More about genre

While preparing for our final task and analyzing the various movies, we have been influenced by very successful productions like Se7en, Memento and Derailed that portray complex, expanded and developing plot and events. Everything is caused by something else and has a reason. They effectively engage and excite the viewers making them eager and curious to see what will happen next. These movies consist of typical thriller elements like keeping facts unknown until the end, consist of the complex, mysterious and dark atmosphere and plot. For our final movie we decided to go towards that genre, as it does not require high budget but only creativity as plot is the main part of such movies not effects or action. However we still had the choice between the classical, traditional thriller or modern, gory and bloody type of thriller, including various extravagance elements, unusual props or costumes. These are mostly aimed at younger audience because of their content. Tormented is the example of such movie. Most of cast are young people, students, action also takes place in school. Moreover students' life is portrayed as having fun all the time, enjoyful and jerky, also the props and story are designed in such freaky, unusual way. We decided not to go that direction as we wanted our movie to be more mature and professional, including too many extraordinary and jerky elements would make it look unprofessional, not serious and more funny than frighting.

We decided not to reveal out villain while his preparation. Our killers actions will be shown separately by list of close-ups and zooms. Killer will never be shown fully until he kills. which effectively fits to the thriller's nature. Also the murder scene will not be fully revealed like on most movies. We decided to use the interesting action that portrays the quintessence of thriller genre and can be found in many other movies. That action is used to unexpectedly reveal the killer in the most shocking and breathtaking way. He usually appears behind the closing doors or as the reflection in the mirror. This is always very effective way to presence the villain and every time it appears in movie, it always causes the excitement and fear. Similarly to most thrillers we will also have the bloody death scene on the vulnerable victim. We will use various props and items to make this scene more realistic that are described in other post.

Initial ideas for the genre

In our project we are required to film and edit a movie's starting sequence. First of all we need to decide whether we are going to produce a traditional gory horror or one of the types of thrillers. Inspired by the movies we have seen, we decided to go towards the thriller genre as our plot will involve the actions and characteristics similar to it. However thriller consists of several other sub-genres that define and classify movies in more specific way. One of the most popular is the Mystery thriller that portrays the secrets and many unknowns at the beginning and the protagonist progresses in order to solve the mystery. This is sometimes linked with the Crime thrillers as protagonist, usually the detective or policeman has to solve the mystery and catch or kill the villain.

Inspirations

The thriller genre was build up on legendary and unforgettable movies and directors.
Many scenes of our project have been influenced by existing popular productions. We watched a few examples for our project including very successful movies like Se7en, which is traditional thriller. However we will have to mix the styles in order to keep our movie up to date and simultaneously stick to the traditional style. One source of inspiration, although not a movie, or thriller/ horror is the highly acclaimed televeision drama, LOST, as it uses some very innovative camera shots and editting techniques. Lost is considered as adventure drama, but it's uniqueness relies in thriller elements such as the importance of good sound. When correctly synchronized non-diegetic sound is a very powerful and fear creating tool. The creators of LOST, very often played with audience's emotions by using various soundtracks and attaching it to appropriate scenes. We can see the classical, sad and miserable songs played while someone dies, or dramatic and growing when fast action takes place. Moreover, a few episodes start with a breathtaking and unusual technique: extreme close-up on the character's eyes-opening, also with loud and dynamic sound synchronized creating right from the beginning the thriller atmosphere and excitement. Therefore the audience is curious to see what happened, they are eager to see more. Such shots could be also used in our project, however we would not start the whole thing with that, but more of a reaction to what happened previously.
There are not many successful modern thrillers, when we look on the most recognizable icons, we can notice that they are all from late 90s. As exception considered may be Inception (2010) as it has reached high rankings in the best thrillers lists. The success of Inception is quite similar to LOST. As we know they both are thrillers with the unrealistic elements, however the elements are realistic enough to be believed in. For example the time travel, or aware dreaming. We can infer that the thriller elements are very universal and could be successfully mixed with any genre, making it even better, more exciting and popular. Another example of the popular mixture is Se7en including the elements of crime and thriller. Crime gives us the developing plot, mysteries and investigation. Thriller gives shocking death scenes, unknown and complex villain and many other unknowns to be found by viewer.

Memento Opening Scene Analysis

The credits of the film start with the name of the film company, followed by the film title; Memento and then the actors’ names. This is layered over the top of the start of the film which shows a close-up shot of a man’s hand holding a Polaroid photo in which we can see a dead body with blood spattered on the walls. This immediately tells us that a murder or killing is going to be a pivotal element of the film. The shot remains fixed on the photograph and we gradually see the photo fading to white. We see the hand shaking the photograph and it gradually fading more quickly back to white, it is at this point where the audience starts to realise that the footage has been reversed. The footage being shown in reverse tells us that something has already happened and we are going back to before it to find out what happens, for example it could be starting at the end of the film and then cutting back to earlier on in the narrative.

The credits end once the photo has gone completely blank, then we see the photo going back into the camera, a close-up of the man taking the photograph with the camera followed by a close-up of the man’s face. In this short sequence the audience has been shown lots of things in quick succession, but with the film being reversed we have to piece it all together to try and make sense of it. In this chain of shots we are shown a photo of a dead man, this makes the viewer question who he is, why has he been killed and who killed him? Then we see the person who has taken the photograph and the audience is speculating whether he is the killer.

