Cooper's Influence

For our thriller idea, we're focusing on an autistic boy who works frantically to crack a code which leads him to a powerful database of information. When I watched the opening credits for Se7en, it really inspired me and gave me ideas for the opening credits for our own thriller sequence.
I really like the scratchy, non-diegetic sounds effects and think they are responsible for the majority of the creepy atmosphere the audience experiences. I'd like to try to mirror these sound effects, but replace them with computer noises and tapping (on the keyboard). Not only can these set the scene and really heighten the impression that; firstly, the boy knows a lot about computing; but secondly, the sense of excitement and suspense can be increased via the use of beeping and tapping noises which increase in tempo and pitch.

I also really liked the way Cooper portrays the anonymity of the man in the sequence of Se7en through his use of camera angles and editing. A shot I particularly like and would possibly like to replicate, but with our own twist, would be the one, shown below, of anonymous hands, out of focus, turning pages which are in focus.

This is a shot and use of editing which I can imagine being applied to the boy - we see anonymous hands typing from the point of view as if we are in the computer screen, so we see an anonymous body and hands typing frantically - out of focus - but in focus we can see numbers and letters being types in to the command box.

From watching Kyle Cooper's work, I have many similar ideas which I'd like to talk to the rest of my group about and possibly try out.

Kyle Cooper

"almost single-handedly revitalizing the main-title sequence as an art form".

Kyle Cooper is a director and designer of film title sequences; he holds an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art and a BFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Imaginary Sources is the name of the creative agency he co-founded in 1996 which creates title, opening and end credits for films and programs.  Se7en,Spider-Man, and The Mummy are just three of the 150+ films he's directed and produced in his years. Prologue Films is his second agency which he founded in 2003 and it was with this new agency he created title sequences for Iron Man, Tron: Legacy, and The Walking Dead. He was a finalist in the National Design Awards in 2008 and has earned five Emmy Award nominations and one win for his work on the 81st Annual Academy Awards. He also holds the title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London.



He designed the opening titles for the film Se7en which I find very interesting. As Se7en is a thriller film it's very interesting to see the effects Cooper has used to create suspense and  provoke curiosity without giving away much detail about the film. The editing is well thought out, with the mix of dirty green and blood red colouring, giving the idea that gratuitous, dirty and violent deaths have occurred. We also see this again through the editing, it's jumpy and sharp looking. The non-diegetic music is scratchy and in some parts sounds like screaming. The non-diegetic heavy beat increases throughout the title sequence therefore increasing the suspense and tension. All the sounds used to create the music sound like sharp objects or weapons which corroborates with the idea of death and murder which appears to be very relevant to the film. The non-diegetic lyrics come in right at the end just as we see the word "GOD" being cut out from a dollar. The lyrics say "You've got me closer to God" which insinuates death has occurred. The visual reinforcement of the word "GOD" suggests there is a benevolent force is present throughout this film. The images we see are disturbing - we watch some body collecting evidence from murders and compiling it all into a book. The use of the needle and thread to bind the book together gives a very human feel, as if the person is about to stitch up a wound. When we see the person cross out a boy's eyes in a photo with a thick black pen, the impression created is that anonymity is very relevant to the film; and this idea is reinforced by the first image we see of blank ages being turned, which are in focus, by hands which are out of focus.

Target Audience Interview

This is a video of the interviews we did of members of our target audience.

Our Research

We have researched which type of films people aged 15-24, our target audience, prefer and if there is a difference between what girls like; and what boys like. 
From our investigation we have discovered the following facts.

Boys
1.The majority of boys want a film that's exciting.

2. Their favorite genre is Thriller.

3. They are influenced by what their friends say.

4. They like watching films that are realistic.

Girls
1. Most girls want a film that makes them think and has a lasting effect on them.

2. An attractive lead actor is preferred.

3. They are interested how the trailer represents the film before they watch it and said that the trailer determines whether or not they would watch a film.

We also interviewed people within the age range of 25-55 as we wanted to see whether age effects peoples' choice of film. These are the results we gleaned.

1. They like films that are believable and realistic.

2. The film's reviews by established critics effects whether they watch a film or not.

3. They want a film which makes them think about "life, love and the universe".

Back to Square One

So, after pitching our idea and coming to the conclusion it's just too complex, we're now thinking of ways to develop our new idea.

