name of production company

the name of our company is called the NO TOM! productions. we got this name from one of the people called tom in our group and we all thought it would be funny (including tom) to call it the NO TOM! productions.

interviews

our interviews took place on the 30th january 2012 the questions we asked were:

what was the last film you saw at the cinema?
what made you want to see this film?
what did you think of this film?
was their a specific actor that you knew was going to be in the film?
how regulary do you go to the cinema?
what is your favorite type of thriller genre?

below is our interview videos:

the grey (2012)

genre

action,adventure,drama,thriller

box office

estimated-$34,000,000
opening week- (it hasnt been out 1 week yet)

cast

The Legend Liam Neeson - john ottway
Dallas Roberts- Hendrick
frank grillo - diaz
dermot mulroney - talget
nonso anozie - burke


the workers of a alaskan oil drilling company are taking a flight home. just before they reach the mountains the plane crashses into the snow in the middle of nowhere. at the night of the plain crash the survivors go and scrounge through the luggage to find foot clothes wallets for identification of the dead and any other useful things. liam neeson (john ottaway) goes into a few trees to look for items only to find a dead passenger being eaten by a wolf. the wolf then turns and attacks him biting him in the leg. he then proceeds to beat the wolf and luckly enough the other survivors come to hes rescue. the survivors fight for survival against hundreds of hungry wolfs and only to find their final breaths or not in the den of the wolfs were liam neeson finds himself fighting the alpha male wolf one-on-one.

the dark scences loud howling tense music and the cold foggy atmosphere makes this film the perfect thriller. it has a sad storyline as you become attached to the charecters.

the use of camera is very good in this film whenever the wolfs are not present the camera changes shot at a steady tempo of about 3 seconds per shot. however when the wolfs are present the shot speeds up to about 2 seconds per shot and when the wolfs are attacking the shot speeds up to about 1 second per shot.

here is the trailer to the film:

lock stock and two smoking barrels

three young londerers put together £250,000 to go to a poker match. one of the men at thr match called hatchet harry has someone spying on the other peoples hands and telling him whos hand is better. after one man loses all of hes money and folds the cheater wants to continue and says he will lend him £250,000 pounds and he has to give double back in the next two weeks or hes hitman (vinny jones) will kill them. during their journey they are pursing a group of people with £1000's worth of skunk and about £500,000 whilst being pursued by the hitman.

lock stock and two smoking barrels is one of my favorite films its funny, has gun fights and very pathetic charecters that do some of the most funny things. it dosent build suspense but it build a lot of humor and ends on a really funny cliffhanger that i will show below.

types of thrillers

there are several different types of thrillers and these are:

spy thrillers:
the protagonist is a spy and the villian is usually a lot stronger better equippeted and wealthy. the filr reqiures the spy to stealtly find out the villans master plan and take him down. but a majority of the time like in the james bond films the villian will capture the spy and tell him the master plan. the villian will then proceed to kill the spy by putting him into instant death situations like a pool of sharks, but noooo..... the spy always has a special tool that he secretary gave him earlier and he escapes and takes down the villian and making hes so called "master plan" a complete failure.

political thrillers:
a political thriller is a thriller set in against the backdrop of a political popwer struggle. political thrillers also involve extra-legal plots, made to give political power to someone, whilst hes opponent tries to stop him. political thrillers can involve national and internatnional political scenerios. an example of a political thriller is the manchurian candidate (1962) which i have already done a post on. the politiacl thing in this film is that the assassin is brainwashed into killing the senator of the (USA) so hes step dad has a better chance of winning the election.

psychological thrillers:
a psychological thriller is a specific sub genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on the charecters. psychlogical thrillers are usually about messing with bthe mind of another person in the film like in the manchurian candidate(mentioned above) the man is brainwashed into being a assassin from watching the most gorey things and then being brainwashed into into killing one another.

halloween 3: season of the witch

genre

horror,mystery, thriller, sci-fi

cast

Tom Atkins (Dr. Daniel Challis)
Stacey Nelkin (Ellie Grimbridge)

box office

budget: $2,500,000
opening weekend: $6,333,259 (USA) (October 24th 1982)
gross:$14,400,000

halloween III: season of the witch is the worst spin off of a film i have ever seen it has nothing to do with micheal myers. this film is about a company called silver shamrock making masks that activate when the silver shamrock commercial is watched the mask fried the wearers brain and kills them, weird things start happening to the dead bodies. the only victim we saw was a little boy who was killed and then snakes and other creature started flowing out of hes mouth. whilst all of this was going on the doctor and hes accompnice were pursing the maker of the masks trying to find out why people were dying. when they got to the bottom of it they found out it was the masks that were killing everyone. when they went inside the factory for the first time the young girl was caught and the doctor went in to save her. by the end of the film the doctor saves the woman the villian dies and they all live happily ever after never to return to another halloween film.

