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Thriller Films: The Stepfather

Thriller is a genre that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. A common subgenre is psychological thrillers. The political and paranoid thrillers also became widely popular. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

I chose to write about The Stepfather. The film opens with Grady Edwards transforming himself in the bathroom. He shaves off his beard, dyes his hair and takes out his brown contact lenses. He goes downstairs with his luggage and as he leaves, the camera reveals the dead bodies of his wife and three children. The following scene shows Grady meeting a single mother and her two children at the supermarket. 

The film follows their lives, and the events that take place as Grady tries to kill the family once again. It ends with another attempted massacre and Grady going missing. The film ends as a cliffhanger, where the audience and left wondering what would happen next.

Alfred Hitchcock's bomb theory is put into play in the film as the film begins slowly with Grady being very calm and nice to everyone but the audience are just waiting for him to explode. The bomb theory was created to show how the film begins slowly and calm, with the audience being 'reeled' into it. And then suddenly, the bomb explodes, in this case, Grady explodes and goes into a killing frenzy.

The thriller techniques that have been used in the film create a sense of anxiety and make the audience excited as well as scared for the characters. When they have been lulled into a sense of false security, the unexpected happens. These techniques ensure a successful thriller film.

Thriller Techniques

False Plateau
- when the audience is lulled into a false sense of security.
- works through visceral effects - we are made tense through expectations, then made to relax - then shocked!



The opening of Jaws (1975) demonstrates this technique. The characters and the audience believe there is a shark in the sea, creating some sort of anxiety amongst the audience. The audience are lulled into a false sense of security and later find out there was no shark, but two boys playing a joke on the others. False plateaus are one of many techniques used in a thriller film to create a successful opening.




Bomb Theory 

- The audience know more than the characters on screen and are made more engaged because of this.

Film audiences

Rom-Com: Males & females 16+

Romance: Females- teenagers 15+ - adults

Comedy: Mainly males- teenagers

Action & adventure: Males

Thrillers: Majority males, but also females- 15+

Horror: Males 15+ - males may be more into watching blood and gore.

Shot by Shot remake: Comparison of original and own production.

Here are still shots of our own remake of Collateral with still shots of the original Collateral and our Storyboard images to compare our teams remake against the original.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

Own Production                                                  Collateral, 2004. Original                                                 Storyboard.

The Final Product: Collateral Remake by Group 38

Today we finally finished our remake from a scene in Collateral and everyone seemed to be over the moon about it. The filming was quite rushed and we weren't able to get all the shots we needed but when it came to the editing process we found a way to make a successful sequence that made sense (we hope). The editing was quite frustrating at times and some of us thought to give up, but with a little motivation and a few tweeks here and there we was on a roll. We also learnt a few tips involving converting and inserting audio by using ClipGrab to convert videos from Youtube into MP3. It took us some time to finish altogether and get everything up to scratch and there still may be a few errors but I think over all the whole group is happy about our final product.

Overall, doing the remake to collateral taught us as a team to co-operate more together. There was many obstacles as a team we had to face, the biggest one for us was definitely time management. We had difficulties filming in such a short space of time but we manage to wrap up the filming and made it back to college at the right time. Filming and editing was not as easy as it looks, the editing stage took us a good two long lessons to edit. Along the way of editing, we picked up on new techniques on Final Cut pro, which we will be definitely incorporate in the future! 

Shot by Shot remake: Editing.



In the making of our final remake of Collateral. 





Learned something new!! ClipGrab to convert video into MP3 and then converted again in QuickTime, so the music would fit the format of Final Cut Pro. 



Shot By Shot Remake : Editing Stage.

The editing process of our practice... remaking the beginning of Collateral (2004) using Final Cut Pro. 

Filming...

Hannah filming the opening shot for our remake...

...but the recording stage didn't always go smoothly.

These pictures were taken whilst we were on the shoot

Hannah: the cameraman

After we had finished filming, we had to begin editing the numerous videos we
had taken in order to form our remake of Collateral.

Filming: On our way to the location

A short videoblog of us on our way to our filming location. We chose Angel Station because we needed the location to be quite busy with plenty of people.

