Thriller (how to analyse the codes and conventions of a thriller)

 Shutter Island

- Majority is darkness, but part of his face is in the light which conveys something in his emotions.
-  Isolated - showing the location/loneliness
- Red connotes danger
- The match connotes that he is running out of time
- The caption......... is mysterious
- Black connotes fear of the unknown

Road to Perdition

- Clothing signifies a set of the film- 1920's- 1930's
- Faces cannot be indetified = mysterious
- Rain = emphasises darkness and isolation
- Tom Hanks looks like the protagonist
- Child = vulnerable

Terms used to classify a thriller

- Perdition- Shows that one is bad (redemption)
- Genre is the way of categorising and classifying a film e.g. horror.
- Sub-genre is a genre that incorporates different elements and many functions.
- A hybrid is a mixture of genres.

Different types of thriller

Crime - A thriller with a large amount of crime and police.
Medical - A thriller with the use of a medical plot.
Horror - A thriller with a use of sadistic events and abnormalities.
Action - A thriller with an action based storyline.
Comedy - A tongue and cheek thriller with a sense of humour.
Psychological A thriller that can be really engaging and confusing which toys with the mind.
Scifi - A science fiction thriller set in the future showing us things we have never seen before.
Political - A thriller heavily based on law and governments.
Supernatural - A thriller that has a lot of abnormalities and confusing storylines.
Conspiracy - A thriller based on a conspiracy theory that has not been proved real.
Spy - A thriller based one main protagonist, a spy and its secret agency.

Scream Opening Analysis

The Horror film Scream, starts with the camera presenting the key element in the sequence, the phone. While the camera shows a close-up of the phone, there is loud music representing a heartbeat that progressively gets louder and louder. This builds up an uncertain & tense atmosphere as well as a sense of fear.  The music tells the audience to be fearful of what is to come and also creates emotion for us.

 

The Mise-en-Scene shows that the house is in an isolated location, far away from any other houses or public areas. This creates an unnerving environment and makes the woman an easy target straight away. This is shown through a crane shot, which looks at the house from a far and then zooms in to show the signs of isolation. We see that the house is located in a woodland and is deserted, making everything that happens much more intense.

The main woman in the film from the first clip is blonde. From this we can stereotypically infer that she is the damsel in distress. Within the scene, the blonde haired girl plays with knives whilst on the phone to the man. The act of playing with knives foreshadows the violence that will soon take place later on in the clip. It is also seen that she is highly vulnerable as she is unaccompanied at night in a secluded location.

At the beginning, the house is lit up and this shows how at this point in time, there was no fear at this point. Within the scene, the camera follows the girl using a tracking shot and when doing so, zooms in to emphasise the fear on her face when she realises she may be in serious danger. When the realisation kicks in, the music and sounds become louder, such as the popcorn. This builds up more tension and makes the audience fearful and scared.

The Opening Sequence of 'Children of Men'

In the opening scene there is a diegetic sound from when the man is in the coffee shop, the sound of the TV is heard and as he leaves the shop it fades away gradually leading into the sound of busy streets. This therefore creates a sense of realism. The editing is limited in the opening sequence because only one cut has been used when the public are looking at the TV. The camera then shows what is on the screen making it the centre point of what is happening and what the film is actually about.

Furthermore, we see a lot of auto-mobiles for example 'red buses' and also black bin bags. From what we can see we know that the film is set in London, which has become a dirty and unkempt environment. Subsequently, this gives the idea that the rest of the film will consist of drama because the environment shows there is obvious complications happening at that time.

In the opening of 'Children of Men' the director (while tracking the "hero") uses a series of mid shots and long shots to capture the main character in the initial scene. Firstly, the director has used a mid-shot to capture the torso of the main character and has used a long shot to capture the rest. This therefore gives the audience a sense of what the characters about by the way they present their self portraying how they look and behave. The director has also used a pan camera movement from left to right as the character leaves the shop to give the audience an idea of setting and location. Just before the end of the scene a point of view has been used. A handheld camera might of been used to capture this shot because there is constant shaking which could mimic a man running from potential danger, giving us the feeling that the city can be threatening.

One main character has been identified and we know this because the camera tracks him as he enters and leaves the shop. For all we know he could be the protagonist of the film but does not fit the established idea of being a hero because he doesn't show empathy when he hears of the boy's death. We instantly get the feeling that this character is the one who will restore life to the human race due to the Mise en scene.

Overall, the themes of the film from the opening scene seem to be death, murder, drama and hope. We get this idea because we hear the news about the death of the youngest person alive and also later the explosion in the coffee shop. The idea of hope must of been within the people who were in the coffee shop, because they might of been hoping for a better future for mankind. Therefore, was this reason why the shop exploded?

Children Of Men Poster Analysis

The poster for 'Children of Men' suggests that the film is an ideal post-apocalyptic thriller. The scene is set with the bold, red, upper-left-hand corner text, reading "The Year 2027:..". The man on the poster is the presumed leading role of the film judging by the fact that he is looking out from the broken glass with a weathered face smiling slightly.

