thriller director detailed study: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg:

Born December 18, 1946

film director, screenwriter, producer, and entrepeneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielbergs films have covered many themes and genres.
Below is Spielbergs full filmography of films that went tp theatrical release. of the films below I have seen; Jaws, The Blues brothers, Raiders of the lost ark, E.T, Gremlins, Temple of doom, Back to the future I, II and III, Who framed roger rabbit, lost crusade, Hook, Jurassic park I, II and III, Men in black I, II and III and Transformers I,II and III.

My favourite Spielberg film in all genres is either Blues brothers or Men in black. i believe that Spielberg is not only one of the greatest directors of our era, but in the history of film itself.

Spielbergs Filmography:

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Other	Notes
1968	Amblin'	Yes		Yes
1971	Duel	Yes
1974	The Sugarland Express	Yes		Yes
1975	Jaws	Yes
1977	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Yes		Yes
1978	I Wanna Hold Your Hand				Yes	executive producer
1979	1941	Yes
1980	The Blues Brothers				Yes	Cook County Assessor's Office Clerk
	Used Cars				Yes	executive producer
1981	Continental Divide				Yes	executive producer
	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Yes
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Yes	Yes
	Poltergeist		Yes	Yes
1983	Twilight Zone: The Movie	Yes	Yes			segment "Kick the Can"
1984	Gremlins				Yes	Man in Electric Wheelchair, also executive producer
	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	Yes
	Room 666				Yes	Himself
1985	Fandango				Yes	executive producer
	Back to the Future				Yes	executive producer
	The Color Purple	Yes	Yes
	The Goonies			Yes	Yes	also executive producer
	Young Sherlock Holmes				Yes	executive producer
1986	An American Tail				Yes	executive producer
	The Money Pit				Yes	executive producer
1987	Batteries Not Included				Yes	executive producer
	Empire of the Sun	Yes	Yes
	Harry and the Hendersons				Yes	executive producer, uncredited
	Innerspace				Yes	executive producer
	Three O'Clock High				Yes	executive producer
1988	The Land Before Time				Yes	executive producer
	Who Framed Roger Rabbit				Yes	executive producer
1989	Always	Yes	Yes
	Back to the Future Part II				Yes	executive producer
	Dad				Yes	executive producer
	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	Yes
1990	Arachnophobia				Yes	executive producer
	Dreams				Yes	executive producer
	Back to the Future Part III				Yes	executive producer
	Gremlins 2: The New Batch				Yes	executive producer
	Joe Versus the Volcano				Yes	executive producer
	Roller Coaster Rabbit				Yes	executive producer
1991	A Wish for Wings That Work				Yes	executive producer
	An American Tail: Fievel Goes West		Yes
	Cape Fear				Yes	executive producer
	Hook	Yes
	Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation				Yes	executive producer
	A Brief History of Time				Yes	executive producer
1993	Jurassic Park	Yes	Yes
	We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story				Yes	executive producer
	Schindler's List	Yes	Yes
1994	The Flintstones				Yes	executive producer
1995	Casper				Yes	executive producer
	Balto				Yes	executive producer
1996	Twister				Yes	executive producer
1997	The Lost World: Jurassic Park	Yes			Yes	Brief cameo in television reflection at the end of the film
	Men in Black				Yes	executive producer
	Amistad	Yes	Yes
1998	Saving Private Ryan	Yes	Yes
	The Last Days				Yes	executive producer
	The Mask of Zorro				Yes	executive producer
	Deep Impact				Yes	executive producer
1999	Wakko's Wish				Yes	executive producer
	Medal of Honor				Yes	Video game, original concept
2000	Shooting War				Yes	executive producer
2001	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Jurassic Park III				Yes	executive producer
	Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures				Yes	Himself
	Vanilla Sky				Yes	Guest at David Aames' Party
2002	Minority Report	Yes
	Men in Black II				Yes	executive producer
	Austin Powers in Goldmember				Yes	Himself
	Catch Me If You Can	Yes	Yes
2003	Double Dare				Yes	Himself
2004	The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing				Yes	Himself
	The Terminal	Yes	Yes
2005	Directed by John Ford				Yes	Himself
	War of the Worlds	Yes
	The Legend of Zorro				Yes	executive producer
	Memoirs of a Geisha		Yes
	Munich	Yes	Yes
2006	Flags of Our Fathers		Yes
	Letters from Iwo Jima		Yes
	Monster House				Yes	executive producer
	The Shark Is Still Working				Yes	Himself
2007	Transformers				Yes	executive producer
2008	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Yes
	Eagle Eye				Yes	executive producer
2009	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen				Yes	executive producer
	The Lovely Bones				Yes	executive producer
2010	Hollywood Don't Surf!				Yes	Himself
	Hereafter				Yes	executive producer
	True Grit				Yes	executive producer
2011	Paul				Yes	Himself
	Super 8		Yes
	Transformers: Dark of the Moon				Yes	executive producer
	Cowboys & Aliens				Yes	executive producer
	Real Steel				Yes	executive producer
	The Adventures of Tintin	Yes	Yes
	War Horse	Yes	Yes
2012	Men in Black 3				Yes	executive producer
	Lincoln	Yes	Yes