I had some inspiration recently about the type of puzzle we could use; I was on the computer and I clicked on a link on YouTube which for some reason wouldn't work and this came up:

After giving up trying to get YouTube to work and going on Facebook, from reading many irritated statuses, realised everyone's YouTube had gone down; which sparked an idea.
The autistic boy could be in the same situation, but instead of ignoring it and going on Facebook, like everyone else, he starts decoding the numbers and types them into the cmd box on his computer. We could use shots of perhaps 5 other people who, when their YouTube stops working, just get up and leave or go onto other sites; where we'd show the boy becoming interested. I imagine this shot being profile, in a dark room with his face only lit by the computer screen.

Then it goes black and the opening credits come up. We could do close up shots of the numbers and of his eyes flickering to show him working through the code and in conjunction with this, a quick non-diegetic soundtrack, with a fast beat, could come in. Over the top of these images, the opening credits can still come up. At the end of the sequence, the F.B.I data base would come up and he's got through the passwords. As soon as the image of the data base comes up, the non-diegetic music would stop, the screen would then fade to black and in cmd style font, the title of the film would be typed out.

Here is an example of a cmd command box:

 

I have yet to pitch this idea to the rest of the group, but I hope they'll like it and have ideas to add to and improve it.

Notes and Feedback

Here are the notes we got from when we presented our thriller idea:

• It's too complicated - You'd have to go to Uganda to do the idea any justice, otherwise it wouldn't work.
• Keep it in the back of your mind.
• Try to change to idea to remove the abduction.

Or change the whole idea.

We decided it'd be easier to completely change the idea than to try to alter it as we went into so much depth it'd be hard to change the plot of a story we were so set on.
We've decided to make a thriller which is a mix of a supernatural thriller and a conspiracy thriller.
The idea is that there is a young autistic boy who is doing some sort of child's puzzle and manages to find a code which links to the F.B.I. He almost has a sixth sense when it comes to codes and numbers because, due to his condition, he can't sense emotions very easily but he can decode numbers because they make sense to him.

I found the presenting process very positive as it helped us to learn how to confidently present an idea and it also meant that we could get some perspective and not get into a storyline where we're not out of our depth.
We're currently thinking of ways to shows the autism of the boy, we're thinking about what type of puzzle he'll be doing and who he will call, but the skeleton of the idea is there and we like the idea.

Thriller Idea PowerPoint

Final Thriller Idea

Coming to Conclusions

The day before we had to present out thriller ideas, our group had yet to decide upon an idea, so we all met for a good few hours to think it through and in those hours, we finally had a brainwave.

We got chatting about conspiracy theories, something which we’re all interested in and I’ve always been interested in Third World countries; I’ve researched it, done speeches about it and, last year, went on an aids trip to Uganda. Whilst there, we found that there is a very obvious divide between the very rich and the very poor, so I thought our thriller could be a possible explanation of why this is happening.

I have a piece of footage from that trip, where about 8 English students are playing with about 25 Ugandan children under and parachute. We all lifted it up and rushed underneath and I have a  film of this from our perspective – as if the viewer is under the parachute as well. All the colours are vivid and the camera is almost spinning and you can see the English and Ugandan people playing happily together. Similar to this, however the parachute is a lot smaller so you can see people's expressions. Also, I suggested we edit it so it's bright and vivid, like a dream-like memory.

 

 I suggested we use this piece of footage as the opening with a non-diegetic voiceover, which sets the scene and presents the happy side of Africa. The voiceover narrates what’s going on, but has a dark tone so the audience knows something’s amiss, suggesting the darker side of Africa and therefore the conspiracy is foreshadowed.

We all liked this idea and developed the second section of the opening sequence to show one of the students being abducted because she found out the secret. We talked about the idea and got into more depth about the shots we’d use and finally decided that this is the idea that we’re all interested in and would like to put forward.

To pitch the idea, we all created aspects of a powerpoint, which I animated and compiled. It was quite wordy, however when we presented the idea it was verbally communicated and the powerpoint was more of a prompt for us.

The idea behind the thriller is to suggest to the audience they should look a little deeper into society, something which we are all interested in doing.

Subgenres of Thrillers

THRILLER SUBGENRES

Conspiracy Thrillers
Typically, the protagonists of films in this subgenre are amateur journalists or inexperienced investigators who stumble upon large conspiracies. This usually ends up with them becoming part of a major investigation so the audience sees the story delevop as well as the character. Whodunnit and detective stories are typical of this. Conspiracy thrillers usually focus on a major crime which has been hidden from the general public by propaganda, lies and rumours.

