American Psycho: voice over inspiration

Mac 5 have decided to use a voice over in our two minute opening, as we feel that it is an uncommon feature in our genre, which we aim to challenge.
However, we chose to use this technique because psychological thrillers are often told in a first person narrative, leaving the audience in the dark to create suspension and we think this is particularly important if we want to keep our audience engaged.
We also think that this technique creates more intimacy between the film and the audience, which is something we would like to explore using both sound and visuals, to add to the uncomfortable atmosphere felt by the audience.

The introduction of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000), near the very beginning of the film, is one of the few psychological thrillers which uses a voice over to present a character to the audience. Here is the clip:


We are currently on the search for the perfect voice, and we are using this clip to demonstrate what tone of voice to use, to create a similar feeling of oddity - we think that this ties in nicely with the disorientated character which is revealed to the audience, making the opening all the more sinister and perhaps more intriguing for the audience.

Testament of Youth: cinema trip

Today, Miss Foster and the English department took us to a screening of James Kent's 'Testament of Youth'. It is the film adaptation of Vera Brittain's memoir detailing her war experience and losses during the first world war, as originally published in 1933. Here is the trailer:



The lead role was played by the wonderful Alicia Vikander, a flourishing Swedish actress with 8 upcoming films this year which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

The film was useful not only as an English Literature student, studying the literature of World War 1, but also as a Media Studies student. Me and Tayla were pinching each other throughout because of how beautifully it was shot!

We really liked the use of selective focus, especially in close ups of single characters as we thought it really emphasized the emotion and individual suffering of each character; this also made us consider the subject of war as a whole and that the idea that each member of an entire generation was impacted in some way or another.






We also liked the use of match cutting in the film - one in particular which stood out to us was the scene where Vera's tears fell, which followed into the raindrops in the trenches where her loved ones were, as it was particularly poignant.






 Here is a critical response to the film:

Testament of Youth: critics review

Although the critic argues that 'there seems no real thunderstorm', after watching the film through wet eyes, I disagree as the film did little to romanticize the war and still made the audience emotional - perhaps it was more appropriate to leave out the horrors on the Front line as it was central to Vera Brittain who did not fight in the trenches.

Here are some of the scenes which stuck out to us, in exposing the brutality of war:



Overall, Testament of Youth was a brilliant film which I'd definitely recommend.
Although it does not fall under the same genre as our two minute opening, we took inspiration from how it was shot especially in terms of framing, composition and sound which made each scene all the more effective.

Mirror shot research

Mac 5 have one last scene to film, which features Hannah standing in front of a mirror, in a bathroom.
 We have found some examples of how we want this scene to look, and we have carefully selected the framing and composition of each shot to make the scene effective. 

We have been given this really cool underwater camera, which we are going to use to get a close up shot of Hannah scooping up the water.




Here (30s-50s) is an example of what we mean from We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011):


We also like the idea of using a close up of the tap, as we already have a shot of Hannah by a sink in our previous location. This is somewhat similar to how Kevin Spacey's bathroom monologue begins in Casino Jack (2010):



We think a POV shot would work quite nicely here - Enter The Void (2009) shows us how this could be achieved:


Here is a compilation of movies which feature a few more bathroom/ mirror scenes:



We don't want the scene to be scary, as we are aware that scenes like these are quite cliché as it is.

We do however, want the scene to show our character's unfamiliarity with herself, and we think that using a mirror is probably the easiest way to show some of the side effects our character is experiencing, as we previously identified in our drug research.

Black Swan: editing and sound inspiration

Mac 5 have now almost finished filming (we hope) and we are about to begin editing! We have been researching movies with effective editing techniques. Black Swan (2010) is a perfect example of a psychological thriller in which shots have been manipulated to create a strange atmosphere. Here are a few I could find which are really effective in emphasizing the disturbance of the character:



I really like the fast-paced turn of the camera from 0:05-0:07 as it reflects the characters twisted thoughts, and I also really love Winona Ryder.



