Mind Map



Cape Fear Analysis

Immediately we are introduced to the contrapuntal sound of a brooding thunder storm however what we are shown is a calm lake. The diegetic sound of the storm creates a thriller setting however the close up of the lake takes away that feeling. When the non-diegetic soundtrack begins to play it soon reinforces that this is a dark film. The titles by Saul Bass use a simple bold font but it’s also jagged, representing the thriller genre. The exposure of the eagle over the top of the lake shows the audience that this film involves some sort of predator, when the eagle appears on the screen the music becomes more dramatic exaggerating to the audience that this use of iconography is important to the watchers.

Further exposures show one eye that is determined and then the second is scared, showing that one is the antagonist and the second is a protagonist, or the “killer” and “victim”. 

When the water appears to turn into a lake of blood is follows the film’s thriller genre, creating a sense of fear and death.

The close up of the girl shows she’s a main character in the story, when she talks, she talks into the camera which involves the audience, the non-diegetic soundtrack stops when she speaks, showing what she has to say is important. Her costume shows a white shirt buttoned right up to the top, symbolising that she is innocent and pure, making the audience believe she is the victim.



The cut to Cady’s cell shows a tilt down through the pictures on the wall and his, the pictures themselves say a lot about this character, the image of Stalin is particularly interesting because Stalin took revenge on Ukraine through forced famine, could Cady take revenge too? Notice the eerie non-diegetic soundtrack from the start has begun playing again; perhaps the music only plays around danger?

The camera zooms out to reveal Cady exercising, the mid-shot shows the tattoos on his back, the cross represents his Christian religion and the scales represent justice, this signifies his old fashioned values, for example “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” which gives a sense that he will always get revenge. When Cady walks out of his cell downstairs you notice the inmates are silent and watch on as though he holds power over them, they respect him, also the prison guard walks behind Cady even though he is escorting Cady, it shows he has more power than them in this prison.

The long shot of Cady walking from the prison shows the Thunder storm behind him in the sky, this shows Cady as a force of nature, unstoppable and dangerous. As he continues to walk he walks straight into the camera and looks into it, give the impression that he is after the audience too making them scared and on edge throughout the film.

By Charlotte Mackenzie

Background Research & how lift to the scaffold (1958) was developed.

Thrillers began and started in the 1900's where cinemas were developed. Large companies like Warner & Sony took over the market share of the film industry, as they began to produce a large quantity of films one after another. This process was continuous with famous actors signed and contracted to these big labels, and often appeared regularly; therefore once a film was released they would start filming for the next film. 

Although each company has developed since the 1900's, with Warner and Sony both expanding and differentiating into different markets, the main difference is that back in the 1900's each company produced a different type of film. Also, the films were rolled out continuously. 

          However, not everyone agreed with this concept, in the 1900's there were some objections with this 'fast film' process. Two French writers decided to produce their own films and this was the first film not produced by a company that dominated the film industry but by two amateur individuals; with a lack of experience and funds. Louis Malle, 25 was directing the film 'lift to the scaffold', first known as ascenseur pour l'echafaud (known as 'elevator to the gallows' in the U.S).  This film was produced in 1958. 

Louis Malle didn't want films to be churned out like a factory, as his ambition was to be not only the director but the author of the film; putting more time and consideration into it. He didn't want this film to be another mass produced studio film, because of this 'lift to the scaffold' became a landmark film, changing the film industry since it first existed.

Louis Malle had an inspiration; this was 'Alfred Hitchcock' and kept the spirit of the film. This meant it was the directors vision and not mass produced 'Physco' being the most popular film.   This was, undoubtebly, Louis Malle's biggest influence & the reason Louis Malle looked up to Alfred Hitchcock was because he wanted 100% control of his own film.   'Lift to the scaffold' was a landmark film, it was a clever thriller, made in basic conditions. This holds a certain appeal to the audience and is an indication of what could come next from the film industry; this film introduced a French 'New Wave'. It made Jeanne Moreau an international star due to this influential film. The film itself used real life locations as sets would be too expensive. The film starts with a close up; this identifies the character showing her importance, whilst making the audience feel intimate with her, because she is crying. This also displays a vulnerable character, showing a weakness as she is also wearing no make-up, something which is often a girls' priority. 

