Yesterday Beth and I began filming shots for our Thriller opening at 2PM. Filming was very productive and went very well. Beth managed to film all of the shots with me in playing ‘Hannah Warren’ by 5PM, I then carried on filming the shots of the stalker after this until about 8PM. With these shots, I put up a dim photography light so that the setting was still fairly dark, but the stalkers book etc could still be seen easily. The cover on the photography light makes it very soft and doesn’t give a harsh reflection off objects such as the keyboard or other shiny objects in the shot.
We managed to get all of our filming done in the time, so now we are ready to upload and edit our shots and put together our final Thriller opening!
Monday 21 November 2011
Shooting Schedule
We shall be filming the entirety of our thriller opening at Kristy's house, so we will not need to include time for travel from place to place. We want to film from 2PM onwards so that the very last scenes will be dark so that throughout the opening it will be gradually getting darker, suggesting the danger the stalker poses, not just the time of day. To achieve this, we will need to record in almost the exact same order that the story plays out, besides parts where the camera will need to remain in the same place in another shot, for example on page two of the story board, shots nine and thirteen where we see the shower head switch on and off, and also on page four, shots twenty three and twenty five. We shall be continuously filming until perhaps 5PM to have a break and allow it to become slightly darker. However, we also want to film the parts where the stalker is preparing his book and to also be using the computer, so that the room is completely dark except for the single light emanating from his screen. Finally, we will film the shots of both the stalker and the girl walking down the stairs and out of their doors.
We plan to start shooting at 2PM on Sunday the 20th of November; we will try to shoot the entirety of the shots on this date, but may possibly need extra time.
We plan to start shooting at 2PM on Sunday the 20th of November; we will try to shoot the entirety of the shots on this date, but may possibly need extra time.
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Actors used for our Thriller opening characters
The girl, Hannah Warren is cast as me (Kristy)
As I know the story line of of our Thriller opening well, and how we want scenes to be acted out etc it will be a lot easier for me to act it rather than explaining to someone else how we want things to be done, and they will probably not understand the scenes even if explained to them as well as I do.
I also have an A* in drama GCSE so I should be capable of performing the part.
It is also more convenient to use someone in our media group as we can keep in contact and plan things out easily in media lessons, rather than sorting out how we are going to do things with someone outside the group separately.
The stalker is cast as my dad (Karl Fricker)
As the setting location will be filmed in my house and my dad and I will be there anyway, it is convenient to use him. We will only be filming the stalkers hands, so who is being filmed is not majorly important. If we used a younger member of the group for example, their hands wouldn't be very aged, so it would seem unrealistic to the story line as the stalker is an older, wiser and stronger man who is capable to get away with the girls murders.
Tuesday 15 November 2011
Thriller Name Possibilities
Our original movie title was The Meeting, but we felt that this title had rather business like connotations and not the scary obsessive connotations we wanted for our thriller opening. So this mind map shows our thoughts about what could contribute to our thriller opening names, such as the fact that the stalker has killed a large amount of girls and will go on to kill more. Eventually, we came to the name Fixation. We chose this because it had the connotations of obsession that we wanted and is short and snappy.
Props List
This props list shows the props we will be using and what they represent in our plot.
Mobile Phone:
The mobile phone will be used to show the connection between who the girl thinks the stalker is (which will be a picture of a teenage boy) and who the stalker actually is.
Facebook Profile of the Girl:The profile would be used near the start to show the audience who exactly the stalker is targeting.
Facebook Profile for the Stalker:The use of a profile for the stalker is similar to the use of the phone in that it shows the alias the stalker has taken up in order to deceive the girl.
Towel:The use of the towel would be when she drops it as she enters her bedroom, suggesting an immediate vulnerability and weakness, amplifying the powerful nature of the stalker.
Tights:The tights would simply be used to show the audience that the girl is getting ready to go out and that she wants to wear nice clothes.
Mascara:While the girl is applying her mascara, the camera will be zoomed in on her eyes which adds a strong sense of voyeurism to the scene.
Blusher:Blusher would be used to show that the girl is preparing to go out and wants to try and look her best.
Dress with a Zip:The main purpose of the dress is the zip itself. The closing of the zip suggests the sealing of her fate, hinting that everything has already been decided.
High Heels:
Further adding to the sense of her fate being sealed, high heels would prevent the ability to make a quick escape, adding to vulnerability and weakness.
Red Nail Polish:The red nail polish will be used together with the photo of the girl with her friend in which it will spill over onto the photo to signify the threat that the stalker poses.
Photo of the Girl and a Friend:The photo of the girl and her friend will be used in conjunction with the red nail polish in that it will be spilled over onto it.
Photo of the Girl:The girl will be cut out of the previous image of her with her friend to show that she is the focus of the stalker. This is the photo that will be used in his book.
Red Marker:
This red marker will be used to circle the girl's picture (above) and finally cross it out to suggest that she has been murdered or 'crossed off his list'. It would coordinate would the scene involving the nail polish spilling over onto the photo, once again amplifying the major threat that the stalker poses. Also, as both the nail polish and marker are red, it even further adds to the threat as people would generally associate red with blood and death.
