Notes on todays lesson.

What we expected from the first 2 minutes of a thriller:

An introduction to protagonist, titles, who will be starring, non diagetic music, a few background details of the protagonist, an establishing shot.

What we actually saw in the first 2 minutes of Mememto:

We meet protagonist who wears a wedding ring and has a tatoo on his hand/arm, we see titles and cast members, we learn the man kills someone, the photograph is important as it is focused on for a long amount of time, rewinding of killing is a symbol of loss of memory?Dark, bloody, broken setting, music is syncronus and non diagetic along with the noise of the phtograph flapping-diagetic and syncronus- , the man wears a suit portraying him as a professional? cut face, violent man, emotionless worn out face, exhausted.Planned the whole thing, camera, gun, sheets surrounding the two men, derilict building.

A late evaluation of our preliminary task.

I thought the end result was good quality. The continuity was fluid and i believe we had a clear understanding of the task and this was reflected in our work. I do however think it would have been better with a little more non diagectic syncronus sound, but this was difficult and took a long time to produce at good standard so late in production.

The response from our peers was very supportive with a few constructive points about the sound. Perhaps we could also have added some diagetic syncronus sound, although this would not have been consistant with our 'noir' theme.

Overall i am pleased with our film and its been a very useful task that will undoubtably help with our thriller opening.

The Definition of the Thriller genre and a list of the genre's key director's

Definition of a thriller:

www.answers.com simply puts that “a Thriller is a suspenseful, sensational story or film”. However www.wikipedia.org goes into to much for detail stating that “...Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains”. www.illteraty.com claims that “a Thriller contains certain characteristics. The pace must be quick, there has to be a lot of action, and there should be suspense and plot twists aplenty. Thrillers should have the reader on the edge of their seat, wondering if the good guy can get one over the bad guy and save the world (even though it's extremely rare for the bad guy to win, in your classic Thriller).”


Famous Directors of the Thriller genre:

Alfred Hitchcock, AKA the master of suspense, directed movies such as The Birds, Psycho and Vertigo.

Martin Scorsese, known for collaborating with Robert De Niro directed films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Cape Fear.

Stephen Spielberg, one of the most successful directors of all time, directed classic’s like Jaws, the Indiana Jones series and Jurassic Park.

James Cameron, who recently released £200 million blockbuster Avatar, directed films like the Alien Series, the Terminator Series and Titanic

Quentin Tarantino, known for his non-linear storylines and the sue of violence, has directed films like Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs

Christopher Nolan, best known for reviving the Batman franchise has directed films like Memento, (a film we are to study as a class soon and one I would recommend!) The Dark Knight/Batman Begins and The Prestige.

David Fincher, known for his dark and stylish movies, directed classic film’s like Fight Club, Se7en and Zodiac

Examples of thrillers

To clarify, here is a list of the most popular thriller films according to IMDB website and filmsite:

The Shining, Fight club, A clockwork orange, In the line of fire, Basic instinct, Pulp fiction, Silence of the lambs, The godfather, The dark night, Rear window, The matrix, Memento, Se7en, Leon, North by Northwest...

Here is a link to a movie clip of 'Memento' a film we will be studying in class and also a link to 'Leon' a film i particularly like. Later on i will post the actual clips of the films directly onto this blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc1KzpMnuX0

Thiller conventions and sub-genres

CONVENTIONS: thillers are generally fast paced, action packed and based around a hero defeating the plans of a villain or indeed killing the villain- typically the hero is a butch male accustomed to fighting, but this is not always the case. Female heroines are becoming more popular as are heroes who have accedentally or unwillingly been drawn into the situation.- There is also usually a helpless heorine in need to rescue from the villain, hense the masculine hero.

Thillers are often compared to mysterys due to the defeating of the criminal or antagonist. However the general scale of the crime is much larger (multiple murder, torture, general jeapody and violence...) heroes often know all along who the villain is, and defeat their further plans unlike mysteries that tend to uncover the villain at the end.

A thriller must be emotive, it must 'thrill' the audience and lead them from one thing to another allowing them to geuss what is to happen next, only to be proven wrong, but adding to the suspense.

SUB GENRES: These are ever growing. As long as the thriller contains the conventions there appears to be no limit as to what kind of sub genre could be in the background.

Here is a list of frequently used sub genres:
spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)