the link to the side is the IMDB list of awards that Spielberg has been nominated for and won. He has won 150 awards and been nominated for another 120 awards that he did not win. he has won 3 oscars for best directer and best picture for "Schindlers list" and best director for "Saving private Ryan".  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/awards

Division of labour

Who will do what...

Filming/ Camera work:
Sarah and Harmony are filming many of the scenes shot down at the railway bridge. This is because Jack is acting in the scenes being shot. Jack is shooting the scenes just involving Molly and also the POV shots from his characters point of view. These shots include the POV of Jacks character hiding in the trees waiting for Molly's character. The other shots Jack is filming are the shots where Molly is retelling what happened in the attack to the camera. The shots may be used in the final edit or most likely the audio will be laid over the flashback.

Editing:
The division of editing is equal. We have all had a say in how the film is edited including effects used, level of effects used, altering effects used, cutting clips to fit overlaying audio and matching clips and transitions so that the film flows.

Location Choice

we have chosen 3 locations for our whole opening. The first is an old park in Heath Road Thurston. we were going to film the attack here but actually used it as a prototype/ starting point and found a better location. This is the second location, a secluded narrow rail bridge in Church Road Thurston. This is now the location of the attack as it is narrow and quite dark. There is also an opening in the hedge so that the attacker can hide and appear unnoticed under the bridge. the third location is the therapist office, unfortunately outside of school we were unable to find a location suitable. this is why we are using the student support room in main school. this room is kind of like a therapists room already due to the work that they do in their with students. however it still looks quite child friendly school office like. so we may have to cover the walls with white dust sheets and pin them tight so they look like wallpaper or the wall itself. unfortunately as the student support room is always being used we most likely need to book it and therefore do not have a picture for it.

The Prestige Opening Scene- Analysis of Mise-en-Scene

Here I have put together a short presentation of a brief analysis of the mise-en-scene used in the opening of the Prestige.

Location

These are going to be the main locations of our thriller opening. They are easily accessible as they are local to our school and as Molly who is acting as the attacked girl in our film is available during our lessons it will be easy to get to from school. We aren't worried about what the weather looks like because we want the day to look as normal as possible so that the audience can relate to it and think of it as being realistic. These locations are quite remote so it won't be difficult to film without being in the way of anyone and it is easy to access but it isn't too remote that it would look strange that a girl is walking around on her own. These locations will relate to our target audience too as it may be somewhere they would be walking either after school or around their own town/village. The park represents childhood innocence and vulnerability and under the bridge it shows darkness and concealment. The location for our therapist office will be the student support room in Thurston Community College and looks professional for this as it is used for a similar reason.  

update 14

Today i got loads done. I looked at the Prestige starring Hugh Jackman and analysed the opening scene. I looked at past student work that was not from TCC through the delight that is youtube and analysed it.  I published a post on quick cuts and crash zooms as they look really dramatic and we might use them in our film. And as a group we uploaded the storyboard fro our final idea.
:)

Location

We have been scouting out various different locations to film our thriller film, our first location that we found is an old derelict play park, we like this location because its easily assessable for filming (only a few minuets away from school) and it really represents the idea of childhood innocence. We have decided that we won't film the attack in this location as its too open and slightly cliche but we are thinking of filming the girl walking through the park just to add that idea of childhood innocence which we really want to portray in our thriller film.