Large Boots:The stalker wearing large and heavy boots suggests his far superior strength over the girl and that he is a powerful, frightening man.
The book is a very important prop in the entire task, perhaps the most important. The stalker shows great care when handling this book, which shows that perhaps he's proud of it or obsessed with it. There are photos of many girls throughout the book and that shows just how mentally unstable the stalker is, from both the amount of girls in the book and the quality of the book. The whole idea of the book is similar to that of the opening to 'Se7en'.
This prop list was made by Kieran, annotations were added from all members of the group.
Character Summaries
Hannah Warren (the girl):
She is 17 years old, is attending a city college and lives in the suburbs with her mother. She enjoys going out with her friends and generally likes socializing. She is fun, loving and has a very close relationship with her mother. She is also very sensitive and really likes the 'perfect guy' the stalker seems to be.
'The Stalker':
He is very obsessive about everything that he does and has a mental illness. This is reflected in the neatness of his 'book' and the time he spends recording his exploits. He lives in a small house that is very isolated, so that he can hide away from other people, and take his victims to be finished off, but it is not too far away from the city (his favourite hunting ground). He feels very different from other people and doesn't like to talk face to face with anyone, that is why he started using the Internet and fake identities to do so.
By Beth and Kristy
She is 17 years old, is attending a city college and lives in the suburbs with her mother. She enjoys going out with her friends and generally likes socializing. She is fun, loving and has a very close relationship with her mother. She is also very sensitive and really likes the 'perfect guy' the stalker seems to be.
'The Stalker':
He is very obsessive about everything that he does and has a mental illness. This is reflected in the neatness of his 'book' and the time he spends recording his exploits. He lives in a small house that is very isolated, so that he can hide away from other people, and take his victims to be finished off, but it is not too far away from the city (his favourite hunting ground). He feels very different from other people and doesn't like to talk face to face with anyone, that is why he started using the Internet and fake identities to do so.
By Beth and Kristy
Thriller Opening Story Board
By making the very first scene a clock face accompanied by a ticking noise, we are following the effective thriller convention with the concept of time running out, but we are also not giving much away, which makes the audience ask all sorts of questions about the location, keeping them involved. The scene in which we see 'the girl' in wide shot sitting on the sofa is to create the feeling that the girl is small in the plot (because there are so many other girls he has and will kill) and to show that she is completely alone in the house. (there will also be a clock on the screen of the phone so that the audience is constantly brought back to the idea that time is running out.) We then go on to belittle the audience with the low angle shot up the stairs, showing that they are also vulnerable.
In this part of the opening we keep the audience asking questions. To start with we have seen the girls face but now we go back to only showing the bottom half of the body, so the audience does no know how the girl reacts to certain things. Also we get the first scene from the stalkers side, and this raise a whole load of questions about his identity. By having running water we follow another Thriller convention and we create not only a sense of being watched but also a situation where 'the girl' is vulnerable.
By continuing the low camera angle while filming 'the girl' we create a feeling of being spied on and watched. We then exaggerate this by connecting the way the stalker looks up 'the girl's' address on google maps with what the girl is doing at that point by using a birds eye shot that mimics the angle on the last shot. This is then further enforced by the close up on 'the girls' eye as she applies mascara.
By having the medium wide shot of 'the girl' applying make up, we are able to include the door in the background which again reminds the audience that the stalker is 'watching' her. The purpose of the book is to communicate the fact that the stalker is obsessive about what he does and the neatness of the book reflects this and makes the stalker even more threatening because he seems less human. The stalkers book is is very much like the one found in the opening scene of Seven, in the same way we wanted to communicate a worrying obsessive aspect of our stalker. (note, the stalker will place down the book very gently as if it is a precious artefact.)
The red nail vanish, obviously, represents the kind of threat that the 'stalker' poses. This is shown by the way we first see the nail varnish spill over the exact same picture that the stalker has just stuck into his obsessively neat book, and then the red of the nail vanish is mimicked by the next scene in which the stalker circles her picture with a red pen. Once again the audience is belittled by the camera angle up the stairs.
By placing the shot of the stalkers feet walking down the stairs directly after the shot of 'the girls' feet walking down the stairs, we exaggerate how much bigger the stalker is than the girl, again making her seem more vulnerable. By having 'the girl' do the first half of walking out of the door and 'the stalker' doing the second half we enforce the idea that they are going in a similar direction (meeting). When we film this, it will be getting progressively darker through out the opening, so by this time both 'the girl' and 'the stalker' will be walking out into the dark, and for 'the girl' and unknown danger. By ending the opening just as sharply and decisively as we started it we will leave the audience wanting more, which is exactly what is needed in a good opening. (Note, all transitions are straight simple cuts. We thought about it and decided that the way we quickly cut between the stalker and the girl, creates the exiting tense atmosphere that we wanted to achieve, so adding transitions would make it fussy.)
