Gravity was released on the 7th of November 2013 and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as the main characters.
Gravity falls under the thriller genre. In the film Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are sent on a mission to tend to the Hubble Space Telescope when everything goes horribly wrong and a satellite is destroyed and its debris remains in orbit around the Earth threatening all of the astronauts' lives.
What makes Gravity such a good thriller is the aspect of isolation. Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski are the last 2 suvivors of their 3 man crew and are completely cut off from mission control and only have the oxygen in their tanks and comms. between one another, their only method of transport is Matt's MMU (Manned Manuvering Unit). Isolation is a vital part of any thriller movie, for example, The Woman in Black uses isoltio but inthe form of an island cut off by thick fogs covering a very narrow path.
For our task I would like to include a sense of isolation to make it look far more like a thriller. I would also like to intergrate the low key lighting and tight framing on characters to make them look even more cut off and important.
Monday 8 December 2014
Independant research - Non-Stop (pictures to be added soon)
Non-Stop:
Non-Stop is a film where Bill Marks, (Liam Neeson) an air marshal, boards a plane to London expecting a smooth flight but is on board to make sure the flight is just that.
mid-way over the atlantic ocean Bill begins to get text messages from an unknown source telling him that every 20 mins someone on the plane will die.
In the opening scene we see Liam in his car before setting off to work. We can see that he is parked at an airport multi-story carpark. In his car we see a bottle of alcohol and a pack of cigerettes telling us that Bill (Liam) drinks and smokes, it isn't until later in the movie that we find out a possible reason why. Also in this opening scene we can hear Bill on the phone to someone, possibly his wife, as he gets out of the car an areoplane is seen taking off generating a very large amount of noise preventing Bill from talking on the phone leading him to hag up, this could represent the distance between him and his wife both physically and emotionally.
The lighting in the opening scene isn't dark but very natural, the main part of the film that makes it a thriller is the fact that on the areoplane no-one can come and help you. You are completely isolated. This point is made by Jen Summers (Julianne Moore)"
I always kinda liked it. Six hours. One seat. Nobody can get to you."
Non-Stop is a film where Bill Marks, (Liam Neeson) an air marshal, boards a plane to London expecting a smooth flight but is on board to make sure the flight is just that.
mid-way over the atlantic ocean Bill begins to get text messages from an unknown source telling him that every 20 mins someone on the plane will die.
In the opening scene we see Liam in his car before setting off to work. We can see that he is parked at an airport multi-story carpark. In his car we see a bottle of alcohol and a pack of cigerettes telling us that Bill (Liam) drinks and smokes, it isn't until later in the movie that we find out a possible reason why. Also in this opening scene we can hear Bill on the phone to someone, possibly his wife, as he gets out of the car an areoplane is seen taking off generating a very large amount of noise preventing Bill from talking on the phone leading him to hag up, this could represent the distance between him and his wife both physically and emotionally.
The lighting in the opening scene isn't dark but very natural, the main part of the film that makes it a thriller is the fact that on the areoplane no-one can come and help you. You are completely isolated. This point is made by Jen Summers (Julianne Moore)
Monday 1 December 2014
Thriller research - Intro Scenes
Se7en Opening Sequence
In this two minute clip we can almost immediately determine the genre for the film based on the music used (Closer by Nine Inch Nails) and by the lighting, which is low key casting a lot of shadows emphaising the mystery and confusion that the film will contain.
The text used for the credits its a very scrawly font making look hand written by the character we see (hands) writing in the book during this sequence. This makes the opening scene seem more creepy or eery, the text also occasionaly jumps suddenly on its axis tilting it making the scene look more chaotic, the fact that the text appears all over the screen throughout the sequence also adds to this idea of choas.
Expanding more on the idea of chaos, the clip conatians a few jump cuts and flashes images from different points in time that relate to the story line making the entire clip very creepy and uneasing.
The heavy use of red and black gives us an idea that there is blood and death involved in this film as red can mean danger and black can mean death or disease.
The Lost Highway Opening Sequence
In this intro scene all we can see is the road, the ligh and the text coming from the darkness.
The music playing in this clip is 'Im Deranged by David Bowie'
You can see that whoever is driving the car is driving straight down the middle of the road, we can see this by the road lines passing down the middle of the screen. This shows us that the driver (the charatcer) cannot make up their mind about what to do i.e which side to drive on.
The song suggests that the character may be suffering from something mental, either an illness or guilt, which would explain why he cannot decide on something.
When the text starts to appear suddenly from the darkness, this could suggest that the driver cannot see what is going to happen, the darkness of the surroundings emphasises this as it can obscure judgement.
In all, this opening sequence represents the mind of the main character on how he cannot decide on which path to take and how he cannot see what is in his future creating an athmosphere of mystery and suspense.
In this two minute clip we can almost immediately determine the genre for the film based on the music used (Closer by Nine Inch Nails) and by the lighting, which is low key casting a lot of shadows emphaising the mystery and confusion that the film will contain.
The text used for the credits its a very scrawly font making look hand written by the character we see (hands) writing in the book during this sequence. This makes the opening scene seem more creepy or eery, the text also occasionaly jumps suddenly on its axis tilting it making the scene look more chaotic, the fact that the text appears all over the screen throughout the sequence also adds to this idea of choas.
Expanding more on the idea of chaos, the clip conatians a few jump cuts and flashes images from different points in time that relate to the story line making the entire clip very creepy and uneasing.
The heavy use of red and black gives us an idea that there is blood and death involved in this film as red can mean danger and black can mean death or disease.
The Lost Highway Opening Sequence
In this intro scene all we can see is the road, the ligh and the text coming from the darkness.
The music playing in this clip is 'Im Deranged by David Bowie'
You can see that whoever is driving the car is driving straight down the middle of the road, we can see this by the road lines passing down the middle of the screen. This shows us that the driver (the charatcer) cannot make up their mind about what to do i.e which side to drive on.
The song suggests that the character may be suffering from something mental, either an illness or guilt, which would explain why he cannot decide on something.
When the text starts to appear suddenly from the darkness, this could suggest that the driver cannot see what is going to happen, the darkness of the surroundings emphasises this as it can obscure judgement.
In all, this opening sequence represents the mind of the main character on how he cannot decide on which path to take and how he cannot see what is in his future creating an athmosphere of mystery and suspense.
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