The Sypnosis of Crime Films

Sypnosis 1: Rellick 

Set in the gritty urban backdrop of the Trellick Tower estate in West London. The film follows young and budding drug dealer Jay G (Clifford Williams) navigate his way through the estate on Halloween. A night where the police have no control over what occurs between the border that divides two feuding gangs. The border also known as the rellick split is a key area that is a cluster for drug addicts, a gold mine for dealers. Along with his fellow friend DB (Mathew Thomas) both must over come obstacles to deliver a package to the split even If it means killing, extorting and torturing. Little does Jay G know that his best friend DB is infact a police informant and has been building up a repotoire of crimes against Jay G. Jay G escapes from DB after he's admitted being a informant and trying to steal the package. His boss whose expecting the package has found out about Jay G's predictment assuming he's a informant sends a hit out on him and DB. Both must put the loyalties aside for the sake of survival. Once brothers are now enmies.

15+ age rating 

Sypnosis 2:  God Told Me Too

A psychological film noir type crime thriller film. The film revolves around a serial killer and a detective. Society is changing. Social media is becoming more relevant and important evolving and changing its become a religon to some people. This creates a generation of outspoken people. Religon is being forgotten lost and disenfranchised in this society of outspoken people. Each year one person is killed on the same month, on the same day and on the same time. These murders are based on the 10 commandments (not in chronological order). The rise of sites such as twitter has led to prominent speakers against religous concepts in particular the ten commandments. Each person who has spoken out against religon has died. Detective John Glover retired after his wife Jenny was murdered for commenting on the existence of God on sites such as facebook and twitter when she suffered a miscarrage for the second time. Her husband John is a Dectevive for the met police and retired after the death of Jenny.  Confused and on the verge of suicide he comes out of retirement after the supposed commandment killer has handed himself in. He interviews the commandment killer whom talks explicetly of the illicite string of murders he has committed against the 9  people. He talks about Jenny describing her on the night that she was murdered. Toying with the mentally and psycologically implicated John. The commandment killer is not finished with his work. John's daughter Katy is a blogger and journalist who makes regular appearences in the press and is a critic against religon. Its the same month, same day when his wife was killed and when the commandment killer talks about his daughter John has 2 hours to locate and save her based on the information provided by the commandment killer. 

18+ age rating 

Sypnosis 3: Training Day 

Training day follows the day in the life of ambitious rookie LAPD cop Jake Hoyt who hopes to turn detective by riding under the wing of the charasmatic, charming but rutheless and crooked experienced detective Alonso. For Jake to make it into the big leagues he must prove himself to Alonso by spending the day with him. Jake's first encounter with crime comes in the early hours of the morning. He confiscates a bag of Marjuiana from the helpless hands of 4 young university students in a rough part of town. After seizing the drugs he his made to smoke it by Alonso who puts a gun to his head. This is essentially framing him. After passing out for the duration of the trip in the car he his awoken in compton to adminitrate and bear witness to Alonso's extrotion of a young women's house. A false warrant is found and the pair are shot at by some gangbangers who find out that they are cops. 

The duo then arrive at a restaurant to visit Alonzo's Salvadoran mistress Sara and their young son. Afterward, Alonzo meets with a group of high-ranking police officials dubbed the "Three Wise Men" They tell Alonzo they know he owes money to the Russians and suggest that he leave town. But Alonzo insists he can control the situation and gets permission from the Wise Men to "cash in on an account". Alonzo tells the wise men that he knows of a local drug dealer by the name of sandman whom he can easily obtain the money from. Alonzo takes Jake and several other narcotic officers to the home of Roger (Glenn), a drug dealer and former police officer the two visited earlier. Using the warrant, they seize several million dollars from underneath the floor of Roger's kitchen, but Jake refuses to take his share of the cash.

Alonso then kills sandman and arranges the scene to appear like a justified shooting. Jake refuses to lie, and after being threatened seizes Alonzo's shotgun. A standoff ensues, with Jake threatening to shoot Alonzo while the other officers threaten to shoot Jake. Alonzo then reveals that the LAPD will run a blood test on Jake following the shooting. Alonzo offers to have the test results falsified in exchange for Jake's cooperation. Jake reluctantly agrees. Alonzo then drives Jake to the home of a gangster named "Smiley" (Curtis), allegedly to run an errand. Alonzo gives Smiley a package of money, while Jake reluctantly plays poker with Smiley and two other gang members. Jake engages in tense conversation with the three men before Smiley reveals to Jake that Alonzo has abandoned him, and explains Alonzo's situation: by midnight, Alonzo must pay $1 million to the Russian mob for killing one of their couriers in Las Vegas or be killed himself.

