Analysis of 3 films: Da Vinci Code, One Hour Photo

Da Vinci Code:

Camera:
Arial shot- Looking down at the museum- To show that there isn't much happening outside the museum
Low angle shot- On the guy's face who is hold the gun- Making him look very powerful and in control of the situation.

Editing:
The opening credits leading into the title of the films- Showing different letters appearing slowly- Builds slow tension, give the impression the film is going to start slow.

Sound:
Non- Diegetic- Theme tune very slow and spooky- Adds tension to the opening scene.
Dialogue- When the guy with the gun speaks- his voice is very powerful, clear and hard as he speaks very slow.

M-E-S:
Painting- When it is being stolen- Sets the first scene.
Gun- When the guy is holding it- Suddenly adds tension straight away.

One Hour Photo:

Camera:
Medium shot- On the old camera- Focusing on it with nothing else going on. Then suddenly takes a picture to get the film started.
Over the shoulder shot- Looking over the DIA, inspector police officers looking towards the suspect- To show us what the criminal is saying when being questioned.

Editing:
Flashback- Showing us a nice happy memory- Shows us how it has changed from the interview room to the flashback which is a happy photo.
Diegetic voice over- When showing the flashback it has the voice of the criminal talking to the inspector-   Shows the difference of happy and sad as the criminal looks very sad.

Sound:
Dialogue- Inspector says 'you dont have to talk to me till she gets here' (his loyar)- Just being fair and giving the criminal the choice.

M-E-S:
Old camera- Old camera at the beginning- Showing us how the cameras use to look like.
New camera- When the girl holds it to her face and take a picture- Showing us a happy moment in time and the women taking a picture.

The Silence Of The Lambs:

Camera:
Medium shot/Tracking- On her running through the forest- Showing her on a early morning run and going over obstacles this could imply she is training for something.
Long shot- Showing her running back into the building- Shows her that she's off to talk to someone as she was asked to.

Editing:
Medium cuts- There is no slow cuts but also no fast cuts in the first 5 minutes of the film- Showing the cuts at a medium speed so its not to slow and boring or focusing on a certain things but not to fast and thrilling like in a action scene.

Sounds:
Non- Diegetic- Theme tune 'opening with credit'- Quite big drum beat rather spooky building tension.
Dialogue- You hear her breathing heavily and see her running towards the camera- Shows she is pushing herself a lot.

M-E-S:
Rope- Showing herself pulling herself up a hill by using rope- Gives the indications she is training very hard.
Massive apperator thing- Shows her climbing and jumping over it- Also gives the impression she is training very hard for something.

Personal Progress Report

Ideas: I've had many ideas on what sort of plot we are going to do for our media coursework e.g. An assault on someone just after they had got off the train at night which would then move into a bit more of a crime thriller film. Another idea I've had is that a murder in a forest could take place just after all the credits had come up with a black background.

Thoughts: I thought that the assault just after getting off the train at night could work as it wouldn't be too hard to make it look realistic but you may have to apply to the national rail as its illegal to film at the train station. With the murder in the forest it could be very tricky to make the murder look effective as we dont have access to a whole film crew etc.

Progress: Our group is in the middle of producing our preliminary task which we should hopefully have filmed and edited it by the end of the week.

Things to learn: I need to learn how to use Final Cut a bit better as I'm not very good with it at the moment because we have only just started messing around with it. I need to get better a Photoshop as well as I'm not great at that either.

Road Train

Looking at these Average you can see how the under 18s have rated it very highly but then also if you look down the list the Females 45+ loved it. Remember this site is dominated by the male 18-29 population. But the rest of the categories were not a massive fan of the film Road Train.

Most review were not great at all as they were all rated 5 or below out and 10. Many of them slate the film saying 'Seriously! This movie could hardly be worse!' and many other phrases along those lines. So from people's reviews and ratings it doesn't sound like this film was a great success. Many people wrote in their reviews the the trailer made the film look very good but when it actually came down to the actual film it was very poor.

What I will take from this is that when creating a trailer it has to be very attracting but make sure the film can back it up in steady of having a brilliant trailer and a rubbish film.

Votes	Average
Males	510	4.1
Females	62	4.0
Aged under 18	10	9.7
Males under 18	7	9.7
Females under 18	3	8.7
Aged 18-29	297	4.3
Males Aged 18-29	257	4.4
Females Aged 18-29	38	3.7
Aged 30-44	227	4.0
Males Aged 30-44	209	4.1
Females Aged 30-44	18	3.6
Aged 45+	40	3.6
Males Aged 45+	36	3.5
Females Aged 45+	2	9.6
Top 1000 voters	31	4.4
US users	90	4.4
Non-US users	358	4.1

Preliminary Planning

A quick scene that involves movement of one character that then starts a conversation with a friend.

1. The character walks across to a door
2. The character then opens the door, camera focuses on hand opening door
3. The character walks through the door, camera focuses on front of character walking through the door
4. The character sits down, the conversation starts, the 180 degree rule applies.

This preliminary shoot will allow us to see how to film the thriller opening.