This is one of my favourite scenes because it is quite shocking for the viewer, and the use of the mirror to show more than one of Nina represents her multiple personalities. We really like the idea of creating layers showing more than one figure of our character to create a similar effect. We have already tried a similar technique out and we love the way it looks! It can be found under the 'editing practice' label on my blog.



The turning of the camera, and unsteady shot in this scene is really effective. We have filmed a shot in which the camera orbits around our actress and we would like to manipulate it in order to change settings - this clip helps us visualize how this would could be achieved.

This is a really inspirational movie in terms of editing, but also it terms of sound. Throughout the movie, we can frequently hear Nina's breathing over all the other sounds in the background. This is something we could think about when it comes to sound in our own opening.

Here is the full official trailer:

Donnie Darko: shot and sound inspiration

Donnie Darko (2001) is one of the weirdest, yet most captivating movies I've ever seen. Here is the rather bizarre opening, it is sort of split into two parts - a bit like on our storyboard:

This close up of Donnie's pupils dilating is one of my favourites because it is super trippy, and Mac 5 really like the emphasis on eyes - when we were searching for our actress, one of the main deciding factors was the colour of her eyes and our actress, Hannah C, has fantastic blue eyes which fit the role perfectly!




Donnie is also seeing a therapist, who prescribes him pills (that end up being placebo's). Donnie's behaviour is strange nonetheless, and the possibility of him having a mental illness isn't lost in the many alternative explanations of the movie.





Here are a few more cool stills which I could find:

This scene, in which the mirror ripples, is pretty peculiar (though important when explaining the film). It is also very inspiring in terms of sound - Frank sounds almost like a microwave, and the low bass drone in the background makes the viewer feel as if they are inside a television which is really effective in emphasizing the idea of Frank influencing the thoughts inside Donnie's head.



Though our character doesn't cross over and enter a tangent universe, she does have controlling thoughts which we would like to emphasize in our opening, and we would like Frank's tone and the mood these sounds create to have a similar effect in our opening.

Here are two more scenes which I really like:


 

Girl, Interrupted: character and editing examples

Girl, Interrupted (1999) is possibly my favourite movie ever, and it heavily relates to our two minute opening. I wont dissect it too much, but I think that the editing techniques used throughout the film are particularly effective.

It entails the account of Susanna Kaysen's stay at a mental hospital for 18 months. Susanna, played by the incredible Winona Ryder, is 18 when she is admitted to Claymoore and she is diagnosed with BPD.

Here is one of the sessions she has with her psychiatrist:



I really like how the scenes blend into one another through a match cut - it would be really interesting to try this out when we are editing to make our change of setting more visually exciting.

The character which probably relates to ours the most (due to her drug misuse) is Daisy, played by Brittany Murphy, who was one of my favourite actresses.


One of the best known lines in the movie is said by Daisy, here it is:

Here is the full scene - our character's behaviour is similar to Daisy's:

Spellbound: plot, shot and editing inspiration

Hitchcock's 'Spellbound' (1945) is a classic psychological thriller, which also falls under the genre 'film noir'.

This film is perfect for Mac 5, as it involves the idea of a psychotic psychiatrist (who is actually an amnesiac, but we can still take inspiration) and includes many scenes which are shot in the environment of a psychiatrist at work.

It was beautifully shot and edited - this is one of my favourite shots from the movie from an interesting perspective. The scene ends with the milk rising up towards the camera and the screen then flashing to white, flowing smoothly into the next scene.

This is similar to a shot we tried to achieve when we filmed, which is a POV shot through a pair of glasses. It is also really useful now that we are editing, as we want our scenes to flow smoothly into one another, but also remain interesting for the viewer.




This very climactic scene comes closer to the end - we have filmed a few POV shots as we hope to create a similar atmosphere of rising tension and a strange intimacy between the character on screen and the audience.




