Group Narrative- Miss Georgiou

Group Narrative 

The basic purpose of a narrative is to entertain, to gain and hold a readers interest. The narrative is to be clear and is to present the setting and way in which, the whole story is set.   In media it is important to be able to tell the differences between the narrative and the story. A story is a sequence of events where as a narrative is the way in which this is told. So, when we are analysing a narrative we are analysing the construction of a story eg, the way its put together not the story itself. From our group narrative we must be able to show the audience the theme of our narrative from the off set; our theme being thrillers. As a group we discussed and took into consideration each-other's individual ideas in order to take the best parts of each to formulate a narrative as a group that fits into the main focuses of a narrative. 

  My Own Idea For A Narrative

My idea for my narrative consists of a car crash taking place and a young girl being killed. A young, blonde, female driver is the reason for this and is then haunted by the young girl she killed in the chase who is out to get revenge. The scene is vaguely shown but, we mostly see her getting haunted and the crash is the background story to this. She gets haunted in a series of events and we witness within the opening scene these occuring to her. For example: door's slamming, strong gusts of wind following this and objects unexpectedly falling off of shelves. The setting would be in a house to add to the realism of the event, and small glimps of the girl will be shown to the audience but, not the victim (dramatic irony). When the girl is shown to the audience, creepy music is played that will then thus create an atmosphere and a suspense for the audience. 

Advantages of this idea:
An advantage of this is that my narrative falls into the thriller genre and obtains many thriller conventions such as, the female victim, the un-expected killer, a murder being taken place and the conventional setting of night-time in a isolated area. However, having seen the advantages of my idea we discovered disadvantages that came alongside them.

Disadvantages of this idea:
 A disadvantage of my narrative idea is that there is a great deal to be able to be placed within the time we have been allocated to create our opening scene. The car crash, the death, and the chase for revenge are quite longwinded and although, would be a good idea for a whole thriller sequence, perhaps is too much for a short snip-it of one. 

The idea we decided to take from mine was that using transport was an exciting thing to use for our clip. After differing we decided that we could use public transport such as, a train in order to create our scene. This will be the easiest thing for us to use as it will not involve getting permisson and will allow us sound effects to create suspense and tension. 

Gunnet's Idea

My individual narrative consists of an extremely vain girl who keeps looking at herself at every mirror or surface with a reflection once the eerie music comes in she realises someone has been following her and eventually gets killed after sprinting through the retail shop floors from the psychotic killer.

Advantages of this idea:
The main character is conventional to the thriller genre and the use of music will add suspense and tension to it.

Disadvantages of this idea:
It will be hard to film this without people getting in the way meaning, there will be a lot of disruptions taking place when filming.

Sophie's Idea

My individual narrative consists of a young blonde girl who is alone in her house she recently moved in to. The house is old fashioned and has a creepy atmosphere as there is low key lighting and close up shots. She starts to hear doors slamming and other noises in her house, when she realizes something is wrong a creepy erry soundtrack starts to play, when she realizes she is not alone in the house a more upbeat faced paced music is introduced. When she is investigating the house, the masked killer appears behind her and she see's his reflection in the window and a non diagetic disturbing loud sound is played to shock the audience and grab their attention. By the end of the clip she wakes up in her bed and realizes it was a dream the soundtrack is more calm, so she goes back to sleep and there is a heartbeat sound building the suspense. When she is asleep there is a extreme close up of the killers face. The audience is left in suspense of a cliff hanger.   

