USING TRAILERS TO RESEARCH THRILLER CODES AND CONVENTIONS

I decided to use trailers to research thriller codes and conventions because in a short space of time they manage to enthrall the viewer into watching as well as managing to display all the elements that make a striking thriller film. This allows me to be able to browse lots of different films without having to sit down and watch the whole of the film. This means in one lesson i can look at 20+ films and see what codes and conventions they all follow. This has been very useful as these similar codes that i have seen can set as guidelines for our filming.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard that we made pre filming in order to carry out our idea effectively.

Thriller Codes and Conventions Wordle

In depth look at a director

Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK in 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was to make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and unwatchable. At 15 years old, he dropped out of school. In 1995, Ritchie got a job as a runner and this proved to be the start of his film career. He quickly progressed and was directing music promos for bands and commercials by 1995. The profits that he made from directing these promos was invested into writing and making the film, The Hard Case (1995), which is a twenty minute short film that is also the prequel to his debut feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Sting's wife, Trudie Styler, saw The Hard Case (1995) and invested into "Lock, Stock..." (2000), which was written and directed by Guy. Once "Lock, Stock..." (2000) was completed, the hard task of getting it distributed then came about with ten British distributors all turning it down before the film eventually got the attention of Tom Cruise. It was distributed by a North American Distributor, Columbia Tristar. The film was made on a budget of £1.6 million and went on to become the third highest grossing British film of all time. "Lock, Stock..." (2000) was followed up by Snatch. (2000), this time with a bigger budget and a few more familiar faces such as Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro and with a couple of stars returning from "Lock, Stock..." (2000) such as Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones and Jason Flemyng. It was also a success, taking a record £3 million on its first weekend. Guy married Madonna in December of 2000 shortly after their son, Rocco, was born. After Snatch. (2000), Ritchie's next film was another short called Star (2001/I) , which was for BMW cars. This featured his wife Madonna. Swept Away (2002) was another collaboration with his wife for a remake of the 1974 Lina Wertmüller film of the same name. Swept Away (2002) was not received very well by fans and critics alike when released in America and was released direct to video in Guy's home country of the UK. He has already written his next film, Revolver (2005/I), slated for a 2005 release.

 Reservoir Dogs how we plan to look in our film in those jet black suits and dark glasses creates a good look and is very threatening.

Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch- The voices and the gangs in the film are ones we would want to mimic.

Inspiration for our films from previously established ones.

In order to make our films successful we need to look at the greats in the genre we are trying to achieve we wanted a darkish gangster British film with specific details so we looked at 'Resevoir Dogs' as we want our group in the film to look as they do, threatening and in black suits so looking at this film is perfect.We wanted a true to the life British setting so we looked at the two great British gangster Guy Richie films for further inspiration.
 
Resevoir dogs

Six criminals, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss Joe Cabot to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with an intention that they won't get too close and concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members and one of them is killed in the subsequent shootout along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop.

Snatch 

Turkish and his close friend/accomplice Tommy get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets the shit kicked out of him by Pitt, a 'pikey' ( slang for an Irish Gypsy)- who comes into the equation after Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter wants to buy a caravan off the Irish Gypsies. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns, and the damned dog!


Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrells 


Four Jack-the-lads find themselves heavily - seriously heavily - in debt to an East End hard man and his enforcers after a crooked card game. Overhearing their neighbours in the next flat plotting to hold up a group of out-of-their-depth drug growers, our heros decide to stitch up the robbers in turn. In a way the confusion really starts when a pair of antique double-barrelled shotguns go missing in a completely different scam.

Drama analysing

Hotel Babylon

The sequence opens with a quite upbeat and panicky beginning setting the tone for what is to come next. The man on screen rushes out from behind a wall which is an unconventional opening as the camera stays still and the actor is the one that rushes into the shot. Thus showing he is in a rush or has just discovered something that he needs to sort out. The camera then starts to then follow the man as he walks as he comes to a more widely set part of the building starting to walk straight the camera then starts to backtrack out to a less zoomed in focus showing what had made the man originally rushed on screen from behind the wall as whilst zooming out the trade mark uniforms of two police officers come onto screen. This connotes negativity as the police are associated with enforcing the law which this man clearly has done something wrong he needs to hide. He greats them with a rather unconventional colloquial address simply saying ‘alright?’ the camera then flicks quickly between the policeman that speaks with a mid range shot showing his upper torso then back to a close up shot of the original man. Although you can tell the man has done something wrong he starts off very casually and laid backly towards the law enforcers.