halloween 2

genre
horror, thriller

box office

budget: $2,500.000 (estimated)
opening weekend: $7,676,836(USA)
GROSS: $25,533,818
cast
Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode)
donald pleasence (sam loomis)



this film is set on the same night as halloween 1 and starts on the same scene the first one left off.after being gunned down six times and falling off a balcony micheal survives and escapes.As laurie is rushed to hospital the doctor and the sherrif go out to hunt for micheal myers, micheal is making he way towards the hospital where laurie is being kept. when micheal gets to the hospital he goes on a massacre and kills pretty much all of the night staff at the hospital. when laurie realises micheal is after her again she finds her self hiding and running for her life with a broken leg. but the film ends very happily ever after with micheal dying to a firey death.....until the end credits say to be continued and then you know he cant be dead.

halloween 2 builds a lot of suspense and most of the suspense is built from the enviroment which is a quiet hospital in the middle of the night. other things that built suspense was that every corridoor was full of rooms and corners that you think micheal will come out from.

the use of editing is very good in the film every time the film is focussed on micheal myers the cameras tempo gets faster and whenever micheal is not areount it goes to a slow calm tempo.

the use of camera is very good when ever micheal goes to attack the camera will zoom into the victims face then micheals mask then the murder weapon then zoom out to the strike.

red herrings

red herrings are used as i diversion to take the audiences mind off of one thing and put their mind on something else. an example is this is in the film die hard: with a vengeance you think that the film is abbout terrorist bombings when they are actually breaking into the federal reserve.

cliffhangers

cliffhangers are used sometimes but not always.

cliffhangers often feature a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation.

This can entice the audience to keep watching in order too see how the situation resolves itself. an example of a cliffhanger is in the film the italian job(1969) which is known for its famous ending leave the viewers dying for more the final scene of the film is, the group of friends have just stolen millions of pounds worth of gold and have now got away with no suspicion they have dispatched all of their cars down a mountain. whilst they are continuing on the journey dow the mountainside the bus skids off of the side of the mountain and leaves the bus with the group of friends at one end and the gold at the other end. one of the men moves forward to get the gold but the bus leans forward and the gold moves further down to the end of the bus. after a few attempts the gold is right at the falling end of the bus and the final words are given by one of the men "don't worry i've got an idea". the cliffhanger puts the charecter in a situation that seems impossible to get out of.

the cliffhanger was inspired by a set of films called a serial these serials always ended on a cliffhanger.

enigma

Enigma

Winston Churchill once said "Russia is a riddle wrapped inside a mystery inside a enigma".

this refers to a puzzle something mysterious or inexplicable or a riddle or difficult problems. a enigma got its name from a coding machine made during world war 2. this machine relied on a complex series of steps that are used to make virtually unbreakable codes.

In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.a enigma before it is solved create a lot of suspense, discussion, debate and interest.

insidious (2010)

genre

horror, thriller

box office

$1,500,000 budget
$13,27,434 opening weekend (USA)
$53,991,137 (USA) as of august 28th 2011

cast

patric wilson (josh lambert)
rose byrne (renai lambert)
ty simpkins (dalton lambert)

a gripping storyline about a family of three(mum, dad and son). the parents are in search of help for their son  dalton who has been possesed for some reason and has gone into a deadly coma. as much as they do know what they dont is that there is things much more deadly than just this endless sleep of their son as they explore the paranormal side of it, and redescover the past of the dad. can they get their son back once and for all watch and find out.

this film dosent give you your regular type of suspense, the suspense it gives you is the type that makes the hair on your back stick up. throughout most of the film it is just normal and then they call for a expert on paranormal activity. who can also see the ghosts (or whatever you want to call them) and she confronts the ghost that can only be described as the devil the worst of all the paranormal visitors.

when one of the family members goes into the paranormal world the suspense the film gives goes to a whole new level with the person walking through 1000's of harmful ghosts the person enters their own home in the paranormal world looking for their son and only to find a pathway to the devil that has their son. the person gets the son and runs whilst the demon is pursuing the son and the parent. now thats all ill say and i aint saying weather or not the son gets away or the parent may get trapped in their so......watch and find out.