Advantages of this idea: 

• The narrative is clear and easy to display to the audience
• Easy place to film without any disturbances
• Easy to re create the scene for more filming time
• Good place to film, as everyone in the group can easily get there
• different camera angles and sound used
• the audience will be able to relate to the scene well as its set in a house

Disadvantages of this idea:

• Simple, predictable scene for a thriller film
• Parts of the plot may not grab the audiences attention
• May be hard to add the effects in such as the doors slamming

Overall idea

Our overall idea consists of a small group of people on their way to a party with the main character being a teenage blonde girl. The train has a maximum of 15 people on and is in the middle of the day. There is a panning shot so the audience can be aware of the surroundings and the number of people in the train, there is also a mid shot of the girl and her group of friends so the audience can understand that she is not alone and be prepared for what is going to happen next. As the train goes through a dark tunnel the soundtrack changes from happy laughter and upbeat music to creepy sinister music with a heartbeat sound in the background. As the train comes out of the tunnel everyone in the train has disappeared and the girl is left alone, the time of day has changed as well to late evening as it is dark, this sets the scene for what is about to happen for the audience and there is a loud eery sound as the train comes out of the tunnel. The girl starts to look around and pressing the 'open' button trying to open the doors but nothing happens, as she looks up she see's a masked man looking back at her and she falls back. The train door noise is exaggerated as the masked man now enters the train. As the masked killer goes to kill the young girl, she is transported back to when she is on the train before it goes in the tunnel with her friends and in the middle of the day, as the train pulls up to the next station the masked killer is standing in front of her at the next station and the clip ends. The audience is left in suspense and on a cliff hanger. This will grab their attention to find out what will happen and leave them wanting more.

There are three different narrative theories that films can chose to follow discovered by, Vladimir Propp, Toderov's and Aristole. Vladimir's theory consists of "Characters providing functions for film's providing a structure." This structure then allows the audience to understand the narrative better. These characters consist of: The hero, the villian, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princes and her father. The Toderov's theory consists of a simplified idea of a narrative whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation of film texts within this theory of Equilibrium or disequilibrium. It goes in the order of 1) Equilibrium- Everythings normal, 2) Disequlilbrium- a disruption, 3) then a new equlibrium. The third theory was Aristole's theory which is based on "the unties; time, place and action." The structure of this narative is under the following headings: inciting incident, dramatic question, character goal, antagonist/protagonist, stakes, resoloution and sympathy/empathy. Our narrative folows the structure of Todorov's theory as we have an equlibrium of the girl being on the train with her friends en route to a party, the disequilibrium of her struggle to get off the train and meeting the killer and the new equilibrium of her trying to get away back to normality. By following a theory we will enable our opening to have a structure and will hopefully flow through a lot more freely due, to the orgainisation of it.

Inspirations for opening scene- Miss Miller

Inspirations

During these past weeks I have been taking out a lot of research revolving around the thriller genre through various posts.We need inspirations before we can create something so that, we can have ideas of what makes a succesful thriller clip. In these post I have discussed a series of thriller conventions such as, sound uses, expected characters, mise-en-scene, cinematography and camera angles. By taking out deep analysis I can now look back at my work and decide how I will incorporate the ideas within my own thriller opening scene to make it as effective and suspense filled as possible.

My very first inspiration was given to me from the first post I made based on cinematography. The clip I used was Insidious-Face Of Fire where many camera angles were evident such as, handheld, mid shots, zoomed in, POV, over the shoulder and long shot. The main ones that stood out for me were handheld and longshot which, I decided to now include in my own opening of a thriller. I will use the longshot to show the audience the whole of the train carriage, which, will establish the setting for the audeince. I will be using the handheld camera during many scenes of my clip as, we are telling the story from the killers point of view and this use of cinematography will give of the use uneasiness. The hand held shot in the clip showed a jerky and unsteady image which, made me as an audience member feel uneasy about what was going to happen next. Given that my opening is of the same genre I want my audience to feel similar feelings that those of watching my analysed clip were and using the correct cinematography has shown to establish this. The longshot alowed the characters in insidious all to be shown at the same time aswell as their surroundings. The effect of this in insidious was to show everyone's reaction to the focual characters reaction. This alowed us as an audience to view the situations true impact on everyone which, then made us build more of a relationship with them. I will be using this as the better the relationship the audience develops with a character the more they care about the events that occur and happen to them. These as my first two inspirations will help me develop and link together my opening in an interesting way that keeps the audience in suspense with the tension remaining and running through. 