Perhaps one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, is the dream sequence, experienced by John Valentine. The thrilling sequence was designed by none other than Salvador Dali and the strong sense of surrealism not only increases the mystery in the plot, but also plays on the curiosity of the characters. Here it is:

 
 

Title sequence ideas

Our group has been doing some research on the order of our title sequence, and after reading online and watching several examples, we have a list of common titles and the relative order they go in:

• Name of studio
• Name of production company
• A film by
• Starring
• Film title
• Featuring
• Casting
• Music
• Production design
• Editor(s)
• Director of photography
• Producer(s)
• Based on the book/ characters/ story by
• Screenplay by
• Written by
• Director

We don't plan on using all of these in our opening, so we have narrowed down the list. The potential titles we may use are highlighted in blue.

A great deal of our research was done using artofthetitle, which provided us with inspiration for potential fonts and for the position of our titles. Here are a few examples:

                                                             Grand Prix (Film)

                                                             The conjuring (Film)

                                                             Black sails (TV)

                                                             United States of Tara (TV)
                                                             (Sorry, I had to)

The faculty: general character research

One of the best movies I ever saw as a kid was The Faculty (1998). It had me believing my teachers were aliens for years. It also has an amazing cast, which drew me into watching a lot of their other works. 

While it is classed as a sci-fi/ horror and therefore doesn't fall under the same genre of our two minute opening, I think it is one of the best movies which portrays insecurity and distrust between people - this is something our main character adopts due to her own psychological disturbance. It may also have a similar target audience to our film. Here is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie which shows each characters lack of trust in one another:

Here are another few clips in the movie which show different characters' reactions and expressions in times of suspicion and revelation:

Magic Magic: character development

Following our decision to produce the opening of a psychological thriller, our group has been thinking about characterisation and the mannerisms displayed by our main actress. 

Magic Magic (2013) directed by Sebastián Silva, focuses on a group of 'friends' who go on a road trip to Chile. The main character, Alicia, is played fantastically by Juno Temple. Alicia is an evidently disturbed young woman who, placed out of her comfort zone, quickly begins to lose her mind. The illness she has is not disclosed in the film, though the symptoms of schizophrenia are noticeable in her demeanour. This movie is really useful in terms of character development, as Alicia's display of mentally unstable tendencies can be applied to our own actress to give a similar effect. 

The close up of Alicia's face shows an anxious expression, and the slight look towards the camera creates an uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience. The shallow depth of field pulls the focus from the woman in the background to Alicia, to emphasize Alicia's sullen mood and unsettled position. 

This shot of Alicia drinking shows her eyes focused on the water and her hunched shoulders almost leaning into the glass as though to seek comfort from it.  

 

Here is an mid long shot of Alicia (right) which shows her 'reading', as her eyes trail around the room. Her poor posture becomes more evident following the above shot, and the audience can clearly see that her insecurity disallows her to sit in a room with other people and engage in normal activities.

One of my favourite shots from the movie is this close up which shows the fake smile that Alicia has drawn on, with a wild eyed expression on her face. I love how deranged she looks, as it juxtaposes with her attempt to appear stable and happy.

My group likes the idea of focusing in on the movement of hands in our opening, because people who are unstable have been known to fidget a lot and this is something we would like to achieve when presenting our character, who is also meant to be quite jittery. Silva's take on this, shows Alicia's fingers trailing the depths of her palm which suggests that she is trying to read or understand her own abstract personality - this I think is pretty clever.

Finally, I really like this mid shot of Alicia looking in the mirror, where she appears to be unfamiliar with her own reflection. The colour of her reflection has a slightly blue tinge, in contrast to the yellow glow of the room Alicia is in, which makes the two figures appear as if they are in two entirely different worlds - even though 'they' are the same person. This reflects the characters dissociative personality and her incongruity in the world around her. 

This movie, weird as it is, has been really useful in helping develop our character and it gives us an idea of how we want our actress to look, in order to exhibit mental instability.