Research:Mise en scene:coustume, body language and facial expressions

Body language
 Is the characters actions and ways how they could possibly present themselves in a film. This also includes the way they act, this will be conventional to other films of the same genre. The body language helps the audience to understand who they are and how they will be represented, this knowledge helps you see the characters intentions.
the conventional body language of antagonists are confident in themselves this represents them as arrogant and assertive this is conventional to the thriller genre because it makes the audience respond be being afraid of that character.


Below are typical thriller characters and how they may be portrayed through body language.

Antagonist strong mentally and physically. they always have a good strong posture showing no signs of weakness.
female victim physically weak or small because this way the antagonist can see them as a target. Usually blonde attractive and vulnerable.
child vulnerable, clueless, small, weak
male protagonist strong, good looking, muscular, bold
female protagonist strong, confident, attractive

Drew Barrymore is the actress that starred in the opening scene of scream. In my opinion she fits the typical character of a female victim because shes beautiful and looks innocent which would make her an easy target for an antagonist.  

this is ghost face from scream hes wearing a black coat and his identification cannot be shown. he looks strong and tall which gives him the advantage over the victim.

Facial expressions
How characters emotions are portrayed to the audience through the look and expression on their face and the meaning this creates to the audience.

antagonists always have a relaxed face because they want to reveal only little about who they are as to why not much expression is shown. Protagonists or victims on the other hand are attractive, and vulnerable this represents them as good people or heroic. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it makes the audience respond by linking them and wanting to know the story around their personality. the audience gains faith in the protagonist and their intentions.

This is a picture taken from CHUCKY. As we observe the little boy, his facial expressions seem to be worried and frightened, scared he's going to get hurt. I can see this because he's frowning slightly and he looks intense. This is good for the audience because they can gain understanding of how and why a character feels a certain way.

Costume
The clothes and things that a character wears to give an impression on how they want to be seen from hair and make-up to shoes, It should be conventional to a thriller.

This is a piece of costume I would expect to see because its black long 

And represents evil which could come across overwhelming to an audience member.

In this photo the protagonist is wearing white, interpreting her as a pure innocent and calm person which the audience should see. This is because if she is a victim wearing black it would confuse the audience which could make them lose the narrative.

this is a "The box" scene from the famous thriller SEVEN. The setting of the scene is deserted and empty which makes the audience feel uncomfortable because they imagine being there on their own. At 0:31 we see Morgan freeman's facial expression as he reveals the content in the box which means whatever was in the box created that emotion. this creates anxiety within the audience because they want to see if they would react in the same way. Body language is portrayed effectively throughout this scene to create maximum response from the audience. At 0:44 we see uneasy body language from Brad Pitt as he starts to gain anxiety with the audience because he wants to know whats in the box. He starts rocking side to side unable to stand still not sure if he wants to know or not. The audience can now connote that Brad Pitt has a relation to the box which puts them in a better position sympathizing with him. Through all this the antagonist still shows no emotion showing he doesn't care and makes him look in charge. for example at 3:11 he starts smirking as he realizes that brad doesn't know he had a child which shows that hes proud of what he did.

 

In my thriller I will use the conventional costumes by letting the antagonist wear black and the protagonist wear white. most of the body language and facial expressions come from choosing good actors because they have to present fear and emotion that will make the audience feel the same.

planning:Opening narrative

The scene starts with the slow uncomfortable non-diegetic sound of music which is being played under further non-diegetic sound of the news report. The report introduces the character of the little girl explaining how she has died from a car accident and left for dead there is a fade to black to end that section. during the news report theres is a handheld positioning of the camera where a home video of the same girl being shown happy and playing with toys. There is a zoom to capture the emotion of joy on her face so that the audience can form good opinions of her. This section ends as there's a picture of the little girl being burnt. A fade of another video appears in the same style as the last, we introduce a new character who is a teenage girl who gets a new car. She is happy in this scene and the audience can see that. All these videos are shown through the editing style of a montage. The non digetic sound of the news report ends as lighting is low-key, cross dissolve happens and there is strobe lighting representing the car. The camera zooms in on the young girl that appeared in the video, she looks scared, vulnerable and hopeless.

