Collateral Overview

Hello again. A few lessons back we watched a movie called Collateral.

We start by analsying the poster (to the right). The poster has a picture of Tom Cruise, at the time of the movies release Tom Cruise was a huge hit amongst audience. Therefore it was no surprise that no Tom Cruise's picture was only used for the poster. In addition his name was enlarged, even Jamie Foxx and the directors name were nothing in comparison. Moreover Jamie Foxx who I believed was the main focus- protagonist in the film, had nothing other than a small printed name.

Collateral released in 2004, it is  a crime thriller; starring Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise. Directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beatie.
This film could be described as experimental as it was Mann's first feature film shot with mostly high-definition camera.

There is a lot of evidence of the use of high-definiton camera used in scenes where the LA scenery can be seen.

The Trailer:



The briefcase scene is also one to be noted:
The use of a gun- which is a convention of a thriller is seen in this scene. The man who had the gun, believed he was a bigger man as he had a weapon and even tried to apprehend Vincent, but was obviously no match as Vincent later on killed him.

Vincent's New Friend:
This scene is a very big contrast to other scenes analysed in the film. The lighting in the scene is very bright, full use of high-key lighting. We feel in this scene the uneasiness felt by Max, almost tension. We see Vincent, almost normal-like as he converses with the Ida and also buy her a gift.

Pulled Over:

Mann stated that the film takes place on the night of January 24–25, 2004 from 6:30 p.m. to 5:40 a.m. There is a reason why the film is predominately is set in the dark, except for the hospital scene. We see a lot of tension in this scene, between Max, Vincent and the police. As the audience we are left on the edge because we know that there is a body in the trunk and the police had requested for Max to open that trunk. 

Mann used a scene which was spontaneous to take advantage of the the low key lighting available. In the clip below, we hear the Mann's and Cruise's view of the coyotes running through to the intersection.



The sequence of the Korean Nightclub was shot in 35mm.

When analyzing this scene, I realise the film has a blue hue, mostly everything looks blue. The music in the foreground is very contrapuntal because as there are nightclub goers dancing, and having fun, howver the actions among the character can not be heard only seen, doing this as an effort to portray the audience as one of the night club goers. As we progress through this scene we see that guns and have been fired (conventions of a thriller) but the music still continues to play through.

Background information of the film.
The film was co-produced by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures. Paramount released the film on Blu Ray, March 30th 2010.
Collateral had waited for 3 year for developing with DreamWorks. The work for directing it was passed from Mimi Leder to Janusz Kaminski. But it wasn't until Russel Crowe became interested in playing Vincent, that the project started developing. 
Crowe than brougt Mann on board, however due to constant delays Crowe pulled out. Which Mann decided to ask Cruise as Vincent and Adam Sandler as the cab driver.

The film opened August 24th 2004, in 3,188 in the theaters in the US and Canada and grossed $24.7 million; ranking number 1 in the first week.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task- Overview

PRE-PRODUCTION. The brief.

We were asked to create a short clip that displayed different camera techniques these were: Point Of View shot and a 180 reverse shot. We were asked to add these techniques in our short clip that had a basic story line to it.

PRODUCTION. How did we achieve  it?

I worked with my fellow classmate, Sveta Ankomah. Before we started filming, we created a story board to create a basic outline of our video. Then we started to using the camera, talking about the different elements that can be added to our video. The shooting primarily took place inside a classroom, but the outside was also feature mainly for the beginning. 

POST PRODUCTION. Was it successful?

We worked well as a group, as we were able to talk about different ideas inside AND outside of school. If any problem did arise we would go back to the storyboard and find a way to resolve it. Sveta was in charge of filming and editing. I was the creative mind behind it, trying to find out what camera angles worked well with what. In addition myself and Sveta were the actresses in the video. The final edit looks professional, with some elements of comedy.

