Decisions, decisions...

    It is getting close to that eventful time of picking a genre, but before that we must embark in an extremely important process: RESEARCH. 

    Now, as soon as the project was introduced, I had two genres in my head: thriller and drama. A combination of the two would be an ideal choice for me, but first I must look at them both separately and with that research I can find the best way to combine them.

Thriller

    Thriller is a genre that has a plot completely driven by anxiety and suspense that often includes some kind of plot twist and/or a heavy plot. The entire point of watching a thriller movie is feel on the edge of your seat the entire time, just aching to find out what happens next. 

    One extremely important aspect of making a good thriller is having great music and sound effects. Music is one of the best ways to build tension, even if nothing inherently bad is happening. The music acts as a signal to the audience that something big is happening. 

    An example of good us of music is The River Wild (1994).

I have a personal vendetta against this movie because I swear it gave me a heart attack with just how insane I was going. 

This film follows a family going down a river rapid for a family vacation. But, as they do down the river, they come across two men who seem to be completely helpless, but it turns out they are much more sinister than what meets the eye. 

The scene embedded below is one of my favorite examples of using both music and silence to create tension. 

    This scene is particular has a great balance of sweeping, thrilling music but also an eerie silence to go along with it. With the tense music as the family is trying to escape, there is that loud sense of urgency and fear, and the music immerses the audience in that fear. This loud music then works to juxtapose the silence of when the family gets caught by their captors. When Kevin Bacon comes on that screen with no music in the background, just some slight diegetic nature sounds, the audience knows something is going to go down. The silence creates suspense in a whole new way, which makes the scene feel overall more dynamic.

    I would like to incorporate this technique into my film opening as it would be an excellent way to establish the tone of the piece. I'm not sure exactly what context this could be used in, but I think it would be interesting to have a part of the opening when the music is really loud and intense, and the suddenly it goes silent. 

    Another aspect of thriller that I would like to incorporate in my film opening is a sense of building oddness. What I mean by that is when something starts out "normal" and then builds up to something that leaves the audience feeling like something is just no quite right. This is typically done through the mise-en-scene or camera techniques that leave the audience feeling uneasy. 

    

    An example of this is in the opening scene of American Psycho (2000).

    This film takes place in 1980s New York and follows a businessman who by night becomes a psychotic serial killer. Obviously, it's a fun watch. 

    What I find so compelling about the opening scene of this film is how it escalates so quickly from a very metrosexual man doing a skincare routine to a cold, robotic shell. 

Let's take a look. 

    What stands out to me most in this scene is how the voice over and the music in the background deeply juxtaposes what he is saying. He sounds professional and somewhat cordial as he discusses how he fully lacks feeling and a soul. This paired with her the scene starts out with him listing all the products he uses on his face (which is already a little odd), but then he goes on this rant about he is an illusion. 

    What I am taking away from this clip is the ability to create a sense of unease and building confusion/tension by using juxtaposing elements. For my purposes, having the characters and their actions juxtapose the setting they are in could create an interesting dynamic that works to build that mystery and unsettling tone. 

Drama

    Drama is often thought as a sort of all encompassing genre that is typically tied to another one, whether that be romance, comedy, horror or what have you. But some conventions that span all of the combinations are characters having a deep inner conflict and the plot often revolves around a more realistic topic. 

    One characteristic of drama film that I would like to incorporate into my film is their distinct color palette. Yes, this does depend on what kind of drama film it is, but most of them have a distinct color vibe to them. 

    An example of a color palette that I would like to reflect is that of Prisoners (2013).

This movie... When I tell you this movie absolutely destroyed me, I mean it. 

This film follows a father who is trying to find his daughter who got kidnapped in broad daylight and a detective who ends up uncovering a much bigger mystery. 

The clip below has a great representation of the color pallete that I would like to reflect within my film opening. 

    The muted, greyed out colors of the scene are completely reflective of the darker tone of the scene and of the film in its entirety. By using this color palette, it establishes the tone and keeps it going throughtout the film as the whole thing is pretty much tragedy after the next. 

    In my film opening, I definitely want to establish a distinctive color palette for the film. When compiled with the other components already discussed, this would work splendidly to create the proper tone for the entire opening. 

    Another technique commonly used in drama films is continuous closeups. This technique when used in a specific manner can create some serious tension and unease, which can be used in conjunction with a variety of content types and genres. 

    An example of using consecutive closeups to create tension is in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

In this film, a rookie detective for the FBI is assigned a case to find a serial killer, but the only way to find him is to get help from the notorious cannibal, Hannibal Lecter. 

From the clip below, I found the use of closeups profound and creating a great amount of tension between Clarice and Hannibal Lecter. 

    In this clip, Lecter is getting into Clarice's head. Sure, this is represented through his words and facial expressions, but it furthered by how the camera composition is. Throughout the clip, we get closeup of both characters, but each character gives off a different energy. The closeups of Clarice portray her fear and concern about the evaluations that Lecter has made about her. But the closeups of Hannibal Lecter show his assurance in himself and make him look even more insane than what he already is. Furthermore, it almost pains the two characters in a similar light, almost like they are two sides of the same coin, even though that is unexpected by the audience. 

    In my own project, I could use closeups in this manner to convey different emotions for different characters with similar looking shots and composition. This could create in interesting dynamic within my film opening that is more nuanced than giving the audience outright answers. 

    With all this research in mind, I will try to create a combination of these two genres using the techniques I have discussed. If I combine these in all the right ways, I think I could make something that is truly reflective of both genres and some of my favorite films of each. 

And now for the movie quote of the day... (except it's from a TV show)

"The work is mysterious and important." - Mark S., Severance (2022)