Exploring the Thriller Genre

Hello!
A genre is essentially a type of film, a "clique" that every film or book fits into. However, all good films can fit in to many sub-genres which make it unique: to use the example of 'Girl, Interrupted' (analysis of opening scenes here) it fits into the drama, biography, thriller and romance genres, but is primarily a drama film. For my own coursework, I'd like to explore the thriller genre as I love watching films and television shows within this genre. 

The mise-en-scene in thriller films are commonly low-key lighting and tense music, though there are other elements that are often seen. Dramatic high or low angled shots create an impression of the characters, and can also raise tension when paired with suspenseful music. A fast-paced editing adds to tension but also moves the action along quickly, and extreme closeups tell the audience a lot about how a character is feeling without using dialogue. The mise-en-scene in a thriller is mostly used to create tension and suspense for the audience.

A thriller storyline can have many different features, which largely depend on it's subgenre. There is often a quest to solve a mystery- this mystery could be a murder, disappearance, or kidnapping/capture etc. The events in a thriller are designed around the central tension necessary for a successful 'thrilling' film, which keeps audiences on the tenterhooks throughout.

An innocent victim is often the central character, even if they have disappeared/died, as the quest to find out why this happened is the plot for the whole film. A curious, inquisitive character usually sets out to discover the 'why', and they become a protagonist. Sometimes, to add an element of humour, this character appears inadequate for the quest at hand and the audience has doubts about them: inevitably the protagonist proves the audience wrong and ends up solving the mystery. A villain is usually disguised, and in films with a mystery/crime subgenre red-herrings lead the protagonist on false trails which can create dramatic irony and tension surrounding the actual culprit. Ignorant or incompetent police and authority figures also add humour but also frustration and tension as the protagonist must complete the quest on their own.

Sub-genres commonly associated with thrillers are action, science-fiction, crime and film-noir. For my own opening sequence, I'd like to explore the film-noir or crime sub-genres, as I think these are the most interesting personally and I would enjoy producing a film of this genre. Elements of the crime genre that can be incorporated are a criminal investigation: sometimes one that police are no longer interested in or cannot solve, so an outsider takes interest and begins to solve the case. As thrillers often include murder and violence, police are often involved, hence linking to the crime genre. The film-noir genre is obviously famous for the lighting and black and white filters, but I think elements from the genre can be incorporated into a thriller such as a narrative voice or cynical central hero, and also flashbacks to help with explaining backstories for characters.

Mediation Theory and Verisimilitude

Hello,
In this blog post I'll explain the theory of mediation and verisimilitude. Mediation is the theory that when an audience encounters a media text, they see someone's version of reality- either the director's or producer's. The creator of the text has their own view of the reality, so the audience sees it through their eyes. An audience is mostly aware that a television soap is not real, but they allow themselves to be immersed into the action: in contrast, audiences expect the news broadcast to be "the truth" and the mediation is not noticed as much as in a soap. News stories are mediated by the journalists and reporters as their opinions influence how the stories are perceived by an audience.

The Kuleshov effect is the name given to a film technique where the audience derives more meaning from two clips edited together than from just one of those clips. Lev Kuleshov was a Soviet filmmaker who made a short film which showed an actor with a neutral expression "looking at" a plate of food, a deceased child, and a woman in lingerie. Audiences in the 1920s stated that the actor's expression changed from hunger to grief to lust: in reality, the clip was the same all three times. Kuleshov's film is a demonstration of mediation theory as audiences can be manipulated to believe anything the editor wants them to. To show Kuleshov's ideas, we created our own version inspired by the original film. 

Verisimilitude is the believability of a narrative, or how real a media text appears. For example, the likelihood of a zombie apocalypse film seeming real to an audience is down to it's verisimilitude: how relatable/complex the characters are, and how plausible the events. The verisimilitude of any film plays a big part in it's success: if audiences don't believe the storyline could actually happen, the film is likely to be less successful.

Preliminary Task

Hello!
For our first mini-task we looked at three filming techniques (match-on-action, 180-degree rule and shot reverse shot, all explained here) and created a short sequence using all of the techniques. We used two volunteer actors and scripted a small conversation between them, emphasising match-on-action by getting them both to walk through doors and editing many different angles of the same action together. We attempted to use the 180-degree rule, though in hindsight I think we could have used it more wisely; there are a few parts of the film that don't work and the fluency is disrupted. However, in my opinion we used shot-reverse-shot effectively and the idea of a conversation taking place works. We used a tripod and camera equipment so that the shots were still and professional-looking, though if we changed the camera quality the film would look a lot more professional and well put-together. Our editing was a strength in our film, as the actors' movements flow throughout and make sense. 

Preliminary task script and shotlist

Hi! So for our first group task, we have to create a short sequence including the three media techniques for continuity we have just covered. Our brief is to have a character walk into a room, sit down with another character and have a short conversation. We decided to base our situation in a school, particularly a quiet study area, with two of our friends as actors. In true stereotype, a boy will walk in on a girl trying to study and annoy her so much that she eventually leaves. As a group, we came up with a rough script and shot list, making sure we included a chance for match-on-action to be edited.

Script:

Dani: Hey.
(Mat sits down at the table and begins making noise)
D: You are the most annoying person ever!
M: It's just a bottle flip.
(M continues to make ruckus)
D: Can you stop?
M: No. (continues)
D: I actually hate you, you're going to make me fail my A levels!
M: You're just a nerd. Just relax, we have time.
D: Ben, I'm sick of you. 
(D gets up and leaves the room)

Shot list:

1. M walks through corridor doors, tracking shot.
2. M walks down Media corridor, long shot.
3. M opens classroom door and walks through, medium long shot.
4. M closes door behind him, walks towards table and D. Tracking shot.
5. Medium shot of D as she speaks.
6. MLS of M speaking, over the shoulder of D.
7. MS of M flipping bottle.
8. Close up of D.
9. CU of M.
10. MS of D as she leaves her seat.
11. LS of D walking towards door.
12. CU of door handle as D reaches for it.
13. MS of D walking out of the classroom.

