Who is Going to See Our Film?

  In order for a film to be successful, it must be able to reach a definitive audience and be well received by that audience. So this raises the question, who exactly should be our targeted audience when making a thriller movie? I decided to research some of the intended audiences of thriller films similar to what we are trying to make, to look for commonalities in the way they market and advertise their film so that their intended audience wants to watch it, and how the execution of the film allowed that audience to enjoy the movie.

 The Machinist (2004) is a psychological thriller about a factory worker suffering from Insomnia, who's condition turned so severe that he lost a lot of weight and it affected his mental health. He then accidentally causes an accident on the job which severely injured another worker, further destroying his mental health. As the paranoia gets worse and worse, he blames it all on a mysterious figure, known as Ivan. A very interesting idea for a psychological thriller, but it was important to make sure it got to it's intended audience and well received by them. So how was it done?

 Firstly, it is important to look at who is in the making of the movie, as certain production companies, actors, directors, etc. usually specialize in a certain genre, so when they are featured in a film of that genre, people who enjoy to watch that genre of film will be drawn in to watch it because they're expecting a quality movie. The Machinist was made by Castelao Productions, a smaller production company but one that makes a lot of horror/thriller films such as the REC series,  and Fragile (2005). The director of this film is Brad Anderson, who specializes in horror and thriller films, which would make the intended audience want to see the film, as the director has expertise in the genre, leading everyone to expect a better film. The star of the film is Christian Bale, an actor known for his intense acting and extreme body transformations for his roles, for example, for this film he had to lose over 60 pounds to fit the role of someone mentally unstable and drastically losing weight. This alone is enough to interest viewers of the intended audience.

  Another part of reaching your intended audience is making sure the film is advertised to represent what it is as well as possible. The trailer for The Machinist gave some context into what the film was about while also using thriller conventions discussed in the post titled "Diving Deeper into the Thriller Genre" to make the mood and feel of the movie apparent to potential viewers, for example the suspenseful music, low-key lighting, etc. so those who liked movies like that would be intrigued and drawn into watching it. The way the movie cover was made also has a similar effect that was discussed in the last post about titling, as it also does well to show the overall mood and nature of the film, and would appeal to those looking for a thriller/horror.

 The reason I looked at The Machinist is because it is a psychological thriller similar to something we would like to do, as it is around a protagonist having visions of some sort and is in a scrambled mental state. I wasn't entirely sure of how we could show that through a simple title sequence, but through watching this I've noticed that setting the mood is the most important thing, while also doing something to suggest the main antagonist is the mind of the protagonist, which can be shown through the characters actions or how others interact with them, or by showing confusing imagery. For example in the trailer for The Machinist there is a lot of flashing transitions and sound bridges, slightly confusing the viewer, and there are insert shots of sketches and ambiguous looking writing on a sticky note, which is a common thing seen in psychologically based films. Confusing imagery and the overall dark feeling of the film is something I have been planning on doing for our title sequence.

The Machinist (2004) Trailer

Sources
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361862/plotsummary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fuHY4U1UA

Looking More Into Representation

 Just to be more specific in exactly how representation is employed in thriller films, I decided to look at the opening scene from A Quiet Place (2018) and how certain elements such as cinematography, mise-en-scene, etc. is employed to create representation in a thriller film. What I found was mostly gender representation, as seems to be a common trend with many thriller films, as there is usually a trend with who the victims, heroes, leaders, etc. are.

A Quiet Place - Opening Scene (Beau Abbott Dies) [HD]

    The opening scene of A Quiet Place (2018) represents women as followers and shows them as being emotional and thinking with their feelings and not their brain, while also portraying men as leaders and showing them to not be as emotional through the use of cinematography, editing, and mise en scene. When they leave the building, blocking is employed to show that he is in the front and all of the women are following him, making him seem like the powerful one and the 'leader' of the group. Props are also used as he is shown carrying a big backpack and he also is carrying the kid, making him look strong and is further showing his leadership and strength compared to everyone else in the group. Long shots, tracking shots, wide shots, and various group shots are used to show that he is in the front and everybody is following his lead and going where he decides to go. When the littlest kid, Beau, stops before the bridge and the monster starts chasing after the kid, a close up is shown of the mother, the father, and the daughter is shown to show all of their reactions. The father sets down the child he is carrying and begins to run after Beau to save him, all the while looking focused and urgent. Meanwhile, the mother and daughter or shown to be panicking and scared and just stand there doing nothing. This use of camera movement showing the mother and daughter standing still and the father running shows he is acting on logic instead of emotion, while the others aren't. The editing also plays a part in this as a shot-reverse-shot keeps being shown between the father and the others, showing the contrast in their emotions and actions.

