Denotation >>> Connotation

                                          Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. Semiotics is one of the sections of the semantics, this is the study of signs and sign processes, analogy, symbolism, signification, communication.

Words and things don't have single, simple meaning. Traditionally, meaning can be divided in two parts: Denotation (the literal meaning of the word or thing) and Connotation (an association (emotional or otherwise) that the word/thing evokes).

Denotation            >>>>>>>            Connotation
Delta Sign                                           The Difference in Smth,                                                                     Delta of the river

Denotation            >>>>>>>>          Connotation
Kitchen Knife                                      Weapon, Skrewdriver








Denotation            >>>>>>>>           Connotation
Blood                                                    Death, Murder, Violence

Denotation             >>>>>>>>           Connotation
Cartoon Heart                                      Love, Affection

THE THRILLER (What does the thriller say?) [official blog]

                                      The Thriller.

Drama goes "Oooh!"

Horror goes "AAAAA!"

Action goes "I'm cool!"

Com (edy) goes "Ha-ha-ha!"

But there one sound that no one... actually, everyone knows it... ...

whatever...

Thriller and Suspence films are types known to promote intense excitment, suspence, a high level of anticipation, uncertainty, anxiety, nerve-wrecking tension  - everything that might cause serious mental disorder. 

A genuine thriller is a film that invariably pursues a sinle-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience at the edge of their seeats as the plot builds towards the climax. The character is usually placed in a menacing siruation  or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is suspecting or unknowingly involved in a dagerous or potentially deadly situation. The menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.

Thrillers are often hybrids - there are lots of varieties of suspence thrillers:
1) Action- or Adventure- Thrillers  (The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible)

2) Sci-fi Thrillers (Elysium, Tron:Legacy)










3) Crime-capper thrillers (Ocean's Twelve, Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels)

4) Western Thrillers (The Last Samurai, The Good The Bad and The Ugly)

5) Film-noir Thrillers (L.A. Confidential, The Usual Suspects)

Other types of thrillers:

1) Psychological thriller

This is a specific sub-genre with heavy focus on the ustable emotional states of characters. It often incorporates elements from the mystery and the drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre.
Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies, but rather are reliant on their mental resources, wheather it be by battling wits with a strong opponent or by battling for equilibrium in character's own mind.

2) Conspiracy Thriller

This is a subgenre of thriller fiction. The protagonists of conspiracy thrillers are often journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves pulling on a asmall thread which unravels a vast conspiracy. A common theme in such works is that characters uncovering the conspiracy encounetr difficulty ascertaining the truth amid the deceptions. It often happens due to coincidence.

3) Political Thriller












This is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. They can involve national or international scenarios. Political corruption, terrorism, and warfare are common themes. There is also a strong overlap with the conspiracy thriller.
The basic plot is usually an ordinary man pulling an innocent thread which leads to a mess of corruption. The corruption should be political or governmental in nature.

4)Techno-Thriller










This is a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from science fiction and thrillers. They include a disproportionate amount of technical details on its subject matter. The inner workings of technology and the machanics of various disciplines are thoroughly explored. 
This type of thriller can often be regarded as contemporary speculative fiction; world wars are a common topic. Techno-thrillers are often overlap with near-future science fiction. They also have a substantial overlaps with the genres of conspiracy thrillers.

5) Supernatural thriller











This is a thriller in which the film brings in a n otherworldly element mixed with tension, suspence and plot twists. Sometimes the protagonist and/or villain has some physic ability and superpowers. The film deals less with action and more through building tension through plot twists.

Now we know in detail what the thriller says. Nowadays, it's probably one of the most attractive and popular genre in the cinema as the spectators want something to thrill them the common live doen't seem so exciting anymore... Well, this is the live.

Production Meeting #1

This is our fantastic team that consists of me, Katie and Holly. Together we are going to struggle through all the difficulties standing in our way in order to make a thriller opening sequence. I guess, there's nothing in the World that can disturb us from making the best opening sequence this World has ever seen. 

However, we haven't decided yet what this sequence is going to be about, but it doesn't matter as we're a fantastic team!

Our first production meeting was very tough and we were even sweating by the end of it. We have two ideas at the moment. One of them is mine and one of them was not mine... one of them was Katie's. If you read my previous blogs you probably saw the ones where I presented my thriller ideas. But, anyway, I guess, it's worth describe the one that was nominated on "Being brought to life by our group" from me. 

We see an official in his house getting ready to go and present his law. He worries very much about it as he realises how much harm it will make to many people, but on the other hand, he believes that the law is going to be very efficient and progressive and so, worth adopting. We see him standing in front of the mirror in the toilet, we see the water flowing from the tap, but the thing we don't see is the face of the official. But still, the Sequence is based on revealing his character as much as possible using different details of his demeanor or of his clothes. At first, we see how he rubs his hands which creates an impression of some amount of blood on his hands that he realizes he has. And we understand that he feels somewhat guilty for what he is going to do.

Next we see him closing the tap. Even though all he does indicates that he worries, still his movements are pretty calm and aristocratic. He dries his hands and walks out of the toilet.