Drawn by Kristy and annotated by Beth
Photographs of Thriller scene locations
The computer desk where the stalker will be filmed
The living room where the girl will be on the sofa looking at the picture of the boy on her phone
The grandfather clock that will be filmed. This scene will then lead into the lounge where the girl is
The stairs that we will see the girl walk up to her bedroom to get ready
The girl's vanity table where she will get ready to go out
The shower that the girl will be in when getting ready
The chest of draws that the girl will get her tights from to put on
Thriller Opening Locations
When coming up with the initial thriller idea, I kept in mind where scenes could be filmed and I could relate certain scenes to certain places around my house. My house has a computer area suitable for the stalker, a desk for the girl to get ready at and has a Grandfather clock placed in the perfect position for smooth filming from the clock to following the girl in the lounge. As I could picture how the scenes would look in my house and how they could be achieved while making up the initial idea, it seems sensible to work with the location I have built the story around in my mind rather than trying to link it to a different location and trying to make certain scenes work that probably won’t.
Using my house for the location is also convenient for the group.
Using my house for the location is also convenient for the group.
Music possiblities for our Thriller opening
While Beth and I were drawing up our story board, Kieran created a list of possible music tracks that could be used in our thriller opening. We went through the tracks as a group to pick out tracks that we thought would work best. We wanted something that would mimic the solemn and tense atmosphere that would compliment the tone of our opening. For this we chose the track 'In Remembrance' which we all thought was perfect and had an eerie quality without being over the top. We also wanted a slightly higher tempo track that would up the excitement near to the end of our piece. For this we chose a track called 'dark nightmare' which had a really effective tone of urgency. However, we are well aware hat we might change our minds when we have filmed and edited our opening, so just in case we also chose 5 other tracks that we felt weren't quite as good as the first ones we chose but might be usable if the final product is slightly different to how we imagined it.
Thriller Final Plot Summary
The story is set around a young girl who is the target of the stalker. The opening focuses on the similarities and differences between the girl and the stalker getting ready to go out, and it ends with both characters exiting their own front doors. However if it were to continue and be made into a full length movie, it would follow the exploits of the stalker as he hunts down victim after victim and his final realisation of his crimes and suicide. By following not only the nasty deeds of the stalker but also his everyday life, we force the audience to relate to him and understand his motivation.
Monday 14 November 2011
21 Case Study
I am doing a case study on the suspense/thriller film 21.The film was directed by Robert Luketic and produced by Columbia Pictures.
The filming of 21 began in March 2007. Principal filming of the Las Vegas scenes took place at the Planet Hollywood Casino and the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.
The Film was released on the 11th of April 2008 and in its opening weekend; the film grossed $24,105,943 and was ranked first at the box office for 2 weeks. By the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed a total of $157, 802,470 worldwide.
I believe that the target audience intended for this film is mainly males of a young adult age group.
I say this because the film’s focus is on young adults who are extremely clever but still young and immature in the fact that they are taking a big risk with what they are doing.
The fact that the majority of the cast are of this age group means that this story is more likely to relate and be interesting to those of that age. There are also older men in the cast who play the stereotypical gangster character. The whole gangster ‘male power’, guns, money etc I feel is something that this age group will find appealing also.
The way that the few women are portrayed in the plot is very sexualised and something that would appeal to males rather than females.
From looking at the IMBd database, I found that this film had positive views from a large number of people, and was overall rated 6.7 stars out of 10.
Here is an example of one of the positive reviews from the site:
“Winner winner chicken dinner” by Lechuquilla 28 March 2008. 177 of 249 people found this review helpful.
Slick camera work and some good performances rev up the technical quality of this fact-based story about a 21 year old MIT student named Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) who, along with his brainy Ivy League chums, travels to Vegas to win tons of money at the blackjack tables. Their sleazy math professor, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), leads the group. Rosa has devised an elaborate and conspiratorial card counting scheme that consists of code words and hand gestures. With all that preparation, the group's scheme does work ... for a while. And in the process, the shy, cautious Ben, who only wants the money for tuition costs, morphs into his alter ego, a person quite unlike his original self.
The film's pace starts off leisurely, then alternates between fast-paced Vegas casino action and periods of downtime wherein Ben and his girlfriend, fellow conspirator Jill (Kate Bosworth), talk shop and take in the high life. The story does have a villain, but it may not be who you think it is.
The script's dialogue is snappy and hip, and contains minimal tech jargon. "Variable change" is one such math term, and it has thematic implications toward the end, as the story twists and turns in ways that may surprise you. And "winner winner, chicken dinner" is the group's lingo for gambling success.
Production design is realistic and lavish; this is a big budget film. Colour cinematography, by DP Russell Carpenter, is polished and slick. There are lots of elaborate camera dissolves and close-ups. The best parts of the film are the close-ups of the characters at the blackjack tables. Film editing coincides with plot pacing, and ranges from slow to super fast. Acting is all-around good. Kevin Spacey gives his usual top notch acting job; Sturgess and Bosworth also give fine performances.
It's not a perfect film. Background music was noisy and rather nondescript for my taste. And I could have wished for more card playing, and less time spent on Ben's college buddies in the first Act; the result is that the film gets off to a slow start. Still, the script is credible, and stays close to its book source "Bringing Down The House" by Ben Mezrich.
Thematically relevant in today's world of greed and materialism, "21" is a terrific film, one that has greater import than other films, because the events in "21" really happened. And the fine performances and polished visuals enhance the overall look and feel, to create a film that is both engaging and entertaining.