Political Thrillers
Political thrillers focus on corruption, warfare and terrorism as a general point; and these films are very similar to conspiracy thrillers, the fundamental difference being that the secret which is uncovered is involved with a political crime committed by people who are in power against the general public. For example, a powerful political group will use propaganda and lies to fulfil their ulterior motives to establish total power or financial gain.

Spy Thrillers

The Spy thriller overlaps with the action genre as there's usually a lot of violence involved, however the thriller aspect comes in because the spy's motive is usually to defeat evildoers. Technological thrills and exciting escapism are two more aspects which firstly, add an element of science to the films, but secondly, separate the spy thriller from the, blankly violent, action genre. These films are popular worldwide as they create obvious heroes for the audiences to empathise with.

A typical example of this are the James Bond films.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pshychological Thrillers

This type of thriller has a heavy focus on the mental and emotional states of characters and often portray events through the eyes of more warped characters. The films are often hard to get your head around and require a lot of concentration. These films often incoperate mysterious aspects which add to the drama of the films. As these films focus on people's warped views of the world, the plot often involves strong elements of horror. The suspense in this subgenre is created by the use of deceptive dramatic techniques, which takes the audience on a more personal journey because, in order to understand the film, they must empathise with the psychologically disturbed character(s). A great example of this is the film Identity.

 

Techno-thrillers
Techno-thrillers tend to cross over with science fiction; the plot is usually based on fictional technologies- martial arts, life forms and other worlds and consequently the ideas in the film are therefore very contemporary. Often, these films are set in the future, either distant or near. This catagory is a close relative of science fiction.



Supernatural Thrillers
This subgenre includes aspects of fantasy and horror films but gets the thriller element because the plots of these films are unpredictable, with lots of twists and shocks. Generally, ghosts and the dead are the main focus of these films and they are reached by the protagonist through some psychic ability or sixth sense.

My First Thriller Idea

My first thriller idea is set in a busy tube station in London.
I will aim to film it in a documentary style so it appears to be realistic in order to thrill the audience more as the situation they witness will appear to be a possibility in their own lives. The lighting will be bright, like a vivid memory, and I will edit it so it’s skipping a lot, almost dreamlike.
The finer details would be left uncertain and I will do this by leaving things out of focus, such as the faces of certain characters to create a sense of mystery. It will be a restricted narrative because we know the child gets taken, but we don’t know who by because the memory of the faces is blurry.

The ‘distinctive’ item which four of the characters wear in the trailer will be something like a badge or they’ll all have a tattoo or a gold tooth, something which bonds them together as a group, but still subtle. These characters will have dark clothing on whereas the children will be wearing lighter colours. The mother will wear something in between the two, suggesting she’s not totally innocent and there’s a reason why her child has been taken.

Here is a story board:

 

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of a Thriller

Layer Cake

Editing Our Preliminary Task

As this was our first time filming a proper sequence it was also our first time editing material, which meant the quality wasn't brilliant but I learnt a lot from the experience.
We edited our sequence using Final Cut Pro and the first thing we learnt to do on this program was to check in and out; by clicking the cog on the left of the screen and selecting 'Check Out', we then had to save the work to our Desktop. To check out, the order is reversed to save the work back on to the server.
We learnt about and created Logging Bins and learnt the appropriate names for them. The Bin named "Rushes" is for the best clips and the ones we wanted to work with and the Bin named "Logs" is for all the clips, to keep them in one place.

When editing I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make the clips fit together seamlessly and this was quite a large challenge for us as the continuity was quite bad. This meant that when trying to edit clips together the action didn't fit so we had to spend a long time trying to cover up these mistakes. Things such as one of our actresses not standing on the marker meant that between shots she appeared to be jumping around the room.
I thought our idea matched the storyboard well and I thought we made the most thrilling sequence we could with the script we were given.
I suggested an extra shot of the victims hand and head hitting the floor (match on action) which worked really well because of two things; number one, it was used to cover up a continuity error; and number two; it made the sequence more interesting and stylised.
If I could redo the preliminary task I would use more shots, such as the over the shoulder shots so that we could incorporate the 180 degree rule. I would also have spent more time making the sound run through the shots more fluidly as in some parts, due to poor continuity, speech was cut off. We started to run the speech through shots to cover up these issues however we ran out of time.
We worked well as a team and each had a go at editing and I feel we all have a good understanding of how to use Final Cut Pro. I'm keen to film another sequence and practice my editing skills to ensure that our thriller is a really good, well edited and throughout piece of work.