filming process went really well. For example, we felt that our footage closely resembles the way that we envisaged it to and we followed the story board closely. We also felt that we communicated the theme/ era of our thriller opening effectively through the costumes and props that we used making it appear, in our minds to resemble the 1930/40s quite closely. Equally, many of the actual shots that we attempted, the aerial shot in particular which we thought would not perhaps come out as well as the more basic close - ups worked well and we feel look exactly how we had hoped. We were especially pleased with the way that our main character looked, and the effective use of the contrasting umbrellas. 

Even better if

Although many things went well and we were overall very happy with our footage there could have been some improvements. For example, we had some problems finding male actors and as a result we felt that their costumes did not look as authentic, although we will edit out the school badge visable in the editing process. Moreover, within some of the shots certain objects are visable such as bags and coats that don't fit with our genre and therefore a few shots are not usable as a result, in this case we may need to re film some shots or film an extra shot instead. However, on the whole we were very pleased with how the filming went and are now moving on to the editing process! 


Consent Form

This image shows the form we gave every person who was in our thriller to sign, acknowledging their consent for them to be in the thriller opening and for it to be shown to external sources. 

Preliminary exercise

In class we were shown a video which exhibited a number of camera angles, our challenge was then to create our own video using the same structure and following the same sequence, using the same camera angles - to practise using the video camera and to know and be able to recreate the vast range of camera angles that are available for us to use within our own thriller opening. 

As can be seen from the video this was an exploratory exercise and we used this as an opportunity to be creative and try a diverse variety of camera angles and to gain inspiration as to the shots that we liked most and thought looked best for when it came to filming our opening sequence, for example we thought that the shot - reverse - shot or over the shoulder shots looked very good and connoted a relationship between two characters effectively to the audience and would therefore be a certain shot sequence that we would like to use within our thriller opening. 

The only problem that we faced as a group was the soundtrack within this short clip as the dialogue cannot be heard, however the main focus was on the camera angles and we will therefore take this knowledge on board and be very careful when filming, and give the soundtrack to our thriller careful thought and consideration as our research has demonstrated that the soundtrack is a major contributing factor in the building of tension and suspense within a thriller film.  

Examples of our favourite shots

This is the shot - reverse - shot sequence that we were especially pleased with as we feel that it conveys a relationship between the two characters, they obviously know each other from their facial expressions and this is easily identified by the audience. As a group we feel that a sequence like this would be a good series of shots to use within our thriller opening to 

establish the relationship between our
main character/ antagonist and her victim. 

Equally, this high angle shot although used in this sequence just to show the giving of the book could be used in our thriller to show our main character as being in a position of power and to make the victim look especially weak, powerless and inferior to the strong antagonist as she looks down on him.  

Storyboarding

The following images are the finished product of our storyboarding. Ultimately as a group we are very pleased with how it looks and feel that it conveys both the camera angles we wish to use and the images we intend to capture effectively. As can be seen from the storyboard our thriller opening will be entitled, "Lady In Red" 

Our thriller will be set in a 1930/40s club and therefore to convey this we will need to focus on the props, set and costume to indicate this to the audience, we feel that the costume we intend for our main character to wear will show this theme especially as it is a typical old 'Hollywood Glamour' style dress and we will even try to use a fur to connote this era to the audience. Moreover, in the editing stage we intend to filter out all colour from the sequence apart from the colour red which holds significance as it connotes that our main character is a dangerous antagonist - equally this effect will make the sequence appear to be reminiscent of a film noir and should make our crime thriller opening more authentic and believable.

The actual storyline centres around our main antagonist, she enters this club and observes her surroundings, before locking eyes with a male character that she obviously knows somehow, there is a quick exchange of glances and then a gun appears although it is not shown who is pulling the trigger, the camera then focuses on the character who has been shot and his reaction before cutting to the antagonist pulling a red umbrella from an umbrella stand confirming that it was in fact her who shot the man as it is the same, distinctive umbrella that she entered the club with,the camera then cuts to her walking away from the club with an ominous smile on her face.

The titles themselves have been written on here just to show where they would go in the shot, however we will research as a group the order in which the titles should go and the title of the film will not be the last shot, it will in fact be the image of the main character walking away.

