Lighting
For the majority of our shots -especially in the primary location of Weybourne beach- we decided to use ambient lighting to add a sense of realism to the production, as well as to make the dark costume of the antagonist Ian Moone stand out to the audience more.
Whereas in the interior shots from our secondary location - the shed that we filmed in- we decided to use chiaroscuro lighting from a compact torch that our victim has in our narrative. We used this to highlight the crucial moment of our victim Sam - along with the audience- seeing the antagonists face for the first time, along with accentuating the shot as a pinnacle moment within our narrative.
We wanted to use this shot for when we first see our antagonist as it is similar to that in 'The Third Man' when we first see the character of Harry Lime, and resultantly realise that he isn't actually dead; as we were earlier led to believe.
This lighting used in 'The Third Man' helps to suggests links from Harry Lime to the concept of a phantom, much like the lighting used in 'Nosferatu the Vampyre' (1929). This link helps to reinforce the eerie feel of our narrative and character of Ian Moone, who manages to follow our victim Sam without being noticed, and when she turns around cautiously; he has suddenly vanished.
Camera
As to accentuate the isolation of our victim and the Weybourne beach location, we decided to use an aerial shot which not only successfully did this, but also extracted the audience from within the action and provided a change in camera movement; keeping the audience interested. As this was a very interesting and distinct feature of our production, me and Madeleine decided to create a commentary of the use of the aerial shot to explain how and why we did this:
As the opening credits are one of the first things we see, it is important to use a font that is fitting of our production as it may be used to set the tone of the whole text, and also influence the audience's initial response to our production.
In 'Hansel & Gretel: Witch hunters' the opening credits are very fitting of the text and set up the audiences expectation for the production.
The way in which we present our credits is very important as this could also have an effect on the audience's perception of our production. By animating the text so that it fades up and out again - like in the titles of 'insidious'- makes it look like smoke, creating an eerie feeling; as well as suggesting the supernatural elements and the theme of astral projection explored within the production. In this example, the use of the opening credits is clearly very fitting of the overall text, and intrigues the audience from the very beginning.
In the opening credits of 'Se7en', the text flickers and twitches, which could be seen as reflective of the unstable, psychotic mindset of the murderer within the narrative - a psychotic individual being a generic thriller character type. Once again, this shows that the use of text within the opening credits is very important in setting the atmosphere for a production - further reinforcing the importance of finding a suitable and effective font choice for our production as not only will it be one of the first things that the audience sees, but it may also influence their initial attitudes towards the film.
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston
About the film:Animal rights activists free a group of infected chimpanzees to horrifying results. Waking from a coma in a deserted London hospital 28 days later, Jim takes to the deserted city streets in a state of mystified confusion. Joining forces with another group of survivors following a terrifying encounter in a seemingly abandoned church, Jim soon learns the truth behind the deserted streets and the menacing creatures that lurk in the shadows. It's soon revealed that the chimpanzees had been harboring a deadly virus that sends its victims into a furious, murderous rage, and in the days following the initial exposure, the entire population was nearly wiped out due to the resulting homicidal rampage. Is there still a glimmer of hope for humanity - or has the deadly "rage" virus found its way to foreign shores and infected the entire planet?
The film opens with images of violence that appear to be taken in different parts of the world. By opening the film with this, it appears to be foreshadowing the later events of infection spreading and people turning against one another - much like in the clips seen here. We later see that the shots are located in a laboratory that is using chimps in their research, due to the chimp we see laying on a medical table with it's chest cut open and organs visible. It is then that we see a group of animal rights activists break in to the laboratory - clad in dark clothing, with the setting being heavily shadowed. This helps to not only make the location seem eerie, but also helps to suggest that something bad is about to happen. Later we see one of the activists being attacked by one of the infected chimps whilst trying to set it free. This shot is filmed on a hand-held camera which helps to enforce the fear and urgency of the character before her death.
Later, we see the main character Jim - whose just woken up from a coma- exposed, laid in a hospital bed. The fact that Jim is exposed when we first see him could be reflective of the fact that he is quite vulnerable as he isn't aware of what has happened and why; as well as being reflective of the fact that he is completely on his own. He is left in an isolated hospital, which has been overturned and damaged - signifying that something terrible has happened whilst he was in a coma, and had caused everyone to flee. The use of extreme long shots of the main tourist attractions in London whilst Jim is wandering the streets helps to show the audience that there is absolutely no movement at all in one of the busiest cities, reinforcing his isolation and abandonment. The tilt shot used when he is walking through the isolated streets shows the confusion and disorientation the character is feeling at this new and unnerving turn of events.
The Church location Jim wanders to after leaving the hospital was used in a very interesting way. As soon as he enters we can see that the building is very dark and heavily shadowed - once again indication that something is not quite right- and is very still and quiet, uncomfortably so. This could be very significant as it could suggest that no religion or faith will help anyone and that there is no escape; as we later find out it hasn't as Jim's first encounter with the virus comes in the form of the priest from the church.
After meeting another survivor - Selena- they come across a block of flats in an urban location, covered in graffiti and barricaded with a massive pile of stolen supermarket trolleys; which helps to reinforce the connotations of urban areas, which is a generic thriller location. Similarly, another generic thriller location is the large staircase within the tower block that the two are chased up, building the tension and suspense within the audience. They then travel in a car -the interior of which being another generic thriller location- with the two new survivors from the tower block; a young girl named Hannah and her father Frank. Similar to that in 'Essex Boys', their journey takes them down a large, dark tunnel of which you cannot see the other side, possibly foreshadowing the fact that their journey may not end well; which is later seen with Frank being infected, a group of soldiers who try to rape Selena and Hannah with the intention to try and restart humanity, and who also attempt to kill Jim.