As you can see, this is a very honest review with some negatives, but many positives and gives a good review on the film, like many others that I have read. The mass of positive feedback shows that many people believed this to be a good film. This review also explains the suspense/thriller aspects of the film, which is good to be noticed as it is this genre.
New technology such as TV advertising (which was used a lot in the time coming up to the theatrical opening) and the official 21 website: www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/21/ has meant that people can find out about the film much easier than they will have been able to in the past.
The 21 official website as well as other sites such as Wikipedia and IMBd have also been useful for me when finding out information relevant to my case study. These sites will make it easier for those who have not watched the film in its theatrical run to look it up and make a decision on whether or not to purchase or rent the film on DVD.
These are things I have depicted from the two and a half minute opening scene to the film:
‘21’ begins with an incredibly close up shot of two colours – blue and yellow which are separated by a line. These bold primary colours are ones which we associate with excitement and fun as they are very child-like, we picture them with fun childhood times. So we instantly imagine a fun and exciting film.
We then slowly zoom out and spin the camera to see what is a card – the king of clubs. While the camera is zooming out the non-diagetic sound played is very intimidating, and when we see the king, we find him powerful and intimidating; a king is more superior to us.
The ace of clubs then flashes down on top of the king. We are still highly zoomed into the cards and the quickness of the ace landing and the fact that it is on top of the king who we already know is superior, makes the ace seem very powerful – which it is in a game of cards. We also now understand that we are talking about blackjack.
We are then zoomed out to the counters used in casinos to represent money so we understand it is gambling. The camera starts at the bottom of the counter stacks and works its way up using a crane shot. This tower of counters is very powerful it seems and towers above our view, making us feel vulnerable/ intimidated and shows the high status of money in the film.
The camera is flipped over, spun, then travels quickly along a set of cards to keep us focused and create pace, possibly linking how smart and quick minded you have to be to play black jack.
We are then shown other typical casino views such as cards flying out, being dealt. The fact that the cards are not handed out here, the effect of them flying is used, showing the power which these cards can possess in terms of this film, they are seen almost as a magical thing.
We can also hear behind the main voice, the dealer saying ‘winner winner chicken dinner, there it is’. This background noise of a casino helps to tell us where we are and also establishes us with the term used when ‘21’ is dealt, as this is said at the same time as the cards being laid.
There are then more close-up, intimidating views of the cards with small lights shining on them, making them seem huge even though we know that cards are small – this is done to represent their huge status.
The camera spins around the table and then around the counters, spinning like another casino game – roulette which furthers the feeling that we are in a casino. The spinning could also represent that the game is spinning out of control.
We hear the main character who has been talking the whole way through say “first of all, what I was doing wasn’t illegal” – this tells us that he is doing something bad that would probably be frowned upon in society even if it isn’t illegal, and we instantly become weary of him. How close is what he’s doing to being illegal? Or is it actually illegal but he’s twisting his view on the matter?
We then hear that “there were certain people and institutions who frown upon it” and are led to think that if they don’t like it, we aren’t going to like what he is doing. We also at this point see him put on a wig and a moustache in an extreme close up shot, to focus us in on what he is doing - hiding his identity. Why is he hiding himself and who from if he isn’t doing anything illegal? He again emphasises the point by saying “but it’s legal, and not everyone can do it” he is specialised in this area of whatever he is doing. “Just those with gifted minds” he says as he places on a pair of glasses. The line and the glasses together then make us see him as smart and we don’t feel as against him as he has explained further and seems more innocent.
He says “that’s what got me into all this mess” – indicates that something is wrong, danger ahead. He then tells us he was “counting cards”, so we understand that in a way he is cheating the game –which he shouldn’t be doing.
A large amount of gambling money is mentioned and we are shown the chips in towers again in an even more intimidating low angle shot, to show just how much money it is even more clearly – telling us that it is a large amount visually and verbally emphasises the point.
We are then shown some of the signals they use while cheating, starting with a harmless signal – “we need to talk” showing the close up of an eye which seems quite worrying and gives across the effect of being watched.
We then see the most worrying signal, which we can tell through the main character’s body language as he was happily laughing, playing the game, knowing he’s going to win. Then he is really worried, panicked, his smile fades. We see silhouettes of feet walking towards us and understand why they have to leave. Seeing only a silhouette makes these characters very mysterious and dark, they seem deadly as we can tell they are big men, in suits. They are powerful people and hearing their shoes as they walk is very intimidating as it is like the constant ticking of a clock, which gets faster, time is running out, the intensity is heightened when they begin to run.
The suits, big build, and the fact they are going after the card counters suggests that they have a lot of money, probably own the casino and fit the gangster stereotype. Gangs usually have guns, threaten people and hurt them. So we are unsure of the welfare of the card counters.
The rush of the main characters putting the chips into a bag again shows his fear and panic to get away from these people.
The fact this scene was played in slow motion heightens the intensity as we can see every little detail of what is happening clearly and each step of the gangsters is loud and echoes to build up to the pressure that they are getting closer.
No music is used in this opening scene, I feel that this is because the silence and use of other non digetic sounds such as the footsteps make this a much more tense opening.
The narrative structure of the opening scene is a flash-forward into the view of what will be happening later on in the film to give us a hint of what to expect.
