Yesterday evening, I watched the new oscar-nominated movie, Jackie. Natalie Portman was nominated for her leading roll as Jackie Kennedy, in the short period of time before and after her husband John F Kennedy's death. Although it is classified a biographical-drama film, I believe that it is very intense, and a lot of the movie gives one a feel of high anxiety. Therefore, in my opinion this could be classified as a drama-thriller.

Arrival

Today I was finally able to watch 'Arrival' - the new sci-fi thriller. It is set in the present day, when several UFOs land across the planet in specific areas. It follows linguistics professor, Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and her attempts to translate the Alien language in order to discover why they came to earth. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker star as well in this highly rated Alien movie. Surprisingly though, there is little to no action in the movie, and it rather focuses on the fight to communicate peacefully with the other worldly beings.

WHAT I THINK: I have to say that I did indeed enjoy the movie very much... until the last 20 minutes. It had the potential to be an excellent movie, but, the ending I feel kind of ruined it. Firstly, it all feels to rushed; the build up to the answers in the movie is so slow yet so enticing, but finally when the answers are revealed, its as if the director squashed everything together, lacking the steadiness and patience which made the rest of the movie so good. Secondly the answers we are given in the end, are a bit anti-climax and strange, just not what one would expect from the rest of the movie. Lastly, although it is a good place to work towards, the film highlights the importance world peace and unification, which is of course great, but it overshadows the sci-fi feel of the movie in the end. Maybe the director is just to indulgent in his ideas, that he kind of made a mess of it in the end.

All in all I rate it: 6.5/10

THE DEPARTED

THE DEPARTED released in 2006, and is about Boston state police trying to crack down on an Irish gang, but whilst there are rats on both sides. The gang and the police attempt to figure out who is the rat in each of their groups, as tensions begin to rise. Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon star in this dramatic-crime-thriller, directed by Martin Scorsese.

WHAT I THINK: This is personally one of my favourite movies, and I have seen it quite a few times. You are always on the edge of your seat when watching this masterpiece of the crime-thriller genre - the stakes are always high, and the atmosphere is very tense. Surprisingly, there is a hint of dark comedy to this movie (particularly in Jack Nicholson), which make it just that little bit better. All the actors do exceedingly well with their roles, leaving the movie in my eyes as one of the best.

I rate it 9.5/10

WORK TODAY

I think we had a very important lesson today in class about thrillers. Now we have not started writing treatments yet for our thriller ideas, but todays lesson provided great insight on what thrillers are really about; the structure of a thriller, the tropes, the key elements and ideas etc. I believe this will been influential on my treatment, as now I am more confident to express my ideas.

SHUTTER ISLAND

Seen to many as one of the best recent psychological-thrillers, Shutter Island is about two US Marshals who go to Ashecliffe Hospital, a fortress-like insane asylum located on a remote, windswept island, after the implausible escape of a brilliant murderess. Leonardo DiCaprio stars along side Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley, in this mind bending roller coaster.

WHAT I THINK: This has to be one of my favourite thrillers ever made. Every moment of the film, you are held in this aura of complete tension and suspicion. Martin Scorsese perfectly tailors the exact atmosphere needed to make this movie what it is. Also, the actors, specifically Leonardo DiCaprio, all do so well with their roles, just to make it inch perfect. In my eyes it is pretty much flawless, although I do advise concentrating whilst watching it, as you can get caught up with different ideas and get very confused.

I rate it 9/10

Room Opening

Room Film Opening

Abrahamsen. The opening title sequence - audience is given several conventional thriller techniques

Typical - many conventional techniques, for example, the misen scene creates an obscure gloomy atmosphere, silhouettes out of focus, only fragments of body.

Audio - breathing, low pitched bassy, rumbling sound. Non-digetic sound (voice over with eco - giving non realistic narration, either from future or inside head).

Hybrid Genre - family drama/thriller

Narcos Opening Title Sequence

Art of the title's 'Narcos' opening title sequence is an ideal opening sequence for a show or movie about drug cartels in South America. It involves all the bits an pieces linked to a cartel lifestyle - e.g. cocaine, cash, girls etc - along with the consequences it causes, such as destruction, police investigations and war.. In the opening sequence, there are layers of images that fade from each other, and there is a spanish guitar song, to suite the mood of the show.

THRILLER

Today as a class we began to focus on the task of producing a thriller opening, having finished our preliminary tasks. This blog will now involve research to do with this project.