Jake realizes too late that Alonso has paid Smiley to kill him and is subdued and dragged to the shower, but the men find the wallet he had picked up earlier from the girl he rescued, who is Smiley's cousin. Smiley calls the girl, who confirms that Jake defended her against the attackers earlier on in gratitude for protecting his cousin, Smiley lets Jake go. Jake returns to Sara's apartment looking for Alonzo. He attempts to arrest Alonso, but Alonso resists and they fight. Jake eventually subdues him, after which the local gang members and residents begin congregating to watch. Alonzo tries to get the crowd on his side by offering a reward to whoever kills Jake, but they have grown tired of Alonzo's arrogance and allow Jake to walk away with the money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Training_Day: Sypnosis taken from wikipedia 

How to analyse text in media studies (video)

This video gives you the basics in analysing media such as lighting and sound 

What is Thriller?

What is Thriller?

Thriller is a genre which is used in literature, film and television to create suspense, excitement and tension. The most common use of this sub genre to thriller are mystery, crime and psychological thrillers, however there are also many other subgenres. 

The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats.The protagonist in these films are usually set against a complication,an escape,s mission or a mystery.The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a stressful climax clues are given through objects known as props. Thrillers began in the late 1920's and are still being created today with a much modern theme. 

Thriller is also usually confused with action and horror therefore most thriller films such as the most famous ones give this impression such as ‘Psycho’ which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was produced during 1960. This film is a psychological thriller based on the American 1960‘s time period but has a very strong horror theme enhanced through many features including lighting and sound.'psycho' uses very low key lighting and dull scenes and was adopted from the 1959 novel which was written by Robert Bloch also called ‘psycho‘. Both the film and novel are based on the cases on convicted serial killer Ed Gein, this therefore allowed the directors of the film to associate the film with other genres such as horror, drama and mystery, as well as the thriller.

 

This is the very famous 'shower scene' which is great for textual analysis as it has many common thriller features such as the randomness and unexpected event 

 

Gein pictured above was sectioned to a mental health unit due to insanity.when police searched his house they found a decapitated body hung many items such as chairs covered by layers of human skin and even a belt made up of human nipples. Gein only committed to two of his killings.

The common plots in crime thrillers are ransoms,revenge and kidnappings which are elaborated on for the effect of the audience.

28 Days Later Opening sequence analysis

28 Days Later Opening Sequence Analysis 

The sequence follows on from the awaking of the protagonist Jim (Cillian Murphy) from his spell in coma to find that he has awoken in a zombie infected Britain caused by the ‘rage’ virus. In the sequence suspense and tension is created through the use of the high angle shot looking down at both our protagonist and at a wooden cross. The high angle shot is framed within a frame to isolate the protagonist and to emphasise his insignificance behind this rather brooding and sinister looking cross which is also used to connote that we are in a church through the religious symbolism of the object. The use of low key lighting in the shot is also very important as it portrays the protagonist stepping into the darkness from the light which emphasises menace. It is an image that contrasts with the positive associations of church through the visual representations of light. This is a common technique that we see being used a lot in the horror genre. 

We can also see that the low key lighting is very dark and expressive to create this tense and eerie atmosphere which foreshadows the immediate presence of danger later on in the narrative. In the shot sound is also effective in constructing tension and suspense as the diegetic sound of the church doors opening echoes in the distance, this creates this tense and eerie atmospheric effect and conveys further the existence of vulnerability and isolation in sanctual grounds. The next shot is a low angle tilt shot which denotes a message splashed on the wall “Repent! The end is very fucking nigh.” The use of the low angle tilt shot to convey this message refers to more religious symbolism in the form of the book of revelations to suggest that humanity may be at an end and the ceremonial idea of praying and worshiping God has no influence to eradicate the ‘rage’ virus. Yet again the lighting in the shot remains low key to create this depressive and morbid tone for the scene and to correspond with the message on display.

A medium close up shot of the protagonist follows. The shot denotes his rather pale and blank expression and conveys the fragile nature of his character. The diegetic sound of the fly buzzing is a precursor for the sudden horror induced on the audience. Tension is reinforced further by sound through the use of the heavy presence of church bells and guitar chords in the score which is designed to create this shock and awe effect for the audience as the camera pans to a high angle point of view shot, which is slightly canted to denote the chapel littered with bodies. The canted angle creates this disorientating effect to express the graphic nature of the shot and to portray the psychological uneasiness the protagonist is feeling. It also conveys the sudden terror and realization that amongst the bodies some of the zombies are still alive despite the fact that many of them look dead. 

