Plenimary task evaluation

Our prelinimary task was very short, consisting of 40 seconds. We used a variety of shots such as match on match action, close up and eye-line match.


I first walked outside the classroom then the scene cut to me walking through the door, this creates a continuous effect on the scene. I think this scene was very good and using a match on action shot benefited our preliminary task, I considered this for my own thriller.



We then decided to use eye-line match, I used this in my own thriller this is a very effective shot as you can see from the individual in the scene's perspective and can see what he is looking at.

In this scene, we used shot reverse shot to show the conversation which was between the student and teacher. I think this was a good shot to use as we can clearly see what is going on between the student and teacher and what their conversation is about.

Styles of editing

Styles of editing 

In films, the cinematographer decides what kind of camera shots is necessary and appropriate for the scene. 

Straight cut – this is a basic cut, where one image on screen is instantly replaced with another, often in the form of a camera angle change. Every film has at least one straight cut scene. 

Jump cut  - this cut is not always chosen by the director, it is usually a continuity error between two shots. Film makers should go by a 30 degree rule, where the camera in consecutive shots should move by 30 degrees minimum. This is evident to the audience that a cut has been made, if the camera moves less than 30 degrees the cut will be abrupt for the audience creating a jump cut.

Dissolve – Dissolve edit can be used in many ways, this is where one scene in a film moves onto another scene smoothly, so the two scenes look continuing and it doesn’t become evident that they are two separate shots. Adding a dissolve affect makes the scene flow better. 

Wipe – This style of editing is where one shot is replaced by another without using the dissolving effect, it gets rid of the first shot. 

Continuity -  this is when the last shot carrys on from the last shot, this makes the scene on going and makes it flow better. 

Title sequence

The production company - IDENT

Examples - MGM, Pixor, Colombio Disney, Fox, Universal

1.Product company name
2. Film director
3.Main stars
4. Title of the movie
5. Other major casts
6. Sound, script, make-up
8. Film producer
9. Director

I looked at four different examples of movie intros suchas:
se7en - this was produced by new line cinema and Arnold kopeless

In the opening of se7en, the audience get to see who the film was produced and directed by and they also get an insight about the antagonist and what he does by little clips. The opening is very dark with the usage of black and white indicating a very dark atmosphere, this suits well with the genre which is a thriller. The title sequence of Se7en is effective as it follows the order which it should and also creates the first feelings about what the film is going to be like which gets the audience hooked up into watching it.

Panic room - this was a columbia production, it was directed by David Fincher, in the opening we see a view of the city buildings and all the caste members names appear.

North By North West

North by north west is a suspensuful thriller produced by Alfred hitchock. The main characters in this film are Eva Marie Hart, Cary Grant and James Mason. North by North west is a story of mistaken identity, Cary Grant playing Roger Thornhill has a very busy lifestyle worrying about his several ex, wifes, mother and his Madison Avenue job, he is at a bar when he gets approached by two very intimidating men who mistake him for George Kaplan. The men had mistaken him for George Kaplan and were trying to stop him from interefring in their plans to smuggle out microfilm which contained goverment secrets.



Red herrings -  used to confuse the audience at an anticipating event, Alfred Hitchock used red hearings in North by North west in the scene where Roger thornhill had got shot by Evie hart, this scene acted as a decoy. The audience though Roger thornhill was dead and were in all shock however he was not dead, this was all part of the plan. The main purpose of red hearings is to act as a decoy. 

Thrillers usually include fast pacing,  frequent action and better equipped villians, the thrillers main purpose is to build up suspense to leave the audience thinking about certain situations and questioning certain characters. North by North west includes all of these things.







Cliffhangers - The main cliffhanger in the film is at the end where the audience are left in suspense when one of the main characters (Eve kendall) is pushed from the cliff, the audience are unaware of whether she will die or not when she is hanging from the top of rushmore mount. This builds more suspense, this was Alfred Hitchcock's main aim as he always liked to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.

