Thrillers [Vertigo]

Vertigo-Opening Credits

·         VistaVision name flashes

·         Half-face close up of a woman [like an examination]

·         Camera moves to full face then mouth

·         Eyes look right then left (she’s scared)

·         Tears in her eyes

·         Once camera is on eyes, more detail is given about her face (more light is seen)

·         Moves to her right eye (as audience: ask-is she prey or predator?)

·         Eye widens extremely so [prey not predator]

·         Maybe audience feels she has been under duress

·         Pupil/iris colour are not seen (dark, black) [black eyes are scarier to audience]

·         Whole sequence this far is on a black screen/background

·         Music is orchestral

·         Violins act like you are falling down or curious [relates back to film title]

·         From our POV of eye, face gets a bit of colour [from black and white] but moves past to bright red (adds to sense of fear)

·         From pupil comes a title, Alfred Hitchcock…etc.

·         Note: titles do not obstruct view of illusions

·         From the eye comes spinning images and the face/eye fades away

·         Spinning images gives ‘falling down the rabbit hole’-feel

·         Illusions give a hypnotising/consuming feel

·         Once illusions consume face/page the music changes

·         Music still had ‘falling’ feel but the swells in the music are not as forceful, erratic, and sudden

·         Music swells but in a different fashion [more elongated, less of a quick burst]

Thrillers [North by Northwest]

North by Northwest

Without Music

·         Connotations of green screen-life, nature, envy

·         Parallel, diagonal lines on right-hand side of screen

·         Vertical lines cross other lines, diagonal grid created [from the top]

·         Vertical lines come from the bottom of the screen

·         Lines converging [similar to train station in Marnie] slightly uncomfortable

With Music

·         Orchestral music-dynamic, gives texture

·         Violins: quick, jittery, high pitched, rushed, frantic

·         Along the horizontal /diagonal lines: Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (MGM  Studios)

·         Main stars: male, female

·         Titles move relatively quickly

·         Name of film title is graphical descriptive/notated

 

 

 

·         Grid turns into mirrored high-rise building (reflection shows traffic)

·         Reflection/false image puts audience on edge due to false picture

·         Location-NYC (yellow taxis in traffic give it away)

·         Actors, co-starring, lesser parts, writer, cinematographer, production designer, etc.

·         VistaVison [an older form of widescreen]

·         Dissolves [translation] into street level of people/crowded street (long shot)

·         People going tin 2 different directions like the grid from the opening credits

·         Set in ‘contemporary’ dress [appropriate for time period it was filmed in]

·         The events seen are coincidental, etc.

·         Music mimics people’s movement

·         Cut to shot of people going down subway stairs to Queen’s [overhead shot]

·         Cut to people crossing the street

·         Cut to 2 middle-aged women fighting over a cab (note how animalistic they are)

·         Slight overhead shot with Alfred Hitchcock’s name audience a “superior” feeling

·         Note: there is a lot of action

·         Note: at this point there is still no story, not plot, no characters, and no narrative

·         Cut to Alfred trying to catch a bus [translation-as he walks he pushes name off the screen]

·         He didn’t make the bus

SIDE NOTE

VISUALS

Ø  Lines are very useful: common motif in films

Ø  Rotoscoping-digitally writing over an animated image [downside is that you must go frame by frame]

Thrillers [Se7en]

The Soundtrack

Sounds like…

·         Destruction

·         Audio from a scratchy soundtrack/radio

·         The Apocalypse

·         Technology

·         Curiosity

·         Nanobots

·         Industrial sounds

·         Robotic

·         Factory noises

·         **generally composed of non-diegetic noises**

I noticed…

·         Varying tempos (the sounds get faster)

·         Multiple textured soundtrack overlaying one another

·         Starts low and dangerous sounding

·         Middle of soundtrack sounds lighter and more music-like

·         Ends with a lower sounds similar to start

·         Scream-like effects

·         A lot of white noise

·         Almost like a heartbeat

·         Similar to choral music

·         Muffled voices in soundtrack [invokes confusion and terror]

