Similar Films

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The legendary chiller is arguably the mother of all mind-bending psychological thrillers. From director M. Night Shyamalan. In this film of psychological thriller genre, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist whose new patient has a problem far outside his usual area of expertise. Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is six-years-old and claims to see the spirits of dead people all around him. It seems that Cole has psychic powers and can channel the ghosts of those who were troubled. Cole doesn't understand his powers, and he has little control over them; he's constantly terrified by what he sees, and Dr. Crowe is the only one with whom he feels he can share this secret. However, as the doctor digs deeper into Cole's strange powers, it leads to strange and unexpected consequences for both of them. M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed the film, has a small role as Dr. Hill.

Shutter Island (2010)

This phycological thriller is an atmospheric detective saga from legendary director Martin Scorsese stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, they team up as a pair of U.S. Marshals who travel to a secluded island off the coast of Massachusetts to search for an escaped mental patient, uncovering a web of deception along the way as they battle the forces of nature and a prison riot in this Martin Scorsese-helmed period picture. Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures split production and distribution. Ben Kingsley co-stars as the head of the institution where the patient resided, while Michelle Williams portrays Leonardo DiCaprio's deceased wife, whose memory haunts him during the investigation. Max von Sydo.

Inception (2010)

Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible - inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

Personal Storyline

Beginning:

Film begins with the camera panning up from below a table to reveal a teenage boy sat at a table alone. The camera pans past his college badge that reads the name George Ranger. He looks very uncomfortable surrounded by many students in college. George is clearly panicking and isn't comfortable here as his eyes are drawn to everything around him such as phones, the clock and laptops. Suddenly his ear begins to bleed and he faints hitting the ground. The next shot we see George in a hospital being checked up on by a doctor, this is where it is established that George has suffered with these blackouts for the majority of his life yet this is the first time that his ear has ever bled and they can't seem to explain the cause of it. George always told them it was something to do with the technology surrounded by us, but the doctors told him it as ridiculous. They promptly decide to put him on some sort of tablets to see how goes and that he needs to take one whenever he feels a blackout coming.

Middle:

The next day George is at college sat in a room with one other person just revising, he is sat in a dark corner of the room with no computers on but just alone in his own secluded area. When suddenly the huge screen at the front of the room comes on with a blaring light which gives him a sharp headache and he knows that he is going to pass out, he quickly pulls the tablets out of his bag and starts taking them. Again his ear begins to bleed. The screen cuts to black and the next thing we see is a George from a camera in the room, beating the other student in the room unconscious and severely hurt and then running out of the building. Nowhere to be found. We then see the aftermath of the damage done with teachers talking about the footage they have just watched, about to contact the police. We then cut to George's eyes opening.

End:

As George rises we see him in an empty field, completely alone. He gets up and looks around very confused, at this time he feels his head and finds the dried blood. To his own shock he realises what he had done and discovers that he didn't out this time but instead just turned into a completely different person capable of committing a heinous deed such as what he did. In a complete moment of rage and guilt he throws all his belongings in the woods, pulls out the tablets and takes them all attempting to overdose. Yet all this does is causes his ears and eyes to bleed and an excruciating pain in his head, unable to take the pain he screams and opens his eyes where it is revealed that himself is staring back at him. This clone of George stares into his eyes, smiles and then begins to walk away just as George's eyes roll to the back of his head and he faints backwards into the ground. Showing the death of the good in George that this illness caused to happen.

Possible Distributor

For our A level media project the most likely distributor which would work with us would be StudioCanal UK. StudioCanal UK (formerly Optimum Releasing) is the official branch of StudioCanal in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company releases many films, including foreign, Studio Ghibli, independent, art-house, British, Irish and American films in the United Kingdom and sometimes Ireland. This distributor would be ideal as on our film we have a low budget, lower production quality, unknown cast of actors so there is no pre-established fans of any of the actors which will watch the film. It also releases a lot of independent films and films with similar conventions and genres to our production, and a lot of their distributed films have non-mainstream or niche audiences like "Dead Man`s Shoes"(2004) with the budget of this film being £723,000, "Hush"(2008) with a budget of £1 million, and "71"(2014) with a budget of £8.1 million. All these films seem to have a small budget like our budget and compared to big mainstream blockbusters like "The Dark Knight Rises" which had a budget of 250 million USD and made 1.085 billion USD at the office. Other distributors we could go with could be mainstream distributors, there are a number of these but they are likely not too distribute our films because they are low budgeted, and too unknown to make any money out of. They usually distribute films with enormous budgets going into the 100 millions. So we are better off going with local small distributors like StudioCanal UK.