My second inspiration was gathered from my second post which was based on the editing styles used in my chosen clip which was, Scream 3 Cutting room. I learnt from this post that  when we watch a film we notice how it is joined together at certain points. Each scene may last a few seconds or continue for a few minutes. The length of each shot determines the pace of the film and helps determine the mood. In between these scenes is some use of editing. Editing can be done during filming or usually done after filming has been shot ‘edit stage’.In this scene many editing styles were evident but, slow editing and jump cut were two that stood out for me in being placed in my opening. The use of slow editing has numerous of effects. It is mainly used in action films to create dramatic effect, but can be used for this in thriller film. I will use this technqiue in the part of my thriller when the killer is gradually approaching the victim. It can create suspense and make a scene seem scary from the build of tension. It is crucial to a thriller film to obtain tension which, is why I have chosen to use slow editing in the editing process of my opening creation. The use of a jump cut however, a cut in film editing in which two shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This is used to create a fast pase and give of the impression of jumping forwards into time. I will use this to make the time the killer has been following the victim seem longer than it is. As I only have a shot time setting to film my opening scene, by using a jump cut I can get more into my opening scene as the pase will appear faster. As well as this the effect of a fast pase will create suspense for the audience which, is conventional to the thriller genre and thus, something I feel would be essential to use.

My third inspiration was from my third post which was based on conventions of a thriller genre, which is what the audience would expect to see. For this post I chosed to analyse a scene from Prom Night. In this scene we are shown a blonde haired, female victim. This is conventional to the thriller genre as, it is stereotypical that blond haired females are quite naive and vulnerable. This inspired me to use a blonde female as my victim as it tells the audience from the off set who the victim is and alows them to gather who they should sympathise with straight away. Another convention that was apparent was low key lighting. This I found was conventional to a thriller as it shows you limited amounts of what's going in creating a 'fear of the unknown.' I have chosen to use this in my opening as it will make the scene appear more frightening and scary which, will make whatever happens in it more appealing to my target audience. 

 

My fourth and final inspiration for my thriller opening was gathered from my fourth post which was based on sound. I found that sound was really important by watching a thriller clip with no sound and then watching one with one, and finding the one with sound a lot more scary. This investigation really brought to life just how important sound would be in my opening scene. The clip I had chosen to use was Physo's iconic shower scene. In this clip an instrumental is placed over the top of the scene which, appeared to me as very effective as the music created an atmosphere for the whole scene. I will use this in my opening scene to do the same but, also to justify and build up key moments to the audience so they are in suspense. This will be used as the killer is introduced to the scene so, it creates a sense of engima and dramtic irony when the music is played for the audience.

In conclusion, I found my posts very useful in the considerations of making my own thriller opening scene. All of the aspects were inspirational and I have concluded that the more of them I can use the better my scene will be providing I use them tactically. By doing this research I have developed this knowledge and without out it the planning process of my scene would have been found a lot harder than what it was with the research being taken out. Overall, after being inspired, I feel my clip will benefit a great deal more as will the audience watching/participating in it. 



How does the opening sequence of 'Halloween' inform the audience of the conventions of a thriller film?

The purpose of an opening scene is to establish the mood and visual character of a film in order to engage and entice the audience. Alongside this, amongst a series of other things, an opening scene contains mise-en-scene which, is relevant to the genre and contains enigma which, is a key feature of a thriller film. This post is analysing the opening scene of Halloween, where these features are analysed and discussed.

Editing
Editing techniques are used in this opening and in other thrillers for many different purposes but, the main ones being to build and add tension and to satisfy the conventions of a the thriller genre. A type of editing that is visible in this scene is continuity editing which, is where all the scenes are motivated by the events that happen in the film either before or after. This type of editing is notably comparable to the thriller genre as, it allows an understanding to flow through the whole film for the audience. Another editing technique present in this scene is the use of slow editing. This is when clips are joined together at a slower pace than an ordinary edit, in order to create suspense. The effect this has on the audience is the suspense, dramatic atmosphere and tension makes the audience fear and consider what will happen next. This is conventional to a thriller as it adds a fear of the unknown factor to the thriller making whatever happens after it more shocking and therefore more impactable. 