die hard: with a vengeance (1995)

BRUCE WILLIS AND HES NINE LIFES WITH SAMUEL L. JACKSON AGAINST 1 BOMBER AND HES ARMY.

genre

action, crime, thriller

box office

$90,000,000 budget
$22,162,245(USA) opening weekend
$361,212,499 (worldwide

cast

bruce willis (john mcclean)
samuel l jackson (zeus carver)
jeremy irons (simon gruber)

john McClean is now a binge drinker and has been kicked out of the NYPD. but when a bomb goes off in a department store and the NYPD have been told by the bomber the only person he will let save the country will be john McClean he finds himself back in the NYPD trying to save new york. a russian bomber then sends john McClane (bruce willis) on a life threatening task that will prevent the villain from blowing up a series of bombs. after he dose this task the bomber then sends him to solve a series of riddles to where the next set of bombs will be he is accompanied by a man called zeus carver (samuel L. jackson). things start to heat up when a bomb goes off in the subway station right outside the federal reserve the biggest gold storage in the world. will john mcclean be able to save new york and all those riches watch it and find out as die hare: with a vengeance takes you on a huge ride of suspense and action.

in die hard: with a vengeance as most films the antagonist is always the underminer and in this film the protagonist knows exactly where the antagonist is and what he does. this makes John and Zeuse job to find the bombs a lot harder. one of the riddles they have to solve to find the bomb is "As i was going to St. Ives, i met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kittens, kittens, cats, sacks, wives how many were going to St. Ives? the to this riddle was the last few numbers of a phone number that they had to ring to find the location to the bomb. want to find out weather or not they stop the bomb or not.

mcguffin

the mcguffin created by none other than Alfred Hitchcock himself is a object of interest that the films plot a revolves around, for example if the film was about someone was smuggling gold i and out of the country the gold would be the mcguffin. we don't really care about the mcguffin all we care about is the film getting under way so we can see some gunfights and explosion when that occurs we don't even realize the mcguffin exists. the mcguffin is mainly a expensive object like in my example gold. at times when the mcguffin is not valuable it is usually a object of interest like in the film the birds, the mcguffin is two lovebirds and the reason they are objects of interest is because the viewers want to know why they are acting the way they are and why they are there. the mcguffin doesn't  always need to be a object it could also be a person like in the film good will hunting the mcguffin is will hunting who matt daemon plays.

examples of suspense and shock

a example of suspense would be a bomb is place in a hall full of people and set for 20 minutes to explode as the time goes down the camera will flash on and off quicker and quicker to the timer on the bomb this builds suspense because you want to know what will happen.

examples of shock and suspense in films.

Children of men- shock

a group of people are in a cramped cafe the main character leaves the cafe he move a bit away from the cafe puts he's tea on the side and does his shoe up, whilst he is doing he's shoe lace up and out of no where a bomb blows up in the cafe. this is shock because the bomb went off and we were completely unaware of this.

sabotage- suspense

a man asks a boy to deliver a bomb by 1:30  pm because it will explode by 1:45. the boy don't know it was a bomb so he didn't rush and took his mind off of it. the time reaches 1:45 the music changes to build tension and the camera keeps flicking back and forth to the clock the bomb. the boy then gets stuck in traffic just before the bomb blows a major amount of suspense is built and then it blows and the suspense goes away.

rope (1948)

tells the story of two young, wealthy men, brandon and Philip who strangle their best friend just to see if they can get away with it. later that day they have a party and invite everyone to the party they then put the food platters on top of the chest were the man is hidden and people keep questioning why the chest and not a table this build a lot of suspense.

chuck jones's rules

before chuck jones wrote and created the roadrunner cartoon he made himself a set of rules he should never break.

The rules of the 'roadrunner'

The roadrunner cannot harm or upset Wiley coyote except by annoying him by going 'MEEP'! 'MEEP'!.

No outside force can harm the Wiley coyote, only his own ineptitude or failure of acme products.

the Wiley coyote could stop anytime if he were not a fanatic.