Elliptical Editing

Elliptical editing is an editing technique used in films and TV shows where it allows an event's duration on-screen to be shorter than it would be if you was to film the whole thing. The most common type of elliptical edit is a cut between two shots, both of which show a part of the same event.

It is used too cut down and eliminate unnecessary shots because recording natural time and everything that happens in the story would require filming every movement in real time, which is a waste of time, especially in film.

Here is an example of Elliptical editing from Batman Begins. Batman is walking a long distance and the use of elliptical editing cuts it down. It would have been a multiple days trip, but it has been cut down to a few minutes. It has the same effect as filming the whole journey because the audience can assume time has passed and he has walked a long way.

Personal Storyline

Beginning

A sudden crash opens the film. A car is seen in the middle of the street, not parked as if it’s just been abandoned in a rush by someone being chased by someone, or something. The main character (Lawrence) is then seen running for his life in the middle of a forest. The trees are seen to be warping and changing as he starts to hallucinate out of the sheer terror of the situation he is in. He carry’s on running until he reaches a river in the forest, he stops and looks around him for whoever was chasing him. He thinks he’s safe.

Middle

It then switches the character now and we see the chaser, hooded, no face to be seen, black appeal, and mysterious looking. The chaser is a mindless hitman, ordered to take down anyone who gets in the way of things and also who ask too many questions. Trained to the extremes to be the best unseen weapon. Lawrence knew too much about the happenings at the company so had to be eliminated. The chaser decided too carry on chasing as fulfil his contract. He runs through the forest scanning for Lawrence almost as if he was hunting an animal to him. Lawrence washes his face in the river and decides to take a break and regain his stamina and then carry-on running. But before he can carry on running, the chaser puts his hands around Lawrence’s throat and the screen goes to black.

End

Out of the shock of the situation we see Lawrence wake up. He’s being carried by the chaser. Lawrence manages to grab a medium sized stone off of the ground and knocks out the chaser. He walks up too the chaser and takes the hood off, his face is black and has no facial features so it’s like a blank face. He picks up the chasers weapon and ends him with it. It skips too a day later and we see Lawrence at the train station as if he has got away. He gets on the train and smiles. Then it takes to black, and a sudden explosion sound.

Personal Storyline - William Haines

Personal Storyline

Genre: Comedy

General Idea:

Hajime has a special power, however it is a really troublesome. Whenever he sneezes, he teleports to a random location nearby his starting location.

Beginning:

Short Film begins with a few comedic scenes where the main character is going about his daily life while having to suffer from a curse that he was given. He teleports to a random location close by when he sneezes, however despite this he is relatively calm whenever it happens. For example, he is talking to someone and he ends up sneezing, teleports to a park close by and he just shrugs it off. Because of this special ability, he is well known, many try to make him sneeze for fun. He is so well known that his is internationally famous and there are fan clubs which keep track of him just to witness him teleporting and breaking the laws of physics.

Middle:

The film then goes into a long flashback. It was not always like this, when it first happened, it nearly drove him crazy. Everyone around him eventually became scared of him, thinking that he is some kind of god, witch or demon. He would be speaking to someone and would sneeze, he would end up in the toilets. He slowly got used to it, gained a lot of popularity for it, and eventually learned how to somewhat control his sneezing.

Ending:

At the very end, after showing multiple comedic situations, he ends up having a sneezing fit. Due to this, he teleports to multiple locations in a short time span and is eventually teleported into the middle of a field. He looks up to the sky and just sighs, credits start moving across the screen as he starts his 30 minute long journey. Camera is stationary as Hajime walks off into the horizon.

Elliptical editing

Elliptical editing 

This is a form of editing that is used on sequences to cut out unnecessary actions. This means that the scene appears to be shorter in real time which is beneficial for long scenes that take up hours as it can be cut down to a few minutes.

 

This video above an example of elliptical editing used in the movie Batman Begins. The video shows the character travelling a large distance across a mountain to reach the temple. Usually this would take a large amount of time but with the help of elliptical editing, all the unnecessary walking is cut out and is shortened down to a minute. The scene starts off with an extreme long shot which shows the character starting his walk and this is meant to imply how long the journey will be. A cut is then followed shortly after with the character walking up a hill, signifying a change in time.

