UK Film Companies Research

Working Title Films

Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London in the UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson also known as "Mr Bean". Eric Fellner and Bevan are now the co-owners of the company. In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer. Radclyffe left Working Title, and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the company. The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. An Anglo-Dutch film studio, PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor. In 1999, PolyGram was sold to Seagram and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was merged and sold to Universal Studios in 1999.

Narrative Research

There are different stages to a narrative of a film. From my research I found that this is what is contained within a film. Staring with an exposition which is an introduction, disruption which is a problem or dilema which could arise in the movie, a climax where there is a turning point and finally a resolution which ends in everything going back to normal.

Todorov's created his own theory and that was that there is an equilibrium which is where everything comes with an introduction, disruption where the antagonist comes into play, recognition where the problem becomes alerted. The effects of the problem start to take place mainly on characters. The disruption is repaired and resolved when is an attempt to correct arises. Finally a new equilibrium is added which concludes the narrative and this end with everything being restored.

Claude Levi Strauss studied man stories and fables. He came to a conclusion that we as humans see the world, events and people by using binary opposites. He also said that narratives are created with traits such as disagreement and conflist between binary opposites such as, Good versus bad and male versus female etc.

Iconic Thriller Director - Stanley Kubrick

This is a small timeline I created on Time Toast. It about Stanley Kubrick who was an iconic director.
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/iconic-thriller-directors

Thriller Sub Genre Research

Action Thriller - Inglorious Bastards

A sub-genre of Action in a thriller movie would mainly include aspects which you would generally find in an action movie such as; violence, weaponry, physical and verbal fighting.As you can see in this picture above, there is a knife with blood which does represent the action and violence.


Psychological Thriller - Orphan

The sub-genre of Psychology in a thriller movie mainly includes conflict between main characters mentally and/or emotionally rather than physical, which leads stereotypically to a more putrid and disturbed resolution.

Crime Thriller - Four Brothers

In the sub-genre of Crime in a thriller movie, the main aspects which are included are mainly murders and investigation finding who did what and who had a part to play in the crime taken place. Four Brothers is about four brothers who go out and try to find out who killed their mother in a hold up, inside a 7/11. This leads them to investigating and taking the law into their own hands, to find who was responsible and to punish them.

Analysis : Silence Of The Lambs

As you can see in this opening shot it shows a forest with some very spooky trees. This is an example of iconography because the spooky tree's show that this film must be a thriller or horror. We can also see mist which makes the setting look even more sinister. The camera angle is a medium shot to not show the whole scenery but to show as much that you can conclude what type of location it is. The colour is mainly black and grey which is dark and mysterious.

This shot shows the women in a hurry and it shows her running as if she is running from someone or something and this creates tension straight away for the audience. She looks very rough and this could mean she was running away from someone in a rush and didn't think about getting ready or changing. The forest seems even darker in this shot and the mist is covering her like its trying to capture her. Her facial expression looks extremely fatigued. The lighting seems very dark. The camera shot is a close up to see clearly her expression. From this shot only you can come to the conclusion she is running away from someone but before this shot it shows the women pulling herself towards the camera with a rope, she is obviously training for something and going on a intensive workout/run.

As you can see she carries on running and it becomes visible that she isnt running from someone and that she is just jogging which brings the tension way down which is within the audience. She seems to have a neutral facial expression. The forest now looks much brighter and less freaky. The camera angle is from the side and is a medium shot.

She continues to run and then the camera angle changes. A man comes into the shot and she starts to talk to him. This shot shows an over the shoulder shot being used aswell as being a medium shot. They are both still located in the wood as is evident in the background. 

She continues to run and runs towards a building and then goes inside it, this is her workplace. She then walks into a room where there are many people cleaning and practicing with guns. By this time you can tell she is a police officer is of service to the force, with the surroundings showing many people in uniform with badges and Teflon   bulletproof jackets. She makes her way into an office with news papers on the walls and a man enters. They both engage in conversation. Medium and close up shots are used alot. The man is dressed smartly in a waistcoat, shirt and tie. This may show he is of a higher authority.

Analysis : Momento

In the first shot we have a person holding a photo. After looking deeper into the picture we can tell that it seems to be a blood splatter. This immediately has an effect on a watching audience as it gives us an indication that this movie could be a film with a horror or thriller genre. We also hear a non diegetic sound in the background. The sound is slow and mellow and this creates an eerie atmosphere. This also enhances the idea of a horror or thriller genre. The credits we see show that the movie title 'Momento' is written with spacing between each letter and in full capitals. This just attracts the audience and is unorthodox which does attract attention.

Then the man shakes the picture many times, maybe to help let the ink dry on the photo. Then the camera moves upwards towards his face where we can see the man with scratches along his face and blood covering it aswell. This shot is a close up. Then a very unique effect is used which shows blood dripping up a wall, then there is a close up on a bullet shell, a pair of glasses and then the dead mans head with blood seeping out of it. Then suddenly we see a high angled shot of the male actor with the camera standing over the dead body, with his arm out to the side and his hand open wide. Suddenly the gun flies into this mans hand as he crouches down and the bullet shell goes back into the gun. The dead man comes alive again and he is levitating upwards and the glasses fly back onto his face. As all this happens you begin to realise that that scene is being rewinded. Then there is a flash that comes from the tip of the gun, that must be the bullet firing itself back into the gun. Then there is a extreme close up of the mans face, where we see fire in his eyes and his facial expression.   We can then see his emphasised power which he has over this man. This shows the audience who he is and that he is a man who comes across as if he wants respect as if he deserves it. Then there is a close up of his hand picking up some keys, maybe car keys then looking around as if he is lost. 
Very intriguing the opening sequence is with its uses of diegetic and non diegetic sounds, camera angles, shots and editing. All these factors contribute towards creating tension and suspense within the audience.

Enemy Of The State - Tension Editing

              

In films, closeup's are used to show more detail and show the audience what the character's feelings are, through expressions. These could be facial expressions or verbal expressions.

In this close up from the film itself, we see the close up shot of a man inserting maybe a chip or a memory device of some sort into a machine. This emphasises how important that chip could be or how significant the information on there is. The background of this shot is blurred, this creates an image where the foreground is highlighted and focused on the person with the device showing significance.

You can see the pressure and tension in the shot and you can almost feel it. With these crosses going across it seems like they are caged in or trapped. This does give good emphasis as the whole film is about being watched and surveillance, and it seems a camera or a person i watching them while in hiding. This adds to the tension and makes you feel as if something is about to happen. This is a medium shot also from the film showing both characters in one shot. This conveys the idea that are concealed within a small space, as portrayed by the cross cutting. A medium shot also depicts emmotion, by looking at their faces emotions, we can clearly see that they are intrigued by something and are looking quiet serious as well.
our opinion.