Posters of Thriller Films

These are examples of Thriller posters designed to advertise certain films. When designing the posters you have to look closely at the text, imagery, colors and context. Your posters have to be suitable for your target audience in order to engage interest from the correct bracket of people. 

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and video game designer. He was born on the 18th of December, 1946.During Spielberg's 40 year career, his films have covered many different genres. In Spielberg's early years his science-fiction films were seen as good modern Hollywook blockbuster film making. In later years his films his films started to portraye issuses of Holocaust, Slavery, War and terrorism. I think that he is largely influential as a film maker and extremely popular in the industory. Spielberg is also a co-owner of the Dreamworks movie studio.
He also won the academy award for Best dierector for Schindler List in 1993 and Saving Private Ryan in 1998. three of Spielberg's films achieved box office records. They where; Jaws in 1975, E.T the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982 and Jurassic Park in 1993. 

This is a video from youtube of the trailer for Jaws, made by Spielberg. His work is very beneficial for me to look at as there is good editing and filming used when we see the shark, as in reality it would be impossible to go and film that up close to a shark.   

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is one of the biggest Thriller film directors and producrs from England. He was born on 13th August 1899 and died on the 29th of april 1980. After a successful career in Britain Hitchcock then moved to Hollywood.In 1956 he beamce an American citizen.
Hichcock's career lasted over a century.He created a camera made to move in a way that mirrors a person's gaze, making viewers engage in the voyurge.He framed shots to show anxiety, fear, or empathy as mush as possible and used innovative film editing.Hitchcock's stories often feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside pretty female characters.Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring violence, murder, and crime.
Hitchcock directed more than 50 feature films in a career that lasted 60 decades. Often known as the greatest British filmmaker. Hitchcock came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, this said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." 

This is a video from youtube which is a trailer of one of Hitchcock's most famous films called Psycho. Looking at his work helps me as you can see the wonders which can be created.

History of Thrillers

Thrillers are a genre of film, etelevision programming and literature. The main elements of Thrillers are tension, suspense and excitement. A psychological Thriller is another type of Thriller. They incorporate elements from the mystery and drama genre, creating a horror type atmosphere.
 With the help of President Kennedy, the political thriller and the paranoid thriller film became largely popular.The films from Alfred Hitchcock are examples of successful thrillers. 
Thrillers stimulate the viewers mood, for example high levels of anticipation, high expectancy, anxiety, uncertainty,excitment, fright and tension. During thrillers to help create the mood literary devices are used, such as enigma codes given and cliffhangers which are the most used device. Although each sub-genre of Thrillerhas its own methods and characteristics in all sub-genres common methods used are, cover-ups of important information from the viewer and fight and chace sense.

Location shots!

These are some location shots which we took whilst filming our opening. 

week 13!

This week we brought our extra footage into school, uploaded it and continued to edit. During editing we have added credits and started to try out different pieces of music.

week 12!

This week we continued our editing process and discovered that there was a few more out side shots that we could shoot. This week we also had a man called Mike Smith come in and talk to us and the media students the year above us about audience. He was from a good media background working for many major companies. We learnt many useful things and how to aim our Opening Sequence to a Thriller to a pacific classes of people and age groups. We worked in pairs and on our own to carry out different tasks and discussions. 
This week we also scheduled to film some outside shots, which we did on Sunday evening. 

Music choices

This is a screen shot of a piece of music that we found and would like to use in our opening. 

week 11!

All this week we have been taking it in turns with editing our opening sequence. When editing we are making sure that we all put in an equal input so that it is fair and so that we can produce our opening sequence to the best of our abilities.

Scream

This is another opening sequence to a thriller which I have imported from youtube. I looked at because this film also contains a stalker which is the main idea to our narrative.

I enjoyed this opening as a i thought it was simple yet effective. It starts with spooky non diegetic music as we see the opening credit of the film company. This automatically sets the scene as it sets up an enigma code because we are instantly on edge, wondering what is about to unfold. This music then fades into the sound of a telephone, here we see the movie starting to unfold with a telephone call. Firstly we hear the phone before we see it. This so that a greater atmosphere is created. At this stage we have not yet seen anything happen. This is until we hear a menacing scream and a blond haired woman picks up the phone. The name of the film appears in red. This colour is a sign of danger and we instantly know the situation is going to be evolving the phone call. I like this because it is easy to watch and automatically engages the audience.

We then hear the non diegetic sound of a weird creepy man on the phone. I think this is good because we can here the man yet we can not clearly picture what he looks like. I like the shot where the camera cuts from inside the house to outside. I feel that this shot creates a stalker impression as if someone is watching what is happening inside.

