Final Version of Anonymous

The changes we made from the first were only the credits and the ident as it was perceived as too cheerful for the thriller conventions.

blog of the week response

They have loads of post which contain a lot of detail with relevant pictures which makes their blog look appealing. They have include a lot of detail, so all their ideas were clear.
All we can basically learn from these blogs is that the more detail the better and more pictures to illustrate the point.
We could improve our blogs by adding more pictures.

Analysis on Why thrillers thrive

The article is about the contrast between horror films and thriller films and how thriller will outdo horror films. In the article the writer explains about how the thriller genre is much more substantial in quality with a deeper plot and less easy thrills that are more commonly used in the horror genre. The writer also explains about how the authenticity of thrillers is very important and because of this they will last longer than horrors. The writer complains about the excess in gore in the horror films backing up his point claiming that the general public don't like this over-the-top way of filming, these types of 'horrible' films that cause an 'unnatural thrill' are unoriginal and are usually toned down to become acceptable for the public.

The writer establishes between horrific and horrible in the horror genre, saying that a film may contain perversion, bestiality and to exploit sadism. In thrillers the rule is the more exciting the better but with horrors the aim is to scare horrify and freak out the audience this creates an unnatural liking for pain against others and inhuman acts against mankind.

Thriller Pitch

For our initial idea, we are thinking to make our thriller an action thriller. Action thrillers contain more violence than the other sub-genres, it also has an obvious protagonist (Chris) and antagonist (Jamie). There are generally quit a few locations in action thrillers, our opening includes a number of different locations as it is a chase scene. Our actors will be Chris and Jamie and they will be playing characters who's names aren't mentioned which gives a bit of mystery to the plot. Jamie's character will be chasing Chris' character through the woods and then into a car park where they will be hiding between cars. This will be filmed mainly with hand held camera making the scene more tense.

The Genre will be mainly represented a race against time, Chris' character (the protagonist) will be racing to get to the car whilst Jamie's character (the antagonist) will be chasing Chris. Another way the genre will be represented is that there is an obvious antagonist (Jamie) and an obvious protagonist and this also shows binary opposites.

One suggested location is the Long road car park. This helps because it is on site so we wont waste any of our filming time going to an off site location. There is also a shipping container and trees that can also be used in our opening.

Shots and sounds will be used to keep the tension and pace of the opening clip at a thriller standard, these sounds will be fast paced at times to shot the tension. Shots that show characters in positions of power and weakness will be used during the progress of the clip, showing any changes, if any, during the chase scene. Hand held camera shots will be used frequently during the chase, to provide a more point of view perspective and increase the confusion of the thriller that will give the audience an increasing number of questions being made.

The opening sequence will include, to start with, the ident of the group. Then, just before the ident has faded, heavy breathing will come on. the chase scene will then start and, towards the end, the protagonist will get away just in time, then catching his breath. Narrative will be over the top of the protagonist catching his breath. This leads on to the titles where it will then fade out.

The titles and credits will be handwritten and at a fast past to go with the rest of the opening and then near the climax of the credits, the music and writing slows down. The title for our product will be Anonymous.

Thriller Ident analysis

For the ident analysis we chose to analyse the ident for 20th century fox. This ident is good as...
The sound is quite loud which brings it to the attention of the audience, the music also starts as a drum role, suggesting that something good will follow. After the drum role, a brass orchestra starts to play, which can be interpreted as something with importance and of good quality is about to be shown, it can also be seen as something royal.

The visual side of the ident is quite straight forward, with the logo 3D giving it an edge to other idents as it was made during a time of great change of graphic improvements. The clip zooms out and pans across showing the whole logo, which is large and golden; this goes with the music with great effect as it looks important and is good quality. It stands out in the location as a huge statue or wide plynth, towering over a city. There are also search lights going over the statue making the whole atmosphere that the ident should be respected.

Trial Garage Band Opening Theme

Today we looked at how music is a major influence in films in general and then saw how much was lacking in a mute thriller opening, Identity.

In garage band we made our own opening theme for the film opening and added non-diegetic sounds that matched the mood of the film and tension, and then had diegetic sounds of the outside world which was raining. We managed to make 1: 50 seconds of music for the opening.










The aim of the soundtrack is to build tension and suspense within the scene whilst fitting in with the diegetic sounds. The any dialogue in the soundtrack helps tell the audience about the plot of the film.

We had to make our own soundtrack in garage band to go to the opening scene of Identity, we used mostly non-diegetic sounds this is the actual music that supports the scene by creating tension or suspense. Our soundtrack was simple but effective in creating an erie and tense atmosphere.
Unfortunately we didn't get to add any diegetic sounds in like the thunder or rain as we couldn't find the right noises, in the time given.

