Elements of a Thriller

                Macguffin, Enigmas and Red herrings 

A Macguffin is plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story.

Alfred Hitchcock's quote on Macguffins: " We have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin'. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers.

Enigma refers to a puzzle, something mysterious or inexplicable, or a riddle or difficult problem. 

In thrillers, this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.

Red herrings is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. This can work with other devices such as enigmas to create suspense.

For example in Saw the two characters spend time imprisoned in a room in which a third character lies dead. Throughout the film, both characters appear to be guilty of a series of murders, until it is discovered at the end that the third person in the room is bot actually dead but is in fact, the killer.

Elements of a Thriller

                          Suspense and Shock

Alfred Hitchcock was a the master of suspense whose films came to be the benchmark for psychological thrillers.

Alfred's famous quotes about suspense in thrillers:

• " There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
•  " If i's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on."
• " always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

       Suspense 'Thriller' - Hitchcock model

under the strong influence of Hitchcock, thrillers often begin with a crime and the accusation of  an innocent bystander. The accused contacts the authorities, no doubt the case could be promptly solved, but instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardizing life and limb       - Rick Altman -

For example:

• 'The 39 steps' - 1935
• 'North by Northwest - 1959

"in 'The 39 steps': abandons both thrills and suspense when the falsely accused character finally reaches safety" - Rock Altman - 

Suspense refers to the audience knowing what the character in the film doesn't.

shock refers to an immediate event that occurs without warning:

Sound

             Sound: Diegetic/ Non-Diegetic 

• Diegetic refers to the world of the text. for example : dialogue, sound effects, music with  a source within the text eg. a radio.
• Non-diegetic refers to everything outside the world of the text, for example: voice overs, soundtracks, captions, titles and subtitles.

                Sound: On screen and Off screen

• On-screen sound refers to when the audience can see the source of the sound. for example, in the scenario of a kitchen, the sound of a kettle would be an on-screen sound.
• Off-screen sound refers to when the audience can't see the source of the sound. of-screen sound enables the extension of the diegetic world.

                Sound: parallel/ contrapuntal

• Parallel sound refers to when the sound matches the actions in the scene
• Contrapuntal sound refers to when the sound does not match the actions in the scene, a perfect example of that is in the opening of Jaws where the girls was being eaten by the shark and happy music was played:

 

   

My group's camera shot project

Thriller Analyses

                                 The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon is a political thriller about the son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for the communist party.

There are two versions of the this film, one was made in 1962 and the other in 2004.

Both of the version had the same story line and a lot of similarities expect from the fact that the one that was made in 2004 was in colour as technology has developed a lot more in contrast to the 1962.

          Differences                              

The 1962 version is in black and white while the 2004 version is in colour

The 2004 version more ethnically diverse              
 
They didn't end in the same way    
  
 Instead of the leading actors on a fake grassy mound in a film studio (original film) the modern film has a realistic battle. CGI means that:
•We have explosions, Night vision – making the attack seem believable                          

                 The Manchurian Candidate (1962)         

•Directed by John Frankenheimer. With Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh.

•The central concept of the film is that the son of a prominent, right-wing political family has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international communist conspiracy

In the scene where there was a dialogue between Eleanor and Raymond, when Raymond sat down the camera turned into an high angle with Eleanor so in the shot, making her look more dominant as she is trying to control him. In addition, while Eleanor is talking to Raymond, there is a dissolve into a scene with Raymond on his own thinking about it, then it goes further to a scene where Raymond is having a conversation with Ben: all of this occurred while we still have a dissolve of Eleanor talking to Raymond. This is very clever because it shows the pass of time and that these other scenes occurred because of what Eleanor said.

            The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Directed by Jonathan Demme.

    With:

    Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl
Streep, Kimberly Elise.

    In the midst of gulf war soldiers are   kidnapped and brainwashed to idol Raymond Shaw,  in order for Raymond to win a high honour award.

In the scene when Ben (Denzel Washington) is being interrogated by the detectives, there were a lot of shot reverse shots  swapping from detective to detective meanwhile still keeping a shoulder shot of Ben looking towards the detectives. This is effective because if the camera is going from detective to detective, it shows that Ben is really being ganged up on by quite a vast amounts of detectives. In addition, there is a very quiet non- diegetic song of a a deep hum which adds to the tension in the atmosphere.

Thriller Analyses

                              No country for old men: full analysis

Chigurh is a hired hit man who has no remorse or compassion for other human beings. It seems that he gains a warped satisfaction or enjoyment from killing or creating fear amongst others and this adds to the film’s tensions. This is demonstrated with the innocent shop owner when Anton pays for his gas and asks the man to flip his lucky coin to decide his fate.His main weapon of choice is a captive bolt pistol in which he uses to either kill people or shoot out locked doors. As an audience we know little about him due to his lack of speech.  What does this create?

