Friday 28 January 2011

Tuesday 18 January 2011

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead



I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)

Will Graham is a gangster who has left the life of crime and is living in the countryside. He comes out of hiding to investigate the death of his brother when he learns that he committed suicide. Charlotte Rampling is his old girlfriend who owns a restaurant. Boad is the villain responsible for the bad things that happened to Will's brother.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003) establishes a link with the thriller genre straight away, with eery music from a piano and dark shadowed titles. Also the footage is de-saturated creating and emphasizing the thriller genre.

Conventions of a typical thriller movie are followed in the opening sequence, as there are dark titles, and de-saturated footage. The sound is of a random nature, an unpredictable tune of a piano, much like the unpredictable cuts in the the opening sequence. The viewer may become lost in the cuts, being taken from inside a car, then into a blood filled bath. The unpredictable nature of this film, heightens the thriller genre.

I don't like the titles very much, they are all very similar and although they are consistent, I became bored of seeing black and white titles for at least two minutes.

Friday 14 January 2011

Taxi Driver

To view taxi driver open sequence copy and paste into url bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTv8toR3Ug

To view our montage copy and paste this one into the url bar.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54811266@N05/5354647704/

The opening sequence that is for Taxi driver which is directed by Martin Scorsese and made in 1976. The opening sequence was very ambiguous as you don't see much just a mans eyes and it looks like he is watching people from his car. The opening sequence of the film brings you into the thriller genre quite well because it looks very ambiguous which makes you want to know is going to happen further on in the film.

Number 23 opening sequence + analysis



Analysis of Number 23 Opening Sequence

The opening sequence to this film uses a sparse color palette; sepia tones, black and red.
The sepia tones connote the film to be eery and dark. The red graphical blood splats which occur throughout,imply that the film will contain horrific incidents and a possible serial killer. The opening sequence focuses mainly on the number 23. The titles are surrounded by the number 23. Historical facts are also included within the sequence which are relevant to the number 23; 'The Mayans believed the end of the world would occur on December 23rd of the year 2012' for example. And '2012' would also be relevant to the number 23. (20+1+2). I feel that the simplistic color palette coupled with facts to do with the Number 23 are effective and work nicely, not giving too much away from the story but giving enough to establish a genre and tone.

Friday 7 January 2011

Preliminary task thriller



Our preliminary task film followed continuity in terms of shot reverse shot and match on action. Although we didn't manage to follow the 180 degree rule; as the character in the black coat initially sitting on the bench was filmed on the wrong side. 
Continuity editing is the predominant style of editing in narrative cinema and television. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.



The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
A match on action, a technique used in film editing, is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot.

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.


Thriller is a genre of literaturefilm, and television that uses suspensetension, and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres are mysterycrime, and psychological thrillers