Thriller Analysis - Fight Club - Georgia

Fight Club - 1999

Fight club is an American film directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. The opening sequence of the film is about a man who is dis-contented with his standard life as an office worker, and not only does he collect furniture from his IKEA catalogue to give meaning to his apartment, he suffers from insomnia. The movie quotes that "i am never really asleep, and i am never really awake," which is the exact way to describe his character as he is very bland and average. He starts going to support groups such as testicular cancer support, and tuberculosis support although he is not suffering from them, but he goes there to be able to cry and let out his emotions, in which he then is able to sleep. As the film goes on, the plot of the film is confusing and really makes you think and you feel very shocked when you realise what has actually been happening. As the film goes on, it just gets more and more enticing.

When the film begins, it is a clip of the character sitting in a chair with the character Tyler Durden putting a gun in his mouth. There is a voice-over of the character in the chair explaining and narrating the story occasionally. And then he takes the viewers back to understand how he got into that situation. This is a clip of the very start of him explaining the way he got there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYDLv8rK4z8

Editing: he style of the opening sequence and throughout the film is continuity editing which is fast paced. It is fast paced because the speed in which the cuts to another scene occurs quickly and frequently. There are a lot of reaction shots of him.  And occasionally there is a glitch of a person appearing on the screen for no apparent reason. In the first few seconds on the youtube clip above, there is a wipe transition of the starbicks cup across the desk, and match on action shots of the man but in different locations. There is also a voice-over of the man occasionally throughot especially in the opening sequence, explaining his life to the viewer.

Mise en scene: The setting location is of the man's life. i.e his work, his apartment, his support groups etc. The costumes of the people are very standard and average. As the film progresses as we meet 'Tyler Durden,' we see that the man's clothes are very un-unique to Tyler's as he is wearing flashy clothes that make him stand out, and the man is simply wearing a plain white shirt and a tie, but gradually loses the tie and becomes more scruffy the more he is with Tyler. The lighting is all natural light, either night or daylight. The body language of the man is very inferior and discrete and he slumps and is very unenthusiastic in his facial expressions.

Camerawork: In the opening sequence there are a range of shots. For example, It starts with a close up of him tied up in the chair, leading onto a close up shot from the shoulders up when he is at his support group, then to a mid shot/high angle, from the waist up and looking down on him when he is in bed, back to a close up when he is at work and throughout the opening sequence there is not that much variety in the camera angles apart from that. The camera is usually in a fixed position with slight movement in the opening sequence, becoming more varied as the film goes on.

Sound: Throughout most of the opening sequence, the sound is diagetic and is of the sounds that are around him. However there is a voice over of him which is both diagetic and non-diagetic as it could be his inner thoughts while the film goes on.

Production Companies

A production company is a company responsible for physical production of new media, performing arts, film, radio or a television program. The company may also be directly responsible for raising of funding for the production or may accomplish this through an emissary. The company will then sell the production to a film studio or presenting it at a theatrical venue, or, in the case of film and television, it may be the studio itself.  It is common for actors to form their own production companies so that they can have more control over their own careers.

Fonts

There are many types of fonts that can be used on most word documents whilst writing these include:

Ariel - Media
Verdana -  Media
Georgia - Media
Courier - Media
Trebuchet - Media

Fonts can also be changed by the size of the writing, for example:
 
Smallest - Media
Small - Media
Normal - Media
Large - Media
Largest - Media

Fonts can also be changed by the use of colour for the writing such as:

Red - Media
Orange - Orange
Yellow -  Yellow

level four marking scheme

The following shows the grading for a level 4 which we will aim to achieve.
level 4: there is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills-

• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate; we shall frame our shots so that we will be excluding light from our shots and make them relevant to what we choose to shoot in our story boards.
• using a variety of shots distances as appropriate; we shall use appropriate shots for the type of shot we need for the scene within our opening sequence. using different angles and distances this will allow us to get the effect we need to make are film a good thriller.
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; we shall strictly follow the task set and our story boards to complete our thriller effectively and completely finish it to a high standard.

Video level marking scheme

This is to make sure that we get the highest possible grade to our ability.

• Holding the shot steady where appropriate: we will be using a tripod to create a steady and controlled video clip or the camera will be placed on the floor which is equally as steady. 
• Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate: We will make sure we abide by this by only using basic shot types and not thinkning about the distance we shoot them at. We will have a set distance from each shot e.g. hands, eyes etc. 
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set:We will make sure that our thriller doesn't turn into a horror by keeping the suspense up and the gore down. We will also follow the basic task set and complete it to a basic standard. 
• Selecting mise en scene including colour figure lighting objects and settings: making sure we include the 5 elements above and including them in our thriller opening sequence. 
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer: We will have fast cuts from the footage to the credits as it will give out a very disorientating image to the audience.
•  using various shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriatly for the task set: We will use mostly close up shots to give it the disoritntating effect to the audience as the close ups will make it very hard for the audience to understand.
• using sound with images and editing appropriatly for the task set: We will be using non digetic sounds of a hard beat and a clock to create suspense for the audience.
• using titles appropriately: We will put our titles in between the various shots using quick cuts to and from the shot.