As majority of the imagery used in this scene is not real and created by using a computer, the lighting is added in this way too. The lighting is mainly used to reflect of the cards and chips to make them seem, shiny, new, desirable and powerful.
It is not shown in the opening scene, but the film represents women in a quite sexual way, I feel this is to appeal to the male audience, and also this is something that is commonly used in films, it can be quite offensive to females watching the film.
Body Of Lies Case Study
I am doing a case study on the action/thriller film ‘Body of Lies’.
The film was directed by Ridley Scott and produced by Warner Bros Pictures.
The shooting of the film took place over sixty-five days from the 5th of September to December 2007. It was filmed in the
The film was released on the 21stof November 2008 and in its opening weekend earned 12.9 million dollars. It was ranked the third highest film that weekend and grossed 40% less than expected. Through-out its fourteen week theatrical run, the film earned $39 million.
I believe that the target audience for this film is mainly males of an adult age group. I say this because the cast is highly dominated by male characters; even the film cover and promotional posters only consist of males.
I think that we can tell that the film is targeted at adults due to the use of guns (which we can see on the film cover) and other forms of violence, torture and offensive language.
We know from the 15 age label on the film cover that it was made for people at and above this age group in mind.
Also, terrorism and political themes of the film will appeal to an older age group who will be able to understand these terms.
From looking at the IMBd database, I found that this film had positive views from a large number of people, and was overall rated 7.1 stars out of 10.
Here is an example of one of the positive reviews from the site:
“A cut above most of its kind” by ametaphysicalshark 10 October 2008
202 out of 258 people found the following review useful:
The main thing I was curious about with "Body of Lies" is what sort of film it would end up being. It could have been a post-Bourne action thriller, a serious dramatic thriller with a political edge ("Munich", "Syriana"), one of those intolerably dull post-9/11 films ("Lions for Lambs"), or something like Ridley Scott's brother Tony's "Spy Game", a movie with an interesting premise and disappointing execution.
I would argue that "Body of Lies" is the exact opposite on paper of "Spy Game". It's a movie with a questionable, sketchy premise and damn good execution. I'd always definitely preferred Ridley's sensibilities and films to Tony's, and his take on a story about a CIA agent working against agency politics is definitely superior as well, although a very, very large amount of my preference for "Body of Lies" comes from the script by "The Departed" scribe William Monahan. "Body of Lies" bizarrely manages to work as both a hugely entertaining, nifty action thriller and as a socially/politically-conscious drama. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but it really does go from "Syriana" to "The Bourne Identity" in a second, and does so without feeling ridiculous, contrived, or silly. It just somehow pulls it off, and I'm crediting Monahan with most of this success although Scott certainly handles the shifts in tone extremely well.
All you should know about the story going in is that DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, a CIA field agent in an important position in the
Now here's where I'm going to start sounding really bizarre: I know I just said it was a lot of fun, but there's a good amount of substance here and a good deal to be learned about middle-eastern politics (having lived there for many years, I can assure you that this film works as a primer on the mindset and cultural feel of the locations it is set in, and of the political system there. Its observations on Jordanian intelligence in particular are very much spot-on. There are scenes where the film gets really dark and serious, and they completely work as well. In particular, for a white American screenwriter's work, this is incredibly perceptive and understanding of how Jordanians act and feel. Something like "Rendition" from last year, while generally just not a good film, was also hopelessly inaccurate on just about everything. There was no work there, just a message the filmmaker wanted to send. With "Body of Lies", every second feels (and is) authentic and real (outside, perhaps, of some of the details of the espionage aspects, although the writer of the book it was based on was CIA), and there's even some cultural jokes completely in Arabic, un-translated on screen, that basically no non-Arabs will understand. It's a remarkably vivid, real portrait, and considering
The movie isn't perfect, and there's a key scene at the end which feels very didactic and heavy-handed (although judging by the twenty somethings who left the theater talking about how cool one of the torture scenes was, even a message delivered this bluntly just isn't getting into their thick skulls), but it somehow gets away with being an enjoyable genre piece and a genuinely thought-provoking and perceptive film (but not one which focuses on these elements to the point of being overbearing), with actual understanding of mid-eastern politics and culture, wonderfully involving characters (including the refreshingly non-sexual love interest Aisha, played by Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani), and even a surprising sense of humor. "Body of Lies" is most definitely a cut above most in its (overall quite poor) sub-genre, and one of the biggest surprises of the year.
As you can see, this is an honest review with some negatives, but many positives and gives a good review on the film, like many others that I have read. The mass of positive feedback shows that many people believed this to be a good film.
New technology such as the official Body of Lies website: http://bodyoflies.warnerbros.com/index.html has meant that people can find out about the film much easier than they will have been able to in the past.
The Body of Lies official website as well as other sites such as Wikipedia and IMBd have also been useful for me when finding out information relevant to my case study. These sites will make it easier for those who have not watched the film in its theatrical run to look it up and make a decision on whether or not to purchase or rent the film on DVD, based on finding out the basis of the plot, themes that it may involve and how people have reviewed the film.
