Suspense

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experience suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. In broader definitions of suspense, this emotion arises when someone is aware of his lack of knowledge about the development of a meaningful event; thus, suspense is a combination of anticipation and uncertainty dealing with the obscurity of the future.

Suspense:Definitions

Suspense is a feeling that someone has when they feel that something bad is going to happen. Suspenseful moments happen in film as well as in reality. Many films build by suspension through diegetic sound e.g footsteps or a loud bang, or even non-diegetic sound e.g Strong musical scores that has lots of low violin keys played. This builds up anticipation to the audience as it makes them weary and anxious to know what will happen in the next scene.

Suspense also happens in reality if you were to hear someone drop something in a quiet place such as a library. Or if wife finds something that could indicate her husband is cheating which also creates tension between each other.

Films are able to create a much more dramatic suspense as we are able to match cut between two scenes therefore giving the audience information on what will happen whereas we can't do that in real life which makes suspenseful moments more 'random' as we don't expect it in our day to day lives.

In addition, creating suspense is a great technique if not usual technique when used in horror/mystery and thriller films. Suspense can also be used in slap-stick comedy such as a match cut of a close up of a banana skin on the street and a medium long shot of a man stolling on the street. This gives the hint to the audience that something funny is going to happen.

AS Media Skills Audit-Editing

In today's media class, we had a Final Cut Pro-Bait tutorial and learnt a few ways of editing clips. There were a number of clips that we had to put together to make a short scene.

The first thing we learnt was to use the in and out point marking device. After choosing the clip i want to use, i was able to decide when i want the clip to actually start and when i want it to finish by sing the i and o letters on my keyboard. I found this very easy to use because i was able to choose the exact time on when i want to start it just by pausing it then pressing I(In point marking) and then playing it till i wanted to pause it again on my desired ending of the b#clip by pressing O(Out point marking).

After did this, we dragged the clip to the timeline below whilst holding on the left key on the mouse then released it when the arrow in the middle of the clip is pointed down. This meant that now the clip is in the viewer section as when i was choosing the clip it was on the browser section which is on left.

When i wanted a cut to match the cut i just put in the timeline, i opened up a clip that is now in the browser section and repeated the process of point marking. However, in order to create a good match-cut, i kept on replaying the clip that's in the timeline and replayed the clip i chose in the browser section so i can see when the clip should start that would match to the ending of the previous clip. Then i would drag this next clip down to the timeline, making sure the clip is right next to the other one so that when i play it back, there would be continuity between the two clips.

After i replayed my clips, i realised that i wanted to remove an ending of one of the clips. I did this by going to the tool bar that's on the right hand side and going to the select tool at the top and clicking the clip form the start to the ending i wanted. This will remove the ending i didn't select.

Moreover, i decided that i wanted to remove a particular section of a clip in the timeline. I did this by using the razor tool in the tool bar and selecting the section the clip i wanted to remove. When i did this, i was told during the tutorial that there are two different ways of removing this. If i use the delete button it will remove it but still continue withe the next clip when played. However, if i used the backspace bar when deleting my section, it will leave a gap between the two clips.

I thought editing clips will be much harder than i thought it would be, but i got the hang of it when doing a tester of a few clips which i found really helpful as i will be able to know few things when editing my own clips.

Technical audit of Bait tutorial- Nahuel Contreras

In todays media lesson, we were taught on the techniques of editing clips. Using different clips and the editing techniques learnt, we had to create a short sequence.