The trailer for 'No county for old men' is very effective. one of the reasons for this is the long shots of open deserted sceneries at the beginning, this tells the audience that one of the features of the film is going to be isolation which is an element of a thriller. Another reason is when we were first shown the antagonist, the scene went quiet and on came a haunting non-diegetic sound. This tells the audience that this particular character is key to the film as there was a climax of sound as he was shown which is also an element of thriller.
I predict that the target audience for this trailer are teenagers because of the fast pace editing. suggest that the audience would have to be energetic , so are so able to keep up with the lively story   line.

At the beginning of the film, there is a voice over of the narrator talking about his history in the police force and criminal behaviour  which foreshadows that, that is what the film is going to be about.

the very first shot we get to see is a couple of long shots of the dessert which adds up to an establishment shot as we get to see different parts of the dessert. this creates a sense of isolation and remoteness to the scene as there is no characters around yet.

The costumes worn be the characters differentiates them in the case of innocence: the sheriff's costume is lighter which suggest purity whilst the antagonist's costume is very dark which suggests danger, importance: the costume worn by the sheriff is quite common while the antagonist's costume is dark and interesting which let's us focus more on the antagonist.

The fact that we were shown the antagonist immediately suggests that the film is straight to the point in contrast to other thrillers that try to convey suspense. This also reflects to the character of the antagonist, that he too is straight to the point, blunt and not afraid of anything.

The macguffin of the film is the money in the brief as the motive of the character was to get possession of it and it kept the storyline alive.

In the scene where the antagonists has a dialogue with Carson, low key lighting was used in the scene, there are no non- diegetic sounds or music used which builds tension. In addition, the shot reverse shot used adds to the pressure between the characters and then the telephone ring quite loudly which acts a shock element and makes questions like who is calling? why are the calling? is Carson safe? spring up in the audience's mind.

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Thriller Conventions

Thriller conventions are elements that makes up a thriller, such as:

• central to plot: justice vs injustice, blurred line of good and bad, enigma, red herring , plot twist and cliff hangers.
• sub genres: mystery, crime, psychological, political
• moods: murder, menace, mystery, paranoia
• characters on a dangerous mission, escape seems imppssible.
• edge of your seats, tension, climax, suspense, pursuit and deadlines
• society seen as a dark and corrupt 

Thriller opening

                                   Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock

There was a very loud sudden non- digetic music that was being played which sounded taunting. Low-key lighting was used to portray the feel of fright that is being carried on by the music being played. there was a graphic match of the woman's eye to a hypnotic rotation of a sphere which suggests this might be a psychological thriller. The close  up of the unhappy woman's face is quite unappealing and frightening. 

Thriller opening

                                    No country for old men

At the beginning of the film, there is a voice over of the narrator talking about his history in the police force and criminal behaviour  which foreshadows that, that is what the film is going to be about.

the very first shot we get to see is a couple of long shots of the dessert which adds up to an establishment shot as we get to see different parts of the dessert. this creates a sense of isolation and remoteness to the scene as there is no characters around yet.

There is a pan to the police car; this pan introduces the characters and props and drags our attention to them. there is shot of the man putting the gas yank in the car and the camera focuses on it for quite a long time considering it's a prop, which tells us that this particular prop is going to be essential to this film. In addition, we get a long shot of the car approaching the very long highway: this suggests that something is wrong with the criminal that's in the police car as the camera was kept on them. As the car got further from the camera, the non-digetic  music builds up and creates suspense. when we get a medium shot of the police officer with the suspect behind him forebodes that something bad is about to happen. 

Preliminary Task

In lesson we were given a preliminary task of a demonstration os continuity editing.

It must show that we can successfully use:

• Match on action
• Shot/Reverse Shot
• 180 degree rule
• Eye-line match

Match-on-action

when we see a character start an action in one shot and then we see them continue it in the next shot.

The 180 Degree Rule

the 180 degree rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.

If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting two subjects, it is called crossing the line.

Shot/Reverse shot

                          My group's preliminary task

Film Language

4Editing

Editing is the process of looking at all footage shot during the making of the film/TV programme and placing it in the desired order and joining it to together.

There are two key areas to concentrate on with editing:

• speed of editing: how long each shot lasts
• style of editing: how each shot is joined to the next

Speed of editing

In a film, each scene may last a matter of seconds or it could continue for minutes but length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along.

The speed of editing will help to determine the mood of what is taking on screen. 

