Props

Knife

This prop will be used in the opening for the victim getting stabbed by the antagonist. This prop is typical of the thriller genre because it is an everyday object that everyone owns and it is easily obtainable by anyone. This then links to that thrillers tend to be more realistic to add suspense to the thriller. This prop connotes death and darkness, the prop can also be seen as a foreshadow of someone that has been killed. The prop represents that the character welding the knife is murder. 

Big Notice Board (For Titles in the Opening)

This prop is used for putting up evidence and pictures of us; this will be used for the opening titles. This will also be used to put the title cards of the thriller opening within the thriller opening. This prop will be used for showing the opening titles for our thriller opening. Seen as our thriller opening is crime thriller it is used to piece together evidence. When we looked at other thriller openings, they would often use evidence to show the opening titles. When you see the notice board you actually see a notice board in crime thrillers you automatically think of dark thoughts. The prop represents police and an investigation.   

Evidence Markers

This prop is used for showing the evidence of a crime scene. These will be used when the protagonist walks through the crime scene, he will look at the different evidence that is shown by the evidence markers. It used in most thrillers that have something with crime (murder). This connotes that every time you see one of these it is part of a crime scene and instantly know something bad has happened. This prop represents something bad that has happened, however the people that used it are the police.

Newspapers

This prop is used for giving out information to the public about the news. It is going to be used as a piece of evidence with the evidence marker and the notice board as well. In thrillers you usually see people cutting certain titles and sections of the paper out, this could be something significant to the narrative. The headlines that are seen in the newspaper are usually showing bad things have happened to someone. The prop can be a way of showing where the setting is going to be for the thriller itself.

Photographs (Polaroid)

This prop is used to take photos of the crime scene, but also can set the scene and identity main characters. This prop is going to on the notice board and going to show evidence and the main characters of the thriller opening (the actors and crew). The prop is typically seen at crime scenes where they have taken photos of evidence. The connotations of this prop are that something bad has happened and the protagonist is working for the police solving a crime. This prop represents that someone has been killed, and the evidence team have taken photos of the crime scene. 

Rope

We will be using a rope as another piece of evidence that has been used as weapon of murder – to strangle the opponent. In a thriller genre we often associate and think of death, in relation to suicide. We can therefore use it to foreshadow bad occurrences; the audience should see the rope in the beginning in which could be hinted that it may be used later on in the opening. This prop connotes such feelings of being trapped and restricted, in which we could then use it to increase tension and it can be projected towards the audience. This prop will connote death.

Baton

A baton, typically used in police forces will be used as a weapon that the antagonist uses. This specific prop could hint and represent the background of the antagonist, relating the object with the individual to provide a job aspect, making the audience think on why this person owns this type of weaponry, could the antagonist be part of some type of Special Forces? This is the question we want the audience viewing to think about, leading to the oddity of the murder – giving the opening a sense of mystery which is typical of a thriller where it keeps the viewer thinking, overall making the film not as obvious. The colour of the baton being black could connote such things as hopelessness and death due to we associate the colour black with dark feelings, it relates to the antagonist and danger he could oppose with this weapon.

Costume/Make up

Luke the 'Detective' in our opening of a thriller will be wearing a typical detective look, consisting of a formal suit with a long coat, just as we see many of famous detectives to be wearing, by doing this typical detective outfit, it clearly indicates a detective status as the audience are so used to seeing this kind of outfit on a ‘detective’ in a thriller film.  This costume choice is typical of a thriller genre as the long coat covers most of the body, giving a sense of mystery as it somewhat covers identity, the formal attire summarises his personality as it makes the person seem serious and dedicated to his job. The formal and neat look, will slightly indicate his role of a protagonist. We will also have Luke’s hair a bit rough, to portray a hardworking man, we want to seem the person as slightly stressed as we would of thought this type of job would be quite stressful.

Sam will play the innocent victim, who will be seen being attacked by the antagonist. For makeup choices, we will use fake blood to indicate his injuries; also we will be using different tones of eye shadow to create a bruise effect on Sam’s face. Makeup will be used to manipulate injuries to emphasise brutality and to give a sense of realism in the film. This is typical of a thriller as we always see some kind of violence so by showing injuries clearly, we want the audience viewing a thriller to feel involved and therefore feel unsafe as the narrative expresses its solemnity. This will show Sam as seriously hurt and possibly dead. Costume choices for Sam will be in casual wear, most likely a shirt and tracksuit bottoms, this type of clothing represents him as unknowing and unprepared as he lead to an abandoned house and killed. When the detective views him, his clothing will be rough, to show that he has been murdered and to also express that there has been a struggle of circumstances, as if Sam himself has put up a fight. His clothing will be bright colours to represent and connote the good within the character; to emphasise his innocence, in typical thrillers we would see use of colour to be picked out specifically to divide the good from the bad and so we have used this convention purposely.