Test Footage Take 2

We have now uploaded our second attempt of test shot footage with new music as we didnt like the previous music and didnt add to the effect we wanted.

Test Shots

We did some test shots in the media studio green room. We would have preffered to use the dark room but it was unavalible.

we went through are shot list and story board and tried to replicate this to our best abilities in the green room but with the large window and green room this was rather difficult. we tried different angles and practiced the way we will film the thriller. we used close up shots, low angles, shot reverse shot and mid shots.
we added the same music we used for our sonic mood board, but when it comes to our final thriller we are going to use a different sound for the heart beat as the one we are currently using isnt good enough and doesn't have the right effect we want to portray.
we put a black filter over the film to hide the fact we did film in the green room and to see the other effects we could use to add the effect of our film.

Location:
The location we will be using will be the colleges media studio and using the black room. We could also use the photography departments dark room but that would be too small.
There will only be one scene but with a lot of cuts going back and fourth from blackness to a shot of a clenching fist etc.
we shall take a copy of our shot list and story board so we all know whats happening if we get stuck on what needs to be shoot next.

Props and Kit requirement:

• Chair
• Rope
• Black card ( to cover window)
• Fake flood
• White t-shirt
• Tights

contact details:

>maya

• 07768688566

job role: actress

> james

• 07415336848

Job role: director

> georgia:

contact number:

• 07510316620

job role: camerawoman

Sonic mood board

this is the mood board for are opening sequence

Maya Whitmore- Why Thrillers Thrive- Homework

The article is about the differences between thrillers and horrors how Thrillers provide ‘thrills’  for the viewer which civilization has so screened and sheltered us that is isn't practicable to experience sufficient thrills at firsthand. Thrillers have been made to allow the viewer in the cinema to be able to see whats happening but at the same time be safe and secure so they can experience the thrill artificially and as the civilisation has become so sheltered and protective of the viewers welfare and psychological state the cinema screen is the best medium  for this. watching a well made thriller we don't sit by as spectatorswe participate in the story getting involved and engaging with the plot, as its in are nature to want "shake ups" within the story otherwise we grow sluggish and jellified.
The scene  in hells angels in which a British pilot decides to crash the plane into the envelope of the zeppelin to destroy is and obviously killl himself, this could be a horror stricken scene but the way camera work is used, cutting from his face and then to the piolts seat so have the impact as if the viewer is the pilot hurtling to there death, but the viewer knows there safe and in no harm because in are subconscious we are aware that we are safe sitrting in a comfortable arm chair watching a screen. the use of camera work plays a big part in the way the audience capture the scene and the emotions which are being thought.
a bad example of attempting to thrill the public was at an exhibition slide show  promising thrills, where the public sat between two colums in a bid to frill the viewers as they sat there in there seats naturaly expecting the curtains to be drawn but instead hearing a loud craking noise, one of the pillars began to toppel over onto the audience, before they even had a chnace to run for cover the piller was suspended above there heads. even though it provided a trill it wasnt the tyoe which pleased the public, having so many complaints the slideshow was closed down as the publics basic feeling of secuirty and saftey was underminded.

horror films are rather different to thrillers, the term orginially meaning "extreme aversion" has been loosely applied to films which to supply the desrired emotional joilt, including exploit sadism, perverstion, bestiality and deformity. horror is seen as utterly wrong being vicious and dangerous. there is a growing body of opinion inside as well as outside the film industry against such films which are succesful in direct ratio to thier power to create unantural excitiment. as a matter of fact they are bound to fail because the public is as a rule healthy minded.

Georgia Maya and James - The Sixth Sense Opening Sequence Sound Analysis.

From the very start during the title sequence there are non diagetic dramatic sounds. This entices the viewer, however it seems to drag on a bit. Then it cuts to the sequence of the woman in tha basement which has diagetic ambient sounds of the door and her footsteps. It then goes to the scene when she is with bruce willis and there is a low pitched diagetic sound of the radio while they are talking. The sound of the radio stops and then the only sounds are the diagetic sounds of them as they are fumbling around with footsteps etc. The woman then gasps followed by a diagetic sound of the phone off the hook. There are then non diagetic dramatic sounds which the contex is added (location sounds.)

Georgia and Maya- Storyboard, Shot List, and Risk Assessment Sheet

Location Recce- Georgia and Maya

This is a photo of Maya in the studio dark room. Obviously this will not be the kind of footage we will be taking but.. yep.

 This is the studio room. When we got in there we realised there is a window in the dark room and we found this to be a problem. However, to overcome this we will put a large piece of black card over the window.

 We will be using a chair like this in our opening sequence.

  This is Maya..

                               She will be our actress.

The media studio room from the outside.

Why ''Thrillers'' Thrive

Take a case in point, which a great many picturegoer readers are likely to have seen the scene in Hell's angels, in which the British pilot decides to crash his plane into the envelope of the Zeppelin to destroy it, even though this means inevitable death to himself. We see him face grim, tense, even horror stricken as his plane swoops down. Then we are transferred to the pilot's seat, and it is we who are hurtling to death at ninety miles an hour; and at the moment of impact and blackout a palpable shuddering runs through the audience. This is good cinema. In this there is no harm, because in our subconscious minds we are aware that we are safe, sitting in a comfortable armchair, watching a screen.