180 degree rule

In professional productions, the applied 180° rule is an essential element for a style of film editing called continuity editing. However, sometimes this rule will be purposely broken in order to create the sensation of disorientation.

In filmmaking, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.

If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two elements together, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
An example of continued use of the 180 degree rule occurs throughout a considerable amount of The Big Parade, a 1925 drama about World War One. In the sequences leading up to the battle scenes, the American forces (arriving from the west) are always shown marching from left to right across the screen, while the German troops (arriving from the east) are always shown marching from right to left.
Left to right is often shown as more powerful as that’s the way we read.

This affects movement and continuity and can cause confusion when a character changes point of view eg, in Lord Of The Rings, Gollum has a conversation with himself or with his other personality. Because the filmmakers use the 180 degree rule, and have the "good" on the left facing the ‘evil’ on the right " looking face on at one another, these characters will be identified as the same person from the audiences perspective which will highlight confusion. This effect builds gradually during the scene. He is shown starting to turn his head, though the camera changes angles mid-turn. As the argument between the split-personalities grows, the editing gradually changes to using jump cuts, not showing Gollum turning his head.

Lauren Gibbens

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a "rule of thumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as paintings, photographs and designs.

The photo should be divided into nine equal parts these points then create more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

When photographing or filming it is common to line the body of the picture up with a vertical line, and having the person's or creatures eyes in line with a horizontal one. If filming a moving subject, the same pattern is often followed, with the majority of the extra room being in front of the person or the way they are moving.

The rule of thirds was first written down by John Thomas Smith in 1797. 

The rule of thirds is a concept in video and film production in which the frame is divided into into nine imaginary sections. This creates reference points which act as guides for framing the image.

In most "people shots", the main line of interest is the line going through the eyes. In this shot, the eyes are placed approximately 1/3 of the way down the frame, however it’s not always possible to frame the picture like this.

The most important character is encapsulated in the middle section of the shot like in this shot from the film 'Jackie Brown' by Quentin Tarantino this draws the audiences attention towards the main character and keeps the audience enthralled.

Lauren Gibbens

Propp’s Theory

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Propps theory is used in the film Die Hard

Hero - John McClane

The Doner - Al Powell

Villian - Hans Gruber

Helper - Al Powell

False Hero - Harry Ellis

Princess - Holly Gennaro McClane

Her Father - John McClane

Die Hard is a film about a detective (John McClane) who intends to spend christmas with his family but a group of terrorist have taken over the work place of his daughter (Holly Gennaro McClane) who have taken everyone inside hostage. The donor (Al Powell) which at time seems like the only friend John McClane has helps McClane with his police radio all the way through the film. The false hero Harry Ellis makes a big mistake by pretending to be McClane's oldest school friend, however gets himself killed trying to safe his own life.

 

We wont be sticking to the Propp's theory within our thriller opening due to the thriller only having one or two characters (undecided as a group which is better!) Although we will not be sticking to it in some ways such as having several different characters, our main character will be portraying many different persona's which in a sense does create the propp's theory.
 Jae 

Willing suspension of disbelief

Willing suspension of disbelief is a phrase used to describe the feeling that an audience has when they are willing something to happen, and more often than not it does not, due to a change in plot or story. Willing suspension of disbelief is used in many films in order to build suspense for a long time and allowing nothing to come of it, a famous example of this would be in Jaws. Suspension can be created through music and dialogue, one example of using dialogue would be a villain asking a lot of questions, this happens in No Country for Old Men – Coen Brothers, when fate is used create the suspense and the audience are oblivious to what is coming.

Within our film there will be a certain use of willing suspension of disbelief due to the film being in the format of being backwards in a sense. I think that the audience would think that something dramatic will instantly happen due to the nature of the film, but the suspension concludes the end of our beginning five minutes therefore we do not see it initially. 

Jae 

Todorov’s Theory

Tzvetan Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theory while also allowing a more complex interpretation of film texts with his theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium.