If a relaxed mood is desired, the scene lasts longer and changes less frequently. For example in a romantic comedy.

Scenes at the beginning of a film, as it begins begins to tell it's story must be long, probably introduces into main characters.

As the film progresses, scenes may become shorter as editing cuts between telling two or more story lines simultaneously.

Straight Cut 

                                                       Most common and 'invisible' form of transition. one shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audience's attention.

Jump Cut

                                    A jump cut is where the audience's attention is brought into focus on something very suddenly. This occurs by breaking the continuity editing.

Dissolve

                                                 A change of shots without a black out. Fading on shot of the screen while another shot is fading in.

Fade

                                                                            

--->
       A gradual darkening or lightning of an image until it becomes black or white.

Wipes

one image is pushed off the screen by another. image can be pushed from left or right but usually to the left, used to signal a movement between different locations.

Graphic Match

                                        The film maker can choose a place or a picture with a similar one.

stedi cam

A stedi cam is used to capture movement of characters whilst it allows to perform different techniques like a tilt, pan, crane and more without disruptions because it is strapped to the cinematographer's body and it is also easy to use because it is weighted. 

Film Language

             



Cinematography is the way the moving image is recorded mainly to do with the camera and lighting, the person operating the camera is the cinematographer.
These people will work closely with the director, Gaffer and Grips.

• Director of photographer (DOP)
• Camera operator
• Focus puller
• clapper loader
• lighting department (Gaffer and Sparks)
• Grip department (Riggers) 

                                                         Lighting

key light

The key light is the bright  and main light on the subject.

Filler light

The filler light softens the harsh key light and eliminates shadows

Back light

The back light adds  to depth of the field, counters the key light and makes the subject look more rounded.

Under Light

The under light is  when the main source of light id from the key and the filler light to create deep shadows.

Top Lighting

Top lighting is when the main source of lighting comes from above the subject, highlighting features to create a glamorous and flattering look

Low-key Lighting

Using the the key and back-lights, a sharp contrast of light and dark is created, forming deep shadows.

High-key lighting

Using more filler lights to create a bright, daylight effect

In Time

                                  IN TIME

'In Time' is one of the thriller films I watched in my own time, to get get me more familiar with the thriller genre.

'In Time' is about a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop ageing at 25, but there's a catch: you're genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich "earn" decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks called Will Salas is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage called Sylvia Weis. Living minute to minute, the duo's love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system.

North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock

                  North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock

North by Northwest is a thriller film about how a helpless, innocent New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by the name of George Kaplan. A of foreign spies called Philip Vandamm and his henchman Leonard try to eliminate Roger Thornhill , and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. However, when Thornhill tries to make sense of this case, he is framed for murder. Now on the run from the police, he manages to board the 20th Century Limited bound for Chicago where he meets a beautiful blond, Eve Kendall, who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside down yet again when he learns that Eve isn't the innocent bystander he thought she was. Not all is as it seems however, leading to a dramatic rescue and escape at the top of Mt. Rushmore.

It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Ernest Lehman. The stars are, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason,

Thrillers are characterised by fast pacing, frequent action. There were quite a handful of fast paced action  in 'North by Northwest', for example, when Roger Thornhill was chased by the crop duster in the corn field would keep the audience interested as it is a very odd weapon  to kill someone with. Another fast paced action scene was when Roger Thornhill was was chased in the train station by the foreign spies. There was a lot of straight cuts which adds to the speed of the atmosphere. The literal cliff hanger at the end keeps the reader interested and think of what could have happened in the end and how they got safe. 

Thrillers include resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans more powerful and better equipped villains. In North by Northwest, Roger Thornhill was very clever in escaping from the spies in the middle of the action by running into the hands of the police.Roger Thornhill thwart the plans of the spies by pretending to be killed by blanks which is very heroic of him.

Devices such as suspense, red herring and cliffhangers are used extensively in thrillers. In 'The Birds' was an element of suspense when Roger Thornhill was awaiting the person he thought he was supposed to meet in the cornfield and suddenly this odd crop dusting plane was approaching him from afar, this creates an element of suspense as the scene was quiet with no background music and all we could hear is the sound of the crop duster getting closer and closer.A red herring was used when Roger Thornhill was shot with blanks by Eva Marie Saint in order to fool the foreign spies that Roger Thornhill is dead. A cliffhanger was used toward the end when Roger Thornhill and Eva Marie Saint  was in danger hanging off a cliff and then we get a dissolve shot to a scene where they are well and safe. This is a cliff hanger because it doesn't tell us how the got safe or what happens to the foreign spies..

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A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the her must overcome. In 'North by Northwest' the foreign spies drove the plot as the storyline depended on what mishaps they would make for Roger Thornhill next.

