Codes and Conventions...Thrillers

Thriller:

The Thriller is quite a popular genre of film, but it gets overshadowed by horrors. Thrillers have various sub-genres.

The heroes or main characters in Thrillers are usually "detectives" and become drawn to character which allows them to becomes more easily accessible to danger. The characters are usually police officers, or secret agents etc. However, sometimes the main character is just a normal person who is somehow involved in some sort of investigation. The main character in Thriller movies are usually males, like Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in the popular Thriller Se7en. Yet, nowadays women have beeb given leading roles in Thrillers - like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

Thrillers are made to thrill - not to scare. But a lot of people get mixed up between horrors and thrillers. Yet the music in thrillers can be the most distinctive way to categorise a thriller from a horror. Thriller non diagetic music is usually more eerie and disturbing than horrors (which are usually more stereotypically scary - screams, cries, etc). Also, sometimes the storyline overlapps or is shown backwards (like Guy Richie films) to conform to the usual conventions that thrillers have more dilemmas/puzzles and suspense scene's.

Thrillers usually consist of the good guy having to defeat the bad guy or the good guy. Assasinations and Terrorism inspire most Thrillers, simply because of the "detective" stereotyped themes. Also, the villain in the Thriller is usually very smart, as in they have a highly interlectual brain, and whatever deaths they cause, they believe it is for a genuine reason - again like in Se7en. Or they could be supernatural nature like in Dracula.

Here's some expected codes and conventions to be in thrillers:


Sound and editing : Involves several different camera angles and quick snaps and changes between shots. Music tends to be full of tension and has a racey sound to go with the action etc.
Lighting - Shadow, mirrors and stairs are mostly used.
Narrative - Normally shown from different characters points of view. Not just one persons view. Normally it is made out so the audience has empathy for one of the characters.
Setting - According to what the story line is based on. Not a particular setting-base.
Mise-en-scene - Dim/dark lighting, (illegal) weapons for props. Camera shots are normally close ups or normal shots. Quite a lot of camera movement.

MAIN IDEA!!!!

MAIN IDEA...
There is a girl called Lauren, she is one of those girls who is every boys desire and every girls envy. She is brutally murdered by someone - yet no one knows who could have done this.

This is the main story line of the movie.

The opening scene of the movie shows a teenage girl in an Interview Room, getting questioned about the sudden murder of her rival Lauren. The opening dialogue of the movie consists of a man's voice (the police officer) asking, "So, what was Miss Ralph like then?" The girl answers by cruelly stating that Lauren was "a bitch" and "anyone could have done it".
A subliminal two second still shot of Lauren's bruised legs lying in a pool of blood is flashed onto the screen. Its genuinely quite vivid, but knowing that this will be rated a 15 - i understand the boundaries. We see her fish-net ripped tights and high healed shoes (one still on her foot, and the other beside her.

This continues to happen, these short and disturbing shots of Lauren's beaten body within the interview shots - from her legs right up to her face. The second person shown being interviewed is Karl - Lauren's childhood admirer, he is in tears, he looks sick with pain. Now instead of showing Lauren's body, we see a shot of a Camera, and someones hands holding it (in black leaver gloves (stereotype)). Maybe there could be a flash, as if a photo is actually being taken, then we skip back to the interview room.

Lauren's ex boyfriend is the third teenager we see being interviewed - he just states that even though she "wasn't...nice, she didn't deserve this." His scene is followed by Lauren's mangled and mistreated torso, her tight top is ripped, revealing her bra and her stomach. Lauren's best friend is the fourth person being interviewed, she has a photograph of the two of them in her hand (this can be seen as ambiguous and ironic, as Lauren was killed in the Dark Room, where photo's are developed). She could say, "She only ever trusted me... and I've let her down, look at her, she was who everyone wanted to be."

We then see Lauren's face, bruised and slashed - her hair matted in her blood on her floor, her beautiful eyes closed - forever closed.

