Monday 30 January 2012

Why do audiences love psychological thrillers?

Horror vs. Thriller (psychological) I've always said that the difference between the two is dialogue, and quite possibly blood.

In reality, what is the difference? What makes Horror not Psychological Thriller and vice versa?

Subject?
Theme?
Scene structure?
Here is some points form a debate on an online forum.
"I think the main difference lies in the source of the horror.
At least in general terms, the source of horror is not natural,
that is, not from the normal and rational world in which most of you live.
Again, in very general terms, the source of the psychological thriller is
a fairly normal and natural thing (i.e. a person ) which is acting in an unusual manner."
"I recently wrote an article explaining what horror is and isnt, and although Im sure it can be disputed, I feel that horror and thriller (and suspense for that matter), arent really all on an equal plane, but feel that one is just a continuation of the other."
"My opinion the difference is this. Horror is plain scaring you. There are no tricks just plain old fashion blood and guts. Its like in Halloween they use the music and suspense to build you up and then the murderer jumps out and makes you scream. Think about a haunted house. To me that is horror.

Psychological thrillers messes with the head. You think reality is one thing but it is actually another. It is the sophisticated cousin of horror. Not saying that horror is the hillbilly cousin everyone hates to invite but it does take certain finesse to writea good psychological thriller."
Hmmm we'll take that as a challenge, lets see if Mac 2 have that 'certain finesse' well for the opening 2 minutes of it anyway, which in my opinon is the most crucial part, the audience need to be hooked or at least have a degree of curiosity to continue watching the film from its opening or they will get bored, disengage and switch off as they have certain expectations of a film that it should meet. Even from its very beginning. 

Saturday 28 January 2012

Gothika

This film is another case study our group has found to help us when editing and thinking about the storyline which will possibly follow our 2 minute opening.
'Gothika' 2003 has a certificate of 15 because it contains violence, brief language and nudity. Its genres are: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
The plot is about a psychologist in a women's prison who wakes up one day to find herself on the other side of the bars, accused of having murdered her husband. She needs to prove her innocence, but the film is not what you expect. There will be not too much logic in what follows, and the borders between reality and hallucination seem to be crossed by the director and script writer, not only by the characters. (The same sort of cross we have featured in our film with the fireworks in the main characters head.)

The haunting setting in the film and the way the atmosphere is being built targets its audiences (15 -30 year old thriller lovers) inciting them. The institution looks like some gothic building from outside, with blue lighted corridors inside creating an appropriate setting for the mood of the characters. Rain seems to poor almost permanently, kind of reflecting the fluid state of mind of the characters.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

This is England

Yesterday, in class we watched the five star film written and directed by Shane Meadows, we had to observe the representation of class and status also the power relationships. This film is also a great case study for Section B of our exam.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Weasel Waltz 4

Today in class we explored different fonts for the credits of our film opening and we listened to different non-digetic sounds we could include. Our inspiration to use a creepy children's jack in the box slow tune was from Coraline and The Woman in Black trailer. We found the perfect sound we want to use however at the last minute we couldn't download it so it looks like its back to the drawing board.

Finally got a close match a week later!!

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Revision Material.. new BFF's


Just a helpful reminder of the criteria for section B of the AS media studies exam, my revision check-list, we're going to become the best of friends from now until the day of the exam.

I found more great material on SlideShare this will definitely aid my understanding of how to dissect film companies, producers, distributors and the audience the end product is delivered to.

Sunday 15 January 2012

Ooo Second draft



I watch it and i just think how amateur, i wonder what other people must think.. However i have to recognise that there is method to madness (literally). We took so many different shots and angles, we found it hard to decide which were the best to include, so we just dragged all the main shots together and already its way over 2 minutes.. We have so much to do, but we can see it starting to take a nice form even though all we have now is a very, very rough outline.
 ..Need to do something about the sound we could leave the natural noise of the cars passing but maybe lower it and manipulate it to sound less harsh it might work, though we should probably play it safe and use Foley sound or even simpler just music.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

ooo iTV vs ITV - Is there any competition though?

Today in media we looked at the article of the new addition to the Apple revolution the iTV the television that will demolish streaming devices. having the facilities that will enable people to watch films and TV show straight from the internet to the TV. Another article introduced Netflix the new American online streaming company said to attempt a breakthrough in the UK after its successful launch in the USA and Canada Reed Hastings and the company is sceptical about its UK rival LoveFilm



Followers