Thriller Directors

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is perhaps Britain's most famous and highly regarded film director, yet he is best known today - even in Britain - for the films he made after he left the country in 1939 for a career in Hollywood. Films like Notorious (1946), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) attest to a skilful filmmaker who thoroughly deserved his reputation as the 'Master of Suspense'

"The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema" - Alfred Hitchcock

It is important to remember that Hitchcock began his career in the era of silent movies. His first nine films as director - between 1925 and 1929 - were all silent, and even his first sound film, Blackmail (1929), was begun as a silent, and was released in silent and sound versions.

The limitations of the silent form led filmmakers to develop a visual language to enable them to say with images what they could not using dialogue or sound. By the time of the arrival of sound in 1927 (later in Europe) this filmmaking language had become so sophisticated that sound was felt by some to be almost unnecessary. Others - including Hitchcock - felt that the arrival of sound meant that something was lost to cinema. Directors were no longer forced to tell a story using images alone, and cinema's distinctively visual storytelling suffered as a result.

Throughout his career, Hitchcock continued to believe in cinema as a visual medium. For him, dialogue and sound should remain secondary to the image in telling the story. This is not to say that he was completely uninterested in dialogue - he worked with many fine writers, and many of his films have excellent dialogue sequences. But it's true that when we think of Hitchcock we tend to remember images - the shower scene inPsycho (1960) or the handcuffed Robert Donat and Madelaine Carroll inThe 39 Steps (1935) - rather than lines of dialogue.

Hitchcock has clearly influenced near on every thriller director to appear after his most iconic work. Directors such as Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese have both looked up to Alfred's work and have formed their own style from some of the elements that originated from Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the first names who comes to mind when talking about auteur theory. His most famous films are Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds and Rear Window. Hitchcock’s story telling techniques were renowned for their intelligent plots, witty dialogue, and the smattering of mystery and murder. He has been attributed with revolutionizing the thriller genre. The reason for his success, however, was not the genre that he was working in, but rather the skill which he exhibited in the film-making. ie his treatment of the subject in terms of the shots he uses and how he combines them are more important than the genre. One of Hitchcock’s best-known screen moments is the terrifying shower scene in Psycho. This shot features 70 distinct shots in less than 1 minute. They are fused together in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish between the Montage and the Mise-en-Scene.
M. Night Shamyalan

In this clip here, possibly the most iconic of any in the history of films, Janet Leigh's character is in the shower and is killed supposedly by Norman Bates' mother. This uses a different type of background music to Shyamalan's clip below, as Psycho's music enhances the intensity of the murder, as it seems to fit the heartbeat of Leigh. The similarity between them both however is the amount of different camera angles shown in each. Psycho does however use them a lot more quickly as it shows over 70 different camera angles within the short shower sequence.

M. Night Shyamalan (born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan) is one of the few blockbuster directors who lean in the direction of horror/suspense. Although his films often feature supernatural and otherworldly phenomena, they generally are not considered horror movies -- in part because they're relatively family-friendly affairs, focusing on plot and interpersonal relationships rather than explicit content. This clean, "classy" style of fright film-making has drawn comparisons to legendary director Alfred Hitchcock.
After his financially disastrous feature film debut, the comedy-drama Wide Awake, Shyamalan made his first foray into horror/suspense with 1999's The Sixth Sense. The modestly budgeted film about a child psychologist treating a boy who claims to see ghosts exceeded all expectations, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of the year (after The Phantom Menace) and garnering six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director.

The Sixth Sense established Shyamalan not only as a master of suspense, but also as a blockbuster filmmaker. It established his style of dramatic, personalized thrills, shaped by both his direction and his writing. Perhaps most notably, though, it established his slight-of-hand storytelling, which culminated in one of the most infamous "twist endings" in cinematic history. The twists would continue through Shyamalan's next few movies, becoming a trademark that would characterize his early career.

Studies that use focus groups have shown that Shyamalan is not recognised as a director, but he is for his films. This therefore does not give him auteur staus' as people are only really able to identify his pieces of work, not him in his own right as Hitchcock would be known.


In this clip from Shyamalan's 'The Village' we can clearly see a distinct style of thriller that differs greatly from Hitchcock's Psycho. In this clip, non-digetic background music is used as an additive, that promotes feeling within the scene, not just suspense. The suspense in this clip is aminly created simply by the images, and the reactions by the actors.