For the soundtrack we intend to intensify the scene by using typical thriller music that is minor and haunting, perhaps even to slow down a typical 1930/40s jazz song that would be played in the type of club our thriller is set in to intensify the scene and make it more dramatic 

For example; soundtrack 6 from this link, "Happy days are here again" by Milton Ager/ Jack Yellen if slowed right down could be an extremely haunting sound and we could attempt to recreate this style of music and explore something similar using our own ideas to have in the background of our thriller.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/original-dance-music-of-1920s-1930s-mw0000605303

Furthermore, we intend to enhance certain sounds to build suspense such as the gunshot, the clip clop of the antagonists' heels in one particular shot as well as the music playing in the background. 

During the editing process we intend to cut lots of our shots to make them short, sharp and powerful - our thriller is supposed to be very fast paced to keep a high level of tension and excitement for the audience throughout, although we cannot sustain such high levels of tension throughout the whole thing so we may slow down the editing of the sequence at the very beginning and build up as the sequence continues. 

There are many props required for our thriller opening that we have planned to buy or use such as seven umbrellas for our umbrella shots, vintage decorations for the hall we are filming in, a gun, umbrella stand, a red dress and fur, an extra shirt and lastly fake blood. We also need to ask our extra characters who are in the background to dress appropriately for the era/ genre of our thriller. 

After getting everything that we need ready for our thriller opening we are ready to film and will record our thriller opening on Saturday the 8th of November.  

Sources: www.allmusic.com

Influences

I am now moving into the planning stage for my thriller opening and I have therefore needed to consider what has influenced me when it comes to inventing an idea and the concept for my thriller. Many different things have influenced me when it comes to my thriller opening - including films, directors, clips, images, websites, film eras, sub genres and many more. This post will be a collaboration of everything that has influenced me in the ideas for my thriller opening. 

Film eras

After watching many exerts from all kinds of different thriller films, from various time periods my group and I decided that the film era that we were most interested in was the 1930/40 s Hollywood glamour as we felt that this time period produced some iconic thriller films and is not often recreated in modern thrillers and would be an interesting and challenging project, therefore our thriller opening will try and encompass this both stylistically and in regards to the plot of the sequence. As a group we decided that our main character is going to be a woman and is also the main antagonist, images like these are what have influenced what we wish to recreate in our own thriller opening and show exactly what we wish to portray through our character - a sense of danger through her appearance and the use of the colour red. 

Sub genres  

When considering what sub genre of thriller to explore, my group and I thought carefully about what genre would fit our 1930/40 s theme - we decided that a crime thriller would be the most appropriate for what we intend within the plot line for the sequence, as a crime thriller enables us to create a dramatic sequence using a gun and therefore opens itself to a wide range of camera angles and editing techniques to build tension for the audience. Moreover, to keep the authenticity of our thriller opening our group intends to film the thriller opening all in black and white, reminiscent of a film noir so that the use of shadows and light will convey a strong sense of danger and build suspense.  

Films

A big inspiration for my thriller opening comes from the 1940 Psychological thriller 'Rebecca' the use of dark and light is particularly outstanding and is a clear indicator of whether a character is a protagonist or an antagonist - it also is able to convey the emotion of a character through the intentional casting of shadows , Mrs. DeWinter in particular creating an eerie quality to the scene, we will attempt to recreate this iconic style within our own thriller opening. 

Directors

The director who has influenced our ideas for our thriller opening the most is certainly Alfred Hitchcock, the director of the film 'Rebecca' among others, Hitchcock's directing in the 1960 film 'Psycho' is what influenced the selection of camera angles we intend to use in our own thriller opening. This scene uses the point - of - view shot among other camera angles incredibly - increasing tension considerably and the editing used also makes this harrowing scene so iconic, putting the audience in the position of the character. 

Style

Following in the style of the 1930/40 s era, the film 'Gangster Squad', although not a thriller exhibits exactly the kind of style that I would like to use in my own thriller opening, especially the setting of the club and the costumes of the characters as they are very glamorous and would look even better in black and white I feel. 

