Inspiration: Heavenly Creatures

This blog encompasses the elements of a thriller film that inspire me. The film that I have chosen is Heavenly Creatures. Heavenly Creatures is a thriller film which is based on a true story about two teenagers who murder one of the girl's mothers with a brick inside a stocking during the 1950's. The motivation behind the murder was the fact that the parents of the two children tried to split them up due to fear of their obsessive relationship being unhealthy (it is implied that the relationship was also of a sexual nature).

THE MURDER SCENE

One of the things that stands as a real inspiration to me is the narrative of the film. The voice of Pauline (the daughter of the murdered mother, also known as Gina and Yvonne) is used as a voice-over throughout the sequence. Narrated in this way are pages of the real Pauline Parker's diary, for example "today Juliet and I discovered the key to the fourth world." This inspires me because diary pages are an interesting way to narrate the story, and they work well in thriller films because they allow you to get inside the head of the protagonist. For example, the character of Pauline could be seen as a psycho who murders her mother for no apparent reason. However, the presence of the voice-overs accentuate the motivation behind the murder, and illustrate the fact that she was simply a girl who was afraid of losing her best friend.

Another aspect of the film that inspires me is the use of colour juxtaposed with the use of greyscale to represent the differences between reality and the girls' imagination. Most of the film is in colour which illustrates what is actually happening in the story.

However, as depicted by these two screen grabs, some of the film is shot in greyscale. This is because it is not actually what is going on in real life, but what is going on in the girls' heads. For example, these two shots come right at the end of the film whilst the mother is being murdered. They illustrate the two girls being separated, and this in turn illustrates their fear of being separated and therefore the motivation behind the murder.

The images to the left are another way in which the film portrays the reality vs imagination theme entwined within it. The first picture shows the two girls sitting next to a sandcastle; the second shows them looking into it as if it were a real castle. The camera goes up an ancient looking staircase to get into the room shown by the second image. This inspires me because it creates a huge divide between reality and imagination, and it opens up several different psychological paths which could be adapted to create a thriller film. I am interested in the psychology of characters, and this is an excellent example of how psychology and mind-related subjects are portrayed in thriller films.

Another element of the film that inspired me was the juxtaposition of the two female characters; whilst one was very dark and in many ways disturbing, the other was bright and much more positive as a person. This interesting juxtaposition is demonstrated through the following screen grabs -

 The screen grabs are able to deliver a sense of juxtaposition through the lighting used in both shots. For the first one, the natural lighting gives the shot a slight glow which makes it much more positive to look at in contrast to the second shot, where the only light coming through is through the window right at the back. Apart from this, the room is dark and the walls are yellow which paints a very negative image in the audience's mind. The first shot also has the actress look at the camera head on, whereas the second shot has her looking off to the sides. This creates a real sense of familiarity with the viewer because they are able to identify with the first character, whereas they are not able to identify with the second. This has really compounded my understanding of the ways that characters are represented in thriller films and will help me significantly when I come to plan my own because it has reinforced the idea that the ways in which characters are framed is important.

' Watching ' Documentary on film openings, Questions 5-8

5)"Why is kyle cooper's title sequence to the film seven so effective ? "

Kyle cooper's title sequence is so effective because it was the first chance to get a grip of the film opening. To make his title sequence different from other films he Cooper joined in with the film studios to design there opening title so that they served the film that followed. The sequence gave an idea to the viewers to what key the film was set in . Kyle cooper done that sequence to tune the viewers into the right pitch in other words, to wake everyone up so they would be more interested in the film.

6)"What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film A touch of Evil ? What did universal Studios do to it ? Why ?"

Orson Welles most famous opening was intended to be seen without credits and title music, Welles wanted to plunge the audience into his story without giving them time to prepare  themselves. Universal studios were cautious about the idea. Orson wrote a 58 page memo pleading to Universal Studios to not erase his idea but they did not listen and blunted Welles chances of originality.

7)"What is meant by " a favourite trick of film noir " ? what is the trick ?"

A " favourite trick of film noir " means when the film's beginning seems to appear to the audience more like an ending. A film that has "film noir" makes the film opening seem more like a destination rather than a departure point.

8) " How does the opening of the film The Shining create suspense ? "

The beginning of The Shining is looks incredible calm and more like a picture . The way the camera shoots the sequence the first time it looks like it is an easy up lift on a helicopter shot but when viewed again for the second time it is a viewing of a scene of omens. The way in which the camera follows the car is like a predator which is high above the ground and is placed behind the object ( the car ), making the sequence like this gives a warning to the audience that they characters of the film are travelling in the wrong direction. 