How to make a Thriller Title

One of the most important advertising tools for a film is the title, after all it is literally the name of the film. While you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, many still do, including myself if I'm being honest, so it is important to make sure that your title is something that interests your intended audience, grabs their attention, and makes them want to watch the movie while also not revealing too much, if anything, about the plot. Because of this I have decided to research how many popular thriller films that did well titled their movies, for instance, the style, font, color, meaning, etc. to see what specific elements of titling help to push a film to success. In this post I will be looking at the titles of Bird Box (2018), Get Out (2017),  and A Quiet Place (2018), three modern thriller films that have done exceptionally well since release.

Bird Box (2018)

  The first title I am going to look at is the title for Bird Box. The font looks very rigid and serious, conveying that it isn't a feel-good movie, but not necessarily a horror movie, as the text is not in a scary looking font. The title ends up being relevant to the movie as it is referring to the birds that alert them when danger is near, but the audience doesn't know that until watching the movie, and then after watching it makes sense to them. The color of the text is white, which doesn't seem to say much apart from the fact that it being such a basic color instead of anything fancy shows seriousness, however that is something minor to pick up on, and the main purpose of it seems to be to provide contrast with the dark background.

Get Out (2017)

    The next title I'm going to analyze is the title for Get Out, which has a very similar style of text as Bird Box, in the sense that it is plain white, and a very rigid and serious looking font again. This is to show the seriousness of the film, and the positioning of the letters underneath eachother makes us look elsewhere to see the title instead of reading in just a straight line, which could imply the fact that this movie is not a simple story and has many twists and turns (yes, this is a stretch but the positioning was something I noticed was done differently). Lastly, the relevance of this title to the film implies what the general idea of this movie is, which is that the character is trapped somewhere dangerous and needs to escape. This doesn't reveal anything specific to the story itself but it makes it easier for the viewers to know what kind of film they are going to see.

A Quiet Place (2018) 

  The last title I'm going to look at, A Quiet Place, seems a little bit different than the other two. To spot a clear difference, the word 'Quiet' is red, while 'A' and 'Place'  are white. This draws attention and emphasis on the word 'Quiet' which ties into the relevancy of the title to the film, as the whole premise of the story is that they have to stay quiet or else monsters will be attracted to them. Again, this gives a general idea to the audience that there is some reason that the setting of the story is a place that is quiet (obviously), but they won't understand why it is quiet until after watching, which seems to be a common trend of the titles of thriller movies. Also, the font again looks sharp and serious, another common thriller convention as they want to show the seriousness of the film. The positioning of the title is also important as it is put on the bottom to be moved out of the way of the picture of the woman covering her mouth, which further conveys the meaning of the story and shows that the reason for being quiet is probably extremely serious, as her scared look and tears suggest.

 Overall, there are a few common conventions that I have noticed while looking at thriller titles. For one, the font is always very serious and rigid, not being rounded or fun looking in the slightest, which is something they avoid because the movies are not feel good in nature and they do not want to mislead the audience. Font colors are also simple, usually being white, red or black to highlight the serious and creepy nature to the movie, and the relevance of the titles to the film is always loose, as it often very generally describes the premise or something of importance in the story, but the audience won't know exactly what it means until watching. This is helpful to me as a few days ago I decided to make a possible cover for our movie, Lucid Elucidations (shown below), and looking back at it the titling conventions are slightly off.

