Analysis of past student thrillers

Hunter

Introduction

Hunter was a thriller made in Eastbrook staring Kamie Rothan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE2WepgBX4k about a detective trying to find out a murder case. This leads him to talking to one of the teachers who ends up killing the detective too.

Camera

The camera begins with a wide shot of the detective walking up to the school door. There is then a close up of the office lady. After  this there is then a tracking shot of the  the detective walking up to the class room.  then there was a close up of the teacher and of the detective. the camera has a over the should shot of the teacher, this creates effect as it is like we are watching the teacher through the detectives eyes and thinking through his mind as we are also curious to what has happened and why the detective is there. then there is a shot, reverse shot of their conversation. 

When the doctor hits him across the head with a bat there is a high angle shot and an establishing shot of the detective. there is then a jump cut where the screen goes blank and then back to him as we see he is dead. this creates effect as the blank blacked out screen creates unconsciousness of the character as he is slowly dying. when the detective pulls him into the room the camera slowly focuses onto the dead bodies. This creates effect as it creates suspense and it seems as if we are slowly entering a nightmare.

Editing

The editing began slow paced and gradually got faster during the end. there was a lot of jump cuts which created effect as it showed the tension in the school. also the fact that the detective didn't have a clue to who the murderer could be, the jump cuts complimented his confusion as the murderer could be anywhere and just like the camera work his mind was jumping around to who the murderer could be. there was indents throughout the film which told us who the actors and directors were.

Sound

The film started off with two loud sounds which wakes up and catches the attention of the viewer. the film consisted of a lot of non diegetic sound which was loud and fast. The non diegetic music halts when there is dialogue which there was a lot of during the time the detective was talking to the teacher. The music after this then increases as the detective gets murdered which creates effect as the music is almost covering the murder just like how the teacher is hiding the body in the room.

Mise- en- scene

The film is set in a school. the film includes a detective, secretary and a teacher. the detective  walks up to the reception and the walks around the school corridors looking for the classroom. This creates effect as he doesn't know where to go just like his detective work as he doesn't know what has happened yet and is confused. Then the detective walks into the classroom and meets the teacher, the teacher was wearing a physical education uniform which has the school name written on the back. He was dressed casual for a teacher however this created an realistic effect as we know P.E teachers wear that type of uniform.

The detective was holding a notepad and pen which indicated that he was a detective and came prepared for the situation. when the teacher kills the detective he is holding a bat which links in to his job which creates effect as the teacher will not get in trouble for holding a bat as it is usual for him to have one. this can cause the teacher to get away with the murders. the body is stored in a small room which is cramped and dark where no one will enter. 

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is the french term for in the scene or film. it includes 5 elements which are:

• setting where the media text takes place and props which are the objects we see in the setting.
• costumes, hair and make up
• facial expressions and body language
• lighting and colour
• positioning of characters and objects in the frame

for example in a western film we expect to see the setting being hot and bright, a lot of light browns as there is dry ground in the setting. The characters will be wearing their cow boy suits which indicate it it is a western film.

costume, hair and make up are mainly used in films such as science fiction, musicals and horrors they make the film more interesting and indicate which type of film it is.

the whole film is based on body language and facial expressions, this is important in media text with the use of close ups and extreme close ups. other types of body language can be the way we are positioned and eye contact. also what we are doing with our hands, for example when we are embarrassed we cover our face with our hands to hide away. another body language is positioning if the characters are close it can show intimate feelings however if they are very far it can show anger. 

there are two types of focuses, deep focus which is when both places are in focus giving us a choice on where to look and focus pulling where the focus is changed in the film which makes us look at a particular place without choice.

Colour

colour

Colour was first used in films in the 1904's. The first film which introduced colour was voyage a travers L'impossible by the pioneer george melies. The films were hand painted frame by frame. 




After a few decades in 1933 the film the mystery of the wax museum came out. This film used a two strip technicolor which used only 2 colours which were red and green. 

In 1935 the first full three trip technicolor film was introduced. This film was called Becky Sharp. however this was only used in high budget films as it was very expensive to use.  the three colours that were introduced were red, green and blue.

colour- denotation and connotation. 

denotation is the literal description of the idea, object or concept. For example looking at a chair and only taking the object as a chair.

connotation is what we associate with that particular idea, object or concept. This could work on the subconscious mind to create mood, for example looking at the chair and this time seeing memories that link in with that chair.

an example for this can be the colour red. As a denotation the colour red is just a colour to us, however if we look at it as a connotation we can see much more. An example can be anger, blood, romance, heat or stop. For example in the film we need to talk about Kevin there are many red colours in the beginning. This indicated danger as when she woke up she looked outside her house in shock. The red colours represented death or something that isn't pleasant that is going to come, it was like a warning.