A shot employing deep focus is used. It denotes the protagonist in the foreground and the priest in the background. The recurrent long shots of the priest denote his rapid and generic movement and connotes that he is indeed infected. Tension begins to rise steadily as fast cuts are used frequently to reciprocate with the action occurring on screen, this further intensifies the sense of sudden fear and anxiety that the protagonist is feeling as the priest begins to proceed towards him and at quite a pace. The long shots of the priest contrast with the low angle to medium close up shots of Jim which convey his intimidation and the shots vary between cuts to show that he is unsure and helpless to judge whether the priest is a human or if he is not, hence the repetition of the word “father,” which is undermined further as he comes closer and the priests state becomes more apparent. The use of shot reverse shot becomes more vigorous and the edits become faster and less stable which culminates in the protagonist hitting the priest with a bag which is synchronous with his motion. More religious imagery is used in the form of the priest, a man of God who has been implicated by the virus. Religion is identified as a critical theme due to its repeated use in the sequence through symbols, figures and texts. A shot reverse shot of the protagonist fleeing and the infected priest on floor portrays the protagonist’s sense of confusion and panic. 

The extreme close up shot shows the state of the priest and allows the audience to get a more detailed and accurate perspective of the level of the infection.

Non diegetic underscoring is used to emphasize the sudden panic that ensues. The sharp orchestral stabbing of violins can be heard and the non-diegetic music starts to increase in volume and pace as the protagonist gives chase to zombies. The urgency of the predicament is further portrayed through two mid shots of the protagonist frantically running down the stairs. A canted extreme long shot of the zombies running out of the church creates this feeling of helplessness and uneasiness for the protagonist as the audience are left in suspense as we are unaware of Jim’s whereabouts.

The high angle shot of the cross is used again and is almost identical to the first shot to show that the protagonist has left the darkness and has returned to the light. However this is not the case as the outer environment is as bleak and exposed as the interior of the church. Yet again the low key lighting in the shot of the cross remains the same and suggests that the protagonist is not clear of danger yet.

A high angle point of shot from a window denotes the protagonist running. The use of the high angle point of view shot connotes that he is being watched and this could indicate the presence of humans. As he runs, long shots are used to portray his isolation and further emphasize his panic this is further resonated by the asynchronous guitar riff.  The rapid movements of the zombies can also be seen in the background through the use of long over the shoulder shots and long shots show of the crowd of zombies giving chase. Often in horror movies zombies are stereotypically typecast to being mindless, shambling flesh eaters. However in recent movies such as 28 Days Later and Dawn of The Dead (to name a few) they have been portrayed as being more apt, intelligent and in some ways more ruthless, challenging the conventions of the ‘zombie’ and developing is further as a subgenre. Two new characters are introduced to the sequence. The use of CCTV camera footage denotes the pair wearing gas masks and throwing petrol bombs this shows that they are survivors. The camera cuts between CCTV high angle long shots to medium close up shot of them. There all black uniform suggests that they might be anarchists and this might also link back to the opening sequence of the film were anarchists broke into an animal testing lab which is the origin of the ‘rage’ virus.     

The use of the shot through the lens of the CCTV is used for ironic purposes to show the false sense of security that still exists in this apocalyptical portrayal of Britain and also shows that due to the destabilisation of law and order authority exists to anarchists who yet again are ironically depicted to be anti-government and anti-authoritarian.

The intensity of the scene continues through sound, editing and kinetic camera movements. The use of the tracking shot of the two fulfils the audiences expectations that the protagonist will be saved. One of the characters shouts “over here” to the protagonist dominating the diegetic sound in the scene. The use of sound and special effects are visible through the diegetic sound of the petrol bombs glass smashing and reminds us of the pair’s threat. Through the use of the long shot which denotes a petrol station special effects are seen when the camera cuts to the explosion.

An extreme long shot of a city’s skyline denotes the recognisable towers of canary wharf so this provides us with evidence that we are in London. However this is destroyed by the explosion. Montage and overlapping fast edits are used to convey the sheer scale and ferocity of the explosion. The camera also cuts back to the two masked characters during the montage to reinforce the idea of victory as the Skyline goes up in smoke. 

London to Brighton Opening sequence Analysis

London to Brighton Opening Sequence 

The film opens with a series of over black production and funding titles. The idents or logo of the production company Vertigo Films is a standalone title separate from the narrative and is introduced first with a loud boom sound. The next title conveys the idents of the UK lottery foundation and UK film council which connotes that this is a British independent film. More titles follow of two other production companies. The rather simplistic presentations of these companies like “steel mill pictures” and “wellington film productions” in a small white font on an over black background contrasts distinctly with the Vertigo Films logo, and this could suggest that these companies are much smaller and played a minor role in the production of the film. This is further emphasised by their position in the opening credits. Our first indication of a narrative related title is the appearance of “London 3:07am” (tableau) on an over black background. This provides the audience with contextual information of the location and time and sets the scene for the audience. We can also refer to the end of the opening sequence as a similar over black background format is applied to introduce the film title “London to Brighton.”  In the opening titles no sound is used and this creates the feeling of mystery and suspense.

