As coursework ( The Blog)

• The blog should include;
• The brief and research into similar media texts/ target audiences
• planning the production
• construction of the production- technical decisions and revisions
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As Coursework

• The coursework also comprises a written component on the blog
• This is worth 40% of the marks
• Marks are awarded as follows
• Planning and research- 20%
• Constructions- 60 marks
• Evaluation- 20marks

HitchCocks Maguffin

 A Maguffin is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story.

Hitchcock explained the term McGuffin in a 1939 lecture at a columbia university.


" We have a name in the studio, and we call it the ' Mc Guffin'. It is a mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories, it is always the necklace and in spy stories, it is always the papers".

A mcGuffin was used in the beginning of the film ' psycho'.

The suspense "Thriller" HitchCocks Model

Suspense and Shock

• Example;  Imagine a scene in a film similar to this (classroom, students, and teachers). The camera reveals that there is a bomb under the table to the audience but we (the students, teacher) are unaware of it.
• Will we, the audience be scared?
• Will the bomb go off?
• This is suspense because the audience knows something the characters don't. (Dramatic irony)

• Example;  Now imagine the same scene except that instead of the camera revealing the bomb under the table, without any warning, explodes and kills all present. This is Shock. 

The film" Children of men" is also an example of shock.
The man goes into the coffee shop to see everyone depressed and calm as soon as the walks out of the shop, he walks down with his coffee and whilst hes standing, some sort of explosion blows off. It was shocking and unexpected and this makes it a very effective opening of a film.

The film Sabotage (1935) ny Alfred Hitchcock creates Suspense. There is a man who is a secret agent from a foreign country. He owns a cinema and his wife has a younger brother. The man plants a bomb in the film using the boy to transport the bomb.

Will the bomb go off?
       Tension builds up as the background music sounds like the clock is ticking which then, suggests that times running out. The traffic red traffic light in the scene deliberately builds suspense as the audience will be terrified in terms of when or where the bomb would go off at and if the bomb would even reach its destination before it goes off.
Its also very terrifying due to the fact that we the audience know that the bomb is there but however, the innocent boy has no idea of the danger his into and the mission he has been sent on.

       Another film which we looked at in class was Rope (1948)- This is an example of Suspense.
This tells the story of two young wealthy men who strangle and murder a friend of theirs just to see if they get away with it. They then invite other close friends (including the murdered persons parents) to their apartment for a dinner party , whilst hiding the body in the chess box in the living room, just to see if they get away with it. All this seems like a game to them and they don't even seem to be bothered about the fact that they have just murdered a human being for no apparent reason.

The whole film keeps building on suspense because we know the body is in the box but the characters are not aware of that. Then, there is this tension as well as eagerness between the audience in terms of when and who is going to find the body or if the murderers will go scott free and not get caught.

Aspects of the thriller- Alfred Hitchcock

Some examples; ' The 39 steps'- 1935

                                          

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense whose film came to the benchmark for ' Psychological' thrillers.

His Quotes..
- "The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them"

- "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it"

- " If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on"

- "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

- " I am a typed director. If i made cindarella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coack.

 The suspence ' Thriller '- Hitchcock Model

• Under the strong influence of Alfred Hithcock, thrillers often begin with a crime and the accusations of an innocent bystander were the accused contacts the authorities, no doubt the case would be promptly solved , but instead, the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardizing life and limb. - Rick Altman-
• Some examples includes films such as; "The 39 steps"- 1935 and" North by Northwest"- 1959
• " In the Thirty- nine steps, suspense films abandon both the thrills and suspense when the falsely accused character finally reaches safety". -Ricky Altman- (Again)