Costumes- casual clothing
Mike and Jon actors, Tom filming
Around a minute long
Location- School Canteen

Alfred Hitchcock

He was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. His father was a green grocer called William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914); his mother was Emma Jane Whelan (1863 - 1942), and he had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock(born 1892). He grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family. He attended St. Ignatius College and a school for engineering and navigation. In 1914, when Hitchcock was 15 years old, his father died.

It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry, he started off drawing the sets (Since he was a very skilled artist) and he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only when the director for "Always tell your wife" fell ill and Hitchcock had to complete the film, that he started off in the directing part of the film world, then Alma Reville and Hitchcock began to talk to each other.

Hitchcock had his first shot of being the director of a film in 1923 when he was to direct the film "The Number 13", though the production was stopped. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular. In 1926, Hitchcock made his first trademark film, "The Lodger". In the same year on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child, Patricia Hitchcock (born 7th July 1928).

His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of them which also made him famous in the USA. David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, got in touch with Hitchcock and the Hitchcock family moved to the USA to direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).

It was when Saboteur (1942) was made, that films companies began to call his films after him; such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk very well at all.

On March 7, 1979, Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement award, where he said this famous quote: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville." By this time, he was quite ill, he had angina and his kidneys had already started to have problems functioning properly.

He started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called "The Short Night" but he fired Lehman and hired young screenwriter David Freeman who re-wrote the script. Though due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made. Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death.

In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Father Thomas Sullivan held the service, 600 people attended the service, among them where Mel Brooks (Director of High Anxeity (1977), a comedy tribute to Hitchcock and his films), Louis Jourdan, Karl Malden, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh and Francois Truffaut.

Inception

In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job till date, Inception.

These statistics show that even though the male 18-29 dominate the votes if you look down the votes list they were one of the groups that rated it lowest the only ones that rated it below the males 18-29 are the old groups like 30-44 up the the 45+.

Pretty much every review i found of the film said that it was a brilliant and successful film and the rating for the reviews were 9/10 pretty much every time saying this film is excellent.

	Votes	Average
Males	186,864	9.0
Females	32,233	9.1
Aged under 18	9,201	9.5
Males under 18	7,047	9.5
Females under 18	2,103	9.5
Aged 18-29	162,127	9.2
Males Aged 18-29	137,452	9.2
Females Aged 18-29	23,968	9.2
Aged 30-44	40,927	8.7
Males Aged 30-44	35,892	8.7
Females Aged 30-44	4,715	8.7
Aged 45+	6,730	8.1
Males Aged 45+	5,452	8.1
Females Aged 45+	1,191	8.1
IMDb staff	53	9.3
Top 1000 voters	394	8.0
US users	46,614	9.1
Non-US users	114,478	9.0
IMDb users	227,598	9.0

Target Audience for Thriller

"It really depends on the kind of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and to really give an accurate answer to your question you would have to specify what kind of thriller film.

Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory... and they're rated R. Their target audience was probably for the young male adults.

Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are borderline horror films, such as M. Night Shyamalan films The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror (and horror films target teenage girls), the demographic would be slightly different... probably younger and more female based.

And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) that target a more mature audience... and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults.


But if you just need a target audience for a generic thriller film... I'd have to say the young adult demographic from 18-25"  We have taken this from a Q&A website to see peoples views of target audiences to thrillers.

5 Important Factors for a Thriller

Some of the most successful thrillers quite often have far fetched story lines as there are so many different components to thriller writing, yet the writer must tell the story in such a way that the audience see it as believable and can be totally entranced by it. In my opinion, there are five very vital points everyone needs to consider when come to make a good thriller film.

Creating a Sense of Danger

In most thriller films you see, there is bound to be a central main character that ends up in danger somewhere. Often, the character will be isolated from the world around them to give the audience a much wider insight to their inner feelings and emotions. In order to achieve this successfully, there needs to be a great sense of loss and betrayal. Another word for this type of character is a ‘Protagonist’.
It is also quite likely that the protagonist will be at risk of death, or worse, at the hands of their main opponent; also known as the antagonist. The antagonist is not crucial to use in thriller films, although they do build up a great sense of excitement for the audience. Antagonist or no antagonist, the important thing to remember when coming to make a successful thriller is to get the audience to literally feel the problems which the protagonist encounters and to get them to realise that it could happen to them which will drive force of fear, worry and dread through them. Therefore, considering the previous factors, I would think that since J.M.T productions focus on a niche market, if they were to make a thriller, they should include all of the points in this paragraph.

The Balance of Power

The second ever so very important aspect of making a thriller is balance of power. This ensures that the antagonist (villain) has the balance of power shifted in their favour throughout the majority of the film. This absolutely vital point draws the audience’s attention into the feelings and struggles the protagonist needs to try and overcome. This nicely places the audience onto the protagonist’s side for the battle of good and evil where the villain is always one step ahead, until the climax of the movie when the power balance shifts and the villain is eventually defeated.

