Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

'There is no terror in the bang, only in te anticipation of it...'

'If it is a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what is going on...'

'Always make the audience suffer as much as possible...'

'I'am a typed director, if i made cinderella, the audience would imediately be looking for a body in thr couch...'

'Actors are cattle...'

'Give them pleasure-the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare...'

'I never said all actors are cattle, what i said was all actors should be treated like cattle...'

'Revenge is sweet and not fattening'
(below Alfred Hitchcock)

Thriller Genre

Thriller is genre of film, and literature. It specifically uses suspense tension and excitement, creating a very strong atmosphere of fear and tension. There are a number of different subgenres of this type of film and literature, the most common being mystery/crime and psychological thrillers. Other genres also include political and paranoid thrillers, both becoming increasingly more popular due to how they relate the modern world.

Thriller films highly rely on creating different moods within the audience, such as anticipation and uncertainty. They also use different forms of arousal to capture the mind only to blow it away with a sudden rush of adrenaline or fear. Some films even try to cause anxiety and terror due to extreme uncertainties and realistic portrayals of situations that occur every day.
here are a few famous directors who focus on the thriller genre...

Jonathan Demme

Steven Speilberg

Alfred Hitchcock

Robert Alderich

Chatacteristics of an Alfred HitchcockThriller

Hitchcock’s 'Maguffin'

A Maguffin, also referred to as a Mcguffin or macguffin, is a device with in the plot of a film that is used to motivate the characters and advances the storyline without actually being of any great relevance to the actual plot of the film or story. A famous example of this would be the money that caused Marion crane, in the film psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, to run away. This tricks the audience into thinking the rest of the film will be about recovering the money and so is left with no idea that Marion crane is actually going to be brutally murdered in no connection with the money.

An Enigma

An enigma is a mystery or puzzle in a film. A problem that the protagonist in the film has to attempt to solve in order for the narrative to be resolved thus ending the film.

A Red Herring

 A red herring is another plot device. It is intended to divert the audience from truth or a significant object. It leads people to come to the wrong conclusions. It is often used with other devices such as enigmas in order to increase suspense as the audience is left with a number of different assumptions and possible conclusions to the film.

Momento

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Released in 2000

Preceding the credits we are met with eerie music and a Polaroid photograph of a bloody scene is being shaken. However as the Polaroid is shaken it fades, it is very clear that the process of development is being reversed. We then see the camera being operated in reverse and the scene continues to reverse displaying the reverse of the character shooting a man. This shocks but in a very extended way the viewer building tension and leading the audience to question why is it being played backwards, why has he shot this man and why take a picture. In a monologue we then find out that the character takes pictures as he suffers from a memory condition of which inhibits him form creating new memories. This is explains why he has to take Polaroid images and also why his tattoos are reversed as they are done by himself in the mirror. This is a very clever and very successful opening, we have witnessed a murder yet we still feel empathy for the character.



Analysis of Film Openings

In class we watched the openings of three different thrillers. these were, Cildren of Men, Memento, and A History of Violence. here i have reviewed these openings to try and findm out what makes them thrillers and what in the opening makes the viewer to ontinue watching. 

Children of Men

This i believe to have a very succesful and very powerful opening. it begins with a just the audio frm a news reel, on which the anchormen and women are talking about the death of the youngest person in the world. this is imediately very confusing and intrigueing as this man is described to have been 18years old. this would mean that for the past 18 years their has not been one baby born on the planet. this is a rather confusing and disturbing revelation as in the current day and age there are hundreds of children born everyday. by having this being broadcasted in the scene the director and play write has icluded death and so is hinting and death later on in the scene.
The first visual of the film is a cafe full with people, all crouded around a television set, watching this news reel. we then see a man push through these people to get to the service counter inorder to purchase a drink. we almost disregard the fact that this man is pushing past all these people with no interest in the television set and simply except the scene. however we should really be questioning why is he not interested? this subconciously intises the viewer to want to watch on, to find out teh reason.

the mext shot is the start of an extremely long panning shot where by the camera follows the man out of the cafe before diverting to concentrate on the traffic before returning to the man outside putting alcohol in his drink. this raises more questions about the main character, why is he putting alcohol in his drink, what type of world are we living in were it is exceptable to add alcohol to drinks in broad daylight and in public? it is whilst the viewer is contemplating these querys that a bomb tares through the cafe.......this is a perfect ending to the scene and opening, it leaves the viewer with so many questions making them wan to watch on, it is also very emotion, as the audience had only a matter of seconds ago see all the people inside the cafe. there is also a slightly gruesome element tot this as the writer and director have given us a slight taster of the aftermath by  having a woman walkout of the smoke holding her own arm. although this is rather gruesome it also brings the explosion to life as who wouldn't pick up their arm if it was blown off.....really if you could get it you would. whilst this goes on the is an earpiecingly sharp noise that plays from the moment the bomb goes off. this i believe to be representative of how the noise of the explosion rings in the ear and leaves you slightly death maybe even bursting eardrums. next the scene is cut and goes to a black shot with the title of the film in white lettering across the sceeen, but the sharp noise continues through the cut. this gives the title much more presence and emphasis.

No Country for Old Men Introduction Review

This is a review of the opening sequence from the film, No Country for Old Men. The opening sequence of this film differs incredibly to anything I have ever come across before. It starts almost like an artistic interpretation of a piece of text, the sought of 5 minute film you would expect to see in art exhibition accompanying a selection of film stills and quotes. The voice over also displays a likeness with the use of a thick American accent and a one sided conversation. But it is this quality that makes this such an effective and dramatic opening. There is no actual action in this opening; instead it is left to the long panoramic shots of the dramatic landscapes to hold the interest of the viewer. These virtually still shots interrupted only by natural movement from the breeze set the scene perfectly showing how the area in which this film has been based is so desolate and empty. The low angled shots of silhouettes show how beautiful the landscape is in different lights but also how it hides and conceals things from our eyes. Also the shots of barbed wire display the unnatural man made harsh qualities of the landscape and hit at the violence to come. When we combine these images with the commentary and the viewer is given the impression that in the old times people respected the law but now they take advantage of the location. We also realise how crime has become more sinister, it is no longer romantic and passionate but callous.

After this short setting of the scene we are introduced to the physical living beings in the film. This is very important as again it shows how empty and desolate this place is. We see an officer taking a handcuffed man up to his police car and place sit him inside, during this movement we do not one see the man’s face only a few distinctive features such as his hair. This shows us that we cannot trust this man, he is a mysterious character. This has been cleverly timed with the voice over to intersect the point where the officer discusses how u have to be willing to put your life on the, but how he does not want to die without understanding the reason why. This last bit happens as the officer places the gas tank in the passenger seat of the car, showing how we do not know what this contraption is or what it is used for. The last thing the over voice says is ‘okay, I’ll be part of this world.’ This suggests to the viewer that by entering this desolate landscape you are entering a different world, a world you are unfamiliar with. This I believe to be the perfect way to end the opening scene of this film, as it leaves the audience with so many questions and a lust for the answer. E.g. who is this man and what is that canister for? Who is doing the over voice, is it the officer we have just scene? What is the relevance of the man who killed the 14 year old girl?

Introduction

Hello, my name is Simon Moore and i have created this blog as part of my AS Media Studies coursework. part of this coursework is to create the titles and opening sequence of a film in the thriller genre. this opening sequence will be 2 minutes long, and will be created via working in a group of 2 or 4 people. this blog will be used to document my planning and research, as well as the construction of the movie sequence, and an evalution.