Whilst watching different clips, we had to decide which ones to use. In order to remove any unwanted parts, we had to use the marking devices. In order to mark in (the start) I had to press 'i', and to mark out (the finish), press 'o'- to create the desired length. After doing this, I then had to drag the clip from the browser section on the left, down to the timeline. The clip would then appear in the viewer section on the right. Once the clip was in the timeline, there were a number of ways to change the size of it i.e. extend it, or crop it further. This could be done by putting the mouse by the either side of the clip and then either expand or retract it. If there was a particular part in the clip that I wanted to remove, I could simply use the razor tool found in the tool bar on the right hand side. To remove the section using the razor tool, all that was required was to click at the start and the end of the desired section. However, there are two different ways to delete the section- both which have very different results. To press the delete button will remove the part but still create continuity between remaining clips, however to press the backspace key, deletes the section but leaves a blank gap inbetween. We also learnt how to create a match cut. This could be done by either using the same clip and removing a section inbetween, or by using to different clips and cropping them so there is continuity i.e. the homeless man reaching for the plate and then a match cut to his hand picking up some food. This process required one to constantly replay the created scene in the viewer section to ensure there is continuity and sense.

Photo Activity

Claustrophobic

This image evokes a claustrophobic impression. The high angle depicts him as vulnerable and weak and his hunched, meek pose in the small lift all support this idea of claustrophobia. The dim lighting creates an uneasy feeling and the 'hands-in-the-face' represents distress.

Happiness

Evidently this image educes happiness. I photographed her leaping in the air to symbolise a form of uncontainable excitment and joy. The long shot, low angle depicts her as confident. There is a bright but soft lighting which makes her look happier.

Quick

This image represents the word 'quick'. It was taken whilst Alvin was running inorder to create a blurry and fast paced effect. It is an open bright light to correspond with the idea of 'fast-light'.

Depression

This image represents depression. His body language is slouched, and miserable- evoking a sad mood. His face encourages depression by appearing hopeless. There is a gradient in the lighting. Its bright on the right and then transitions to a darker light. The medium shot includes the negative space of the stairs- only supporting the idea of isolation

Photo Activity

In my group, we took a number of photographs that evoke particular words and feelings. I will showing four of the images my group had taken and the word each picture is demonstrating

This photograph was to show Claustrophobic. I had an idea to show this by taking a picture of Alvin in the lift because it's a close space. The photograph was also taken in a long shot from a high angle to represent his emotions of being in an enclosed space. Also the fact his sitting down and in the corner of the lift while covering his face also insinuates his phobia. He is also in darkness to show that he is not in a good state of mind right now as he is in an enclosed space.

This next photograph is to show Happiness. We thought to show this by jumping in the air as well as smiling. Noel took a long shot me from a low angle to emphasis my happiness in this photograph. The lighting is also bright as the photograph of me is next to a window to show

I'm in a good mood.

This photograph shows Speed. We did this by taking a medium shot of Alvin whilst running to create a blurry effect. This shows that he's in a hurry to go somewhere.

This photograph of Nigel represents Depression. We took a medium long shot from a low angle to show his emotions and body language. It also emphasis the fact his alone on the stairs.

Overall i was very pleased with the outcome of this photographs and they all clearly represent the chosen words. We did this through the lighting, body language and emotion of this image.

Photo Activity

Today we had to take 6 photos in our groups, each photo we represented had to represent one of the following words: Claustrophobic, paranoid, mysterious, city, euphoria, hysteria, contentment, happiness, anguish, confusion, depression, future, passion, electrify, calm, disorder, quick, spiky through, twist and hang. the six we chose to do were: Claustrophobic, mysterious, happiness, depression, quick and city.

I was pleased with the way most of them came out. The four I've decided to analyse are mysterious, happiness, depression and quick.

Quick :

This picture represents "quick". we decided to take the picture outside and caught Alvin in mid motion to create a blur effect. I edited it a bit more in photoshop to maximise the the motion blur effect.

This picture represents depression. we took a low shot of me to show the big space behind the subject of the picture. we also wanted the subject (me) to take as little space as possible on the photo and we decided to place me in the corner to make me seem isolated. we tried to minimise the light on the subject to make the picture look dark and miserable. also the emotion and body language portrays the feelling of depression.

This picture represented Happiness. We wanted to litterally capture the moment of Beverely jumping for joy. We tok the picture in well lit area on the stairs. Her facial expressions shows her happiness as well. This contrasts well with the picture before of depression.

