Our Initial Ideas for our Thriller Project

By Roberta Leary, Georgia Day, Maria Rostkowska

Film Rating System

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organisation and is funded by the film industry. It is responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a right to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010. Legally, the local authorities have the power to decide under what circumstances films are shown in cinemas, but they nearly always choose to follow the advice of the BBFC. The Video Recordings Act ordered that video releases not exempt (music, documentary, non-fiction, video-games, etc.) under the Act had to be classified, making it illegal to supply any recording that had not been certified. Certificates could restrict release to any age of 18.

Their ratings are as follows:
Uc- Suitable for all, but especially suitable for children from the age of 2 to 6 to watch on their own
U- Suitable for children
PG- Suitable for children under 12, but with Parental Guidance
12a- Suitable for children under the age of 12 with parental consent
12- Only suitable for children 12 or over the age of 12
15- Only for people 15 and over
18- Only people 18 and over
R18- Suitable for those aged 18 and over and only available at licensed cinemas and some sex shops

By Roberta Leary

Research into Thrillers

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains. Writer Vladimir Nabokov, in his lectures at Cornell University, said that "In an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the villain is generally punished, and the strong silent man generally wins the weak babbling girl, but there is no governmental law in Western countries to ban a story that does not comply with a fond tradition, so that we always hope that the wicked but romantic fellow will escape scot-free and the good but dull chap will be finally snubbed by the moody heroine."
Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. "Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller." A thriller is villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome. The genre is a fascinatingly flexible form that can undermine audience complacency through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familial and political tensions and encourages sheltered but sensation-hungry audiences, in Hitchcock's phrase, "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like."

Research on chosen films

Taken is a 2008 French action thriller film starring Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace. It is based on a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and was directed by Pierre Morel. Neeson plays a former Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operative who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped by slave traders while traveling in Europe.

Seven (styled as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The story follows a retiring detective (Morgan Freeman) and his replacement (Brad Pitt), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.

By Roberta Leary and Georgia Day

Year 13 help session

During one of our media lessons we received some help from the year 13 media students. They gave us a lot of helpful information towards our preliminary task. Some points given were:
- Camera work.
- Editing.
- Updating our Blogs.
- Uploading our shots.
- Keeping all parts of the camera safe, this would be crucial to our filming.
- Planning out our shots, checking lighting, sound and to be cautious of jump shots.
- Making sure we follow the 180 degree rule to ensure viewers are not confused.
- Make sure our group is well prepared for filming. It is important to remember equipment.
- Dealing with continuity editing- making sure costumes and props are exactly the same to avoid any misunderstanding.
- We need to ensure that the camera is re wound ready for uploading, so it does not delete any of our shots.
- Save time, if you plan ahead filming will take less time and will be completed more efficiently.
- Plan and think about the mise-en-scene of all shots.
- Keep background and ambient sounds to a minimum and make sure dialogue is clear and easy to understand as the camera is not very good at picking up the sounds.

By Roberta Leary and Georgia Day

Roberta Leary

Textual Analysis- Taken

The frame starts pitch black and typography (opening credits) slide into the shot. The font is in capitals and is out of focus which gives it an eerie sense. Each sentence moves in from a different side of the frame and is followed by another piece of text. This suggests that there is going to be some sort of a chase in the film. The shot is in dead silence which adds to the complete chill.
The scene cuts to a child’s birthday party. The effect given is that of an amateur home video from a while ago, we can tell this from the way they are dressed and the mise-en-scene of their surroundings. The vision is blurry and is not as clear as the new technology we have these days. There is non-diegetic orchestral, slow, spooky music playing in the background and a sound bridge of children laughing makes it appear disturbing. The children laughing sounds like an echo which could suggest a distant memory.
The footage of the child’s birthday party continues to play with all the props in the shot to give us that impression such as, party hats, the cake and the ‘5’ candle. The spooky typography continues to flicker on the screen beside the footage. We are very quickly lead to believe that the little girl is the main character and the focus of the film as most of the filming is focused just upon her. As the video plays, the piano non-diegetic music becomes increasingly louder to emphasise the fact that the scene will be changing and something new is going to happen. The music is slow and dreary and gives us a sense of sadness. As her cake is brought towards her, the camera flickers and stretches her face it makes her appear distorted. The video appears to be fast forwarded which is an example of continuity editing. The distortion makes the video appear to be a bad memory and the music continues to drone on.
As the girl blows out of her candles, the frame flashes to white and then fades open to a different scene of a newly awoken, middle aged man. This links the man to the footage of the child’s birthday party. It could either be a memory or what he had been dreaming. He appears to be confused and looks around as a precaution. It is dim lit with low key lighting. The mise-en-scene of the apartment is dull, spaced out, modern and lonely. There are two Chinese food cartons on the table that gives us an image of the man. He may live alone and orders fast food for himself. The piano music plays continuously throughout. It is droning on and gives a depressing feel, this impacts the fact he is alone. The man fell asleep clutching a picture of a teenage girl. This could be a link back to the home footage or part of a dream. The typography fades away. There is an extreme close up of some instructions that he is scanning. The close up insists that the object or person is of some importance to the film or scene.
The non-diegetic music stops with an echo for effect as he switches the lamp on to fill the room with high key lighting. As he stands up there is an over the shoulder shot of the picture in a frame in which the man was holding as he slept. The picture of a teenager is revealed and beside the shot is the word ‘Taken’ in the same font as the other typography, but slightly bigger and more spaced out. This is the name of the film and the effect of the typography next to the picture has a huge relevance to the main story line.

Research into key terms and Thrillers