The boy who was crying at the start is now shown again, but only his eyes, they are full of tears - his shockingly blue eyes are harsh looking, yet the tears soften them. Next, we see the infamous interrogator - it is Officer Joel, he is standing up (proving authority) - says, "Whoever has done this was obviously seeking revenge, boy or girl, we don't know yet - but we do know something - they wanted her, they wanted her dead!"

There is then a shot of the dark room, with developing photo's of Lauren, it is evident that Lauren doesn't know that these photo's are being taken, photo's like Lauren, eating in the canteen, hugging her friends, working in class, going shopping, etc. Her ex boyfriend is then seen again, "how could they do this? They're sick man, they must have been crazy." There is finally a shot of her full tortured body lying on the Dark Room floor.

Karl's mouth is seen, his lips are chapped and trembling, "I was in love with her." He then repeats, "how could someone do this?" his obvious affection proves his innocence. The final scene is the Dark Room door, and someone exiting it, this person is blurred, and in all black, we're unable to see if they are male or female, they're wearing a hood (again another stereotype). Once they are fully out of the scene the blank Dark Room door will be cross faded, and there will appear a police (crime) sign on it. Non diagetic sirens can be heard.

...........................................................................................................................................................................
Suddenly, visible editing comes apparent when the screen fades into black, and then when it appears again, there is a close up of a television and there is a live broadcast about the murder - Officer Joel is being interviewed (whilst this is happening, it becomes evident that a tevevision is being watched as it subtley zooms out from an ECU of the television screen to a MCU) showing that the t.v is being watched in what looks like the Common Room of the college. Whispers are all that can be heard. One by one, we see the students shocked faces, some genuinely upset, most secretly thinking, she deserved something, but not this - not death.

Then there is an annoucement on the speakers - ALL STUDENTS MUST GO TO THE THEATRE ROOM IMMEDIATELY. Students are pannicking, not knowing what to expect. We see the puzzled and shifty faces of the pupils in question.

Then, we're in the theatre room, there is a shot of all the students faces, there is whispering, muffled rumours, malicious smirks and gasps of horror and shock to hear about the way the story had changed since last break time.

The Pitch:

In class a few days ago we had to deliver our pitches to explain what our story ideas were as well as our main story (and anything other relevant information we've found out so far). And it was pretty nerve-wrecking at the start, but when we got into it, it became easier and hopefully we pulled it off.

We commented on our ideas and revealed the plots and characters to the rest of our class and then i read out some statistics that i found on various websites.

We were open to any positive criticism given to us, and answered some questions that were asked by the class.

Overall, i think it went pretty well.

More Research (IMDb)...

We managed to track down a chart with data on how many thrillers were released in the year 2008 and heres what has come up:
















I found on the - IMDb website that these are the top 10 box offices movies in the UK for 2009, it shows you how many screens the movies are being shown in, as well as the average amount of money made by on a weekend:



1.
A Christmas Carol (2009)

Screens - 434
Average amount on a weekend - £3,558
Cumulativebox office - £16,030,083


2.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Screens - 491
Average amount on a weekend - £1,800
Cumulativebox office - £883,990


3.
Planet 51 (2009)

Screens - 421
Average amount made on a weekend - £1,816
Cumulativebox office - £2,537,718


4.
Paranormal Activity (2007)

Screens - 399

Average amount made on a weekend - £1,901
Cumulativebox office - £8,703,396


5.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

Screens - 458
Average amount made on a weekend - £1,638
Cumulativebox office - £25,004,680


6.
Nativity! (2009)

Screens - 405
Average amount made on a weekend - £1,648
Cumulativebox office - £2,676,614


7.
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Screens - 461
Average amount made on a weekend - £1,312
Cumulativebox office - £4,731,175


8.
2012 (2009/I)

Screens - 361
Average amount made on a weekend - £1,307
Cumulativebox office - £18,674,864


9.
The Box (2009/I)

Screens - 288
Average amount made on a weekend - £867
Cumulativebox office - £1,011,735


10.
A Serious Man (2009)

Screens - 100
Average amount made on a weekend - £1,307
Cumulativebox office - £1,335,999


As you can see, there is a gap in the market for Thrillers being made - only 50% of those movies listed above are Thriller's (this is including Paranormal Activity, which is assumed to be a horror).