Psycho Shower Scene

The shower murder scene in psycho is probably the most iconic image of a thriller to date. Made in 1960, without any special FX, it was all created in black and white, and was very clever when it came to the stabbing itself. The knife is never seen actually entering the body and we also do not see any wound where the blood comes from, yet its still one of the most effective killings in film history.

The sound used in this scene gives a massive addition to the atmosphere's tense and suspense feeling. When she is in the shower, the clip is full completely of natural sound, there is nothing else going on, this works well when we can see the silhouette of the killer through the shower screen. As soon as the screen is pulled back, and the killer is a little more clear, the non-digetic sounds start. The background sound is the iconic screeching as the knife enters her body repeatedly. It becomes more intense as her struggle with the killer grows. It could be said that the screeching noise represents her heartbeat, as it gets louder and faster as she panics more. The sound starts to slow down as the killer leaves the room and she is left for dead. It's intensity and speed starts decreasing as she slides down the wall and grabs the curtain, it has then stopped by the time her body hits the floor, and natural sound returns when we see the images of the blood flowing in the bath.

The camera angles are another key point when it came to the production of this scene. It is claimed that the camera takes a POV of the knife, and this prevents us from seeing any blood and gore. There were over 70 different camera angles used when filming this relatively short sequence, and this is what is known as a montage. It is also said that when filming from all these camera angles, not once do we see the knife touch or impale Janet Leigh - This isn't strictly true. In three frames, the knife does actually penetrate her skin just below the belly button, it goes in about a 1/4 of an inch.

Another clever bit of directing from Hitchcock was that he felt filming in colour would show too much gore, so he decided to shoot the film in black and white to give more suspense rather than horror. He also understood that stage blood appeared grey when in black and white footage, so decided to use chocolate syrup to get the blood that goes down the bath into the plug.

Scream

In the classic psychotic thriller 'Scream', Drew Barrymore is killed in the opening scene, but it is done in such a way, that it links you with the character, as the types of camera angles used are very personal with her, and the non-digetic music used is also a very good effect.

The start of the scene when Barrymore is on the phone to the killer, shows no real suspense or tension through different camera angles. The distress comes from the acting, whereby she is panicking, crying and pleading with the killer over the phone. A chair then gets thrown through the patio door windows, and she runs for the kitchen. As she runs from the room she was originally in to the kitchen, the camera doesn't cut, it just stays fixed on her and moves as she goes across the shot. It then cuts once she picks the knife up, and the camera then goes below her, becoming a low angled shot, and showing the scared emotion on her face.

She proceeds to walk backwards towards a door that leads outside. As she walks backwards, the camera follows her using a handheld shot. This is then followed by a very quick POV shot for a few frames, in which we see the killer run past the door frame in the distance. The handheld then continues as she starts to panic further, and look around for the door. once outside, the camera moves in the same sort of way that Barrymore does, as she closes the door as quietly as possible, the camera gives a very feint shake, and as she collapses herself slightly into the corner, the camera moves with her in the same direction, almost replicating her movements. As she shakes the camera does also, this brings the audience into the story, and helps to authenticate the atmosphere, and make people viewing it as scared as she is.

The camera once again reverts to a POV shot in which she is again looking for the killer. She spots him straight away, and immediately darts back so she is out of his view, but at the same time that she starts to pull back, we also see him move forward out of the shot too. We then see an extreme long shot, showing a car coming down the road, which brings her the thought of some salvation, and an end to the nightmare. After seeing the car, and checking the window again to see where the killer is, she sees him in the room, but not too close, so she decides to duck below the window frame, and briskly move forward, to try and help making contact with her parents in the approaching car. She then comes up to check the window once more, and as she does so, the camera angle reverts back to another POV shot, and we see the killer straight in front of us. There is then a struggle between Barrymore and the killer over the knife, and at which stage the villain is always at a higher point physically to show more power.

Once the Killer has attacked Drew Barrymore, and stabbed her, she then falls to the floor holding her wound. We see a high angle shot here, to show the dominance of the villain, and the helplessness of the victimised, 'damsel in distress'. The frames continue to switch between either a high angle shot of Barrymore, or a low angle shot of the killer 'Ghost Face' again representing a hierarchy of power.