Our next chosen location is an old rail bridge in Thurston, we have chosen this location for the attack as it has a hidden isolated feel to it and we really want the attack to be hidden and concealed for the rest of the world. It also has a very derelict dilapidated feel to it like the play area. The location is very accessible to us as well as it is only a few minuets down the road from school making it extremely easy to film there and get second shots if needed. (the picture underneath is not the actual bridge that we are going to use but there is another in Thurston which is EXTREMELY similar and a slightly better isolated location)

We have also found a location for the therapist's office however, we have been unable to get photos of our chosen location as yet but basically it is a school office with comfortable chairs and a desk. We will have to modify the walls if needs be (for example if there are any posters on the wall that make it seem too school officey-like)

Our Storyboard

Our storyboard! from harmonyshaw

Harmony:

Here I have drawn a storyboard of the shots we will most likely be using in our thriller film. in a group we came up with the various different shots to piece together our film and get an idea of what we are aiming for our actual film to be like. You can see from thee above that we have single shots of the storyboard on slide share and also pictures of the whole storyboard. 

Sarah:

This is our storyboard for our final idea for our thriller film opening. It shows the stages of the action, it states the camera shots we will use and describes what is happening in the scene.

Jack: 

Final idea storyboard, this shows the camera angle, the sound used and the description of what is happening in the scene. the picture clearly shows a still of what is happening and from this we can picture how the rest of the scene will be.

Quick cuts and crash zooms

In our film there is a scene where we zoom into the victims eye to get through the eye into the flashback. To zoom through the victims eye we are going to use a crash zoom.
 A crash zoom is when the shot zooms in so fast it appears to crash into the target it is zooming into. In our case the crash zoom will be from the victims body into the eye. 
Below is an example of the crash zoom in Wayne's world where they go for an extreme close up.
Ours wil be a lot neater than this example!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZi24FFwC3g

The flashback is key in our opening and to show the flashback we are going to reverse the whole clip in quick cuts. this will look as if a VHS tape is being rewound and that the whole attack is on tape when actually the victim is recalling the attack in her head. Quick cuts are used to show key moments in a sequence, they usually show the fast forwarding of time where as in our film the quick cuts will show the reversing of time. Below are two examples of quick cuts. One is a scene from Shaun of the dead when Shaun gets ready for work. The second is a scene from snatch when Avi comes to london.

Taken- A Bief Analysis

In class we were given the task of looking at different opening to thriller films and analyzing them, we were given the opening to Taken. We looked at the basic information of the film so, when the film was released, the basic story line, the director etc. We then went and looked at technical features so we looked at camera work and how it is used to present different information to the audience. We discovered that many close up shots are used on the kidnappers feet which creates a sense of mystery and the unknown. We also witness many low angle shots used on Bryan when he is speaking into the phone etc. and these shots are uses to show to the audience how in control and how powerful he is. We then looked at sound, we notice that the diagetic sound is amplified and this is a very common convention in thriller films. We also witness a pause of silence and this is done to present the feel of 'eerieness' and danger which is also a very common convention in thriller films.  We then looked at Mise-en-Scene so this included the costume, lighting and props we see that the kidnappers are wearing black to portray how dangerous they are and how mysterious. Using the colour black for the kidnappers costume is a very common convention in thriller films and many other genre of films as we always associate people wearing black as the bad guys. We noticed that the lighting in the room where Bryan is is very low key and dark whereas his daughter is is a very bright high contrast place, this is done to show the difference between the two destinations and indicates that they are no were near each other and she is far away from the help of her father. We then looked as the props, the daughter is carrying a mobile phone in which she speak to her dad on, the mobile is very representative of teenage girls and we know the director has done this to represent different social groups within the film. Editing featured parallel between the father and his daughter, during this editing every time the camera switches back to the father we get closer and closer to his face and this is done to present a sense of urgency and we can see the emotions he is feeling at the moment in time. The parallel editing is also used to help signify again how distance they are from each other and how we the audience can see how they are feeling but they cannot see how each other is feeling personally. We also see very fast paced editing so quick jumps between shots etc, this fast paced editing is done to amplify the sense of urgency that the dad is wanting to come and save his daughter even though they are oceans apart.
We then came to an conclusion on the film. I personally really like Taken, I feel that the storyline is very hooking and you want to follow the dads journey to find and rescue his beloved daughter. The film also features many of the thriller conventions such as fast paced editing and dark lighting which I really like as it really creates that thriller feel. I also feel the actors take up their role very well and make the film seem somewhat believable even if the storyline is very far fetched. All in all as a group we felt that the opening scene was 'bursting'  with the codes and conventions of the thriller genre therefore we think it's a good one!