             The credits are white because it was a black and white film, a conventionally motivated opening with Jeanne Moreau's tearful fast whispering ''Je t'aime'' - showing intimacy.  Here, the camera pulls back to reveal her (Florence) is alone, speaking into a telephone.  The audience did not expect this; it is the first of many technological surprises used in this film.  Enigma is used a lot here; this is where unanswered questions are created for the audience to get them thinking when the film begins. Whispering on the telephone call suggests something is wrong, whilst credit come on screen against the persons face; this shows the style of the film.  The audience see an establishing shot in reverse as the camera draws back till the audience see her side-on in a public telephone box. Her crime is suddenly set in the real world.  Then cuts to a matching shot to a man on the other end of the line - her lover, who responds, “Without your voice, I’d be lost in a world of silence.” As the credits come up and Davis’ – trumpet enters for the first time, music by Miles Davis a jazz trumpeter. 

The music is unpractised and improvised as a lot of jazz music is, this had a big influence on thrillers when a mood was being created.  Each lover is shot through frames – her in a phone booth, him through the window of an office buildings – this portrays to the audience they are kept under surveillance, a strategy that anticipates the introduction of a crime.  This is also an establishing shot in reverse as the camera draws back to show the office location, reactions shots are used which modern generations of films lack as they are used to fast paced moving films.  The camera, stays on the reaction shot so the audience feel connected with the film, whilst accentuated sound tells the audience something important is going to happen, building suspense whilst showing time passing by. This is shown by footsteps, and when the man is in the office a perfect long shot is used to show who is dominant and holds power.   

 This is ironic, because the man holding power gets shot. Because of this and the conventional props used such as a rope and a gun, whilst also using elements iconic to thrillers such as a beautiful women, 'femme fatale' = fatal women, getting the man to commit her crime. This film can also be portrayed as a crime thriller as it has elements within it. There are also strange devices used, with rope and gloves to catch the audiences interests, a shot reverse shot is used in the office for enigma as it gets the audience to think 'will he change his mind' however the low angle of the killer shows the fatality that will happen next. 

                    Parallel editing and accentuated sound of the women and the pencil sharpener hide the sound of the killing, as it is made to look like a suicide. However, the rope is left showing the damaging events that took place; there is a close up of the expensive car, something that is iconic in thrillers. Also, the equilibrium has changed now, because life in the film was normal until the disequilibrium (murder) and now there are complications (caretaker cuts off lift when the man realises he left the rope up there and goes back). Thrillers often use entrapment, which are small confined spaces such as the lift. Now Jeanne (Florence) has not heard what has happen, she is alone in the romantic city of Paris – showing her vulnerability. Audience are asking themselves questions of what has happened, whilst the car goes past not driven by him – creating more questions, a strong enigma. 

                   Parallel editing is used to show he is stuck in the lift, and Florence is looking for him. She fills the screen showing she is the man star of the film, low key lighting is shown here as it is at night; her face is lit only by the lights glowing inside the cafés and from the street lights. Because she has wrongly assumed Julien has abandoned her, the first notes from Davis's trumpet are sombre, echoing the heartbreak she feels as she searches for her lost lover. Tracking is used here, it was shot with a camera in a pram, and is the famous walk in real time and locations, no sets or rented cars; therefore shows the skill that is used by Louis Malle – An independent film producer.

                                                                           

This is the tracking shot where a camera was in a pram - It is now the most famous scene in 'Lift to the scaffold' and known worldwide.  

     Mary Sullivan                   

 

Initial ideas - storyboard

Questionnaire Results

From asking an equal amount of males to females mainly from the age range of 16-19, I have found out that most people like the suspense in thrillers but the genre of crime. This is usually because they like the reality of the story line which they can relate to. The main character and villain is the most important character within the film and that the majority of the group we asked watched thriller films every 3 months and like the characters best in thriller films. They equally liked male or female roles but not children and like films in colour rather than black and white as it is easier to watch and more enjoyable. The title is the most eye catching thing on a thriller film poster, which means our group needs to have a very good title to attract an audience. Thriller films are mainly watched by friends and should be opened by suspense. This shows that our beginning of the thriller could potentially contain suspense to draw the viewer in.

Focus group questions

1. What is it that you expect from a modern day thriller?
2. What’s your favourite Thriller and why?
3. What do you expect the protagonist to look like, are they male/female?
4. What do you expect the victim to look like?
5. What would you imagine both the protagonist and victim to wear?
6. What events/props do you expect from a normal thriller convention?
7. What is the type of location you expect to see in a Thriller?
8. What storyline do you expect from a Thriller e.g. Mystery?
9. What certificate do you expect a good Thriller to be?
10. What type of soundtrack what you expect?

Pre-liminary

Preliminary task, storyboard.

