Children of Men

Children of Men

Representation of characters is shown through the micro elements in the opening scene where we know that Theo is the protagonist as he barges through the crowd into the center of the shot. The camerawork used here also suggests how is a significant character as the camera tracks him out of the shop.The expression on his face portrays a feeling of depression and when he puts alcohol in his coffee it implies how he may have issues - could be a trope of this movie. The editing in this opening scene is interesting as the majority of the scene is one take (only one cut)  and so the duration is very long where the camera tracks the protagonists and occasionally pans across to give a view of the city which gives a sense of the real time in the world of "children of the men" and continuity. The sound in this scene are all diegetic and again, allows the audience to be more of a part of the scene and makes it seems like they are actually witnessing the events. The mise en scene in this scene contributes a lot into portraying the setting and location. When Theo leaves the shop the we see the city in 2027 where the streets are busy and there are piles of rubbish on the side of the path. This shows how the people are careless and how the world in the film is different from the real one The opening scene is set in London, we can determine this from the mis en scene where we see the typical english buildings, streets and the red buses. The streets are polluted, looks quite run down which gives us a sense of misery and suggests how the world of "children of men" is not the ideal world someone would want to live in .

enigmas
- why can't the people can't have babies anymore
- why does the protagonist not care
- who is this man
- why was the coffee shop bombed
- what is going on in the world of "

Thriller audience research

There are many Thriller sub genres in the media and as a class we explored the main ones where my group did audience research on Political Thriller. Below are some films that fits underneath the political thriller genre, we used yougov profiler as a base to see what type of person would watch the following films.

Below are how class is categorised in the UK. We matched up certain professions to the different segments to show how they can be differently represented.

Understanding Sub Genres

THRILLER

This is a slide including 5 of the Thriller sub genres that we studied : Psychological, Political, Crime, Spy and Film Noir. 



To demonstrate our understanding we created a short Crime/Action thriller scene using our knowledge of filming, editing and the micro elements. 

50 second clip which brings together some of elements and conventions of crime and action thriller.

Analysis- We used a variety of camera angles and different types of shots in this short film. The opening scene includes a track shot across the table from the front view and also a view from the back. The next cut is a close up shot of the hacker's hand typing on the keyboard. We also included many continuation shots where the actions are filmed from different angles and put together to allow the audience to see it from a different perspective. The last scene in particular, we used a low close up where the camera is placed on the ground. This adds to the striking ending where the attention is drawn away from the actors as the faces are not revealed and focuses on the action of the laptop being taken away. Throughout the whole clip, a background music is used to build/maintain suspense and it also fits in with the sub genre. The volume is increased at certain parts eg. the climax and the speed of the music also changes when tension is increased. A number of diegetic sounds are used as well to support the actions in the clip for example, keyboard sound, running, punch. We also played around with the editing where in the hacking scene, this is when we created a double layer of two clips to show to the reflection from the screen of the computer. The duration of each scene also varies according to the actions. The mis en scene is created through the lighting and the props where in the opening the setting is darker/dimmer contrasting with the light from the hacker's laptop therefore focusing on the actions. The laptop is also always in the frame throughout to the end which highlights its importance to this crime thriller.

Opening Credits

Dexter Opening Credits

Denotation (what we see literally) : Getting ready for the day, grooming, cooking breakfast
Association (the association we make) : Gore, blood/flesh, weird feeling

Camera Work – extreme close ups which exaggerates the violence and highlights the small details	Editing – Jump cuts, unsure/fragmented. Chronological order of scenes in a daily routine
Sound – diegetic sounds amplified, cutting/tearing sound. Background music fits in with the actions	Mis en scene – everyday routine but adds other elements eg. Blood to make it more sinister.

introduction to thriller films

Thriller - A broad genre of literature, film and television. Thrillers stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high levels of suspense, excitement, anticipation and terror. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock which we studied earlier eg. Rear Window. Thrillers generally keep the audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax.

Thriller conventions 
The antagonist ensures the protagonists in an increasingly complex web, until the protagonist feels isolated and helpless.

The narrative centres upon a crime eg. theft, murder. The protagonist is fallible and has an Achilles heel that is exploited. 

Theme of identity are common. mistaken identity, amnesia and dopplegangers

Other themes that reoccur in thriller films
-Theme of seeing, reflection and mirroring - manipulation of perspective
-A series of enigmas are set up - only to be solved at the end 
-The audience is placed in the ambiguous position of "voyeur" 
-protagonist will be in danger
- the narrative presents extra-ordinary things in ordinary situations/settings
- the micro elements are used to build suspense and tension throughout the film 

Some examples of Thriller films are : 
*Gone girl, Shutter Island, The town, Black swan, Nightcrawler, The purge, Source code, Only god forgives, Drive, Side effects. 

Opening

Rear Window : Opening

*We are analysing the first minute of the opening of the film Rear Window.
Camerawork: Pan and Tilt

-  Setting : residence, neighbourhood, apartments, city/urban, average district, compacted and crowded.
- Perspiring/thermometer suggests how it is hot
- We see a man shaving with the radio on in the background, suggests how it is in the morning. The man seems to be quite old and mature
- Camera is from a male gaze
- A man broken his leg
- Camera also smashed suggests how he is a photographer
- Jeff is seen a a risk taker where he takes photos of sports, explosion, bomb testing, simple photography, negative print, fashion - suggests how he is a diverse photographer.

*Dead dog - cynical, seems like neighbourhood doesn't care, everyone comes out to witness the dead dog except for the killer.

Tension

Tension 
Rear Window 1954 - David Hitchcock
Jimmy Stewart - Jeff
Grace kelly - Lisa
Raymon Burr - Lars Thorwald
Ethel Ritter - Stella

Creating tension 

*Jeff's point of view (subjective camera), puts the viewer throughs jeff's position so we feel like what he feels
1) When the killer is returning Jeff knows, we know Lisa doesn't 
2) We know and Jeff knows but he is helpless - creating a sense of guilt
3) Call the police - we know the police are coming. Do they get there on time?
4) We don't know what they are saying/slightly concealed in the killer's flat. We also don't know how Lisa is handling it. How far is the killer going to go? - build up of more suspense and tension
5) The killer realise he's being watched, what is he going to do next? adding to the suspense.

Fear

The media uses real fears and repackages them as entertainment and sells them back to us, these can be in forms of Movies, TV shows, Music or even through Video Games. Here is a mind map including some of the fears people may experience and examples of films thats uses them as a base or the theme.

Theories for scary films

Aristotle - believe in Catharsis where we watch violent/negative images to purge supressed emotions 

Zolf Zillman - Excitation theory, by experiencing negative and scary imagery we intensify the positive, we enjoy seeing the negative images being vanquished 

Glen D Walters - what makes a film scary - tension/suspense, created using narrative and filming techniques. Relevance, the fears explored are relevant to the audience they 'believe'.

Unrealism, we know we are safe therefore we can experiment and explore with these fears. 

*This is a mind map showing some of the reasons why we watch scary movies