After this there is an extreme close-up shot of blood running back up the wall, this places the ‘photographer’ at the scene of the killing. Subsequently we see more close-ups of a bullet and another of a pair of glasses strewn on the floor. The audience now begin to build up a picture of the crime scene and with every shot the viewers gain more understanding of what has happened. For example the inverted footage continues to show a gun travelling back into the man’s hand and the bullet casing flying back into the gun and the dead man rises back up before we see the shooting.

The shot of the man just after being shot is a high angle shot, point- of-view shot looking down the barrel of the gun which is pointed towards the victim- this makes the victim look minor and powerless to the killer. This is then followed by a low angle shot of the killer this, similarly to the high angle shot of the victim gives the killer dominance and supremacy.

This then cuts sharply to a black screen which then fades to an extreme close-up of a man’s mouth, the shot then moves upwards to show his nose and eyes. The audience can now recognise the face as that of the killer. A greyscale filter is used on this shot; this coupled with the fade in effect gives us the impression that we are seeing a flashback or some time before he killed the man we saw earlier. A non-diegetic voice-over is used in this shot; this starts to give the audience a narrative and further supports the feeling of it being a flashback as the voice-over is presented as his thoughts.

To conclude, the opening of memento fulfils many expectations of an opening of a thriller film. It gives a glimpse of the genre of the film by showing the killing; it shows the credits and name of the film along with the actors and producers. It presents the key themes that will form the storyline, sets the scene and shows us the main protagonist. However, it still leaves us virtually uncertain as to what will happen in the rest of the film.

Tormented Opening Scene Analysis

In the opening scene of ‘Tormented’ the first image shown is a close up-tracking shot of the word ‘police’ on the side of a police car, the fact that this shot is a close up grips the audience immediately as they start wondering what has happened and why there are police there. The camera then tracks along the side of the car then up to eye level and tracks alongside paramedics running through a crowd of school pupils into a school building. The audience promptly notices the editing technique of slow motion has been used, this emphasises that we are seeing a climax point in the storyline and highlights the importance of the scene, which without the slow motion effect, would pass quickly because of the fast paced nature of the situation, so the effect tells us this is a pivotal moment in the film.

Next we see a school girl being escorted out of the school, down the steps to the police car by two police officers with a crowd along either side of the steps. Medium close up shots are used, this shows us her facial expression but also shows us her shoulders and body, and this creates the feeling that we are part of the crowd-close to her as she walks past. A clean cut is used to transition between many short shots of her from different angles, for example jumping from a shot of her from the right to a shot of her from the left then to the front etc. this accentuates that the entire crowd is staring her. As she is put into the police car a high angle shot is used, this makes her look vulnerable as she sits in the police car.

The non-diegetic music that runs throughout has a slow tempo and helps to build atmospheric tension as the music has a sense of tranquillity to it, which doesn’t really match with what we are seeing, this makes the audience feel uneasy and want an explanation of what is happening.

Then the scene cuts straight to the credits, the music changes to a more upbeat, rock song. This symbolises a change in mood and the genre of the song tells us that the film is aimed at teenagers and a theme that runs throughout the film is rebellion.

The credits in this opening are written in a scribbled style as if drawn in an exercise book or on a school desk or like graffiti on a wall. This is a stereotypical representation of rebellious teenagers, and hints to us that the film will include other things that typical teenagers are characterized as doing. Each of the main actors has a picture scribbled next to their name- these pictures give us an insight into what each character is like and also gives a clue as to how each of them will be killed.

The film title ‘Tormented’ appears in the credits, this also looks hand drawn and is written in a gothic, tattooed style font. There are also other things connected to teenagers in the title, for example there is a ball of chewing gum in the centre of the ‘o’ in the word ‘tormented’. These things are all associated with stereotypically rebellious teenagers.

After the credits there is a cut to a shot of a funeral service. The audience knows it is a funeral because of the mise en scene; the setting of the church, the shot, which is a mid shot of a girl giving a remembrance speech, somebody’s name written in flowers, a coffin and we also see shots of outside in the graveyard. Gravestones and coffins are both significant symbols of death.

During the funeral scene a schoolboy stands up and disrupts the funeral and the film cuts to a long shot of him being dragged out. A long shot is used here so we can see the boy is still protesting, but we can also see his whole body- this shows the people who are leading him out and the hold they have on him. Following this the scene cuts to a shot of the boy being thrown down some steps by a PE teacher. A high angle shot is used to show the boy on the floor as this makes him look vulnerable and exposed, it also shows that this is the view of the boy that the teacher has. On the other hand a low angle shot is used to show the teacher from the child’s perspective; this gives an impression of dominance and power. The teacher is stereotypically dressed as a PE teacher, wearing a tracksuit, and he also is fitting the stereotype of a PE teacher in the way that he has an aggressive manner and comes across as a bully.

There are many techniques used in the first five minutes of the film ‘tormented’, all of which, subconsciously or not, have a big impact on the audience and shape our opinion of the film. Some of the techniques also influence the viewer into jumping to conclusions about what has happened and will happen as the film progresses.