Pulp Fiction Opening

The opening scene of this film is strange compared to the other ones I have analyzed because this is not part of the story line to the film, until the very end where the characters appear again in another restaurant robbery. The opening is told through the narrative of a couple sitting in an American diner drinking coffee, the opening gets the audience more involved as there is no music being played only diegetic noise can be heard.

Before the action starts, there is an epigraph, like that in 'Ronin' it explains the meaning of the name with a dictionary interpretation of the word Pulp. It also gives us an indication of what the film is like when it says 'a magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper' suggesting that this film is vivid, shocking with the characters and settings being rough and untamed. This added with the first scene reinforces those thoughts.

From the black screen with the dictionary definition the camera cuts to a shot of two people a man and a woman sitting in an American diner. the camera is placed at the end of the table so the lurid orange chairs can be seen and so the two people are seen talking to one another, in front of a large window with slatted blinds (thriller signifier). The two people are talking about doing something risky when their conversation is cut short and we see a close-up shot of a waitress's face asking if they want more coffee this distracts from the conversation and is quite a jumpy shot designed to make the audience feel insecure and unsafe. The next shot is from the point of view of the man looking at the woman opposite and the waitress's hand in between pouring the coffee. The woman he is looking at appears dreamy and angelic, showing his love and care for her.

It then returns to the original shot used at the end of the table to create the full picture as the waitress stops pouring and we see her midriff walk past the screen. The topic of conversation has progressed to robbing banks so the characters are slowly revealing what they were mysteriously talking about earlier. We see the woman from the man's point of view as a mid shot of her at the other side of the table makes it feel as if she is asking the audience 'You wanna rob banks?', however the audience is now detached from the action as the narrative keeps swapping when they are talking with simple mid shots from each others point of view as they ask and answer questions. this effect is to get the audience interested in what the people are saying but not to get them too involved with the characters because they are not the main protagonists.

The shots become more sophisticated now with an over the shoulder shot looking at the man talking about the phone and the bank and then an over-the-shoulder shot behind the man looking at her response that she does not wish to kill as she lays her head on the table she is almost childlike. there is now an added zoom on the first over the shoulder shot to emphasize that the man is saying he will kill if he has to, also the slow zoom keeps all focus on him as if he is all the woman wants and has in the world.

The next shot shows the point of view as if you were sitting behind them both, in another booth, and taking an objective view of the couple yourself. We are back to the recurring shot from the start where we see them both clearly from the end of the table and a waitress walks past; we hear her speak and we watch her midriff walk past but that is it. The couple carry on talking and the narrative is swapping again from the woman's to the mans point of view as we see what they see when they are being asked and answering questions. This technique is very unusual, Tarantino has used it purposefully to make sure the audience do not get to involved with either one of the characters and also to symbolise that these two come as a pair and they do not work alone.

As the action gets closer the shots get a little faster with the first being that of an extreme close-up of a gun slammed on the table by the man which is the first sign of real danger from the couple. Then a close-up intimate shot of them kissing over the table top in front of the slatted blinds suggests the adrenaline they are feeling and their urgency at their proposed task. From a long shot of the table we watch in the point of view of a customer as the man jumps on to the chair waving a gun as the view pans up and shouting 'This is a robbery'. This is the last shot as the woman walks to the forefront of the shot shouting shrilly that no one should move lest they be shot, her voice is scary leaving the audience with the feeling that they want to get out of there as the customers are probably feeling as well. The shot stands still and 'Pump it' by the Black Eyed Peas starts playing in a kick ass manner with its fast pace and jumpy tune keeping the audience on the edge of their seat. as the credits roll.

Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

Chinatown directed by Roman Polanski, exhibits the many thriller signifier's that makes this film so brilliant to analyse for my blog. For example the male protagonist (Gittes), is an flawed hero as he smokes and drinks. He also becomes very confused with his emotions and with the messages he recieves off other people, like when he sleeps with Ms Mulwray, getting involved where he shouldn't making himself vulnerable.