The film begins with a black-out picture and quiet non-digetic music playing. There is then a deep bass as ‘Manchester England
We know that a UK-based al-Qaida operative planned a bomb attack on Manchester city centre as part of a terrorist plot targeting the UK
I and the public know,
What all schoolchildren learn,
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done,
Do evil in return.
W.H. Auden
This paragraph suggests that these people have made these attacks in retaliation of the evil that has been done to them. We also know that the Americans declared war on the Muslim world after 9/11 and it was Muslims that were involved in the terrorist attacks around the UK
The screen is still black and we can hear a foreign voice, which we are focused on as it is all that we are currently given to think about. The fact that we cannot yet see him makes him seem a very mysterious character.
When the black-out fades and we do get view of this man, there is little light on him, so this mystery is still kept.
He is traditionally dressed in Muslim clothing. The patterned wallpaper behind him and the music which we later hear playing also seems of a Middle East
The man that we can see is in very dark lighting so that we can only see very limited parts of the face, not even the main aspects. The lack of light shows that this character has a very dark agenda and personality. If light represents god and symbolises good, then this character is not being favoured.
There is aggression in his voice and he is waving his finger in an aggressive manner. His closed-in eyes also seem evil and aggressive; he is not a nice character.
Since we have already presumed that this film is based on terrorist attacks, we can relate to videos/recordings that have been made previously in these situations to threaten countries, and we understand that this man is recording himself for that purpose, which he will then broadcast to the internet or send to countries such as Britain USA
‘As we destroyed the bus in Sheffield last week, we will be ready and prepared for the operation in Britain America
This shows that there is no way to stop these terrorist attacks from happening, there is nothing that these people want as a result apart from revenge, heightening our interest and fear in what will happen.
The camera goes from a close-up shot that was focusing us on the face of this man, to a more zoomed out perspective, enabling us to see more of his surroundings. We can see a large gun propped up against the wall on one side of him and a belt of large machine gun bullets the other side. He is surrounded by dangerous weapons which make him seem powerful and dangerous and shows us that these people have the ammo to do serious damage.
We can also see as the camera zooms out that the place looks very run-down and dirty which may suggest that these people are not worried about their living conditions, or what they have to go through, their only focus is on planning their revenge. I think that it also makes these people look more like animals than human beings, this is not how we would look after our homes in our society, their way seems odd to us and is a factor towards us disliking them.
A low angle camera shot is used as we enter the terrorists’ apartment. This shot gives the effect that we are prying into someone’s life, getting a view that we would not typically be able to see.
The room that we then enter contains lab equipment which we presume is for bomb making to follow out their threat.
The character using the equipment is wearing glasses which we associate with someone who is clever and will make the right decisions. However bomb making does not seem to be the right decision, which gives us even less faith in these people. They have the TV on which is broadcasting the video we saw being made in the first shot.
We also at this point can hear the barking of dogs, which seems quite unusual, and we later realise that there are guard dogs outside.
We then see another character holding the religious book the Qu-ran close to him, which would signify he is trying to be close to god and follow the book’s teachings well. However he is looking away from the book into a dark area, which symbolises that he is not following the teaching of the book well, he is taking a much darker approach. He may also be looking away from the book because the dark path that he has now chosen has changed his views and beliefs to not follow the Qu-ran any more.
Here the camera shots change from the effect of shaky, home-made footage which suggests that these people are unstable and unprepared, to much more still and focused professional footage of the police and Special Forces, where the controlled movement suggests that these are the people who are much more organised and in control.
These more controlled camera shots are short and snappy, showing us the police force that have closed off an area of the street and appear to be getting ready to raid the building. The quick cuts between each shot helps to create pace and build up tension for the audience.
The Special Forces are all in black, which again if we are referring to light and doing good in the eyes of god then these people do not seem favoured. Although, they need to wear dark clothing to remain in the shadows and hopefully be able to creep up on the terrorists. The lack of emotion that we see from them makes them seem like one-minded killers who are generalising these people, and this makes them look like the bad guys. However, these terrorists do have a total disregard for human life and don’t care who they hurt, man, woman or child and need to be stopped. Also the fact that we have seen into the home of the terrorists and their agenda but do not know the background of the people working in the Special Forces makes us feel we have less understanding towards these killers. They are using a harsh method of dealing with these people, and seem to have more weapons than the terrorists who are supposed to be the bad guys! It gives the sense that although we may be more well off than these people, have more money to buy more weapons, we do not necessarily think and deal with these situations correctly. We see that this operation has failed; the Special Forces are heard and the apartment is blown up. Ed played by Russell Crowe disrupts another mission because of his impatience later on in the film.
The digetic noises that we can hear outside, such as guard dogs barking suggests that this is a very serious case that is potentially extremely dangerous. We can also hear the train and other general city sounds to remind us of our location and keep things realistic. After watching this opening a few times, I realised that the Special Forces use the passing train to move into position without being heard. At this same time, there is a milkman who is let through the closed off area. My initial thoughts were that the milkman was part of the group of terrorists inside the apartment and he was giving them a signal when dropping off the milk, but I then realised that he is there to help out the Special Forces. He is let through when the train goes past, as the Special Forces advance, and helps to add to their cover. He delivers the milk to make things seem as normal as possible to the terrorists inside, so that they are relaxed and do not expect anything out of the ordinary. The fact he is whistling ‘Rule Britannia’ could show his hope that Britain
The Special Forces carefully break the lock on the door and enter the building very quietly but unfortunately, the people inside hear and make sure that another member – the one lying on the bed has heard. The man on the bed puts down the Qu-ran which may suggest that he has stopped following its teachings now altogether, and is using a much darker form of action that would not be approved.