This image in particular shows exactly the style that we desire for our main character, the use of red too on our character is designed to show that she is dangerous, like this character our antagonist should have red lips and a red dress to really stand out from the rest of the shot  - connoting the importance of the character.

Iconic use of the colour red

Within our thriller opening our group decided that we would like to have the majority of our sequence in black and white with the exception of the red items that our main character would wear and hold, including a red umbrella, the red dress she will wear and if possible a strong red lipstick. We feel that this would enhance our thriller opening and make it eye - catching, moreover the red is designed to identify our main character as an antagonist instantly and to connote that she is dangerous to the audience. Our inspiration came from films like the 1956 featurette 'Le Ballon Rouge' and the 1993 historical drama 'Schindler's list' in both pieces the use of red is both influential and iconic - this is what we would like to recreate in our own thriller opening.  

Sources: Google Images, Youtube, Imdb, Pinterest, theguardian.com/uk, amazon.com

Planning

The following is an image of the mind map that our group created whilst brainstorming ideas behind our thriller opening. This mind map then gave us the outline for our storyboard and was vital in us deciding what to include or leave out in regards to the real opening sequence.

As can be seen from the image we decided on the genre of our thriller, being a crime thriller/ film noir, we also decided that our thriller should be fast paced which we will achieve using fast cuts when it comes to editing our thriller. Equally, as a group we decided on the costumes and props that we will use to cement our theme, convey it to the audience and enhance the drama of the sequence - such as vintage items to decorate the hall, the umbrellas that will feature as a key part of our thriller opening and typical iconography of the thriller genre such as guns, blood and a bullet wound recreated with fake blood. Lastly we decided on the setting of our thriller which will take place in our school canteen as it is very old and our intention is to transform it into a 1930/40s club through the use of props and actors. Once we had finished this mind map we could move on to storyboarding our thriller opening using the ideas discussed during this session.  

Mise-en-scène

Mise- en - scene makes up the main elements that adorn any scene, whether from a thriller or not. The components of Mise-en-scene are broken down into six main areas which can be remembered using the word C.L.A.M.P.S.

C ostume L ighting A cting M ake up P ositioning S et   

Costume

The main antagonist from Die Hard

Costume is a very important part of any thriller film, costume can help the director to portray things about the nature of the character, their status , their class, their job or personality among other things. Within the thriller genre, costumes apart from connoting the time period it is set in, and other things such as wealth and status are used to connote whether a character is a protagonist or an antagonist. For example, if a character is shown to be only wearing black then the director has already identified that character as being an antagonist to the audience without the use of any dialogue, this is the same regarding protagonists and the colour white. Moreover, the director may choose to take advantage of colour association for example, a character all in red may be associated with danger, passion or lust. Within the image of Alan Rickman in 'Die Hard' he is easily identified as the antagonist due to his black suit and dark red tie - black connoting death and red associated with blood and danger. 

Equally this image portrays Bruce Willis starring in the same film, 'Die Hard'. Again the audience swiftly identifies Willis as the protagonist as he is wearing a white vest, white connoting goodness, purity, light and hope.

Lighting


Traditionally most thriller films will use low - key lighting as is shown in the accompanying image, it is effective in creating a dark, intense feel to a scene, low-key lighting also often gives a shot a greyish hue which contributes to creating a sinister and foreboding atmosphere to the scene. Moreover, low-key lighting enables the director to keep the audience slightly disorientated and therefore can increase the element of surprise and tension. 


Acting


Acting is arguably the most influential element of mise- en - scene as the acting, through body language, dialogue and facial expression sets the over all tone of the entire film. Within the Thriller genre, lots of close -ups are used to enable the audience to see the characters' facial expression/ reaction which builds tension and suspense for the audience. For example, the accompanying picture shows how facial expression can convey a tone or emotion to the audience, as the characters' evil expression ensures that the audience fear him and gives a strong sense of foreboding that he may harm other characters. 



