Suspense is a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, tension, and anxiety developed from an unpredictable, mysterious, and rousing source of entertainment. The term most often refers to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction. It may operate whenever there is a perceived suspended drama or a chain of cause is left in doubt, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. Films having a lot of suspense belong in the thriller genre. Suspense makes film exiting for the audience as it creates tension and it can be unclear what will happen next. Suspense is usally used in scary films and horrors to build up anxiety and emphasise the horror.
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The content, style and features associated with film openings varies. This is depending on the genre of the film and also the sub genre. Therefor studying the features of sub genre In Thriller movies could help us decide on which we should choose and is most appealing to us.
Horror Thrillers usually begin in a tense way in order to send fear through the audience from the moment the film begins. Therefor the openings often include things to make the audience jump, shadows, gore, or dark lighting. There is also usually slow intense music to create an eary atmosphere. Titles will usually appear slowly, and then fade out. This is to create a ghostly effect. Horror thrillers intend to scare the audience as a main objective. This does not appeal to our group as we do not really have the tools to create a realistic and effective opening horror scene. Psychological Thrillers also often make the audience feel tense during the opening, creating eerie and uncomfortable atmospheres. They often contain a mysterious or an unusual location such as in a strange place within a house where a character the audience either feel worried for (the victim) or worried about (the villain) are. Many open in a very eye catching way to strange music, which makes it clear to the audience it is a psychological thriller as looking at the opening alone is confusing. This sub genre is particularly appealing to our group as we would like to incorporate these aspects into our piece. We believe this is more practical for our skill set. Crime Thrillers begin with quick cuts to represent the fast pace action within the film. The non diegetic music is also fast paced to introduce the audience to this sub genre. Many may also begin with a loud noise (that caused by a crime), for example an explosion or gun shot. This builds suspense straight away as the audience want to know what has caused this. They may include the police, weapons, car chases or anything else related to crime. Again we believe this would be difficult for our group to achieve due to the high demand in advanced props and extras. After looking at different features of the sub genres of thrillers, it is clear we want to go down the psychological thriller route. This is because this sub genre is not reliant on advanced props and special effects like crime or horror thrillers, and more on an intense and 'psychological' story line. Therefore I think this will be the most successful choice for our group. A Thrillers main elements are usually suspense, tension and excitement. They heavily stimulate the viewers mood by giving them high levels of anticipation. This genre tends to be make the audience think and will play with the views mind. It is usually fast paced, adrenaline rushing and jumpy.
What goes into a Thriller? -Surprises and twists to create suspense -Quick cuts and changes of angles to give excitement -Spooky music to add tension and anticipation -Dark lighting to create shadows and give an atmosphere Dark, dull lighting is used in opening scene of thrillers to create a gloomy mood and can make the audience feel more suspense. The dark colour scheme connotes a sense of hidden information, which intrigues the audience to find out more. The protagonist of a thriller normally encounters certain types of managing, mysterious or dangerous situations. Mirrors and stairs are often used in thriller and the editing tends to be fast paced with a lot of quick cuts. In our preliminary task, we had some trouble uploading our film into Final Cut Pro, which meant we were not able to edit it properly. This resulted in us having to cut some footage out and had to edit it so it wasn't as jumpy as before, however, we still managed to incorporate all camera angles into the shot list. Thriller is a genre that revolves around suspense and anticipation. The aim for Thrillers is to keep the audience on the edge of their seats by using a build of a tension throughout the film. No matter what sub-genre, the film always emphasises danger that the protagonist has to face. The end must lead to a highly stressful climax.Action Thriller- An Action Thriller uses suspense through physical action. Like traditional Action films it will include continuous motion, fight scenes, battles and physical stunts. This will usually include a continuous sense of danger enforced on the protagonist. E.g. The Bourne Identity, The Hunger Games, Kill Bill V1, Mission Impossible, Die Hard, etc. Crime Thriller- A Crime Thriller is a suspenseful thriller that incorporates a crime plot. This sub genre usually is centred around a murder, serial killer or robbery. Crime thrillers use both psychological and action elements to build suspense and the storyline is usually revolved round the protagonist and criminal. E.g. The Dark Knight Rises, Seven, The Fugitive, Jagged Edge, etc. Psychological Thriller- A Psychological Thriller includes element of mystery and drama. The protagonists always rely on their mental resources to solve the mystery. Many of these Psychological Thrillers cross over into the Horror genre. E.g. The Black Swan, Psycho, Taxi Driver, Silence of the Lambs, Identity, etc. Science Fiction Thriller- The Science Fiction genre incorporates hypothetical, science-based themes. This genre will usually incorportate advanced technology, fantastical quests and super heroes. These elements are usually included to create suspense and anticipation. E.g. Inception, Aliens, The Terminator, The Matrix, The Maze Runner, The Avengers, Etc. Religious Thriller- Religious Thriller film incorporates religious themes, including religious questions and ceremonies. Some films can revolve around a specific church, however, many Religious films include supernatural experiences not linked to a church. Exorcisms and demon possession are typical themes of Religious Thrillers. E.g. The Davinci Code, The Devils Advocate, The Last Exorcism, The Propehcy, etc. Film Noir Thrillers-
Film Noir is not simply a sub-genre, but rather a term for a distinct, stylistic type of crime-drama which was most popular throughout the 1940s and 1950s. It is characterized by a black-and-white style with stark lighting effects and relies on a narrative voice and various flashbacks to explain the intricate plot. E.g. Sunset Boulevard , Sweet Smell of Success, The Maltese Falcon, Etc. When making our logo, we innately brainstormed our ideas, then jotted down some different ideas as you can see below. I then decided to try incorporating our ideas into photoshop and was able to create a first draft for our logo.
We briefly discussed ideas for our Preliminary and came up with a script so we could start filming. We also created a shot list so it would enable us to know what camera angles we needed to film at what time.
Match on action refers to film and video editing techniques where the camera cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shots action. A common example of this would be a man walking up to the door and reaching for the knob, and then walking through. |
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