Matthew will be playing the role of the antagonist. He will be wearing dark clothing to connote death and danger and to clearly represent his role of the antagonist, again typical of a thriller due to dark clothing is used a lot in thrillers to portray and maybe foreshadow certain incidents that may occur later on in the film, for an example, if we were to see the antagonist standing in the darkness with the innocent victim being unknowing, it may foreshadow an upcoming death. With his dark outfit, he will have some clothing that may represent his past and his job title, such as a bullet proof vest, this therefore may indicate his job role of being maybe in the forces; special forces, again it keeps the audience thinking on the reason of why he has killed this man; we can manipulate clothing to represent the background of the individual. 

Thriller opening pitch

Thriller Opening Pitch by TerenceBurns2

Production Company

What is it?

A Production Company is involved in the producing of an entertainment programme, film or live entertainment. They are usually responsible for supplying the money for the type of entertainment, this therefore allows the company to control the budget and most of the aspects included in the production of the film or programme such as choosing job roles such as who acts in it and who's the director.

What makes an effective production company indent?

- Originality: People like to see different and that shows something the public has not seen before, causing them to be intrigued more due to it's something new and out of the ordinary. Manipulating and somewhat copying other Production companies makes the opening much more dull and boring due to the public has seen it various amount of times.

- Eye catching: Although sometimes the best Production company logos are not as complex and abstract, a logo that is abstract and again original will most likely will attract. More simpler logos are also good, due to we want to create something for the public to remember, overall a mixture of simplicity but yet abstract leads it to be more remembered and well known. Ident's normally consist of large bold lettering, which makes it captivating as it clearly shows the title. The use of images can vary a lot in each ident, however what is mostly used is objects and the world around us but edited in a more unique way, this could aim to relate to the sense of global connections and how the world is connected, it gives the audience something to relate to that is memorable.

Which production company would I choose?

Universal Studios: It was formed in 1912 by Carl Laemmle. This production company is the second oldest running studio, just behind 'Paramount Pictures'. Universal Pictures had many accounts of mergers and acquisitions, all increasing their power and global influence: in 1946, they merged with 'International Pictures' , in 1962 'MCA' purchased 'Decca Records' who owned Universal Pictures. Few years later, it was renamed to 'Universal Studios' through the mass amounts of acquisitions and mergers that occurred throughout the years.

Universal Studios have produced many well known films such as:
- Jaws
- Jurassic Park
- King Kong
- The Bourne franchise
- Fast and Furious

I believe that this production company is a suitable institution to produce my thriller due to their well known status. This company is well known for it's mixture of genres but mostly well known for their produced thriller films. They have produced popular thriller films such as 'Fast and Furious' and 'Bourne' which are still to this day gaining profit and mass interest, which leads me to think that this production company is shown to be very successful, not only that but they are the second oldest running company, they therefore have a mass recognition from around the world and so by having this production company to produce our thriller, then it would initially gain more interest due to it's status of creating successful films, therefore people who begin watching a film and see that Universal Studios have produced it, will allow the audience to believe the film will be good and so captivates them to watch it. I believe using an American company would be useful as we are shown that many of the best and well known films are made in America and so by using a well know American company, it allows the film to be produced with more of a budget as the country itself is wealthy, leading to those watching the film and seeing the ident to believe that this film is worth watching due to it is American produced.

Their logo is simple yet effective, the Earth is manipulated by the editing of colour and tones, this is what makes it effective as it brings you in to the ident itself with it's bold features of an outlined Earth on a dark canvas (space). The title itself is bold and modern, which makes it stand out due to it's complementary colour of white on dark, making it stand out, it is memorable due to it's simple and well known image use, the Earth image is of course well known and seen on a daily basis and so leads to the audience knowing the company as it shows up through any programme or film. The logo is also clever in that universal means it's basically 'everywhere', so by designing the background as Earth itself, it makes a clear representation that this production is global and it relates clearly with its title.

Analysis of a title sequence (Se7en)

Se7en:

Camerawork

The general camera shots shown in this specific sequence are close ups and extreme close ups. These shots allow the projection of mystery due to it's specific framing, it cut's out any other area and focuses the attention to the blade, it hides the identity and almost hints the narrative by the depictions relating to investigation. This shot show's a person who is quite dirty through his fingers shown, that is holding a blade, this could again symbolise the danger that may be found in the film and it almost emphasises the sharpness of the blade, the framing of this blurs out any other area and so again relating to mystery as it keeps the viewer intrigued on why exactly is this         person is holding a bare blade in his fingers and who the person is, it leads the audience to believe that this person is the antagonist due to the person is holding a sharp and dangerous object, in which we would normally see the antagonist holding in any other thriller.