They speak in their language, un-translated for us and we don’t know what is being said or going to happen, the intensity of the situation heightens.
The man with glasses says something that we do not understand, but by the way it is said it seems like a prayer or hope that he is doing the right thing, we then see him press a button on his phone.
There is an explosion which we first see from the point of view inside the building, and we are shown members of the Special Forces in this explosion, showing us that they have been killed. We are then shown outside the building. The shots used to show this are very shaky which disorientates us as to what is happening as we cannot clearly see and shows us just how massive this explosion is and the effect it is having on its environment. When shown the explosion from the top of the building, this shows us the shire size of it and the effect it has had on the surrounding area.
The noise of the explosion fades, as does the lighting to blackout. Muslim music begins to play. The music is quite solemn, probably to show the devastation of the situation, but also to show that the Muslims have won.
The title of the film is then shown. It flashes up in a way that seems technological and there are flashes of what seems like a tracking device of a certain location which suggests further tracking of these people. The flashing of the title shows the uncertainty and disorientation of everything in the film. This technological interference is present in many other thriller themes, such as when the radio looses signal in the opening of “Vacancy” and when the TV signal cuts out at the end of the opening of “Final Destination 2”.
Before the title disappears, it flashes from white to the colour red. Red is often used to symbolise blood and death, especially in thrillers and may have been used to suggest the blood shed that will happen.
In this opening, we are shown the Muslims as a minority ethnic group, who have a different cultural background, and different views and beliefs than the rest of the population that are shown.
I think that the fact that a Sikh plays the milkman is important to get across the idea that not all people of foreign religions act in these negative ways. This is important to show because the Muslims seem generalised in this opening as bad people; all of the Muslims shown are terrorists and this is clearly not the case in society.
Because of past bombings and terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims, many people may stereo-typically judge them in the way that this film does. But I think that having a Sikh milkman, although he is not of the same religion helps to lower this stereo-typicalisation in the opening. Of course, they couldn’t have used a milkman of the same religion in the opening to deliver the milk and play as a ‘good Muslim’, as the audience may have miss-interpreted it incorrectly and thought that he was related to the Muslims inside the apartment and working for them, possibly delivering the milk as a sign.
I think that the fact the Sikh is not of an English background, but is trusted to help out the Special Forces shows that we do not generalise against people from a foreign background, and would not do so to the Muslims, it is only because they are making these terrorist attacks.
I feel that the Sikh also shows the working class of many people who come to Britain Britain
The fact that women are not shown in this clip brings up the stereo-typical thought that has been around for many decades - and although has begun to improve, has not been completely resolved, and it is still thought in some cases that men are superior to women.
This scene is very violent, and circumstantially turns out to be very dangerous. It may be suggesting that women should not be in these harsher situations, either because they are ‘weak’ or because they should be ‘protected’. Men are seen as more powerful, strong and superior beings that should be the ones to carry out this dangerous work - either because they do not think that women are capable enough to handle it, or in a more positive light, that they should not have to deal with these dangerous situations and should be protected from them (men being the ones to do so).
Even though this opening is very short, it can be viewed with reference to the Micro, Macro theory. The principal use of male characters in this clip on a small scale can be used to show the much bigger fact of gender discrimination.
Final Destination 2 Analysis
Bars are used behind the presenter to represent entrapment, which is common thriller iconography.
The whole set is very cold – dark eerie blue, making us think of death, cold blood.
The whole set is very cold – dark eerie blue, making us think of death, cold blood.
We are shown a photograph of the main character with a friend through a magnifying glass – which focuses us on who the main character is – she is the one being singled out of the photo.
There is a blade laying over her, very close to the photo, it is close to hurting the picture of her which suggests the fact that something bad is soon going to happen to her.
Darkroom contact prints are used, as they are in many films and their openings that I have seen like Se7en. They are very often used to give an eerie effect to photographs.
Shadows, (typical thriller iconography) are highly defined when the puppet is moving, on its own – which is strange and suggests a supernatural force.
Puppets are a typically scary object, they are wooden, old, and clowns and puppets are often used to scare people – for example the puppet from the saw films.
We are shown the cover of a book, which we presume says ‘ROAD TRIP’ but the ‘T’ is covered up, so that it appears ‘ROAD RIP’ which hints that something bad will happen on this trip, probably death as RIP stands for rest in peace and is a term used for the dead.
The Turkish eye is used on the key-ring covering the ‘T’. The Turkish eye is supposed to be all knowing, suggesting that it knows what is going to happen and these people are going to die. It also represents another thriller narrative – that they are being watched, the eye is following them.
The camera moves over the girl, from an extreme close-up of her face and then down along her body. We are getting a very close and personal view that is quite intruding. Again this suggests that something is watching her/ close to hurting her, she is a victim – which is a typical thriller character.