ALSO...

There are some statistics released showing the popularity in genres in 2007:

And unfortunately, only 5.4% of releases made out of all genres were Thrillers, with a gross box office of £67.6 million, however, Thrillers surprisingly beat Horror's which are known to be more popular. Horror's only had 4.7% of releases.

The top Thriller title was The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007.


Yet in 2008:

Another set of statistics show that the percentage of Thrillers released decreased 0.1%. Which isn't a lot, but dramatically affected the percentage of gross box office to £21.2 million as opposed to the £67.6 million as shown above in 2007. 2008's top performing title was - No Country For Old Men.


Here are 10 most popular thrillers of all time:

Basic Instinct (1992)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Casino Royale (2006)
Fargo (1995)
Get Carter (1971)
Jackie Brown (1997)
LA Confidential (1997)
Le Samourai (1967)
Memento (2000)
The Usual Suspects (1995)



Here's some expected codes and conventions to be in thrillers:

Sound and editing : Involves several different camera angles and quick snaps and changes between shots. Music tends to be full of tension and has a racy sound to go with the action etc.

Lighting - Shadow, mirrors and stairs are mostly used.

Narrative - Normally shown from different characters points of view. Not just one persons view. Normally it is made out so the audience has empathy for one of the characters.

Setting - According to what the story line is based on. Not a particular setting-base.

Mise-en-scene - Dim/dark lighting, (illegal) weapons for props. Camera shots are normally close ups or normal shots. Quite a lot of camera movement.

The Ideas!!!

Basically, we know we're making an opening scene to a thriller, but the actual story is what we need to decide on.

A few weeks ago, i thought of an idea for our movie opening:






Idea 1)


This would be based upon, lust, desire, infatuation and obsession!

There is a girl - Lauren, she's about 17/18 years old, she goes to college, maintains decent grades, lives at home with her family and what-not. Yet, she is simply beautiful, she's unbelievably popular...and she knows this. She's dismissive of the little people in the college hierarchy of the "people who matter".

In this student hierarchy, she and her swarm of friends are at the top (the untouchables)... Whereas, at the bottom we find Karl, he's the stereotyped geek who has been secretly infatuated with Lauren since he's known her (primary school, when they were 4 years old) - we see this through a series of flashbacks from the start. However, she's never noticed him, he's not had the chance to say what he really feels, but now, after a long and hard 14 years of blank looks of acknowledgments and only ever dreaming how it could be with her, he finally finds the courage to approach her.

When he pulls her to one side and basically explains his strong feelings for her, she encouragingly says, "awwww, Karl, that's sooo....." then she vindictively wipes out all hope from Karl's mind, finishes the sentence saying, "...pathetic!" She rushes back over to her friends and tells them about this hilarious performance of Karl. They laugh and turn to him, making him feel evidently embarrassed and ashamed. Hurt would be the biggest understatement ever! He feels like his dignity as well as his heart has been ripped out and demolished.

Karl becomes angry, and we see the quiet little geeky boy who sits at the front in his classes, makes his notes, doesn't contribute in any form of discussion and sits alone in the canteen, turn into a vengeance driven monster. He plots his revenge on Lauren, as if he cannot have her - then no one/nothing can - not even life.




Idea 2)

This would be about Revenge:

A life full of enemies, hate, death. Yet Jr. Kanes (18 years old) vowed to himself that he would never get caught up in his families ways. He was a good kid, done well at college, ready to go to University, had a girlfriend who loved him just as much as he adored her - things seemed to be really working out for him.

Until, one night after his mother left the house for a night out with her friends, his mother didn't come back home - she was brutally murdered in an unprovoked attack by the Kanes' Family's rival gang - Jr. knew straight away that he must avenge his mother's death - Fighting Fire with Fire!