Another example is the colour blue, like the colour red the denotation to blue is it is just a colour. However the connotation of blue could be cold, sea empty, sky or sad. for example in the film eyes wide shut tin the bedroom scene the bedroom is blue. When Tom cruise enters the room he leaves the corridor which was a warm red colour and enters the cold blue colour. This represented the coldness in their relationship and the loneliness indicating that their relationship isn't going to end well.

Rope

Rope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLsbzhOEHg

Rope is an 1948 thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock which is about these two men who strangle their "inferior" classmate. They hide his body in their apartment and invite their friends and family to challenge the perfection of their crime. the films stars James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger.

This film showed that both Brandon and Philip are are powerful villains as their plan to kill David was improvised and done without anyone realising. Just like actual villains they had no resentment and were proud of their killing resulting to them wanting to celebrate their success. This indicates that they are powerful and intelligent. however just like other films both of the villains had rivals, James Stewart who played Rupert was secretly investigating the incidence. This caused Philip to contemplate whether what they done was worth the outcome, yet Brandon to challenge Rupert furthermore testing his intelligence.  

there was many suspenseful moments during the film, for example the scene where everyone asked why they were eating on top of the trunk where they hid the body. we all began to think that someone out of their suspicion will ask whats underneath the trunk and find the dead body. This lead on during the whole film where someone will hint their suspicion towards the dead body yet we never got the right accusation. This created suspense as they were all so close from finding out and they could have found out any minute then. 

We didn't want the body to be found, which was unusual as usually we would be against the villain however the audience just wanted the guests to go away so that the villains could get away with their crime. I believe this happened because we got to know the characters well and to us they were the main characters which usually isn't the case with villains. the audience probably felt as if they were the villain too and wanted to get away with the crime without anyone knowing. this follows Hitchcock's rules as he mentions he wanted the audience to feel what the characters are feeling. 

A technique which carried out during the whole film was dramatic irony which was that we knew what was in the trunk however the guests who came to the party didn't. This was used since the beginning of the film till right at the end. This created effect as created us to experience the feeling of the villains


The film included levi strauss' idea of binary opposition as there was a subordinate group. this included the three homosexual men who could not show that they were gay through the films or to the other members of the casts as homosexuality wasn't something that was as easily admitted in that time.  Therefore the three men had to hide their affection for males and act like they were straight men.

Preliminary exercise evaluation

Preliminary exercise evaluation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szeMXe3Dq8g

The film we filmed was about a boy who was talking to a girl. It is a short film however used all the editing skills, for example: Match on action, eye line match, shot, reverse shot and 180 degree.

Firstly we began with a graphic match, this included zooming into character A's eye and then zooming out from the zero which was above the door in the room we were filming in. We did this to create effect as the room linked in to our film. I believe we used this technique accurately as character A's eyes perfectly matched the zero.

We then used match of action that included character A walking up to the room and then walking into the room. For both actions we filmed in different directions enabling the effect of him walking into the room to occur. We used this technique accurately as we made sure the camera was following the 180 degree rule by keeping the camera on the same side in each clip to prevent the scene coming out wrong.

After this we used an eye line match where we shot a close up of character A looking towards character B however we didn't see character B and then a point of view shot from character A looking at character B. We used this technique correctly as the scene came out correctly in our short film.

Our film concluded with a shot, reverse shot. This is where the camera was turned towards character A or character B depending on who was talking. This carried out throughout the conversation, which wasn't too long. We used this technique accurately as we used it in the right situation and turned the camera to the person who was talking, which is how shot, reverse shot should be used. 

Lastly throughout the whole film we made sure we used the 180-degree rule where we kept the camera on the same side during the whole film to make sure that the scene doesn't look different and came out right. We used this technique correctly as our film did not switch sides during the short film.

I think we did quite well as we used all of the techniques as well as a graphic match. However if I had the chance to make this film again I would make the film a little longer and give it more action as I believe our film was not as interesting as it could have been as was very short. I also think we should have planned our film out more in the beginning as we there was a change of plans when we shot the graphic match which took a lot of our time.