As music has a massive influence on the feel of a production and the way the audience react to it, it was very important to find the right sound for our thriller production.
For example, in films such as '28 Days Later' and 'Requiem For A Dream', music is used to signify pinnacle moments in the narrative; reinforcing its importance both to the story and lives of the characters involved. Much of the music that is used in this way usually layers up the instrumentation and crescendos to build tension and suspense within the audience, creating a very foreboding atmosphere.
As we want our production to be very suspenseful and eerie; we decided that having a full piece of music to accompany the action may not fit our production as it wouldn't create the right atmosphere to go with what is being shown on the screen, as well as also possibly being very distracting.
Despite this, we still wanted to have some sound in the background - to accompany the diegetic sound - to try and build tension within the audience. This is why we decided to have a drone that constantly crescendos and builds up instrumentation in the background of our production, hopefully creating an eerie and unnerving atmosphere.
We also decided to add a different sound for when we see our antagonist's face for the first time, hopefully creating a similar feeling of tension in the audience; as well as clearly indicating to the audience that this character is our antagonist.
By using sound clips from freesound , it eliminated the issue of trying to find non-copyrighted/royalty free music; and also helped us to find sound that fit our mise en scene better than many of the tracks we had originally tried.
Due to being one of my favourite fims, i decided to do a contextual study of 'A Clockwork Orange' in relation to my previous post identifying the thriller conventions explored in Kubrick's screen adaptation of 'A Clockwork Orange'.
'A Clockwork Orange' is a film adaptation of Anthony Burgess' 1962 dystopian novella of the same name; released in America on 19th December 1971. Alex is a charismatic, sociopathic delinquent whose interests include classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and what is termed "ultra-violence". He leads a small gang of his friends - Pete, Georgie, and Dim- whom he calls his droogs. We follow Alex on the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via controversial psychological conditioning. They use classical conditioning - learning through association- through aversion therapy to try and condition Alex to despise violence.
Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations in order to stop the specific behaviour.
The most famous example of classical conditioning is 'Pavlov's Dogs', where he conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. In this case, food acts as an unconditioned stimulus where the dogs natural salivation at the food is the unconditioned response. A neutral stimulus - a bell- would receive no conditioned response from the dog. During conditioning, the food would be placed in front of the dog whilst the bell rang; which would produce the unconditioned response of salivation to the food. After conditioning,the conditioned stimulus - the bell- received the response of the now conditioned response of salivation at the sound of the bell alone.
In the case of Alex in 'A Clockwork Orange', it would be plausible to assume that the discomfort Alex is being exposed to acts as an unconditioned stimulus; where his natural reaction to this discomfort is the unconditioned response. Therefore, violence is a neutral stimulus as he has never been opposed to it, partaking in it regularly; and so for him to observe violence receives no conditioned response. During Alex's 'treatment', Alex would be subjected to discomfort whilst shown a series of violent images; which would produce the unconditioned response of Alex's discomfort. After 'treatment', the conditioned stimulus alone - any type of violence- would receive the now conditioned response of feeling sick/uncomfortable when thinking about or seeing violence after he's finished treatment and is released back into society.
Reception and Controversy Along
with Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969), Dirty Harry (1971), and
Straw Dogs (1971), the film is considered a landmark in the relaxation of
control on violence in the cinema. In the United Kingdom, A Clockwork Orange
was very controversial and withdrawn from release by Kubrick himself.
In the United States, A Clockwork Orange was rated X in its original release.
Later, Kubrick voluntarily replaced approximately 30 seconds of sexually
explicit footage from two scenes with less explicit action for an R rating
re-release in 1973. Because of the explicit sex and violence, The National
Catholic Office for Motion Pictures rated it C ("Condemned"), a
rating which forbade Roman Catholics seeing the film. In 1982, the Office
abolished the "Condemned" rating. Subsequently, films deemed to have
unacceptable levels of sex and violence by the Conference of Bishops are rated
O, "Morally Offensive".
Although
passed uncut for UK cinemas in December 1971, British authorities considered
the sexual violence in the film to be extreme. In March 1972, during the trial
of a fourteen-year-old male accused of the manslaughter of a classmate, the
prosecutor referred to A Clockwork Orange, suggesting that the film had a macabre
relevance to the case. The film was also linked to the murder of an elderly
vagrant by a 16 year old boy in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, who pleaded guilty
after telling police that friends had told him of the film "and the
beating up of an old boy like this one." Roger Gray QC, for the defence,
told the court that "the link between this crime and sensational
literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable
doubt". The press also blamed the film for a rape in which the attackers
sang "Singin' in the Rain".
Christiane Kubrick, the director's wife,
has said that the family received threats and had protesters outside their
home. Subsequently, Kubrick asked Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from
British distribution. In response to allegations that the film was responsible
for copycat violence Kubrick stated: "To try and fasten any responsibility
on art as the cause of life seems to me to put the case the wrong way around.
Art consists of reshaping life, but it does not create life, nor cause life.
Furthermore, to attribute powerful suggestive qualities to a film is at odds
with the scientifically accepted view that, even after deep hypnosis in a
posthypnotic state, people cannot be made to do things which are at odds with
their natures.” The Scala Cinema Club went into receivership in 1993 after
losing a legal battle following an unauthorized screening of the film. It was
only after Kubrick's death in 1999 that the film reappeared in cinemas and was
released on VHS and DVD.
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