Evaluation- Q1-5

The conventions of a medical thriller

The sub-genre I will be analysing is medical thrillers and what makes up that sub-genre in a film of its category.

What is a medical thriller?
A medical thriller is a type of thriller which is based on medical treatments and because it is a thriller, it is even more based on medical problems or mutations. The characters are trying to solve these problems, but while they are doing this, they also always get involved into the problem. This subgenre is more based on literature than on the film media

To begin, I will first look into what components on editing are used to make up the Medical thriller  genre.

Common medical thrillers do have some feature extensive uses of green tint which majorly comes from the colours of the operation and hospital lights.

     
Firstly, one of the things what makes up many common medical thrillers is the extensive use of green tint, which is almost atmospheric, it creates a modern, pale and isolated feel. It is majorly inspired by the turquoise colours we often see in most hospitals.

The green also makes the whites in scenes really stand out depending on the type of lighting. If low-key, the green tint would show grimy details o walls and the ceiling for example, or if it was high key then the scenes would be much brighter like in the photo above, almost everything is white and makes the scene really high-key but however no lively as there is always desaturation in medical thrillers where white backgrounds are involved and this creates a rather pleasing but unusual and ghostly atmosphere within the scene.

In most medical thrillers, the main character always encounters death, either on their own or a somebody else's. This is one of the most traditional and common conventions of the sub-genre because in medical thrillers, there are scenarios either about a psychopathic killer or an infectious genocide or apocalypse.

Next, common medical thrillers often included the storyline in which the hero or heroine are medical doctors or personnel working to solve a dangerously expanding medical problem.


Traditionally, it's either commonly an infected apocalypse like in 28 Days Later, or a rapidly growing infectious disease in which a group of scientists need to suppress and eliminate before a genocide takes place, like in the medical thriller "Contagion".

 

Analysis of 3 Film Openings

The extensive use of low-key lighting is used to immediately set the atmosphere in the film.

Right from the very beginning of the opening sequence, it starts of with he use of very low-key lighting.

The low-key lighting establishes this gloomy, apocalyptic feel for the viewer and already starts sharply with this level of suspense. The use of the low-key lighting also makes the background unclear and really dark therefore provoking curiosity and suspicion as to what could possibly disrupt the equilibrium of the scene.

Hurtwood House - Analysis of Micro elements

 

SUBMERGED 

 

At the beginning, they us editing and sound to start off the story with a rather creepy atmosphere.

How they had done this is that they added in a slow fade from black to emphasise the deep darkness of the scene then had synchronised it with the non diegetic audio drone and ambient sound to really reinforce the effectiveness of creating this deep, huge underwater setting.

 

They also use editing to create clarity as to what part of the film the viewer is watching.

This is evident as they use basic italic font as text introducing their production company which is traditionally a the opening of common thriller films.

 

Editing is also used to show clarity within the scene itself with the use of a long take. The use of the long take of the submarine indicates to the audience that the story is set in there and is significant to the actual film and indicates that this isn't any random shot used to establish the setting.

 

Mise en scene is used to create the cold, atmospheric effect through out the opening sequence.

The submarine features two blue lights at the front which also softly lights the setting around it therefore indicating that that sequence is set underwater.

 

 

The use of the mid-close up side shot of the two pilots almost makes the viewer feel like they're in the actual submarine sitting next to them and getting to see what they are doing, in other words, its up close and personal.

 

 

CATHERINA

 

The use of cinematography is used to set pace in the sequence.

 

At the starting of the sequence, the high angled close up shot of the car wheel spinning as it moves at a fast speed on a highway.

 



 



Short Artefact film

INTRODUCTION

Our brief was to create a short media artefact as a group of 3 in order to effectively and practically demonstrate our understanding of continuity techniques and when they’re used.

So we were given a task to come up with a short media piece about a Detective meeting up with an informant and conversing about any information of our choice as long as it suited what we were doing and the basic outline of the story we were given.

We were split into groups of 3 to create the short movie example of continuity techniques.

The continuity techniques we had to include in our demonstration were:

-     - The “SHOT REVERSE SHOT”

-     - MATCH ON ACTION

-     - The 180 “DEGREE RULE”

-     - Some dialogue between the two characters

      All of these techniques has to be used correctly in order to assure our understanding of continuity techniques and the effects created by using them in a scene.

THE CHALLENGES

As good as the outcome was in the end, we did however face a number of problems during the production process in general which had really slowed down our progress and risked the completion of our media artefact.

PRE-PRODUCTION

In pre-production, the first problem was the planning of what shot to include and how we would show them in a specific way to create some sort of cinematic effect and would demonstrate good use of cinematography and continuity techniques. Also, there was the problem of the people in my team in this  having to find themselves being often distracted by other groups and not focusing much on the planning of the task. Furthermore, there was a real lack of focus within my group and it had seemed that I had taken it a bit more seriously then them, but however they did contribute, but not in a wayI would be expecting them to, and i mean buy presenting ideas on props,setting and costume.