Editing

 The editing is used to make the sequence seem disorientating and chaotic. From these two shots, it shows the use of a fade and a dissolve of the same image but differently placed (superimposed shots) to again make it seem disorientating and confusing, the first shot shows the superimposed editing, it expresses the films chaotic themes with it's dazed images, this could connote an unsteady mind of the person we see that is writing. The second again shows, a dissolve/fade effect but before this occurred we see quite quick jump cuts, these jump cuts causing a jarred effect and making the shots look more sharp and brisk. In these shot's we see a pen and diary, we see the person writing continuously in addition with the fades to create a sense of time passing, we can not see clearly what the person is writing and leads to the audience to be intrigued on how this relates to the narrative and what it all means. The distortions in framing, give off a dazed feel as we could relate to the person's mindset, maybe the person writing is not mentally stable and so these words may mean nothing.


Mise en scene

The props used in this title sequence all relates to something: investigation. The use of newspaper cuttings, pictures and notes with areas of editing, all could relate to a type of investigation, maybe showing us that they're picking pieces and putting them together to form a conclusion. We can see from the third shot they are cutting a picture out, in which it looks like a picture from a crime scene. The lighting shown by all three shots, is quite low key, portraying feelings of despair and just giving the atmosphere a gloomy and edgy feel. Although we do not see much of the setting through its careful framing, the atmosphere given off and the eerie creaking noises may suggest that it is in a quite run down area that is quite enclosed, we begin to picture the area as this through the persons dirty fingers and it's overall dark lighting suggesting that this person shown is not of the cleanest of people and so we could then parallel the dirtiness of the person with the room. Finally the typography used in this sequence is shown to be as if it's handwritten leading it to look rough depicting the film as uncoordinated and chaotic, the first screenshot show's this. Also with use of editing we can see that some words are multiplied and laid on top of each other again relating to confusion and unsteadiness.

How it relates to it's genre?

This title sequence is effective for it's film genre of a hybrid mystery thriller, through it's mise en scene, editing and sound. The use of props signifies and relates a lot to a mystery film through it's typical investigatory props, it seems as the title sequence progresses we see clues being added up, which leads to the audience wanting to know what the person is investigating - mystery. The fast jump cuts keeps the tension high in which a thriller would normally include. The sound is mostly non diegetic with some aspects of ambient diegetic sounds being blended in to give a quite sinister feel, the sound track at points is high pitched with some crescendos and stings keeping it interesting but yet uneasy and edgy, adding to the tension. The titles are manipulated as it flashes and fades into the scene promptly and therefore makes the introduction of the titles more interesting, captivating the audience to actually acknowledge the titles through its white lettering (stands out) and sharp transitions keeping you wary.

Title sequences

Dexter

What titles are shown?
- The main title, production and actors are shown through this title sequence.



How do the titles fit in the narrative?
- The title is simply the name of the person being shown throughout, it is shown on a kind of fabric canvas where it shows the red title on its complementary white background- it therefore stands out a lot. The use of a blood like smudge effect fits the narrative perfectly as it is about crime and murder in which blood splatters relate such as a crime scene would show.



How is typography used?
- The typography for 'Dexter' is shown again as a kind of blood splatter effect, as if it is on a piece of fabric that is smudged, this connotes such things as murder and crime and relates a lot to the narrative.

How is camerawork, editing, sound and mise en scene used in the title sequence?
- The camera shots are mainly close ups and extreme close ups, this adds a sense of mystery as it leads up to showing the actual character. It also adds tension, relating to a thriller genre through it's carefully framed shots, showing little of the character 'Dexter'. The editing used is mostly simple jump cuts, these cuts are quite quick, causing the shots to be quite jarred, leading to depictions of chaos and danger. The sound used throughout is non diegetic, the music is quite mysterious but yet mischievous, again relating to a investigation kind of depiction but with an oddity, makes the audience feel that something is not right. The mise en scene is very carefully chosen, although most of the props used in the opening title is of a normal household standard, it is manipulated to be used in a quite sinister way; the use of sharp objects such as knifes is used a lot, the extreme close up him shaving is manipulated to be quite ambiguous, the hand placement symbolises a 'strangling' look. Also with the knife cutting through the packet of meat, the audience do not know exactly what meat it is and could be misinterpreted as a more sinister way - murder.

How does sequence indicate genre and suggest narrative?
- The sequence shows a lot of symbolism relating to blood and blood splatter - scenes where he is cutting the orange, shows the splatter of the juice or when he had cut himself during shaving, the blood drips on the sink. Also it shows a lot of red, again connoting death and so suggesting a narrative of a crime sort of show, blood splatters could relate to a crime scene investigation etc. The genre is also shown through this as with the symbolism's of crime suggests a crime/thriller genre.

How does the sequence engage your interest?
- The sequence engages interest by keeping you guessing, the extreme close ups and close up shows little of the person involved in the sequence and so adds mystery, leading you to want to know more as the sequence continues. Also with a lot of ambiguous shots, We are lead to be manipulated in thinking what the show is actually about and so again leading you to watch it to find out. The clever editing also shows graphic match in some shots and so emphasises actions which are normal in daily life and makes them seem more sinister and leading it to be more interesting.

Conventions of a title sequence