No dialogue ever except 'MEEP'! 'MEEP'!.

the roadrunner must stay on the road otherwise logically he would not be called a roadrunner.

all actions must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters, the south-west american dessert.

all materials, tools, weapons or mechanical convinces must be obtained by acme corporation.

whenever possible make gravity the Wiley coyotes greatest enemy.

the Wiley coyote is always more humiliated that harmed by he's failures.

brainstorm

This is the brain storm for our thriller and what we had to keep in mind, and to our budget and capabilities 

the manchurian candidate (1962)

box office

$2,200,000 to make
n/a amount made

actors and actresses

frank Sinatra
Laurence harvey
janet leigh

film briefing

the son of a prominent US political family is brainwashed by chinese scientists to become an assassin for them.

my views

the manchurian candidate was a decent film for its time but a bit of a long shot in reality. a group of soldiers are tortured into being assassins for the manchurians. the way he's brain is triggered to obey all orders is that he plays a game of solitaire and when he sees the queen of hearts he will obey all orders. frank sinatra is trying to see what is wrong with the man and one day when they are in a bar the bartender says to someone play solitare. the man starts to play solitaire and then after it gets to the queen of hearts and the man stops awaiting orders the bartenders next worlds are why don't you go down to central park and jump in the ice cold lake. under the brainwashing he goes and does it whilst he is doing it frank Sinatra is pursing him trying to stop him after he catches up to him he has already in the lake and is now out of the brainwash. frank then realises that he has copied what the bartender has said. frank then proceeds to find out who has done this to him. i wont go into anymore detail because i will spoil it for you.

my overall opinion would be that its a old film has some funny scenes and if you want to see a well structured thriller watch this.

halloween (1978)

 box office

$320,000 (estimated)
$60,000,000 (worldwide)

cast

donald pleasence- Dr sam loomis
jamie lee curtis- laurie strode


hello everyone now im gonna write about one of my favorite thrillers but its also a horror as well. Halloween, at the age of ten a young boy by the name of micheal myers butchers hes older sister to death with a kitchen knife. after this incident micheal myers is sent to a mental asylum where he sits there never saying a word for over 15 years. micheal gets transferred to another asylum. whilst he is in the car he manages to escape and starts going on a great massacre. hes first victim is a workman in hes overalls micheal kills him and takes hes overalls and amazing knows how to drive after never going outside since the age of ten. micheal later on goes and gets a mask to wear. this mask is a plain white mask that takes the shape of the face. this is where a young girl by the name of laurie strode (actress jamie lee curtis) during her day she relises she is being followed by someone. a few minutes later the masked man can be seen by laurie waiting for her on the pathway. laurie tells her friend that she see a masked man and they go to look to there surprise no one was there. as the film gets on micheal proceeds to kill laurie but kills all of her friends in the process. by the time the film ends micheal has been stabbed in the eye stabbed a few times shot three times and falls out of a bedroom windoe and lands on his back. the police man who shoots micheal goes to see if micheal needed finishing off only to find out he had got up and gone.
the closing line to the film is
laurie: whats the boogeyman
policeman: he is the boogeyman

pretty coll isnt it if you wanna know why micheal is pursuing lorry you will need to watch the second one which i will also write about this is easily a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seet and you will fimd about 30 seconds of footage in the whole film where tension is not being built.

source code

genre

action, mystery, sci-fi, thriller

box office

budget $32,000,000 (estimated)
opening weekend $14,812,094 (USA)
gross $123,278,618 (worldwide) as of 14th july 2011

cast

jake gyllenhaal (colter stevens)
michelle monaghan (christina warren)
vera farmiga (colleen goodwin)
jeffery wright (dr.rutledge)

the source code is a film that in my opinion is a complete rip of of back to the future a single person has to go to the past and changes the course of events that happened in the past to make them better in the future. sounds a lot like back to the future if you ask me the only difference between the two is that back to the future featured a car and source code is about a man that is killed in action but hes brains till remains active. he is later breifed by the military that a bomb went off earlier that day and he needs to go back in time and fix that problem by finding the bomb. after inevitable amounts of fails he finally finds the bomb which was located in the vent above the toilet seat. after trying to disarm it again and again he finds out that some thing is still missing. there is a girl on the train that he knows and after spending so much time with her he falls in love with her and after a while he finds out she was in love with him. after he tried and tried to disarm the bomb the commander gave up with him and then told him he was goimg to be shut off, the commander however was lying he was going to wipe the part of hes memory where he went back in time and make him start over and save other people. the man man in the machine askes the woman if she wuld let him go back in and that he knew what he had to do so going against order she done it when he went back in he took both of the phones off of the bomb so that it couldnt be activated then handcuffed the person who was going to detonate the bomb and phoned the police so that he got caught after making the call he text the woman thta let him go back in to let her know that it is still reality and not a whol new place. the man then told a comedian to make everyone on the train laugh and then went to the girl he loved and kissed her this made it the perfect moment for him because he thought he was goin to die for good just after and that he would die very happy. but shortly after he finds out that it was real and continued living a amazing life with the girl he loved.awwww i always love happy endings

the tension in this film is very different to all of the rest of thrillers it diddnt give you the right thrill you was expecting it was more of a thriller for the people in the film which made it quiet genius.

