Opening Titles of Se7en (Seven)

Today, in class, we watched the opening titles of the thriller Seven on youtube.
There are two Protagonist's in this film, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, and one Antagonist, played by Kevin Spacey.

In the opening titles we are given an insight into the world of the Antagonist. We don't see his face, but we can see his hands working on things. We see him cutting money, writing in notebooks and blacking out people's eyes in pictures. It seems like he is making some kind of scrapbook and we see a picture of a pair of distorted hands which could be part of it. The opening titles appear on the screen in flickering words, almost like some kind of power failure is happening. The film has an aged looked about it, almost as if it has scratches on it. The music plays an important part in creating a sense of unease and making the viewer feel unsettled.

Thriller Conventions

We did some work in class today and learned about certain conventions that are always seen in thrillers.

These were:

• A Crime at the core of the narrative(often murder, but not necessarily)
• A Complex narrative structure, with false paths,clues and resolutions.
• A narrative pattern of establishing enigma's which the viewer expects to be resolved.
• A Protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the Antagonist.
• Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations.
• Themes of identity
• Themes of mirroring
• Themes of Voyeurism
• Protagonist with a "Flaw" which is exploited by the Antagonist.
• Titles often reflect an aspect of the Protagonist's/Antagonist's Psychological state.
• There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the Protagonist is in peril.
• Mise-en-scene which echoes/mirrors the Protagonist's plight.

Snow!

Well, it's snowing today so no college.. i wish we could film today :(

Today i decided to find some names of top thriller movies and i found a list of 50 top rated thrillers aswell as 10 bottom rated thrillers. I'm planning on watching some of the top rated ones to sit what makes them so good (:

http://www.imdb.com/chart/thriller

The Thriller Genre

I decided to research the defintion of the "thriller" genre.

I found this on wikipedia:

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres.
Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively.

Also, i found 10 points about writing a successful thriller on http://www.writersdigest.com/

These were:

1. You need to have a good story.
2. Write about the underdog.
3. Multiple points of view can give you a great range in a thriller.
4. Open your book(video in my case)with an action scene.
5. Early on, make clear what your protagonist wants, and what he fears.
6. Make your characters miserable.
7. Your main characters have to change.
8. Pacing must be high:Strong narrative thrust.
9. Show- dont tell
10. Teach us something

Hey (:

This is my media blog..not much on it yet but i'm getting to that =D


We decided who's in our group now:

Jessica Tilley http://www.jessicatilleyrobertclack.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Sabberton(me)
Tara Hussein http://www.tarahusseinrobertclack.blogspot.com/
Grace Cridland http://www.gracecridlandrobertclack.blogspot.com/


I'll put more on here as soon as we get our ideas put together =D