Steven Allan Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer, in a career that has covered a period of over 4 years his films have taken up a number of different themes and genres.Speilbergs early films were mainly science fiction and adventure, which then, began to address issues such as the Holocaust (A Holocaust Szemei 2000), Slavery, War (Wagon Train 1957) and Terrorism. Spielberg also teamed with George Lucas who created Star Wars and was Spielberg’s friend.

Spielberg directed the action adventure film, Indiana Jones- Raiders of the Lost Ark who was played by Harrison Ford. It became the biggest film at the box office in 1981, and received numerous Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Picture. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic park, which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal like his previous films. He produced and directed Schindler’s List (1993), which was a film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got an award for Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped to find the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.Speilberg directed the thriller Jaws which then went on to get 3 Oscars.

James Francis Cameron

James Francis Cameron was born August 16 1954 and is a Canadian film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and inventor. He wrote and directed Terminator (1984 ) which made $78 million , Aliens (1986) , The Abyss (1989) , Terminator 2 : Judgement Day (1991),True Lies (1994) , Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009).




In Total Cameron’s directorial efforts have made approximately $1.7 billion in North America and $4.41 billion worldwide, which therefore makes him one of the highest-grossing directors of all time. Cameron made the world famous films Titanic and Avatar, which are the 2 highest grossing films of all time and grossed more than $1 billion in the worldwide box office. Cameron frequently uses these actors and actresses Michael Biehn, Jenette Goldstein, Lance Henrikson, Bill Paxton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cameron also was the first director to film both a $100 million film (Terminator: Judgement Day 1991) and a $200 million (Titanic 1997) movie. Cameron’s most famous thrillers were Avatar and the Terminator.

Godfather film review

Rarely can it be said that a film has defined a genre, but never is that more true than in the case of The Godfather. If The Godfather was only about respectable Mafia types, it would never have got aso many awards. The characteristic that sets this film apart from so many of its predecessors and successors is its ability to weave the often-disparate layers of story into a cohesive whole. Any of the individual issues explored by The Godfather are strong enough to form the foundation of a movie. Here, however, bolstered by so many complimentary themes, each is given added resonance. The picture is a series of mini-climaxes, all building to the devastating, definitive conclusion, which happens to have a big shoot out which results in other Don's being killed.

The film opens in the study of Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, who is holding court. It is the wedding of his daughter Connie, and no Sicilian can refuse a request on that day. So the supplicants come, each wanting something different - revenge, a husband for their daughter, a part in a movie.

The film has three parts in total, the godfather a thriller/action film isnt a very common type of thriller that we see today in cinemas, it has a very unique way of approchinging the thriller genre. the story line doesnt hold a genuine thriller scene were people are usually murdered and the antagonist usually is a step behind the protagonist. Here In Godfather Mario Puzo has developed a very strong story line which has a gangster status, there isnt much killing going on in the film, however the suspense the storyline brings is utterly amazing the way the film grips the audience makes it a thriller, at times where the main Don is talking it does his voice and his faciaql expressions make you think how can a man like this be so powerful? However you realise during the duration of the film that it is possible for any man to become powerful, or succesful in some cases, not mattering how big or small the person is.

LOGO

Analysing "jigsaw" the puppet from saw

Jigsaw, one of the main characters in the brilliant film which includes 6 parts 'SAW'. jigsaw is a man who goes through alot in his life and further on does very mentally disturbing things such as, playing games in order to survive or die. Jigsaw picks on people who do not appreciate life and do bad things such as.. cheat,crime,drugs e.t.c.
Use of props and costumes in the film were used very well as jigsaw never showed up himself to the victims instead used a toy puppet with a recorded clip to follow...

Jigsaw is a very freaky character in the film, the story does revolve around the mysterious games of jigsaw which makes the film an all time best thriller. Adding to this in the film we see allot of blood and very disgusting games played which include human bodies being ripped apart and etc.

Premilinary task

Basic outline of the ‘Preliminary Task’

The preliminary task was scene with continuity. The basic plot of the scene was a character opening a door and coming in, sitting next to or in front of other character(s) and having a conversation. For this task there were requirements of 3 shots to be used. The 3 shots asked to be used were

Shot/Reverse Shot- is a shot used my many cameramen, the meaning of shot reverse shot is a character shown looking at another character.

