Feedback - Miss Spencer

Your conventions work shows promise. You have clearly understood manyof the conventions. However to take this above a level 2 I would like to see some look at the history of the genre, and some examples of this and the conventions.

Your pitch also shows promise. It does seem to fit into the thriller genre, but ensure that there are many conventions within the opening, including your characterisation, setting etc.

Film Pitch - Shadow Task 4

A teenage girl called Mollie is being threatened and followed by an anonymous stalker, who knows all of her deepest secrets. She receives constant text messages, emails and notes manipulating her into doing things to hurt her family, friends and herself. If she doesnt obey this mysterious sender, her loved ones will die. At the same time of doing as shes told, she is investigating who this could be tormenting her and why they are after her.

The whole film is a complete mystery as you dont discover who the stalker is till the very end. This will create a lot of tension throughout the film because you will be suspecting everyone who interacts with the main character. The constant secrecy makes the audience feel on edge as they cant trust any of the characters.

The main character is called Mollie and she is a 16 year old girl. She is a student at sixth form. She is seen as a vulnerable character at the beginning of the film as she gets easily scared and paranoid about this mysterious stalker. But as the film develops she grows into a strong, confident and fiery character as she has to strengthen herself to deal with these threats and messages. If I could choose any director to direct our film, it would be Drew Goddard. He is famous for directing the horror/thriller Cabin In The Woods and has written thrillers like World War Z and Cloverfield. The ideal actress to play our main character Mollie is Amanda Seyfried. I think she will be perfect for this role because she is an actress that usually plays innocent characters which is how we want to portray Mollie in the film. The only difference with the role that I would want Amanda Seyfried to play is the fact of being innocent in the beginning but completely changing how the character acts throughout the film as in the beginning she is all sweet and innocent but gradually progressing through the film she become fiery and determined to catch the culprit behind the stalking's and murders of her close family and friends.

The typical conventions of a thriller film that we plan to use are point of view, deaths, gore and CCTV shots. Point of view shots connote that someone is being secretive and hiding something, in this case they are hiding their identity from the audience. CCTV shots also support the fact that the main character is being watched and spied on. The deaths and gore wont be in the opening of our film, but if we were to film the whole of it it would include these conventions. Furthermore, the use of the pov shots and the over the shoulder shots help show to the audience that they are seeing everything from potentially, the stalker/killers pov which can help create tension as the audience can tell what is about to happen whereas the characters in the film do not so clear conventions of horror/thriller are to be shown throughout.

Function of Opening Sequences Task 2.1

An opening sequence rarely has much happening in dramatic terms, so the job of the opening sequence is to establish:

• Character and/or setting - establishing shot for setting and introducing a character through an action/dialogue
• Narrative context - storyline of film
• Enigma or mystery - suspense and foreshadowing

For example, in the opening sequence of Jaws, there is an establishing shot showing the audience that the scene is by the coast. It also introduces the sort of characters that will be involved in the film - young teenagers. The storyline is also shown in the beginning of the film as Chrissie is attacked by some sort of sea monster and killed, foreshadowing the film is about deaths and this mysterious creature. Normally dramatic things dont really happen in the beginning of a film, but this death really shocks the viewers and gets them prepared for the rest of the film.

Conventions of a Horror Film Task 2.2

Conventions of a horror film:

• point of view shot
• long shots
• supernatural
• children
• blood and gore
• deaths
• stalkers
• violence
• abandoned house
• woods
• tense music
• fast editing
• dark
  
• weapons
• black and red
• masks
• blue filter
• cliffhanger
• villian/antagonist
• hero
• revenge

A genre is essentially the type of film, The various aspects of a film decide which genre the film is. Some films can fall into more than one category e.g Horror/Comedy, Horror/Thriller. Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while cpativating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to todays CGI monsters and deranged humans.

Typical Settings, Iconography, Characterisation and Themes:

• abandoned house, the woods, after dark, old buildings 
• knives, colours (black and red), masks, blue filter
• evil character, damsel in distress, hero, sidekick
• mental illness, revenge, religious belief

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Well done Jodie, you have made a good start to your coursework blog. As well as the analysis you have added other posts that enrich your research evidence, like the opening sequence post. At the moment this work is at a level 2/3 border, and in order to improve you should think about these suggestions:  

• If you comment of an element, then make sure you also discuss the effect on the audience and whether or not it is a typical convention of the genre.
• Remember DISTINCT, (Don't Ignore, Setting, Technical Code, Iconography, Narrative, Characterisation, Theme) Ensure you cover all of these areas in each analysis.
• Embed the film opening in each of your analysis and a variety of screen shots throughout all of your analysis.
• Ensure each post is using the same font
• Can you delete the empty posts and only put them up when you are ready to write them?

Maze Runner - Thriller Analysis Task 2.1

The film starts off with complete darkness but the sounds of machinery and clanking is getting louder. This leaves a lot of mystery straight away as you can hear that something is going on but cant see anything. After a few seconds light emerges and you can see industrial lights through a cage and them moving past, showing that this cage is going up like a lift. A male figure appears and is coughing violently and looking around. This shows he may have been harmed or someone might of done something to him to get him to go into the cage, suggesting he is in danger.

He is looking around the cage and around him showing he is completely clueless and doesnt know what is going on around him.He opens some sort of crate and something starts squealing at him making the character jump. None of this really makes sense at this point, because not even the character knows whats going on and we are not given any background information about the setting or the situation.

He starts screaming 'Help Me' because of his fear for the squealing animal who he is trapped with. He is also scared because he doesnt know what is going on, and you find out later on that he doesnt remember anything, not even his name, so he is completely confused and scared. The cage is approaching a red light which makes the boy panic even further, seeing there is an end to where the lift goes. Red connotes danger and violence, foreshadowing future events in the film. When the lift comes to a halt, the red light then turns green telling the lift to continue going upwards. The screen then flicks to being black again, showing the mystery as the audience doesn't know whats happening. The young male is panting because of him panicking but eventually he starts to breathe at a normal pace, meaning you can barely hear anything.

Suddenly, some gates open above the lift, letting in the sunlight, temporarily blinding the man. The camera is at a high angle, making the young male look vulnerable. He covers his eyes with his arm as the light is shining directly on him foreshadowing he could be the hero of the film. The next shot is a low one, from the males point of view. He is looking up through the cage and there are silhouettes of men looking down at him. This could suggest they are more dominant than him and they are looking down on him, showing more experience.

Hansel and Gretel - Horror Analysis

Hansel and Gretel

At the beginning of the film, the music consists of low, sustained notes creating the feeling of darkness and evil. Gradually a quiet beat comes into the non-diegetic music. This can show that tension in the film is building like the music is also building. Also high pitched sounds are introduced into the music which makes the music sound scary. The first clip is a shot of a dark sky and the moon in one corner. It quickly pans vertically, giving a high shot of some trees and then homing in on a house.

 Crickets can be heard which connotes it is set in countryside and could possibly be in the summer. Also crows can be heard and crows are normally associated with evil. Still panning, we follow a silhouette up the path to a house whom is holding a light source to guide his way. The shot jumps into the next and the man has now walked into a dimly lit, small house. A middle-aged woman is looking out the curtain when the man walks in, and jumps away quickly in surprise when he walks in. 

She has a very serious expression on her face which could show she isnt very happy to see him or something bad is happening. The furniture around the small house is quite worn which could suggest the owner doesnt have much money and has to do with what they can get. The next shot is a straightforward shot and its of the two peoples shadows talking to each other. This is where dialogue is first used and she uses command words such as 'take' and 'now' to the man. This could show she is the dominant character between the two as she is taking control.