Audio Research

For our audio research im torn between a more
abstract composition of music or either a more
conventional tone of music in relation to the thriller opening.
As our storyline is unconventional and has a twist in the end, a more abstract sound would create suspense and ambience, also adding a meaning behind to our thriller. However as our thriller is more mainstream and would be produced by film production companies such as paramount pictures, 20th Century Fox , Universal etc.

Composed by Balthazar, the first soundtrack is from Winter Voices, a game a narrative-driven, episodic, role-playing game set in an imaginary and timeless world at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The battles' music reflects the intense emotions of the young character and the dreamlike atmosphere in which they take place. The electronic soundtrack first starts off with a drum that slightly sounds like a metronome, the music then builds and an electronic piano comes in as the music crescendos, different instruments then follow creating tension.

 

The next sound track starts off with a drone, following orchestral violins and other string instruments with a drum. This composition has a great effect as it keeps the audience guessing and if used in our thriller, it would keep the suspense going and also would createa spooky ambience. As sound is a very key aspect of any productions, we have to keep in mind what effect we're trying to convey and what sound would best suit to it.

 

 

Thinking outside the box: Foreign Expectations Of A Thriller!

Hansel and Gretal (2007)

After a stressful day, and spending the night in, I decided to watch a Korean Horror film Hansel and Gretal. The film is subverted from the original Brothers Grimm tale and similarly reminded me of Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber series.

The film starts off with Eun-Soo driving whilst
 talking to his pregnant girlfriend. A quarrel arises which leads him to crash and becomes unconscious. He suddenly wakes up to find himself in the deep dark forest to which he sees light from a lantern that a young girl is carrying. She introduces herself as Young-Hee as they head for her house where she and her family live. Their large house is in the middle of the forest called the "House of Happy Children". After entering the House, many cynical secrets are discovered and revealed  to Eun-Soo which he tries to run away from.

Watching the first two minutes of the movie showed traits of both a thriller and a horror film. The beginning is first set to introduce us to the deep dark forest which gives the sense of entrapment, being lost, a claustrophobic impression. The Soundtrack for the two minutes similarly remind me of The hand that rocked the cradle in the way that the music sounded childishly cynical.



At the start of the film, extreme close up shots were
used to show the toys the children would play with. however with the low key lighting accompanied by the cynical soundtrack, an element of unease is created within the audience.



The use of showing children's toys in a faded sort of effect look almost washable, as if it were only vivid memories. The shots look as though there are two shots of two different locations applied to on which confuses the viewers as we aren't what images should our eyes be concentrating on.


Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the twisted unexpected end to the movie. Even though this film is a horror, however i felt that the plot was creative in the sense that it was simple and unexpected at the same time.

Coming up with a production name and logo. (First draft of logo)

We began story boarding for our final piece, and we looked into production name and logos. We kept the name simple and clean having it the anagram of the first letter of each of our name.
Gracious
Anissa
Louisa
Pahi

 We chose to include a light bulb in our logo as it symbolizes generating and coming up with ideas. When included in our clip, we want to have the light bulb to flicker as Nyctophobia (being afraid of the dark) is seen to be a common fear. The idea of using a phobia in our production name foreshadows the movie genre to which we are to produce






Researching other film production logos, we are able to see that the glimpse of light or a light is a trending theme throughout.As we see with 20th Century Fox's logo the lights are being animated to move around the screen and to shine and focus on the logo.

Similarly we see this with Columbia Pictures the focus is on the woman holding the torch. The position of the torch is held to obscure the letter "U". The Ray of light branches out symbolizing hope and also the many ideas that it could branch out to.

Treatment 1st draft

This is the first draft of the treatment of our film. Before coming up with the final storyline, we researched true story events such as The Fritzl Case and syndromes such as The Stockholm syndrome, as this relates to kind of thriller opening that we want to create. 

- - - 

They say it's hard to hate someone once you understand them. What if that someone is your captor?. (name of girl) is bullied at school but little did she know...he was watching. The Janitor sees himself in (girl’s name) and is angered that she doesn’t retaliate. He captures her in rage in order to convince her ..mentor her, that revenge is the way to go. He did this for himself.. he did this  for revenge, but little did they both know that this cynical, seemingly tactical act, would result in this imminent syndrome. STOCKHOLM.

As we are still revising the plot and Characters, we have not come up with suitable names for the characters that correspond with their personalities.

Thriller Analysis: Skyfall Opening

I went to watch the most recent Bond film a couple of days ago and the opening was one that seemed to me to be pretty conventional of a Thriller and so I have decided to analyse it.

One of the key elements within the opening that atracted me was the vagueness and abstractness of the entire thing. A thriller opening likes to make use of a similar concept - images will be vague and almost always disorientating for the audience as it is like they're receiving parts of a jigsaw that do not yet quite fit.

There was also a lot of use of shadows and darkness which also adds to the disorientation effect and also helps to create a sense of mystery, while leaving questions within the mind of the audiences.

Moreover, as I watched the film in its entirety, I noticed how a lot of the images that had been displayed in the initial opening credits had been crucial to the plot in some way. For example, in the opening, there was a section wherein there were floating Chinese dragons. Later on in the film, the protagonist, Bond, is required to go to Shanghai where he goes to a Casino. It is here that the same Chinese dragons make an appearance. Little nuances like that are also used in Thriller openings, where a sense of foreshadowing and foreboding is created for the audience. These foreshadowing points are almost usually always addressed and possibly even resolved within the duration of the film.