Independent Research: Thriller Texts - 'Ils'

'Ils' ('Them') - 2006

Director/screenplay: David Moreau, Xavier Palud

Cast: Olivia Bonamy, Michaël Cohen

    About the film: 'Ils' is a French thriller/horror film, claimed to be based on true events. It's about  a woman named Clémentine, who finishes a week of teaching and heads home to the secluded house in the woods she shares with her novelist husband Lucas. That night, Clémentine is working when their phone rings, which she picks up to strange sounds on the other end. Later, her and her partner hear strange noises from outside and go to see what is going on, when their power cuts out - where then the innocent couple are terrorised within (and out) their own home.


     One of the generic features of a thriller film that is featured in 'Ils' is the locations used. The film opens with a mother and daughter driving along a deserted country road at night, where they are having an argument  and the mother crashes the car. She then goes to check the engine, but doesn't reappear when the daughter calls for her. Many shots during this scene are point of view shots - from the daughters point of view, within the car- where she is then terrorised and killed from the interior of the car; which is a generic location for thrillers. 

    Another generic feature of thrillers in this text is the character types and dangerous situation they find themselves in - there are the innocent victims, Clémentine and Lucas, who are trying to escape from the aggressors; and then the antagonists themselves who are similar to the 'stalker' type as they are terrorising the victims in their own house, as well as chasing them through the woods/forest. Another generic feature of thrillers in this text is the high levels of anticipation, suspense and tension; and how it is created. The fact that the victims live in a large, secluded house, surrounded by a forest helps to build suspense as, not only does it seem very eerie and sinister, but - with only the couple living there- anyone could be in or outside their home and they may not even know; until it's too late.

    Another way anticipation and suspense is built up is through the use of ambiguity and enigma. For the most part of this text, we don't know who - or what- the aggressors are; which helps to build anticipation within the audience as it creates a feeling of uncertainty within them as we want to know who/what they are, and why they are doing this (terrorising the 'innocent' couple).
 
    Finally, another way in which tension is created in this text is through the use of hand-held cameras/camera shots. For example, in the scene where Lucas is trying to get into the bedroom (of which he previously told Clémentine to lock as the antagonists were in their house), and Clémentine can't open the door to get Lucas in away from the aggressors who are following him. In this scene, there are hand-held cameras used for the shots of both characters; which helps to build tension as it shows the urgency- and desperation- of both of the characters to get the door open, to try and escape the antagonists. There is also the use of hand-held cameras for the scenes in the forest, when Clémentine is running away from the aggressors to find help. As well as creating a sense of urgency, in these scenes the use of the hand-held cameras also helps to create a feeling of anxiety and fear. This is due to the fast pace and obscure angles created from using this camera - which could be reflective of the characters mind set as she is essentially 'running for her life' - and Lucas'- as she is desperately trying to escape, and to go find help.


     Just before the credits roll, on-screen text, in the manner of films "based on true events," explains that the bodies of Clémentine and Lucas were found five days later and that the murderers were children aged 10–15. Upon interrogation the youngest of the group revealed as an explanation of that night's events that "They wouldn't play with us." 

Review:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2007/01/22/them_2007_review.shtml

Independent Research: Thriller Texts - 'Good Neighbours'

'Good Neighbours' - 2010 
Director/Screenplay: Jacob Tierney 
Cast: Jay Baruchel, Scott Speedman, Emily Hampshire 
Based on a novel by: Chrystine Brouillet 

     About the film: In Notre-Dame-de-Grâce , a residential neighbourhood of Montreal, a serial-killer has raped and murdered three victims. The film develops around 2 neighbours, Louise and Spencer, who have  increasingly - and suspiciously- bonded over their fascination over the recent crimes terrorising the community; when a new tenant, Victor, moves into the building who eagerly befriends them. But the more time these three spend together in their apartment building the clearer it becomes that what they once thought of as a safe haven is as dangerous as any outside terrors they could imagine.

    One of the generic features of a thriller film that is featured in 'Good Neighbours' is the character types and danger of their situation. There is victor- who is quite similar to the 'stalker type' character as he is obsessed with Louise, whom which he develops an imaginary love life with; Spencer- the secretive type who is possibly hiding a dark past or part of his life; and Louise- the fairly ambiguous character we don't really know all too much about.
 
    The 3 main characters all have a very twisted and obscure relationship with each other, which is a common feature of characters in thrillers- as is the 'innocent' victims of the murders occurring in the neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Another generic feature of thrillers in this text is the urban setting. It is set in the neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, centred around the apartment block where the 3 neighbours live- which means there is also a focus on the stairs in the building, which is another generic location feature of thrillers. The choice of location is very effective in this text as to create a tense and slightly claustrophobic atmosphere due to the majority of the film being shot in the apartment block, as the story localises the murders to just that neighbourhood. This is because - as the 'action' has been localised to a single are- we know that the characters must have some link to the crimes that are occurring, which helps to increase the tension as - due to the 'apartment setting'- the characters are close in proximity, and yet don't really know anything about each other- or who they can trust.








    The claustrophobic atmosphere is also an effect of the majority of the film being shot in the apartment block; as there is so much going on with each of the characters - which we soon find out are not quite what they seem- when they all interact with each other, within the apartment setting, it helps to create this claustrophobic and quite awkward atmosphere - which also helps to increase tension.
   