When the woman is talking n the phone, one thing she does is she pulls out a knife and then places it back. She does this in a way which causes no harm, yet she sets up an enigma code as we wounder why did she do so.

The house is empty which adds to the atmosphere leaving it feel lonely and spooky. The lighting used is also important. The lighting used also plays a significant role in the opening sequence as if they where to use bright lighting it would have been impossible to create the correct atmosphere for this genre of film.

I liked this opening sequence and i think that i can learn many things from it and that it can help me in creating an opening sequence of my own. From this opening sequence i can see how effective it is to have the correct lighting. This narrative idea is also very similar to mine as you can not the protagonist is unable to see the antagonist.

Taxi Driver

This is a video from youtube of an opening sequence to a thriller. I looked at this video for inspiration because in this film there is a stalker like wise in our opening.


The film starts with the opening credits, these are in red which is a sign of danger and instantly sets the scene for what it about to happen. For the first 15 seconds there is no sound at all. I didn't like this as i found it extremely weird. This thought is not a bad thing as can see not to use it in my opening sequence as i don't like the effect. It is not until after the black out and smoke appears that we first hear any sound played. After we see the puff of smoke we then see a car. I think it is effective as we do not see the whole car, only the bottom half of the chaise so we are unaware of who is driving. This creates tension as we do not know or see the driver of the vehicle. 
After the car drives past i like the edit when the writing of the film title appears. As we see the Taxi and the the title Taxi Driver we instantly know that who ever is in control of the vehicle is the antagonist and the one to watch out for in the film. I like this opening as it as no speech and this is what I was looking to create when producing my opening sequence to a thriller. From this opening I can see the effectiveness of titles and subtitles and also the use of music as there it no direct speech. From what i have learnt this will help me in creating an opening of my own. 

week 10!

This week we finalized all of our planning. We then looked back over our narrative, scripted and story broads before filming to ensure that our idea was realistic and doable. On Thursday we then filmed our opening sequence to a thriller. I felt that the filming went well as we followed everything as scheduled. On Friday we then brought the footage into school to upload it and start the editing process. the footage took a while to upload so in the mead time I looked into other editing software. I found that widows movie maker was about as technical as imove09 and the better editing software were Avid pro and Adobe premier pro and for mac users there is final cut pro. 

SHOT LIST

SHOT LIST

SHOT NUMBER.	Type Of Shot	Extra information
1.	OVS/POV	Jake watching Stevie’s house.
2.	WA	Cut to Stevie watching t.v, unaware of Jake.
3.	MS	Jake watching Stevie through the window
4.	LS	Stevie looks at window, see’s nothing.
5.	SLOW PAN	Stevie looks for Jake, can’t see him, pan to see him hiding behind a wall.
6.	MS	Stevie, slams the door.
7.	HIGH ANGLE	Stevie walks up stairs.
8.	MS	Stevie walking towards the room.
9.	MCU	Stevie walks into her bedroom and slams door.
10.	MCU/CU	Stevie is on laptop, puts on music, ECU of plugging in headphones.
11.	CU	Door handle moves(from inside)
12.	LA/MS	Jake walks through the door
13.	MS	Cut to Stevie in room.
14.	LOW ANGLE	Jake walks up the stairs, slowly.
15.	MS	Cut to Stevie in room.
16.	MS	Jake walks across the landing
17.	MS	Cut to Stevie in room.
18.	LS	Jake stops outside Stevie’s room, puts on gloves
19.	ECU	Jake opening door.
20.	LS	Jake walks into the room, closes door behind him, walks towards Stevie, puts a hand on her shoulder. CUT STRAIGHT TO BLACK.

This is our shot list which we follow when filming to make sure we have all the shots which we need, this will help us to safe time as we wont have to keep going back to film many times. 

New Script

Thriller Opening Sequence Script.
DESIRE
Hannah Parker, Stevie Anthony, Rebecca Smith, Jake May.
   

SCENE 1:
OVS/POV Shot of Jake looking at Stevie’s house.
 
CUT EDIT- Inside Stevie’s house, Stevie’s watching tv/doing homework, unaware of Jake.

SCENE 2:
PAN of Jake walking towards Stevie’s house.
Jake tapes window three times.
Stevie looks, nobody there.
Stevie gets up and opens the door to check, nobody is there.

Jake hides behind the wall, pan across to Jake, looking at Stevie.

SCENE 3:

Stevie goes back inside the house, worried and walks up the stairs and into her room, slams door, puts music on (on laptop) and plugs in the headphones, using CU and MS.

