Thriller Film Challenge, Film Noir/Crime Thriller.

          Thriller Film Project:

This is a finished product of our film challenge. After planning and story boarding we embarked on our filming project. Our film depicts 2 detectives in the 1950-60s Era. We tried making it more realistic by having Jasper putting on an accent, and both detectives wearing clothing similar to detectives would wear during the 60s. We used some terminology that matches the era we are filming in, words such as "Dame" or "Gal", even Jasper's accent matches the era, as he pronounces "Murder" as "Moider". I managed the props and was an actor, Richy and Saimink worked on the camera work and plot, Saimink was also the victim, and Jasper was the main character as the experienced detective. The film was directed, edited and filmed by Richy. In the filming site, we did dry-runs to make sure everything was good, and made some adjustments. In the film, there are 2 characters. John Wayne (Toy) and the un-named experienced detective (Jasper). The short film also has a black/white edited in by using Premier, which adds the authenticity of being a Film Noir/Crime Thriller.

American Sniper's Film Opening | Analysis

           AMERICAN SNIPER FILM OPENING ANALYSIS

American sniper is a Action/War/Biographical Thriller based on the life of Chris Kyle, a US Navy Seal Sniper who was murdered in February, 2013. The film is a tribute to Chris Kyle's life, from a child to a fully grown adult.

The opening sequence is filled with many micro-elements, and it is simply just magnificent. It combines a whole bunch of emotions, making you sit at the edge of your seats. The opening takes place in Iraq, on Chris Kyle's first tour.

The first thing we see in the opening is this: A platoon of US Marines, with an M1A1 Abrams supporting them, rolls through a war torn city in Iraq.

Just this one short scene in the intro tells a lot. In the background, you can see buildings that are very old and war-torn (Destroyed), their paint deteriorating away among the gun-fire and deaths. The state of the building tells us that it is abandoned. 2 US Marines can be seen in the background, looking around for insurgents. This tells us that the environment that the Marines are so dangerous that normal civilians have fled somewhere else, it give us a sense of fear and anxiety.

In this scene, Chris aims his Remington Mk.13 Mod 5 Sniper Rifle at a man acting suspiciously on a cellphone. This scene is important because it has a big effect on the audience watching. It shows the audience the character's expression in combat, in a war-torn country with danger lurking around every corner. Even though that is the environment that they are in, both of them is calm,cool and collected, like it's another boring day at work. Since Chris is aiming at the man, it gives the audience a feeling of anxiety because the audience does not know what Chris is going to do next, is he going to shoot the man or let him go? It gets the audiences tensed up.

In this shot, it is a wide angled shot from Chris's over watch/sniping spot, covering the platoon of Marines down on the ground. This shot shows clearly the environment they they are in. The conditions there are unbearable to live in. Blown up cars and debris from blown up buildings litter the streets. The buildings itself look like those of a abandoned shanty town. This shows the harsh environment these Marines have to go through, it is an eye opening shot of how chaotic and dangerous the setting really is. It gives us a feeling that anything can happen at any moment, ambushes can occur within seconds, it plays a big effect on fear, fear of the unknown.

In this scene, Chris aims his sniper rifles to 2 people, a woman and a child. The woman is handing the child a RKG-3 Anti-Tank Grenade, which can do serious harm to the tank and the marines patrolling (Not seen in this shot). This scene shocks the audience because it breaks all morals and ethics, by using a child as a weapon of war, aka Child Soldiers. The audience are stunned,shocked as the mother hands the child a Anti-Tank grenade. Mothers are associated with warmth and love, however in this scene, it seems like the mother is willing to let her son throw the grenade and get shot by the Marines. It shows the audience how far the terrorists and insurgents are willing to go to kill the Marines, even to the point of using children as cover or as the weapon themselves. This scene is one of the scenes that makes the audience hold their breathe, as they are in disbelieve, that this actually happened. Since the whole movie is based on a true story, this scene actually happened in Iraq. The audience will be shocked, scared, some even traumatized by this actual scene. This scene is very important because it has some short to long term effect on our thinking. When I first saw this scene, a hatred grew inside me, a hatred for the terrorists and insurgents. I asked other people what they thought and most of them said the same thing, that they cannot believe that this actually happened, and they hate the terrorists even more. The scene plays with our emotions and way of thinking mentally.

This scene is equally as deep as the one above, it is very emotional and heart breaking to see. This seen is shot from Chris's POV, while looking through the scope of his Mk.13 sniper rifle. It shows the child's facial expression. The child looks sad and dull, like he is being told to do something he doesn't want to do, while his mother just simply stands and watches. It is emotional for some audiences, as the child is really young, and doesn't really know what is going on and is simply doing what his mother said. That the child, an innocent civilian, can be used by terrorists to harm people. This scene creates anxiety as the audience doesn't know what Chris is going to do, it plays with the audience's emotions.