The Importance of Pace

I’m sure that everyone has previously watched a thriller in the past and has got very bored after the first 40 minutes. When one makes a thriller film or video, they must make sure that it is fast paced throughout in order to make it work. Usually, the beginning of a thriller wastes no time in putting the main character (the protagonist) in a dilemma from the very start which enables the audience to relate to their situation immediately.

Twists and Turns

Most good thrillers use twists and turns to attempt to draw the audience into a false sense of security where they should be led on an adventurous journey, unsure of what lies ahead. An excellent way to maintain the suspense and tension is to have scenes which build up to a certain point where the audience think they know exactly what to expect and to then dramatically change the scene to and unforeseen outcome

Character Growth

Another important aspect of making a great thriller is to make sure that the audience get to know and understand all of the fears and weaknesses of the protagonist’s character. Also, as they begin to overcome the challenges they are given, the film or video also must reflect their determination and strength and have the final outcome showing that how they have overcome their greatest fear and rising to the challenges they were set, has made them a better person. At the same time, it is also important to show the antagonist’s weakness and their fears as the balance of power finally shifts and good wins against evil.

Often in thrillers, good writers build up to a climax where good wins and the audience feel they can finally relax and stop biting their finger nails, when the villain will have one final attempt to beat the hero before being finished for good.

Questionaire

1. What would you say are your preferable interests?

2. When watching a film, which genre do you prefer? (comedy, Romance, action, Horror, Thriller, Family.)

3. What line of work are you in?

4. Who are your three favorite actors/actresses?

5. What is your favorite genre of music?

Codes, Conventions and Representations of Thrillers

1. Generally we see that murders, crime and dilemmas are portrayed in a thriller.

2. Themes such as Horror, Espionage and Thrilling Excitement are seen in thrillers.

3. Title texts can be shown during the build up to an event or to show the setting of the thriller.

4. Props such as weapons and vehicles are used in thrillers, often the murderer uses everyday objects to kill his victims.

5. Connotations such as the dangers of the modern world and everyday dilemmas of race.

6. Non-diegetic sound such as music, are used to build up tension before a thrilling scene is about to take place.

7. Volume of sound can be useful to build up suspense.

8. Editing is often used in thrillers to track the victim, this is done by showing stalking or skipping scenes.

Classwork Thrillers

Silence of the Lambs

• Running
• Deep Breathing
• Credits (actors names, production team)
• Music
• Dialogue 

Usual Suspects

• Water Glistening (background)
• Mafia Style Music 
• Actors names
• Production team 
• Messy setting
• Mysterious Character
• Fire 
• Crime Investigation

Thiller Settings/Locations

Run down areas
Hotels
Reich houses
Nightclubs/Pubs

Dark Alleyways

Forests

Thiller Themes

Life and Death
Mystery
Murder
Stalking
Crime
Supernatural
Psycological
Investigation

What is a Thriller?

Life and Death
Lots of twists
Cliff hangers
Dramatic
Scary
Tension- Build ups
Intense
Romance
Violent- Gore, Blood
Suspence

Opening credits to 5 films

8Mile: Universal, Imagine Entertainment
Opens with Eminem rapping in the background (non diegetic) as they start to introduce him. Then shows him in the mirror jumping up and down practicing and preparing himself to go on stage with his own music in the background.

Coach Carter: Paramount, Mtv Films

Opens with non diegtic sound in the background. Then moves into freeze frame shots  on the different basketball players which is cross cutting with them playing ball and getting demolished as there new coach sits in the stands watching.

Fighting: Relativity Media, Rogue
Opens with music in the background (non diegetic) which is up tempo and the credits pop up in the coner while he is walking through the tube getting to where he's going so he can start to sell his goods on the side of the street.


Green Street 2: Ascot Elite, Addlot
It starts with them saying the name of the film and it turns into a voice over from one of the main characters while it shoes pictures of the old famous football players. Then it moves onto him in his cell doing push ups and does a close up on his back focusing on his tattoo that says 'Hammers'. Still have a voice over showing him in his cell and the guards walking around the prision. Only then does it show his face and you realise who he is, one of the main characters from the first Green Street but the credit are still being showed untill they get let out for an hour yard time. But the credits stop when the Chelsea lot come out and the first fight kicks off.

Kidaulthood: Honway, Stealth, Cipher
It starts with faded clips of the playground- speeds up and down. Cross cutting showing Trevor making something doing a close up while the rest of the pupiles are in the playground. Trevor hides what he has made then goes to see his friends who are on the playground/grass. No names are brought up just as few before the clip starts.

J.M.T Productions

J.M.T Productions are one of the most dynamic productions companies in the UK today. We mainly focus our films on a niche market rather than a blockbuster mainstream. Our average film outlet every 5 years is around 2-3 films which have hit some major multiplex's all over England and and a fair few places in America but our films mainly end up in Art house cinema's. We have previously been involved with The Little Film Company which distribute a vast amount to America. Our films are generally Independent Thrillers that are more for the adult, educated minds who are able comprehend the story lines. Overall, although we are a small, niche production company we are still very successful.

Introduction

Hi we are part of an A-level media studies class, we have been called Poseidon. We consist of three young and ambitious men, called Michael, Jonathon and Tom