180 degree rule- is a famous rule used by many directors; the basic concept of the 180 degree is if two characters are shown in a scene they should have the same left/right relationship. If the camera passes the line of the 180 degree line then the cameraman must show the movement of the camera to the other side. (The picture you can see  describes the 180 degree rule)

Match on Action- is basically in other terms the continuity of the scene. If there is a cut in a scene, the next bit of clip must carry on were it left of.

Our Planning/Story

Our story was basically a teacher holding an detention on the weekend. The children are messing about in class room, but are interrupted by a fuming teacher. The shot suddenly cuts to the teacher closing the door and storming in. He walks over to the table and sits down and begins the conversation with the children.

Roles:
Camera Man: Humzah
Actor 1:Mohit (Teacher)
Actor 2:Amar (Student)
Actor 3:Usman (Student)


Editing:
Coming to editing the film was not so hard. We sued the apple software called iMovie. This is where we cut out scenes we has made a mess of and de -creased sizes of clips that were too long. We also added animation in-between cuts through the clips to add more an professional effect.

Quesstionaires

• 9 of 20 said they preferred to see ‘blood’ in a thriller
• 12 of 20 said ‘tension’ makes a good thriller film
• 7 of 20 said they watched thriller movies ‘often’

Audience research

As the research was coming to end, we thought we needed more than our views and our research. We needed different opinions and thoughts from other people. So we decided to create a questionnaire and find out what interested us for our coursework video clip. We printed an amount of 20 questionnaires to distribute.

We decided we had to ask a range of questions so we could use it to our advantage and use peoples opinions and encrypt it in to our piece of coursework. We not only asked question that related to us and our coursework, but asked question to do with research around the thriller area, for example ‘’How often do you watch a thriller film?’’

Final Destination 3

In the film

“Final Destination 3” we can quickly discover that it is thriller film due to the media concepts used. This film contains alot of suspense which keeps the viewer engaged and makes them want to watch more. It also has alot of blood and this makes it more interesting to watch. Final destination uses a number of media concepts such as imagery and sound to emphasis certain areas of the film.

The 3 scenes in which the media concepts are used effectively and reinforce that it is a thriller move are...

1.This picture shows the scene where the 2 girls are baked to death inside a sun tanning machine. This is evidence of the film being a thriller as it makes the audience sit on the edges of their seats and is full of suspense.

2.This picture shows the beginning of the film where the students are on the rollercoaster as it is all falling apart causing them all to die. This is evidence of the film being a thriller as it has alot of adrenaline running through the viewer because they know what is about to happen and are getting anxious.

3.This picture shows the scene where the man doesn’t belie the vision and then gets killed while exercising. This is evidence of the film being a thriller as there is suspense and some blood.

Opening credits

In a television program, motion picture, or videogame, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There may or may not be accompanying music. Where opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, the correct term is title sequence.

Opening credits since the early 1980s, if present at all, identify the major actors and crew, while the closing credits list an extensive cast and production crew. Historically, however, opening credits have been the only source of crew credits and, largely, the cast, although over time the tendency to repeat the cast, and perhaps add a few players, with their roles identified (as was not always the case in the opening credits), evolved. The television movies after 1964 and the increasingly short "shelf-life" of films in theaters has largely contributed to the credits convention which came with television programs from the beginning, of holding the vast majority of cast and crew information for display at the end of the show.

LOCATION

These are some images taken as examples for sets and places to shoot the video. The pictures are taken at night with all of our group looking around various places for appropriate sets for a thriller film, the pictures being in a dark alley way at night creates a good effect of a good thriller.

Research Map

TODOROV AND PROPP'S THEORY AND INFORMATION ON SOUL BASS

Todorov's theory: Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of un-settlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative).

Propp's theory: Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today

Soul Bass: Saul Bass born on May 8th 1920 was an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated sequences. In his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, these included Hitchcock, Stanley and Martin Scorsese For Alfred Hitchcock, Bass provided effective, title sequences, employing kinetic typography, working with John Whitney, and Psycho. It was this kind of innovative, revolutionary works that made Bass the film maker he was. His later work with Martin Scorsese saw him move away from the optical techniques that he had managed to begin and move into computerized titles.
Moving on Bas had helped in the directing the highlight scene of Psycho, the hugely edited shower-murder sequence, he used his initiative mind to direct such a scene making it perfect to every second that was shot.
On the whole Saul Bass was a character who brings a change in the American film making scene, not only affecting film making of the time, but for many years to come. One of the famous quotes used by Saul Bass were "Design is thinking made visual’’, in other words he was a follower of his imagination and techniques. Who knew that he could make the difference in the film making world today.