The TV starts loosing signal, this is something out of the girl’s control, there is a more powerful source controlling it, possibly supernatural? Or maybe to suggest that she cannot control what is about to happen to her?
When the TV signal fades, an eerie red is used to hint to blood and death – a typical thriller narrative.
Through this whole beginning scene, little lighting is used so that the setting is very mysterious and the whole dark/horror theme is portrayed. However, lighting is used to create shadows which is iconography commonly used in thrillers.
In the scene after the opening, the girl we saw previously nearly crashes her car; she then drives past a bus where the people on it are shouting ‘pile up’; she turns on the radio which mentions the anniversary of the plane death, she switches channels and the song ‘highway to hell’ is playing. All of these things strongly hint towards a major accident happening on the road – probably a pile up.
The people about to die then loose their innocence, as they typically do in all thriller films, so that we feel they have deserved to die.
Kimberly doesn’t check the car when told it is leaking fluids. The boys laugh at the old lady who drops her cans and they smoke weed. Another woman is talking on the phone and smoking while driving. A recent lotto winner is driving immaturely, focusing on the hot girls in the car and not on the road. A motorcyclist is driving way too fast and taking over cars. Another sign of a crash is then used – a little boy is playing with car toys, one of which is a truck like the one that kills everyone as the logs fall off, and a red jeep like the main characters are in. He is bashing them together, hinting that they will crash. One man’s exhaust is emitting really bad fumes and he’s doing drugs while driving, as well as steering his car with his knees! There is a mum with a teenage boy who is messing about, bashing water bottles on the dash board. A policeman has coffee in an unsecure place that could (and does) spill. He also has his laptop out and doesn’t keep his eyes on the road after the coffee is spilt.
All of these characters have shown careless, risky driving here, or have demonstrated dislikeable traits about them like taking drugs and laughing at old women, so we now feel that they all have put themselves in this risky situation and we will no longer feel they are innocent when they die.
I could not find the actual opening scenes un-edited on youtube as distripution of films like that is not allowed. This clip has music over the top that isn't used in the film, and only shows a few clips of things I have mentioned, but should hopefully help you to get an idea of what the film is like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv2nlrXSMt8
I could not find the actual opening scenes un-edited on youtube as distripution of films like that is not allowed. This clip has music over the top that isn't used in the film, and only shows a few clips of things I have mentioned, but should hopefully help you to get an idea of what the film is like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv2nlrXSMt8
Seven Analysis
When looking at this thriller opening in class, we first listened to the sound, without having seen the accompanying imagery. This enabled us to focus more on what the film might be about, and what is trying to be portrayed just through the sound used.
When only listening to the sound, I got the feeling of being in a prison from what I thought was someone pulling something along the cell bars, which could have been used to suggest entrapment – a common thriller convention.
I then seemed to get more of an impression of an unsafe old factory. The sound of clogs moving, a continuous ticking and what I thought was young children screaming, gave me the idea that these children could be playing in this unsafe factory or building, and the fact that the music speeds up as it goes along could be to portray the children running faster, possibly trying to get out.
We were then shown the very unnatural and seemingly psychotic visuals of the opening. These visuals seemed to relate to the strangeness of the soundtrack, although the images and ideas did not match-up to ones that I had previously described. Although linking my previous thoughts to the current visuals made sense in the fact that this person (although we can only see their hands) seems dangerous to others such as children by what he is doing. The previous sound I presumed to be prison cell bars, could have intentionally been made to seem this way to give the effect that this person is dangerous and should be locked up.
The sound that I thought was children screaming, could relate to the fact that he crosses out a child’s face as if to show that their life has been scribbled out, or they have been crossed off his accomplish list and are no more. This expresses his danger to children.
The way that the sound and visuals are very jumpy, distorted and have a schizophrenic/psychotic nature, could be telling us that this is the kind of personality and mind-set of the character we see.
Just focusing on the visual side of the opening, we can see that the character is making some kind of scrap book that includes images and writing that is very disturbing.
As we see photo negatives and a flash of red when a photo is being dipped into liquid, we can presume that this character is developing his own photos in his photography dark room. The fact that these disturbing photos that show dead people are his photos, strongly suggests that he was the one to kill them – which makes us as the audience feel very anxious.
The fact that he is making the book by hand, and we can see every cut, stitch, attention to detail, makes it seem very personal and special to him.
If he was a psychotic murderer and proud of his conquests, then storing them in this book would more than likely be very important to him.
The credits even seem to be very constructed, jumpy and distorted, linking us again to what this character we see may be like.
The images of people used that are focused on, make them appear very small and vulnerable to the largeness of the hands of the character. As we expect to see people full size and their hands as a small part of them, rather than huge hands and a small image or a person, this makes the character look large, powerful and in-control of these people.
This character who is likely to be a psychotic serial killer and his victims that we have seen him record in his book are typical thriller characters.
The colours used throughout are very dark and mysterious, hinting us to this character’s dark ways and thoughts possibly. The colour red is used a few times also. As well as showing that the picture is being developed in the photography dark room with a safe-light on, this also gives the ideas of death/blood/pain and other associations like this that we make with the colour red.
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