Marking Criteria For The Thriller Project

Level 4 high grade 48/60

A high standard in:

• recording voices clearly, in a studio or on location.
• holding shot steady.
• framing a shots.
• using a variety of shot distances and types.
• shot material appropriate for the task set.
• selecting appropriate mise-en-scene.
• editing so that the meaning of the movie is apparent to the viewer.
• using varied shot transitions and effects.
• using sound with images.

Action thriller analysis

The Action/ Thriller we chose to evaluate was Terminator. The film has a complicated plot that involves a cyborg being sent back to the past from an apocalyptic future to kill Sarah Conner who is the leader of the resistance against the machines, this is a common convention of a thriller as it keeps the audience guessing the whole film.

Terminator contains a lot of strong violence, much more than other thriller sub-genres, this is because there is less mystery to the plot as we already know the protagonist and antagonist. The antagonist is obvious, it is the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) this is another common convention of action/ thrillers.

Throughout Terminator there is always the sense of time running out, the characters are constantly against the clock trying to complete their mission. This is very conventional of the action/ thriller genre as it keeps the audience in suspense.

The protagonist Sarah Connor has the equilibrium of her life disrupted when the terminator starts following her, this starts the dangerous 'cat and mouse' game off which continues through the film. She has to survive at any means to save the future.

Psychlogical thriller conventions

The conventions of a psychological thriller are Drama/ mystery and contains a certain amount of danger mostly on a mental level but can sometimes evolve to physical level, usually it has two characters preying on each others minds or one solitary character struggles with his/her mental state. The characters will have a fear or even a fascination with death and will be trying throughout the film to discover their purpose. The narrative is usually confused in the film to what is real and what is not.

The film that i have chosen is Fight Club, this film complies with nearly all the psychological/thriller conventions written in my list. The Narrator meets a soap salesman, together they start a underground fight club, the two characters are constantly testing each other mentally, which slowly pushes the narrator over the edge of sanity.

Both the characters have a fascination of death and pain, as they beat each other and members of the fight club up

Analysis of "Seven" opening

The sound of Seven in the opening is very important. It sets up the rest of the film and can make the audience want to watch on, or turn the film off.

The first sound heard in the film is the low rumbles and a siren of traffic outside. This is used to give the audience an idea of where the film is located. Also, the siren of a police car represents the nature of the film and how it is about Crime/ policemen.

You can also hear mumbling of other people who are clearly not in the same building as what is being seen, giving the impression that the walls are thin and therefore the area is quite poor in comparison to some other estates.

Morgan Freeman's character makes very little sound in the opening clip, the occasional noise of using an object, but not much else. This can give the audience the idea that his character is quite withdrawn and thoughtful, as at the crime scene he lets the other detective do the talking.

When Brad Pitt's character arrives on scene, he is heard before he is seen. This probably gives the idea that he is an outgoing character who will later get into difficult situations.

Their dialect is also very different between Pitt and Freeman. Morgan's speech is better pronounced and softer in comparison to Pitt's. He also has a more common vocabulary on comparison to Freeman.

The metronome, the regular tick noise, is clearly there to represent something in the film, and will become more important later in the film.

The opening credits is loud, low pitched music, giving a sinister sense to it. The sounds are synthetic, with disregard to classical instruments. The pace of the song picks up as the credits progress and at the climax, there is spoken words and then a loud rumble finish, which goes with the thriller genre style.


Within the micro elements, I chose camera angles, looking at the opening sequence, there are a lot of low angle shots on the main characters. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are shown in positions of power as they are the main characters and they are the characters who are on the 'good side'. There is also high angle shots, one of which is on a victim who is laying dead on the floor, this shows him in a position of weakness because he is dead.
Another shot that is used quite frequently is a long shot, this is so that the audience get to see the surroundings of the characters and so they know the setting of the scene. this helps the viewer to understand about where the characters are and helps them get an idea of the period of time it is set in.
shot reverse shots are used between Morgan Freeman and another character to show the conversation and this is good because it shows not only the person talking but also the reaction shot of the person listening.
At the end of the opening, there is lots of jumpy shots and this gives effect because it makes the viewer a little confused about the situation but it also gives a slight insight into what will happen at the end of the movie.



Within the micro elements I chose special effects. In movies special effects are used for an almost real effect of something that cannot be acted out in the scene such as a corpse, blood spatter or explosions. In "seven" they use some special effects such as in the opening scene it begins with a corpse in a pool of blood and a realistic blood spatter on the wall, this emphasizes that its a thriller and the plot is based around death and the drama involving it. in the opening credits there is also a person who is see behind the credits cutting their finger prints off with a razor blade this tell the audience that this is the killer because he may be trying to cover his tracks. this also tells the audience that they are messed up in the head this is the stereotypical serial killer seen in most thriller and horror movies.