                                                                                            

Production stages

Pre-Production
From using the storyboards, it really helped us as a group to plan ahead instead of going into filming straight away and not knowing what or where to film. The storyboards helped us think about what angles we wanted to film from that would make our preliminary work as successful as possible. Without the storyboards, I think our preliminary work would not have been as good as we would have had if we just filmed it without thinking about what angles would look best afterwards and give the right affect that we are looking for.  As a guide we saw a storyboard from an actual thriller film to help advise us on how to draw and write up a proper storyboard. On our storyboard we drew the shot that we wanted, wrote up a brief description of action, shot size, camera angle, lighting, colour in frame, setting, props, costume and sound. As we were filming this in school and only had an hour to film the lighting had to be natural, the costume we used had to be what we were wearing at the time for sixth form which means the costumes were quite formal and natural which didn’t really make a difference to our preliminary. By writing all this down we found that when we were filming it was a lot easier as we could get straight on with filming what we wanted to and not waste time thinking about what shot we want to film and argue about the shot type within the group.  

The year 13 students gave us a lot of helpful advice. They taught us how to use the camera and tripod. We were taught how to make the tripod bigger and smaller and how to make sure the camera is straight instead of pointing up or down by accident. The cameras were easier to use than we first thought as it is just a record and stop button. You can also edit on the cameras but it isn’t very good as you can only go back and record over what you have already done so we are going to edit our preliminary and thriller film on the computer to make it look better and more effective. The cameras we have are touch screen which makes it easier to use as it reduces the amount of buttons.

From watching other groups’ preliminary tasks, they have made lots of errors. The main error most of them made was that they didn’t have the camera high or low enough so the shot cut off the actors head or didn’t have enough of the thing being filmed in the scene. Another error a few groups did was that the camera shots were not quite right as they were too close or not close enough on some of the shots. We took lots of advice from watching these preliminaries. One of the main things that we learnt from the errors other groups did was to make sure the camera is on the tripod securely as another group didn’t make sure it was on securely and the camera was wobbly, this made the film look very unprofessional. Another lesson we learnt from them was to plan ahead as one group didn’t and the viewer could see that the group did not know what they were doing next. 

-Alex Fresco

Production

When filming the preliminary work, it was a successful filming; however there were some difficulties our group came across.  We had a few problems when we went to go and film, first off our group had trouble connecting the camera to the tripod this happened due to a lack of experience with camera technology.  Therefore our group had to be advised on how to connect it properly so the camera would be stable.  Also, when filming we had to do a couple of takes so they would look better once the final filming had been edited; this was because a handshake got cut out as the camera angle was too low.  When doing a second take, we realised that the camera battery was very low, and almost died.  Because of this we had to produce the second take quickly, therefore we had less time to concentrate on what we would like to change.  The camera wouldn’t let us rewind the footage to see if anything needed to be change because there was not significant battery left in the camera.   We also had interrupted filming near the beginning where background noise of voices and someone walking at the side of the camera in view could be seen therefore we had to do a second take.   When completing the preliminary task, we learnt how to use the tripod appropriately and how it can be adjusted to suit different camera angles within the preliminary task.  This can be carried forward to the main thriller because we will adjust the tripods height when using different scenes and camera angles to create an effect on the audience. 

Shooting took longer than expected because of interruptions when filming, such as a loud noise or people walking within the camera shot this involved us having to complete a second take.  Also, the people involved in the filming laughed at certain point which involved a retake afterwards.  Another thing we had to consider was finding a suitable location that wasn’t already taken by other groups filming there preliminary work and making sure the location would not get interrupted if it was in a busy place.  This is why we chose the stairs in the T block, as they are not used regularly, however it was halfway across the school, which involved a five minute walk, this time could have been used filming.  Luckily empty stairs involved no interruptions so we could complete our preliminary work quickly, asking permission to use the empty classroom next door and this got granted straight away. 

If we were doing the preliminary task again we would make some changes in order to make sure our filming ran successfully.  These would be going to view the camera and tripods in break before the lesson in order to make sure the camera is fully charged and to pick a tripod suitable to our filming.  Our group would also make sure the classroom next door to where we are going to film was empty beforehand, therefore to avoid any confusion and to make sure we could get permission to use the classroom available.  Luckily, for our group this wasn’t a problem however it could have been a potential problem. 

-Mary Sullivan

Post-Production:

What problems did you have editing the Prelim task?
There were problems with the computers when we went to edit, this involved us changing computers several times which was time consuming.   Therefore, because of this we had less time to edit our prelim work.  The first problem we had was we didn’t know how to edit, the programme was knew to us so we resolved that by having a Year 13 student come in to the lesson and to explain how we do it. We had to get familiar with editing different shots and on one instance we accidently cut out one of the shots. We asked a Year 13 student to correct and to get back the shot that we deleted.  We also had to view the shots where we completed more than one take, and decide on the best one to put within the sequence because they were very similar we had to watch the clips twice which was time consuming.  Also, when uploading the finished sequence onto the final tape we had problems as it would not upload, and we could not find the finished sequence on the computer as it had been stored under a different file. 