my overall opinion on the film would be that its worth a watch it may not be the best film but its certainly a lot different. i would call it a three way thriller its the man against the time aganist the bomb.

127 hours

IMAGINE ALMOST BEING KILLED BY A ROCK!!!

127 hours is about a young man called Aron ralston well older than me but yeah if your old you'll call him a Aron who goes on a desert hike for the weekend he encounters 2 young women and has a great time and a lot of fun with them....and not the fun your thinking. after they part ways and continue on their hike Aron goes for a little climb he jumps on a wedged rock the he sees as sturdy he jumps on it slips and then holds onto the boulder the bolder un-hinges and falls along with Aron and when he hits the floor the rock wedges again and Aron the sadly finds his arm shattered in between the rock and the wall, and now the looooonng wait begins.

in the boiling deserts that are freezing at night Aron has to try staying alive for the sake of himself and those around him in the hope that someone will find him. he has under a litre of water to survive as long as he can no food, no warm clothing and a video camera that he has kept in hope that someone will find if he dies and will return it to he's parents.

127 hours is a weird type of thriller it is the rock against Aron but who will merge victorious. yes you guessed it Aron after a acing 1 hour and thirty minutes the 127 hours are up it certainly felt like 27 hours and we see Aron ascape and live happily ever after and all that good stuff.
overall i would recommend the film to people that can sit through a slow film without bitching, if this is you then this is the perfect film for you.

psycho 1960

GRANNY WITH A KNIFE!!!

cast

Anthony Perkins- Norman Bates
vera miles- Lila Crane
john Gavin- Sam Loomis
Janet leigh- Marion Crane

Another of hitchcocks greatest we have psycho costing $806,947 and made $50,000,000 worldwide which was last checked in january 2004 the film takes place in a motel in the middle no-where a woman steels $40,000 off of her employers and hides out in the motel. the man (norman bates) that owns the motel has a double personality of himself and his mother that died long ago. his mother want him to love only her and if he ends up liking another girl she will become jealous the mans double personality will kick in he will dress up as his mother and then kill the woman.

psycho was one of the first ever films to use fast pacing frequent action in the way it was used after the viewers came out of the cinema they were asked hat they saw i the film at the shower scene and almost every single view said that the knife pierced the skin when it actually never did.
the film created some powerful scenes and those were the scene when the young woman was it the shower the music kicked in the door opened the shower curtain moved and the knife struck i didn't say it hit because it diddnt. the other powerful things that gave you a thrill was when you knew the attack was about to start from the music playing you knew it was coming but you didn't know where from this created suspense and tension making this film fit perfect in the thriller and overall for a film from the mid nineties i highly recommend it.

the techniques of filming

the techniques of filming

there are many things to take into account when film and many techniques that can be used such as carmra,sound, editing and mise en scne.


mise en scne is whats on the screen what is the image you are trying to portray and this consists of five main factor

• costume,hair and make-up
• body language & facial expressions
• sound
• settings and props 
• positioning

you can minipulate these factors into giving a happy feel or a more sad tone or make it really fast passed or more slow burning but how do we get this theory of mise en scen to work.

we have to use skills such as camra techniques like knowing the various shots nd when to use them:

• long shot or establishing shot-where the camara is far away from the action normally at the begining of a thriller it is used for establishing the setting
• mid-shot- usually used to show people to a normal scale,can be used for seens of diologue or action
• close up-a oomed in shot at one specific thing or person to draw attention to it
• extreme close up-usually used on peoples faces to show more deeply there emotion
• panning shot-this is when the camara move from left to right or the other way on a fixed axis this is normally used from a far away distance as an establishing shot
• a tiltshot-this is the oposte to a panshot this is where the camara moves upwards and downwards on a fixed axis
• high angle shot-this is ued to mae the person on the screen seem vulnrable
• low angle shot-this is made to make the person on the sceen look powerfull and in control