In making the title, the font I chose looks very wavy and rounded, with a pattern of purple and green for the lettering, which may look a bit more lighthearted than our film may be. However, there are no ideas set in stone yet, but if our title sequence is something involving a dream sequence, the title could potentially convey that. I am going to make a new one once our title sequence is fully completed, and I have taken note of titling conventions of thriller films and may make changes if necessary, for example, if we choose to follow conventions instead of challenging them, or if it has a correlation to the theme of the story.

  

What is my Individual Role?

   For our film, Lucid Elucidations, we have decided to split four specific roles amongst the four of us in order to put all of our strengths and creative abilities to use to produce the best film possible. These four roles are the director, editor, cinematographer, and production designer. This is a list of who will be filling these roles:

Director: Pierce Thomas
Editor: Ben Isaacs (me)
Cinematographer: Katelyn Wagner
Production Designer: Bianca Raby

  These are four very crucial roles for creating the best feel for the movie and creating the intended mood and meaning we are trying to create. In this post, I am going to be going over why I chose to be the editor for the film and what jobs I will have in contributing to the filmmaking process.

  So firstly, what does the editor do? Besides simply putting the clips together of course, there is an extensive amount of things that editors are responsible for. Among these, is their collaboration with cinematographers, sound editors, and directors to get a good understanding of the intended vision of the film, to best bring all the elements together and tell a story. The editor must also watch through hours of extensive footage and be able to select the scenes with the best dramatic and entertainment value, and be able to make rough cuts and edits to create the intended story. The editor must also make revisions to the film at the request of the director and producers, and then releasing it to the film house for production once all is finished.

  I felt that this role would suit me well as I have always enjoyed editing videos and images, am familiar with the technology, have good resources and am able to turn a vision into an actual story through the power of editing. For our film, I have decided to use the program Sony Vegas Pro 13 to edit on (as seen below), as there are many capabilities it has that are not offered in other programs, which I will go over.

  Firstly, Sony Vegas Pro 13 has many, many different effects, transitions and 'media generators' (text, solid color screens, etc) that are not offered by other softwares. This is due to a software attachment named Sapphire which adds a multitude of high quality effects which can be used in our film.

  As seen in this screenshot, SVP allows for multiple audio and video tracks to be created and merged together, and also allows for them to be unlinked and moved to different locations. You are also able to zoom in on specific clips via the scroll bar on the bottom, allowing you to use the audio waves and needle to pinpoint where video and audio could be in sync. Lastly, one of the main most important tools that SVP offers is keyframing (as seen below). Keyframing allows you to select a certain clip and be able to choose a point in the clip where the camera pans in, moves right/left, up/down, zooms in/out, etc. This helps to create certain movement effects in the film, or even if there is a mistake and say the camera is accidentally captured on the side of the frame, then you are able to zoom it in slightly to fix this.

  Now that I have covered the responsibility of the editor and why I have chosen to be the editor, and also explaining the key features of the program I will be editing with, I will now explain how I am going to bring everything together to make the best film possible.

  Throughout the filmmaking process, I will constantly be closely collaborating with the director, cinematographer and production designer to be on top of the overall vision of the film and how it is supposed to look. Among this I will offer ideas of my own that I feel editing could make work, and suggestions on how a certain shot should look, how it should be paced, etc. After the filming is done I will review all of the footage and decide which specific clips scenes would be the best to create the intended feeling and meaning of the film. In doing this I will also check up with my other group members to ensure that the film still looks as originally envisioned and intended. After then editing the clips in the proper order and combining the sound with the visuals to create a story telling film, I will present this to my group to discuss any changes that shall be made and make the changes accordingly. After a final cut is agreed upon, I am responsible for sending the finished product back to the film house so it can then be produced.

Sources

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/film-editor2.htm
http://www.media-match.com/usa/media/jobtypes/editor-jobs-402709.php

Diving Deeper Into the Thriller Genre

 After researching the similarities and differences between horror and thriller conventions and choosing to go in the direction of a thriller, I decided to look further into the thriller genre and look at the conventions used in them to create a suspenseful atmosphere. Since we intend to do more of a psychological thriller, I decided to look at a very popular film that fits into this category,  Split (2016), a psychological thriller about three girls who have been kidnapped by a man with 23 distinct personalities, and the whole film is them trying to escape. I am going to be looking at the mise en scene, sound, editing and cinematography of the scene and what they convey, and look for how they tie into the overall conventions and purpose of a typical thriller movie.

