Analysis of Sabotage

The film im going to analyse is Sabotage which was made in 1936. This film is made by Alfred Hitchcock which is another one of his suspense and shock films. A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.

This film is based on a young boy carries a package round London not knowing their is a bomb beneath the wrapped paper, this package was given by his sister. But he gets on a bus and the driver tells him you cant bring that on the bus and he asks the man again and the man lets him on the bus. The tension builds steadily as Stevie is continually delayed in his journey as he has to make it by a certain time. Minutes later we find out that he is to late to get back in time and then it shows a long shot of the bus exploding.  This is the main part of the film as the audience is glanced at this situation.

The Film Opening For Zodiac

This is also another film opening I did in class where we took down notes about the shots and conventions. This film is called Zodiac which was made in 2007.

This opening sequence of this film is based on a teenage girl and boy driving and stopping in a quiet place to have a nice chat. As they park up they here fireworks/bullets and a women is shouting and telling something to die. The boy knows something is not right and then he realized as a car parks up near him and turns off his headlights for a minute and then turns his headlights back on and drives off. This is when the tension starts to disappear but then builds up again. They both get anxious as he don't know whats going on but the girl does and she knows something bad is going to occur. As they sit in their car silently they could hear tire noises which builds up tension and shock. The next thing they know that same car comes back and parks up behind him gets his torch out but not showing his face. He comes up to the car and kills both of then and at this part of the scene it starts to go slow motion and the music starts to increase. The camera shot used in this little part of the clip was tracking shot, long shot, low key lighting. The colour that is mostly used is black to creates shock and tension to the viewer as they cannot see whats happening and could only hear the sounds.

The Film Opening Of Brick

This is another film we seen in class the film opening of Brick which was made in 2005. I have made notes on this film which I am going to talk about below. 

This film is based on a dead girl underneath a tunnel where her hands and hair is slightly in the water, as she lays there died. The camera mainly focuses on her bracelet round her wrists and view of her legs and heels. When the camera shot is towards the boy the focus changes and blurs. A boy is looking over her whilst she lays down not moving. Flashback are in the film where it shows her hands putting a letter through someones locker. Throughout the film opening it has a non diegetic sound which is a sound of bells, which then turn into school bells as the shot of the girl putting a letter through the locker. This is called a sound bridge because the sounds overlap. The camera shots used in this opening is Close up, Extreme close up, and long shot.

This is one of the shots below of this opening scene.

Thriller Survey

This is a questionnaire below that i have made for my thriller survey to see how many people watch thrillers and which one do they like. I sent out 10 people this questionnaire to receive some comment back. Also to see how successful my questionnaire was and people's opinion.

Click here to take survey

Political Thriller

A political thriller is when they usually talk about votes and how they can win so they can control the country. These kind of thrillers usually gives us a mystery plot, and interesting plot and it sometimes a little bit of the story line can include assassination. It is also a political struggle which includes various extra-legal plots. It could contain national and international political scenarios. 

Example of a political thriller could be The Last King of Scotland made in 2006. This is Based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s.

In 1970, the just-graduated doctor Nicholas Garrigan moves to Uganda to get rid of his conservative father. While working in a mission in the country, he meets the new President Idi Amin after the coup-d'é-tat that overthrow the former government. He is invited to become his personal physician in Kampala and along the years he sees how despotic his friend is.

Psychological Thriller

A psychological thriller creates suspense which often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's mind. They do this by playing games or trying to demolish the other persons mental state. The plot usually focuses on  how the mind could be destroyed and horrified. Most of the psychological thrillers don't contain a lot of blood and gory.

An example of this could be Zodiac which was made in 2007. It is based on a true story where there is a serial killer in San Francisco. The killer wants to get his information across by sending messages to the newspaper. The person who creates the newspaper is a cartoonist where they discover the messages behind the killers message. The guy who works for the newspaper company gets tortured he can't take it no more so he decides to give up his job.

This shows that this film is full of horror and the serial killer is trying to torture the cartoonist.

Cause and effect plotting

In every film there needs to be a plot which makes the film go along.A cause is a action/event which leads to another action/event.The direct outcome of this action is the effect.Cause is the one that starts the action,which means that the effect must take place this will solve the problem.

It is listed below what a plot is referred to:

• A chain of related events
• Rising actions involves complications and difficulties
• Scenes where the characters are overcoming difficulties
• Climax is the high point of suspense
• The ending is where all the action has been resolved and the film is coming to an end.

MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is a plot device that's motivates the characters in the film which makes the story line more interesting. This is usually used in stories, films and plays. As the scene goes on this is unimportant in the film and is not relevant to the story line. Its just an extra thing that is put into the film which catches the audiences attention and they think that it is important when its not. This is common in films this is especially used in many thrillers. It could sometimes come back in the film but more likely that it is forgotten at the end of the scene.

Alfred Hitchcock uses a lot of MacGuffin for example in Psycho the film starts off with $40,000 which catches the audiences attention but by the time it gets to the end of the film that money is not important in the film.

Another film by Alfred Hitchcock is Notorious made in 1946. This is a film where they use MacGuffin to get the audiences attention.

