Analysing the film opening for Premonition

The film "Premonition" is an influence for my thriller film opening as it is about a housewife having a premonition about her husband being killed in a car accident as a large truck collides with his car. This is similar to my idea as in my idea a girl has a dream of her boyfriend attempting to murder her by the use of suffocation.

The beggining intorduces the audience to those who distributed the movie by adding their trademark logo to the film. There were three main distributors of this movie, these were, Tristar Pictures (a Sony Entertainment company), Metro Goldwyn Mayer  Pictures and Hyde Park Entertainment. The text gradually appears in a subtle way in a  white, bold font and the dissolves into the black background, this suggest that this movie is going to have a subtleness which will continue throughtout. The Production company is then presented with flickering text which could be a connotation of an abnormality. "An Ashok Amritraj/ Offspring Production. After the production company, the director "Mennan Yapo" is presented in a larger font to show his involvement and importance in the film. The main actor is the presented as "Sandra Bullock", after this the title of the movie is presented to the audience. Whilst the title sequence is presented on the screen, non-diegetic sound is playing as there is an eerie type of background sound to set the atmosphere and mood.

Suddenly the screen then dissolves from a black out to an overhead shot of a woman sitting in her car, at first it looks as if she is crying but she is simply being given a surprise by her husband, we can assume it is her husband due to the body language shown between one another. There is then a close-up and tracking as they approach a house and then the camera changes into a midshot of the back of the couple and the camera zooms out into an establishing shot so that the audience are aware of the characters surroundings and they get a clear picture of the settings. The sign "SOLD" suggests that the male character has bought the house. The camera the shows a long shot and pan of the couple getting ready to settle down into their new home. This scene suggests that they are beggining to settle down, and the scene introduces the characters to the audience.

All of a sudden a pure white flash of light dominates the screen this connotates the idea of her having a dream or premonition. Then it dissolves into a CU of the female character in bed waking up due to the diegetic sound of a church bell, we then are introduced to a little girl running into her mothers room this suggest that time has passed since the couple bought the house, and the couple transformed into a clear nuclear family. The little girl asks her mother when her father was coming home, this automatically creates a foreshadowing effect as she asks about her father and the mother assumes that he will be coming home soon.

An establishing shot of an elementary school is shown on the screen to create a picture of the setting in the audiences head. The camera then begins to track the car as it moves forward and a sthe children get out of the car. The mother is dressed in a typical housewife wardrobe as she wears a sweatshirt when dropping the children to school and she drives a SUV which is a family oriented car. She makes sure that the children do not forget their lunches which suggests her staying in her characters role.

An overhead shot takes over the screen as it tracks her travelling back to her house, as this event is taking place, the non-diegetic background music begins to play to create an eerie atmosphere. The rest ove the credits begin to dissolve in and out of the screen. The camera begins to track her everyday routine. There is a shot that tracks her shadow as she goes for a run.  An extreme close-up appears as she is in the shower almost looking as if she was drowning in her sorrows and the camera follows the water as moves slowly down her neck and then travels down to her back as she turns around.

A general pan of the house is shown to illustrate their current living condition. A long shot is displayed as she it highlights her role as a housewife taking part in domestic labour. A cross-cutting appears on the screen as the female character begins to talk to her friend on the phone, this type of editing is very subtle and continuity is clearly shown when they both are busy doing jobs within the house.

She then gets off the phone to find a message on her answering machine recorded by her husband, the tone of voice suggests that they both had an argument and the camera begins to zoom into an extreme close-up of her face and the phone to capture the emotion on her face. He then rushes off and says the words "is that you?", this implies that he was having an intimate relationship with someone else as his wife and him were having problems, that phone call helps the audience establish what was going on in their relationship.

The doorbell rings and the camera follows her as she goes to answer it. A sudden reaction shot is shown when she opens the door and a sherriff answers the door. The woman is then told that her husband was killed in a car accident, the atmosphere suddenly changes as a non-diegetic drum beat dominates the dialogue. An over the shoulder shot shows the reaction of the female and focuses on her expression on her face as she does not know how to react. The atmosphere changes again as the diegetic dialogue is drowned out to create a form of echoing, this helps the audience understand the characters emotions and feelings as she is in great shock.

There is great amount of continuity in the editing however some of the shots are unstable and you can notice that the camera is shaking. However the crosscutting is extremely smooth and clean.

Analysing the Exemplar Blog

http://cmdiplomayasmin.blogspot.com/

This blog is very successful as it includes and illustrates the students entire
journey. She includes even the little things such as the test shots and the weather forecast.  She continues to add detail in all her posts. You can clearly see that she has put a huge amount of dedication in her work. She has included many clips which have influenced her final outcome, however she has included very little analysis. I will add more influences to my blog to relate to my final outcome.

The blog tells me that I can attempt to create something like this for my own coursework depending whether I dedicate myself to acheive such a clear and clean blog.  Looking at this blog clearly shows me that I haven't been working as hard as I should be and I will use this blog as a template and I will refer to it aswell as the tasks I have been set by my teacher.