Conventions

There are certain things as an audience we expect and would like to see in a theatre film in order to make it as hard hitting and exciting as possible. By using thriller conventions we are in order to create this. We witness iconography being used with the knife being the subject of the death in the scene. As this weapon is immediately associated with death, the audience are in fear and fright when they seen this due to iconicness of this object. Alongside this, most thrillers and more importantly this opening, is set in domestic settings (the use of the knife linking in with this). This is effective because, it alows the audience to relate to what the characters are going through, making the relationship with the character more greater therefore, the events that happen to them are more important to the audience as they have built a connection with the characters. The characters themselves are also conventional to the thriller genre in the opening scene. We have a female blonde, victim evident. This creates a sense of vulnerability due to stereotypes, which, alows the audience to decide and be aware of who the character to be in sympathy with is from the offset. We also witness the hidden identity of the killer being shown to us, although, his identity is revealed towards the ending of the openings, at the beginning he is masked and we are left wondering who this killer may be. All these conventions are there to impact on the audience and make the thriller opening as effective and as inviting as possible. 

Cinematography 

As the killer gets closer to the victim a series of handheld shots are used that create a jerky and unsteady viewing. This creates a sense of uneasiness for the audience, which then ultimately leads to fear from them. At the very beginning of the opening scene an eye level shot is used in order to show the male character leaving the house and his girlfriend behind. This creates an emotional distance between the viewer and the characters as we know that, there is a killer in the house and they are preparing to be murdered. This is dramatic irony as we know what is going to happen where as they are blissfully unaware of this. A POV shot is also used by the killer when he is walking up the stairs towards the room, and also when he is killing her. This makes us an audience fear as we feel like we are perhaps witnessing the wrong point of view of this story as we witness it through the killers eyes and not the victims.

Sound
The victim shows her vulnerability as she sings and hums gently as the killer approaches her. This can be seen as contrapuntal sound as we would not expect to hear this sound in this circumstance. This makes the audience aware of her naivety which, in a way makes the audience fear for her more as we feel like she is unable to look after herself or defend herself against him. Other sound that is evident in the opening scene is ery music being used throughout. The music gets slightly louder and slightly quieter at times when dialogue is being used. The music creates a pase and tempo, that could mirror the inner feelings and heart beat of the characters as it gets faster at points of action and slower on the building up of it. The slow music builds suspense where as the fast music creates fear, fright and surprise which are all crucial feelings for the audience to feel. Finally, at 3:06 parallel sound is used. This is where Micheal is stabbing his stabbing his sister. The sound is made louder than what it would be in reality in order to emphasise the event that is happening. This is conventional to a thriller as, sounds are over exaggerated in order to create more fear and make the event happening more impactable.

My own thriller opening
By looking into the opening of this film it allowed me to consider and enquire into my own thriller opening I will be creating. By doing this research it alows me to gather a greater knowledge of opening scenes as well as alowing me to possibly consider using some of the things discussed in order to make my opening scene highly effective. The opening credits evident allowed me to consider what credits would needed to be used in mine whilst, also making me looker deeper and further into the use of credits and considering fonts, sizing, colour and where in the opening I will place them. Overall, the analyisation of the thriller opening Halloween, has given me inspiration for my own thriller.

Research into sound- Miss Miller

Sounds play a large role in any film, whatever the genre. It is used to emphasise a certain feeling or emotion in accordance to what is being shown on the screen. Due to the creation of my own thriller film being in mind, I researched into the sounds used in a thriller film in order to create suspense filled atmospheres to the audience and to potray the feeling and storyline correctly.

In the Physco shower scene (link presented above) we hear a high pitched instrumental which, is slightly eerie, yet calm. (1:41) This gradual building of sound (soundtrack) adds suspense for the future scenes in the film as we suspect something less calm to appear next. This is conventional to a thriller as a thriller is all about waiting and wanting to see what happens next in the film, it's about being involved, entertained and fully engaged throughout the whole film. By gradually building this music up tension is grown and is thus more effective as we can watch the mood change overtime, which makes us relate with the character as we can feel the build up of it the same way they would have done in the situation. 