He becomes obsessed to cause chaos and destruction to the killers of his mother. He becomes totally consumed in attempting to fully destroy each member of the rival gang... Until he gets the biggest shock of his life. It becomes apparent that, all this time lost, all that happiness gone, all that bloodshed was meaningless. Jr was chasing the wrong people. After some very important evidence came to light, he found out that it wasn't the rival gang that killed his mother - but his own Uncle!!!



Idea 3)

Those killer Nightmares

Jenifer Gray suffered with a cruel childhood of abuse which understandably traumatised her for life - resulting in her being sectioned when she was 18. She lived in Jacobs Asylum... well you can't really call it "living", she just existed. Her life had been so badly tarnished, that whenever she fell asleep she believed that as she wasn't akwake to defend herself, that even her dreams would try to kill her.

She had been disowned by her family and friends, the only person she had grown to physically trust was Joel, he was her psychiatrist. He understood her, he believed her when nobody else did - he didn't take advantage like other men did in her disturbing past. Yet, Jenifer's chance of being anything more than strictly "doctor-patient" was shattered by the fact that Joel was in a relationship with Brenda (even though, it was evident that she was too good for him).

This story line would challenge the expected conventions of the thriller genre, as it would seem like a rather disturbing rom-com; until Jenifer, still suffering with her phobea of sleeping simply wants to give up on life - she asks Joel to kill her, he is the only one she trusts to do this. But as expected, Joel declines. Jenifer and Joel become intruiged by each other and slowly fall inlove... However, this love story is cut short when Joel tells Jenifer he is (reluctantly) with Brenda.

Jenifer becomes extremely envious of Brenda, she (somehow) breaks out of the asylum in the attempt to murder her. She wants Joel to herself, she now wants to live, she wants to love - but with Brenda in the way, she cannot do this. If she can't kill Brenda, then she has planned to kill Joel and herself, so they will be in "everlasting sleep that she does not fear".

Idea 4)

Skitzephrenic boy seeks revenge:

Luke has skitzephrenia, he suffers changes in behaviour or thoughts, such as hallucinations and delusions, as well as thinking or feeling objects are dirty or contaminated (OCD). He has always been an unhealthy boy, never been "normal", and always been different.

But after getting bullied by his school colleagues for what seemed like a lifetime, Luke genuinely fraked out after they took it a bit too far. One day in the canteen in front of everybody, Ross - the main bully stole Luke's medication "Orap" which he needed to take, and accused him of being the "freaky insane dum-ass of the whole college." It seems like a petty thing to say - but when your as vulnerable as Luke - you get hurt easily.

But Luke didn't get hurt, he got angry.

After his episode Luke planned his revenge on how to get his cummupance on the bullies to restore his self esteem and confidence that he lose due to the constant bullying he was subjected to. This would be a shocking story of how the little people fight back, however, the fact that Luke suffers from skitzophrenia proves his murder quest to be more menatlly straining than the norm.

MAIN IDEA...

There is a girl called Lauren, she is one of those girls who is every boys desire and every girls envy. She is brutally murdered by someone - yet no one knows who it could be. This is the main story line of the movie.

The opening scene of the movie shows a teenage girl in an Interview Room, getting questiones about the sudden murder of Lauren. Then, afetr she states that Lauren was "a bitch anyway", a subliminal two second still shot of Lauren's beaten body lying in a pool of blood is flashed onto the screen.

This continues to happen, yet instead of showing Lauren's body, we see the shots of the killer in a dark room, developing various photo's of Lauren, it is evident that Lauren doesn't know that these photo's are being taken.

Then within the short few second scenes of the killer, we see other students getting interviewed, such as her "friends" and a boy, this boy is genuinely distraught by this death, he repeats, "how could someone do this?" his obvious passion and affection proves his innocence surely...