Se7en is a action/ thriller film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, they are both detectives solving a murder committed by a serial killer. I focused on the mise-en-scene in Se7en, this includes the costumes, sets and locations.

Morgan Freeman is wearing a stereotypical detective costume smarty dressed with a trench coat and hat, this shows us pretty quickly that this film will be based around solving murder mysteries and other crimes.

Brad Pitt has a typical maverick detective costume this is a leather jacket and more casual clothes. These two characters are quite miss-matched, pairing them together creates conflict between the two characters adding an element of drama to the film.

The costumes and sets don't give us a clear sense of the time period that this film is based but taking a guess it would be between 2000 and today. One thing we can learn about the film from the sets is that it is based around poorer areas of a city in America.

Classic Thriller Analysis

Thrillers of modern times are able to depend on incredible stunts and high budget special effects. 20 years ago they had to depend on the more technical side of what makes a genre, in this case a thriller.



The protagonist of this film, Vertigo, is a stereotypical thriller protagonist, he has a weakness and is placed in a life or death situation. This is typical of thrillers as it creates suspense for the audience who will have warmed to the character.

There is suspense music, that helps promote the thriller genre. It is also the style of the time the film was made, with string instruments and high pitched melodies in comparison to the modern day style of loud drums and whatever else.

There is also a socially unaccepted character, whom the protagonist is interested in. This for a thriller is common, because it can make the audience relate to that character in some ways and single them out as more surreal than the rest of the cast.

There is also the common use of enigmas in the film, as explained in the trailer, the protagonist and the girl are drawn together for reasons unexplained and so they are out there to find out why.

Analysis of the thriller 'The Dark Knight'

The clip shows the location of a large crime scene, a bank robbery. It, for the audience, makes it feel that although the rest of the film is quite unbelievable, there are still aspects that can happen in everyday life of major cities in the USA. Gotham city, the broad location of 'The Dark Knight', is based on New York city for example. After the robbery, the scene changes to a police office, where the characters are speculating on the appearance of Batman. This just gives a quick insight for the audience of where quite a lot of the film will take place. Soon after the clip changes to another crime location, an empty car park, which helps emphasize to the audience that a lot of action taking place will be of criminal intentions.

The characters, at the robbery, are depicted to the audience in a way that they will not be picked out as main characters and therefore when they are killed off one by one, it does not create conflict in the audience's opinion. The aggressive attitudes of the robbers and their tendency to kill each other is reflective of the thriller genre in how ruthless they are. The fight scene that introduces the protagonist, Batman, again emphasizes the ruthless violence that will continue in the film and how it is a thriller.

The non diegetic music of the film has been chosen to good effect to go with the style of the film, a thriller. It for the audience keeps the tension and the pace of the film going. It also works with the bank robbery; the criminals have to act fast and it keeps the audience guessing which "clown" is going to be killed next. The diegetic sounds of the clip are all rather violent sounding and very short lasting. This all goes with the violent aspect of the film and the genre.

The camera shots are of great variety. Before the action starts, they are establishing shots and slowly zoom in on where some action is about to take place. When the action is in the very thick of it, the camera shots are very quick to jump cut and there is more close up shots and reaction shots to keep the pace and style of the film as a thriller.

The film also gives off a thriller mise en scene, in the view that it isn't as colourful as maybe a children's film or a comedy, and the addition of weapons and prolonged fight scenes keeps the tension and speed of a thriller going.

Preliminary Task Video

In a last minute decision, we used lift doors rather than a classroom door because of the convenience and it gave us a greater chance to practice the skills we have been learning. Below is the finished product.

Preliminary Task Plan

For the preliminary task we are having Phil filming, Jaimie as the first actor, Chris as the second actor and Angus is going to edit the film to a final product. There are no specific props needed, as it is more a task testing editing and filming skills, and the location is going to be in the G block building, in an empty classroom. Below is a storyboard plan of what shot we will be doing.

Preliminary Task shots.

This clip shows several shots needed in the preliminary task. At the very start of the clip, it gives an establishing shot, which gives audiences the idea that there is going to be a change in location. There was also a couple of reaction shots in the clip, when Chandler says he wants to quit the gym. This is just to show the audience the simple opinion the character has on the statement Chandler has.


This second clip shows a conversation using the 180 degree rule, this gives the audience the impression that they are having a real conversation and puts the two people in an over the shoulder perspective. There is later a match on action shot of Joey using a power drill that goes through the wall and into Chandler's room, nearly getting Chandler. This is to keep the story of the show going with as little stalling as possible. There is later a long shot to show all of the friend characters in the same room and are all working together. At the very end there is a close up shot of the cupboard Joey is in in. This works with the dialogue of Joey as he is talking and it makes sure the audience understands that he is inside that cupboard.