Quote from Alfred Hitchcock

"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on." 

History of Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is an important/interesting person to research about because he has made many popular thrillers. He was born on August thirteen 1899 in Leytonstone, London. He was known as the master of suspense whose films became the benchmark of psychological thrillers. After having a successful career in Britain making silent movies and early talkies, he moved to America (Hollywood) in 1956. Hitchcock directed fifty two films in total however one of the films is lost. One of Hitchcock's sayings is "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." Meaning the suspense is worse than the event itself. 

                                                    

                                                                  Psycho

                                                     

                                                                  39 Steps

                                                     

                                                                         North by Northwest

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are socially constructed beliefs, ideas or opinions about specific social groups or types of individuals. A stereotype is used to categorise a group of people. The majority of people don’t understand that type of person, so they put them into classification, thinking that everyone who is that or similar to that needs to be like that or anyone who acts like their classification is one of the stereotypes. 

In films and television programs they usually play to a stereotype, many thriller films include stereotypes such as Paranormal Activity, Source Code and Ghanjini have the stereotype that women are weaker than men; the men in these films are portrayed as strong, dominant males however they cannot help the women in their lives, in their situations they are just as helpless. 

Rules

Some filmmakers will claim that 'there are no rules' or 'rules are there to be broken' however most will agree that there are certain CONVENTIONS that mainstream films observe in order for them to be acceptable by mass audience.

Types of Thrillers

There are numerous types of thrillers the most obvious one is psychological thrillers, other types are spy, political, legal and conspirarcy thrillers.

Examples of films which fit into the sub catergories within thrillers:

- Spy - James Bond & Tinka, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
- Political - Ides of March & V for Vendetta
- Legal - Black Like Me (John Howard Griffin)
- Conspirarcy - State of Play & All the President's Men
- Psychological - Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

The "Rule"

Animated director Chuck Jones worked at Warner Brothers for decades making short movies starring Buggs Bunny, Daffy Duck and company. He also made Road Runner cartoons which from the first episode, an elaborate set of rules emerged.

Road Runner followed these set of rules:

• The Road Runner cannot harm or upset the coyote except by going "Meep Meep"
• No outside force can harm the coyote, only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products.
• The coyote can stop anytime - If he were not a fanatic.
• No dialogue evere except "Meep Meep"
• The Road Runner must stay on the road - Otherwise logically he would not be called the Road Runner.
• All action must be confided to the natural environment of the two characters - The Southwest American Desert.
• All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
• Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy. 
• The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

In class we watched an example of the rules in actions, below is the example and see for yourself.

Thriller Coventions

[This image is a spider diagram of what could be related to thriller conventions, this image is made be Tajinder Sandhu on word]

[Coventions of thrillers; from the Robert Clack Media Blog]

Definition of Thriller

"A thriller is a very difficult genre to pin down because it covers a wide range of films. Thrillers are films of suspense that are suppose to instil terror into the audience." - Susan Hayward, Key Concepts in film studies

Preliminary Task

This is the final product.

Making of Preliminary Task

I was in a group of four, we planned our idea of what the preliminary task will be about. We filmed the preliminary task within a day, we included everything required for our preliminary task such as match on action, shot/reverse shot, eye-line match and correctly showed the 180 degree rule. After we filmed, we made a decision that I would be the editor; I used a program called Final Cut Pro X. I cut the film into sequences to make it easier to edit, after I cut the film to the relevant parts, added transitions at the beginning and end which was a fade in and out. When the editing was finished I uploaded the final product on to youtube.

My Preliminary Task

My preliminary task involves two characters, character A walks towards the door then through it, this shows match on action. Once character A walks through the door they look towards character B, this shows the eye line match. Character A and B exchange lines of dialogue (argument) which shows shot/reverse shot. Finally character A runs out and that is the end of the drama. While all of this is shot, we are keeping in mind that the 180 degree rule has to be correct.

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task is about continuity editing, it must show:

- Match On Action
- Shot/Reverse Shot

- 180 Degree Rule
- Eye Line Match

Match on action is when the audience see a character start an action in one shot and continue it into the second shot. For example the first shot could be of an character walking up to the door and the second shot would be the character on the other side of the door and walking towards someone or something.

Shot/Reverse shot would be during a conversation, over the shoulder shot of character A, over the shoulder shot of character B then back to character A. 

The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline that the character should always have the same left/right relationship within the scene. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subject together it is called crossing the line. For example if the character is shot walking across the room and then shot again however the camera has moved 180 degrees this would look as if the character is walking in one direction, then suddenly turns and walks in the opposite direction. 

Eye line match is when the character is looking in a particular direction at an object or person, then the camera follows the direction of the gaze. 

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity is a good example of how to build suspense within a film, slowly. The camera work shows the emotions of the characters and their state of mind; this film is made like a home movie in which the camera work is not accurate, therefore the audience cannot base their emotions on camera work; however at the end of the film the camera is at a side angle which could represent another side of the character which the audience has not seen before. The audience would still understand what is happening within the film if the voices were taken out of the film and only the soundtrack was left; this would be a positive because the film would be more exaggerated. The performance of the actors was very convincing, by using body language and facial expressions. The hair, costume and make-up of the actors is natural, just like the lighting, on the night scenes the camera would be recording in night mode which would affect how the lighting would look if it was on normal mode. In this film it explores gender roles within the household,  the woman is seen to be the vulnerable figure and the male is portrayed as strong and does not admit defeat to frightful situations.