Successful Film Director - Quentin Tarantino

All of Quentin Tarentino's movies are successful because of his unique script. All his movies have really good dialogue especially Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Also his movies are very violent and the story lines are quite bizarre, also he's very good at making gory scenes which gives the viewer a more realistic film. Also his films are made in the style as if it was a old 1970s movie with the costumes and the opening sequences.

This scene is funny but also dramatic as Vincent and Jules are having a normal conversation until Vincent asks Marvin's opinion on it. While he does this he has innocently got his gun pointing at him and while Marvin starts to speak, Vincent accidently pulls the trigger and shoots Marvin in the face and blood squirts everywhere. What I find funny about this scene is after Vincent has shot Marvin he turns around and says so casually "Ahh man I shot Marvin in the face."

Another one of Quentin Tarentino's gory scenes in which Lucy Liu chops off another man's head and then blood squirts out quite dramatically. Although when the blood squirts out it looks fake, it adds effect to the things Lucy Liu is capable of. The scene is a meeting where you would suggest no violent act would occur however when one of the guests speaks out to Lucy Liu's discontent she slices his head off.

An example of how gory Quentin Tarentino's work can be. This was taken from the movie DeathProof with Kurt Russell. The following images are results of what happened to each character while the car crash happened.

1st image: a girls leg flying off.

2nd image: the car going through and running over the womans face. 

3rd image: a woman being flinged out the top of the car and doing numerous flips in the air until smacking the concrete.
4th image: glass from the windshield crashing against the womans throat and face.

This shows how gory Tarantino's work can be and no matter how gruesome and disturbing it may be, it appeals to most people as people aren't use to seeing movies with such gore in it unless it is a horror. This is Tarantino's most famous 'trademark' - the goriness of his movies.

Analysis of a DVD Cover

District 9 DVD Cover.

The cover of this film is unique as there's a UFO sort of spaceship hovering over the city. There's also a sign saying 'NO HUMANS ALLOWED' with a picture of an alien sort of animal in the sign. The top of the cover has Peter Jackson in red writing as he is a world famous director and some people may look to view it just because of the famous director. This is called a selling point and there is also a quote from a newspaper claiming 'it will blow your mind. it's a must-see movie'. The backdrop of the cover is the city looking normal but in the foreground its a desserted shanty town with barbed wire. This could mean that there is a divide between the humans and the creatures, and the creatures are under control by the humans. In the background coming from the buildings are visible helicopters flying in which looks as if they are coming for the gigantic UFO spaceship making us believe the situation is a crisis and that mayhem is waiting to occur.

Preliminary Task - Storyboards (with script)

Serial Killer Thriller - Thriller Convention

No Country For Old Men - Opening
We are shown a quick glimpse of the psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh in the opening scene of No Country for Old Men. He has recently been captured and is standing in a police station with a deputy, who is totally unaware of how vicious Chigurh is. Within minutes, the deputy is dead. We knew that this would happen because the person narrating was telling us the things Chigurh was capable of.


The directors of the movie have made it a really effective thriller as it has some of the main conventions a thriller needs like a narrative, a glimpse of the enemy/killer, it shows him killing and gives us a hint of what the film is about.


In this opening scene there is no music in the background, there's just a narrative with an overview of a dessert in what looks like Texas and then a scene in the police station where the camera slowly zooms into the officer on the phone, while we can see Chigurh escaping his handcuffs and eventually taking down the officer and killing him.

Wallet Incident

Thriller Conventions

Dark Mood
Darkness
Desserted
Fire
Victim
Villain
Low Key Lighting
Gun
Ambiguity
Plot
Character
Enigma Code
Questions
Conspiracy
Crime Gone Wrong
Narrative
Answers
Man on Run

Thriller Sub Genres

Action-Adventure Thriller

Disaster Thriller

Historical Thriller

Medical Thriller

Religious Thriller

Serial Killer Thriller

Techno Thriller

Supernatural thriller

Religious thriller

Rape and Revenge films

Psychological thriller

Political thriller

Mystery thriller

Legal thriller

Erotic thriller

Crime thriller

Conspiracy thriller

'Man on Run' Thriller

Thriller: Man on the Run

Our group was given the task to recreate a 'Man on the Run' opening but a spoof version. Here is our synopsis for our version.