In general, the group's attention as a whole was not the best and could have been much better if we had put in much more effort into the planning and importantly communication & teamwork.

Also, we had to be able to plan our filming in the space of just one lesson period so that was challenging presuming we had those issues occurring quite often, so we were against time. That however was quite luckily not much of a major setback for us at all but just put us under pressure as we had filming the next lesson.

Next was the storyboard, I had came up with the storyboard and it had featured a series of different shots to demonstrate good use of cinematography, however. it turned out to have too many shots and was rather complicated.

Because I was the only one to create that storyboard, it was a major setback because on the day of the filming, not only did no one else had produced a storyboard, was set for them to do, but we had to very quickly create a brand new storyboard that would be kept simple and only had a small number of shots. This had therefore taken up about 10 minutes of our filming time and had been done in a hurry which had made it not well pre-meditated, but that however managed to be turned into a really good piece of practical film work so it all worked out. 

However, it was a really major setback for the group.

Next was the matter of organising the props and the setting where our scene was going to be shot, the props were all thought of at the end of the time of planning the storyboard and shots, which was good because we would be more likely to remember them for the actual day. However, that theory turned out to be incorrect and they, the two actors in our group had completely forgot to bring the costumes we had planned to carry which had therefore made our scene less mysterious and noir-like as we wanted to make it. Gladly, the outcome did not look so bad as the clothes they were wearing turned out to be not so inappropriate for the scene so that was a relief for us. 

However, with the group's not so efficient organisational skills, the scene did not luckily require props, or we would be in some real trouble...

Finally was the setting, the setting that the scene was shot in was an appropriate place to shoot, but at the same time, not the smartest choice of setting as the room we filmed in was in the Music Department which had therefore meant we would be expecting some really heavy noise coming from the other rooms. Luckily, we did not get much of that, but children going up and down the staircases screaming and shouting was quite the 'spanner in the works' for us. So every time we had to wait until there were no more screaming children running past.

This was a short media piece in Media, this was done in order to show and demonstrate our understanding of the different types of continuity techniques and cinematography shots and how they're used in a scene and what certain effect it has on a scene.
Next, we had to also show our skills and knowledge of the general editing techniques, such as transitions, creative filters, sound altering and special effects (SFX).

What are the good points of this clip?
The use of the shots given to us were all correctly used and used effectively as it had created the effect of our scenes being presented mysteriously and from the beginning introduced this mysterious nature.

This is evident from the first pan shot of Junior emerging from around the corner and walks towards the staircase. 
The use of showing him first in the shot shows to the spectator that he does have some importance in the 2 scenes.

The blogger video did not unfortunately work so here is a link to the video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nerj6ZALIKY&safe=active

Se7en Essay

This essay is an analysis of the crime thriller film 'Seven' and how it is classified as an original thriller movie by looking at it's key factors.

First of all, a thriller movie is not a actually a thriller without an thrills at all. No tension or suspense whatsoever.

What does make a film a thriller ,like 'Se7en', is that there is always this really exciting build of suspense and tension throughout, whether it's just in a conversation between the characters or the protagonist entering and roaming around in an abandoned warehouse, there is always going to be some level of tension in the atmosphere.

Also, in movies that is in the thriller genre, there's majorly this storyline where the protagonist of the story encounters various types of sinister, mysterious and dangerous situations. Although, it often ends up being very risky as the protagonist tends to often always run into the antagonist's traps in one or several parts of the story, like an explosive or a trap door, or even some action leading to the death of certain characters that they may be with. This leads me to my next point, there are two types of  antagonists in thrillers:

- A strategic, psychological mastermind who's identity is often found out at the very end and turns out to be someone who has a strong hatred or envy for the protagonist as in 'Se7en'. Also, this sinister villain would purposely leave clues behind for the main characters to gather in order to finally confront the villain.

- A huge deadly brute or a blood-thirsty killer that leaves nothing but the severed body parts and gore of random victims as clues but are not usually intentional.However,normally in some dark thrillers, each horrific murder acts as a subliminal message or a message or map encrypted onto the victims' bodies.
 Antagonists like these often create really tense atmospheres as they can be lethal and stealthy, usually the one that causes a death of one or more of the main characters in the story.

Furthermore,these types of antagonists are often not afraid to compromise their identity and is one who is most likely to have a final encounter with the our main character or protagonists.Also, what makes a good thriller movie is that it has to have a genius premeditated storyline that engages the audience and that also puzzles them, featuring red herrings and cheap suprises progressively as the viewers are visually captivated in a tense storyline.
The characters have also got to be well thought of as each character may act as a representation of something, whether it's the setting or apart of a subliminal message that all comes together at the end.
Also, to make a thriller even more better, there's nothing better than that one creepy character that appears and disappears out of nowhere, because then the audience has that one character to suspect and this draws the audience in more into the storyline, keeping an eye on this rather mysterious character. Furthermore, as the story progresses, the viewers raise more and more suspicion for this one character before later finding out that he had no major part in any of the antagonist's actions or even the story itself.

