Bains Media Blog

  Common lighting setups used in thrillers Lowkey lighting is often used in thrillers as it can create an unsettling effect for the audience which creates the feeling of suspense which is what thrillers are all about. lowkey lighting is a high contrast lighting typically used in thrillers and horror movies.   Many thrillers used chiaroscuro lighting when doing jump scares or hiding most of whats in frame.  Here it is used to create a smokey feel to the room and possibly to disguise the man with his back turned to us this would have been done on purpose to create an unsettling feeling for the audience. Here you can also see how the three-point set up is used. 

I  am going to be analysing the shower scene from Pyscho.  Why this scene?  This scene changed thrillers forever it opened a door to onscreen violence. Onscreen violence wasn’t shown in the 60s so when Psycho came out it terrified audiences all over the world. the use of lighting in the shower scene brought a whole new way of having onscreen violence without it being too gory this was the use of silhouettes they light the killer to give him a silhouette so you can tell what is happening but you cannot see it because of the lighting. The 45-second shower scene took over 70 takes to film.  Analysis: The scene begins with Marion Crane preparing to send all of the money back that she had stolen from her work. this gives the audience a sense that she has good morals then she goes to get in the shower. As she is relaxing in the shower we see a figure dressed in women's clothing slowly approaching the outline is blurred this gives the audience a sense of suspense as they don’t know the id

In the spring of 2017 filming began in St Abbs on the finale instalment of the Marvel Avengers franchise: Endgame.  St Abbs was chosen as the location of 'New Asgard' , the fictional home of Thor. through a mixture of practical effects and CGI New Asgard was born. Cyrus house (my family’s house) on the harbour side was repainted and adorned with signage to create the 'Cormorant and tun' pub'. the signs were replaced with 'New Asgard' versions and they are still there to this day.  this is the Cyrus house the set they built  for the inside of New Asgard was based of the inside of the house. the scene where hulk is on the back of the car they drove down the road on the left of this image.  the movie left one of Thors hammers at ST Abbs and it is now in the visitors centre. ever since endgame was filmed there the place has been so crowded and people take photos of my family’s house as it was used in the movie. 

  The first plot point is understood as when the protagonist first experiences and is affected by the conflict which is the basis of the Thriller.  Here I'm using Harry Potter, as an example, we don’t find out about this until later in the franchise but here Voldemort tried to kill harry when he was a baby this was when he was first affected and began his journey to fight against evil.  Once the protagonist becomes engaged with the conflict this will drive the movie until the climax where usually the protagonist finds a way to win the conflict and defeat the antagonist.  Here is where harry defeated Voldemort for the final time in the last movie of the franchise these two fighting is what drove the story for all those movies. 

  voice thread

  Michael Bay is my favourite Thriller director because of his work on The Movie Six Underground.  Six underground was released in 2019 it is an action Thriller based in current times. in My opinion this is Michael's best work he really went the extra mile. He asked Youtube famous parkour group Storror to do stunts in his movie. This is one of the reasons why Michael is my favourite director. He looks outside the normal scope of talent to find what he needs.  He also made sure that all Storror members were used in the movie some played bad guys and some were stunt doubles for the heroes as he realised that; the skills they had made some scenes look more realistic,  they were actually doing the moves on the set so it based the film more in reality and minimal editing was required.    Here is another example of Michael going the extra mile to get the shots he wants. here he is putting his safety at risk because is one of the storror lads fell onto him while he was filming this would

Many think of Alfred Hitchcock a his movies like Psycho (1960) and Frenzy (1972) however the thriller genre began much before these movies ever hit the screens let's take a brief look at the thrillers history.  Homers odyssey the odyssey of homer is a greek epic poem that tells us the return journey of odysseus to the island of Ithaca from the war of troy. this poem uses many techniques that are used today in modern thrillers. So the first thriller was actually a greek poem.  One of the earliest thriller movies was Harold Lloyd's comedy Safety Last! (1923) with a character doing a daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper  Alfred Hitchcock definitely changed the thriller genre for ever with films like psycho (1960) and Frenzy (1972) Psycho was a huge game changer and really gave the Thriller genre a whole new meaning.   

  In class today I gave a presentation on Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposites here it is. 

  Blog intro Hello. I'm Joe and welcome to my blog, over the next two years I aim to improve my skills and learn more about the media and filmmaking. This year I will be focusing on thrillers.