Enigmas

An enigma is usually a person, mystery, riddle or something hard to understand. It could also be a saying, question or picture which contains an hidden meaning. This means its something that cannot be explained. It would need careful thinking about what is behind the meaning. Also, it could be something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained

Collateral

This film Collateral was made in 2004. This film was starring Tom cruise and Jamie Foxx and directed by Micheal Mann.This was co-produced by DreamWorks and Paramount pictures. When it came out in 6th August 2004 in 3188 theaters in US and Canada and grossed $24.7 million in its opening weekend.It remained in the theaters for 14 weeks and eventually grossed $101,005,703 in the United States and Canada. In other countries it grossed a total of $116,758,588 for a total worldwide gross of $217,764,291. It shows that a lot of people went to see this film as they might of thought the trailer was great.

Max as a cab driver picks up Vincent and then Vincent tells him to go to 5 stops, Max not knowing whats happening he take him to each one. As he then finds out that he is a hit- man and is trying to kill people every time Max stops. As soon as Max finds out he tries getting out of this as he tries escaping from Vincent.Max tries different way of getting out of the situation but he always fails as  Vincent catches up with him. 

Max has no choice as he is threatened to be killed if he don't drive the cab and takes Vincent around LA letting him get his own way by killing people to get to the end of his mission.

 Vincent kills many innocent people as it hurts for Max to see it happen in front of him. Throughout the whole film a lot of innocent people are killed and Max tries not getting himself into trouble but at the end of the scene he tries to save Annie from getting killed. He goes to rescue her and they try run away from Vincent but then Vincent finds them on a train hiding. But Max has a gun and has no choice but to either let Annie die or kill Vincent. So he takes the easier option and kills Vincent to stop all this from happening.

                         

James bond

James Bond

James bond is well known he is a fictional hero of a series of novels and short stories. His first one was published in 1953, which was Casino Royale. Everyone knows James Bond by his code name 007 this is a British Secret Service Agent.

Recipe for James Bond film

• A dashing, sexy, and heroic secret agent.
• A number of gorgeous women Bond will make love to.
•  An opening action sequence
• Bond trapped
• Exciting stunt-driven action
• Fights and car chases
• Final seen which mostly occurs at an island where Bond vercomes the odds

These are all the James Bond Characters

James Bond currently is Daniel Craig who is age 44. He has went on to star as 'James Bond' in Casino Royale, Quantum of solace and his latest film that Skyfall.

Suspense and Shock

Suspense is a feeling of excitement or anxiousness, also a uncertainty of what is going to happen. This can happen at any time of the film where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, this is what builds up tension for the viewers.

Shock is similar to suspense as when you are shocked it catches the audience attention and usually the audience is focused on the film. Shock is to strike with great surprise and emotional disturbance. It is a moment of fear where the next part of the scene is going to be shocking.

An example of this could be Sabotage made in 1963, director of this is also Alfred Hitchcock. A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur where a bomb is suppose to be set in London. A boy has a wrapped up box which has got a bomb inside where it explodes on a bus. But when the detective's cover is blown this is when everything starts to unravel. 

Cinematography

This comes form the two combined words: kinema which means movement and graphein which means to record. Cinematography refers to the photographing of the movie itself.The person who directs the film is usually known as the director but could also be known as the cinematographer. This is also linked in with the camera and lighting department. 

Film making is shooting a film and capturing images, its making the image look beautiful, getting a emotional sub text, a tone, a vibe through to the audience visually.

There are so many job roles needed to make a scene/film some of which are listed below:

Camera operator they are responsible for operating the camera and maintaining composition and camera angles accurate throughout the scene.They are the one that support the director of photography. It is their responsibility to insure that the camera is moving steadily.
Director of photography: The director of photography is the chief of the camera and lighting crew of the film. They make decisions on lighting and framing of scenes in conjunction with the film's director. The director tells them how he or she wants the film to look, and they then chooses the correct aperture, filter, and lighting to achieve the desired effect.
Grip departments:Their responsibility is to look after the equipment and make sure the equipment is built properly so the camera can be placed on top of it without breaking or falling. These equipment includes tripod,dollies, tracks,jibs,cranes etc. You need a high level of experience to be able to move these equipment around and operate them.

Cliffhangers

A cliffhanger is hoped to ensure the audience will return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma and how they try get out of it. The main character is the person who falls into a big dilemma and tries getting out of it. It usually happens at the end of the scene that leaves the character in a impossible situation e.g. hanging off the side of a cliff. The purpose is so that the audience watching this or reading this watches the next series/chapter of the film/book.

The name cliffhanger came out because a film was made and one part of the scene was that a object was hanging off a cliff and now they use the term cliffhanger.

E.g.The Italian Job




This image shows a cliffhanger from The Italian Job which was made in 1969. This is the last part of the scene where there are many men on a runner, who stole gold and they are at the edge of the cliff. This is where the end of the scene ends so no one knows what happens this is why its called a cliffhanger.

Red Herring

The expression “red herring” refers to a strategy by misleading people from the real matter by distracting them or the most important details of the situation. Red herring is usually seen in films that have like an adventure to it.  Usually the truth is a killer or a robber but the film tries to make sure that the audience think that its something different until the very end.

This could lead to some of the films Alfred Hitchcock has made as some of his stories, the audience think that a character is one person but it all changes at the end when she unravel the truth. e.g. Psycho. In this film a man acts like his mothers alive but at the end of the scene the audience find out that his acting for himself and his mother. 

Camera and lens movement

These are the camera and lens movement we have learnt in class. All of these above is used when people are using the camera. A lot of the positions have names that is named after it as you can see above.