 One thing I noted from the text being shown on the opening credits is something minor but still worthy of recognizing, the transitioning of the text. The text multiplies and then comes back together as it transitions, almost looking like a glitch. This can confuse the viewer and builds suspense as it is jarring and confusing and pairing it with the strange audio track that accompanies the entire title sequence, it creates a feeling of urgency.

 Immediately when the first scene started, I realized that the mise en scene was worth taking note of. There is dim, lowkey lighting which immediately makes it clear that this is not a place where you would want to be and it strikes fear into the audience. The setting looks to be some kind of basement or facility as we see industrial looking pipes on the ceiling and abnormal wall lights with a long hallway. The whole mood was set in this scene, as the audience has now been presented with the creepiness of the location and it has become apparent that this place could be dangerous.

The mise en scene and sound of this scene already suggested the dark nature of this scene, but the cinematography used in these two scenes confirms that what is going on is certainly something sinister. The first close up shows her with her eyes closed in a daze, most likely unaware of whatever is going on. Then in between it flashes to more credits, and then cuts back to the second scene, where she has her eyes open wide, looking confused and shocked, as she is realizing she is not familiar with the location she is in and she does not know why she is being rolled down this mysterious hallway. Another thing I noticed was the awkward angle this close up was shown at, as it is looking up onto her face instead of directly on it, making the audience feel awkward and uncomfortable, similar to how she is feeling.

This last scene keeps flashing repeatedly in between credits, and it is quite interesting. It is a long shot of the girl laying down with the man standing over her positioning her onto the bed, however, it is blurry and appears to be shown through a small crevice. This confuses the audience and builds intensity, as the audience can not tell what is going on, but are wondering why he is doing what he is doing, and it makes it feel like they are hiding from the man as the camera is shown from such a discrete place. This directly correlates with the purpose of a thriller movie as discussed in the last post, as it relies heavily on mystery and leaving the audience trying to figure out what is going on.

 Overall, the use of sound, mise en scene, editing and cinematography in this title sequence do a good job accomplishing the intended purpose of a thriller movie. The scenes appear more and more ominous and strange as the title sequence progresses, and the faced rhythm of the editing paired with the jarring soundtrack build suspense and confusion in those watching, and in the end the audience is left wondering what is happening to this girl and what the man is doing, worried that it is something sinister.

Split (2016) Title Sequence

How is Representation Implemented into the Thriller Genre?

  Like every genre, thriller has certain conventions as far as how gender, race, and class are represented in their films. After looking at some of the common conventions of how the intense and mysterious feel is created and how the story is left open for the viewer to figure out, I decided to also research how these groups are represented in thriller movies. In this post, I will be breaking down how each group is represented commonly in the thriller genre by researching various sources to find commonalities of genre conventions.

Gender

• Men are almost always portrayed as violent and/or serial killers, while women are almost always portrayed as the victims.
• Men are also usually the 'hero' of the film and are trying saving the woman.
• Men are usually shown as strong and muscular while women are shown to be thin and good looking.
• Males portrayed as powerful, while women are portrayed as powerless.

Race

• The hero is usually white, while other ethnicities are shown as rather victims or antagonists.
• Asians are skilled fighters.
• Characters from the Caribbean are often gangsters or criminals.
• American men are often the 'hero' of the movie, American females are used as sex symbols

Class

• The 'hero' of the film is usually of the upper class.
• People of lower class are usually intellectuals but don't have any common sense.
• Higher class people are usually shown to have busy and stressful lives.
• Higher class people are more powerful and lower class people are powerless.