This picture represented mysterious.

To create a mysterious feel to the photo we decided to take an extreme close up only showing Beverely's eye and a bit around her eyes as well. The out of focus blur was accidental but actually helps increase the feeling of mysterious making the picture not look very clear.

Title sequence:Marathon man

My media class studied a number of opening title sequences of thrillers. I will be talking about the opening sequence of the film Marathon Man. Marathon Man is a film that was released in 1976 which stars Dustin Hoffman as the protaganist, Thomas "Babe" Levy.

It starts off with white text of the tittles on a black background while an emerging sound of an audience cheerirng is played which then cuts to a black and white clip of a proffesional runner who seems to be running in the olympics or an important sport event. When this clip has finished,the sound of cheering stops and changes to a diegetic sound of a man breathing heavily which then cuts to a shadow of Thomas running while dramatic non-diegetic music is played aswell as more tittles appear on the screen.

The combination of the sound of the man breathing while music with a dramatic atmosphere is played is a great effect as it creates tension. The camera pans to his feet which then cross-cuts to a man in a suit opening a locker. This then cross-cuts back to a medium shot of Thomas with the city of Manhattan in the background to show the location of the character to the audience. The non-diegetic music changes to a more sinister sound.It changes to more dramtic sound when we cross-cut again to a medium shot of the man taking out an item what seems to be tablets which then changes to a close up of the man putting this item in his pocket to show it's importance.

This then cuts to tracking of Thomas' feet running which then later changes to a medium shot of his face in exhaustion. We cut again to the man in a suit but the audience is able to get more information of this man as he hands over the locker to what seems to be a security guard, there is also a close up of the security guard giving the man the keys that opened the locker to show that he is of high importance.

Overall, the opening sequence of Marathon Man is really good in showing that it's a thriller with tension and suspense from the start througout the use of camera,sound,mise-en-scene and editing.

Suspense in Collateral

My media class watched the film Collateral which was directed by Micheal Mann and stars Tom Cruise who plays as Vincent, Jamie Foxx who plays Max and Jada Pinkett Smith who plays Annie. There were many suspensul scenes throughout the film and i will be explaining my top three suspenseful moments in the film. Suspense in films build up anticipation to a particular scene that makes the audience more aware of what will happen next. This could be used to sudden bangs of loud music.

In the beginning of the film when Max is waiting for Vincent in his cab,a digetic sound of soothing classical music is played while his waiting. This creates a calming atmosphere aswell as demonstrating the frame of mind Max is in. However it stops and turns to a diegetic sound of the man crashing to the top of his cab creating shock and suspense. Also the sound of the man crashed down on his car is much more louder compared to the previous sound of classical music.

Another suspensful scene in the film is when Max becomes irrate and angry while his driving Vincent. Non-diegetic,slow paced music is played througout that gets louder, the audience can also see Max's anger the fact he drives much faster by having an ariel shot of the cab aswell as a close up of the speed meter in the cab to demonstrate to the audience the speed his driving. The camera also moves alot to show disorientation. The non-diegetic music changes into a more upbeat sound from the point when Max says "But you know new news, it doesnt matter anyway". This shows his change in mood. Diegetic sound of the car screetching through his turns while driving also shows this. The non-digetic music gets louder when Vincent shows that he gets worried about the speed Max is driving at. This stops when Max overturns his car, leaving just the loud sound of the car crashing to the road.

Another suspesful moment in Collateral is at the end when Max is calling Annie on top of a building thats next to her building as he can see Vincint looking for Annie. Non-diegetic dramatic music with heavy violin sounds is played during this scene. More tension is created through the diegetic music when the sound of the mobile phone showing low battery turns off. A larger bass sound is played in the music when Vincent realises where Annie is in the building. Also the fact that Max can see where Vincent and Annie is as there's shot of Vincent in the one of the offices shows suspense aswell.