The middle section begins on low-key lighting to keep that mysterious vibe on the audience. The teenage girl is walking through an isolated park and the camera angle is showing her from behind by using a tracking shot. She is on the phone at this point and she tries to hang up but drops the phone by accident. A point of view shot behind the girl is used to show shes being watched, this is supported by the diegetic sound of heavy breathing. It switches to the teenage girl and the audience can see from her point of view using the POV shot. She continues walking like nothing happened then starts to hear childish giggling and stops to look around suspiciously. But she shakes her head in disbelief and continues walking. She sees the swing moving on its own and starts panicking as she hears the diegetic sound of giggling once again.
She starts walking quickly still in panic and falls over. Suddenly she sees a piece of iconography which is a doll and slowly picks it up, with the editing effect of slow motion allowing the audience to see the effect the doll has on her. She runs of home and we straight cut back to the empty park and the audience get to see the park from an establishing shot.

we go into the last scene by a fade to high key lighting the image is blurry as the teenage girl is now home and washing her face. its really hard to see as the high key lighting over shadows the scene, she raises her head and we hear high antisipation non-diegetic music as the little girl appears holding the doll that appeared in the park. It cuts straight to darkness and we hear slow eerie non-digetic childish music as we zoom into the possesed teenage girl. She starts crawling tawards the camera with weird body language and deformed and demonic facail expression. Theres a black out to end the opening as credits are edited onto screen with the music still playing.

Research:Film Censorship

Film censorship is when a film is re-edited to either cut out or change scenes due to the content it shows as it may
 be considered harmful to the public. 
A film can either be banned from a country or asked to be to cut a few times so that the content is not too disturbing and the BBFC find it suitable for a certain age group

A highly expert and experienced regulator of the moving image.
BBFC stands for British Board of Film Classification

The BBFC has an important job which is to advise and protect viewers from moving images. Provide public information that empowers them (and parents) to make appropriate viewing decisions for themselves and those in their care. They help to protect vulnerable viewers and society from the bad consequences of viewing potentially harmful or unsuitable content while respecting adult freedom

of choice. In order to help protect those vulnerable there are age certificate created by the BBFC.


 banned or cut?

There is a difference between a film being cut and being banned. When a film is cut there only the currupted sections gets cut by the BBFC if they dont think it is suitable fot that age certificate. On the other hand when a film is banned it cannot be shown ever in a public cinema or in that country. Which means theres more than one part that is currupted and it is unacceptable for public viewing.


These are some examples of films that have been banned.
A example of a banned filmed is the Cannibal Holocaust which is an Italian horror film that is banned to this day in over 50 different countries due to the film's content being too disturbing

Forna Vs. Kermode debate:
In 1999 Channel 4 broadcasted a short season of programmes about censorship. During this season it showed two short programmes; one of them was about a case fighting for the use of censorship, and the other was against the use of censorship. 
Fighting for was a journalist called Aminatta Forna and fighting against was a film critic and broadcaster: Mark Kermode.
Three arguments made by Forna for censorship were:

1. The public associate themselves with different characters and may be influenced to put themselves in that situation
2. Some films may start to break down the barriers us as humans put up, for example there may be a film about a woman being raped however the woman starts to enjoy even though before they watched the film the audience would think it wrong for her to do so.
3. The power of words and images featured in some films may affect the audience and have the potential to stir racial hatred etc.

Three arguments made by Kermode against censorship were:

1. Everyone has different reactions and interpretations on what they see in the film.
2. It is unfair that we are being told what we can and can't watch. As human beings we know what is right and what is wrong so it should be our choice whether to watch it or not.
3. The issue of responsibility; policing films is impossible, the films we watch should'nt be seen to be encouraging however they should be seen as showing the audience realistic situations e.g. rape/ murder etc.

In my opinion kermodes arguments are more pasuassive because I believe we are all responsible for our own actions and what we see on tv.


 

planning:developing ideas

Idea 1- chardelle's idea

Narrative: Girl is walking down an alleyway when a ghost child keeps appearing warning her to not walk any further down the alleyway and she is in danger. She gets scared and ends up running through anyway in panic. At the end of the alleyway she is then attacked and stabbed to death by a male antagonist.

Title: Watch out

Sub-genre: psychological, supernatural

Characters: young girl with blonde hair, young ghost girl, male antagonist dressed in black with a black hoodie.

Narrative Structure: Todorov because it has a clear start, middle and end.

MES: Set in alleyway at night with low key lighting to create a thrilling response. Victim is wearing pale pink and natural colours to fit stereotype.  Ghost child is wearing a white, baggy dress with white powder on her face and messy hair to represent that although she is innocent as well as thrilling.  Antagonist is wearing all black and a black hoodie and is holding a knife to fit the stereotype of a criminal.

Advantages of this idea: The storyline is quite simple which should make it easier to put together while being effective. 

Disadvantages of this idea: It may be difficult to present the illusion of the child appearing and re appearing in a realistic but ghostly way.

IDEA 2 – Jordans idea

Narrative: A girl is walking home on an empty street. As she is walking home she finds a child standing alone she asks the child if he is lost or needs help. He turns away and starts to run away. The girl is concerned for the child and chases after him. The child then enters an abandoned house; she then follows him into the house. She then sees the child holding a man’s hand; she cannot see him clearly as the lighting is low key. All she can see is his half his arm and his hand holding the Childs hand. The door behind her then shuts the screen fades to black and the Child says “Did I make you happy daddy” and the last thing you hear is the door lock.