·         Absence of sound makes the audience uneasy and nervous

The Visual

·         Person removing fingerprints

o   Shaving off his finger print

·         Cutting up money

·         Flipping through pages of a book, looking at murders

·         Cutting undeveloped photos

·         Pictures of dead people

·         Sowing written paper together

Note:

§  The use of shadows and sepia on the book

§  Mysterious hands [at first it has the potential to be romantic but you realize quickly that it’s a thriller]

§  Typewriter font is multi-layered and shivering [never quite settled]

§  Title between screens is on plain black background (called an inner title)

§  Photograph of broken/distorted hands

§  1 hand in light, other in darkness

§  Seeing broken hand/crinkled veins in hands

§  Cut off at the wrist

§  Director’s name appears

§  Old-fashion razor (suggests it’s an old film)

§  Man is trying to remove the skin on his thumb with a razor blade—EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE

§  Entire shot was in extreme close-up

§  Teabag is being steeped

§  Dead person’s image with mouth open is being flashed in between images

Films & Thrillers [Marnie]

Film: Marnie by Alfred Hitchcock

·         Old style of production (titles and credits at the beginning)

·         Opens as a book (film was an adaptation)   
·       Made in 1964

Adaptations

·         Don’t have to think of a plot, characters, etc.

·         It already has a fan base

·         Ease of marketing

Order of credits

1.       Production company and logo

2.       Main characters *no ‘starring’*

·         Female then male OR alphabetical order

3.       Director (“In Hitchcock’s…”)

4.       Title of film (Marnie, from the novel by…)

5.       From the novel by...

6.       Co-starring

7.       Featuring (much smaller parts, lesser actors)

8.       Director of photography/cinematographer

9.       Production designer/designer of production *(they look at the overall look of film: settings, costumes, props, etc.)*

10.   Assistant director

11.   Costume designer

12.   Editor

13.   Sound recorder/pictorial designer/make-up/hairstylist

14.   Any relations of character portrayals to real life are purely coincidental….etc.

15.   Ass’t to Actor/set director/script supervisor/camera operator/costume supervisor

16.   MUSICAL COMPOSITION BY…

17.   Screenplay by…

18.   Director again

Thillers

·           You as the director are creating an enigma (a mystery)

o   There should be constant suspense

·           Close-up shot of an object

o   A bright yellow bag on  a brown tweed jacket arm

·           Track-shot (follows the person/object like a spy/voyeur)

·           An establishing shot (gives location, character, etc.)

·           Lines of train station make her seem like the centre of attention

o   Makes her seem like the lines are tracking her

·           Her clothes and the scene

o   Bright sunny day and she’s wearing heavy looking clothes (possibly autumn)

·           Gas tower in the background reveals a non-rural area, possibly industrial

·           Woman is wearing gloves

·           Possibly of high class (hair is nice and shiny, formal looking outfit, put together)

A DIFFERENT SHOT-INDOORS

·         Different shot suggests that they are somehow related to one another

·         “Robbed” was the first word (possible connection to yellow hand bag) [close-up of man]

·         Cut away to empty safe [close-up]

·         Woman in scene appears to be a secretary, men in suits appear to be detectives

·         Office setting [well established, pictures and artwork on the walls]

·         Woman is slightly out of focus (trying to draw attention to men?)

·         Men taking notes, boss has rung them before (the detectives)

·         Boss says the woman’s name twice [Marion Holland] (makes you think of the Train Lady)

·         2-shot of both detectives (shows the relationship between the two-a close relationship)

·         1 man takes notes, the other listens, bodies overlap in the frame, similarly dressed

·         Boss knows the “culprit’s” body very well

·         Reactions of the detectives and the secretary are shown to give input on situation (inside joke with cast and audience minus the boss)
·         Shot (of boss man) and reverse shot (of secretary) a shot of one person/item and something else and back again—similar to dialogue) [useful for reactions and looking at other people
·         Focus can be used to our advantage *(pull focus—changing focuses in order to capture the audience’s attention on a certain thing/person)*
·         Boss man is looking up at the new guy, boss man walked over to him (not the other way round), and he’s new on the scene [he’s the most important person at this point]
·         New guy creates hierarchy in status and frame height
·         Imagine a power triangle with his head at the top his right shoulder and the boss man’s face; he is top priority
·         Body language—he’s not looking at boss man, his coat is over the shoulder, and he looks smug—HE’S CONFIDENT
·         Sean Connery is the man-he’s more in control than anyone else in the room
·         He was able to summarize the lady thief in a few words: Pretty girl, no references, the brunet with the legs