What did you learn about editing which would be useful when it comes to the main task? Was doing the Prelim a useful exercise?
I learnt that when we done a few different takes, we had to pick the best one that went well with the sequence of shots and we edited out the others (cut them out). In order to do this we needed to take more footage to have a wider selection of takes to decide which one works best with the rest of the filming. I learnt how to put all the shots together to make one entire sequence.
The prelim task was useful because it enabled our group to get used to and adapt to the camera equipment, and how to adjust and use the tripod in order to make different shots and make them effective.  We also knew what problems might occur when filming, and therefore gave our group an idea of what to expect from when filming our actual thriller. It also gave us the opportunity to have fun with creating and planning different shots and for us to relax when doing it, we didn’t have to worry about it being the main thriller sequence.

What evidence have you got from people who have watched the task, in the form of feedback? We asked other people in our media class to look over our footage and final sequence, we asked them to evaluate our footage, with questions such as whether they thought the camera angles where right and if it flowed well as a sequence. The feedback was positive and they said it was good for our first attempt of a short film. However, we have to always make sure that when we do a pan shot, the tripod needs to be steady otherwise the camera will look jolted in the final sequence.

When you watch the prelim task does the finished product match your first visualisation? Why/Why not?Yes it does because it was a simple task with simple filming so our expectations were not high. They did reach our expectations and the whole group was happy with the result of the footage.
It wasn’t because we all thought we would have more of a challenge for our first production that it actually was, we were disappointed that we couldn’t do more filming with experienced shots including different sound techniques but it is only the Prelim task.

By: Rachel Wardley

Influences

Background

Alex and I have edited the background of the blog and changed the background to wire as this is fits in with the thriller convention that our film is. The font is also in a thriller themed style and we have made the font red to give the reader a feeling of danger.

Possible Location

Here is a possible location where we may film our thriller; it linked well with our initial ideas for a thriller however it is a convention of a thriller film.  Our group may go against the conventions of a thriller, or create a unique difference to our convention location, therefore this is still only a possibility.
Option 1.

 

BBFC

BBFC

I think our film should be classified as a 15 because drugs may be shown but not to be promoted or encouraged. Dangerous behaviour such as suicide or self-harming should not be shown in detail. Available weapons such as knifes should not be shown in detail either. There can be common use of strong language such as ‘fuck’. Whereas ‘cunt’ can be acceptable if justified through the story. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is not to be acceptable. Nudity is allowed in a sexual context but not including detail. There are no limits on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Sexual activity may be shown without detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour. No theme is banned, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds. Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. Strong gory images are not acceptable. Strong brutal or sexualised violence is also not acceptable.

BBFC is the British board of film classification; it separates each rating for films and games and has different allowances for each rating as it is dependent on the age. 

This rating means it is suitable for all children aged 4+.  This should be the rating on most Disney films.  This rating should not contain any threat or horror therefore would be unsuitable for our filming as we are filming a thriller for a young adult target audience.

This is general viewing for young children, children aged 8 are usually considered to be watching films with a PG rating.  Discrimination is unlikely, there should be no drugs or an anti-drugs message, no horror scenes, no bad behaviour that children may copy.  Only mild bad language is acceptable, and therefore is monitored, no sexual content, no serious issues such as violence and suicide, only moderate violence without any details.  Our thriller will not be a PG as it contains some threat, danger with unsuitable images and a complicated storyline for a young child, therefore it would appeal to a young adult audience.

We decided not to use a 12 rating for our thriller as it would have a younger audience, where serious scenes and the use of drugs would not be encouraged or even allowed.  Discriminatory language is unlikely to be accepted, miss-use of drugs should be infrequent and not glamorised, physical or psychological threat may be permitted however not regularly.  Dangerous behaviour should not be detailed and weapons should not be glamorised, sexual content and activity has to be brief, mature themes are acceptable however only moderate violence is allowed.  This would not work for our thriller as there has a threat cannot be used regularly and using weapons regularly could be frowned on.  The audience is slightly young for a thriller.

Adults can be free to choose their own entertainment here, unless the film provided has been created illegally, where the material in the film harms individuals or is damaging to society which could also be public health or morals, or explicit images which cannot be justified by content.  Our group decided not to use an 18 rating as 15 would be our main target audience, also the audience may expect a high use of 'blood and gore' which our filming cannot provide.