Mac guffin

A mac guffin is a plot element that catches the viewers attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction.
The defining aspect of a mac guffin is that the major players in the story are initially willing to do anything to obtain it.

• Sometimes the mac guffin is ambiguous and 
• completely irrelevant to the overall plot.
• The mac guffin is normally money,power or respect.
• Hitchcock defined the mac guffin as the object which the plot revolves around

Feature of a thriller

A thriller is quite a difficult genre to categorical and can often contain many key aspects from other genres.
But i have listed some of the main aspects that separates a thriller from any other genre


The key features of a thriller include:

• Action
• Suspense
• Shock
• Fast-paced
• Tension
• Fights
• High-speed chases
• Cliffhangers
• P.O.V
• Femme Fatale's
• Protagonist (Hero)
• Antagonist (Villan)
• Death
• Problem (enigma's)
• Kidnapping
• Explosions
• Mind Games
• Dramatic Music
• Trade-offs

Coursework Brief

For our coursework we have been asked to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film in the thriller genre which should last a maximum duration of two minutes.
The coursework amounts to 50% of the whole course.

North by northwest (1959)

Is a thriller in where an innocent advertising man from New York is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies and ends up having to fight for his life.

The director was the famous Alfred Hitchcock and the writer was Ernest Lehman.

Many famous stars starred in this film such as Cary grant, Eva Marie saint  and James mason

An iconic scene in the film was the crop duster explosion scene some never scene before in the world of film

This scene sums up everything a thriller is about leaving the audience in a moment of suspense and creates a cliffhanger.

Throughout the film our resourceful hero has to overcome many obstacles thrown is his way by the more powerful and better equipped super villain.

A good example of this is in the auction scene where i look like there is no way out and he is corned by the villains, but a use a quick whits sees our hero escape.

A device called a red herring is used to mislead the audience. In the film a beautiful blonde woman who the audience believe to be on the heroes side ends up to be a villain.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. He fashioned himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style and also pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze.

Alfred Hitchcock was the 'Master of suspense where films came to be the benchmark for 'psychological' thrillers'.

One of his most famous thrillers being :psycho, north-by north west and birds

Listed below are a few quotes from Alfred Hitchcock:

"The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them."
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
"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."
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."
"I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach."

Recipe for a james bond thriller

Like his famous shaken-but-not-stirred martinis, all you need is:

•  One part dashing, sexy, and heroic secret agent.
• One part eccentric villain of equal strength
• Two dashes of gorgeous women
•  Ice cubes of exotic locations and plot devices
• A glass filled to the brim with eye-popping, stunt-driven action from the top shelf bottle of absurdity.

• Bond has always been about the same things, but now we also get a rich back story.
• This James Bond, shatters the tongue-in-cheek stereotype. 
• Many critics that have anointed Skyfall the best James Bond film ever made. 

Skyfall not only still delivers the incredible action we come to expect from a Bond film, but also has a layer of character depth and scope that the half-century series has never seen before. 

Sound

Film Language: Sound

Sound
Sound adds an extra dimension to films and has been extremely useful and common in films for a long while. The first film with sound is known to have taken place in 1911, however it was only in 1927 that the Warner Brothers released the first feature film with a soundtrack, 'The Jazz Singer'. The reason it took this long while to apply sound to film is because companies didn't want to invest the large amounts of money needed for it to be applied. However the next sound film 'Lights of New York' impressed so much that sound film took off and the entire film industry started to make sound films.

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound
The film as we see on the cinema screen is known as the diegetic world.

Diegetic sound is sound which is actually part of the film world we are watching. This can be dialogue, music or sound effects which come from a source within the film world. The music in this instance will be from a source in the film which we acknowledge could actually be producing music, for example a CD player or jukebox.

Nondiegetic sound is sound which we do not recognise as part of the film world such as a voice-over or background music.

Sound Bridges
You will notice that sound from one scene may often continue even though the image on screen has moved from one scene to the next. This is known as a sound bridge which helps to create a smooth transition from one scene to another as the film would seem very disjointed if the sound changed every time the picture on the screen changed. In this way the sound is said to be enhancing the continuity of the film.

Parallel and Contrapuntal Sound
Normally in a film the sound we here compliments the image on screen. For Example if were looking at children on a beach, we expect to be hearing happy voices and children laughing and appropriate music for that scenario. This is what is known as Parallel Sound.
However similar to the film 'Jaws', if you see children playing on a beach but hear sinister music in the background which signals the arrival of the shark, it is known as contrapuntal sound because the sound does not match what we are watching on the on the screen.

Film Language: Lighting

Lighting is used in various ways in films. It helps to portray a setting or mood in each scene we are watching. The lighting in a scene can help to steer the audience to feel a certain way or look at a specific area on the screen whilst keeping the other details in the background still visible but not in full focus.

In the film studio the lighting is usually provided by three main sources:
The key Light: this is usually the brightest light in the studio and the one that has the most effect.
The Back Light  this is the light that contradicts the key light therefore making the character or object on screen appear more 'rounded'.
The Filter Light: this light is used to soften the strong shadows created by the other two lights used. There may be multiple filter lights on the set.

The key lighting can be moved from one angle to another to try and create the various effects in the set.
Under lighting: this is when the lighting is provided from below the subject. This can have a distorting effect on the character or object on screen that the light is being used for, this is most commonly used in films such as horror.
Top Lighting: this is when the main source of lighting is supplied from above, this helps to bring out the features of the character - it can be used to make the character look glamorous.

Back Lighting: this lighting is used behind the subject of focus. if there is not much other lighting used then this light will create a silhouette.

Media camera task

Cinematography

Cinematography - Use Of The Camera

In the early days of cinema a camera was connected to a tripod stand to record. This is called a fixed camera. This meant it created an effect like going to a theatre, it would all be shown from one position and constantly in long shot, so that all of the set and characters were visible to everyone in the audience.

   As techniques progressed, film makers began to try different experiments such as moving the camera around creating a range of shots. This eventually led to certain conventions such as the use of a close up used for showing facial expressions to convey emotion or focus the audience on a particular thing.

                                                         Camera Framing

When speaking about camera framing we focus on what we actually see inside the frame of the screen. We concentrate on the distance of the camera from the object or character and from what angle the shot is taken.

The different shots include:

Close Up (CU)

Extreme Close Up (ECU)

Mid-shot (MS)

Long Shot (LS)

Extreme Long Shot / Establishing Shot (ELS)

Point Of View (POV)

High Angle

Low Angle

Over the Shoulder Shot (OSS)

Camera Movement

When the camera moves from a fixed position.

 These movements include:

Pan - when the camera rotates from left to right or vice versa.

Tilt - when the camera 'tilts' up and down.

Dutch Tilt - when the camera 'tilts' on an angle to give a disorientating effect.

Zoom - when the camera remains still but the focus is adjusted to move either towards or away from the object.

Reverse Zoom - when the camera focus zooms in whilst the camera moves out or vice versa.

Free-Form Camera Movement

When the camera is free to move around the set/location.

These Movements include:

Track - when the camera moves fluidly on a set of tracks in a certain direction.

Dolly - when the camera is on wheels so can be moved in any direction.

Crane - when the camera is placed on a large crane arm that enables it to move around the set with ease. It also allows the camera to move quickly between different heights.

Rolling - when the camera moves diagonally, making the image askew.

Handheld - when the camera is held in a hand and can therefore move in any direction. The result is usually a very shaky picture.

Steadicam - when the camera is worn on a weighted harness to keep it still and balanced, whilst allowing the freedom of handheld filmin