 Overall, thriller has very similar conventions to many other genres in the way they portray who has power and who doesn't. For example, the characters who have power are higher class, usually white, and are almost always men. The common victims are women as we see in other movie genres, and their heroes are usually always men. However, through researching some other thriller movies, I have found that many modern thriller movies challenge some of these conventions, and it is opening up the thriller genre to many more possible stories. For example, in Get Out (2017), the main victim is a black male, being tricked by his white girlfriend into meeting her family, who plans on extracting his brain and selling it to a white buyer who wants his traits. This is interesting in the sense that not only is the victim a male, but a female was also one of the main antagonists, although it is normally the other way around. On top of this, the white family were actually the antagonists in this film, while the black man, overpowered by the whole family, was the protagonist. Lastly, the hero of this film was another black man, who was a friend of the protagonist, who found out where he was and the situation he was in and lead the cops to him. These are major challenges to common conventions as the hero, antagonists and protagonist are literally the opposite of conventions. However, some conventions such as white people being of a higher class, and the men in this movie are all strong and ready to fight, which the protagonist has to stand in the face of in order to escape.

Sources
https://www.slideshare.net/ccapricec/represnetations-and-sterotypes-in-the-thriller-genres
http://www.criminalelement.com/who-reads-what-thrillers-mysteries-gender-lines-linda-rodriguez/

Get Out (2017) Trailer

Why We Changed Our Mind

 After writing the last post and finally deciding on horror, one of my group members brought to my attention the similarities to horror that the thriller genre had. In his blog, he had listed some of the key similarities and differences between the two genres, which sparked indecision in the rest of the group. After conducting further research into the thriller and horror genres and what differentiates the two of them, my group and I all reached the consensus that thriller would not only be an easier genre to go through with, but it also leaves us more open to doing a variety of things, as the main point of a thriller is to mainly build suspense rather than terrify the viewer. In this post, I'm going to analyze some of the key differences between the horror genre and thriller genre, and evaluate which ones swayed my decision.

Horror

• Employs a "fight vs flight" dynamic, which in the beginning a character is faced with an issue in the first half of the film and tries to flee, but are forced to confront the issue directly in the second half.
• The characters make active decisions that lead them to direct confrontation with the antagonist.
• Intends primarily on scaring the viewer rather than leaving them tense.
• Exposition is usually given to the characters and questions are quickly answered and explained to the audience.
• Is usually more unrealistic and supernatural rather than realistic and plausible.

Thriller

• Characters are drawn towards the antagonist against their will rather than making active decisions to get closer to them.
• The protagonist is usually unsuspecting and living normally until the antagonist causes problems.
• Thrillers rely more on mystery rather than revealing everything to the audience, so the audience is also actively trying to figure out what is going on, thus building more suspense.
• Characters do not try to face the issue and try to get away from it.
• Is usually more realistic in the issue and in the way the characters react to the conflict caused by the antagonist.

Similarities

• Both share the "fight vs flight" dynamic. (However, in horror, the protagonist usually chooses to fight while in a thriller the protagonist chooses to try avoiding conflict.)
• A horror movie can still thrill the audience and a thriller can still horrify the audience.
• Both can contain similar plots, however, they are shown differently.
• Both can have mysterious elements to them, although horror tends to reveal the exposition more than thriller does.

What swayed my decision?

   After doing research on how the two genres are different, it became apparent to me that thriller is much more simple for a few reasons. For one, the issue at hand does not have to be identified, as in horror the exposition is usually given to the audience while in thriller it is not, making it much easier to have the conflict facing the character being anything we choose, without having to identify what exactly it is. Given it is a title sequence, it probably wouldn't be revealed anyway, however having more of a mystery is better in general as far as building tension. Another thing that made me want to do a thriller rather than horror is considering that we need to act whatever we chose to put in the movie out which would be difficult, as none of us are professional actors, and in horror there is more direct confrontation and scary things actually happening. This would be hard to pull off as our acting may not be good enough to scare the audience and may even be cheesy, however with thriller, a lot can be done through editing. The use of sound, speed and which shots are shown is enough to build suspense alone, and nothing "scary" needs to happen or be done. Going off on this however, I do want our title sequence to be creepy, but the intent is to build tension for the audience, not to terrify them.

Source

http://www.bang2write.com/2013/11/whats-the-difference-between-horror-thriller-part-2.html
http://pediaa.com/difference-between-horror-and-thriller/