Opening Sequence To Se7en

The other thriller film we watched in our lesson was 'Se7en' which is a film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. It is a thriller about two police officers, Morgan Freeman who is about to retire and Brad Pitt who is going to be his 'side kick' in the case they have to solve.

The film had scary, confusing images during the opening credits so it made me think that the film was going to be a horror film or similar to the film 'Saw'. The music over the opening credits had screaming and scratching noises which created a creepy sound, enhancing the mysteriousness of the images being shown on the camera. The titles were highly edited and looked as if it was a detectives writing- as detectives take notes. The titles went on for about two minutes which is a long time for the opening credits, this builds up tension and the longer it goes on for, the more the audience wants to know what is going on.

Shots and Movement

The first shot in the film looks like there is someone watching Morgan Freeman in his apartment and the camera switches through lots of different angles. For example there is one point that is an 'over the shoulder' shot, when he is looking into the mirror. Then, when they are walking down the road, the camera is at a low angle, which makes both of the actors look powerful and important. The camera is also using 'tracking' to follow them down the road during their conversation. 

Generic Themes

Morgan Freeman is portrayed to be the dominant character out of the two of them. You can see this because of the way Brad Pitt is shown in the film. For example when they are walking down the road talking, Brad Pitt keeps getting pushed out of the way where as Morgan Freeman walks down the road with nothing in his way, making Pitt look less important than him even in society. 

Although Freeman is portrayed important and dominant, we also see him looking quite lonely in the first scene. He lives in his apartment that is dark and dreary with a single bed, implying he doesn't have a wife or a family, there aren't any pictures around his apartment either. You could say he sees himself as an outsider and doesn't work well with other people, he shows this by being quite cold to Pitt when he first meets him. 

Sound

The title scene has loud music in the background with bizarre noises, making a thick sound that is opposite to the scenes. There is rain throughout the first scenes and no music, creating a hollow feel, not very happy. When Freeman is in his apartment you can hear the speaking from flats around him, making it very realistic and natural but also dark and dull. 

Mis-en-scene

The way that Freeman puts on his tie at the beginning of the film shows his neatness and organisation. For example how everything is laid out for him and his bed is neatly made etc. It all adds to the loneliness and dull life he is portrayed to lead.

Opening Sequence To Momento

We watched the opening sequence of the Thriller film 'Memento'. I enjoyed it because it felt mysterious and made me really think about what was going on. I like this in a Thriller film because it adds suspense and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats, this is something I want to come across in my film when we make a Thriller.

Starting with the Titles...

I liked the effect of the blue text on the black background, I think it stood out well to the audience. They used blue for the text which is a 'cold' color that creates the right mood for a thriller. The text was big, bold and in the centre of the screen which makes it easier to read. The music in the background added to the mood as it was mysterious and eeary. 

Shots and Movement

After looking at different shots with my class, it made me notice them a lot more whilst watching it. Before, I would watch films and pay attention to the plot or the actors, but it is very interesting when you concentrate on how it was actually filmed. An extreme close up is the first shot used in the film, which is of a polaroid photograph. The polaroid keeps gradually changing; this made me intregued to find out what the photograph was showing. It looked like a crime scene because of the red blood colors, this built suspense and felt very intense because of how long the camera concentrated on it.

The camera stays on the shot of the polariod for a long time in the beginning and doesn't change for at least a minute, it is a POV shot which means from a persons point of view, as if someone was looking down at the photo changing. When the camera changes to be focused on the actor,  the camera focuses on him taking a picture without showing his face, making the audience want to know who it is. Then the camera slowly starts to look up at him, which makes him look powerful. Soon after, he looks like a victim which is when the camera is looking down at him from a birds eye view. This shows how important the shots are during a film because it helps portray how the character should be seen by the audience. 

Genetic Themes

By starting the film with a murder scene makes the first scene interesting for the audience and is  a good start to a thriller film. It keeps the audience interested in what is going on.

Sound 

The music over the titles created a mysterious feel to the film, using strings in an orchestra, building up the suspense. When the polaroid comes into view and he starts shaking it, they are using diagetic and non-diagetic sound at the same time. The speech over the first scene, non diagetic, was as if it was his thoughts which was effective instead of having him talk into the camera. The sounds are viteral which means realistic, for example when he shakes the keys. 

Mis-en-scene

The contrast of black and white and color was effective and made the shots more interesting. The clothes they are wearing are normal so they look average and nothing special, which makes it look realistic. 

Prelim Task

This is what we made for our prelim task. I was in a group with Mattie and Shanice. We were given one HD camera per group and a tripod to film with and were allowed to go anywhere within the school grounds. 

We were given instructions on what the film had to include, for example an over the shoulder shot. Before we thought of what the plot was in the film we noted down what the criteria we needed to film was. This had to be filming someone opening a door, two people havng a conversation, with a response from both actors and then finishing with an appropriate ending. 

We thought about making a comedy, but decided that a sad film wold work better with the shot types we had to do (when I was upset, a good over the shoulder shot would be talking to Shanice about what the problem was) this worked well in our film. 

We wanted an extreme close up of Shanice texting at the beginning so that the audience could read what was being said. We thought it would be effective to have three extreme close up shots of her texting, putting the phone in her pocket and then opening the door because it makes the audience want to know who it is that is holding the phone, as you can't see Shanice's face in the extreme close up shots.

When we watched the film back, we decided that we should have used the tripod a lot more, we did a lot of the filming hand held which isn't as professional and doesn't look good compared to when the camera is on a tripod. I think we could have chosen more interesting scenery as it is quite boring where we have filmed it.

When we were editing the film we decided to put music in the background that brought a bit of humor to the film because we thought this worked best with the plot. We had to cut and paste the bits that we wanted in our films which was easier than I thought it would be. I enjoyed editing the film and putting music in the background because it makes such a difference to the end product. 

Introduction to thriller codes and conventions

To create a successful thriller movie, there are some key things that make a thriller film interesting and exciting! We brain-stormed ideas of a thriller in our lesson and came up with many words and descriptions that describe a Thriller. Some examples are 'climax', 'flashbacks', 'cliff hangers', 'tense atmosphere' and 'mystery'. Thrillers almost always have a villain and then a hero, concentrating mainly on men but women are also present in many thriller films. Thrillers are made to interest the audience and keep them watching, eager to find out what will happen next, this could be a threat that a character is going to die and how they survive which is a very popular plot to base a thriller about.  

As an introduction to filming and creating a plot, we were given 45 minutes to film 'A Journey'. In my group I was with Mattie and Jake, luckily we had Jake in our group who is from the theatre strand so he could act in our film. We felt very happy with our film because it had a funny plot that made the audience wonder what was going on, making it much more interesting.

We used different camera angles to change the perception from being in just one place. We used lots of different places to film so that it would bring attention to the film being about a journey. The plot of our film was quite silly and strange, but we thought it worked well with the title and could include many shot angles in it.

Introduction to the Production Brief

The first lesson involved looking at different types of camera shots that will incorporate in our filming during the rest of the year. We researched them and found photographs of examples of the shots, here is an example of a medium long shot MLS:

We were then given a list of different camera movements that we had to find descriptions of. After looking at the different types of shots it reminded me of films I have seen previously and the great effect a camera shot can have on certain scenes. A movement that is used a lot is panning, this is when the top of the camera, not the tripod, is moving from left to right. Having looking at these different techniques it encouraged me to use them in films that I will be making in the future instead of filming it all the same, e.g. handheld.