Fast pacing - Fast pacing makes the journey very personal and makes the audience get a feel of the fast event. Thrillers often use fast pacing to make the audience think about what is going on and what is happening, the fact that everything is going on so fast has more of an effect on the scene.



Sound - There's a slow shot that is set up when Cary Grant who plays Roger thornhill is at a cropduster scene, the music is slow at first which makes the audiene wonder what is going to happen next, when the music builds up eventually it promotes the action within the scene. One of the main aims for thrillers is to build suspense for the audience watching, both techniques do this effectively. Mis-en scene - Mis en scene literally refers to how everyhing is arranged and set out, in the cropduster scence, the surroundings are appropriate to the scene as it shows the character is at a disadvantage and makes the audience think he will get hit by the cropduster. The character portrays emotions of fear and the audience are left in curiousity thinking if the cropduster will hit him or not.

Editing- This scene mainly uses straight cuts, this makes the scene more intense for the audience. At the beginning of this scene it is a slow scene this allows the pace to pick up later as the scene gets more intense when the crop duster comes towards him. Hitchcock always knew how he wanted his films to be edited, in the scene at the beginning where roger is looking around we see a close up of his face, this allows the audience to gain more a feel of how Roger is feeling.






The Mcguffin
The mcguffin is an object or device used to create a motive for the book or film. The mcuffin is usually forgotten about throughout the film however is is brought back to the audience at the end. In North by North west the Mcguffin is the microfilm that is wanted by the antagonist.

Media theories

Media theories

There are  many different theories in media, it is essential for there to be different theories as you get a different outlook. Todorov and Barthes are the most well known media theories about the construction of media.

Barthes believes that there are 5 rules which need to be followed in order to enjoy a film. He made this into the Enigma Code
- The proairetic code
- The semantic code
- The symbolic code
- The cultural code
- The hermeneutic code

The proairectic code - this is the way that suspense builds up and leaves the audience in anticipation as to what is going to happen next

The semantic code - this is means a text having an ambiguous meaning, this means that it is interpreted in different ways, this means that the audience view things different to one another.

The symbolic code - The symbolic code comes under things such as clothimg and colours in the film.

The cultural code - This looks at the audiences cultural knowlege, ideology and morality. This is used frequently by the director to know how to effect the audience or how to give them an emotion.

The hermeneutic code- This is the way that the avoids to let the whole storyline out and stops it from revealing all details, this means that only small clues are dropped throughout the film to create a mystery scene. Majority thriller and crime films use this

The binary opposites can be found in any movie, this comes under two things opposing eachother e.g dominant vs subordinate, hero/villain. In most films, the characters consist of a good guy and a bad guy but any characters that are considered opposite to eachother can also be reffered to as binary opposites.
Examples of binary opposites
 Batman and the Joker
Spiderman and the Goblin
Bugsy Malone and Fat Sam

Todorov Narrative Theory - Todorov's theory consists of a belief that every movie in every genre followed a pattern. This pattern is known as the narrative theory, there are 5 steps which present diffeent stages of the movie.
These 5 stages include:

A state of equilibrium - This focuses on the main introduction of the characters in the movie, this means getting an insight of their normal daily lives.

A disruption - This state of equilibrium will be distrupted by an event which majority of the time causes problems in the characters daily life, this change usually causes a large dilemma.

Recognition - This is where the audience are expecting the character to come up with a peaceful plan to solve the problem. Repair - This is where the character tries to find a solution to the dilemma which has been caused e.g the goodguy comes up with a plan to overcome the bad guy. An attempt to repair the damage - This  happens mainly towards the end of the movie, the character who had the dilemma and tried to solve the dilemma attemps to repair the damage and usually ends up at some risk. A resoration of a new equilibrium - In majority of the movies the problem always gets solved in the end and the attemp to repair the damage usually works, good always overcomes bad.