Analysing a Short Film - William Haines

The Duel at Blood Creek

I recognise that this Short Film can hardly be compared to our own chosen storyline for our own short film, there are not many similarities. However, I chose to analyse this film because it contains a similar punchline/storyline as in that the viewer is under the assumption that the film takes place many years in the past but at the end it is revealed that they are simply ‘LARPer’s or ‘Recreators’ acting out a duel for fun.

It can be said that this particular aspect is similar to our own short film, as the viewer is under the assumption that the main character is not in fact the killer, but it is revealed near the end that he is the killer.

Both our own film and the short film that I chose to analyse contains similar plot twists.

In terms of cinematography, the short film contains a varied amount of interesting shots, the camera always attempts to catch the large number of actors on screen at once. Long shots are used in an abundant amount to achieve this.

Elliptical editing is a term that is best used to describe the first few shots as the two characters that we are introduced to first are seen roaming fields, heading towards a meet up location.

After that, continuity remains relatively unbroken. Editing switches from fast to slow pace depending on the situation, either speed being used to accentuate the jokes and bits of comedy seen in the film.

Mise en scene is used to fool us into thinking that it takes place in a certain era, but in reality they are ‘Reenactors’ who are doing it all for fun. This helps the punchline hit harder, further accentuating the comedic moment.

 

The location used contains no signs of anything modern.

In terms of sound, the clashes of the swords and the firing of the guns all do seem very realistic, which reinforces the false fact that they are actually fighting to the death. The running water sound of the creek is very calming, it could be said that it juxtaposes with the tension and/or action. Of course when everything starts to go haywire, the music which comes in drowns out the background noise, leaving only the music accompanied with the enraged shouts of the group of people fighting.

There is no mistake, the genre of the short film is Comedy, even without reading a description of the film, or being introduced before watching it, when one watches the short you can very quickly pick up on the fact that it is a Comedy.

The music used, the editing, the mise en scene and the cinematography help the running gags and jokes to become effective. You would not feel the same emotions if you were to read the script, or the short film as a book instead. The four main techniques/components of a film or media help to accentuate the comedy.

The short film is linear, that much is clear due to the running continuity and a lack of jump cuts and elliptical editing.

The title sequence is very short and simple. The film starts off by introducing the film company/distributor and the director of the film. Then there are a few shots joined by jump cuts where we see the first two characters walking to a location, at the end of the short sequence, it finished with the title of the film in a simple font. There is nothing really special about the opening sequence, it is something that you wouldn’t be surprised to see in a short film.

The end credits are similar. It contains a comedic credit scene where three of the characters which we saw previously are fighting in the dirt, they are the ones which departed before the owner of the land showed up/worker on the land showed up. It is nice that we get to see them again, as some may question as to where they went or what they did after leaving in a mad rush.

The end credits sequence contains scrolling text which rises, revealing the names of actors and any other personnel which worked on the short film.

 

Both the opening and end sequences contain nothing special (EG, cinematic animated scenes), as you might expect from a short film.

Elliptical Editing - William Haines

Elliptical Editing

Elliptical editing is a term that refers to when you edit down a sequence so that time is not running continuously. The runtime of the video is reduced, but the time that passes in the actual film remains the same. Essentially, it is done to cut out long walks or periods of times between different set points in a story.

For example, a journey to a mountain temple, you start with the protagonist(s) setting off from their starting location, they walk through a field for an hour, up a mountain and then they enter a temple.

This can be cut down, for example, they set off from their starting location, there is a cut to a few minutes into the future where they are overlooking the field, cut to them walking through the field having travelled a significant distance from where they had first seen the field, then the next scene is them at the mountain and then it ends with them walking up the door.

The journey along the field which took an hour for the characters to traverse, was shown to us in only a few minutes.

Cutting to the same characters but in different locations imply a big change in time, cutting to the same characters but in the same location only a small distance away from their original location implies a small change in time (a jump cut).

Jump Cuts and Elliptical Editing are very similar. One cannot function without the other. If you use jump cuts, you are 'Elliptical Editing-ing' the film, if you are 'Elliptical Editing-ing' the film you are jump cutting the film.

Although they are very similar, when someone mentions Elliptical Editing, they are not exactly referring to jump cuts but large changes in time.

In conclusion, the time that has passed in the story remains the same, we perceive that change in time as being shorter due to cuts.

Genre research- Music and sound

Music and sound in psychological thrillers

Overpowering music is sometimes used in psychological thrillers to convey their dis attachment to the real world/situation due to their mental state. A good example of this is in the thriller Black Swan (Directed by Darren Aronofsky, 2010) which is a film about the character Nina who undergoes severe psychological problems in her quest to become "perfect" for her ballerina role. Her self obsession eventually drives her insane which leads to going out to a club, taking drugs, etc. From the video below, the club music is made to be overpowering to convey her lost control and diagetic voices can also be heard.

