His theory is simply this:

1.      Equilibrium – Normality

2.      Dis-equilibrium

3.      Realisation

4.      Attempt to resolve

5.      Resolution

6.      Re-equilibrium – the new normality

In these stages, narrative is not seen as a linear structure but a circular one. The narrative is driven by attempts to restore the equilibrium. However, the equilibrium attained at the end of the story is not identical to the initial equilibrium.


Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation. The characters or the situations are transformed through the progress of the disruption. The disruption itself usually takes place outside the normal social framework, outside the 'normal' social events. For example a murder happens and people are terrified or someone vanishes and the characters have to solve the mystery. 


During our thriller we will not complete the full circle of the Todorov theory due to the plot of our film being backwards, think of it as the beginning of the film at the end and visa versa. 


Jae 

CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS

Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL – we understand the concept of good as being the opposite of evil Levi –Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. 

Jae 

Laura Mulvey and her work.

• Female British Feminist film theorist.
• Mulvey is best known for her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen.
• Psychoanalytic framework, influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Prior to Mulvey.
• Believed classical Hollywood cinema was what began women being publicised as sex objects and only for male desire.
• In 50’s and 60’s Mulvey said there were only 2 distinct models of the male gaze, "voyeuristic" (i.e. seeing women as 'whores') and "fetishistic" (i.e. seeing women as 'madonnas').
• Visual pleasure and narrative cinema.
• Gaze and feminist theory Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.
• In feminist theory, the male gaze expresses an asymmetric (unequal) power relationship, between viewer and viewed, gazer and gazed, i.e. man imposes his unwanted (objectifying) gaze upon woman.
• Professor of film and media studies.
• Feminist critic Gaylyn Studlar wrote extensively to contradict Mulvey's central thesis that the spectator is male and derives visual pleasure from a dominant, sadistic perspective.
• "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" was the subject of much interdisciplinary discussion among film theorists that continued into the mid 1980s.
• Critics of the article objected to the fact that her argument implied the impossibility of genuine 'feminine' enjoyment of the classical Hollywood cinema, and to the fact that her argument did not seem to take into account spectatorships that were not organised along the normative lines of gender. For example, a metaphoric 'transvestism' might be possible when viewing a film – a male viewer might enjoy a 'feminine' point-of-view provided by a film, or vice versa; gay, lesbian and bisexual spectatorships might also be different.

Lauren Gibbens

Brief

This is the brief that we have been given in order to make the opening of our thriller!
Jae Bennett

Auteur

Auteur is the French word for ‘Author’.

In film terms an Auteur is a film maker who has complete control over all elements of production and influences the film highly on personal tastes.In 1954 François Truffaut wrote an essay about French Cinema. In this work he claimed that film is a great medium for expressing the personal ideas of the director. He suggested that this meant that the director should therefore be regarded as an auteur.

Auteur theory has influenced film criticism since 1954, when it was advocated by film director and critic François Truffaut. Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint and a paintbrush. It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the director. Alfred Hitchcock is one of the first names who comes to mind when talking about auteur theory François Truffaut once provocatively said that: "There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors" - Jae Bennett

Venetian Blind effect of film noir
Jae Bennett

Features of Film Noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime drama. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style. Film noir is a term coined by French critics that describes the dark contrasts of the ‘noir’ films made after the American war, and film noir is translated from French, literally as ‘black film’. There are key factors that feature in film noir: the setting in film noir is usually a city, surrounded in offices in which a lot of action during the film can take place. Cities are used often in film noir in the establishing shots and after often juxtaposed to rural settings. 

There are often strong character types in film, noir: reluctant hero’s; a detective or investigator; femme fetale (main female). The femme fetale usually gives to perception of being sexy and dangerous. The lighting within film noir is very monochrome, with a vast range of varying black and white shades, it is highly stylised with a lot of shadowing. The ‘venetian blind’ effect is featured heavily in film noir; meaning that shadowing that is given when a light is shone through venetian blinds is created in different ways. 

Jae Bennett