Video:
Max Charles Nathan
Our film opens with a BBFC 15 age rating. This convention is a legal requirement. to advise that the content has infrequent strong violence and strong language.
Our Production Company ident for MNC Films is a crisp, stylish monochrome graphic. This fits our brand and meets our target audience's expectation of a film that will be modern, fast-paced and sharply edited.
The sophistication of the mise-en-scene establishes the thriller genre. The opening shot of a young man dressing for an evening out plunges the audience straight into the action and immediately establishes the protagonist as a wealthy young man who can afford an expensive lifestyle. Enigma is a key thriller code: the close up of raw red scars on his back suggests that he has been involved in previous violence.
The opening of a thriller film must immediately convey genre: the mise-en-scene, lighting and props of a thriller must be realistic. Our set is a very masculine one, with strong clean vertical lines, dramatic lighting and monochrome sets.
The low-level lighting is suggest sophistications, in order to deliver the message that the young men's world is an adult world and although they move confidently through it, they are later shown to be out of their depth when the kidnapping takes place. The city high-rise flat looks out over London at night, setting the scene for the dangers lurking outside: a sense of jeopardy and suspense is a typical thriller code.
Narrative conventions of a thriller include antagonists who provide the excitement of danger, threat and combat, as well as chase sequences. A vital convention is the creation of suspense, so that the audience are hooked by what they see and want to keep watching. For Roland Barthes, narrative often works through enigma codes, that is, a mystery unfolds that the audience want to solve.
Genre conventions of opening sequences include credits such as actors, editor, director and cameraman.
The close-up of the hand opening door contributes to the continuity editing and makes links with later similar shots. Equally, the teenager’s red shoes are a key visual code with several functions. Their distinctive, striking colour connotes the teen’s self-assurance and youth. The red reflects his sense of invulnerability but also makes him easily identifiable, both as a target for the kidnappers and as a device to ensure that the audience can identify him even with low angle shots. We are also playing with intertextuality: ruby slippers and red ballet shoes in film have huge significance as footwear that contributes to the protagonist’s destruction. Prestige audiences will pick up on this intertextual visual code.
This tracking shot of the young man's friends walking into the apartment acts as a bridge to the next scene. Its mise-en-scene reflects the tense mood of the atmosphere.
The fridge transition shots helps the opening flow therefore improving the continuity and emphasises the protagonist’s wealthy background.
Shot reverse shot helps the audience understand the relationship between the young man and his friends. It shows clearly who is speaking when and what about. For Blumler and Katz,
Our Production Company ident for MNC Films is a crisp, stylish monochrome graphic. This fits our brand and meets our target audience's expectation of a film that will be modern, fast-paced and sharply edited.
The sophistication of the mise-en-scene establishes the thriller genre. The opening shot of a young man dressing for an evening out plunges the audience straight into the action and immediately establishes the protagonist as a wealthy young man who can afford an expensive lifestyle. Enigma is a key thriller code: the close up of raw red scars on his back suggests that he has been involved in previous violence.
The opening of a thriller film must immediately convey genre: the mise-en-scene, lighting and props of a thriller must be realistic. Our set is a very masculine one, with strong clean vertical lines, dramatic lighting and monochrome sets.
The low-level lighting is suggest sophistications, in order to deliver the message that the young men's world is an adult world and although they move confidently through it, they are later shown to be out of their depth when the kidnapping takes place. The city high-rise flat looks out over London at night, setting the scene for the dangers lurking outside: a sense of jeopardy and suspense is a typical thriller code.
Narrative conventions of a thriller include antagonists who provide the excitement of danger, threat and combat, as well as chase sequences. A vital convention is the creation of suspense, so that the audience are hooked by what they see and want to keep watching. For Roland Barthes, narrative often works through enigma codes, that is, a mystery unfolds that the audience want to solve.
Genre conventions of opening sequences include credits such as actors, editor, director and cameraman.
The close-up of the hand opening door contributes to the continuity editing and makes links with later similar shots. Equally, the teenager’s red shoes are a key visual code with several functions. Their distinctive, striking colour connotes the teen’s self-assurance and youth. The red reflects his sense of invulnerability but also makes him easily identifiable, both as a target for the kidnappers and as a device to ensure that the audience can identify him even with low angle shots. We are also playing with intertextuality: ruby slippers and red ballet shoes in film have huge significance as footwear that contributes to the protagonist’s destruction. Prestige audiences will pick up on this intertextual visual code.