Now 'Se7en' portrays itself as a thriller film is that it has a very mysterious theme to it.
This is evident as there's mystery and investigation in the film which cleverly links to the factual 'Seven Deadly Sins' which is a biblical reference.
 That had been important to the story as  the antagonist justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Like the sin of 'Gluttony' coming first in the film,which introduces the theme of the seven deadly sins, and the antagonist's horrid capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and bleak tones and characteristics of film noir. 
Also,there's a highly strategic and psychological antagonist who commits a string of horrific and graphic murders all linked to different factors of the 7 deadly sins as whole. Also, later on in the film, the villain intentionally gives himself into the police and allowed himself to get caught after all of the 6 sins were committed  however, the last of the deadly sins was 'Wrath' and the antagonist had geniusly premeditated this form the very beginning, as he pushes detective Mills over the edge as he learns that his wife was savagely beheaded by the antagonist. Dt Mills is tempted to shoot him, and by shooting him, Mills becomes 'Wrath'.

There's a very bleak and dark outlook on the city judging from the series of unfortunate events that happen there in the storyline. 

This is evident as shown throughout the movie, there is NO high-key lighting in any of the scenes at all. But instead, they decreased the amount of lighting whether it was in a highly-lit cafe or a house.

This was effective for creating this strong old-fashioned Noir feel. Furthermore, the use of the really dark weather reinforces the idea of the city not being a very nice place to be and nothing but but a place of ruthless killings and constant crimes.

NARRATIVE The film is runs in a linear narrative as it shows day-by-day how much the case gradually progresses, although there are flashbacks of crime scenes but still does not alter the way in which the storyline is being told. However,if the movie was to run in a non-linear narrative, the storyline and the ways it is told would be absolutely puzzling.
The film does feature some visual codes such as the entire setting, the city, which is a dark and bleak place where murders always happen, political problems are out of control and it is always a cloudy and rainy day. This works as a foreshadowing that the investigation with our two protagonists, Detective Mills and Sommerset, will go deeper and deeper and that more blood will be shed.
Also, there is that shot of the photo frame of detective Mills' wife with blood on around her eyes, which then foreshadows that she will get caught up in some unfortunate event later on in the story or that death would soon be coming her way.

Throughout the the film, there is very restricted narrative, however,as the story progresses, the viewers start to also get an insight into both of the two protagonists rather than just one of them as they play a vital part in the noir-styled storyline. This is evident as it was all viewed from the two detectives, Detective Sommerset & Detective Mills, our two protagonists' perspective, and showed how this homicidal killer had both affected them personally.

CHARACTERS
The two protagonists in "Seven" are original protagonists of an average thriller movie, first we have detective Mills,a rookie who is married, but however has no children, which implies that he is not much of a family man, or that he From the very start of the film, we learn that he is a rather suspicious and paranoid character at first, judging from the way he swiftly grabs and answers the phone as soon as it rings before is wife does. This then suggested that he played some part in police unit or relative to that. As the story goes along, we start to see this lack of seriousness and concentration as he investigates the first crime,'Gluttony'. As the story progresses even further, we start to see this short-tempered character which plays a significant role at the end as he is tested to see how much he would actually do when pushed to being in absolute rage. From beginning to end, we gradually learn more and more about his character.

On the other hand, Detective Sommerset is first introduced in the film and our first impressions is that he was as an average working-class man.
This was evident from the clothing he puts on and that he has set an alarm, for a certain time that then implies to the audience that he does have a job, and a formal one, judging from the long coat.formal shirt,slacks and tie.
The way the movie allows the audience to make first impressions of a character is throught that very first scene where they get ready to go out.

This was an effective component within the movie as first we would not guess that he had anything to do with an investigation of a crime or even crime-related, until in the next scene, it cuts to him entering an investigation of a murder in what seems to be a flat. However, his countenance is calm and tired but annoyed, telling from his really calm face, this implies to the audience that he may have had years and years of experience in criminology or even that he has witnessed so many crimes that it is the usual for him.

Detective Sommerset is the most persistent and determined out of the two protagonists although he does not often show this with enthusiasm we the audience would expect, also, he does become desperate to solve the crime once and for all, but shows that he is in a way eager to solve the mystery.

This is evident in the film where at some parts of the story, there would be shots of him investigating and doing some in-depth analysis in books and independent study of the '7 Deadly Sins' after he finds out that the killer is associating all his murders with them.`

In the story, `Sommerset' almost immediately understands how the villain thinks and he plays a seriously vital part as he educates both himself and the audience about how the villain works psychologically.

Mise en Scene, through Production Design,  is used to create a bleak,small and restricted setting.