Then we see him walking through a small corridor towards the stairs (there are some photos hanging on the wall). During this little stroll we pick out some extra details of the demeanor and clothes and so, character. Then we see his secretary who tells him that the car is waiting and she gives him some papers which he reads as he walks down the stairs. Then he stops and signs it.

Finally, he walks out the building where his car is waiting. In the last shot we see his face and... "Why so serious?"

The second idea, Katie's idea, not mine idea is completely different. It's about the girl who tries to hand herself. Before this she experienced different things trying to kill herself, but she didn't succeed.  Actually, what sequence will consist of is variety of close-ups where this girl ties the rope, doing something trying to convince the audience that she is really going to hang herself... If it is filmed, it will be in black and white (my idea (i'm sorry for being so conceited)) and we can probably do a good sequence out of it.

Thriller Idea №4 (based on "Nonsense in my head")

4.             A guy has a prosecution mania. He thinks that everyone is a spy that follows his every movement. But he doesn’t know why would anyone follow or prosecute him. He is a perfectionist. He doesn’t want to do anything wrong. In fact, he is sure if he make a mistake it will be fatal and something bad (he doesn’t know what) will happen. The aim of his life is to do no mistakes. But then he sees a girl who just passes by and he falls in love with her. She starts to emerge more and more often. The point is that the girl is only in his imagination. At first, he adores her, but then he starts to think that she follows him as well and she is probably on of the main spies. He starts to be afraid of her. But she emerges more and more frequently. Finally, he decides to get rid of her, because he can’t live a life that way anymore. So he kills her. So his mind she doesn’t exist. He starts to suffer about it. But then he meets this real girl on the street. He can’t imagine how is this possible that she is still alive. He decides to follow her to find out if he the only one who can see her. He acknowledges that other people react on her as well. And he is not sure about anything. He doesn’t know if he killed her or not. So he is sure that he became insane and he has no idea what to do next.

  This guy just walks along the street and there are people around him, but then he sees the girl and the street becomes empty and there is nobody except for her. She passes him, he stops and looks at her back for a long time. Then turns his head from her and sees her again walking in the same direction. He wants to ask her a question, but he can’t and she passes by as well. Then she approaches him from the other side and asks him something, he points somewhere where there were girls that pass him already. She thanks him and starts to walk. He wants to stop her, but then he sees another girl (the same one) somewhere else. He turns his head, sees another girl, then turns once again and sees another and does so for 3 more times. Then he finally turns his head and looks directly into the camera.

Thriller Idea №3 (based on "Trance" and "Inception")

3.             There is a group of professional thieves. They commit their thefts through the people’s brains. For example, they capture some poor fellow, however, very rich. Then they immerse him into a state of hypnosis and he tells everything about what and where they can find (e.g. jewelry in a safe with a code 528491). The movie is about how they captured one guy who was the richest one ever captured. They didn’t know (in fact, nobody knew) that he had a kind of mental disease. So when they immersed him into the state of hypnosis he was just walking in the maze that had no sense and it was impossible to escape it as they found out later. They also found out that he won’t live long with such a disease. So they decided to put him into a mental institution (they invented something extremely canny, so that nobody knew who they were). Several months later he died, but he left a will where he left all the fortune to some organization nobody knew. It was “owned” by a group of people. Actually, this group of people was that group of thieves who succeed to change his mind so that he left everything to them.

   The Opening Sequence is about how they try to find out the place where his different precious stuff is. So the action is set on two locations. One of them is the “headquarters” of this group of thieves. There are only two people in the room: the rich lad and a girl who hypnotizes him. At the same time we see what is going on in his mind, how he walks without any purpose wherever she sends him to, but all is in vain as he always finds another dead end.

Thriller Idea №2 (based on "Thriller Idea №1")

2.         This idea is almost the same as the previous one. The concept of it is the same and again based on comparison and revealing character using small details but, this time, of only one character.

         So the movie is about a guy who used to be a very successful businessman, but then something bad happened and he decided to revenge to the one who is guilty. The guilty one is a very powerful man, an enemy of the main hero. In the movie we see, at first, how successful the main hero was, then we see how and why he lost everything (predominantly his fortune, probably his wife, but he doesn’t care so much about her). Next, we see him in a very bad state and see how he tries to cope with his problems and overcome himself. Finally, we see the revenge.

        Again, we see different time periods. First, when the guy is very wealthy and is about to strike a bargain that is going to increase his fortune in times, but the meeting, finally, turned out fatal, because of the bad guy who did something very bad. But the main hero doesn’t know anything about it yet. Second time frame is when the guy is not wealthy anymore and almost poor and he is going to revenge, when he grabs all the staff he needs (e.g. gun) etc.

Thriller Idea №1 ( based on "House of Cards")

1.         The whole movie is about two guys who used to be best friends when they were at school. One of them is powerful official right now and he adopts one law which causes the second guy to lose his job and get his wife killed by another poor fellow who lost his job as well because of the same law and didn’t know what to do with his wife. So the second one of these former best friends decides that the world will only benefit if this official is dead. And during the whole movie he tries to bring his revenge to life worrying about ethical issues. We also see the inside of political life and how the official lives in its circumstances. As soon as he realizes that his former best friend wants to kill him he of course tries to protect himself from him, but they have several very important conversation about their families, styles of life and convictions both of them have and some other stuff. So that the second “friend”, ordinary man realizes that, eventually, it’s only his fault what he has. And at the end he probably kills himself or, the other way, he tries to change everything. But we never know it, because the movie ends when he is about to commit a suicide and stops.