This tracking shot of the young man's friends walking into the apartment acts as a bridge to the next scene. Its mise-en-scene reflects the tense mood of the atmosphere.
The fridge transition shots helps the opening flow therefore improving the continuity and emphasises the protagonist’s wealthy background.
Shot reverse shot helps the audience understand the relationship between the young man and his friends. It shows clearly who is speaking when and what about. For Blumler and Katz,
audience pleasure can derive from building relationships, such as the virtual relationships with our character early on in the film. We experience the narrative from his point of view. Point of view shot walking to the door adds personality and builds up tension as it feels as if the audience is in the shoes of the young man.
Mid shot on the roof with our silhouette overlooking London offers spectacle and cinematic scenery to give the film opening a convincingly professional/high budget look.
Sound codes contribute significantly: low level base boost builds, to add tension to the situation and instantly notifies the audience that something major is about to happen.
opening the door to blackout - build up of sound increases the tension even further to a climax point in the film opening.
close up on shoes makes the young man seem smaller than the kidnappers. Furthermore, it hides the upper bodies of the kidnappers and the young man therefore adding enigma as the audience are not shown what is happening to the young man.
A series of fast-paced hard cuts creates an intense atmosphere and further develops the plot and enigma.
The intense atmosphere is intensified by Rok Nardin’s ‘Epic Dark Battle Scene Music'
By the time that our opening title appears, tension is at its height. This makes the audience want to know what happens to the boy.
Sound codes contribute significantly: low level base boost builds, to add tension to the situation and instantly notifies the audience that something major is about to happen.
opening the door to blackout - build up of sound increases the tension even further to a climax point in the film opening.
close up on shoes makes the young man seem smaller than the kidnappers. Furthermore, it hides the upper bodies of the kidnappers and the young man therefore adding enigma as the audience are not shown what is happening to the young man.
A series of fast-paced hard cuts creates an intense atmosphere and further develops the plot and enigma.
The intense atmosphere is intensified by Rok Nardin’s ‘Epic Dark Battle Scene Music'
By the time that our opening title appears, tension is at its height. This makes the audience want to know what happens to the boy.
HOW MY FILM OPENING REPRESENTS SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES
Our film works within a traditional thriller narrative in which the protagonist and the antagonist are clearly established through casting decisions, visual codes and sound codes. Our protagonist, the teenage son of a wealthy, well-travelled diplomat, is the victim of a kidnapping. He represents a social group that is self-confident, at ease in town, popular in his peer group and well dressed in expensively casual clothes. He is depicted as host to his friends in his father's London penthouse. We dressed him in red Jordan trainers. This brand is associated with sporty, stylish, young consumers. We see it as a badge of his social sub-set. We use the red trainers as a visual code to represent his status but also him as an individual target, easily distinguishable from the others by virtue of the bright colours. His type can be found in a million Instagram posts or minor celebrity paparazzi shots of the children of the wealthy and famous. His friends and peers are like him. He could come across Brooklyn Breckham or Jaden Smith in a club; he would dress from Stone Island, drink Voss water, visit sky bars when flush, eat at Nando's when casual and weekend in Cornwall. This social group glides through life in a gilded dream, unaware of threats, slightly self-entitled and arrogant about their status, which is why they are easy targets.
The social group that function as antagonists are the kidnappers who are anonymised compared to the teens. We depict them as stereotyped villains with black clothes, masks and weapons. They move by night and lurk in the shadows. They are prepared to use violence and function as a group.
One social group that is implied in the film is that of the wealthy international diplomatic and business community that the protagonist's father represents. His social group can be deduced from his luxurious flat, decorated with possessions collected from his travels around the world. The diplomatic lives in a cocoon of fluffy towels in a luxury bathroom, a streamlined kitchen with state-of-the-art equipment, a well-stocked fridge and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the London skyline. His possessions represent him. His social group can be found in the pages of Vogue, Esquire, Tatler and Haute Living.
Excellent. Articulate reflection in your analysis of thriller genre conventions in 'Takeaway' presented both in video and text. You explain how you handled thriller sound codes as well as the visual codes. A full and thoughtful series of Scoop.it collations with reflections on representations of your social groups and issues. Well presented.
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