After these routine shots, we have a still shot of the door with the killer exiting the room hiding his face, then, we converge this scene with the blank dark room door, and merge it with a shot of the door with a police crime scene tape stuck onto it. Non diagetic music of sirens can be heard also.

Ratings (15)

Ratings are there for a reason:

They clarify and categorize products like DVD's which are supplied to the public, to place boundaries for the viewer; you wouldn't expect to watch something like the movie -"Chopper" (which is full of violence and offensive language) with your 8 year old sibling or child. It just wouldn't seem right.

In the short movie opening that my group and I are creating, we've established that the rating will be a (15). Therefore, i have done research into finding out just what a 15 rating movies contain:

Firstly, anyone under 15 cannot watch it, as it will contain inappropriated material. This may include scenes containing sex, drugs or violence - even the language used may be too graphic for a younger teenager to see. It is illegal to sell any DVD's or Video Games to under 15's also.

Thriller Questionnaire!!!!

Questionnaire

1. Are you :

Male Female

2. Are you between :

15 – 18 19 – 22 23 – 26 27 – 30

3. What is your favourite genre?

Horror Thriller Rom-Coms Other


4. What do you expect in a thriller?

............................................................


5. What is your favourite thriller?

............................................................................


6. What characters would you like to be in the film?

Psycho’s Skitzophrenic Murders Other


7. What do you like about thrillers?

.........................................................................

8. What storyline would you prefer?

Death Revenge Obsession Other


9. How often do you watch movies?

Everyday Once or twice a week Once or twice a month Other




RESULTS:

Basically, there are certain expectations of each genre, and the results show that most people expect dilemma's and puzzles in thrillers, followed closely by murders and death. After that, by jumpy, bloody and dark scenes - shockingly, the least thing expected was suspense.

Characters expected in thrillers are psycho's, followed by skitzophrenics, then last was murderers.

The main thing people liked about Thrillers are the fact that they make you jump, then joint second were that they like how scary they are and suspense they contain... again shockingly, people didn't really like the "twists" in thrillers.

The storyline that was favoured most was obsession themed, then revenge, and there was a very low score for story lines including deaths.

After finding out this information we based each storyline on the most desired result.

Shooting the Continuity Scene!

On Friday 6th November:

My wonderful group (Naadhirah, Armanee) and I had to record a 45 second scene to prove we understood the 180 degree rule, and show an exchange of something between 2 people and/or reaction shot of someone. We had to use various camera angles and shots to reveal our new found skills and knowledge of Media.

Armanee, Naadhirah and I had previously created a story board in class (of 12 scenes); we then flipped a coin to choose who were to be the lucky two who starred in the short film. This resulted in Armanee controlling the camera, and Naadhirah and I being in the show.

It was basically about two people walking towards each other, meeting, exchanging a few words (we used "over the shoulder shots" here) and then swapping "money" for a "DipDab"; this contain an element of humour as the way we shot the scene, it looked quite dodgy, as if we were dealing something a lot less innocent than sherbet. After the exchange we acknowledge the exchange and go our separate ways.

We had so much fun shooting this - however, we thought it would take us a lot less time than it did. We shot the scene in the College corridor, which became rather frustrating after a while. There were a lot of people passing through causing us to start over, or wait for them to leave and then start shooting.

For our first time physically recording something, i believe we done pretty well to be honest - there was a bit of confusion with not understanding how to rewind and watch the first few scenes, and we didn't know how to record over pre-recorded material - yet they were simply minor blips, that we soon overcame.

We worked really well together - and this made me feel happier about working with them for our final 1-3 minute film in the near future.







After watching our scene in class, we all realised that we didn't do as well as we could have, therefore we made a joint decision that we would create a new short continuity piece.

So we searched for new actors, got all of the equipment and tried again - same story board, different actors, but more experience.

Plus this gave Naadhirah and I more chance working the camera. We all took it in turns to shoot a few scenes each, so our teamwork skills just got stronger.