DISCUSSIONS

On the 4th of feb 2010 me (Usman), Amar, Mohit and Humzah (our group) sat down together and made a brainstorm of what to research and who's going to reasearch what. We also discussed about how we will obtain this information, later on we all jumped on the Imac's and were searching the web for information on target audience, trailers, sound etc.

Background on Thriller Entertainment

Conventions of a thriller

Thrillers are essentially about the battle of justice vs. injustice where often there is a price to be paid for the conclusion of the story. A thriller is a film of suspense with a plot structure that reinforces the elements of gamesmanship and the chase. Thrillers can be spy based, tales of geopolitical crisis, legal thrillers, medical thrillers, techno thrillers or domestic thrillers. Commonly thrillers progress with a growing sense of threat or danger and the excitement of pursuit.Relating to iconography the Setting Can be urban, isolated surbuban settings, cities or quiet country villages. Mise-en-scene includes Normally dim lighting hiding parts to a character, large threatening weapons for props e.g. large knives, guns etc. Camera shots are normally point of view shots, frames within frames, or close ups. Often there is also a lot of camera movement. Colours are also used to signify different emotions like red connates blood or danger, blue cold mystery or death. Also thrillers always revolve around a crime of some kind where the protagonist will have a weakness the the antagonist will take advantage of, slowly this will cause the suspense to build up causing the protagonist to feel isolated at least once during the film.

What is a MacGuffin

MacGuffin was created by Alfred Hitchcock it can be referred as a hidden catalyst which moves the plot on to create scene or ending with a twist. It can also be referred as the engine that sets the story in motion. It can be anything or nothing at all. In The 39 Steps, it is "secrets vital to your air defence"; in Number Seventeen it is a valuable piece of jewellery, while in The Lady Vanishes it is, in the most perfectly abstract of all Hitchcock's MacGuffins, a coded message contained in a piece of music. Examples of these are in the films such as:

• The top secret plans in The 39 Steps (1935).
• The eponymous statuette in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• The letters of transit in Casablanca (1942)
• The uranium in Notorious (1946)
• The case with glowing contents in Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
• The "government secrets" in North by Northwest (1959)
• The stolen $40,000 in Psycho (1960).
• The stamps in Charade (1963)
• The Death Star plans in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
• The Ark of the Covenant in the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• The unknown, glowing contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction (1994).
• The Rabbit's Foot in Mission: Impossible III (2006)
• The chest in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006).
• The Allspark in Transformers (2007).
• The Russian painting in RocknRolla (2008).
• The sculpted head from Ponte Santa Trinita in Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
• The silver briefcase in Jack Said (2009)
• The unobtanium in Avatar (2009)

What is a thriller?

In most thrillers the heroes tend to be accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers etc. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common for example films like Tomb raider. Also in a thriller the film will always circulate around crime and slowly the suspense is built up to cause an unexpected bang at the end. Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are separated by the structure of their plots. Thrillers are often hybrid, mixed with other genres. These are called sub genre such as:

1) Action thriller: James Bond films, The Transporter.
2) Conspiracy thriller: Three Days of the Condor, Capricorn One, and JFK
3) Crime thriller: The Killing, Seven, Reservoir Dogs, Inside Man, and The Asphalt Jungle
4) Disaster thriller: Stormy Weather and the 1974 film Earthquake.
5) Drama thriller: The Illusionist, The Interpreter and The Prestige
6) Erotic thriller: Basic Instinct, Dressed to Kill, Color of Night, Eyes Wide Shut, Fatal Attraction, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Obsessed, and In the Cut.
7) Legal thriller: The Innocent Man
8) Medical thriller: Awake
9) Political thriller: Agency.
10) Psychological thriller: Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt, and Strangers on a Train
11) Spy thriller: The Bourne Identity
12) Techno-thriller: The Hunt for Red October
13) Religious thriller: The Da Vinci Code.

Directors of Thrillers