In addition, the top three suspensful scenes througout the film Collateral is when Max is waiting for Vincent in the cab that creates shock, when Max speeds up when driving and when Vincent is looking for Annie.

Marathon Man- Nahuel

In media, we analysed a range of thriller opening clips. The clip I chose was 1976 thriller, Marathon Man. The film was directed by John Schlesinger and stars Dustin Hoffman as Thomas 'Babe' Levy. The opening of thriller 'Marathon Man' uses all four film aspects to create suspense; camera, sound, mise en scene and editing. The titles in the opening begin with basic white font against a black background which continues over the shot of Dustin Hoffman running. The content of the clip contrasts with the introduction, which I thought would be a documentary. The title, opening shot and the rest of the clip all correspond with the theme of running, however, the sudden cut to a man opening some sort of safe, keeps the audience in suspense by challening their expectations. The opening mounts the suspense by focusing on a close up of Hoffman's running feet and only revealing his identity in the latter part of the clip. In the shots of Hoffman's running feet, the only indication of his form is a shadow; which builds suspense as it conjures up eeriness associated with the unknown. It cross cuts to a man opening a safe and then cross cuts back to hand held tracking of Hoffman running. This stedi-cam technique creates an uneasy and dysfunctional feeling for the audience. There's a change of dynamics in the sound as what starts as muffled cheering (creating a heroic impression) soon leads to a diegetic sound of heavy breathing and panting which builds up to dramatic music to create tension. This non-diegetic mood music, creates further suspense by evolving to more sinister and high pitched. The music acts as a sound bridge creating continuity between shots. The location is identified as New York as the clip shows the man running over a bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn and features a shot of the iconic Manhattan landscape. The use of the jail in the other shot heightens apprehension as the negative connotations of incarceration creates fearful expectations. The mise en scene is also reflected in the props; a key and a box both develop in suspense from confusion. The lighting is also significant in the clip, for example, there is a soft, 'early-morning-sunrise' which creates an inspiration impression contrasted with a more harsh and clinical lighting in the shot of the man in the jail. The clothes help to determine representational issues aswell. For example, Hoffman is in jogging sweats, which is a reflection on what he is doing. However, the man in the jail is attired in a smart suit; a reflection that he is of a higher class and also his status; a powerful business man perhaps.

Arlington road

In an earlier media lesson we watched a number of title sequences and made notes and I've chosen to comment on the title sequence of the film Arlington Road. The Arlington road openening sequence is very different to all the other ones we watched, it was very abstract with quite a lot of editing that made the clip look weird and distorted. The setting is a typical suburban,area, big houses, garages and fences but the editing makes the setting look far from normal. The editing gave it a kind of supernatural feel to the sequence. It was very distorted and it was hard to make sense of.













The editing, titles and music compliment each other perfectly, there's an excess use of the colour red, it overexaggerates certain settings and makes them look evil and sinister, the long droney music adds to this feeling of possible evil happenings with added screaming sound effects and distant distorted speech. This is a very powerful title sequence that I was very inspired by. I don't normally watch these sort of thrillers but this one really caught my eye with just the opening titles. They gave a real sense of mental disturbance and the way they were editided, clips were darkended, inverted and colour effected. This all added to the greatness of the evil effect that was trying to be created.


This is part of the title sequence. Its a shot of the sky that has been desaturated and slowed down. It may have been edited a bit more to create the effect of the branches to turn black. This silhoutte effect created by the branches contrasts well the cloudy sky.






This is another shot from the title sequence this shows a shot of a baby behind a fence which seems to have been inverted and colour effect added. This ties in with the whole sinister feel that the sequence is trying to convey.

All in all I feel that this is a very well thought out title sequence that does the job of creating a suspensful and sinister mood. I appreciate that it must have taken a huge amount of post production work to create this title sequence with all the editing, music and titles. It was a very powerful and abstract title sequence which to me, stood out a lot from the rest.