Ms Mulwray acts as the femme fatale associated with the thriller genre, she is mysterious, sexy and not entirely what she seems. Her dangerousness is shown by her bright red lips, however to decieve the audience she also seems very respectable and trustworthy with her smart 50's style, fitted clothes with a necklace of pearls, this misleads the audience into thinking she is reliable but when the story unravels it makes the impact of her betrayal and mystery even more surprising and alarming. This idea of double-cross fits in with the theme of corruption or deception that make the thriller genre.

The spiralling and twisting narrative, shown in the trailer above, is made even more tangible by the mise-en-scene, with its narrowing corridors that seem to lead on forever (use of vanishing points), the chiroscuro lighting notably in the office due to the slatted blinds, this provides us with silhouettes of people and being unable to distinguish who they are adding to the mystery and intrigue, also characters are able to hide in the dark with builds suspense as you have no idea who may be watching. The tall city buildings add a sense of being overwhelmed on top of the sense of Claustrophobia caused by the camera angles inside the cars making them look trapped and the way Ms Mulwray becomes physcologically trapped by her horrible father.

Miller's Crossing Opening scene

Here is the theatrical trailer to Millers crossing, it shows the basic concept of the gang life theme and of double cross between so called friends, this type of theme is rife in the thriller genre due to the amount of chances to show twists and corruptions in the plot. I was influenced a lot by this film in relation to our own thriller opening as you can probably tell.

The opening scene to Miller's Crossing is told through the narrative of the characters Leo and Tom (the main protagonist). This film also seems to be filmed with a brown filter on it so everything seems dirty and sleazy, which is one of its many thriller signifiers.

The first shot is a close-up of ice being thrown into a glass and slowly zooming out to see a bottle pouring what looks like whiskey into it, this introduces us the main habit of our male protagonist (flawed hero thriller signifier), drinking. We can hear someone talking continuously in the background, showing that he is nervous although we cannot yet see the man talking. Cut to the man talking now sitting in front of a wooden desk in a long brown coat talking directly to the audience as we are seeing him (Johnny Caspar) through Leo's eyes behind the desk. The is another slow zoom from the mid-shot of Johnny to a close-up of his face adding significance and importance to his speech about the man he wants killed (Bernie). There is a man standing in the background holding a glass of drink presumably the one from the beginning shot but he is out of focus (mystery) and there is another man standing next to Johnny of whom we can merely see his midriff in a black coat holding a hat. This man looks like a henchman of Johnny's and looks very dangerous and evil dressed all in black and very tall. This characterization is what i gained inspiration for Smith from.

Next we see the man he is addressing (Leo) dressed in grey which contrasts with the brown and black of the other two symbolizing that the other two play dirty but he is in charge because he is fair and powerful, this amplifies what Johnny is saying about fixing bets and the double cross of Bernie who he wants dead. In addition to this Leo is sitting sideways on to show that he is in charge and does not need to show full respect to the other man, plus they are in Leo's territory so Johnny and The Dane (man in black/henchman) can not harm him.

The man with the drink (Tom Reagan) walks to behind the desk with Leo, we see him walk blurred up from behind Johnny's chair then we only see his midriff lean against the wall behind Leo, this shows us who he is allied with and the two sides on opposing sides of the table. The sides are shown with the shots switching between mid-shots of both top gangsters with their men standing behind them as they discuss Bernie.

The first shot we see of Tom is a head and shoulder shot when Johnny is talking about trust. he seems to have spaced out a bit and does not seem interested in what is being said, but is staring at the floor as if his mind is on other things. When anarchy is mentioned by Johnny we get a mid-shot of The Dane, who is wearing all black and a trilby hat that is covering the top of his face as he is looking down, but at the sound of the word anarchy he lifts his head so that the rim of his hat is just above his eyes and he smirks. From this we can tell that he is not a good nice person but instead enjoys the thought of chaos and panic. This slightest piece of movement seems to wake Tom up and he looks at The Dane with complete contempt and disgust.