       The Opening Sequence shows two of these friends in to different time periods. The official - just before he goes to meeting (or whatever, probably to his office where he will watch the vote) that is going to decide the destiny of his new law, and the ordinary guy – when he is preparing for a murder. The Sequence is based on comparison of two heroes and revealing their characters, their relationships, their life style in general using small details such as things they wear, little actions that seem minor, but they are actually not. Both of them are put in a kind of stress situations, so here we can see them better than any other time.

What happens when people are buried alive (Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill 2)

                   Psychology of a Victim (Buried Alive)

"Show me a person who doesn't like Quentin Tarantino and I will show you who doesn't know anything about cinema". Quentin is probably one the best known directors in the world of all times. I wouldn't be mistaken if I called him a cult figure in film industry and his "Kill Bill" movie one of the most famous movie ever. It distinguishes from the other thanks to its own unique style and a tremedous amout of blood and violence. But that's what people like according to the movie's popularity. Or, the other possible reason is Uma Turman...

Oh, God, Yes, indeed...

Still "Kill Bill" is predominantly focused on violence, blood and that stuff. So it makes sense to analyze one of the most inhuman and outrageous, but, on the other hand, very stylish scenes in the history of cinema - th scene where Uma Turman's character is buried alive. 

The main emphsis in this scene is made on sound. In fact, this scene is so uncommon because you'll never see a black screen during the entire minute in any other Hollywood movie. The reason why this scene keeps our attention during all this time is the sound - sound of emotions and actions that the audience can convert into visual image in their heads. That is so brilliantly made that there are no other directors that ventured to include such a scene in their movie.

At first, we see how nail are hammered in the coffin accompained by specific Tarantino's music that shows us a cold-blooded confidence of the murderers. It indicates all the hopelessness of the situation. Calm faces of people who are about to bury a human alive explicilty illustrate the atrocity of all the situation.

Finally, when the last nail is hammered in and the music stops as it can spoil all the impression and the magic starts. At first, we hear just an intermittent breath of Uma Turman who pants from the tears. It lasts for 10-15 seconds and vivdly shows us an animal fear. Then on the background we can hear a noise which indicates that the murderers move the griffin towards the grave and are about to put it inside it. We hear the sound of the wood rolling on the ground. It stops. Somebody laughs. the vioceless cry continues and then stops for a moment - a terrible waiting. We can imagine the feelings of the main heroine.There is no sound at all for a while. Then we hear something squeaks and... then something falls (griffin into the grave). The heroine realises that she is now below the level of the ground. A small pause. Then there is quick sound of some little metal thing bouncing from the wood. And next, there is the sound of the ground poured in the grave. The main heroine realises more and more that the helplessness of the situation and gives wat out emotions. The ground continues to fall down. We hear the cry. And then after approximately 15 seconds we finally have a chance to see her face as she turns on the flashlight. But the scene doesn't end we still hear the disticnt sound of the ground falling down on the grave. We can see a desparate look of Uma Turman and her flouncing eyes. We see her in agony. 

The atmosphere is perfectly created using just the sound and nothing else. The atmosphere of desperation. All this background noise always gives us hints what is going on out there, so that we without seeing anything can visualize everything. The most interesting thing is that everybody has a different perception of the scene and the image inside the brain. Perhaps, all the scene was built in that way in order to strengthen the effect, because as we know our imagination is capable to draw much more frightful and horrible picture than any movie. The biggest advantage of the scene is that it matches the movie very well.

The scene is given from the point of view of the main heroine, so that we can fancy ourselves in this situation and produce the strongest possible effect on people's mind, to impress it by the animal cruelty.

In my opinion, this moment is amazingly made. It reaches its goal undoubtably. It expresses the proper amout of violence. It thrills the audience and draws its attention entirely.

Prelim - Oh, God, finally ready...

          Untitled project by Brandon, Katie, Karla and me.

Hurtwood open spaces can fill up with "Hallelujah!!" as we finally finished our Prelim task. But at the same time instead of "Hallelujah" there can be many other possibilities of what we could say. The most obvious one is "What the hell!". I would probably agree with the last one as this "masterpiece" that came out from our hands was not a masterpiece at all, although I had been keeping this hope deep inside of me until the very end. I wouldn't say that it's the worst prelim task ever, but the point is that it appeared much worse than it seemed to appear in the beginning... If my name was Simon I would probably do this...

That is my personal opinion about our video, which deeply frustrated me. Hopefully, not many people would agree with me. The most important thing to do is to learn lessons from everything that happens. This is good way to start doing everything better. Hopefully, this is going to be the only failure during the year, and we will only progress after that.

Still I want to give thanks to people who did this movie with me: Brandon,

Katie,

And Karla

Karla is on your left.

And this guy on your right... never mind.

You're a fantastic team, guys!!