The actors listened to what we were asking of them, and were easy to work with, there was also less hassle and disruption in the new place we filmed.

Overall, i believe it went well - definitely better than before... well lets just hope so.

You can see the blog through this link, sorry i was having trouble embedding it onto my blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXAtIejmoBo

Task 3 - In Class

Today in class, we made the final decision of who we were working with on our final piece.

After that, whilst sitting in our groups we had to construct a simple story board for a short "9-12 scene" recording. We're recording this on Friday 6th November. It will (unfortunately) go on YouTube.

This short recording must prove that we now understand the 180 degree rule, and the basics of constructing a continuity piece, we need to show specifics like, "over the shoulder shots" when a conversation is taking place etc.

Task 2: Research into Existing Products:

We've been researching the ways in which different films have been constructed to portray their purpose/meaning and fulfil their stereotype genres.

In a Textual Analysis you must look for:

• Mise en Scène (this is the overall construction - such as, clothing, props, sound, background etc)

• Camera Angles (e.g. High angled shots are used to show authority)

• Editing (this helps the audience understand the overall construction of the story)

• Shots.

• Sound (non diagetic which is not expected to be there and diagetic sound which is sound expected to hear, such as foot steps and cars driving)

• Special Effects.

Genres:

We have been looking at different genres since we've started Media AS, such as Romantic Comedies, Thrillers and Horrors.

Each of these main genres have certain stereotypes that they must conform to so the viewers have little or no confusion categorising these.

Some people still struggle to fully interpret Thrillers from Horrors - however, some movies do not conform to certain conventions.

These are a few conventions:

• Romantic Comedies (Rom Com's)
• Light-hearted non diagetic music in the opening
• The credit font is usually more welcoming and happy-looking
• Typical story lines is usually - "Boy" meets "Girl"
• The two characters in focus are sometimes from different backgrounds (opposites attract) *like the movie - Nottinghill*
• Establishing shots are used to set the scenes (usually where they live) *like the movie - Pretty Women*

• Thrillers
• Eerie non diagetic music at the start
• The credit font is more uneven and ambiguous
• Its usually about some sort of crime being committed, or one that has previously been committed.
• Based on revenge, it makes you think (and usually has a twist) *like the movie Se7en**
• Extreme Close ups used to show certain clues (detective-like) emotion.

• Horrors
• Scary non diagetic music for opening (screams/cries/deep breaths)
• Dark backgrounds, shadows, harsh atmosphere
• Font is deformed, or blood-like
• Usually based upon a death that has/will happen
• Graveyard scenes, or parks/woods - at night
• Tracking is used to follow actors so the audience feels intimate with them

In class, to better our knowledge on searching and understanding how to distinguish the differences between the three genres, we watched a few movie openings.

We watched the first few minutes of Pretty Women:

Pretty Women is a very popular Romantic Comedy which fulfills the true RomCom conventions as it contains the typical "Boy meets Girl"/"Damsel in distress" concepts. The movie begins with an establishing shot of this huge elegant house party, diagetic classical music is heard. It is a bright sunny day and there is an obvious sophisticated atmosphere. Medium Close Ups of people serving wine, conversations are being held about business, statistics, figures etc.

Richard Gere the "Guest of Honour" at this elegant party. And we first see him on the phone, talking to his partner, he is wearing a tailored black business suit. The viewer can tell that he is obviously far from a charmer with the ladies through the affectionate way he talks to his partner. He is seen looking down at the rest of the people at the party - and this shot proves his high authority in life in general.

The conventions are met through the elegant font of the credits, which appear on the screen in white and then subtly fade out to pink. Richard Gere also reveals his power when he takes it upon himself to leave the party and take his business partners car, as his limo is stuck in the car park due to all of the surrounding guests cars. This RomCom needs a woman now - a woman that is the total opposite to this important business man; we know that Richard Gere's character will meet her now because when he drives off, his friend shouts "Bevily Hills is down the hill!" But Richard Gere blatantly drives in the opposite direction.