Title: Follow Me.

Sub-Genre: Psychological Thriller.

Characters: Antagonist (Dad), Child Antagonist (Lost Child), Female Victim (Girl Walking Home).

Narrative Structure: Aristotle’s Theory (Beginning, Middle and End).

MES:

Settings: Dark streets, Abandoned Home

Iconography: Child

Costume: Antagonist dark black clothing, Child cute children’s clothing and Female victim Dress that is a light colour e.g. white.

My idea

Narrative:An 11 year old child comes home to find her parents dead and everyone she loves gone. She finds the killer hidden in the house who then tries to kill her. After being chased around the flat she goes out side where she is brutally murdered and pushed of the blocks.  She wakes up to find out it was a dream.

Title: A red dream

Sub-genre: Psychological thriller

Characters: the girl, antagonist, dead mum and dad.

Mes:  Antagonist is wearing a black suit and you cannot see his face very clearly this makes the audience fearful of him.

The girl has blonde hair and is wearing a white dress to fit stereotype of an innocent victim

It is set in a flat dark and the flickering of street lights low key lighting.

Advantages of this idea: the story line intrigues the audience  and leaves them guessing.

Disadvantages of this idea: it will be hard to use a block of flats at night when residents could be sleeping. Finding a girl to play that role might be hard for them to imitate death.

Conclusion: This idea discussion has helped us to understand what we can all agree on as a group that will make us reach our goals of a thriller. we combined our ideas all together to have the final out come of all our thoughts so that its was fair and everyone had an imput. Jordans idea however was the main focus of the thriller because his idea was solid and we could work around it by adding and removing ideas.

Research:Age certificates

The BBFC has an important job which is to advise and protect viewers from moving images. Provide public information that empowers them (and parents) to make appropriate viewing decisions for themselves and those in their care. They help to protect vulnerable viewers and society from the bad consequences of viewing potentially harmful or unsuitable content while respecting adult freedom of choice. They do this by categorizing certain films into certain age certificates depending on how offensive the content may be.

The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range. At U we only allow very mild bad language (eg ‘damn’ and ‘hell’). Occasionally, bad language such as ‘bloody’ or ‘bugger’ may be included, where justified by the context.
Characters may be seen kissing or cuddling and there may be references to sexual behavior (‘making love’). However, there will be no overt focus on sexual behavior  language or innuendo. An example of a film rated U is Horrid Henry.

PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content might upset younger or more sensitive children.

The 12 certificate means anyone under the age of 12 cannot watch that specific film as it may upset or disturb the child.

12A means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film however parents are advised to see if the film is suitable for their child. The A stands for 'accompanied' and 'advisory'. Children younger than 12 may see the film if they are accompanied by an adult (e.g someone 

over the age of 18), who must watch the film with them. 12A started when the first Spiderman film came out. this happened because there was lots of complaints of the film being to violent and unsuitable for under 12 years. as a result of this the BBFC decided to rate the film a 12 however this affected children which caused more complaints because in fact Spiderman was a comic hero that children looked up too which made it unfair for them not to watch it. So final the BBFC made the decition of creating 12A which ment the child could watch the film if under 12 but had to be accompanied by an 18+ adult.

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a film of this rating as it may upset them.15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Films rated 18 is the last film rating in the UK and are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy/rent an 18 rated DVD. No 18 rated works are suitable for children as they contain heavy violence, drug use, criminal offence and sexual assault. An example of an 18 rated film is scream. 

Research:Opening credits/typography

opening credits
information edited onto the beginning of the film stating the producers of the film, who's starring in the film and other production roles.
The opening credits are effective in thrillers when accompanied by sound creates tension and fear.it is very effective when the letters of the names don't make completes sense or isn't very clear which makes the audience question whats going on. It is essential information to connect with the audience so they know more about the production.

Why film credits are present

• Advertising
• make sure the people who put effort in the film get credit and are recognized.
• brings forth main famous actors.

What information can be provided from     

the opening credits?
The opening credits inform the audience who the important actors and crew members are for example the soundtrack creator, director or producer involved in making the film. In addition opening credits may be their to honor people that may have pass during the production of the film.

Audience response to opening credits?
Opening credits are effective in films as they are usually followed by a soundtrack which automatically helps to build up tension among the audience. Images are often used in opening credits to make the audience ask questions about their relevance.

What should be expected in the opening credits?

In the opening credits the audience expect to see the names of the important major actors within the film/ crew members who played a major role.
This is done as it influences the audience to watch the film, for example a female might prefer a handsome actor like Brad Pitt.

Typography

Typography is how the writing is presented to the audience which is the font.
When we analyse typography we look at the following things
-style
-size
-letter case(caps/non-caps)
-colour

But you have to consider these things too.

