Applying the theories to Retribution

Todorov's theory on narrative structure applied to my groups opening sequence:
Equilibrium - The pace at the beginning is very slow and does not contain any action codes that would suggest that something weird was going on. The girl walks doen the road and into her house as you would expect someone to.

The Disruption - This is when the door is left open due to the girl being distracted by dropping her keys. A person is seen going into the house behind her and this equilibrium is broken.

The new equilibrium would be found later on in the film once this disruption is solved and a new normality occurs.

Theory of binary opposites by Claude Levi Strauss applied to Retribution.

Freedom // Entrapment
Male // Female
Victim // Heroine

Roland Barthes theory of Enigma codes applied to Retribution

- The camera is following the girl possibly suggesting that she is being watched. it is enigmatic because it makes you wonder who the person watching her is.
- The time phase cut to when the girl is woken by her phone is enigmatic as it raises questions of what he has been doing all that time.
- When he walks into the bathroom behind the girl, he does not seem to do anything which suggests that he might not even be a bad person as the camera work may be trying to imply.

The Final DvD Cover

This is our Dvd Cover for our thriller sequence called Retribution.
I think it works very well to signify the thriller genre for many reasons;

The cover works around the colour black which is dark and mysterious, The font used for the title is very blotchy which could symbolise blood.
The picture of the back cover is of an empty street which could show that the area is unsafe and residents could be vulnerable.
We designed our company name and logo to go with the thriller genre, red ink is a suggestion of blood and death and matches our cover layout very well.
The main image on the front cover is of a man smoking, the fact that his face is half hidden can be enigmatic in the way that you want to find out who he is and if he is a bad guy or not. Cigarettes are used to symbolise an older generation and a more uncivilised background.
The layout of the cover is very simple which is also very enigmatic in the way that it does not give too much of the story away and leaves you thinking about what the storyt is about.

My individual contribution to avoiding problems

- Looking up bus times allows me to arrive on time for shooting.
- Assigning every member of the group with one piece of equipment which we hold ourselves responsible for looking after throughout the shooting.
- Using a shot log will help on test shooting and further shoots to make sure we use our time efficiently.
- Not having enough footage after finishing a shoot can be a big problem, a way to avoid that is to plan a certain number of each shots and also to improvise around our shooting schedule so we have a variety of different shots.

Location ideas

An idea location for a thriller would be outside at nighttime, this is because it is dark and in an open space which contrasts really well with the encloser theme created by the camera when preoducing a thriler. A woodland area could be used to create mystery and helps to create entrapment of a victim.

Inside locations are also effective like the classic household scene, it plays on the comfort and safe feeling of being inside your own house but uses those aspects to cause feelings of encloser to the outside world.
This was the idea we eventually chose for our thriller project as it suited our character type very well.

Thriller Ideas

From watching past As level thriller movies and Cinema Thrillers i have found out a few things that are key to making a thriller effective.
- The lighting should always be quite dark, this exploits the viewers fears of the dark and also leaves the audience with an unawareness of what is going on. Heroes and villains can hide without being seen and it allows a lot more suspense to build up than in a lighter environment.
- The settings that are most effective are those that appear to be places of innocents which don't usually contain violence, such as a kids playground or the comfort of your own home. This in particular is effective as intrusion of homes is very common to this day which allows the story to appear more realistic. (e.g. Roberts home in Disturbia)
- The victim should be visually pleasing towards the intended audience so we can build up a liking for them, that way the scene is even more dramatic as we do not want them to get hurt. (e.g. Jennifer Love Hewitt from "i know what you did last summer.")
- Jumping into a scene without the introduction at the start of a film can be very effective as it is very enigmatic, it makes us ask questions in our head about what is going on. In Momento The man appears to have shot someone in the head but we do not know the reason for his actions, this leaves me to wonder if he is a bad guy or a good guy and makes me more engaged in the film.
-Locations Shots

Characteristics of the Thriller Genre from Saw 2

I think Saw 2 is a great thriller with a very exciting plot, this is because it creates a fictional, real life scenario and makes it seem realistic to the audience. I have broken down the main characteristics of the film into four categories:
Themes - Deception, Illusion, Torture, Entrapment, Vulnerability, Danger, Corruption of innocence, mentally unstable and Memories.

Iconography- Dark rooms, Small rooms, Deadly Traps, Unknown Places, Shadows, Sharp Objects, Blood, Masks and Artificial Light.

Characters - Mental Patients, Victims, Protagonist, Antagonist, Family and Female Victim.

Narrative - Murder, Accidental Death, Self Mutilation, Insanity, Torture and Abduction.

latymer media thriller project AS 2006 5

After looking at past thriller videos made at As-level I have realised that there are certain parts of the clip that are not done too well and parts which are done very effectively.

In this particular video the opening is very effective, it is black and white, which together with the typical bar scene and old style music gives a feel of a gangster scene. This is also due to the dress code of the man sitting in the seat as he is dressed smartly and looks very serious.

The plot seemed good, as it was quite enigmatic; this is because even though it showed a lot of information, you weren’t introduced to any of the characters.

This to me was a slight problem, as I was unclear of who the main characters were and who had a significant role in the story.

The story line seemed to meet the thriller conventions well as it did create a tense atmosphere but did not have any unique properties that made it different from any other thriller that we see today.

The camera types of shots were used on a wide range, which leaves the viewers more engaged in the scene, high angle shots were used on the girl at the near the end to show her authority over others.

I was able to understand what film genre the scene was from and what type of thriller it was as they were shown clearly though dress and style of music.

The lighting did not help to show what the characters were feeling or what the camera is focusing on, which could have been improved by using a small light source such as a lamp.

I Know What You Did Last Summer- DvD Cover

When breaking down a Dvd cover of a film you must look at three main aspects to fully explore its meaning, these are; Camera, Character and Mise en scene.
Camera- There is a medium shot of the main woman with close up shots of three side characters in the background, they each have a serious expression on their faces. There is a long shot of a person who's facial features are hidden by his hat and the low level of light.
Character- there are 5 characters shown on the cover each very serious looking and all cast in shadow, this could represent doubt or the fact that they are hiding from something.
The image of the unknown person is small and hidden, he is black and red, black which shows that he is hiding in the shadows and red signifies blood or danger. The other main characters are in black and white which could be hiding their personalities in an enigmatic way. The fact that four of the five characters can be seen properly i would say that they were the good people in the film, and the hidden person is the villain.
Mise en Scene- The main colours used are red, white and black, this is important as it gives a tense and serious atmousphere. The white and black colours signify the good and the evil of the characters as they are good people who have done bad before. The title is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the cover, it is enigmatic in the way that we want to know what they did last summer. The slogan is in even smaller writing but is a reference to the title and paints a clearer picture to the audience of what its about. It talks about burying bodies which is possibly what they did last summer. The small parts of the background that is not covered by the images are in black, it blends in well with the shadowded part of the characters faces. The lighting on their faces looks artificial and focused on one side of their face, The hair of each character is away from their faces apart from the main girl which could show that she was the cause of the bad thing last summer.