Psycho-Textual Analysis

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Focus Group- Primary Research

Reaserch: Breif History Of Thriller Films

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Elements of thriller is literature can be dated back as far as ancient times with poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer's Odyssey which use similar narrative techniques as modern thrillers. Another example is Little Red Riding Hood  which is a psycho-stalker story released in 1697.


However, it wasn't until 1926 where one of the first thriller films was created by Alfred Hitchcock which was called 'The Lodger'.He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres and was renowned as one of England's best directors.Hitchcock continued to perfect his recognizable brand of suspense-thriller and in 1940 won an Oscar with the film Rebecca which is about the unusual romance between a young woman and an emotionally distant rich widower.

The decades of 1970 and 1980 saw a violent start in the thriller genre, with Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's first British film in almost two decades, being given an R rating for its vicious and explicit strangulation scene. The decades also saw conspiracy and spy films scattered throughout.

Present day thrillers are now following a theme of the very popular thriller genre – detectives/FBI agents hunting down a serial killers. An example of this is the highly acclaimed Best Picture-winning crime thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991) where a young FBI agent Jodie Foster in a psychological war against a cannibalistic psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter.

After learning about how different thriller genres have been effective and how successful they have been, it has given me more of an idea on what genre to base our thriller opening on.

Research:Media Production - Six Stages

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Research:The Representation Of Disability

I have been looking at issues around the way in which disability is represented in TV dramas. Representation of social groups in our thriller opening is something we need to take some informed decisions about.For example the article called 'Unlimited:Disability on screen' tells us how in the 21st century, TV dramas have been able to represent a wide range of disabilities such as motor neuron disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions.It also shows us how during the Great War, newsreels recorded the rehabilitation of visually impaired and physically disabled servicemen where as in the 21sst century these rolls are commonly played by fully able-bodied people.

Another article on how:women, old, and disabled people are still under-represented on TV tells us how women and older people are still under-represented on television even on some of the UK’s biggest-rating shows.It also tells us how only 2.5% of the population of people that appear on TV are disabled,people over-55s accounting for just 8% of entertainment presenters and 12% of lead roles in drama,Lesbian, gay or bisexual people comprised 1% of the overall TV population and people of ethnic minority taking up only 13.4%.

Another article shows tells about how Ricky Gervais has improved the lives of disabled people for
the way they have highlighted discrimination and ignorance against disabled people.In advertising, drama series, sitcoms, soap operas or comedy panel shows, disabled performers are notably absent and Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are trying to produce projects which tackle our culture of discrimination and ignorance against disabled people.The article also explains how the only place where you will find disabled people routinely featured is in documentaries; but in these there seems to be a demand for a type of misery heavy portrayals of disabled "victims" or "burdened" carers.

In the final article i read through i found out how the influence that the media holds over society has not always been used to society's benefit, particularly in relation to disability, where the media has continued to add to the discrimination of disabled people.For example the way the media use an  underpinning use of disabled stereotypes.It also tells us how in 1991 disabled people were commonly shown as being pathetic,an object of curiosity or violence,sinister or evil,as atmosphere,laughable,his/her own worst enemy,a burden, Non-sexual and being unable to participate in daily life.

Research:Lighting Effects

We decided to play about with lighting within our group. We tried to use un natural lighting in a dark room to give the character a rather sinister look.

In this photo it shows the character (Frank) with the un natural light source shining on the right side of his face showing his facial expressions. Whereas on the right side of his face there is no light and therefore creates a mysterious and sinister effect. We may consider using this effect in our thriller. Also in this photo the lighting creates a shadow effect in the background, this was not intentional however is a technique we could look into using.

In this photo we decided to put the un natural light so it was shining under the chin of our character (Frank) this created the sinister effect we were looking for as it shows all facial expressions but doesn't give off any of the background. This again is a technique we may consider using in our thriller.

Research:Seven Textual Analysis

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Research:Effects of cut aways

Effects of cut aways

 

we have done this post to show how different techniques can change the ways in which certain scenes can be perceived. one scene could be seen as a different genre depending on what ios to follow, it can create a different emotion.

 



This use of a cut away above makes the character on the left look crazy and sinister with the character smirking at a dead body. However the cut away below shows a characters reaction to another character making a funny face which makes the scene much more comedic and funny.

Conventions Of A Thriller

What Is A Thriller?

A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and television. It includes numerous, often overlapping sub-genres. Here are a few examples of  the different kind of thrillers:

 

Spy thrillers (James Bond)

Political thrillers (Argo)

Military thrillers (saving private Ryan)

Conspiracy thrillers (The insider)

Medical thrillers (Coma)

Forensic thrillers (the bone collector)

Psychological thrillers (seven)

Horror thriller (silence of the lambs)

Common Characteristics And Features

Suspense music
 

Low key lighting

Quick cuts

Shadows
 Long corridors         

Ringing phone (no answer)

Hidden characters (shower curtain)

Close ups (not showing much of the scenery)
 
Often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plot

Thrillers often occur on a much grander scale: crimes are more serious

Standard plot elements include a sense of jeopardy.

Climax: when hero finally defeats villain, saving him and others.

Some thrillers are influenced by film noir and tragedy, the hero can get killed.

Often take place wholly or partly in exotic or dramatic settings e.g. cities, deserts, churches, airports, subways, Polar Regions, the woods or high seas.

Framing A Shot: Practice With Stills

The class was set with a task of getting into small groups and going round the school premises and taking a variety of images consisting of different camera angles. However, I was not in the class at that time so i was not able to do this task so instead i have acquired these pictures from a friends group.The following pictures are what they were able to take.

The picture above is an establishing shot. Establishing shots are useful because they instantly show the context of an area which gives the audience an idea of what kind of place a character is in whether it be a calm countryside or a busy city street as well as what time of day it is when the scene is taking place.

This image above it of a mid range shot with leading lines. Leading lines are lines within an image that leads the eye to another point in the image.With the shot being at a medium distance it gives the audience a lot to look at and see and whats going on around and in the scene with the characters.

 The picture above is an extreme close up.The shot is so tight that only a detail of the subject, such as someone's eyes, can be seen.Extreme close ups are very effective to used if your trying to display someones emotions very clearly.

The picture above is a low angled shot. This shot can represent the targets dominance and power.

The shot above is a long shot which is generally used as a scene-setting and to give the viewer a idea of what the surroundings look like.

The pictures above are 3 different angles of the same object which is useful because it offers the viewer different perspectives of the same scene.