The poster is lighter around his face, suggesting that he is good, therefore this is further manifested through the text, "He is our only hope". The dark shadows around the rest of his body, as well as the broken glass around his face, show that he is trapped and surrounded by evil, and the broken glass in front of his face also suggests that he will overcome it. Interestingly, the broken part of the glass is almost in the shape of a club (frequently the unlucky suit used in cards) which insinuates that he is in a bad situation which gives us more of an insight of what is happening. Lastly, he must crack the puzzle (or the glass) in order to save the day, foreshadowing violence and relating with our perception of the thriller genre.

Breaking Bad

What is Breaking Bad?

Breaking Bad is a Television drama (set in New Mexico) about a part-time chemistry teacher named Walter H White who falls into a world of dysfunction and crime after he is informed that he has Stage III Lung Cancer. His main target was to ensure a financial future for his family but he does this by using his chemistry background to cook up something really big that changed his life forever... But not all for the good.



Who are the Characters?

Walter H White (Bryan Cranston), Skyler White (Anna Gunn)
Walter White Jr (RJ Mitte), Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)
Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), Marie Schrader (Betsy Drandt)
Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), Gus (Giancarlo Esposito)


Who is the target audience?

Breaking Bad is rated 18 due to it's sadistic violence and drug references meaning that they do not advise anyone under the age of 18 years old to watch the programme. Statistically most of the people who watch Breaking Bad are under 35  and a huge part of the viewers were 17 years old.


What is the Genre?                                   

Breaking Bad's genre is mainly crime but its sub-genre is a thriller as it is exciting and contains espionage.

What sort of people are the characters representing?

The characters in Breaking Bad are represented as people who are living a normal lifestyle no different to anyone else but are always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Are there any stereotypes in Breaking Bad?

In my opinion I think that the only stereotype in the programme is Jesse Pinkman. This is because he plays the role of a troublemaker who is exceedingly deficient. He is stereotypical because he is immature and inattentive like a stereotypical male teenager.  

Analysing The Pulp Fiction Poster

Pulp Fiction is one of the many films that Quentin Tarantino has directed and in my opinion the best film he has ever directed. This poster is the key icon that makes the film so famous because every little section of the poster tells us something which builds up on our excitement to see the film.

Firstly I am drawn towards the title of the film because it is very big and bold but also the red and yellow contrast each other making the words stand out as the focal point. Already I have noticed that the colours used in this poster were similar in both Kill Bill posters, so the illustrators might have used them within the posters because of how iconic this one had become. Not only is it just the font and the colours that stand out, it is what the poster is actually saying. 'Pulp Fiction'. Pulp fiction is defined as fiction dealing with exaggerated or sensational subjects, often printed on rough low-quality paper. That explains all the scratches and creases embedded on the poster. Therefore we know that the title gives the audience a hint of what the film will be about.

Underneath the title we see a seductive woman holding a cigarette in her right hand and also we see a gun resting on a pillow. These two props are so small but yet they are very important as they tell us a lot about the character. The cigarette portrays addiction and lack of self-care whereas the gun gives the impression that this girl could be dangerous which explains why she is wearing black because it is connoting death, as well as making her look very sly and sexy. This suggests her victim must be of the opposite sex. Also her facial expression is very severe meaning 'business', and the lipstick adds to the pout because it grabs viewers eyes making them feel like this character is waiting for them.

Lastly, what really captured my eye when looking at this poster was what it said at the very top, 'Winner-best picture 1994 Cannes Film Festival'. This piece of text is very significant because it can increase the chances of people actually watching the film because a lot of people in the modern day chose to see films based on the reviews and ratings. Having won 'Best Picture' at a very famous film festival shows that this film did not disappoint.

Overall I hope that you get a full understanding of what this poster is all about and how the illustrations give us a visual synopsis of the film.

About Me

Hello

My name is Adam  Mendoza I am 17 years old and I have just started Media Studies AS-Level. I have always been fascinated with Media and how the industry functions as a whole, whether it comes to Films, Video editing or Television programmes.
Films have always been a big part of my life as well as music and some of my favourite ones are... Steven King's 'The Shining', Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill (volume 1) and Zack Snyder's 'Man Of Steel'. My favourite genre when it comes to a film is either Action & Adventure or Horror. I love films and television programmes that feature a wide range of sublime effects and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)  but the main things that I really acknowledge when I watch a film is either the cinematography or the non-diegetic sounds because they can produce a range of opinions and emotions towards the target audience making the film more enjoyable and engaging.
I am very skilled when it comes to editing software as I have had some experience in the past using iMovie and Adobe After Effects which are two pieces of software that enable one to create and edit their own video.

I am one who likes to take on a challenge and learn from any mistakes so I can go further.

Therefore welcome to my media studies blog and I hope you enjoy.