Looking at the lighting: high contrast and chiaroscuro

In our thriller there are two key areas:
one is the therapists scenes  and the other is the flashback scenes.
To distinguish the moods of each of these scenes we are using two types of lighting:

Chiaroscuro;
 This is low key lighting. we our going to use low key lighting for the therapist scenes. this is so that the whole scene is quite dark highlighting the mood of the scene as dark as the girl who is in therapy had been attacked in some sort of way. a great example of chiaroscuro lighting is the opening sequence in Casino Royale where Bond talks about his first two kills.

High contrast lighting;
 High contrast lighting is going to be is used during the flashbacks to the attack, this contrasts the therapy scenes and the audience can clearly tell the difference between the two scene types. the high contrast also makes the scene harder to picture like the victim is scarred from the whole attack and therefore harder to distinguish features on the attackers face/ body making the attacker unidentifiable.
a great example of high contrast lighting is also in the Casino Royale opening sequence when Bond flashes back to his first kill in Pakistan and then we see his first kill in the changing rooms of the cricket ground in Pakistan in high contrast.

Past student work ( not TCC)

Unforgiving:

Narrative:
A girl and a boy who look like husband and wife live together, the husband comes home from work and asks for a cup of tea. The girl makes the cup of tea but puts a bottle of medication in the mug, the boy then drinks the tea unaware of the medication. He then dies and the girl writes a suicide note and prepares the scene as if the boy has committed suicide and the girl has arrived home to find him dead.

Camera:

• Overshoulder shot is used to show the husband in the chair watching the TV, we see his view but we also see his shoulder so we know that it is not a POV.
• POV shot is used to show the husband taking his shoes off, this puts the audience in his perspective and we see how normal everything is.
• Close up is used on the medicine bottle at the end as we then see what has been put in the tea to make the husband die.

Sound:

• Non diegetic soundtrack is used to build tension and introduce the film, a soundtrack creates the mood of the film before the action has started.
• Digitally enhanced sound is used when the mugs crash on the work top, by digitally enhancing the sound allows the audience to cringe as the noise is not very pleasant but we also think that the mugs could break as it sounds worse than it is.
• A crescendo is used when the spoon hits the worktop, a crescendo dramatically cuts the soundtrack to silence. This creates a roadblock to the tension that the soundtrack has built and either extinguishes the tension or massively increases it.

Edit:

• Blur/ dissolve is used when the medicine is put in the tea, this is so that the audience are left wondering what has been put in the tea. so it is a bit more of a surprise later when the husband dies.

Mise en scene:

• Costume: white shirt, black trousers, tie and suit jacket - is used by the husband as it is a normal office workers dress but it is also a key costume for thriller genre characters with official purpose like detectives etc.
• Props: the main key props are the mugs, tea and the medicine bottle as they play a large part in the opening.

Mise-en- Scene - How We Are Going To Use It

Harmony: As a group we came up with the different aspects of mise-en-scene that we are going to use to present certain ideas to our audience e.g we are going to put the attacker in black dark clothes to present the idea that they are dangerous and deadly.

