Thrillers I Have Seen that Could be Potential Case Studies:

1. Quantum of Solace/Casino Royale: These films contain elements of both thriller and action adventure films. The fact that they are quite gritty and realistic most of the time means that they do classify as thriller films. They have classic enemies, mystery, dark and gloomy environments, etc.
2. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A dark, sinister underlying mystery and tension mean that this film is a pure, great thriller. It has all the aspects of a thriller film: dark locations, a mystery, a fitting soundtrack, a femme fatale, etc.
3. Animal Kingdom: This is a very effective, gritty thriller. It was one of my favourite films of 2011.
4. Psycho: This noir thriller is one of the best, if not the best, of it's genre. Even now it is more tense and effective than most thrillers.
5. Spooks: This modern thriller TV series was original and hard-hitting - you were constantly surprised, as it did not worry about killing off major characters.

"Senna" Trailer Analysis

This trailer is very important for marketing the film "Senna". While Formula 1 fans would probably already know about this film and be planning on seeing it (like me), non-F1 fans would need to be persuaded. This trailer does that by focusing a lot on the person as well as the racing (like the film, actually). Also, the trailer manages to quickly tell (the main parts of) the story of Ayrton Senna to everyone, even people who do not know anything about F1. By adding extra things, like some of the controversies, accidents and successes from  Senna's career and life, the trailer gives viewers more reason to see the film than they probably had before they viewed this trailer.

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Trailer Analysis

This trailor markets "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" to it's target audience. As the film is mainly targeted towards the European market, the trailer focuses on European aspects of the film, such as the A-list European actors. There is quite a lot of time in the trailer which is devoted to images of the actors, or their names (e.g. Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy). The trailer also mentions the talented European film-maker, Tomas Alfredson. As well as this, the plot has a lot of focus in this trailer. The narrator clearly describes the plot, and a lot of effort is put into making it sound as dramatic as possible, while it is accompanied by suitably dramatic shots that strengthen that focus on the spy/secret agent storyline.

In addition, the sound plays a very important role in this trailer. Tense, dramatic music is used that feels like it is building up to an event. This, along with the aforementioned narration and film clips, really makes the trailer feel like it is building up to a climax. As the trailer does not give you the answer to the mystery (obviously), you want to go and see the film to find out what happens.

How has Working Title adapted to changes in the film industry?

The Biritsh film company Working Title has had to adapt to all the changes in the film industry.

One significant way that Working Title has had to adapt to changes in the film industry is how it packages its films to appeal to the US market. As the US market is attracted to British A-list actors as well as American A-list actors, Working Title is using more famous British actors in its film. An example is one of Working Title’s latest films, Johnny English Reborn. This has Rowan Atkinson in it, a British actor adored by the American market. Also, it is packaged as more of a comedy, and appeals to home viewing. As home viewing (DVDs, Blu-Ray, TV, Pay-per-view) is now much more popular than the cinema (96% of films are watched at home now), this is an important adaptation that Working Title has made.

Furthermore, films like Senna appeal to cultures within the American market. There are many motorsport fans in the US, and so a film about one of the most iconic F1 drivers will sell well.

In addition, by making the film and DVD release of Senna a long time apart, it motivates people who want to see the film to see it at the cinema. As the DVD release was a year on from the release of the film, people who really wanted to see it went to the cinema.

Also, Working Title is having to adapt how it packages its films for the DVD market. A great example of this is Love Actually. There are several about the DVD packaging for this film that make it appeal to the DVD market. The most obvious is the “Christmas present” theme of the packaging. The packaging actually has a graphic of a bow round it, and it also has graphics of snow. This combined with the film being centred on Christmas, means that it becomes the perfect Christmas present. This, as well as the famous British and American actors listed on the front of the DVD’s packaging, makes the DVD’s packaging very effective. It is a great example of how Working Title has adapted to the fact that most films are viewed at home now.