The Collateral Remake Mini Project

In this 'mini project', we will be recreating the opening of the film The Collateral by way of a shot by shot remake. Before we start our project off, we watched/analysed the original first to gain an insight into what exactly we are creating. To help us with our project, we have taken screen grabs from the opening from the beginning, middle and the end. 

Other aspects of this blog will include -

• images of the storyboarding process
• photos of the filming process
• screen grabs of the editing process
• the finished product as an uploaded film clip 
• Comparing the remake of Collateral to the original

 THE COLLATERAL 

SHOT BY SHOT REMAKE STORYBOARD

The images shown to the left are the storyboards that we as a group created after watching the first minute of The Collateral. The Collateral is a film that we are going to remake, and in order to do this we need to know what scenes we will be filming. Shown in the images are drawn pictures of what goes on in the scenes, the shots that we need to film (for example high angle) and the amount of time that the individual shots are filmed for.

ON SET PICTURES - THE FILMING

ON SET PICTURES - THE CHARACTERS

THE EDITING PROCESS

VIDEO OF OUR REMAKE

Toy Story opening scene conventions

As part of my research I will be analysing the opening first scene from toy story to see if it complies with the majority of film openings.

The first thing we see in the Toy Story opening is the production logo. In many films we see the production logo, this is a convention of film openings, Toy Story has complies with this.

production logo

Also at the beginning of the film the director tries hook the audience by introducing the main characters to the audience. In this picture we are being introduced to woody and Mr Potato head this is done to try and intrigue the audience and make them watch more

introducing key charecters

Thriller Wordle

I created a wordle to brainstorm ideas that came to mind when I thought of the word 'thriller'. This will help me significantly when I come to planning my thriller film opening with my group because these words which I think the word thriller connotes are probably similar to what other people will come up with. This will allow our film opening to appeal to a large number of people, and will be relevant to them as much as to my group and I.

Extension Task: Questions 1-4

WATCHING DOCUMENTARY
Questions 1-4 (of 8)

1) What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistable"?

 The quote above, said by Thomas Sutcliffe, is a way of explaining how a film must grab its audience in the very beginning, and by doing so it will seduce them into long term commitment, i.e. they will be intrigued and interested enough to follow the film through until the end. The idea of 'instant arousal' explains the notion that instead of slowly building tension up in a film and gradually leading up to a climax, the film starts off with a highly dramatic opening which will hook the audience almost immediately.

2) According to director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of 'instant arousal'?

Beineix suggests that the idea of 'instant arousal' is not necessarily the best way to go about doing things. He claims that if you start off with a really dramatic opening that has the audience hooked on to, the question will be: what happens next? He suggests that, because you have already started off with high tension, the problem is that you may not be able to answer this question and may find trouble in topping your dramatic opening throughout the rest of the film. Beineix says that the film should nurture your desire, which, after waiting, should deliver the satisfaction which other films give you immediately.
 

3) Explain why "a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little."

Creating a good film beginning is difficult because it needs to introduce the film's genre without giving away too much about the plot, and it must grab the audience whilst still leaving them something to wait for. This idea is captured perfectly by the above quote, which demonstrates the fact that an audience needs to feel like they have something to wait for, because there's no point in watching a film that has nothing to give, but at the same time needs to feel in connection with the plot - i.e. they don't want to feel like they know nothing, because this will distance them from the storyline and will release them from their hook. 

4) What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classic opening? Why does this work?

Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening as one that establishes the setting and characters. It does this by first introducing the setting through an establishing shot, which is a shot of the city (for example) that a film is set in. Then the camera would slowly get closer to introducing the character, i.e. through a close up of the building he/she is in, then going up it to do a close up of a window, then going through that window into a room where the protagonist would be positioned. This "simple, classic process" works because it gives many things away to the audience through just establishing the setting; you become familiar with the city, the characters, the genre. Stanley Kauffmann also says it works because everything is "expected", "orderly" and "rational". Everything is in its place and that is what the audience expects from the opening of the film.

Health and Safety Tutorial: the Equipment

To ensure that we use the camera properly, and that we understand what we are doing, we were given a health and safety tutorial in which we learned about the cameras which we will be using to film our thriller openings. This is crucial because the cameras we are using are very high-tec, and therefore very expensive. The tutorial included everything from how to turn the camera on to where we can actually use it (not in pouring rain etc etc).

