Marking Other Student's Work

A few lessons ago, we were asked by our teacher to mark work from previous media classes and in our opinion, evaluate it and criticise it. We watched about 10 thrillers from the year 13's and there is a clear view between the group that got the higher grades and those who didn't.

For a lot of group their ideas were really good, but due to the time they left their selves to make the thriller, it really lacked effort and determination to get a good grade. An example in this is in one thriller, they use a water pistol as a gun. This brakes the codes and conventions rule as its unprofessional. Also in another thriller, they use a butter knife instead of a sharp knife. It again makes the thriller unprofessional and from this teaches us to use iconography correctly. This gave us the inspiration to get started early and therefore leaving ourselves a lot of time to prepare, film and edit.

Watching thrillers which were good gave us an insight into what actually makes a good thriller. A few lessons after, we had the year 13 talk, this really helped along with actually seeing the thriller, into what makes a good thriller.

Overall marking the year 13's work was helpful as we got to see what it takes to get the higher grades and what not to do to receive the lower grades.

By Charlie Head

Initial Ideas

Inception Textual Analysis

The psychological thriller film Inception has a very good opening scene. There is the absolute minimum of opening credits, only giving details of the film production teams. During this there is a high tension building soundtrack playing over the top, also building suspense.

It opens with crashing waves, which shows aggression and that it is not a relaxed setting. A close up of a man is then seen. This is used to show who the man is, and being Leonardo Di Caprio it immediately entices the audience to the star of the film. He is laid face down in the water, but with no explanation why or how. This introduces the enigma of the entire film, why and how did he get there?

The gun shows that the character maybe a dangerous man, or even a threat to the man who is seen in the next setting. He is an old man, showing that he is wise, weathered and probably has experience in these sort of dealings before. The location for this scene is shot in a low lit, red room, making the scene seem tense. The beached man is now seen over a bowl eating, showing he is weak and desperate for help.

He has also had his possessions taken from him, showing that the other man is in a position of power. There is a possible significance of the spinning top, as the wise man seems to take a lot of interest to it, presenting another enigma. The non-diegetic soundtrack continues to build tension, and the enigma of why he is there is still massively important and still unanswered, enticing the audience to watch on.

By Thomas Beal

Costume & Props Ideas

The clothing is torn, dirty and bloody, showing pain and desperation to the audience, making them feel pitiful towards the character. Often the protagonist will be wearing similar clothing to this to further the emotional connection between audience and character.

The knife is a regular kitchen knife, showing a sick normality to the weapon because anyone could get hold of one, making it more real and more affecting to the viewer as it is an everyday kitchen utensil.

A hooded figure is dark, sinister and mysterious, presenting to the audience an element of fear and suspense.

By Thomas Beal

Year 13 Camera Help

Students in Year 13 have given us essential tips, advice, do's and don’ts when using the camera and the tripod. They ran through using the camera, and different modes where we can view what we have filmed and to film in a different way, without using automatic control. They also showed us where and how to put the tape correctly, as if we do this wrong, the camera could break and we’d be put at the back of the queue to film. We were also shown how to set up the tripod, as this would be essential in holding a good steady shot.

They went through the ways of setting up the tripod and the way the camera fits on the tripod. This helped a lot as it saved time for when we actually use the camera for our preliminary task and our thriller. Seeing as there is only 3 cameras for the whole of the year, we have decided upon using our own camera to benefit us with time control and allowing us to film when we want to.

By Thomas Beal

Analysis of a Film Poster (The Dark Knight)

We decided to analyse a film poster as one of our tasks is to create one ourselves for our thriller. I chose The Dark Knight poster as it’s quite an easy poster to analyse. There is a big picture of one of the main characters, The Joker, the known actor being Heath Ledger. A picture of a famous actor is usually the most common to be seen on a poster. This sells the film to the audience as they know a big star is going to be in the film. Although there are no stars in our film, we will have the main character on our poster and make it somewhat dark to show it’s a thriller.

Most posters have comments from newspapers and the title usually at the bottom with a date on the release of the film. As ours is not going to be at the cinema, we are unable to get newspaper reviews but can get feedback and reviews from students in our school and possibly use those comments on our film poster. The film poster usually has around 3-5 knows names which are in the film. We are going to use this idea to put all of our names on the poster to show who is staring, editing and filming the thriller.

They use a blue colour code to show that it’s a thriller. A blue with a scary face shows the genre, but also other colours can such as red and black. We plan to use a black background and this way it portrays the fact that our film is going to be dark / thrilling.

By Charlie Head

Textual Analysis - Cape Fear

Cape Fear (1991) starts with the credits. The font that the credits are shown in is quite distort and almost suits the film genre with it being scary and mysterious. The font is also sharp and jagged to show the film genre and that there is going to be trouble. The music at the beginning of the title sequence is loud and builds up a lot of tension. With the loud music building tension, it can tell the audience what they are going to see, and what the general atmosphere is going to be like. With the music that they have, we can tell it’s a thriller and something scary is going to happen. This music is played over the 'Universal' title, and with the known company that made the film, we can tell it’s going to be a big film.

At the start of the credits, the background is water. The water in the credits represents the setting that the film's main scene could be located. It could be located on the water or possibly at a lake. As the sequence progresses, there is a reflection of an eagle. From the eagle we can feel an immediate threat within the film. As the eagle reflection is shown, Robert De Niro's name is shown. This almost tells us that Robert De Niro is going to be the threat within Cape Fear. The eagle itself represents a predator, suggesting that there is going to be a potential murderer or crime.

There is a face that appears in the water. The face is in black and white, and also distort. The director, Martin Scorsese, wanted the images that appear in the water to be distorted to show reality in the way he thinks. There are other images that appear in the water, all of which are De Niro, the villain in the film. They consist of images of lips, faces and eyes. The lips are open and from my opinion show screaming which conveys the thriller conventions. Towards the end of the credits, the water goes red. Red itself represents, love, passion, hatred, anger and tension. With the music, we can immediately tell that the red represents blood, as with the music, gives us the feel of a thriller. Within the eyes, they are 2 different eyes. Of what we can tell, one eye is the victim, and one is the killer. The whole of the beginning title sequence creates an enigma for the audience and leaves him hanging until the film actually begins and they can start making out what is happening.

It cuts into a montage of images. The images shown are famous dictators and as he is working out facing them, it’s almost as though he is worshiping them. The photos are almost symbols and show that he wants to be them, and that he seeks violence. This links in with the images in the title sequence of his distort face and then the blood ends the title sequence, representing violence. When the guard comes to take him, the prisoners are silent. This represents the respect they have towards him and the guard walks behind him, almost as though De Niro is in charge.

When it fades into a woman on a chair, the women is dressed in white. White represents innocence and repression along with her buttoned up gown. She talks about an important event which occurred on a lake. Instantly we thought about the link between the lake she is talking about and the water in the title sequence. When he finally gets outside, there isn't anyone waiting for him. This gives us the impression that he wants to be on his own; he is a one man force of nature. When there is a low angle shot at the end when he is walking out of the prison, there is thunder and lightning in the background. The thunder and lightning represents fear and disaster, and sets the genre of the film along with the thrilling music playing in the background.

By Charlie Head