A low vantage shot showing The Dane and Johnny together as a pair/team. This shot makes the Dane look extremely tall but with chubby Johnny in the forefront of the shot it is obvious that he is his boss, although it makes the audience not trust The Dane. In addition to this it shows that Johnny Caspar has got too big for Leo's liking and too powerful. The next shot frames Leo and Tom in it at Leo's height when sitting down. This is a balanced shot but Leo is in the forefront so he is in charge and is of a higher station than Tom, although compared to The Dane and Johnny there is a big gap between Leo and Tom showing that Tom does not belong to Leo they are just friends not co-workers like Johnny and The Dane.

When Johnny loses his temper later in the scene he jumps up and leans forward on the desk in a rage, we see this from Leo's point of view seeing him from across the desk then tilting the camera slightly up to see his whole red angry face. You can see The Dane in the background all blurry not moving a muscle, showing that he is very cool and collected.
An over-the-shoulder shot behind Johnny can see Leo's reaction to this outburst as just being blank faced and not interested.

When it looks like Johnny is going to far The Dane steps in and touches his shoulder to tell him to calm down. All of these factors added together make the audience think that Leo is going to burst, although he seems calm he is obviously bottling it all up and this makes us think that Leo is going to shoot him. However Johnny stands up puts on a hat and leaves. All this time the camera is sitting in Leo's chair watching them walk to the door when Leo says something and we get a close-up of Johnny and The Dane's reaction being sarcastic.

As of yet Tom Reagan has not yet spoke even though he is the main protagonist this keeps his character mysterious, but due to Gabriel Byrne being a great actor he conveys all his thoughts through his actions. This film is full of thriller signifiers here are just a few:

• Slatted blinds in Leo's office
• Femme fatale - Verna by Marcia Gay Harden
• Corruption - the police are run by Leo
• Betrayal - Tom sleeps with Verna who is with Leo
• Double cross - Bernie
• Flawed hero - Tom is an alcoholic, gambler
• Vanishing points - Scene in the forest with the road fading into the distance
• twists and turns in the plot everywhere
  
• Mystery - who killed the man with the wig

Our Thriller Synopsis

The opening of the film that we have been planning and will perform begins with a very professional experienced gangster, ‘Smith’ carrying out an illegal deal with a man, John Doe, who just so happens to be the son of the boss (who we never see till the end) from a large criminal organisation. They attempt to swap briefcases whilst John Doe is rambling arrogantly to Smith, receiving only a passive face in return, this builds the tension along with the flashing images of a gun being loaded, by an anonymous gloved hand. At the beginning of this opening we follow John Doe through the building of the car park listening to his thoughts through an internal monologue, by listening to this we get an insight into his character as an arrogant, over confident idiot, this is why Smith shoots him. However the audience watching the first scene will not know who shoots who as in the end of the opening the screen will go black and you will hear a gun shot to show it is the end of this scene, this adds the mystery and intrigue needed in a thriller film.
The act of murdering John Doe in the first scene ignites a war between Smith who works alone and the gang of the dead mans father. Smith who evades all The Boss’s attempts to kill him but gets seriously wounded by a rogue bullet takes himself to the only person he trusts and the only person who knows his name an old friend from his childhood called Myles Price who removes the bullet and patches him up (like in Ronin by John Frankenheimer). However it appears the Boss has had him followed as many of his cronies turn up at Myles’s house and during the fight that ensues Myles is shot leaving the impression on the audience and Smith that he is dead Smith flees.
After this Smith is out for revenge and becomes even more ruthless and efficient at killing. On torturing many of The Boss’s men which leads him on a path leaving behind a trail of corpses (like in Man on Fire by Tony Scott) he discovers what building and the room in a high rise wealthy building in London where only the best of The Boss’s men are allowed as many of the men The Boss employs have no idea who he is. Smith sets up a sniper rifle on the roof of the building next to the Boss’s lair. (This is an excellent opportunity to get some nice footage through the sniper target finder). Through the shot finder we see a man's (The Boss’s) back, he turns round but we never see his face and it switches to a shot of surprise on Smith’s face. He expertly and quickly packs away his gun and we watch him from above run down the internal staircase of the high rise building. Smith enters the Boss’s Lair quickly killing the security guards and we see him walk (fast) down a long corridor (vanishing points – signifies the long road he has taken to get to this point) he bursts into the room he has just been looking at through the rifle. We see an over the shoulder shot of Smith holding a gun at the man in the chair who we can only see the back of and we then hear a little chuckle coming from the man in the chair (wearing really expensive suit) we hear the man talking to smith about that’s the way the world works and how elusive Smith has proven to be, whilst saying this he gets up and walks around the room to a bottle and pours two drinks whilst all the time smith is pointing the gun at his head. The man finishes talking and the audience see that The Boss is actually Myles!
Sitting back down smith starts to talk saying that he never really did know who Myles was and on hearing this Myles reveals that he found out who Smith was after years of digging and that the whole deal (from the beginning was a set up and that John Doe was not actually his son but that the storyline gave him an excellent chance to kill Smith and he is about to explain who Smith is and why he wants him dead when Smith Shoots him in the head and we see him walk back down the corridor and we hear an internal monologue talking directly to the audience saying that he could not have us knowing who he really was (like in Layer Cake by Matthew Vaughn), then on come the credits after a shot of him looking directly at the camera, like it is a person, this involves the audience and makes it clear that he is talking to us.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is almost always used in films and when it isnt it is designed to unsettle the audience or add confusion. The Rule of Thirds involves the positioning of people and objects in the shot, which can affect the signiuficance or meaning of the scene and by undoing the rule of thirds you make the audience feel uneasy. Here are a few examples of the rule of thirds in different films:

