Teacher comment

Great to see that this group have acquired the 'blogging habit'. Good work. Now look for ways to make your blogs more personal and reflective, almost like a diary, so the reader gets a good sense of your learning and your progress.

Suspense

Suspense is something that makes the audience jump out of their seat with fright, It gives people that little thrill. Every Thriller film will have suspense in it to keep their veiwers locked on to the movie. In-order to do this suspense and build up tension, films try getting their viewers in unexpected scenes.

United 93

United 93 is a 2006 American film wrriten, co-produced, and directed by Paul Greengrass.



The film opens early on the morning of September 11, 2001 with hijackers Ahmed al-Nami and al-Haznawi praying in their hotel room.
The first scene of the praying builds BIG tension for religious people especially because they're religious themselves and they try putting themselves in the actors shoes to see if its right to do what they are going to do, and the fact we don't see their faces, and just hear their voices which makes it even more suspenseful.

Eventually the four hijackers get through the security check and into the plane without any trouble, makes us think because one of the hijackers had a little knife on them, which didn't show up on the security check. This also reminds us that America had low security in 2001, however now its the opposite they are taking real serious actions, for it to not happen again.

Once they get seated into the plane, it takes sometime for it to take off. Meanwhile someone gives a phonecall to the U.S airline services to tell them that one of there planes going to get hijacked. Thats one of the scenes that keeps the audiences interested in the film itself, making us think what will happen next. Eventually it takes off and the airline people can't get through to the plane, so they get the army involved.
One of the hijackers play a great role, because we see him seated at the front, they are all nervous, however the hijacker seated at the front is more nervous, as if he didn't want to do this, Infact we know that there is someone he loves, as he calls her before he gets on the plane.

This makes us think that the hijackers had no choice at all, but to do this and aim at the White House as their target. Throughout the whole film we are kept suspensed from the things that take part. At the end all the plane passengers gather around and the BIG men get ahold of weapons and decide to attack the terrorists, which they believe is the only way to stay alive. At this point the audiences get a little smile on their face as they would of wanted for the passengers to do this. The ending turns out to be more action because there is weapons and fighting involved, which viewers like to see. However at the end the plane crashes and they all die. Comparing this to all other films, shows there is big differences, in most films there are main characters and famous actors, however in United 93 there isn't any main characters or any famous actors that live at the end. This is what makes this film different. Its a great thriller, I recommend people to watch this.

Thriller sub-genres

There is also another type of genre called sub-genres, this goes in more detail and gives us an idea of what type the genre is, such as what the production is about.

Psycho (1960) - Psychoanalytical Thriller
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller." Psychoanalytical Thrillers are mainly thrillers about people with psychological problems, and it shows things which they can lead to do, e

Thirteen Ghosts (2001) - Horror Thriller
Thirteen Ghosts (also known as Thir13en Ghosts or 13 Ghosts) is a 2001 horror film directed by Steve Beck.
Horror thriller films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death.

Blade (1998) - Action Thriller
Blade is a 1998 vampire action thriller film. Action thrillers normally contrain weapons and dangerous props, such as guns and explosives, this shows the action part of the thriller film. Its exciting to watch.

Introduction

The stucture of the thriller openings.

There are three types of basic Thriller openings:

-A narrative opening with the titles running throughout.
-A discrete title sequence.
-Titles on a plain background, followed by the narrative opening.

I have studied four different Thriller openings:

The shining - A narrative opening with the titles.
Arlington Road - A discrete title sequence.
What Lies Beneath - Titles on a plain background..
Deja Vu - A narrative opening with the titles.

Analysing Thriller Clips

The Structure of Thriller Openings

There are three basic structures, the first one is, a narrative opening with the titles running throughout. The second one is a discrete title sequence. The third and final one is titles on a plain background, followed by the narrative opening.

Throughout the Thriller Openings, I have seen approved that there are three basic structures which one or the other fits each Thriller Opening, such as,

· Arlington Road - A discrete title sequence

· The Shining - A narrative opening with the titles running throughout

· What Lies Beneath - Titles on a plain background, followed by the narrative opening

United 93

A 2006 American Thriller film, United 93 includes events abroad United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The film opens with a black screen but we can hear voice of a person reading the Quran, this creates suspension as the audience wants to know who the voice belongs to, soon as we get a view another person says, 'It's time' this creates tension as it builds more suspense.

Later at the Newark International Airport, the passengers and crew board United 93 along with the hijackers, the pace is slow to rise tension as the audience is aware of the oncoming disaster. After boarding, the flight is delayed and other three hijacked flights take off to other targets, World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Eventhough the audience is aware of what is happening or what they expecting to happen, the feeling of hope is still created as the air traffic controllers have a tape recording made 20 mins earlier before one of the flights crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, 'We have some planes, just stay quiet and you'll be okay. We are going back to the airport', says one of the hijackers. Now that the air traffic controllers know more flights have hijacked, the viewers have an hope that the flight United 93 will be spotted to prevent the disaster. Later all the hopes fade away as the air traffic controllers and Air Force then watch as Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Centre on live television.

United 93 was set for the U.S Capitol, White House. By the time the hijackers take over the control of United 93, another flight creates a huge fireball at the Pentagon, at this point hopes were totally destroyed along with the buildings.

The turning point was when the passengers refuse to be hijacked and one of the passenger can fly a plane. Every step passengers took raised tension with the hopes, they soon managed to make attempt to take control and as they reach to the cockpit to save their own lives, one of the hijackers shakes the plane violently to throw the passengers off balance and plane angles towards the ground where cockpit window is clearly shows it's destination,then the screen goes blank just as at the start but at this point we are aware of what has happend.