Following this scene imediately there is the shower scene where a sudden screeching noise arises. (1:52) This symbolises potential danger, which we suspect from this is death. In order to create this sound and make it effective a constant deep rhythmic beat with the use of particularly chose instruments such as cello and base are added so the sounds contrast eachother. This type of soundtrack is conventional to a thriller as the screeching sound can mirror the character screeching but, also creates uneasiness and discomfort for the audience who are viewing it which, puts them in the characters/victims shoes. Without this use of soundtrack this message perhaps wouldn't have been portrayed thus making it less/hardly effective.

At the very beginning of the clip we hear a sigh of relief from the victims mouth. (0:53) This display of dialogue is juxtaposing to the whole of the rest of the clip as, it contrasts with what's about to happen next. By placing in this dialogue at the beginning we feel as if we are witnessing everything the character is doing/thinking as we can hear her thoughts out loud. Alongside this the on screen sound of the shower running makes the scene she is in become realistic to us as viewers. By using realistic sounds we feel as if we can relate to what is going making, whatever happens more effective as we place ourselves into the victims shoes.

To conclude sound is very important when applying it to my very own thriller opening. It added with other thriller conventions/elements makes up the thriller film as a whole. The different music/sound can change the whole mood or feeling of the film, which, is needed in a thriller to create unexpected twists and turns that keep the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats throughout. For example; jumpy and Erie music played in a scene can produce an atmosphere for the viewing on screen and make it ten times more effective that if the sound was to be muted which, I have discovered through research. Therefore, through this essay and the added background research to sound in a thriller film I have found and discovered that the importance of it is pivital.

Research Into The History Of Thriller Films- Miss Georgiou

 Thriller is a genre which, is used in Literature, film and televison. Thrillers are generally found to include and create suspense and add tension. All thriller titles are likely to stimulate their audience, their moods, specifically tension, ultra heightened expectation, suspense and anixiety. They are also known to include techniques such as cliffhangers, which would leave the audience unaware of the fate of any included characters. 

Early Thrillers In The 1920/30's: 

                                                                                                                                              

Alfred Hitchcock helped promote and advertise the thriller genre when making an early silent film called "The Lodger." This production had a major influence on mainly the UK as it introduced the whole nation to a new genre of film. It is said that Hitchcock was influenced by expressionists techniques. These techniques were said to be found from Germany and were used to impact Hitchcocks first thriller and thrillers following after that are said to be based on the 'Jack The Ripper' murders. His next thriller was called "Blackmail" which, was noteable for being his and Britains first sound film. From 1935 onwards Hitchcocks outputs were primarily thrillers. In 1928 Fritz Lang decided to join Hitchcock in thriller making and brought out a film called 'Spies' which, was said to have projected the James Bond films of the future. In 1931 Frit Lang decided to bring out yet another crime thriller film titled "German Film" staring Peter Lorre. This film was based on the serial killer Peter Kurten and his life. After this yet another crime thriller called "Murders In The Zoo." by Edward Sutherland was brought otu which was where Lionel Atwill played a murderous and jealous Zoologist. There were various other notable British Directors who produced Thriller type films such as, Walter Forde and Victor Saville. Forde making nine films, Victor maing seven between 1932 and 35, Cooper making six in the same oeriod and Powell also creating the same.

Thriller in the 1940's

In the 1940's Hitchcock continued to direct and create suspense thrillers, in this year alone he produced two thriller films one of which was an Oscar Winning peice. These films were "Foreign Correspondent" and "Rebecca" with, Rebecca being the Oscar Winning. In 1941 he continued to strive through the thriller genre with creating "Suspicion." After this he then weent on to release Saboteur in 1942 alongside Shadow of a doubt in 1943. Shadow Of A Doubt was said to be hitchcocks own personla fabourite, a film which was based on a true case of the 1920's famous serial killer known as The Merry Widow Murderer. George Cukor made his place in thriller by bring out his psychological Thriller "Gaslight" in 1944 and another the same year called "Noir". However, in the 1940's many other thrillers were brought out also consiting of, The Spiral Staircase, Sorry, Wrong number in 1948 and Lady from Shangahi in 1948 also.