Once again to involve the audience in this terrifying ordeal, when she is laying helpless on the floor, and her neck has been cut, the camera also lays on the floor, writhing in pain with her, and then it switches to the POV, which is upside down of her parents getting out of the car in the driveway.

When she gets up, and tries to get the attention of her parents as they enter the house, the most over powering sound is the non-digetic background music, which creates an atmosphere that appears to explain teat Barrymore will not be able to drag their attention to what is happening with Ghost Face. Int he next few frames once the parents have entered the house, it shows Ghost Face pinning Barrymore to the floor once again, and this time there is a lot of weapon focus, as she pulls his mask off, but the identity is still hidden from the audience.

Once her parents realise half the house is trashed, and that something that was cooking is on fire and setting the house alight, the camera then follows the mother as she panics trying to find her daughter. It doesn't cut in the same way that it didn't right at the start when Drew went into the kitchen. As the parents are on the phone, listening to the sounds of her dying, we see a shot in which Drew Barrymore is being dragged along off the screen, with the phone still in her trailing hand.

We then see a match on match shot, of the mother leaving the front door, and her focusing on something which is behind the camera once she is outside. She then starts to scream and go into hysterics, and the father rushes out. It shows a close up of the fathers face, and he runs towards the camera. This then changes the camera shot into a different kind of sped up, shaky POV, and zooms in on Barrymore's dead hanging body.

No Country For Old Men Analysis

The opening scene in 'No Country for Old Men' is quite unconventional of a thriller. It starts with a lot of landscape views, and a voice over. The voice could be linked as a stereotypical thriller voice, as it is quite deep, and the audience is unaware of his identity. The Sheriffs voice is a hallowing sound, that creates the effect of being almost patronising. The voice combines with the vast landscape pictures, to create a very isolated feel to the setting. No civilization can be scene in these landscapes, and with the character's voice over explaining about subjects such as hell, it makes the impression there is nowhere to run to.

The villain in this is introduced at 2:10, and is being walked into a police car, handcuffed. The villain is dressed in all black, which expresses evil, and warns an audience of upcoming danger. There is only these two characters present in this scene, and although the villain plays an vital role, we purposely aren't aloud to see his face. The villain is first recognisable at 3:20. This is after the audience have seen the back of his head, shadow in the car covering his face, and then being out of focus at the start of the police station scene.

When the villain gets up to kill the police officer, he walks up behind the officer, and his head disappears off the top of the screen. This shows the hierarchy of power in the film, by the fact that the villain is clearly looking down on his victim. He then strangles the man with his handcuffs, and drags him on to the floor whilst the officer is struggling for breath. Again once on the floor, the villain is higher up in the shot than the victim, keeping that feeling of power, but also the camera angle helps create a crazed look to the shot, which appears to match the personality of the villain. Whilst down on the floor, the villain appears to show completely inhuman not effected facial expressions. He seems almost expressionless which creates a feeling of uncertainty within the audience, which will help to produce fear and suspense throughout the film.

An unconventional part of this scene is that we do see some gore, and we also see some more in the next clip.

The last part of the opening scene shows a cars bumper POV, and then a quick sound of a police siren going off, with a car in front. The car pulls over, and the villain steps out of the police car, and proceeds towards the car that he just pulled over. He asks the man to step out of the vehicle and is once again at a higher vantage point to his victim. The way he speaks is again monotone and appears expressionless, which is unconventional to any human being, but adapts perfectly to a creepy thriller villain..He then asks the man to stay still, and shoots a powerful burst of air into his forehead, creating a clean hole in the mans head, he then falls to the floor. Once again this is unconventional, as most thrillers do not actually show gore, or murders, and it is more than likely that you do not see t he killer that did it.
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Filming Schedule

Our filming schedule was very useful, as it helped structure our time wisely, and make sure that we were able to fit things in with the time frames we had set.

Our problem came when I was unable to shoot on a lot of the days, as I have outside of school commitments that could not be cancelled. This created a numerous amount of occasions where we were unable to film as scheduled and delayed our estimated final scene being filmed by a few weeks.

In conclusion, we should next time look to plan the filming schedule so it is a little more flexible, or be able to sort out an understudy if someone is unable to make it to filming, therefore we would be able to continue as planned and our final piece will be finished and ready to edit completely in time for the date we set.

