Action thriller- "No country for old men"

Action thriller

What might going to be happening? The conventions of an action thriller;

The protagonist is going to be introduced and it could be in a mysterious way. There is going to be some sort of a quest. The characters are going to be as natural as possible. There is going to be a link between the protagonist and death.

Mise en scene

Everyone is holding a gun which shows that it is a dangerous place.

A dog, looks like it is injured

Lots of bags of heroin inside of the truck shows that the people there are some sort of dealers and the drug suggests that there is going to be a lot of money involved.

 

Diegetic sound as the man speaks- we can tell that he is most probably American.. He sounded like a typical cowboy and quite cocky. There is not much dialog.

 

Non diegetic

There is no music or warning for the audience that he is going to be killed. There is no music throughout the whole film. It leaves us to think our things about it.

 

Setting

Western America, Texas - Very dry place, with no one around. Unconventional- the fact that there are people there, lots of trucks.

Even the setting reminds me of “of mice and men”

Plot

We cannot relate to the protagonist at all, which is quite unconventional. The quest is missing- there is no quest so far.

This is very interesting because although that there is not no dialog, there are people dying and killed which sort brings the quest because we want to find out what is going on.

A drug deal that has gone wrong and everyone ended up shooting at each other. Now the 2^nd protagonist has the money and Anton is going after him.

 

Shots

Extreme long shots at the beginning of a hot country give us a scene of location and the fact that is so dry and is quite conventional for a place of a quest because it is so deserted

High angle shots se we can see that he is washing his bloody hands.

Good- the 2nd protagonist looks through the binoculars and we can see the shot that the protagonist can see.

Editing

Continuity editing

Also a tracking shot form the man in the truck point of view is good way to introduce a bit of danger and helps us to relate.

Match on action- conversation between the 1^st protagonist and the shop keeper. The protagonist makes us feel very uncomfortable and the shop keeper thinks the same because we can see his facial expressions whilst the protagonist speaks.

The protagonist

All we know so far is the looks of him. He has long hair and a very unpleasant face.

The two protagonist meet when the second one finds him half dead in a truck.

The protagonist seem to be talking to himself which shows that he is lonely and is used to travelling alone this reminds me of “of mice and men” book, because the men always used to walk alone and travel form one place to another, almost like they don’t have a place that they could call home.

I think the 1^st protagonist (Anton) is very strange and creepy because of his hair.

We can relate to the protagonist now because he has taken the dead man’s case with lots of money in it. This gets him involved I the quest too.

We also find out that his mother is dead, but he is not taking it very well, because he told his girlfriend to say hello to his mother.

Another character is being introduced (the sheriff) just now, which unconventional because normally character are being introduced straight away.

Over all I like the film for the fact that it doesn’t give anything out at the beginning to it makes us think. Also I like the fact that it is not like a conventional action thriller. There is more to it than just guns because of the fact that it is filmed in western America, Texas, so it more of a place where we would film a horror thriller, rather than an action thriller, however that works fine because it still shows the isolation of this place and that anything can happen to people and nobody would find out. Also this place works well because as well the drugs, it makes sense because people go and drug deal there because it is such an isolated place, so it makes sense to it there with that plot.

The things that I like about the film are the fact that there are guns in there and people are shooting each other, but that is my opinion because I prefer psychological thrillers, rather people shooting all over the place. But technically speaking, this film is good and I don’t think that it has many faults.

The preliminary task- how it all happened...

We started by making a story board so we know exactly what we are doing;

The preliminary task completed

 These are the 5 different settings that we have been to whilst videoing this task.

This first photo is before we supposed to do a tracking shot of me and Laura walking. Shannon and James have them panned it to show that we have walked pass them .

This image is a when me and Laura were just about to open the door, to show how we walk out of the door. We have kept the camera on that side so that we do not have any continuity problems, so we had to stick with the 180 degree rule.

This is an image of James getting ready to film us just as we walk round the corner. This got a nice 2 shot but also a long shot of me and Laura.

This is two shot of me and Laura and it shows that we are walking towards the canteen. This is also a long shot but required the pan movement as we were about to turn.

This is the last setting and the most important one because we play cards in this setting and therefore there is some good used of a variety of shots.

Evaluation

I think that we have learned a lot from this task; for example the good things i thought was some of the shot angles and the way that we thought out the story. We have worked as a team very well and agreed and compromised together to get the final result.

However, there are lots of jump cuts and we do have some problems with continuity. Also whilst editing, we have realised that if we have done things differently, it would of made editing part a lot more easier.

On the actual thriller, i would like to keep working in a great team of people and learn from our mistakes that we have seen straight away after we have done the prelim. task.

continuity editing

Combustion from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo. Amazing!!

This video clip is very continues becasue although the fire does so many different things, as shown in screenshots bellow, there is no sense of cuts.