Thriller in the 1950's

In the 1950's Hitchcock created more classical films such as "Strangers on a train" in 1951. In 1954 Dial M for Murder, then closely followed in 1954 with "rear window" where a man convinced himself his neighbour was a killer. Just before this in 1953 "Niagara" by Henry hathaway was created, this started the iconic Marilyn Monroe where she played the role of a women who plotted to kill her husband. The final big thriller of this time period was "Kiss Me Deadly" by Robert Aldrichs.

Thrillers in the 1960's

Throughout the 1960's a great deal of people were making thriller films. People such as Michaeal Powell, J.Lee Thompshon, Stanley Donens and Roman Polanski were all creating them alongside Hitchcock. In 1962 J.Lee Thompson had created 'Cape Fear' which featured a menacing character seeking out his re

. This was closely followed in 1965 by Polanksi's first english film "Repulsion" and then in 1967 Terrace Youngs "Wait Untill Dark" which was famous thriller during its realse date.

Thriller in the 1970's/80's

During this time period there was a great deal of thrillers being brought into the industry. In 1972 Hitchcocks 'Frenzy.' was given a rating of R for its explicit context. In 1971 Clint Eastwoods 'Play Misty For Me' was a film about an individual becoming disturbingly obsessed with their idol. Later on down the time timeline in 1980 'Dressed to Kill' was released and then shortly after following in 1981 the assaination thriller 'Blow out' and 'Booty double'.

Thrillers in the 1990's/to present

The 1990's quite comparably to the other years had thrillers interweaved through it. In 1992 'The hand that rocked the cradle' by Curtis Hanson was brought out by Curtis Hanson. This was about a nanny who was seeking revenge against her dead husbands patient. Although just before this the famous Jonothan Demme's 'The silence of the lambs' was released in 1991 where a young FBI agent is in a constant physchological war with cannibalistic Hannibal Lector. As we reach the present day we see many more thrillers have been created and are still being created today, it is through all these influence that we are able to witness these suspense filled viewings. Just to name a few of the best thrillers to date that have been brought out in the present day, Eden Lake (2008), The last house on the left (2009), Hostage (2005) and most recently Sinister (2013). 

Through this research I have been able to see how much the thriller genre has expanded and evolved over time. I have been able to see and understand where the conventions of a thriller genre have come from and this has allowed me to think more indepth about how I'll use them in my very own thriller clip. Now that thrillers are more increasing popular, the discovery of the genre has allowed me to understand just how many thrillers there are and what the creators influences were and the plot lines behind them. Overall the research has helped me with my planning of my very own thriller sequence creation as I have been able to have more knowledge on the genre I am enrolling my clip in. 

Thriller Box Office 2013

Rank	Movie	Release Date	Theatrical Distributor	MPAA Rating	2013 Gross	Tickets Sold
1	Gravity	10/4/2013	Warner Bros.	PG-13	$245,407,759	30,074,480
2	Now You See Me	5/31/2013	Lionsgate	PG-13	$117,723,989	14,426,959
3	Olympus Has Fallen	3/22/2013	FilmDistrict	R	$98,927,592	12,123,479
4	Oblivion	4/19/2013	Universal	PG-13	$89,107,235	10,920,004
5	White House Down	6/28/2013	Sony Pictures	PG-13	$73,103,784	8,958,797
6	The Purge	6/7/2013	Universal	R	$64,473,115	7,901,117
7	Prisoners	9/20/2013	Warner Bros.	R	$60,805,086	7,451,603
8	The Call	3/15/2013	Sony Pictures	R	$51,872,378	6,356,909
9	Snitch	2/22/2013	Lionsgate	PG-13	$42,930,462	5,261,086
10	Side Effects	2/8/2013	Open Road	R	$32,172,757	3,942,739
11	Argo	10/12/2012	Warner Bros.	R	$26,707,805	3,273,015
12	The Host	3/29/2013	Open Road	PG-13	$26,623,701	3,262,708
13	Escape Plan	10/18/2013	Lionsgate	R	$24,325,582	2,981,076
14	Broken City	1/18/2013	20th Century Fox	R	$19,701,164	2,414,358
15	Beautiful Creatures	2/14/2013	Warner Bros.	PG-13	$19,452,138	2,383,840
16	Runner Runner	10/4/2013	20th Century Fox	R	$19,303,839	2,365,666
17	Parker	1/25/2013	FilmDistrict	R	$17,616,641	2,158,902