M ake up 

The Joker from the Batman series is a prime example of how make up can be used effectively to invoke a reaction from the audience, he is associated with the sinister clown - like make up and therefore becomes an object of fear through the way that he is presented. Make - up can be used within the thriller genre to portray a variety of things such as class, age, social status and the personality of the character. Colour association is a major part of make - up within films, for example the colour red carries connotations with danger, blood, death but also passion or love. 

 P ositioning

The positioning of a character within a shot is incredibly important. Where a character or object is placed tells the audience much about them and their importance to the scene. The position of a character within a shot can also indicate much about their representation and stereotypes, for example within this image the woman is further forward in the shot, only her torso is shown whereas the threatening character behind is in full view, his whole body is shown including his powerful stance, connoting that he is inferior to the smaller, weaker woman. 


S et 

The set and props of a film tell the audience much in regards to location, country it is set in, time period, wealth of the character and more. The props and set also help contribute to the tone of the film and create, in the case of most thrillers a tense atmosphere. For example, the image to the right depicts an empty warehouse with soldiers and guns - making the audience wonder whether the set is in fact some kind of army base. The set of a film is crucial, as are the props - as typical iconography of the thriller genre such as guns and knives - help the audience to identify the film they are watching as a thriller. 



Sources: Google images, www.slideshare.com, www.elementsofcinema.com, collegefilmandmediastudies.com 

Opening Sequences 2

I am going to be researching another opening to a thriller film, to understand what makes a good opening title sequence, and to see what kind of shots and titles I could use for my own thriller opening.

The following is the link to the opening sequence of the 2012 thriller, 'Red lights'.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/red-lights/

The following is the opening shot, letters move around the screen quickly and in all different direction, combined with flash lights/ spots to convey a sense of chaos. The letters then assemble to form the name of the star of the film, Cillian Murphy. This is a contrast with the other thriller opening that I studied, which had the names of the directors first. However, like 'Captain America' the name of the actor is all in capitals signifying their importance to the film.

This title shot, unlike the previous one has used an image behind the name of the actress - therefore the eye of the audience is drawn more to the image than the name. The image itself is unsettling and almost sinister, the silhouette of the hands moving slowly down, combined with the soft grey lighting gives the audience the sense that the film contains elements of the supernatural.

By this title sequence the audience knows that there is a consistency of lights and letters being mixed, moving, increasing and decreasing all creating a disorientating effect which builds tension for the viewer. Moreover, the audience is drawn to the image of the eye, it appears to be a human eye and yet the detail surrounding the eye does not look like skin but appears to be more like the skin of an animal of some kind, again connoting that supernatural creatures of some kind will be present in this film.

This title shot introduces the director, producer and writer of the film, 'Rodrigo Cortes', unlike in 'Captain America' the director's name, although in capitals is not so large and in such a bold font - it has been kept fairly simple - the focus more on the flashes of light than the title itself. These flashes of light and circles are yet more indicators that the film has some involvement with supernatural influences as circles, especially crop circles are often associated with the paranormal.

This shot, introducing the name of the film 'Red Lights' also introduces another colour into the other two which the director has previously used; black and white - connoting the conflict between good and evil. The colour red signifies danger and is indicative of what is to come from the film.

This title shot, an extreme close up of an eye is unsettling for the audience, it is not an uncomfortable image and adds to the other - worldly feel to the sequence.

This long shot is an incredibly powerful image, the significance of portraying Christ on the cross seems to connote that religion or at least theological  theories/ iconography will be a consistent theme throughout the film.

These images again indicate that religion or religious conspiracies are a major plot line within the film, for example the central image appears to be a prophet/ prophetess with their hands in the air. Moreover, the faint writing over the top of the images creates a sinister feel to the images.

The director has deliberately used the image of the scan of a head, showing the skull to increase tension for the audience as skulls are often associated with death, and to connote that the plot may have something to do with the head, the brain and in particular the mind.

The symmetry of the shot is unusual and the image itself is a spooky one, having part of the woman's head concealed and the grey light hovering above the image connotes the supernatural / spiritual plot of the film.

This image appears to be from an ancient book, again the image has elements of circles within it, connoting some kind of alien influence.

This shot is another form of spiritual imagery, intended to create suspense for the audience as the paranormal has become a predominant theme throughout the title sequence and is indicative of what is to come from the rest of the film.

