first production meeting - introducing the group

My media group consists of me, Leon Macauley, Gottfried Nortey, and Tino Chimunye. Our idea for the thriller opening goes under the working name of "Gott'fried died tryin'"
The main story line is about a person who's best friend is a famous rapper murdered during one of his shows, and he avenges his death.
The characters involved are:
Nortz (Gottfried Nortey)
Pablo (Tino Chimunye)
Eeze (Elijah-Jace Smalling)

North by North West

North by Northwest
The film North by North West is an American spy thriller written by Ernest Lehman and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. We see actors Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason follow a story of mistaken identity and murder. Alfred Hitchcock managed to display the conventions of a thriller well in this film, as we are exposed to both the Enigma codes (Levi Strauss) and Binary opposites .. The main character Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) experiences tribulations as he tries to find the people behind his kidnapping, framing and attempted murder.
On his adventure he finds himself meeting a seductive yet sinister woman in Eve Kendall (played by Eva Marie Saint) who he believes is trying to aid his escape from the police after he is framed for murder.



Roger
In this film, like many other thrillers Roger is presented to us as the underdog. In the beginning he has little understand of what is going on as he has been set up. We see him force fed alcohol, and ending up in a police station. In there, he tries to explain to them what has happened but they do not believe him, This leads to him to seek out the people that have set him up, alone. Whilst doing this, Roger finds himself being set up yet again, but this time for murder.

Roger and Eve
In North by Northwest we see Roger and Eve cross paths many times, by the first time was by far the most signifcant in the film. When they first met, we are left to think that Eve is a happy-go-lucky young woman, but find out she is a snake in the grass. In this scene we see the two main actors flirting, Each cut within this scene are long, at around 5-6 per edit we know that there isn't much going on, and there isn't a lot of tension. Also, in this scene we see Eva or Eve Kendall, deceiving Roger Thornhill, he is left to think that she is a genuine woman trying to help him, not knowing that she is working with the company that is trying to kill him. She manages to have his trust after he spent one night with her in her carriage, which let to her leading to a point where his attempted murder will happen. This scene fits in with conventions of a thriller because we see romance between two characters.

Roger starts to realise something isn't right about the where a bouts of the meeting place that Eva had set up for when no cars are stopping to meet with him. But by then its too late. Another man that was waiting for a bus across to Roger points out that the crop duster is spraying dead crops and before Roger knows it, it is flying towards him. The crop duster chases Roger around for a long time, firing the gun they have on board towards Roger in attempts to kill him. This is similar to many other thrillers because we see that Roger has 0 resources and experience in this type of situation, but he immediately is able to adapt and find a way to get rid of his enemy. in this scene he does this by stopping a truck which the plane flies into after chasing him. Crafty.

During the film, Roger and Eve's meetings havent been great ones, where they each end up with Roger almost being killed, but this time is different. In this gif we see Roger and Eva meeting again. We can see the sequential code being put to use here because of the action happening, and the quick short cuts. Also, as viewers we are left in suspense, thinking that she actually shot Roger and that he was going to die and that the film would be over, but of course its just acting. The short time that she spent with Roger left her with an emotional attachment, which is why she decides to go against the people that she is employed by and tries to help Roger get out of the confusion that he found himself in.

Cinematography Exercise - Evaluation

  In our short film, me and my group were filming in the school playground. Out of all of the shot types required, we managed to record all but two. The two we didn't include were the rolling shot and the tracking shot. We didn't manage to include these because we found them too difficult to film, and we didn't have the correct equipment to be able to steadily take them.
We chose to do the shots that we did because they were the most realistically perform-able shots in the time that we had.
We chose to act out the scenes that we did because they seemed the most fitting for each particular shot. With the long shot, we chose to have two people dancing because with the long shot we could see the whole body of the people involved, and we thought that it was fitting. With the close up and extreme close up shots, Each of our attempts were successful to an extent, the only problem that we faced when filming each scene was keeping the camera steady when not filming with the tripod. Furthermore, whilst we were filming we didn't realize that many of the shots with the tripod were slightly slanted, making the image look amateurish and off balance.
With the framing, I found that many of them were done correctly, but like with our pan shot the timing of the pan was slightly off, meaning the whole scene wasn't captured on camera. This made the project look and feel unfinished. Also, i noticed that when we were shooting the pan scene, at the beginning when the camera first started to get turned, the filming was jumpy. What I did notice was that after the first initial jumps, the rest of the pan was done very steadily.