Here is a brief outline of what we learned regarding how to use the camera

•     How to insert the SD card
•     How to insert the battery
•     How to open/close the tripod
•     How to properly secure the camera to the tripod
•     How to turn the camera on/off
•     How to zoom in and out
•     How to switch from auto to manual
•     How to record/stop recording
•     How to view playback

Here is a brief outline of what we learned regarding safety issues

•     Never touch the lens because finger prints will show on our clips (and they are expensive to replace)
•     Never expose it in pouring rain (there are umbrellas we can use to shield the camera)
•     Never leave our SD cards inside the camera after giving them back to staff
•     Always bring the camera back on time

To compound our understanding of these important instructions, we were given the task of blogging about taking certain shots - see previous blog: Research and Practice: Camera Shots
Both of these introductions to the JVC camera really helped us to become familiar with our equipment.

Film "300" - Analysing convention of film openings

I will be analysing the different types of conventions that we expect to find in a film opening.

One of the features that we would expect to find in a film opening is the title of the film itself, pictured below is the title of the film "300" which immediately gives us a clue to what genre this film is going to be.

 

Another convention that will most likely to be in a film opening is a a image within the opening title to give the audience a clue of where the film is going to be set, the picture below of the silhouette of the horses and men on the horses gives the impression that this film is going to be based around the theme of 'fighting'which also corresponds to the title of the film. The title of the film looks as if the word "300" is smeared in blood which is shown in the opening titles of the film which connotes the feeling that the setting is located in an area which is in a war or battle.

Setting image 

Setting image 

Credits are often shown in film opening to introduce the characters to the viewers and also to introduce the most important members of production. Credits are important to show in the opening of films because it gives the viewers a vague idea of what type of the type of roles each characters. Before opening credits was not introduced into the 'film industry', most of the films did not get a long shelf life in stores as the audience did not know who the main characters were.

credits 

credits 

Research and Practice: Camera Shots

We explored how to use the camera properly, and to reinforce what we learned we were set a task to take certain shots. 

Big Close Up

 This shot went well, however it could have been improved by framing more of the face and less of the blue background.

Wide Shot

Our next shot was a wide shot where we framed the setting of the street outside college. This shot is a simple shot that shows a lot of background.

Feet framed in interesting ways

We came up with the above screen shots for the feet task. We agreed that the second image is far better because it is more likely to appear in films, which we are researching, whereas the first image is something that has neither been seen in films nor would really fit into our genre of thrillers.

The Rule of Thirds

We also learned about The Rule Of Thirds, which is a way of ensuring that the characters are properly framed. We demonstrated both the right and wrong ways of doing so -

This is a bad shot because the actor is not in frame properly; their head should be right at the top of the frame, and they should also be in the middle with equal space either side. Although the tripod in the background was not intentional, this also adds to the lack of professional aspects of the shot.
The next shot is better because the head of the person fits nicely into the top of the frame, however it is still not perfect because they should be in the middle of the shot, not to the side (unless it is a two people shot.) The shot after the following one demonstrates the correct way of filming whilst including the rule of thirds (aside from the tripod in the background.)

Over The Shoulder Shot

The next two images show over the shoulder shots from both perspectives. Perhaps we could have improved here by being a bit more centre, however overall they were good shots that demonstrated over the shoulder perspectives.

Issues raised with Lighting

The next shot clearly portrays the issues raised with lighting when using a camera; when our character stands in front of a window, their face cannot be seen properly. This causes problems which need to be identified before the filming process to ensure the faces can be seen at all times.

Research: The Secret Window

As part of my research, I am going to analyse the conventions that I learned about previously that are used in another film, The Secret Window. The Secret Window is a film that uses what is known as an opening sequence; a short clip before the actual film starts that is played before the credits. This is used to evoke a sense of what the film is about, and in this instance the clip was very dark and mysterious. This darkness was also portrayed during the credits - all of the credits were written in white, aside from the title "Secret Window" which turned blood red.

The effect this created was to mirror the mysteriousness which was first established through the opening sequence. The use of white/red titles suggests that the colour of the credits is essential and can be used to portray what the producers want to portray. This information will be useful when it comes to making my own film opening with my group.

Another convention which can be found in just the first few minutes of The Secret Window is the non-diegetic music. Music is very atmospheric and, again, can have a huge impact on the film that it is used in. For this film, the music is dramatic, but in a very subtle way. It has a certain edge to it that makes the viewer feel uneasy, but as the music is also quite calm it is done very subtley. This suggests that the film will be quite dark in genre, but also mysterious and will not be done in an in-your-face kind of way; this idea is accentuated by the secret aspect of the title.

The opening of the film also introduces the setting/location of where the action is going to take place, which is done so in The Secret Window (as shown in the picture above). Often, films have interesting and unique ways to take the viewer from the outside of the building to the inside of the building, and this film very cleverly goes through an open window whilst the credits are taking place.

The film also incorporates the use of time, date and period to determine when the film is set. An example of this is shown in the image below, which states that the film takes place "six months later". It is assumed - but not stated - that this is in relation to the opening sequence.