A large man is buying himself doughnuts for himself in a local bakery. He buys the last pack of doughnuts and walks out.
At this moment the large police officers walk into the shop while the innocent large man is walking out.
The large cops realise there are no doughnuts left in the shop and make a chase on the large man.
The large man is also a trained ninja.
The large man is baffled but starts to run away. The chase is now in full flow and it somehow gets onto the rooftops of the local shops.
The large man is jumping from roof to roof while the police look to another solution. Until the large man falls through a roof.
The large man shakes all his injuries off and runs to the canal.
By this time the police have got helicopters involved. The large man is still confused at what he is done, but doesn't want to be approached by the police.
A police officer talks from a megaphone from the helicopter screaming "Freeze! and hand over the doughnuts!"
The large man smiles and stuffs a doughnut in his mouth, throws the rest of the pack in the canal and jumps in with it and swims across to the other side and gets away.
Jump Cut zoom onto the doughnuts floating in the river but now soggy.
Jump Cut zooming out onto the scene including the large man getting away while doing flips over fences.
Cue Titles

The Birds - Continuity

- How many shots are there? 
There are 13 shots during this scene.

- Where was the camera positioned for each shot?
All of the shots were mainly medium close ups of the body and there were some longshots of the corridor.

- Which principles of continuity editing have been followed?
When the woman walks through the door. They have filmed her approaching the door handle, and then put the camera the other side of the door of her coming in from the other side. It's done successfully as it flows really well and it also builds tension for the viewer at the same time.

2. What is the effect of the editing on the viewer? What are we meant to feel at different stages?
The effect the scene has on us is that it gets us shocked from the quickness of it. Also it's suppose to build our tension when she walks through the door and sees the dead man and we only see her reaction shot. This gets us wondering what could she have seen and also gets us slightly frightened.

3. What is the 'best bit' for you in this sequence in terms of learning new techniques and why?

My favourite bit of the sequence is 0:56 when she looks at the broken glass in the room, and has suspected something has happened. She then looks around the room only to be shocked by the man with no eyes! I liked it as even though it was such a quick scene it built up so much tension and the final shock was a big one as the man with no eyes looked very scary!

List of thrillers seen

Inception
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Fight Club
Terminator 1, 2 & 3
The Departed
Reservoir Dogs
Inglourious Basterds
Sin City
Die Hard
The Manchurian Candidate
No Country For Old Men
District 9
Snatch
The Sixth Sense
Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
The Bourne Trilogy
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
In Bruges
Children of Men
Shutter Island
Changeling
Casino Royale
Iron Man
GrindHouse
Zodiac
Lucky Number Slevin
Predator
The Last King of Scotland
The Butterfly Effect
Saw
Minority Report
Inside Man
Jackie Brown
A History of Violence
28 Days/Weeks Later
Running Scared
Sherlock Holmes
Mr. Brooks
The Bank Job
American Psycho
Cloverfield
Matchstick Men
RocknRolla
The Italian Job
Godzilla
Valkyrie
Insomnia
The Rock
Phone Booth
Hard Candy
The Hitcher
Scream

Door Continuity - The Accident

Compared to The Accident, how would you rate your pre-production, production and post-production this time around? Justify / Explain.

I feel that our door continuation compared to the accident was a major improvement as in the door continuation our planning was much more refined whereas in the accident we were so eager to shoot we didn't spend much time on the planning and therefore the script felt unrealistic. The production was much better in the door continuation as our shoot was much more efficient and quicker. Finally, our post-production was 100% better as our usage of Final Cut was much more professional as the editing of our door scene was very professional.

1. What did you think was the point to the activity?
The point of the activity was to give us an understanding of how to make the film look much more realistic and easier to view. It also helped us to understand the effect of flowing the scenes in a movie can be.

2. In regard to your finished sequence, what worked well?
We feel the smoothness of the door scene worked very well. It looked professional and was easy on the eye. We found that after each shot we had to give ourselves much more hang time as it is easier to edit when you have more hang time at the start and end of each clip.

3. What would you aim to improve about your sequence? What continuity mistakes can you see?
I would like to change the last shot which was the reaction shot as it is delayed and our editing skills were adequate however the rest of the sequence was very well edited we thought and were very proud with our final result.


4. What did you learn from doing this activity?
I have learnt how to use the programme Final Cut with much more ease and also how to film continuity. Also I think I learnt to give my self much more hanging time at the end of each shot as it is much easier to edit as there are no worries of cutting too much. Overall my group and I were very proud of our final result and got the hang of the task well we feel.