No one younger than 15 should see a 15+ rated film in a cinema. and no one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15+ rated video/film.
Theme and Plots
No theme or plot is forbidden as long as it does not focus on pain or unnecessarily dark plot lines.
Discrimination
The film must not positively show/represent discriminative language or racists behaviour as good or expectable in any way or means.
Drugs and Drug use
Drug taking may be shown but the film must not promote or encourage drug use. The use of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances are unlikely to be used.
Horror and Violence
Violence may be used but should not focus on the cause of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable as well as strong sadistic or sexualised violence.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour should not focus on details which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be used.
Language
The use of large amounts of strong language is often acceptable unless used for unclear purpose or repeated for a extended time.
Nudity and Sex
Sexual activity may be shown without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Films were the primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Our Film
I feel that our film fits into the category of 15 as by no means does it encourage or show acceptance to the violent and illegal acts that happen throughout the film but it does use realistic and mildly offencive scenes to bring the viewers closer to the protagonist.
- “When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'"
To me Tarantino is one of the all time greats in directing, his uniqueness and specialities mean his work can be easily distinguished from others and mainly because of his ability to input his personality into all his films no matter the genre or plot. I feel his input to the film industry will one day be as great as early directors who shaped the future of films such as Alfred Hitchcock.
Quentin Tarantino's fame skyrocketed with the release of the hit film "Reservoir Dogs". After writing the script in a reported three and a half weeks, the (relatively) low budget heist themed, dialogue-driven blockbuster was found to be what would shape Tarantino's future film career
After receiving offers from Hollywood to direct films like Men in Black (and refusing them), he started production on the extremely well received Pulp Fiction, which solidified his fame in the directors seat. Indeed, the latter was the cause for nomination for best picture, best director and best original screenplay, though humbly receiving only the award for best original screenplay.
Kill Bill Vol. and 2 are also very notable films that he directed.
Critics often agree that Quentin Tarantino "bends and reshapes" genres; his originality in films sets him apart from others in the thriller and crime genres that he often partakes in. He often uses unusual storytelling device in his films, such as retrospection in "Reservoir Dogs", and the non-linear style in Pulp Ficiton to further his distinction. His unabashed look on violence is often seen in his films, though using 'seen' loosely, as the most extreme violence is often off screen, and merely implied. Further proof comes straight from his mouth: "Violence is one of the most fun things to watch."
Reports from co-directors, actors, and others who work with him all tell the same thing about Tarantino; he's an incredibly talented director, with a penchant for oddness. Also ruthlessness. Certainly, his outlook on violence, and his cutthroat approach to directing are reflected in his films. And one other thing that never varies is told by one Roth, an actor in Inglorious Bastards: “Tarantino always fosters an air of a great place to be creative.”
I believe that by studying the works of Tarantino we as a group will be able to greatly improve the atmosphere and realism of our film, in terms of our filming, directing, actor guidance and script writing.
The inspiration for our final piece came from a mix of our
own tastes, but what sealed the deal was our joint passion towards the 1996
film, "Trainspotting" which is an extremely well known and highly
regarded film based around the Edinburgh drug scene and Renton who tries to
"clean up and get out", despite the allure of the drugs and influence
of friends. Danny Boyle is a personal favourite among directors for me
alongside other greats such as Shane Meadows. I will be researching more about
these two in more detail at a later date.
For me what makes "Trainspotting" such an inspirational
and influencing film is its uniqueness within the genre, the way trainspotting
jumps straight into the action and then uses the drama to show what is
happening by breaking the tension really appeals to me as it makes us as viewer
question the film from the go.
Another reason Trainspotting is inspirational to me is
because unlike most other drug related films it doesn’t have a dark and
depressing feeling even though the story is quite hard.
Trainspotting mainly relates to drugs but really has aspects
of many personal issues such as death, aggression, depression and unemployment.
As our final piece is a social realistic thriller I have collected some research on Thrillers and what is expected to be in thrillers, so mainly i have researched the codes and conventions in typical thrillers as well as iconic ones.
For a thriller the audience will be expecting many similarities within the genre and without these thing a movie could be doomed for example a thriller must contain some form of mystery or drama, have a amount of action within it, parts may contain some tension and keep the viewer on the edge of there seat. A thriller will also be expected to contain a twist and constantly make the viewer think or question the plot, locations should be dark and gloomy to build suspense when foreshadowing and the ending should be unexpected as well as thought provoking.
The main aim for any thrillers is to keep the audience alert, on the edge of their seats and constantly thinking about the plot. On average in most thrillers the main character is set against a problem or task for example they might have to escape for somewhere or solve a mystery of some sort. During a good thriller they would be expected to show drama or tension by enhancing facial expressions to show fear or worry during key scenes within a film as without that a thriller wouldn't be nearly as attention grabbing and viewers would not be able to connected with the characters fully. Thrillers normally use quick, fast and sudden changes in emotions to drive the viewer to a constant state of alertness and keep them on the edge of a seat.