The setting changes to a colorful hotel lobby where the camera comes from the original establishing shot of the receptionist and her working area on the front desk to a close up of her face reading a textual document she holds in her hand. The camera angles continue to flick about almost irrationally as the shot then changes to a feisty looking man followed by a uniformed officer and another man behind showing that the front man is powerful and not a man you would want to get on the wrong side of. The camera continuing to flick about goes back and forth from the man entering the building to the receptionist setting up almost a confrontation before either party has spoken. The first over the shoulder shot is used as the receptionist says ‘not a problem would you like someone to show you around?’. The gentleman who entered the hotel has a number of close ups on his face revealing his facial expressions to the camera.

The camera again changes angle following two employees madly sprinting down a corridor knocking past anyone in their way as they are in a mad rush to as it appears try and hide something possibly from the immigration men.  The camera is not at all still throughout the filming and this is done very purposefully as it gives the audience a feeling that they personally are watching the events unfold in the hotel as with a fixed camera with no jolts or movement would stop the panic and the rushing having its fullest effect. The camera angles although jilting and moving does produce a very interesting and different shot of the corridor through an olden style lift barrier.

The music used throughout the extract starts off with quite high tempo music happy and almost troublesome music it shows something is about to happen which shouldn’t do. The music changes dramatically after immigration take the illegal worker Ibrahim gets taken by immigration the music changes to being much more somber and melancholy as all the workers mourn over their lost comrade.

Shane Meadows

Shane Meadows is a self-taught, British film-maker who hails from the Midlands in the UK. He was born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, UK on 26th December 1972. After dropping out of school before reaching his O-Levels, Shane Meadows originally set out to become an infamous, criminal mastermind of legendary proportions. Things didn't go to plan however. After being caught buying a stolen set of limited edition John Lowe darts, and later admitting to stealing and eating an egg-custard tart from the local Sainsbury's, it was clear that he just wasn't cut out for the hardened criminal underworld. began to put his energy into film-making. With a growing catalogue of short films, Shane and his friends soon became frustrated that there were no real festivals or venues in which to screen their films. This frustration lead to them setting up there own mini event. The event was called 'Six of the Best' and was held every couple of months in an old local cinema. Anyone could bring along a short film they had made, and for a small fee have it screened to a small audience. The event grew in popularity and eventually became an international video festival called 'Flip Side'.

DEAD MANS SHOES

Richard returns home from military service to a small town in the Midlands. He has one thing on his mind: revenge. Payback for the local bullies who did some very bad things to his brother. At first his campaign employs guerrilla tactics, designed to frighten the men and put them ill at ease. But then he steps up his operation, and one by one these local tough guys are picked off by the terrifying angel of vengeance that Richard has become.

THIS IS ENGLAND

It's 1983 and school is out for the summer.
This Is England, is the story of those long weeks between terms where life changing events can take place. 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is an isolated lad growing up in a grim coastal town, whose father has died fighting in the Falklands war.
Over the course of the summer holiday he finds fresh male role models when those in the local skinhead scene take him in.. With his new friends Shaun discovers a world of parties, first love and the joys of Dr Marten boots.. It's at one of these parties that he meets Combo (Stephen Graham), an older, racist skinhead who has recently got out of prison.

SOMERS TOWN

In Somers Town, a London neighborhood by St Pancras rail station, young Tom, who had nothing to keep him back home in Nottingham, encounters Marek, a young Polish immigrant with nothing to fill his days. It's a mismatched friendship: Tom is full of youthful swagger and Marek, an amateur photographer who lives with his disciplinarian father, is more introspective and cautious. Their dynamic is uneasy and awkward at first as each teen believes himself to be the more mature, but a genuine rapport develops between the two. W hen Tomo and Marek both fall for the same girl, the common ground between them is further solidified.