The day subtly changes to night through this car journey, as well as the music - instead of this elegant, smooth diagetic music, it juxtaposes to this "wild" rock-like music which shows the change in mood, culture and backgrounds of these main characters. We see prostitutes, drug dealers, down and outs etc - and then we see Richard Gere driving through this.

Finally, we see Julia Roberts, her alarm clock goes off at 9o'clock showing the sheer difference in working times - he works in the day, she works in the night. She lives in a HOTEL (shown in an establishing shot, where only the letters "H" and "O" were in lights, and then rest were not lit). The camera's pan her routine: touching up her stereotypical long boots with black marker, applying her thick make-up, putting on her blonde wig etc. Then we see Richard's character again. It is obvious that they will meet - its inevitable; that's what makes this movie such an excellent RomCom - we, as the viewer want then to meet and fall inlove. And that's what we get.

We watched the first few minutes of SwitchBlade Romance:

This was a French horror movie which began with the diagetic sounds of Cécile De France's very fast whispering, it didn't matter that we understand what she was saying, because the way speed of her whispers gave the movie an automatic panicky atmosphere. Her haed was faced down, showing fear, or the fact that she was hiding something... a scar, her eyes... the truth? This is what thrillers do, they evoke questions.

The (Close Up) camera panned up her mistreated, bruised and wounded body, this was a slow movement, it shows the intricacy and fact that this girl was defineatly injured (or maybe tortured). The director wanted to allow the viewer to see the whole of this young womens scratched body - from her feet to the back of her head as she wasn't facing the camera; this invokes mystery and ambiguity.

She looked as though she was in some kind of asylum, bringht lights, white background. She had baggy white dress-like outfil on showing her freshly scarred back. Flashbacks were used, you could see the girl running through the woods (a stereotypical horror movie setting) rapid panning with Long Shots, establishing shots and frequent Close Ups of the girls face were used to allow the viewer to feel apart of the action. The girls heavy breathing was the diagetic sound. The girl has torn clothes and blood dripping from her. Through the panning of the girl - we know that she is running from something (or someone).

The viewer see a Long Shot of a car driving down a road near the woods. Then a Shot Reverse Shot is used to see the girl still running through the woods - this happens a few times. We see the car, then the girl, then the car, then the girl... The non diagetic music is tense and (personally) i thought it became louder and more racy as it fulfilled a feeling of claustrophobia. As the two finally collide, there is a close up of the girls bloody hands banging on the window.

I really enjoy watching horrors, and here's a few movie opening analysiss:

Children of the Corn 4:
Screeching and very disturbing non diagetic sound is heard straight away. Then a door is opened, and there is a close up of a young boys face, he looks sick and weak. Then the sound disappears, and you hear a woman's voice, ask the boy if he “needs help?” and he repeats “need help”. He shows his hand that has been freshly cut. There is a close up of his hand as he presses it onto the screen door that separates the two.

She invites him in and the panning follows the woman's hands to an extreme close up of her unlocking the door, the boy walks into the house. There is a high shot of the woman's point of view with her looking down at what she thinks is a boy in need. Then there is a long shot of the two, and her ushering him to the living room and then walking away from him into the bathroom.

Non diagetic sound fills the scene of a high pitched violin screaming almost. The you see a medium shot of the women opening the cupboard to look for some plasters maybe, then a glass breaks. The camera follows the glass as it falls and finally smashes in the sink. Then the radio in the next room switches on and you here a man on the radio talk about “the streets” being “red with blood” and connotations to death and blood.

The women then finally walks back to the boy, as the camera pans her movements. The women attempts to take the boys temperature, she puts a thermometer into his mouth as she says that he feels unusually “very hot”. This is followed by a sequence of extreme close ups, firstly the boys hand gripping the chair handle, then a bead of sweat dripping down the boys forehead, and finally blood dripping from the boys mouth.

