Video blog #1 Initial Narrative Ideas

This is us three just talking about our initial narrative ideas for our Thriller film.

Discussion topics include;

• Storyline ideas
• Locations
• Shot ideas/types
• Editing techniques

What is a Thriller?

"Thriller is a huge category which include psychological, crime, conspiracy, supernatural and more. The genre plays with your emotions and makes you become attached to the main characters. A good thriller should put you on edge and leaves a lasting impression on you. Audiences have certain expectations of genre films. They expect genre films to involve innovation. inflection/subversion of the generic conventions."

What is a thriller?

• Uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements.
• Society is seen as dark, corrupt and dangerous.
• Literacy devices like plot twist, red herrings and cliffhangers.

Characters:

• Criminals
• Stalkers
• Innocent victims
• Private eyes
• Police
• Psychotic individuals

Thriller films:

• Inception
• Dark Knight
• Silence of the Lambs
• Bourne Identity
• Fight Club
• The Shining
• Memento
• Se7en

Thriller techniques include: Use of tracking, Point of view, Close ups/extreme close ups, Reveals (track in/zoom in), Dramatic angles, Eerie tense music, Low key lighting, Chiaroscuro, Exaggerated sound, Strong directional lighting, Fast paced editing (chase scenes), Jump cuts, Parallel editing, Silence, Disorientation of time or space.

Narrative techniques include: Plot twist and turns, Multiple lines of action, Flashbacks, Red herring, Deadlines, Principle of concealment, Mysterious characters, Morally complex characters, Chases/pursuits.

Finished Preliminary

I made a huge mistake and deleted my youtube account. This had the original video copy of the task. I cannot render this mistake as the copy will not open on the hard drive.

After filming we realised there are a few continuity errors, next time we need to plan better. Shot lists rather than just 'ideas'. We also need to direct out actors better. Some of the movements where too quick to edit properly.

Director Research

As part of our class work, we had to go away and research a certain director.
My director was: QUENTIN TARANTINO.

Information about his life:

• He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Tony Tarantino who was an actor and amateur musician.
• His father is Italian, and his mother Irish. He was raised by his mother, as his parents both separated before his birth.

Films he has made:

• Kill Bill: Vol. 3
• Inglorious Basterds
• Death Proof
• Sin City
• Kill Bill: Vol 1 & 2
• Jackie Brown
• Four Rooms
• Pulp Fiction
• Reservoirs Dogs

To name just a few..

Pulp fiction followed the lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangsters wife, and a pair of diner bandits connect in 4 tales of violence and redemption.
It was directed and wrote by Quentin Tarantino and receive 9 out of 10 star rating.
The response of major American movie reviewers were widely favourable. One review quoted "Tarantinos originality stems from his ability to focus on small details and follow them where they lead, even if they move the story away from conventional plot development"

Preliminary Task...

Preliminary Task - Conversation between 2 people.

After watching a few AS preliminary task examples we decided we wanted to use a better script. The Drama department provided us with a few and this is the one we chose.

''Person A - I  need a cigarette
Person B - You can't have one
Person A - But I'm desperate
Person B - There's a sign over there that says no smoking so you can't
Person A - Yeah well there's a sign over there that says no dogs so you can't be here either.''

We watched a few examples on youtube like the clip below...just to get a few ideas and some inspiration on shot types...