The music in thrillers also changes often with pitch, volume and tempo to emphasise the intensity of the situation. At the start of a film, there is usually low pitched music when the main film's location is set and this builds up as the character gets closer and closer until it reaches the climax at the end. A good example of this is in Shutter Island ( Martin Scorsese, 2010) which depicts the story of Teddy who is investigating the case of a lost patient at the mental asylum in Shutter island. As they arrive on the island, the low pitch music starts playing. This is to convey hints of danger which emphasises the situation Teddy is in as if there is something happening on this island. As Teddy gets closer, the music starts building up until he eventually reaches the asylum's front gates where it reaches climax. This creates a false impression that something is going to happen at the climax which leaves the audience on edge. This can be seen below.















Diagetic sounds are that characters would be able to hear in the scene. This can be used in intense situations in thrillers such as heavy breathing to convey the character being afraid and tried. Another sound used in thrillers is to do with the weather such as rain and thunderstorm. This creates a pathetic fallacy as it often conveys a negative situation which further entices the audience and keeps them on the edge.A good example of this is in Jurassic Park (Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1993) in the kitchen scene. The character is shown to be hiding from the velociraptor. Diagetic breathing can be heard from her which emphasises her fear and the overall tension of the scene. This can be seen below.

Storyline

Story line idea


Beginning: Character enters the room wearing a suit and tie. His boss scolds him and asks him why he's late to which the character apologises. The boss slams the document onto a table where Character is sat down with 3 other workers. The boss explains that there's been numerous murder cases in the past 3 weeks and then one of the workers opens the documents, viewing the contents inside which shows all the recent victims and their details. The team then start discussing any possible clues or how they can find the murderer. Character notes that all the murders have happened on an odd number in terms of dates but the others don't take him seriously and ignore him. They later then pack up and dismiss the meeting.

Middle: Character is seen walking home as one of the works catches up to him and they start to discuss how terrible the past 3 weeks have been. The worker then describes how his mother is one of the victim which shocks Character. They then part ways and the character carries on walking until he checks his phone for the time and date (11:40pm, 20th December) The scene then switches to inside their work business showing the boss packing up his bags.and beginning to head out. He thinks to himself "Wow it's 12 already" before suddenly the lights turn off. The boss starts panicking and shouts can be heard saying who are you, help. The lights flicker on for a second showing a shadow figure stood while the boss is one the floor then the lights flicker back on. Character is awaken by a phone call from his workers panicking "where have you been? Come to the office right away hurry up!" The character quickly gets up in a rush and gets dressed, heading out the door right away. He arrives at the work office where one of the worker scolds him for being late again. The rest of the team explain to Character that the boss was murdered last night and Character stares in shock. He brings up the fact that its happened on an Odd day again which the others blast him and to take this more seriously. One of the people question where's hes been as they've been trying to call him all day yesterday and this morning. Character simply responds that he was sleeping and more tired than usually for some reason. The others look at him shaking their heads and explain to them that the police are now involved in this and tell him to not miss the next meeting as they head out.

Ending: The character is seen walking home again at night time wondering to himself who could do such a terrible thing. He then checks his phone again and sees that it's 11:58pm 22nd December. Suddenly, he holds his head in pain and agony and crawls to an alleyway gasping for air. Meanwhile a clock is shown at 11:59 counting down to 12am, while this is happening, Character is seen being mentally torn apart and tearing off his clothes illustrating flashbacks of the murders that have happened and as soon as it hits 12am, Character is shown with a grin.

Journey - Eliptical Edit

 

Journey - Long Edit

 

Elliptical Editing

 

Elliptical editing is a form of editing used in film which allows a duration on screen to be shorter than it actually is, cutting out the unnecessary parts to make it shorter. This technique is primarily used in film when a character is travelling somewhere yet the footage would be too boring for the audience to watch the full duration of their distance, so elliptical editing is used to cut out the uninteresting, boring parts with still showing the audience that they have travelled somewhere.

 

An example of this choice of editing is in Batman Begins in which Bruce Wayne is making a huge journey which in real time would take hours but in fact is just shortened to one minutes and thirty eight seconds. This is used very well as even though the clip is so short as an audience we can still gather the fact that this is a very gruelling and long journey that he is making.



Group Photo