Thriller Conventions

In this blogpost I will explain what the typical thriller will contain. A central to plot: the justice verses the injustice. The elements of the blurred line of good and bad. The elements consisted in a thriller are enigmas, red-herrings, plot twists and cliffhangers (most noted in a thriller, such as The Birds). The sub genres contained in a thriller are mystery, crime, psychological and political;  these sub genres give thrillers an extra aspect allowing it to have that extra twist or shock. The moods available in a thriller would heighten the tension present these moods that are responsible for these are: murder, menace, mystery and paranoia. The 
characters that feature in a thriller seem to be in a dangerous mission and trying to escape from the impossible. These escapes do not have to be actiony, but always have to seem to be escaping from anything, even the most bizarre and unnatural occurrence (A fleet of birds who seem only to attack humans). The characters themselves have to seem troubled, disturbed, confided or multi-faceted morally complex). The settings provide a typical thriller setting as they are seen as dark and corrupt. 

During class, we looked at several opening scenes of different types of thrillers.

Se7en
The opening scene shows the two cops; one who plays the good cop and another person who plays the bad cop. The sub-genre I received from just watching the opening scene was that it was crime thriller. The mood was a mysterious  as we were not getting the location of the setting. In addition, the setting was dark and grey. The film mostly took place in rainy, dreary and dark days; to match to the sub-genre and the characters of the film.

Drive
The opening sequence for driver we watched did not have a lot of the conventions of a thriller. The room is not lit- the only source of any light is from outside street lamps. At the beginning we don't see the characters facial features who is talking, but only a Scorpio print on his jacket. Use of non-diegetic sounds.The radio was a contrapuntal sound as it didn't reflect with what was happening outside; a car getaway. 

Kill Bill
The openiong of Kill Bill was a duplicate of James Bond film, which was re-edited to fit into the order of the thriller-intertexuality. There are gasping sounds at the beginning, but we are not aware of the source of the sound. In addition with clucking sounds of boots from an unknown source. Element of another film; Psycho sound after she gets shot.

James Bond Thriller Analysis.

James Bond Thriller Analysis.

The character James Bond is based on a fictional novel starring a fictional hero first published in 1953. He is often referred to his code name 007 and his mission working as a British Secret Service agent. The novel is created by Ian Fleming. These books are set during May 1951 and February 1951. Fleming continued to set base at his Jamaican home, Goldeneye and wrote a total of twelve books and a collection of two short stories.

James Bond is popular across the globe. If you haven't read the book or watched the movie, you'd still know about James Bond. I know that applied to me!
But why? Recipe of a James Bond Thriller will tell us how:

-Well it first has to have a handsome, heroic secret agent who plays James Bond.
-In addition it has to have a super villain of a greater or equal strength.
-A number of extremely beautiful Bond HAS to make love with.
-A location. An exotic location.
-Exciting stunt driven action, one that will leave you at the edge of your seat.
-The FAMOUS John Barry music. Most famously the one everyone associates with James Bond is the extract from Casino Royale.
-A pop song promoting the James Bond film.
-An opening action sequence.
-Bond receiving his mission.
-Fights and car chases
-Bond being trapped
-Bond escaping from his trap against all odds and triumphs to beat the villain.

We are going to analyse the opening scenes of several Bond films: Casino Royale.
CASINO ROYALE


THE SPY WHO LOVED ME


GOLDENEYE


These three films in comparison all share the same element of typical James Bond thriller film. It has an opening action sequence, I outlined earlier on before. The opening action sequence shows us who Bond is up against. Goldeneye and The spy who loved me opening sequence is set in a snowy region, not exactly an exotic location. However the element of snow may have been added, to add a suspense of 'Where is he'? and 'I can't see him', to leave the audience in awe when they realise where he is. In addition, Casino Royale and Goldeneye use of heavy artillery allows the audience to wonder will he survive? And of course he does. 


But why has James Bond always been popular?
This is the question, I ask myself. I have come to realise that James Bond is popular because he is the original superhero with no superhero strength, at all. Bond fulfills every man's fantasy the ability  to drive fast cars, wear fancy suites,use great gadgets and make love to no-strings attached women. And yet it fullfills every womens fantasy a sexy, hamdsome, smart dashing man, who's able to save them from any situation. What more is there to ask for?