Mise-En-Scene
Within a thriller there are often no real specific Mise-en-scene as it all depends on the plot or sub category, in a period thriller the clothes, make-up, plot, etc would be completely different to a SC-FI thriller.
But as a key role often the mise-en-scene is used more to show the characters rather than a genre when i comes to thrillers, I feel that is mainly because thrillers range some much. Where as horrors you expect blood and black to be clear and in actions you expect good open locations with lighter tones, in thrillers it is not so simple, yeah blood is often expected but with out it people don't automatically resent the film, in fact often gore and blood is missing from thrillers to challenge the genres ideals.
Sounds
Thrillers have a huge range of iconic sounds mainly depending on sub genre but all contain a memorable tone and are used in a haunting or heart pumping style this is because almost every thriller is designed to trigger set emotions depending on the scene or genre. A lot of thrillers use very distinct noises in the films as a way to target the audience as anyone of them could use these sounds to recognizes both genre and theme of the film.
many thrillers use a very distinct technique when starting to use sounds in there films, they use a loud and powerful sound like thunder or door slams to trigger a piece of music, as well as the starting of there music they also use quick and sudden sound effects or tempo changes to break up what could be classed as a low pitched and drawn out noise.
A classic example of these techniques is clear in the all time classic thriller "JAWS". I took this clip from you tube as its a great example of the classic thriller sounds it has a constant and repeated deep, drawn out tune with tempo changes and sudden volume changes. They have used these techniques as a way to a drama and suspense in direct lead to a killing and as it sets every killing it is also a iconic sound in its self and can instantly be used to tell the film.
Another set of iconic thrillers are the Jurassic park trilogy which are some of the most well known thriller trilogies and like jaws also uses many similar, noticeable techniques within there films which can make there film recognized by just sound and music sequences used within the films. Here is the opening sound track form the original 1993 film
Lighting
For thrillers the lighting typically varies a lot from scene to scene and character to character, this is because each person is represented differently. The bad guys or those against the protagonists are often shown in low key lighting and even sometimes are just shown as silhouettes this is show the audience don't relate or get attached to them, where as the good guys or those with the protagonists are shown in high key lighting and often have their faces lit up to show them off and make it easier for the viewers to relate.
For our final piece, of which is to create a 2 to 3 minuet clip of a film opening, we (Ben, Luke and I) decided on filming a social realistic thriller based around the drug trade. We felt that using great films like "Train spotting" as inspiration would be a great help to us in the planning and filming stages of production.
Our basic film opening plot that we decided upon was a chase scene that would in fact take place half way through the film but we would use as a good opening as it quickly puts the audience in the action, also we decided that we would use a commentary over the start in the form of a video blog (Vlog).
The overall plot of the film was to follow the life of a "druggie" and the problems he faces on a day to day level. As a whole we felt that to make the opening a thriller would be simple in terms but to make the appearance that of one which follows the codes and conventions of a social realism would be far more difficult.
The roles we have selected are as followed:
Zach - Camera man, Lighting and storyboard creator
Luke - Script writer, Location / setting director and head of casting
Ben - Music provider / collector and sound manager
For our prelim video we decided to do a Comedy/Thriller clip because we felt we all had some good ideas as well as personal skill we thought would be useful when filming it. Throughout our clip we decided to mainly use a ere and tension filled music track as it would help to show the viewer that the characters are up to no good. At the start of our video we showed our protagonist walking down the stairs to show his appearance and give the viewers a idea of who he is.
We start off in a mid shot showing the protagonist walk down the stair as it switched to our match on action scene we used a close up on his arm to show his reaching in and grabbing the door Handel. I feel this was a good scene as with the music it made the character seem tense and if we were to redo this section I would have preferred to have a lower angle shot as it would be more effective at disorienting the viewer.
The next scene we filmed is a lead up to the location of the next few scenes, in this scene we had our protagonist walking up and over the camera so we could show a shot reverse shot. To improve this shot I would have preferred a lower key of lighting to keep the drama.
As the protagonist sits the scene turns to a two shot so both characters are in even show, then it switches to a sequence of over the shoulder shots as the dialogue is exchanged, this scene to me was as a bit plain and would have been better with a larger range of shots.
As the two characters finish their game the second character gets up and walks off frame leaving the protagonist crying in his seat, to me this scene went well and i would improve very little as I liked how the contrast in the characters emotions changed from both being calm to polar opposites.
the final sequence contained the two characters leaving the room in opposite directions with opposite emotions, I would have preferred to switch the scene and freeze on the jump from the secondary character.