Media Theory

Media theory
Nowadays, all the best thrillers follow two theories written by Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes. these two theories are Binary opposites, and Enigma codes.
Binary opposites
 Levi strauss was a french anthropologist  who lived in the early 1900s. He developed the theory that we understand certain words because of the different between them and their opposite, and not so much because we understand the word itself. He called it "binary opposites." For example, we understand the word villain because of the difference between it and its opposition in the word hero. binary opposites are used often in films, particularly the thriller genre. All the best thrillers will include binary opposites in the plot of the film. This will always be between a protagonist and an antagonist. For example in Batman, rise of the dark knight, we see Batman take on Bane after he has had his back broken. in this movie he is the underdog.

Enigma Codes
written by Roland Barthes are 5 codes explaining what makes a good thriller, these codes include; the Hermeneutic code, the Proairetic code, the Semantic code, the Symbolic code, and  the referential code. The hermeneutic code is when clues are dropped in a movie to the audience, that leave them with unanswered questions, this builds up suspense for the audience, and if these enigma codes are left unanswered the viewers will become impatient and fustrated. The proairetic code contains sequential elements of action within the text. The semantic code is when the plot to a movie has more than one meaning. these codes are commomly referred to as semes. The symbolic code stretches the differences within a film to present a larger meaning, it creates tension and drama in the development of the character. The referential code is when a character in the film has supernatural or scientific knowledge.

The hermeneutic code is dropped often in Thrillers, because thrillers are meant to give the viewers that off their seat feel. We see this in the medical thriller "Awake" where the main character Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is under going surgery, and the surgeons  performing the surgery start discussing how they are going to kill him. In this film Christensen is awake during the surgery and hears his trusted surgeon and friend discussing how they are going to kill him, leaving him betrayed and confused about why they are doing this.

The proairetic code is used in the film "Awake" when we see Christensens subconcious body trying to desperately wake his real body up, going around the city that he lives in and realising that his attempted murder was set up by his Fiance and his close friend/surgeon (played by Terrance Howard) in attempts to get hold of his fortunes.

The semantic code is used in this film when because we see that the film isnt just about a realistic surgery errors that people may go through, but its also about betrayl from loved ones. We can see this when the surgeon Terrance Howard) and Clays girlfriend (Jessica Alba) are discussing whether the heart that is meant to be replaying Clays dying one has been injected with posion or not. and  and how a mother loves their child, as she takes her own life to give her heart to her son.

We see the symbolic code used in "Awake" when Clay starts to realise that he has been betrayed by his girlfriend and friend. He immidiantly develops a stronger, smarter personality and a direct understanding of what is happening.

The referential code is put to use when Clays mind leaves body and he is walking around. He is aware of what is happening but the people preforming the act on him are oblivious.

Character theories
Vladmir Propp had the theory that all narratives have 8 main characters that play all equally measured roles in the film, and that without them the film wouldnt be as good as it could be. These characters include:

• the villain - disrupted by the hero, often defeated by the hero after long battles.
• the dispatcher - lets the hero know of the villain, sends him on missions and teaches the hero how to beat the villain.
• the helper - helps the hero in the quest, digs the hero out of trouble when they are in need of help
• the princess - hero tries to win her over, but is unable because of unfair evil. The villain will use the her as a means of defeating the hero. Hero is able to save the princess and marry her when he has defeated the evil.
• the donor - prepares the hero, gives them the equipment required to be able to battle the villain.
• the hero - disrupts the villain, long winded battle with him, sponsored by the donor, wins the princess over.
• false hero - takes credit for what the hero has done in attempts to win over the princess, usually ends up helping the hero defeat the villain but dies or loses something of value.

the classic hollywood narrative:

• routine life - when the problem is introduced
• problem solving - the character logically works through creating a story
• problem resolved - end of the problem, life goes back to normal

The male gaze
the male gaze is the idea that in most films, female characters are sexualized by the camera in a way that heterosexual supposedly do. The camera follows female bodies, capturing every curve. Feminists see this as degrading to women, as they feel that they have been reduced to an object.

