Sin City

Sin City

The opening of Sin City instantly presents the genre before and image is projected on the screen. There is a sound bridge which includes car horns and police sirens, this helps reinforce the thriller genre beautifully and helps represent the location. The non-diegetic sounds of a sleazy jazz music which also connotes rundown 1940’s New York, a stereotypical thriller location. The film comfortably slides into a wide establishing shot from a black fade; this shot connotes the female characters loneliness and isolation within society. The wide open space also shows the female’s vulnerability in a society corrupt with sex, drugs and crime.

The immense amount of chiaroscuro lighting helps form an enigma on the male characters face with the use of shadow; this exquisitely follows the general convention of having an enigmatic character to create mystery and suspense. This use of shadow is similar to that in Carol Reed's A Third Man. 

  The poetic narrative helps emphasise the intellectual nature of the thriller genre, also the use of narrative helps the audience engage with the male character like Billie in Essex Boys. There is a variety of shots which are stretched out for a very long time; this was done to show a likeness to Carol Reed’s A Third Man which is one of the most iconic thrillers of its time. The use of long shots helps the audience engage with the piece whereas with jump cutting it feels too rushed.

The use of extra-long cigarettes, Zipo lighters and silencer guns helps reinforce the genre at a basic level and also gives a sense of elegance and class. There are effects which are added during the edit which also show that the film is a comic styled piece, examples of this is the use of black and white with subtle colours coming through, which gives the film a Marvel comic feel. At the end of the opening there is a extreme crane shot where the camera rises revealing that the male character is submerged in a gritty looking city. “I will cash her check in the morning.” This is the last sentence spoken by the male character, this shows the corrupt money driven society we live in, in other words he is summing up a life to mere money.       

Psycho (1960)

Director : Alfred Hitchcock

Psycho is a iconic 1960's thriller, it's noir styles helps show a realisation of events happening behind the scenes of the hippie movment during the 1960's. The film connotes generic aspects of the thriller genre, for example the very dim lighting and use of enigmatic figures to create suspense.  



The iconic shower scene shows the great diversity of Alfred Hitchcocks film knowledge applyed to such a challanging genre. The non-diegetic music helps creates suspense with a dark obscure feel. In this scene  Marion Crane is in a rough dimly light shower room, this confinment is a common thriller convention. At 0:45 in the clip a figure is presented behind the shower curtain, the blurred figure fills the audience with fear. The use of Enigma helps build suspense and says everything about the male character, also the blurry shower curtain makes it look like the two characters are submerged in water one being prey and the other the mysterious predator.  As the scene progresses the speed of the shot cuts quickens to add suspense to the scene, also it adds an element of confusion as if we are witnessing the murder for the girls point of view.  

Another way the Alfred Hitchcock establishes suspense and terror is through extremely fast jump cuts. These extremely fast close ups create a sense of confusion and also energy withing the piece.

Survey...

Survey

I intended to find out the most popular film genres between different age groups and see what age group was most interested in thrillers and target my film at them. The pie charts are arranged in age order.

For the under 10’s category there isn’t really much variety, this is due to the knowledge that implants will not understand the complex storylines of thrillers and horrors, yet also there is a age restriction on many complex films which may challenge views that children haven’t confronted at such a young age.

For the 10-15’s there is still a problem with age restriction to the form of films the can view. Yet due to the internet teenagers are able to watch films illegally online for free, this is a factor which is damaging the amount of people who go to the cinema. From the pie chart it is obvious that the main film genre watched is action films, this may be because they are heavily advertised on internet sites such as Facebook and Bebo commonly used by teens.

As shown above in the 16-21 categories it is obvious that there is a wide variety of film genres consumed. Information from the IMDB shows that Thrillers and Action films are the most heavily watched by 16-21, and this information is backed up by the pie chart. Looking at this data the target audience would been 16-21 year olds, this means that to gain attention I will need to research clothing and common stereotypes of 16-21 year olds. This won’t be challenging because I am currently 16 and understand what people my age find interesting in film.

This pie chart shows that 22-30 year olds most commonly watch intellectually challenging films, with the exception of comedy. The reasons for this may be that people of this age group are not amused by childish animations whereas they like controversial storylines, or in this case laid back comedies. This age group is very diverse.

            The 31-45’s are less widely diverse compared to 22-30’s. The pie chart shows that the most watched genre is Thriller, this may be because it stimulates the mind and challenges common conceptions on issues raised within society, for example Crime, Prostitution and Gangs.

This pie chart shows that people above the age of 45 enjoy watching very old well filmed movies. Western films were commonly made in the 1950’s all the way through to the 1980’s.

Undergoing this survey has helped me realise that the Thriller genre is for the more intelligent minded 16 onwards, this may be because they will understand the issues presented and understand what the camera angles, costumes and location represents.