patrick lee

This is a list of films I have watched to help gain an understanding of how disaster thrillers are portrayed and to help me make a starting to a two minute intro for a disaster thriller film which I will be making, I will do this by using techniques I have picked up watching these movies:

These are disaster thriller films that I have watched:

Speed (1994 directed by Jan de Bont)
Apollo 13 (1995 directed by Ron Howard)
Independence Day (1996 directed by Roland Emmerich)
Twister (1996 directed by Jan de Bont)
Volcano (1997 directed by Mick Jackson)
Titanic (1997 directed by James Cameron)
Armageddon (1998 directed by Michael Bay)
Deep Impact (1998 directed by Mimi Leder)
The Perfect Storm (2000 directed by Wolfgang Petersen)
The Core (2003 directed by Jon Amiel)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004 directed by Roland Emmerich)
Poseidon (2006 directed by Wolfgang Petersen)

2012 (2009 directed by Roland Emmerich)

patrick lee

The typical repertoire of elements used within the Thriller genre is settings, mise en scene characterisation and iconography. I will convey how these elements are used within the genre of disaster thriller.

There are differences even between settings in subgenres of thriller. For example horrors are often set in, isolated, small, dark, enclosed space such as garages, basements and attics unlike disaster thrillers because they are always set in wide open out door areas but thrillers do involve isolation but in enlarge spaces because they are all ways moving from place to place.

Iconography within disaster thrillers is limited due to the fact that they are always moving place to place so the only type of typical items or objects would be any kinds of transport and communication device. you would not find any type of family, house hold objects because they are on the move, for example in the disaster thriller film "2012"(released in 13/11/09 and directed by Roland Emmerich) they are constantly on the move and using a verity of vehicles to get them to there destination such as a aeroplane..

There are a number of stock characters with in disaster thrillers. The main character is normally and almost all the time a man because he is seen as the hero and the strongest, and only the strongest will get who ever he is with to safety. The main character normally has his family with him such as his wife and children or with a group of people he has found trying to save him self, but there is normally more than one child, but the children will not normally be seen as much because they are not important and don’t fit with the type of story being told. The wife’s role, the helper in the movie, is to be directed by the hero in what to do and to look after the family; this is because females are stereotyped as being the weaker sex. The Hero will come across other stragglers who will also help him; these people are normally the donor in the film, helping the hero by giving there lives to save the hero and his family. This constantly happens in the 1997 Disaster Thriller "Volcano" (directed by Mick Jackson), where we men giving there lives to save other trapped and injured people.

Mise en scene in disaster films will include many of the tings mentioned in iconography but also they cover wider elements like the weather. The weather used within in disaster thrillers is to mirror the mood of the story or to be a disaster itself such as "Day after Tomorrow" (released 2004 directed by Roland Emmerich) the disaster is the weather, where it floods the top half of the northern hemisphere. Special effects in disaster films are normally big dramatic explosion, burning buildings, tsunami and natural disasters (e.g. volcanoes erupting.). The special effects also help communicate to the audience by emphasising the magnitude of what horror they are going through. Diegetic sounds used with in thrillers are normally emphasized to give a more dramatic feel to the movie, and to drawing the audience in and keeping them captivated. Disaster thriller films normally get big well known actors in to play the part of the hero; this will help bring in different kinds of audiences depending on the actor.

patrick lee

The age group I researched that watches disaster thrillers are normally between the ages of 16-25 years of age, which means that most of these viewers are going to be students in there late teens or early 20s. One of the ways that thriller movies attracted both sexes is by contracting big well known young actors to play the parts of the main characters. The reason why they use young actors is because the audience can relate them selves to the actor’s character; also the young actors like Robert Patterson have a very big fan base and will draw the views in to watch the movie. When a film institution markets their film they have to think about there audience by capturing peoples hobbies and interests. People who are interested in geographical films will want to watch this film genre, because the film offers special effects which capture the world and the world as it could be in years to come. The film genre sometimes captures a geographical look of the plant, for example close ups of volcanoes, avalanches, mountain, ECT.

According to the UK Film Council more males watch disaster thrillers than females, for example 65% of males went to watch "10,000 BC" and the other 45% were females. This statistic shows that males are more incline to watch disaster thrillers. Also according to the UK film council the percentage in age for 15 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 50+ that watch movies, the 15 to 24 age bracket held the largest percentage with 36%, which means that disaster thrillers will receive more of a young adult age range more than any other.

In my short intro for a movie I will try and portray a geographical view of the town, this is because my movie genre will be a disaster thriller which involves lots of urban and rural environments.

The ways I will try and show a rural and urban environment will be by filming the local town setting up when there is little people around, the sea front to show the local fishermen boats ready to work and the out boarders of the town.

evaluation. patrick lee

The conventions I used in the opening of my film were the ways that todorov uses the initial equilibrium, how it shows the worlds state at that point in time and also how the hero must travel on a journey to a destination to complete his goal. Another convention we used was how the iconography in disaster thriller movies always shows the main character move from place to place. I also use the way that typical disaster thriller movies show the calm before the disaster which I think I use well with in my movie. We also used stock characters in the opening two minutes but we did not include all the stock characters in a typical disaster thriller movie because it was to cliché but we did use show the vulnerable characters, the helper and hero.

The age group I researched that watches disaster thrillers are normally between the ages of 16-25 years of age, which means that most of these viewers are going to be students in there late teens or early 20s. Our film was made for people in the A,B,C1 social class group because they are the people how have the money to go to the cinema and watch the films, they will be the ones the will probably buy it as well.

We attracted people by filming in there home town, which brought people out to see what the area they lived in looks like on camera. We also captured the younger buy capturing there interest, so the movie as relate to them.

lewis strouts

I think that we should use the online distribution to ensure we can get the full viral effect in today’s society. A certain collection of cinemas in the area could be used to get views of local popularity.

lewis strouts

My work has improved from the preliminary task to the main piece by me being able to edit and film with confidence. When I did the preliminary task I didn’t know how to work the cameras, dolly, tripod or how to use any of the editing software. Since we finished the main piece I now know how to use all of the editing software, cameras tripod and dolly.

Media technologies. Lewis strouts

From constructing this product I have learnt how to edit, capture and use youtube to my advantage and edit music into the film clip we produced. I used the Canopus storm program for capturing and editing, A canon xm2 camera for filming and a variation of props such as the dolly for moving shots. The program Canopus storm helped us to edit the shots we captured and easily put music in. with this we used a canon xm2 camera which easy to use and has great film and sound quality which helped us greatly to produce a good quality product. We used the dolly in some shots which really helped us to capture some really successful moving shots.

Evaluation. LEWIS STROUTS

The media film we produced represents particular social groups such as school students by using a shot of a small town making the viewer know it’s a close community. To represent the boy going to school we used a backpack and a shot of a school building which makes the viewer subliminally realise it’s a school. We also used a variation of different shots which included the main person in the film hanging out with his friends in the library when the disaster strikes. This represents students in a very positive light. It does this by using the library shot with them studying and talking about their social life outside of their study time.

At the opening of the film there are clips of a small town with shots of shops opening up with the owners setting up for the day. The social group in these series of shots are just average small town people trying to earn a living.

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