Sarah: This shows what we are going to use to portray our thriller opening sequence and then also the reasons for why we are doing what we are doing.

Jack: this is our group powerpoint on mise en scene, each slide gives an insight into what we are going to use eg lighting, location, costumes etc. for example we are unsure due to availability whether the attacker will wear a mask or just wear a hoodie to conceal identity.

Past Student Work

Haywards Heath College 

Thurston Community College

Thurston Community College

These are 3 different analysis' of past student work. I focused on the Mise-En-Scene, Camera work, Sound, Editing, Narrative and Mood. 

The prestige opening analysis: powerpoint

The Prestige Conventions

These are all of the conventions I found in the opening sequence of the film The Prestige.

update 13

Today we analysed our target audience as we received the results of our target audience survey. Also looked at analysing thriller film openings. The most in depth analysis of the opening of thriller films was the thriller we looked at in class. This was Se7en starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. We looked at the same conventions etc that we saw in other openings that i analysed for home work.
:)

Se7en: opening analysis

How will the opening appeal to the target audience

Harmony: We have considered many different ideas on how we can make our film appeal to our target audience. Our target audience is mainly aimed at teenagers therefore we will include many different features on our film so it appeals to our target audience and get the reaction that we want. As you can see from the presentation above we will use the vocabulary or the typical teenager so they can relate to the characters in the film. Our characters are also going to be teenagers therefore we will be representing our target audience that we want to reach out to through our characters as they are all going to be the same age; teenagers. We will also use Mise-en-Scene to appeal to our target audience so this includes the costume, the innocent girls clothes will be modern, a style that the audience can relate to. We will also use colours to appeal to the audiences. We have also chosen a setting that teenagers can relate to, a park represents childhood innocence and will make the audience look back to theit not so long ago childhood. We will use props to also appeal to the audience, these propps include a laptop (teenagers are extremely familiar with this technology)

Sarah: All these different parts to our film have been thought about to make it appeal to our target audience. For the narrative we will make sure that the main character of the girl will be the same age of our target audience if not slightly younger. (Our target audience is about 15-25). This will be relatable as they can imagine its themselves or a younger version of themselves or maybe they may have a younger sibling. This way the audience will definitely be able to relate and emotionally attach to the character making it more realistic. The attacker will be almost a dark figure that you never see who it is or why they are doing what they are. They are completely concealed and this may scare our target audience to think how this could happen to them. The vulnerability will make the audience symphathise and attach to the character and understand the film more. The therapist will be wearing the same jacket that the therapist wears so that the audience will get hints that the therapist may be the attacker but it will be a red-herring but as we are only showing the opening so they will be left with a sort of cliffhanger. The setting is very local and common so it will appeal to the target audience as they will be able to relate to it as it is common places (park, road, etc.) they will more than likely walk here sometimes so it will be more relatable for the audience. The props will be realistic, like the therapist will have official documents, laptop, etc. to show professionalism which the audience will find realistic. The attacker will have a weapon to show aggression and that he is the bad guy. All of these things will relate to the audience so they symphathise with the characters, find it realistic and enjoy the film more as it relate to them.

Jack: here is the PREZI I created for the group on the areas of the film that we have thought about to make it appeal to our target audience. Many of the ideas and reasons for these ideas have been explained in the PREZI. ideas include narrative, setting and mise en scene- costume, location, setting and props. A few examples of whats included above are as follows; Narrative- the actors are going to be the age of our target audience so that the narrative appeals more to them so we receive the right emotional feedback as we wish to present in the final film. Costume- the therapist is going to be wearing a suit which is key to thriller film conventions as it shows the officialness of the character. also with costume the therapist and the attacker are going to have the same leather jacket to make the audience wonder if it is coincidence or if they are the same person (red herring). the above PREZI conveys many ideas and reasons for them. Enjoy.

Se7en

This all of the thriller conventions I found in the opening sequence of the thriller film Se7en. 

Target Audience analysis