There is then (like the panning of the glass breaking) the same sort of panning of the thermometer drop from the boys mouth to the floor and smash. The boy then rapidly drops to the floor and there is a long shot of him fall from his chair to the floor. He is seen with his face to the floor and his back to the camera where it is suddenly soaked with blood. And the women screams (close up of her face). Suddenly, the violent sound of the screeching violins get louder and even more piercing, then there is a close up of the boys face as he jumps to him feet and runs towards the camera rapidly, his face is deformed and zombie-like and hi screams. Then it flicks to the women (no more non-diagetic sounds) waking up in her bed, sweating, panting, and afraid.

Halloween:

The viewer automatically knows that this is a horror movie due to the non diagetic sounds of very heavy breathing and a rapid heart beat – it sounds as though someone has been running. Then on a black screen, there is a quote about “evil souls” proving its scary genre. Then, (non-diagetic) heavy rock music is heard, this again fulfils the whole dark stereotype of horrors themselves.

There is an establishing shot of an average looking house, in the day time, in a normal looking neighbourhood - one would assume that it would be at night, however, the day time makes it more ambiguous and challenges the genre. So here the convention of “the night” or in a “abandoned house” are broken which is unusual, yet it shows that, the norms and expectations may be met in different ways.

Yet, then you see a Close Up of a young child, wearing a disturbing looking clown mask, the boys long hair is unkept and he is talking through the mask to his pet rats. His voice is soft and rather soothing, however, distorted through the mask. Then there is diagetic sound of his mother and his step father arguing downstairs, it is quiet, but loud enough to tell that they are shouing.

So we then have a medium close up of his mother in the kitchen cooking breakfast, and her partner who is sitting down on the table. We also see a baby in a baby seat beside the man. They are loud and use an awful lot of profanities – this shows a broken and unhealthy home for a child. There is use of shot reverse shots whilst the two argue.

The baby starts to cry – but this is a screeching, disturbing, harsh cry – then the argument gets louder and more heated. Then, you hear the mother call the boys name. There is a sudden extreme close up of the boys hands, covered in blood holding a razor. She calls for him again, over this non diagetic sound or a high pitched, but subtle screech, as well as the baby still crying and the arguments still happening. This leaves the viewer feeling closed in, uncomfortable and claustrophobic maybe (which I believe are elements of a thriller). He is washing his hands in the sink, and you see a few hairs get washed away with the blood – this was the fur of the rat that he was previously talking sweetly to. This in itself is definitely disturbing for the viewer to see.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre:

From the opening few minutes of the movie, the horror movie conventions are met; through the Flashing (disturbing) images of skeletons, and blood stains etc. The opening few minutes are in black and white – there is no colour whatsoever – introducing a truly grim and uninviting atmosphere to the film. The camera is never focused on one set thing steadily – it is always panning around the “crime scene” area or shaking subtly to infer that the recording is either done by an amateur or there is true fear causing the cameraman to shake.

There is a running commentary, which sounds like a news report – therefore, the audience understand that “whatever” has happened, the story is “big” enough to get onto the News. The voice of the commentator was very monotone, it had no emotion or feeling to it which is quite disheartening to the viewer I suppose. There was “real footage” shown of the crime scene, the conventions are met with the non diagetic sound of a “heartbeat”getting faster and louder throughout this scene.

There were obvious visible editing – the shots were edited using a harsh camera flash, this was used to scare the viewer. The shots are sharp, the flash is bright and the images are of a stereotypical horror crime scene investigation. The majority of the shots were either close ups, or long shots – there wasn't much variety.

Panning was used frequently to allow the viewer to feel a part of the action. The reader feels puller along – the panning was smart also; the camera moved exactly how any person would move when in a crime scene area, it was slow, shaky, and there was obvious hesitation when looking around.
There were extreme close ups of the words “autopsy” meaning “deaths” had obviously taken place. As well as, extreme close ups of various newspaper articles about the deaths. You could hear non diagetic sounds of scratching and piercing screams when all was quiet – this definitely fulfilled the horror movie conventions.