Initial Ideas for Thriller Project (WIP)

Mise-En-Scéne:

Lighting: Dark Lighting: Film at night/dusk? 
Dim lights

Props:
Murder Weapons
Dustbin bags?

Costumes: 
Protagonist: ?
Antagonist: 'Hoodies', dark baggy clothing
Victim: Light clothes, white, connotations

Setting and Set Design: Woodland
The Under path: A dark gloomy tunnel with artificial lighting. 
Dark Alleys


Camera Work:

I would like to get quite a few different shots.

Sound: 

Dark eerie simple sounds. 

 
Editing:

I would like to use quick flashes, wipe outs and fade outs,etc but not too often.

Se7en

In todays lesson, we looked at the opening of the psychological thriller, Se7en, we were analysing this based on the four categories: Sound, camera angles and movement, mise-en-scene and editing.

We broke off into groups of four, and took a category each. I was given Sound. In the opening of Se7en, I observed that:

• Police Sirens, Radio and Rain were used digetically but enhanced to show the quietness of the scene except for these features. 
• Dialogued was used when the police talked, they use typical police dialogue, and it was an agitated scene, this is reflected in the police mans tone. Dialogue between main characters is relaxed but polite, colloquialisms are used to add an modern effect to the opening.
• The ticking of the metronome was enhanced to create further tension, this could reflect heartbeats, a change in time and could reflect the main protagonist's tidy normality. The ticking is prominent over the low background noise, this could suggest that he is trying to concentrate and the metronome helps to blur the background noise. 
• The credits use a creepy music, which almost reflects machinery, the high pitched noises could reflect screams and the whole tune is more ambient noises rather than a melody, the sounds could represent chases, and deaths. The changing pace of the music adds tension. 

Then we stopped to discuss, and gave each other our ideas. 

Camera Angles and Movement:

• Mid Shots are used to show the surroundings. 
• Close up shots are used to show facial expressions of the actor/s
• Tracking Shots display dull wet weather and setting. 
• Long shots are used to give a view of character setting
• Extreme Close Ups are used to show the books, needles, pictures, writing etc, this makes the viewer suspicious, as they can't see what's going on and ominous tone adds to mystery.

Mise-En-Scene:

• Set in a house at first, then moves into another (rundown) house to investigate a crime. 
• Set in  urban area
• Costumes - Long Coats, Hats, Ties, Shirts, Suit, Jacket, Guns. All typicall detective clothings. 
• Metronome adds to anxious opening. 
• Props - Needles, Books, Razor, Dim lighting, Natural lighting, rainy weather
• Facial Expressions - Simple, calm, not disturbed/worried by crime. Doesn't let it phase them, the fridge with the childs work, blood, body, simple homes, decrepid homes
• Passing People

Editing:

• Straight Cuts, graphic matches
• Movements in time (temporal)
• Cutting between person and metronome
• Quick Cuts, match on action
• Focusing on metronome
• Fades, Dissolving, Black outs, overlaps. Causes confusion, could connatate antagonists mental state, but is also a very organised person.
• Greyscale
• Reds, blood like colours
• Actors names 
• Flashes
• Shows day (Monday)
• The title - Se7en. 

Sound.

Last Wednesday we went over sound, and this lesson we finished it, I have learnt that there are many types of sound in film and that it is more in depth that just dialogue, sound effects and music. I learnt that there are two types of music and sound: Diegetic and Non-Diegetic. Diegetic is the sound which is heard within the world of the film, and is heard by the characters. Non-Diegetic is the sound which is added afterwards, but not heard by the characters only by the audience.

Films often use non-diegetic sound when it comes to adding an soundtrack, or tune. It is not like the character can hear the music themselves. We also talked about ambient sounds, which are the natural sounds in a scene, these help to set the scene, be it in a urban city or an western setting. Sound effects are often added, to emphasize the scene; such as in an explosion the noise of the explosion is added later.

Thriller Genre.

We went over the Thriller genre, going into its sub genres and what each involved. A few examples are :

Crime Thrillers
Horror Thrillers
Comedy Thrillers
Psychological Thrillers etc.

There are many different sub genres but they all contain the same general conventions of a Thriller. The conventions of a thriller are that they all have a main antagonist, who is usually left as a unknown factor till the end. Thrillers usually have deaths, eery music, a feeling of anxiousness, suspense and tension. They usually create tension and usually have a twist.

We also went over Narratives. Most but not all narratives have a common structure. We learnt about Todorov and his "Motion of Equilibrium". The motion of equilibrium is: Equilibrium ------ Disequilibrium ------ New Equilibrium. This basically states that the order in a film turns to chaose before it is either restored or a new order is brought in.

Filming and Editing.

When we filmed, it was generally good fun with us planning through the shots, and occasionally re-shooting if we had to. We thought about the three different shots "Shot/Reverse Shot", "Match on Action" and "180 Degree Rule". As one of the actors in the shots, we did a lot of different takes, our Camera woman, Zoe Farrell took a lot of shots, we wanted to use a lot of them, but when we got back to the classroom and looked over them, we realised they wouldn't work.

Next lesson, we started to use Final Cut Pro, we had to move the clips around and edit them sufficently to be able to use them, we had to cut down some clips as they were either too long, or we didn't need all of it. When editing we used match on action, by editing two of the clips together, to get a seamless flow of action from one camera angle into another. Final Cut Pro was a fun program to use and I thought we worked well as a group to edit our clips.