Thriller Location

For my thriller location, I used one of my friend's house to film at. Most of the opening was shot in his room, and some of it around the rest of the house as he was walking outside. This was the ideal location for me as I was not looking for anything obscure because thats not what my thriller is all about. So picking this location was a no brainer, and worked out well.

Thriller Research Task - The Usual Suspects

In one of our lessons, we watched a thriller titled 'The Usual Suspects' directed by Bryan Singer. This helped as it showed me a lot of the conventions used in thrillers for instance crime, dead bodies, weapons etc. I also showed me the different types of camerawork and editing used in thrillers.

I do understand that I will not be doing a film with a beginning, middle and end, but just the beginning opening sequence.

Thriller Research Task - Shutter Island

The next opening clip I decided to watch for my Thriller research task was 'Shutter Island' directed by Martin Scorsese. This opening straight away begins to build tension. Extremely dark music accompanies this sequence, this builds an extreme amount of tension within the scene. A lot of conventions are shown in this that are used in typical psychological thrillers. For instance, guns, dark corridors, rain, guards and prison cells. The effect of these images appearing on the screen are quite chilling, and combined with the music it makes the opening even more creepy. There is usage of camera work to create effect in this opening sequence as well. For instance, it cuts to a spiraling staircase, but the camera is positioned in birds eye view and is spiraling down as if you were walking down the stairs. This makes the viewer feel at unease because it is as if they are walking down the staircase first hand. This is effective as it gives us more information about the thriller. Throughout the opening sequence, the names of actors appear on screen using different effects. For example, the names of directors and producers etc. flicker onto the screen like a candle, and then fade out, most of them are in red. This effect fits the mood of the film as it is a spooky psychological thriller. Also, the names of the actors in the film come on the screen, by each letter of their name fading in one by one, and then out one by one. They are in white, showing they are different from the production team in red. The names of actors appear above certain objects which may give you a clue about what type of character they are playing for instance Leonardo DiCaprio's name appears above a gun.

Thriller Research Task - Reservoir Dogs

We were then set the task of researching our own thriller opening scenes. The first thriller opening scene I watched was Quentin Tarantino's ' Reservoir Dogs'. This opening scene uses a lot of typical conventions used in thrillers. For instance, the men are dressed in suits therefore it shows they may have something to do with being hit men. They are also smoking cigarettes. Also they are walking in time with the music, the music plays a key role in the scene as it creates a nice effect and it helps the scene flow. If you watched this opening scene you may not know that this film is a thriller right away because there is no tension built and nothing really happens that would show that it is a thriller but a bunch of men walking down a road. The actors names appear on screen while the camera shows a close up of each of their faces. The name of the film also appears above their head when they walk away. It then cuts to more opening credits written in yellow with a black background. The names of people in the credits include casting, music, costume, co-producer, producer and director.

Thriller Openings

Last lesson, the class decided to watch a number of thriller opening scenes because we thought it would be beneficial when we get to creating our opening scene.

The first one we watched was the opening scene and credits to 'Pulp Fiction', the classic film directed by Quentin Tarantino.

This opening scene uses a lot of the typical conventions that are used in thrillers. For instance, the man has a gun and they are talking about robbing banks and the coffee shop.
We focused more on the opening credits of this clip and the features of it included:

- Fast tempo music (Dick Dale - Misirlou) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y3h9p_c5-M
- Names of actors appearing one by one.
- Name of Director Producers etc.
- Name of film in big lettering.


We also watched the opening scene from 'Run Lola Run' directed by Tom Twyker.

This thriller's opening scene starts with the ticking of a clock, creating tension, then it cuts to a huge crowd of people and the camera is weaving in and out of the crowd in a high angle shot. This is when the opening credits start. The credits are in a cartoon and show cartoon Lola running through some sort of tunnel, while the names of the filmmakers appearing above her head. This cartoon feature shows us that Run Lola Run is going to be quite a quirky kind of film as it is not a typical convention used in films. After the cartoon sequence, the actors names are shown below their faces. The pictures are taken in the format of police identification photos, this shows there is going to be crime involved in this film. The opening scene starts with a flashback of two people having a drug exchange which is a typical feature used in a thriller.


 The last opening sequence we watch was 'Blue Velvet' directed by David Lynch.

The sequence opens with the names of the director and producer with a blue velvet background, while tension building music plays so we know it's a thriller. It then cuts to a beautiful suburban neighborhood, it looks a bit to good to be true which builds some tension as it makes you feel uneasy as you would never actually see a place like that in real life. Throughout the opening, lots of little hints are dropped that something is going to happen for instance a gun on the TV and the broken tap spurting out water. At the end of the scene when all the tension has been built, a man falls to the floor dead which is kind of what you were expecting it's just when it was going to happen. All of this happens with nice music playing in the background which adds to the uneasiness of the scene.

To summarise, the main features that are used in these thrillers are:
- Music (creates tension).
- Mise on scene.
- Camera angles e.g high angles.
- Lighting.
- Opening credits.
- Narratives.

At the end of the lesson we also watched the trailer for 'Homefront'. This was because we needed to tell the difference between a opening scene and a trailer. A trailer is a collection of clips from a film edited together to advertise the film, and an opening sequence is the beginning of a film. Now that I have watched both, I can now tell the two apart and know that I am NOT doing a trailer.