•         Genre
• ·      Style/mood
• ·      Possible narratives
• ·      Production values
•       Themes

Seven
The typography used in seven is very distorted and flashes up on the screen which signifies an element of thriller. The words look like they have been scratched/carved by a razor blade or even a knife this also suggests a genre of the movie to be horror/thriller. The titles are constantly moving and flashing on the screen this may suggest that character is in a mental state of mind and the flashing of the titles are representing his persona.

Conclusion
I have learnt the importance of typography and how it can really change how a title sequence looks and how the audience can interpret it. The fonts used have to fit the thriller genre specifically otherwise it will not look right and may give a different impression to the audience about the movie.
In my thriller I will incorporate different colors and font styles to give an impression that the thriller is based around a child. The font will be small because it represents the small innocent girl.

Research:narrative themes and plots

Themes are things that add to the narrative to make it more interesting. It is important for the audience to know because they could miss vital information in a film if they are unaware of the theme subjects present.

Theme and genres

Themes are very dependent on genres. for example action is a common theme so it would need to be in the action thriller sub-genre in order to use that theme effectively.For example

• Crime thriller: This particular genre is a mix of both crime films and thrillers that offer high amounts of suspenseful successful of failed crimes. These films often focus on the criminal that the hero. this genre includes themes such as killers/murderers, robberies,chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosser's.    

Some examples of crime thrillers involving murderers include 

• ^Seven
• Silence of the lamb
• ^{Along came a spider}

Examples of crime thrillers involving heists or robberies includes  

• The killing
• Die hard

Common Themes In Thrillers

• death
• revenge
• religion
• romance
• kidnap 
• stalking
• obsession

These themes are common in a thriller because they are things that the audience would feel very uncomfortable about which creates a chilling response. They are also interesting because there is a hidden narrative behind each theme.
Themes have a great impact on the audience because each audience member has a preference of theme which is why they would be interested in a certain film. A theme like religion can be very cause controversy because its very meaningful to most people and they believe certain thing should not be mimicked or portrayed in a bad way to disrespect. Therefore this is very effective to those audience members, however there are people that will have the pleasure watching a religious based thrillers, because they discover new thing and develop better understandings. 


Conclusion

In my thriller I will use the theme of revenge because I personally think it is a great way to create anxiety for the audience to guess how the little girl will get revenge for her death.

Research:Questionnaire and results

Thriller questionnaire
These are some questions we created to investigate some answers that might help develop our thriller in the right direction. This questionnaire tells me about my target audience which would make it more effective.

1) What is your gender? (Please circle)

     Male/female

2) What is your age? (Tick chosen box)

    10-15                                 15-20                                       20+

                                    X

3) What’s your current occupation? (Tick chosen box)

 Student                 employed                     unemployed                             retired                                   other

    X

4) What age certificates do you prefer to watch? (Tick chosen box)

12a                            15                                 18

                         X

5) How often do you watch thrillers? (Tick chosen box)

Everyday      once a week         once a month        other    

                                          X

6) What is it that may intrigue you about thriller genre?

 I'm intrigued about the characters in a thriller and how they make you feel.

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7) Which characters do you love watching in a thriller?

Villain/antagonist          victim/protagonist

           X

8) How much of the plot of a thriller would you prefer to be revealed in the opening scene? (Tick chosen box)

A lot                 very little                  reasonable amount                       none

                                                                                X

9) What’s your favorite sub-genre of thriller? (Tick chosen box)

Si-fi                       action                          psychological                 crime                       other

                       X

10) What themes do you enjoy in a thriller? (Tick chosen box)

Religion                     death                        kidnapping                      revenge  

                                              

                                                                             X

11) What types of sounds can you describe that interest you in a thriller?

 I get interested by the uncomfortable sounds in a thriller like a high pitched noise.

12) What types of setting do you think is suitable for a thriller? (Tick chosen box)

The woods              a family house              school                     city                       other

                            X 

13) What pieces of iconography interest you in a thriller? (Tick chosen box)

Knife              chainsaw              axe                gun              drugs               other

                    X

14) What word or words best sum up your recent thriller film experience? (Tick chosen box)

exciting                  adrenaline           breath taking          scary                 others

    X

15) What in a thriller creates suspense in your opinion? (Tick chosen box)

Lighting              sound effects                 music                     characters                   narrative                       dialogue               setting

          
From the questionnaire I can infer that out of the 20 people asked what was there favourite age



                                                                                                                         

Most people out of the 20 people questioned watch thrillers everyday as opposed to less people who watch thrillers once a month. This shows how popular the thriller genre is so the expectations are always high.



The most favorite character in a thriller is the antagonists. this means in my thriller we need to make the antagonist live up to the typical thriller antagonist in order to connect with the audience.

The same amount of people loved action and psychological as a sub-genre. From this information I can gather that people enjoy the action within a thriller. So if I apply action then it will have a connection to the audience members.