 

This si the frist behaviour of the fire. It all seems normal at this point.

This is the first sign that something is not qiyte right with this fire. It almost looks as if it was doing its own thing. It is at this point that we realise that the fire behaves to the rythm of the music. There are jump cuts or cutaway shots.

This is when we find out that there is a piece of branch in the fire. We don't know how it got there, becasue evrything looks so continues.

This is the point when the fire dies down and we are left with a ball. However, to the rythm of the muic, the ball of fire starts to spit out these flames and when they meet, it makes a loud noise and the fire pops at the same time....Amazig!

The ball is on fire again... Again we don't know why it happened becasue it is so continues. It seems like it cought on fire by itself.

The Leon

Is Leon a typical thriller

"Leon perfectly fits the conventions of a thriller. It does not try to challenge the conventions."

Explain how far you agree with this statement.

I believe that the thriller has used some typical conventions that we would expect in a normal thriller and tried to put in some unconventional things, but not very many.

 The protagonist/s deals with death (their own or someone else's)

I would say that this is quite conventional because he carries dangerous weapons that link to death, as we got a close up shot of Leon having a gun to his mouth as a microphone. This indicates the fact that he is used to carrying a gun around him, and the fact that he is using that to pretend to speak to speak to the microphone, whilst talking to one of the people that give him “jobs” to do, is quite comical. We could say that it is almost as if Leo tries to link death with comical act. Also the way he just killed that guy like it was nothing shows that his job is some sort of mafia. This again, is very conventional for this convention because it shows that is used to death and killing. This indicates that he is quite cold. Another that is conventional about the protagonist’s way of dealing with death is when he kills another person and it makes a diegetic sound of a neck breaking. This makes us feel very uncomfortable and disgusted, but it is very conventional for a thriller to add these diegetic sounds to make it sound more real.

The main story line for the protagonist is usually some sort of quest

I would say that this is conventional because , the mystery has been created because this “fat bastard” has done something that they don’t like, so the quest is to get him.

As this fat guy- breathes heavily, before Leon kills him, there are quite a few straight cuts. This is very conventional because this has been used to create a sense danger and panic. The lighting is very dark, which shows mysteriousness and panic. This is conventional because thriller uses this to indicate danger and the fact that we know that when it is dark, something bad is going to happen, so it makes us feel tensed. The close up of his face looks very scared, which again is very conventional considering what circumstances he is in. This again, is supposed to create the mystery of the fact that he doesn't know what is going to happen to him, and automatically the audience doesn't either. This allows us to know what the actor is feeling.

The music as Leon goes and gets him, mirrors the heartbeat, and when Leon gets him, it stops, as if his own heart beat stopped. This is conventional because it shows how frightened he is and when he gets him, it is like his heart beat has stopped beating.

The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved

Straight away in the thriller, we get a close up of someone that looks like a baddy, so straight away; the mystery is there, which makes this very conventional. He looks like a baddy because of his dark glasses to hide his identity and the cigarrete in his mouth, which makes him look like someone from the mafia, which creates a sense of mystery, because we can’t see him properly and for the way he looks like, later though we find out that it is Leon.

The mystery has built up when we get a close up shot of the numbers going up on the elevator. This shows that it is conventional because this is cutaway shot which is there to symbolize something or create tension/ mystery.

However, the fact that Leon has come out of form underneath to push another actor over was not expected, as we had expected him falling over or someone pushing him over and because we didn't expect it, means that it is quite unconventional.

 We get to meet another character. This person looks like a girl, possibly another protagonist, and she is smoking, so automatically the mysteriousness has been created there. Also the music reflects on how young she is, which is very conventional, to help reinforce the fact that she is a child. Then we get to see how she is sitting. This is very mysterious because she has the bars in front of her face; actually hiding her face a little. This shows the fact that she may never get to go anywhere, which that in itself is very mysterious. She says that she has enough problems of her own, and she shows that she has a mark on her face. This could indicate that she is being beaten. Leon notices which shows that he is quite caring. And as he walks of, he looks annoyed that people treat children like that. This is conventional because the mysteriousness has been created because we want to know what he is going to do, and also it shows that there is more to the plot.

 

Se7en

1995

Psychological thriller

Brad Pitt, Detective David Mills

Morgan Freeman, Detective LT. William Somerset

The opening scene

Use of props, close up on the things, which indicates the significance of the place that he is about to go, also the way that he picks them shows that he is very methodical.  54 seconds into the film so far and we can see a dead body already, which creates mystery and is unconventional to see that quickly in the film, as usually we usually getting to know and gradually builds up, but this makes us wanting to watch this film. He is lying in a massive pool of blood, makes us feel uncomfortable, as we don’t know who this is or what has done this to him, his brains are showing out of his head. Also the lighting is dark because the curtains are drawn. Morgan looks at the fridge and the picture on it that is a children’s picture, and he doesn’t like the fact that a child could of seen this, because there is a massive contrast between the blood and the child.