'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock

                                                 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock

'The Birds' is a thriller film by Alfred Hitchcock which is about how a wealthy San Francisco socialite called Melanie pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

This film isn't an archetypal thriller at all as this time the external threat is from nature, as oppose to man kind as it has always been in other thriller films. This marks a new era of thriller film making as it opens a metaphorical door that makes it okay for villains of a Thriller films to be something other than human. Since the film 'The Birds' came out in 1952, it has allowed other thriller film directors such as Chuck Russell to produce such thriller films like 'The Blob' in 1958:which was about a strange life-form that consumes everything in it's path as it grows and grows. This isn't exactly a threat from nature, however, it also uses the same idea used by Alfred Hitchcock in ' The Birds' that a villain can be anything animated other than a human.

Thriller films are normally characterised by fast pacing and frequent action. This keeps the audience interested and as Alfred Hitchcock said "allows you to dip your toe in the lake of fear". in 'The Birds', there was a constant recurrence of action. for example, in the scene where Melanie was about to drop the love birds off at her potential boyfriend's house, while she was on the boat, she was spontaneously attacked by the Gull for the fist time in the film; this tells us that this is the beginning of many attacks.

Thriller films contains a resourceful hero who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villain. in this case, in 'The Birds' the villain is more powerful as there is thousands of the birds and they can easily overpower the characters. In addition, devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. for example, in 'The Birds', in the scene where Melanie went into a room on her own and got attacked by birds, when she entered the room: no music was playing, all we could hear was the flapping of the bird's wings which creates suspense. there was a cliff hanger at the end when all the characters got away at the as when didn't know what happened next in the town.

A thriller has a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacle the hero must overcome. in 'The Birds' the birds drive the plot as the whole storyline depends on what the birds are going to do next. The birds themselves are the villains as the are killing and harming people. A MacGuffin is a plot element that catches the viewer's attention of drives the plot of a work of fiction. in another word, it is the story that links everything together. The MacGuffin of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' is the relationship between Mitch and Melanie.

Fun Facts about 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock
Did you know that............

• The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by birds took alone took a week to shoot
• The birds  were actually ties to Tippi Hedren by bits of nylon in the scene she got ravaged by birds
• when the film came out in 1952, outside the cinema Alfred Hitchcock had set out speakers  that play sound of birds: so when the viewers  come out of the cinema, the are frightened by the strange sound of thousand of flapping birds as the film is an unending terror!
• in the scene where Tippi Hedren was ravaged by birds, she wasn't fully aware that hundreds of birds were going to be in the room, so the performance we saw of her on camera as genuine and real and she was actually physically and psychologically injured in that scene.
• the film 370 effect shots. the final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements.
• A number of endings were being considered for this film. One that was considered would have showed the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds.

Recipe For Thriller

As i am studying the thriller genre, there are a couple of bases that needs to be covered.

                                  Recipe For Thriller

Thriller is a broad genre of films, literature and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub genre. For example, twilight, Shawn of the dead and Batman which are combinations of horror and thriller.

Thrillers are characterised by fast pacing, frequent, action and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of the more powerful and better equipped villains.

Devices such as suspense, red herring and cliff hangers are used extensively. A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he/she presents obstacles the hero must overcome.

Red herring : when the plot of the films has been twisted to create suspense. For example, in the film 'Thor', we first thought Thor was the villain but really it was his brother.

Cliffhanger: when we are not told the full story of a film at end. For example, in the film 'Captain America' when  captain america was about to fall.

The thriller genre is flexible and can engage the audience through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social and political intentions. Hitchcock said "thrillers allow the audience to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like"

famous medium shot of the character "Marion Crane" just before being stabbed to death in the striking thriller "Psycho"

This is a famous medium shot of the character "Marion Crane" just before being stabbed to death in the striking thriller "Psycho"

The Famous Shower Scene From "Psycho"

in class, we are introduced to the"father of thriller": Mr Alfred Hitchcock. We watched one of his thriller movies - psycho, which is about phoenix office worker Marion Crane (Vera Miles) is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam (John Gavin) in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion (Vera Miles) is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion (Vera
 Miles) leaves town and heads towards Sam's (John Gavin) store. As i think it'll be great for you to watch it in your own time, i would not give away what happens next. With that said, 'Psycho' is the perfect traditional thriller movie.




Scroll down for 'Psycho's' ending:
 Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

Welcome

Hello, welcome to my blog
my name is Arafat Olayo, i am a student in Robert clack studying media studies. every couple of days, I would be updating my blog with information about my thriller course work.
Enjoy!!