The thriller box office shows us the numerical success of thriller films such as sales, profit and tickets sold to the public. Numerical figures are used to measure the rate of success of a thriller in order to show exactly how many people chose and opted to view the film as it appealed to them in one way or another. By viewing a thriller box office statistics we can see the most successful thriller films and can enquire in to why they are/were so successful. By doing this we can gather inspirations and take notes on how we can make our thriller as successful as those stated on the league table eg; Gravity. It also shows us the theartical distributor and we can gather from the table that the most succesful one is Warner Bros. This could tell us that perhaps we should view this certain theatrical distributors thriller films as, they are clearly doing something correctly that gains them sales, views and profit.

the bbfc

The BBFC

 The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified films since it was first set up in 1912 and videos/DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984. It was set up to bring a degrees of uniformity to the classification of film nationally. The rate films from U, PG, 12, 12A, 15, 18 based on appropriate, violence, language choices, imagery, sexual content and scenes of a certain nature. These help to set boundaries for film viewers and to guide the audience on what they are seeing and the content that comes alongside with it. This allows the audience to experience a film that is relatable to their age. The BBFC on average views and classifies 600 films, 12,000 DVDs, 200 trailers and 800 adverts and out of all of these only 29 have been rejected in the past 10 years. Overall the BBFC owns a huge place in the film industry.

U (universal) films are based for children as in contains nothing unsuitable for them.  These films primarily have a very basic storyline and a happy ending that is free flowing and fun for all the family to enjoy. Many makers of these typed of films are highly well known for their universal rated films such as, Pixar and Disney, who bring out will known classics such as Finding Nemo and Sleeping Beauty.

PG (Parental Guidance) films are admitted for all ages with the joining of a parent. This is due to the film having mild use of profanities, fantasy violence and slight drug/sex references. In order for the film to not get bad feedback, the PG certificate is given as a warning to those with small children seeing it that perhaps some of the content you would not find in a U rated piece. Majority of the films are set as this as it has minorly frightening scenes and parental Guidance may be needed by the child to avoid fright. An example of this are the Harry Potter films as they obtain violence, low lighting, and characters that may be seen as frightening to young children.

12A films can include mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, infrequent strong language, moderate violence, sex references and nudity. An example of this is Iron Man 3 as their is infrequency and violent scenes visual. 12A rated films were introduced fairly recently in 2002 due to an incident with a Spider-Man film. The film contained a violent scene towards the end and had characters that could seem misleading to young fans and quite frightening. By introducing 12 year old being able to see it but people under the age being able to view with a 12 year old or above the film could still get the views they wanted, fans were not disappointed, and the audience were warned about the content available.

12 rated films are allowed to be viewed by children over or who have reached the age of 12. This is due to films possibly including sex scenes, drug abuse, profanities and minor violence. An example of this would be The Women In Black as it has content that may appear scary or un-natural to a child below the age of 12.

15 rated films require someone 15+ to view them as they include, adult themes, frequent strong language, strong sex references, drug use and nudity. An example of this would be;  Ted as it obtains frequent profanities, sex scenes and regular drug abuse which, would appear to inappropriate for a child below 15 to witness. Also a lot of thrillers are set as 15 rated due to the makers not wanting to loose viewers, which means they do not include as much goor as an 18 would appear to I.E; Scary Movie.