Second protagonist- looks a mess because his shirt is not ironed, looks cocky by his facial expressions and the way he is trendy, is complete opposite to the first protagonist. Low angle shot, makes them look powerful and high up. The rain indicates the fact that we want them to go inside to find clues. 2 shot- mystery because Morgan wants to know why he is there, as something not very has happened creates mystery because we still don’t know who the second protagonist is. 7 days has been mentioned, as the Morgan is leaves the police force in 7 days- compares to the title 7. He doesn’t like it that Morgan Freeman is knocking him down. The way that he walks in front of Morgan shows that he rushes into things too quickly and thinks that he is important, whereas Morgan is slow, but thinks everything through.

The clock- prop he is using that to hypnotize him to try and get him to sleep because of the sounds at the background. Also it could represent the time is ticking for him.

The title sequence:

Pages turning of a book, razors and the titles look like they have been cut into something, a lot to do with sharp objects, fast movement. We can see skull with a screw going into it. Someone was cutting the fingerprints off. The titles flash, which suggest danger. Seven- taken the v and put in 7, so it looks like this; se7en plus the screechy sound, sounds like scraping against something, gives an almost a supernatural look and we would feel very uncomfortable. The sound reminds me of the lights flicking which make me feel uncomfortable. There is also red light and Red blood flashing, which symbolises danger and death. Then we can hear a woman seeming. It builds to how difficult it Is going to be to catch him, because of the fingerprints, the fact that the writing titles are cut out. He has very dirty finger nails. More flashes of red. The image of the pin inside o the skull shows some sort of a brain procedure- lobotomy, attacking someone’s brain, and it shows that he really believes in what he is doing. The way that he threading the papers looks like he is making a book out of his papers which shows the precision which shows that it is going to be incredibly hard to catch him. Pictures of dead bodies shows that he a murderer ad is either planning, or has killed these people on the photos, or He might catch people and do something to them before he kills them.

When it goes back to the film;

It starts on Monday, which starts the week off, emphasises the fact that we only have 7 days in this thriller to catch him and judging by the title sequence, it will be quite hard. Brad pitt has a wife, we knows this by the shot of them laying together and he has his arm around her. Brad was at the window, but because of the jump cut, we didn’t see what he could see out of the window. He was shaking in the rain, very unconventional for a detective. Freeman rejects the coffee which shows that he is very straight forward and just wants to get on with his job and investigation, but also shows a sense of arrogance.

 They are going to a crime scene to have a look at dead body, long shot, very dark, cold and dump like, shows that the next scene is going to be not very pleasant. They go behind the fence, which shows a possible protection or fear. Morgan is in front of Brad, which shows the authority.  The house that they are going to is very dark, the music, as they walked in the house got stronger and dangerous like. The lights don’t actually work, which shows that the house is old and not been looked after, however, there are 2 TV’s in the room. The ocean on the TV might reflect loneliness and wants to be free. They have cut his head of the shot to show that we can see what he is looking at, so it focuses on the situation.  There were insects on the table, which shows that he has been dead for a while. First sin that we see is gluttony on a Monday because he is very big and he died with his packet of crisps. There are a lot of spaghetti source in the cupboard, the killer has possibly put them there to indicate the fact that he was big and to shows gluttony.  The editor is holding us there to makes us wait to see what he is focusing on, and then we can see that it was a murder because his feet are tight and his hands are tight too.  It is like we and Freeman keep having to wait for Brad to figure out that this was a murder, which shows that he doesn’t know much.  A bucket full of vomit has been put under to table, which shows that the killer obviously made him eat so much that he made him to be sick, which shows the hatred that the killer had for this monstrosity of a human being.

Morgan tells Brad to keep quite so he can think which shows the dominance and shows that he almost finds him annoying. Morgan also seems toughened to do his job which shows the experience that he has as he mocks him.

How is mise-en-scene presented in films

Mise-en-scene in films on Prezi

Thriller- idea number 1- storyboards and written ideas

These are just some of my initials ideas presented by the story boards. These are not finalized, they are just ideas, which are going to be developed further in time.

This is my very first attempt and my first ideas. However, i have decided that i don't like the last bit, because it doesn't make any sense

Attempt number 2

I liked the first two shots, because it creates tension and that would be the very thing that the audience would see., however i have added a character. A character of a daemon of some sort is following her.

Attempt number 2 continued.....

I have tried to do this so it is more dramatic, by making the demon to come right in front of the woman's  face, and then she screams and then she kills over, which brings us to the extreme shot of an eye and takes us from there to the title sequence, which has now got to do something with the woman and her death.