Targets I will complete by 16/12/10
Target 1: Re-do the storyboard
Target 2: Create a graphical copy of audience feedback
Target 3: Focus on figuring out what title sequence wl be used.

Applying Propp and Todorov's Theory to Premonition

Propp's Theory

The hero: is the main protagonist who is the centre of the story, usually on a quest, a search or a mission. The hero in the film is Yasmin as the film revolves around her and she achieves her mission.

The princess: the heroes reward or prize at the end of the story. There is no princess as such in Premonition as Yasmins man prize or reward at the end is peace.

The princess' father: rewards the hero. There is no father as there is no princess as such.

The helper: provides guidance and support to the hero. This would be a close friend which Yasmin deeply relies on for advice and guidance.

The dispatcher: set the hero off on a quest or mission. The premonition itself is the dispatcher as this sets Yasmin off to ask why she had such a premonition.

The donor: provides a magic ingredient to move the story on. In this case, the donor could be Yasmins boyfriend as he is the main reason of which she has a premonition. He also provides Yasmin with a source of information which helps her on her quest.

The villain: competes with and tries to detroy the hero. In this case, the villain is Yasmins boyfriend in the premonition as well as the premonition itself as it plays games with Yasmins mind.

Todorov's Theory

Equilibrium: The happy atmosphere as Yasmin wakes up and reads the text from her boyfriend.

Disruption: The disruption is when Yasmin falls asleep and has a premonition which causes her to suffocation by her boyfriend in her dream.

Recognition of Disruption: This occurs when Yasmin tosses and turns in her bed and she is disrupted by this premonition. She suddenly wakes up and realises the realistic premonition.

Attempt to Repair Disruption: This occurs when Yasmin attempts to discover the main reason behind the premonition and whether it would come to life.

A Return of New Equilibrium: Yasmin eventually defeats the premonition and eventually begins to live a happy and peaceful life.

Using Todorov and Propps theories on 'The Nightmare on Elm Street'

The Nightmare of Elm Street is a thriller of murderous passions and it could also be classed as a psychological thriller as it is all about the mind. It is about a serial killer named 'Freddie Krueger' who goes into a series of teenagers' dreams and kills them in their dreams, which then results in their death in reality. The only way they can stay alive is if they stay awake, which is very difficukt for them to do.


I have decided to apply Todorov's model of narrative structure and Propp's theory on charcter roles to the film, 'The Nightmare on Elm Street' this is because this film is the inspiration and similar to the thriller opening that my group and I intend to create.

Propp's Theory

The hero is the main protagonist, who is the centre of the story, usually on a quest, a search or a mission. There are two heroes in the film, Quentin and Nancy, as they are able to survive the vicious dreams that occur throughout Elm Street.

The princess often the hero's reward or prize at the end of the story. There is no real princess as such in this film as no one is seen as a reward.

The princess's father rewards the hero. Quentins father is seen as an authority figure as he attempted to take action, when he found out what Freddie was doing to the teenagers.

The helper provides guidance and support to the hero. The film focuses on Nancy as she is the main chracter and Quentin helps her figure out the background of Krueger and why he was going this to these innocent people. He is relied on to give the main character support and sticks by her.

The dispatcher sends the hero off on his/ her task or quest. There is no real dispatcher as such as no sets the characters to defeat a certain subject. In my opinion, you could argue that the dispatcher could possibly be the dreams as they make the teens want to find out how to overcome them and defeat them.

The donor provides a magic ingredient to move the story on. I believe that the donor could be said to be Nancys Mother, this is because she provides Nancy with relevant data such as photographs which help Nancy to discover that those she met in high school, have been in her life for longer, since she was in pre-school. This suggests a certain link between the past and the present dreams.

The villain competes with and tries to destroy the hero. The villain was Freddie Krueger as he stalked the teenagers in their dreams and murdered them.

Todorov's Theory

 Equilibrium: The happy atmosphere when the teenagers were young and they did not have a care in the world and enjoying their lives. This is when they have fun and begin to learn about life and new experiences.

Disruption: The disruption is when Freddie Krueger is introduced to the children. He begins to try to get close to the children when he gets a job at the school which they all attend.

Recognition of Disruption: The parents discover that Freddie Krueger did abnormal things to them while they were at school. He took them to the 'magic cave' which was a secret place where he would molester them and scratch their clothes. The children then re-discover Freddie Krueger when they begin to have very strange nightmares about him.

Attempt to Repair Disruption:  The two main characters, Nancy and Quentin discover a way to beat Krueger at his own game. They conjour up an idea of which one of both will stay awake whilst the other sleeps to attempt to stop these nightmares by killing him.

A Return of New Equilibrium: There is no surreal new equilibrium as Krueger changes his pattern of murder, this is a sign of torture. He decides that he will not kill Nancy and Quentin, but he would murder those closest to them. This suggests that there is no real happy ending or return of new equilibrium as the villain is yet to be defeated.

Audience Research

Questionnaire Media

Pitch for thriller

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