18 rated films are of viewers 18+ as they include hard sex references, strong drug use, strong language, sex scenes and very strong/gory sadistic violence. 18 films are inappropriate for anyone under this age as they shouldn't be exposed to films that are going to scare them or give them the wrong impression of drug use. Younger views tend to copy those in the limelight and the scenes viewable in this rated films are inappropriate for children to see let alone try for themselves. When watching an 18 the boundaries are very limited and should be known by viewers before witnessing

To conclude in my thriller I will be making sure I rate mine to an appropriate standards in the same way the BBFC have for many continuous years. After researching I feel the most appropriate rating for mine would be an age 15. This is as content will have violence and scenes inappropriate to a child but, the goor will be of a certain standard that means it can fall into the 15 category and not the 18 certificate.

Research into conventions of the thriller genre- Miss Miller

Conventions of the thriller genre

Conventions of a specific genre is important in the recognition of the film you are watching as there are certain things you would expect to see in certain genres. For example, an action film would have the acquired conventions of a hero and a villain; without these we would question the films genre. Theses conventions help to create suspense, mood and feeling which, all keep the audience on their feet and fully engaged in the film. While discovering the thriller genre we see the main conventions of a thriller film consist of low key lighting, close ups, stereotypical blonde female victim, iconography, point of view shot, atmospherical music, non diegetic sound/diegetic sound, hidden identity of killer and handheld shots. These are all used to suit the same purpose which is to make the audience enquire and care about what happens next in the film which, is the main platform a thriller is based on. In my essay I use my own clip to show the conventions of a thriller, their purpose and most importantly the effect on the audience viewing it. 

Making our way through my clip we see that at the immediate beginning low lighting is used until the light is switched on. By having this gradual lightness taking place suspense is created as we experience a sense of the 'fear of the unknown' as we can't see clearly what is happening which then thus adds an element of danger to the clip. However, as we are then given the light, we experience an anticlimax which, is also very common in thriller films as they tend to build up and surprise. Both anticlimax and low key lighting are conventional to a thriller as, danger is assosicated with the dark, adding the sense of danger to the scene and we infer from the anticlimax that there is perhaps something to wait for later on. From this we are then fully alert for lighting changes and surprises.

It is evident who the victim is from the opening of the clip due to the conventions of the victim being left alone, being blonde and being a female. This is also enlightened by the high shot being used to make the character appear inferior to the audience. By using this stereotypical victim straight away the audience can recognise who the character for them to build a relationship is with. By building a relationship with the conventional victim, all the events that happen to the blonde become more impactable to the audience as they sense her vulnerability. She is instantly recognisable as the audience expect her to be the victim due to it being conventional to the genre. This thus shows that by having conventions the film is made to be more free flowing, more understandable and easier to grasp (and enjoy) for the audience. 

Another convention used is a jumpcut when the victim is attacked by the villain. This makes the scene fast passed and exciting for the viewer. As well as this it creates a sense of uncertainty as they don't have a clear view of what exactly is going on as it is not shown for a long enough period of time. This also then suggests that because they don't have a clear view of what is happening, they are then prepared to be shocked as they are uncertain if what will appear in the next shot. This is conventional to a thriller and is used as it keeps the audience on the edge of their seat as they are unaware of what is to follow and are impressed by the uncertainty. 

A combination of digetic and non digetic sound is used in the appearance of the killer. The non digetic sound presented is a creepy, powerful, loud music where as, the digetic sounds is a sharp and painful scream from our victim. Without the non digetic sound we enquire as viewers weather the clip would be scary at all as it adds suspense and atmosphere. However, if the digetic sound wasn't evident perhaps we wouldn't feel as connected with the character as we werent hearing her emotions alongside seeing them. These are both conventional to the thriller genre as music is used to create impact for the audience where as, the sound of the character is used to create relationships thus, making our connection with her and the film greater. 

In conclusion, in my own thriller clip I will use many thriller conventions in order to have the greatest impact on the audience possible. I will take all the conventions into consideration and pick the best ones suited to my storyline, to make the execution of it enjoyable to those viewing it. From this clip I have found the combination of digetic and non digetic sound very powerful and will deffiantly be considering it for my trailer.