As well as this, Working Title has adapted the way it has directed films to certain markets. An example of this is its recent film “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. For this film, Working Title marketed the film towards the European market. They did this by using European A-list actors (like Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy), as well as a top class European film-maker (Tomas Alfredson). This, added to the fact that Working Title is a successful European film company, confirms that the film is targeted towards Europe. However, Universal did not fund this film. This is partly due to the European direction of the film. As "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is one of the first big films to be made completely in Europe without any involvement with Hollywood, this means less focus goes onto the Hollywood studios. As Universal Studios is based in Hollywood, this means less focus on them in particular (as they are backers of Working Title). This could be the main reason why Universal did not back this particular Working Title film.

In conclusion, Working Title has had to make some significant adaptations to keep up with the changes in the film industry. The film industry is ever-changing, and that can make it harder for smaller film companies to stay afloat. This is why Working Title has had to work hard to adapt to the changes within the film industry.

This is the opening scene from "Kill Bill Volume 1" which starts with a diegetic soundbridge to immediately make the audience tense, frightened and thrilled. Because of this, the audience is absorbed by the film straight away. It is a brilliant example of a thriller's opening scene. This is because of effective camera shots like the one that tracks th footsteps of "Bill". It also ends on a great cliffhanger, while also clearly stating the enemy and victim/hero of the scene, and whole film. It also contains excellent acting and an element of fear. The fear comes from the woman's bloody face and her obvious trauma, the sinister man, the dark, gritty feel of the scene and the gunshot at the end. The use of black and white is very effective in this scene. It shows that the scene is a memory or flashback, it makes it look better (as the many colours would look messy and unorganized in full colour), and contributes to the dark, gritty feel of the scene.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

The final cut of our Preliminary Task:

Planning:
For my planning, I created a list of all the shots we would be doing. This list contained rough storyboards, as well as all the different shot types needed and what would happen in each scene. In addition, we did a proper storyboard - this was basically a more organized version of this. Furthermore, we wrote a script so that we knew what was being said in the scene.

The planning was useful as it meant we knew exactly what we were doing in each scene - we didn't have to improvise, which wouldn't have looked as professional. The only thing we had to change was the script, so that the actual "plot" was better to watch.


The 180 degree rule:
The 180 degree rule is a rule that is very important in film-making. However, it can be easily overlooked. The 180 degree rule is the rule that states that you should always be on the same side (180 degrees) of the action, conversation, etc. This stops the viewer being confused as if the camera kept flipping over from side to side, you would not be able to say what side each thing or person is on. For example, in a game of rugby the camera stays on the same side of the pitch. This is so that the viewer knows which side each team is trying to get to. If the camera kept switching sides, the viewer would be completely confused.

Camera:
Even though I had used camera before this task, I learnt a lot about how to use a camera. One of the main things I learnt were the actual kinds of shot you could use, such as an over the shoulder shot to put you into the film and low and high angle, close up, medium and long shots to change the appearance of the characters. Also, another big thing I learnt were some of the techniques used in film making (e.g. shot-reverse shot and the 180-degree rule). Due to my previous experience, I was pretty confident with using a camera before this task. However, this task has made that confidence grow even more.

I cannot think of many areas in which I did not feel comfortable. I may need to revise the different shots and camera techniques so that I can use them as well as possible.

For the start of the film we used shots to track someone who was moving from the outside of the school to a room inside the school. For this we used still, tracking, panning and over the shoulder shots. We also used a few different distance shots, including medium and close-up shots. These shots were used to give the sense of watching someone move from one place to another, while also creating interest as the camera shots slowly revealed the person moving.

For the conversation, we used still shot-reverse shots while abiding to the 180-degree rule. These were all medium shots. These shots were used to make the people and what they were saying as clear as possible.

Editing:
I have used editing programs many times before. I had not used this particular editing program, but using it was quite simple as the only editing we had to do was simple video effects, such as fading to black at the end of the film, and basic cut/delete operations.We did find a slight problem trying to capture the footage from the camera, but that was a technical issue that I managed to solve through trying many different ways of importing the footage from the camera.

Overall, I am very confident with using the editing program. Most of it is similar to other editing programs I have used, so I am familiar with it. On the other hand, I would possibly struggle if I was told to do very complicated editing effects with the software.