Conventions of a thriller

The film genre thriller is one that is very popular amongst writers and directors, and to make a perfect thriller, certain unwritten rules need to be followed. All thrillers have a protagonist, and an antagonist, but different directors may have different ideas of presenting the baddie. in most thrillers, the hero is left to battle to protagonist with less resources, money, and are often out numbered by the enemy. In thrillers, against all odds the protagonist ussually comes out on top after a build up events and tension. the protagonists in thrillers are often retired service men, or policemen, and occasionally just average joes. whilst the antagonist is a criminal mastermind usually trying to take over governments or rob banks. when thriller story lines are written, they are done in such a way that the audience feels that it is very realistic, and that in these situations they have the possibility to be the protagonist. Also, good thrillers will follow the enigma codes, these enigma codes help the audience to understand whats going on in the movie. These are:
- The hermeneutic code; hints are dropped to the audience of what might  happen next, leaves the audience questioning the storyline, but these questions are left unanswered. this works as an element of suspense as the viewer is left desperate to know more, it works almost as a cliff hanger.
- The proairetic/Action code - this code contains the sequential elements of a film.
- The semantic code - when the aim of the movie has more than one meaning.
- The symbolic code - refers to the symbolism in the text. it stretches differences to present contrast and a larger meaning.
- Referential code - anything within the movie that refers to extra curricular knowledge in the text, bneing scientific or supernatural.

Also, thrillers will follow 'Binary Opposites' by Levi Strauss.
in the Binary Opposites, they are easy to spot in films, usually with films containing an antagonist and a protragonist.

Genre

Genre is the categories that helps us to differentiate the different types of movies, and music. In film, popular genres are often action and adventure, thrillers, comedy, horrors, romance, sci-fi and children's. Films can also contain sub-genres, where more than one of the listed feature in a single film. This is popular with the mixture of romance and comedy, which is generally known as rom-com, these films are often very popular in the box office.
Action and adventure films are usually based around a single character, or a group usually no more than 4. They are usually set in exotic locations  with exciting story lines filled with stunts and car chases. There is rarely a dull moment in these movies, with the good guys battling the bad guys whilst faced with many different obstacles. An example of the type of movie that would fit into this genre is the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogies. We see Jack Sparrow and his team of would be pirates battling different sea based foes.
With thrillers, we see movies based around suspense and leaving the viewers asking themselves "what next?" The aim of thrillers is to stimulate the viewers eyes and ears with excitement,
Horror films are film based around scaring the viewers. This is done by making the viewers feel that the situation that the characters are in are frightening without being too unrealistic. Recently, there has been a rise in horror movies with a Sci-fi element to them, using supernatural beings and exorcisms. For example the Paranormal Activity movies. They all start off with normal families getting on with their lives, then by the end of the films everything has been turned on to their heads, quite literally. The pillow hugging sensation that we get is often what draws to horror films over and over.
Animated films are films featuring cartoons
Romance films are romantic love stories often mixed with an element of adventure. In modern love stories, we will see a characters life being followed usually involving their day to day doings, like work or education. In these films the main character will be either trying to woo the person that they are in love, or trying to avoid the person that is in love with them but they always end up together in the end.
Comedies are based around making the viewers laugh, they are stories that come along with comical events. The comedy genre often mixes in with other genres, for example the Scary Movie films are comedy parodies of popular horror films.
 The use of genre helps the writers and creators of the film to target the main market, making it easier for the viewers to find movies appropriate to suit their needs.
Films often gain a lot of revenue from the merchandise that comes with it. For example when the Batman trilogies were released, they brought a lot of different memorabilia with them.

Brief

 AS Foundation Portfolio

The Brief 

 You have been asked to produce the titles and opening sequence of a new fiction film in the thriller genre

The sequence should last a maximum of two minutes.

You may work in a group of 2 - 4 students.

As acting is not assessed you are free to use actors that are not members of your group.

The film is worth 60% of your coursework grade.

The accompanying blog is worth 40% of your coursework grade

Together the Foundation Portfolio is worth 50% of the overall AS Level. 

Hello my name is Elijah-Jace Smalling, this is my blog.