        This tension could be reflective of the tension in Canada during the 1995 Quebec referendum - which was the second referendum to ask voters in the Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should secede from Canada and become an independent state- of which is the setting of this film. At one point in the film, the 3 main characters - all English speaking- debate the results of the vote. Victor is the character primarily interested in the referendum results. He suggests that the three friends have a party, watching the plebiscite play out on television. The character's name, Victor (referendum winner), is one of the film's puns in reference to this.

Review:   http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/good-neighbors-film-review-216098

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid the filming?

              

       To plan for our filming, our group talked together to discuss what ideas we had, and to decide what we wanted to do and to get a general sense of direction for this task. We then created storyboards, starting with what camera angles we were going to use and where we wanted to shoot them (our locations). From this, we compiled a shot list – including what camera angles we were going to use, the locations of where these shots will be filmed, and who will be in these shots. We used this shot list to aid us during our filming to guide us in shooting our task in an effective and systematic way. This allowed us to keep continuity throughout our shots as we filmed them chronologically – meaning there wasn't a big difference from one shot to another as they were filmed in order, so there weren't any changes in the setting which would affect the continuity of our shots. As we only filmed over one day we didn't have any continuity issues with factors of our production such as costume. Although, as our original footage was lost, our shot list and storyboards do not mirror our final product as we had to film it again so we changed some of the shots – and as a member of our group moved, we had to have someone else be in our shots, so we changed most features; like the subject of the conversation, the people in the shots and the camera angles that we used. 

What is the 180 degree rule, and how is this rule important to the filming task?

The 180⁰ rule is a basic guideline in film making which states that 2 characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. This means that the two ‘subjects’ should always be shot on one side of an ‘imaginary line’ as to make sure that the characters always stay on the same side (left or right) in each scene. This rule is important to our film making task as we need to make sure we have continuity in our product – therefore if we did not keep to the 180⁰ rule then the ‘subjects’ would keep switching which sides of the shot they are on in each individual shot. This would cause confusion and disorientate the audience, so it is important to our filming task that we keep to the 180⁰ rule.

What shot types and camera angles did you use in your filming task, and to what effect?

In our final product, we used many different camera angles. We started with a low angle shot of ‘actor 1’s legs to show the beginning of a journey – which creates a sense of urgency, as the subject moves past the stationary camera fairly swiftly. We also used a close up of ‘actor 1’ on the way to the location of our conversation in our project, as to show their emotion before the conversation happens – to contrast to the mid shot we use of ‘actor 1’ after the conversation. In our project, we also used a point-of-view shot of ‘actor 1’ going to open the pod door (where the conversation takes place). This is effective as the shot is a little bit shaky- due to being a hand-held shot as well -  as it is reflective of ‘actor 1’s mind set as they are anticipating what is about to happen with ‘actor 2’. For the conversation part of our project, we primarily used shot-reverse shot between ‘actor 1’ and ‘actor 2’ to show who is talking, the emotions they portray whilst talking, and their reactions to what the other says. We did this keeping to the 180⁰ rule as to keep up our projects continuity.  We also used close up’s of both ‘actor 1’ and ‘actor 2’ after the conversation - separately - as to show the emotions they are now portraying after their confrontation. This is effective as it reinforces the change of mood that runs throughout the shots.

 What editing skills have you developed? How confident are you with using the editing programme?

        During the editing stage of our project, I have developed skills of effectively picking which clips are best to use, cutting the unusable parts out and editing all of the clips together to make a fluent, consistent product. I also developed skills of using the editing effects in an effective way. For example, for the majority of the conversation part of our project we edited it to black and white as to show the seriousness and drama of the conversation topic. We had a clip that we wanted to use the whole of, but only wanted the second half in slow motion; so we used the razor tool to split the two parts of the clip –but so it still flows without any jumps between parts – and then changed the speed of the second part. Another example is that we had 2 clips that go after one another, but realised there was a jump to ‘actor 1’ standing up in one of the clips, to her sitting down in the next. Therefore, we used a fade to white transition as so the 2 clips still had fluency and didn't seem to jump from one to another too much. This was also effective as the first clip was in colour, and the second clip was the first of our shots of the conversation edited to black and white; so the fade to white transition didn't only help with the fluency of the possible continuity problem, but also make the change from colour to black and white less harsh. I feel okay with using this editing programme, but not too confident as I probably still need to experiment with how to use other effects and how fitting they would be for the subject or style of our projects.  

Preliminary Task: Planning - Shot List

Note: Similarly to the storyboards, as a member of our group moved - all the scenes, with 'Holly' are now with 'Joel'; and as our original footage was lost and we had to film it again, this shot list is not reflective of our 'final product'.

Preliminary Task : Planning - Storyboards

Note: Due to losing our original footage and as one of our group members moved; we had to re-do all our footage, so these storyboards are not reflective of our 'final product'.

Camera Training: Still Images - Improved Long Shot #2

Long shot - used to establish the location and any action occurring.

Camera Training: Still Images - Improved Long Shot

 Long shot - used to establish the location and any action occurring.