The sudden aggressive diegetic sound of the door opening introduces the action in the scene which is designed to startle and shock the audience. Everything is rather faced pace in the scene. The use of different editing techniques such as the consistent use of cuts illustrates the bluntness of social drama. The use of shot/reverse shot portrays the relationship between the two main characters and emphasises the panic and terror on the face of the girl and the women. The use of medium close up to close up shot varies in the scene. The over the shoulder close up shot denotes the women looking into mirror scrutinizing her beaten face. This begs the question, who has beaten her up? This flags the first enigma. A medium close up shot of the young girl with make up on her face is denoted and yet again another enigma is raised. The camera pans in to a close up of her face and conveys her rather terrified and confused facial expressions. The alternating use of the two shots creates the feeling of claustrophobia and intensifies the confined spaces of the toilet creating this rather repulsive atmosphere of the graffiti infested setting. 

This is accompanied by the use of low key lighting which creates this rather gritty harshness and social realistic portrayal of a social drama. The medium close up shots of the women and young girl further denote the different clothes that the characters are wearing. The young girl who’s wearing quite dirty but innocent clothing conveys her naivety and inoffensiveness, whereas the woman on the other hand is wearing this rather scroungy and oppressive ripped and dirty jacket to emphasise her social standing, this is further resonated by her Essex/East End of London type colloquial dialect, which she enforces quite provocatively and regularly in the scene. More enigmas are created but this time through the girl’s accent as she sounds quite Northern and this begs the question to why she is in London at such a time. A close up shot of the girl on the toilet conveys her helplessness, panic and confusion of the scenario that she is in and captures the almost brutal and melancholic emotions on her face which emphasises her vulnerability and isolation in the setting.  

It’s clear that the audience has been dropped into the middle of a scenario and this is denoted by elements such as the women’s mutilated face and the dishevelled claustrophobic confinements of their hiding place. Which asks why are they hiding? This is called non-linear narrative, a technique often applied to the opening sequences of a film and which cutbacks to different sections of the film itself. The effect of a non-linear narrative creates the effect of parallel distinctive plot lines and is aimed at disjointing the chronological order of the film for cinematic effect.

The first establishing shot of the opening sequence denotes the women in a chicken shop. The connotations associated with a fast food restaurant like a chicken shop suggests that the woman is quite desperate for food at a cheap price. A close up side view shot of the women follows. The shot portrays her obvious stress, paranoia, anxiety and impatience as she does not want anyone to see her bruised face. Her rather irrational behaviour creates tension for the audience as she tries to keep a low profile and avoid the attention from the authorities. Tension is further emphasised by her confrontational behaviour towards other customers in the shop and the steadicam type movement which intensifies her agitation and trepidation.

The scene cuts to the girl and women in the toilet. This rather grotesque imagery of them eating chips in the toilet would juxtapose between disgust and sympathy towards an audience as it conveys there rather degraded lifestyle and doesn’t help there already poor standards of hygiene as the food they are eating is not healthy. An enigma is solved as well as it confirms whom the pair is running away from when the young girl states “what about that man Derik?”

The camera cuts to an over the shoulder eye line match shot of the women conversing with a man for sex. Depictions of violence and sex can be connoted through this shot as the audience can question the young girls safety at the fact that she is being looked after by an emotionally and physically implicated prostitute which adds to the suspense and tension. A extreme long shot of the location shows a whole line of women prostituting themselves and gives the audience a sense of what occurs In the early hours of the morning. The imperfect low key lighting outside on the street was achieved by one street light and headlights emanating from the car to create this rather edgy and abrasive atmosphere. Tension is further added when the camera cuts as the women gets into the car leaving the audience in suspense. When she returns to the cubicle the young girls safety is further questioned when she asks “where have you been?” And the woman hides the fact that she has prostituted herself. The camera cuts to two establishing shots of an empty and desolate train station where they are presumably going to go Brighton. 

The lighting of the shot is quite natural and was shot in a realist mode. The shaky and jerky camera movement mimics the pair running across the platform floor and emphasises there urgency to get to the platform.  The extreme long shot of the train moving away from the platform leaves the audience in suspense as they do not know if the pair is actually on the train.

The camera cuts to a close up of the women. It denotes her rather relaxed temperament and relief after such effort was made to get onto the train in the first place. A series of shot/reverse shot is used in this scene to reinforce the dialogue and to convey the pair’s relationship, and also the woman’s morality as she gives up her coat for the young girl. The medium close up shot then fixates on the woman. Her thought process is mimicked by the flashes of light through the window and this allows the audience to interpret weather she is thinking positively or negatively. This sparks the end of the sequence and the title of the film appears on an over black screen with the chilling non-diegetic sounds of the children screaming. This creates this undertone of children being abused and unsettles the audience.