CUT EDIT – back to Jake, who walks into Stevie’s house.

CUT EDIT – Stevie, jamming.

CUT EDIT – Jake walks up stairs, slowly.

CUT EDIT -   Stevie on Facebook/twitter.

CUT EDIT- Jake walks across the landing.

CUT EDIT- Stevie still on laptop (possible webcam shot.)

CUT EDIT- Jake, stood outside Stevie’s bedroom door, puts on gloves, opens door.

Long shot of Jake walking into the room, closing the door behind him, walks towards Stevie puts hand on her shoulder/ takes out a headphone.

CUTS TO BLACK.

The end.

New Story Board.

Here are our new story boards which our idea for an opening sequence is much simpler and much more realistic when it comes to filming.

Screen shots of our first attempt at filming.

These are photographs which we took during filming our first idea for an opening sequence to a thriller. 

Mood Board.

This is our mood board which we all put an equal input into.

Week 9!

After filming the majority of our opening sequence last Thursday we discovered that we where unable to continue with our original idea. During looking back over the footage to start the editing process we found out that the original idea was to ambitious. We did not take this as a bad thing as we can learn many things from this. We all ready have a more simple narrative idea which is much more realistic to be able to film.

Storyboard

These are our mood boards which i drew.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire:

1. What gender are you?

Male [ ]

Female [ ]

2. What age group are you in?

0-13 [ ]

14-18 [ ]

19-25 [ ]

26-30 [ ]

31+ [ ]

3. How often do you watch a thriller film?

Once a week [ ]

Once a fortnight [ ]

Once a month [ ]

Once a year [ ]

Other ___________________________________

4. What is your favorite Thriller film?

_________________________________________

4b. Why?

__________________________________________

5. What attracts you to a film?

Actors [ ]

Director [ ]

Trailers [ ]

Adverts [ ]

Reviews [ ]

Other _____________________________________

6. What do you like most in a thriller film?

Action [ ]

Graphics [ ]

Suspense [ ]

Jumpy [ ]

Obvious [ ]

Cliff hanger [ ]

Other _____________________________________

7. Do you believe music is important in an opening sequence?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

8. If you enjoyed a film would you watch the sequel?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

9. Do you believe the title in the opening sequence is important?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Working amoungs the other people in my group, we devised questions for a questionnaire. We then asked 20 at random to help us out by filling it in.

After looking back over our result we could see that 60% of the participants where Females and the otehr 40% males. The magority of people asked where between 14-18 as we asked many people when in school. We have many few under 14 and only 6% over 19.

Out of the 6% of poeple who where over 19 they said that they watch a Thriller once a week. Where as only 3% of the under 18 year olds said that they watch a Thriller once a week. 2 people who filled out the questionnaire even said that they have never watched an entire Thriller. This show us that the older generation are more likely to sit down and watch a thriller.

When asked what is yourfavorite Thriller film the magority of answers where from the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott and M. Night Shyamalan. This is a great help to us as we can see who's work to best look upto when making a thriller opening of our own. 

The thing which we discovered most atracts under 18 year olds to a film is the Actors. The main thing over all though which we discovered was the adverts which attract certain people to a fiolm. If an advert doesn't appeal to a person when they will think that it is a waste of time going to see the film it's self. Advertosong plays a very important role when getting people to see a film. 

The element people like most amout thrillers are the graphics and the action in the film. We found that ehre was no difference between the agegroups and that the main percentage of people chose the graphics and action. 

When asked do you think music is important in an opening sequence 70% of under 18 year olds said yes and so did 60% of the over 19 year olds. This shows us that when contructing our opening to a Thriller it is important to get the correct music in orderto keep the viewer satisfied. 

It was 50 50 when asked do you think the title in the opening sequence is important. This maybe because the viewer is more interested in the film than the title it's self. As 50% of people said yes, and the magority of them being over 19 year olds it is stil important to focuse closely on the opening title. 

I found that asking this questionnaire was very helpful to me as i now have knowledge pf ther age groups oppinions and what suits different people. 

week 8!

This week we have finalised a name for our opening to a thriller. The name which we have chosen is "Desire" as we think it is very eye catching and fits the purpose. This week we have also arranged to film all of the main scene to our opening on Thursday (03.11.2011).

Prop List

BOX	TABLE
Birthday card	Flower
T-shirt	Tea lights
Pressed flower	Table cloth
Empty aftershave bottle	Knife
Pictures	Phone
Comb/hair brush	Big red candle
	Gig tickets
	Train tickets
	Memory box
	Matches
	Pills