A DIFFERENT SHOT—IN A HOTEL

·         Having the bag, the office, and the bag again helps create “movie grammar” showing the very close relationship between the two situations
·         The 2^nd bag shot is almost a mirror-image of the first one except for the fact that t is indoors and in a hotel
·         An enigma is made again: what is the bellhop carrying?
·         Costumes, settings and sound all contribute to the ‘feel’ of a film *DO NOT OVERLOOK*
·         Cut to a shot inside the hotel room, same hair, same colour palate (brown)
·         Zooming into the suitcase shows that it’s all new stuff (from the bellhop’s packages)
·         Enigma: where did she get the money to buy everything? Theft?
·         5 ½ mins into the film and we still haven’t seen the girls face’(constant suspense)
·         Note: all her older stuff is being stuffed into a big black bag without care
·         Cut to the yellow bag, inside: wallet, mini-book, MONEY
·         Opens an old cigarette case to reveal a false back and multiple Social Security/Insurance numbers each with a different identity (about 5)
·         This reveals that theft is a pattern for her, it’s her lifestyle
·         Washes off the black hair dye to reveal striking blond hair
·         Her face is shown (a pretty woman)
·         While this is all happening the music swells with romantic influence as she reveals the money and her identity to the audience (climax of music when face is shown)
·         Cut to a her legs in a different coloured skirt while carrying suitcases
·         Diegetic sounds (real action sounds e.g. high heels) move in as sound track (non-diegetic sound e.g. editorial sounds) quiets and fades out
·         She puts old stuff into storage [locking away her identity]
·         Mid-shot of her face gives details of current identity (pretty blond in foam green skirt suit)
·         Cuts to point-of-view shot of sewer grill [camera shot of what she’s looking at]
·         Giving audience room to predict what she’s about to do next puts the audience in a god mood (everyone likes to feel smart, like a detective)
·         Camera shot of her hand shows her dropping the key in the sewer grill [Dr. Cliftlands says that it’s too long of a shot]

SIDE NOTE

      PERFORMANCE

Ø  As a director you must be able to cast people who can emphasize and portray certain parts of the character that you want. Slight nuances from an actor can change the tone of a character.

BIAS

Ø  You have to ask yourself: how do you want to position your audience? From what stand point do you want them do develop their opinions and bias on?

VIDEO WORK

Ø  Do NOT pan-zoom in your production. It’s entirely cliché at this point. (Sean Connery part)

Ø  Dr. Cliftlands recommends using a long shot to see her whole body when she’s carrying the suitcases but what was done still creates suspense re: her intended direction

Continuity Assignment

It could have been better with audio clips, more actors, and a plot but we are not at that level yet.
Notice my black converse shoe near the end. We tried to fake like it worked but it really didn't. it was an accident but shows how the slightest things can affect a film. Overall, it went well for our 1st clip.

The Definition of a Thriller

In my opinion, the definition of a thriller is a film that uses suspense, mystery, intrigue, excitement to engage the audience. Films usually do this by having a well developed storyline. There are several sub-genres in the category of thrillers.
This includes:

• psychological
• action
• horror
• crime
• mystery

The use of enigma in the storyline is the key element of  a thriller film as this is where the audience gets interested and hooked into watching the movie. If a thriller has poor use of enigma and cannot stimulate its audience, then it will be regarded as a poorly made film and will not attract people to watch it. Proof of a good thriller is that the audience will still be talking about it after they've viewed it. They'll discuss what happened, what they think they saw, what they think are the answers to their unanswered questions etc. The thrill of the film still sticks with them even after they have seen the movie.