This shot from 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Rob Marshall is an excellent representation of the Rule of Thirds. Her white face contained in the middle of the frame and her black hair in the outside thirds keeps the focus on her face and shows how pale and beautiful she is.

Here is another shot just like the last where the most important character is encapsulated in the middle section of the shot like in this shot from the film 'Jackie Brown' by Quentin Tarantino this draws the audiences attention towards the main character and keeps the audience enthralled.

The shot from 'The Green Mile' by Frank Darabont is a perfect example of how the rule of thirds is used to emphasise a point or theme, in this shot the character John Coffey played by Michael Clarke Duncan is shown as the huge powerful man he is towering over the other two, however his weakness is also shown by the fact that he is being held prisoner and how there are two men on either side of him cornering him. Another example of this is the shot from 'Memoirs of a Geisha' showing all three main character each within a third representing the middle character as stuck in the middle and in between the two, also this shot frames the three characters perfectly.

The picture above taken from 'Resevoir Dogs' by Quentin Tarantino is a more interesting version of the shots above as it is a worms eye view which leaves the audience wondering who is looking up at the three men adding mystery and intrigue.

This shot from 'Millers Crossing' by the Coen Brothers shows two characters both standing on the lines of the thirds making this shot balanced and at ease which reflects the time in the film which is at the end where they are civil again and comfortable as all the danger has passed.

This shot also from 'Resevoir Dogs' is really interesting because the man standing is on the line of the third and then the man lying down is over the last two thirds with the two guns crossing over and held in the middle third which grabs the audiences attention to the significance of this shot.

I absolutely love this shot from 'Pulp Fiction' by Quentin Tarantino because Samuel. L. Jackson and John Tavolta are in the middle and right thirds with the guns pointing out of the screen in the left third, this adds a touch of mystery and intrigue as we do not know who they are about to shoot, and also unbalances the frame having the effect of making the audience uneasy and tense.
This is also another of my favorite shots from one of my favourite films 'The Silence of the Lambs' by Jonathan Demme, exhibits the rule of thirds perfectly with the bars in the foreground and Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) perfectly in the middle thirds this layout draws the audiences eye in from the outside of the screen down the bar lines and to his creepy, sinister face.
Talking of his sinister, scary face, in close-up shots the rule of thirds does not need to be applied or noticed as the full attention of the audience is on the characters and their emotions especially in this scene because the face mask makes him look even more intriguing and menacing.