'Watching' Documentary.

Se7en poser.

1. "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. Where there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible".  
   What Thomas Sutcliffe means is that if your first page of the book doesn't give satisfy the audience, you should throw the damn book in the trash. Sutcliffe quoted Sam Fuller, a writer and director. You must grab the audiences attention at the very beginning of the film and that's what film makers are trying to achieve today.
   
   



Screenshot of Watching Documentary.

2.  According to Jean Jacques Beineix, the risk of 'instant arousal' is that you must nurse your audience into their desires of the movie, accept to wait and let the sanctification grown. If you start strong, your have the problem of what's going to happen next, is it going to be strong as the beginning?
   
   
3. "a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesnt know nearly enough yet, and as the same time make sure it doesn't know too little". This means, as a film maker you must draw the rules up for audiences engagement to the film, the crowd is full of anxiety and you must make the relationship of the audience and the film last but not give away everything but still make them wanting for more!
   
   
4. Stanley Kauffmann describe a Classic opening as "an establishing shot - New York - filmed from East side of New York, cross into a shot of a building, camera looks up to buliding, goes through the window, pass the reception desk". You have been told by this simple classic opening process the location, occupation of the hero and everything is in place. That's why it works so well!
   
   
5. Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film Seven was effective because the sequence waked up and hit the audience, the title sequence also foreshadows and told the story of the film.
   
   
   
6. What Orson Welles wanted to achieve with his opening, A Touch of Evil is making the audience head straight into the film with no credits, title or production company logo. This upset the production studios and they took action.
   
   
7. 
   

Shot By Shot Remake : Storyboard.

 

COLLATERAL (2004) STORYBOARD.

 

Before beginning any practical work like filming, we had to draw up a story board of each scene from the opening of Collateral. We also had to write any descriptions which we would need to create the video so that the director would know what to do. Above is the story board.

Research of Openings Conventions : Panic Room (2002)

Production company Ident/Logo with music associated with ident.

Opening scene introudces a establishing shot of location, aswell as
production companys credits.

main actors credits, in order of main character first. 

Title of the film. 

credits to music and film editors. 

credits to producers and director name credited last. 

introduce main characters and current situation 

First Filming Practice

An establishing shot of the exterior of the college.
This establishing shot of the location is well framed. 

Low angle shot showing footsteps walking up the stairs.

Shot of feet from a high angle.

Over-the-shoulder shot.
This particular shot is not very strong because the director should of director Berkay to stand to the left more so his insight of the camera frame. 

Practice shoot!

Convention of Film Openings: Music associated with Idents.

At the beginning of a film, they often show the Production Companys logo with a accompany music which associated with the idents. For example, 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks.

Health and Safety.

JVC Camera.

Before doing any practical work involving the media equipment, as a class we must familiarise ourselves to the Health ans Safety hazards. Mary introduced us to the equipment one by one and demonstrated the basics on how to use the equipment as well as showing us how to take good care of the equipment. In the tutorial, every single student learned how to insert and eject the memory cards and the battery into the JVC cameras. We also was ask to set up the tripod with the secured cameras in place.

Mary also taught us the basic of how to use the cameras. From turning the camera on and off, opening the lens (never touch the lens), auto-focusing and manual focusing etc.

                                                                   Important notices.

Memory Card.
(Each group has an allocated memory card
 with their groups number on it)

• Make sure you return the filming equipments on time for other students. (Usually 9AM next day)
• Your responsibility when taking care of the expensive equipments, so do take good care. 
• Make sure your battery is fully-charged and memory card is inserted into the camera before any filming.
• Tri-pod should be balance and secured!
• Never touch the lens of the camera! 
• Make sure the tripods legs are balanced and secured.
  

  

  JVC Battery.

Conventions of film openings: Examples.

•  Production company idents

Universal production studios

20th Century Fox

• List of Credits. (Directors, producers, actors etc.)

Actors name (Will Smith) - Screenshot from opening of I Am Legend

• Where the film is set/location. 

Birds eye view of NYC

• Title of the film!