Analysis of 'Girl, Interrupted' opening scenes

Hello! In this post I'll be writing a short analysis of the opening 3 minutes of 'Girl, Interrupted', a 1999 drama film directed by James Mangold, which was loosely based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name.

The film opens with a shot of a barred window, which then tracks downwards slowly to reveal the main character. The lighting is incredibly dark, as the only evident source of light is the window itself: the immediate onset of darkness suggests a possible dark narrative for the film in the first few seconds. The non-diegetic music is almost lullaby-like, but when contrasted with the dark setting it is quite eerie, which also suggests a dark narrative for the film.

The main character, played by Winona Ryder, is revealed as the camera continues to pan down. She wears an unreadable, vacant facial expression, leaving the audience intrigued as to what she is feeling and why she is in such an eerie environment. Another character is shown laying in her lap, played by Angelina Jolie. This character appears still, and the audience may question if she was even alive until she blinks, possibly crying. Her facial expression displays deep sadness, which leaves the audience even more confused as to the events that have lead the characters to this situation.

Two more characters are shown, one clearly distraught, disfigured girl holding a cat, which soon escapes her grip and begins to walk towards the window shown in the first shot. The camera follows it, almost as if it were the main character's own eyes following the cat. While this action is happening, the camera cuts to show broken glass on the floor being swept up. Another girl picks up a needle and hands it to someone off-screen: this suggests that someone has overdosed on drugs, and the audience may correlate to the almost-dead expression of Jolie's character.

At this point, the camera cuts back to Ryder's character and she begins to speak on the voiceover: "Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still?" While she says this, security guard-like figures are shown at an entrance to the dark room, carrying torches. There is still no diegetic sound in the scene, only the music and the voice-over.

The voice-over continues: "Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the sixties. Or maybe I was just a girl, interrupted." At this last sentence, Ryder turns towards the camera, face still vacant, and sirens begin to sound, cutting off the calm music. Hands grip her shoulders, and the scene immediately changes to her character being held down on a hospital bed with a tube down her throat. The editing between these two scenes is so effective as the settings change immediately as she says the word 'interrupted'.

This new setting contrasts wildly with the previous, as it is light and full of colour and noise. From what the doctors are discussing, the character has overdosed on aspirin with alcohol: this is a vital reveal of the narrative and genre, and the audience have some idea of what to expect from this character, though there is still intrigue as to why she tried to kill herself. The audience hears the character's voice for the first time as she moans "You should check my hand, there's no bones in it." Her wrist is shown with a large bruise, and a doctor is heard stating "Looks like a wrist banger. Is that why you did this?" She replies with "And other things. Sometimes it's hard, for me to stay in one place." Almost as rapid as the first scene change, the setting changes again, after the audio overlaps and the audience learn the character's name: Susanna.

A therapist-type figure is revealed to be the source of the voice calling Susanna's name. He asks "If you had no bones in your hand, how did you pick up the aspirin?" Susanna wears her vacant expression once again, though she looks slightly taken aback by the man's question. 

The genre of the film has been established as drama, as the opening scenes were definitely dramatic in their context, though it could also be a biography/life story film as it follows Susanna and her life closely. I chose to analyse Girl, Interrupted because I love the mystery of the very first scene: the characters are just shown, not introduced, and the events raise so many questions that are answered as the film goes on. Susanna as a character is difficult to establish as the entire film is about her struggle with borderline personality disorder, though even in the first three minutes her thoughts and feelings are introduced in the voiceover and overdose scene. The narrative is also suggested by the flash-forward at the very beginning, and the scene with the therapist hinting that Susanna is going to face the consequences of her attempted overdose.

Introduction - a few filmmaking terms

Hello! In this first post to my AS Media Studies blog, I'll be explaining some of the more important Media language terms to do with filming.

Firstly, the '180 degree rule'. This rule is in place to ensure that when two people are filmed having a conversation, the actors do not look as if they are facing the same way, which would be confusing for the audience and look quite unnatural. As shown in the image below, shots should be taken on one side of the actors or the 'line of action' so that when clips are edited together, the footage looks seamless and professional, and immerses the audience into the action. The rule is called the '180 degree rule' because the camera cannot move more than 180 degrees around the actors. The rule also works when one actor is looking at an object rather than a person.




'Match on action' or 'cutting on action' is an editing technique where the action of a character is started in one shot and completed in the other. An example of this is when someone walks up to a door and reaches for the handle, and the following shot shows the person walking through the door on the other side. The cut connects two views of the same action, making it seem like the action continues uninterrupted by the change of camera position. This aids continuity and creates a seamless view for the audience, though in reality the two shots may have been filmed days apart. Some examples of match on action cuts in the comedy show Friends are explained here.

'Shot/ reverse shot' is also an editing technique to improve continuity between shots. This particular rule is used when two characters are interacting: the first shot shows one character looking somewhere usually off-screen, and the second shot is reversed to show a second character looking back in the opposite direction, so the audience presumes they are looking at each other. To reinforce this, a third shot is usually included, a two-shot of both characters facing each other. A classic example of this technique is two characters in a restaurant/cafe, as a two shot showing both characters sat facing each other establishes who each character is looking at in the shot/reverse shot. This is a very popular technique and can be seen in almost every film or television show where characters interact.