Finally during the film this shot is used whilst the credits are rolling as she is walking down a long corridor and having her on the edge of the scene in the last third lets us follow her journey as we can see a little bit ahead of her and where she is about to tread.

Media Studies Questionairre

Audience research questionnaire

Please tick the following bullet points, tick more than one if you wish:

-Occupation: .................................

-Student: .........................................

-Working: ………………………

Generally how many films do you watch a month?

-0-1

-2-3

-4-5

-6+

What type of films do you generally prefer?

-Mainstream Hollywood

-American

-British

-Foreign

Where do you prefer to watch films?

-Home

-Cinema

-Independent cinema

-Other: ……………

How do you normally find out about new and upcoming films?

-Trailers at the cinema

-Trailers on the TV

-Posters

-TV shows

-Internet

-Radio

-Word of mouth

From which source do you prefer to learn the news?

-TV

-Radio

-Newspaper

-Magazine

-Internet

-Other: …………..

From which source do you generally listen to new music?

-Radio

-TV

-Internet

-Other: …………..

On average, how often do you listen to the radio?

-Daily

-3-5 times a week

-Less than 3 times a week

-Never

What is your favourite:

-Film: ……………………………………………………………………

-Actor: …………………………………………………………………..

-Actress: …………………………………………………………………

-Director: ………………………………………………………………..

-Scene in a film: …………………………………………………………

-TV programme: ………………………………………………………..

-Radio channel: …………………………………………………………

-Band/Artist: ……………………………………………………………

What is your favourite thriller film?

…………………………………………………………………………………..

What are the reasons for this? Please mention at least three

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

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In your opinion, which thriller film has the best opening sequence that you have seen?

…………………………………………………………………………………..

Why is this?

…………………………………………………………………………………..

In your opinion, what must the opening sequence of a good thriller film do or have?

-Immediately pull the viewer into the film

-Introduce the main characters

-Stylish credits

-Clever directing/ editing

-Lots of action straight away

-Slow paced editing/ development of the narrative

-A good soundtrack

-Mystery and Intrigue

Anything else you can think of: ………………………………………

Inspirational Shots for Thriller

Whilst watching 'Layer Cake' (directed by Matthew Vaughn) i saw quite a few shots that look easy to execute but are still very effective, for example, when Daniel Craig is waiting on the bench for 'The Dragon' when it is just starting to get dark you can see the city landscape layed out before him with all the lights on which shows you the setting of the film, symbolising how important the male Protagonist played by Craig is to the story line showing him as larger than life above the city. This shot is taken from behind the back of the bench this shows the men as just black silhouettes against the lit up city scape indicating the darkness of the storyline and the deed you are about to see. it also keeps the mystery as throughout the entire film you never find out who 'The Dragon' is or what he looks like this shot shows how real he is but still keeps the intrigue into who he is.


Another shot that looked good but easy, was the scene in which Daniel Craig and the Dukes men are running away from the police, to get across the feeling of panic and desperation this scene has been shot using handheld camera running sometimes behind and sometimes infront of the characters, and in one particularly good bit Daniel Craig runs into a overhanging branch and it flicks back into the way of the camera this gives the audience a sense of worry and adrenaline. This type of shot would be relatively easy to perform, but there would need to be a degree of steady camera work as although effective this type of shot does not show any skill or ability with a camera which is the sort of thing we are trying to exhibit in our production.



I also took a lot of inspiration from the film 'Millers Crossing' (directed by Joel and Ethan Coen) because I really enjoyed this film and particuarly liked the scene in which the male protagonist Tom Reagan played by Gabriel Byrne is forced to go out and shoot Bernie, played by John Turturro, in the middle of a forest. This scene has some brilliant shots due to the location. A slow zooming shot shows the forest and the black tree trunks indicating the bleakness of the surroundings and the plot. In the middle of this shot in the middle of the forest clearing is Bernie crouching down whining for his life and Tom standing over him with a gun pointed down at his head. this scene is incredibly powerful as there is not noise except his begging for his life, this shows us the dispute that is going on inside Tom's head and highlights the characters weaknesses, this correlates with the flawed hero often found in thriller films.