This title shot is interesting as it highlights the fact that some sort of crime has been committed, given that the focus of the shot is a newspaper article, moreover the headline is centring around spontaneous combustion - on researching this I found that a spontaneous human combustion sometimes occurs and this is often unexplained  leading tho theories that the unexplained deaths could be caused by some paranormal force - this connotes to the audience that the supernatural presented within the film will not be a force of good but may be evil.

This title shot acts as a bridge to a new sequence, the colours contrast - changing from a dark background/ image with white titles to the opposite. This use of white combined with bright lights gives the title a clinical feel and the image of the syringe connotes danger and experimentation.

This image of a UFO in the sky confirms what the audience has already deduced, the film plot line revolves around aliens and the supernatural, like other shots the titles themselves are not as prominent as the image itself.

This title shot is particularly shocking, appearing to be the hand of an alien or paranormal creature, creating tension for the audience - equally the image is distorted / blurred slightly adding to the mystery of the creature and grabbing the audiences' attention.

The title shot is particularly disturbing, it appears to show the experimentation on what the audience would assume is an alien of some kind - the director has chosen only to show images such as this for a few seconds before cutting to something else in order to give the audience just a brief image and increase the suspense of the shot.

This extreme long shot serves to further disorientate the audience, the image is almost like a point- of - view shot as the camera shakes and moves down the corridor connoting a sense of chaos and danger, increasing tension for the audience.

This is the final image / title shot within the sequence, it shows a globe with a red light on it, red lights being the name of the film - this connotes to the audience that the plot of the film affects the whole world and potentially that it is in danger. Moreover, the director has waited until the very end to introduce his name, this is unlike in 'Captain America' where the directors name is the first title to be seen, this shows that the order of titles can be shown in a different dependant on the director.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the opening sequence is made up of non - diegetic swelling orchestral music, which seems to build to crescendos and has a strong bass line which is in time with the editing, the beats matching with a cut to a different shot - the effect of this is incredibly dramatic, connoting that something bad will happen. At the beginning of the sequence a Xylophone has been used and this builds tension as it is an unusual sound - equally the violins sound almost screechy, and sound very similar to like the famous sequence in 'Psycho' , thus instantly conveying to the audience that there is some kind of threat or danger. Moreover, at 1:12 minutes the style of the music changes from the building orchestral music, to repetitions of the same sequence of music - the brass instruments becoming more prominent which has an eerie/ haunting effect and connotes danger, this is conveyed through the images which match the change in the sequence, equally the section of the opening sequence identifies the threat as supernatural and involved with aliens - therefore the change in music is very fitting and effective in building a feeling of suspense.

Comparison
The thriller opening to 'Red Lights' is very different to that of the other opening sequence that I researched, 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' for many reasons, not only are they different in that they are of different sub - genres, 'Red lights' being a Sci-Fi/ Psychological thriller and 'Captain America' being an Action / Fantasy thriller, they are different stylistically especially in regard to the order of the titles themselves. For example, 'Red Lights' introduces the starring actors of the film before any other title, the name of the film itself coming 0:25 seconds in and the director of the film coming at the very end of the whole sequence, whereas in the film 'Captain America' the directors' name is the first title followed by the writers and producers - the actors names do not come until later, moreover unlike 'Red Lights' the name of the studios and the film itself are the very last tiles to be shown.

Application
After researching and comparing the opening sequences to two completely different thrillers I have learnt much in regards to what makes a good thriller opening. For example, the order of the titles are dependent on the director's preference, black and white are very important colours within both opening sequences I looked at as these colours - whether as the title colour, background colour or the actual images strongly convey a sense of light and dark / good and evil - I will therefore be using the symbolic colours black and white in my own thriller opening as they are very effective in creating a sense of foreboding for the audience. Equally, in both thriller openings the images are more eye catching/ important than the titles themselves. Lastly, both thriller openings use the colour red to convey a sense of danger, very important within the thriller genre and as a result I will therefore use the colour red carefully in my own thriller opening so as to keep the distinct meaning and not just to be used as a background colour but to create a sense of foreboding around the antagonist.