Key conventions of a gangster thriller: Desmond

Cinematography: close ups and extreme close ups of the protagonist character, this is often to show their inner emotions, also it can be used to focus on key props to aid the narrative.

quick shots to hide identity, low key shot or shadow of the character. 

Editing: jump cuts and cross cutting are key features which are essential to build suspense and mystery.

Sound: music is essential to understand the mood of characters or a hint at a significant part in the film. It also adds suspense and tension to make the shots more dramatic for the audience.

Mise en scene: the location is important for the film because it helps the audience establish the theme. 

lighting is often low key 

costumes - antagonist will be in dark clothing. Protagonist will be in ordinary everyday clothes 

Planning ideas

By writing these key notes it has helped us generate ideas for our opening sequence. For example, the conventions for our chosen genre and stereotypical ideas we could incorporate within our opening to portray a 'thriller' film. 

4 Types of narrative theories

i have discovered and researched 4 types of narrative theories, this will help me and group identify which narrative theory will be best suitable for our opening sequence plan. 

CONCLUSION: when deciding which theory was most suitable it was difficult because we wanted to engage the audience as most as possible but keep the our main plot to the opening scene. So as a conclusion we decided to use the 'Barthes theory' which creates an enigma code. This perfectly matches our film genre because it includes puzzle or mystery enabling us to adapt our opening sequence plan to the narrative theory.

Filming locations for our interrogation scene

These images below identify the location for our interrogation scene. This is perfect for our scene because it displays a rundown and abandoned looking area, it is also dark and beat-up which creates emphasis on the genre we have picked (Thriller). 

Audience feedback

This is the feedback that we have received after we have showed our finished our finished opening scene. The feedbacks give us opportunity to improve our opening scene and make it better.

Props List

This is a visual presentation on all the props which we used in our opening sequence. It also states the reasons why we used these props and how they link back to the genre of Thriller.

The British Board of Film Censors

Famous related films

These are Famous Films and their directors. We wanted to research these famous Thriller movies so that we can understand what make a successful thriller movie. One thing that we found which all these films have is action. They are all filled with violence, heavy fighting scenes and fast pace chases. Of course we would be unable to include all these onto our 2 minute long Opening Sequence because we would simply run out of time, but we can incorporate some. This it is important to research this as it gives us ideas on what we want to include on our Film.

GUY RITCHIE

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

MARTIN SCORSESE

Existing film production companies

These are two existing film production companies which produce a constant stream of thriller movies. We decided to research these companies because we want to understand the different types of thriller movies they create and try and incorporate them into our opening sequence. For example, the Paramount pictures Corporation produced the film "Godfather". This film similar to our film as they are both Gangster-Thriller. This means that we can use the film "Godfather" to help give us ideas on how we can show the genre of thriller.

Paramount Pictures Corporation is a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor, consistently ranked as one of the "Big Six" film studios of Hollywood. Paramount has produced famous films like the "Godfather"

American Zoetrope is a privately run film studio, centred in San Francisco and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas in 1969.

Iconic sounds

These Sound effects and music are all examples of something which you would expect from the genre of Thriller and the sub-genre of Gangs. These are important these sounds may give us ideas on diegetic or non-diegetic sounds which we can use for our opening sequence.

Iconography

These images represent all sub-genres of our opening sequence, Crime, Drugs and Gangs. These are important as these pictures gives us ideas on representations, props and setting for our opening sequence. 

9 - Shot Movie Analysis

In this analysis, it explains the 9 types of camera shots used in filmmaking. It shows that importance of these different shot types that were used in the film Lock Stock and two smoking barrels. We used this to give us ideas on which types of shots that we need to use for our opening sequence. 

Audience Research

To improve our knowledge of Thriller movies, we decided to research which movies are showing that are thriller. We did this so that we could understand all the sub-genres that go alongside the normal thriller genre.

This week, there are 4 Thriller movies showing in the Odeon. They are Annabelle, Maze Runner, Gone Girl and Dracula Untold.

In Annabelle, There are sub-genres of Horror and Bloody violence.

In Maze Runner, There are sub-genres of Intense scenes, Threat and Violence.











In Dracula Untold, there are sub-genres of Strong Horror and Violence.











In Gone Girl, there are sub-genres of Violence and Strong Languages and gangs.











From this, we found that there are sub-genres of Violence, Threat and Gangs. This task is important as it gives us an idea on which sub-genre of thriller we would want our thriller movie to be classed under.

Se7en Opening Sequence Timeline

For this task, we had to create an opening sequence timeline for the film "Se7en". The timeline would include the timings of the names that appears on the screen.

In the opening sequence, the first names that are shown are the most important, such as the film company, Producer and Director. The Producer and and director's importance is emphasised even more due to the fact that their names are repeated at the end of the titles. The first actor that is shown is the main actor "Brad Pitt" and followed by the second main character "Morgan Freeman".


The Title of the film is then shown but only for a brief moment.


Names of actors and actresses are shown continuously from 0:30 to 1:03 then followed by a the casters, music editors, Costume designers, Editors, Production Designers, Directors of photography and co- producers. This supports the idea that order of names is based on the hierarchy of the film industry. The least important people are shown further into the opening sequence except from the Director and Producer who are repeated.

Style of font 

• Credits - mainly blocked letters except for actor names 
• Gothic writing for actor names
• White font which contrast with the black background and pictures

Movement of font

• Fading in from different parts of the screen as well as sharp movements whilst on screen
• Electrical effect when credits appear on screen
• Layered style of words (illusion/seeing double) 

Match on Action

When studied the three Continuity editing, we were assigned a task to represent one of them. We decided to show Match on Action.



This task is important because it has made us used to the skill of editing and filming the Continuity Shots. This is significant because come the day when we film the Opening sequence, we would be prepared to use the three shots to keep continuity to our Film.

Insomnia

In this task, we made a visual essay on the thriller movie "Insomnia". We examined the different shots and cinematography that was used in the movie to help us understand the shots needed to make a good thriller movie. We learned that using contrasting colours is an effective way for showing the genre of thriller as it connotes to the idea of black and white, Good and Bad.

  Insomnia from St Peters RC Comprehensive by Ryan Navarro

Semiotics

For this task we studied semiotics. We did this to research the different representations of characters in Opening sequences. This gave us ideas on what to do with how we want to represent our characters on our Opening sequence. Representations on a character is very important as it helps individualise characters and easier to identify. For example, a person with tattoos, bandana or a hood would identify that he is a gangster.

By Darwin Serrano

Different Representations from Des Dube

Casino Royal Opening Macro Analysis

This post presents the macro analysis of Casino Royal opening.

Casino royale opening macro analysis (By Des) from Des Dube