Psychological thriller

          In this post I'm going to talk about the Psychological thriller on what it looks like, how can you separate this sub-genre from others sub-genre.
          Psychological thriller always involved the main character having mental or emotional problems. Their problem can illness can either cause by an accident or by the fact that they were born that way. In this kind of sub-genre, if we look at the film then we will see that the most common main theme is the main character tries to fight with their own mind. The perfect example of the film of this sub-genre is the film called "Secret Window" directed by David Koepp and starring by Johnny Depp. This film is about an author (Johnny Depp) who suffers from mental breakdown after he found his own wife in bed with other guy. While he suffers with the mental breakdown, without himself realized he accidentally creates another identity of himself.






Here is the trailer of the movie

Prelim Editing

                    After we finished with filming the prelim, the next process is edit it to make it into a sequence of a thriller. In order to edit we use the software called "Final cut pro". In our group, we spent 1 hour doing the editing and we came to the conclusion with 2 similar sequences. The first one we did, we didn't consider on screen time of the main character, on showing who we want to be the subject of the story so we re-do it. There were a couple problems that we faced as well. The problems were the we didn't know how to cut the sound out to make it easier for editing to make the sequence looks smooth. Another problem is we didn't have the take that requires in the story board so we have to fix this problem, by use the most similar shot to where the story board ask. In the second option sequence, which we like to call it the developed one. We discovered the false in the first one and decided to do the second one. After many time of watching the first one, we found out that the screen time between the two characters are quite equal so we decided to focus on one person so that the audience can be dragged into the story more. We did focus on one character in the second one and we can see the significant change in the story.

Opening Sequence Of Drive

                     The opening scene that I choose to analyses is from the movie called "Drive" (2011). In this opening scene of Drive we can divided into 2 parts the first part is sequence of 1 minute which  is as soon as the film start there is a voice talking while the screen is still black then you can see the driver (Ryan Gosling) talking on the phone in the dark hotel room turning his back to the camera. From these elements we can suggest that he doesn't want to be seen, he might also has secrets to hide. The dark lighting also signifies the danger and mysterious as if the driver is about to do something bad and he is a bad guy. 
                    
                      The second part of the opening sequence is the "Getaway" scene. Which I was able to find a video. In this second part of the opening scene we can see the driver in the car looking nervous but then calm in the same time. In term of sound, at the beginning while he is waiting for another guy to come out of the building there is a very fast pace non-diegetic clock ticking sound. This used to build up the tension and as soon as the other get in the car the non-diegetic clock ticking sound then stops. In term of camera, they used a lot of close-up shots to build up the tension and also to make the audience feel uncomfortable and want him get way as if they were there in that car with him. There are also a few use of low-angle shots these were use when he pulled over waiting for the police to go pass. The use of low-angle shots can represent the power that he has over the police in the scene or at that very moment. As the scene goes on the camera focused on the police in front of the driver's car, in this scene we can see the police car clearly while on the reel mirror we can see that the face of the driver has been blurred. This can represent the contrast between good and bad which in this case the driver is the bad guy and this can also signifies the higher status that the police has over the driver. In term of editing, we can see that the driver has the most screen time this can signifies that the driver is the main character in this story and this also makes the audience feel like they on his side.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

                  The poster that we are going to analyses in the post is the poster from the movie called "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". The first thing we can see in this poster is the red dragon. In term of colour, the use of red colour can signifies danger and pain. In term of the gesture of the dragon, it poses as if it's looking down on the girl this can signifies that she is in danger or maybe she is protected. The contrast between the background and the girl face can represent the heroine character. If we focus on her face, we can see that half of her face is covered by her hair, this can signifies that she doesn't want to be seen, she is hiding or maybe she is trying to blend in to some societies. If we look at her eye we can also see that she doesn't look into the camera. Instead, she is looking over it. This can signifies that she is trying to ignore everyone and doesn't care about what people think about her.

As thriller

                  The thriller is called "Firewall". In term of the sound, the low-tone non-diegetic music has been used quite a lot in this thriller, which I think is quite affective because by using the low-tone non-diegetic music it helps provide the tension with in the scene. Camera shots are also one of the main elements to help create the tension for example, this thriller use many close-up shots with this it can turn out two ways depends on the actors, if the actors are good at facial expression then it will turn out great. In the other hand, if they terrible at it then it will turn out badly. However, in this thriller the actors did their job very well on showing their facial expression that's why, in this case the close-up are very effective. In term of costume, by the fact that this thriller based on high-class, top-secret, national-security type. Therefore, all the characters have to wear formal clothes, which is again nicely choose. In term of lighting, the dark lighting is often used. This is used to signify the sense of darkness as if there is something bad or big is going to happen. The props that mainly used in this thriller are computers and electronic equipments. This helps to convey that this thriller is likely to be involve with mysteries and dangers. The thriller is set in the office and in the hallway which again by the dark lighting makes us think it is set in some kind of underground secret base.

The secret window

                 In this post i will analyses the poster from the movie called "The Secret Window" . From the poster, we can notice that the actor is in the lighting which fairly dark. this can signifies that he might be in trouble, danger. And by the fact that he is also in the shadow of the window at the same time as he is in the dark lighting this can signifies that he might be hiding from something. Also the way that he looks signifies that he is wait and hiding from something. However, there is a white light behind him, which can represent the hope of he trying to escape from this trouble that he is facing. The shadow also goes across the actor face this can represents that he has a split personalities. The red colured text can also signifies danger, violent or maybe death. 

        By the fact that this poster used a lot of red and black colour which both signify danger and death. We can assume that the movie is targeting to the 18 to mid-20 years old audiences.

The ghost writer

                  The poster that i choose to analyses for this task is the poster from the movie called "The Ghost Writer" from the poster we can see that there is a man wearing all black, holding a bunch a paper in his hand while there are papers which may slipped out of the same bunch in his hand flying around. from that information we can tell by the fact that he's wearing all black because he doesn't want to be seen and he might have secrets to hide. the paper in his hand and the text in the poster can signifies that he is a writer. flying papers can represent the sense of chaos or trouble that he got himself into. there is also a poster of another guy on the wall behind the writer. by the fact that the guy in the poster is bigger and position higher than the writer this can signifies that the man in the poster has more status and power than the writer. the text is represents in red colour this again can signifies danger and pain.
               From the deconstructing, we can assume that this movie is about a writer who got himself into some kind of dangerous situation. therefore, we can tell that the movie is aimed the the audience age around 13 to mid-20s