Creating a Mise-en-Scene

Lighting + Colour

In the abandoned gym  we will use low key lighting from things such as torches, flares and cameras. This will create the key convention of little light in a dark, eerie, thriller scene. The gym that we will use to film the the hostage location, will be burnt out and contain destroyed props. It will be a fairly big open space therefore it would be good to spread small amount of light to create the atmosphere we need. There is also a side room that contains great manipulation of the environment, and will enhance our scenes in a positively good way, giving more elements of fear to our opening/

We will also be filming in the street and on a doorway when they are walking home and retrieving the letter from the doorstep. There will be high key lighting here because street lights give strong lighting from above, so we will work with this in such a way that it will suit the genre's opening conventions.

Setting

Our setting starts with the demolished gym side building, where our victim is being held captive. We then change our setting after a considerable amount of time seeing the two characters involved in the plot, in this room, to a forest setting. We see much of the forest shots from a POV shot, but also see a more broad perspective of it,w hen we see the victims emotion, knowing she is being followed by the captor. The idea of these two settings are that they create a feeling of isolation, show character resemblance of a classic thriller opening and have little lighting, creating a great thriller atmosphere.

Iconography

The iconography we will be using in our thriller opening are items that will help keep the hostage in her place of captivity. Things such as rope, a chair and duct tape will be used. Other things laying around in our location may also be used for effect. We will use a lighter (or possibly scissors) and pictures when the villain is looking through his past and current victims.

Body Language and Facial Expressions

Our villains role will be heavily based on body language, as it is planned that we should not see his face throughout the opening as this creates our 'unidentified menace'. Everything he does should be in a way that almost seems gentile, to provide a contrast to conventions and create a disequilibrium when communicating with the victim.

The facial expressions of the victim will do a lot to explain how the character feels in each frame, whether it be scared, angry etc.
Facial expressions will play a big role in the forest as well, as the captive will be running from the villain in the woods, and it will show a mix of emotions, from distress - panic.

Costume, Hair and Makeup

The costume, hair and makeup will all be relatively similar to things you would see in real life. As the victim is getting ready to go out when she is taken, her makeup is as it would be if she had gone out, and the same with her clothes; the captor looks after her as there seems to be a psychotic passionate feeling for the victim. The victims hair may be a little messed up simply because she became unconscious and the villain may have ruffled it when picking her up.

The villain will more than likely be dressed in normal clothes, as it will help for him to avoid looking suspicious when knocking on the girls door viciously. The hair and makeup will not matter, as he will be unidentifiable, and his face will not be seen.

Group Storyboard

Our group narrative changed as our first one seemed unattainable because the idea was too complicated, varied too far from the conventions of a thriller genre, and there was too many actors needed to be involved.

It was originally planned that we would have a zombie based thriller. The characters that would have been used were a group of teenagers that had been invited to a party, that was false. It was really a place of experiment for a doctor turning people into zombies. This seemed to escape from any suspense, and also included gore, which doesn't necessarily get completely accredited with thriller films. Another concern was that it was telling the whole story within 2 minutes. It seemed to feel rushed, and although in our new narrative, it may seem rushed that she is already being held captive, and escapes within this 2 minutes, but many thriller films start with opening death scenes. E.g. 'Scream'

The amount of characters also proved a problem, as trying to direct 7 people as opposed to 2 means a lot more work and commitment from everyone, and also would have limited us to less time to spend filming the project. The last key problems were that we complicated the story too much to the fact that each of us individually were unsure of the true plot. Also the makeup to make a convincing zombie may have been too testing for us.

Our new characters didn't link directly with key thriller conventions, but some elements were there. Things such as the victim being a woman, created the stereotypical helplessness created by woman characters in thrillers. The villain was also wearing a black jacket, although he was not wearing black all over, this helped create a more realistic edge to our thriller, whilst also keeping the convention that there is some element of darkness in the physical persona of the villain, that links to the story line, and the portrayal of the captor. Our settings also created the perfect scene for an isolated thriller feel. Even when the victim escaped from the villains place of capture, it still appears as she is being kept hostage, as she can't reach civilization to find help and/or safety.

Our group came to a final decision of this story mainly based on the individual narrative I had already created which appeared to stick more closely with traditional thriller conventions and made the story a lot less complicated than the original idea we had and was easier to film.


This is our new narrative storyboard: