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Macguffins and Red-herrings

Macguffins and Red-herrings

Red herrings are used rather commonly in thriller genres, It mainly consists of clues which are both misleading and distracting from the actual issue, this could be done either intentional or unintentional.
This expression is normally used to claim that the argument at which another person has brought up is entirely irrelevant to the specific question.
A good example of a red herring is "I think that we should make the academic requirements stricter for students. I recommend that you support this because we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected."
Like i have said before, red herrings are commonly used in films. Another example which is more related to film language is...The red herring can take in form of a character, which the audience may feel that he is a killer, only to later discover that he is innocent. Or another good example could be that a red herring can take the shape of an item which could be seen as clue to a discovery by the audience, but turns out to be worthless.

Macguffins are also commonly used in films, most notably thriller genres. It consists of a plot device which is a motivator that the protagonist, or even the antagonist is willing to do and sacrafice anything to protect or control. It also often comes with little or no information as to why this particular thing is so important.

The specific nature of this device is widely left to interpretation. The most common type of macguffin is either an object or a person, however the device could also be in the form of things like money, glory, etc.

Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term macguffin and the technique most noticably in one of his early films 'The 39 steps' which the concept of a macguffin is emboddied in the film.



Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term Macguffin



Information on Alfred Hitchcock

Information on Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock born 13th August 1899 and died 29th April 1980, was a film director and producer who very much popularized techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller sub-genres. He is regarded as Englands best director. He had a largely successful career which spawned for over half a century, creating classic thrillers and other film genres in the process. Some of his most hailed work are psycho, The Birds, North By North west, Marnie. He is also regarded by some critics as the most influential film director of all time.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Chuck Jones and the rules

Chuck Jones and 'the rules'

Chuck Jones was born on september 21st 1912 and died february 22 2002. He was a very famous animator, cartoonist and he directed many cartoon films for companies such ass warner bros. One of the most remember shows in which he created and directed was looney tunes. He is also regarded as the creator of famous cartoon icons bugs bunny, sylvester, the roadrunner and Wile E Coyote. Most notably, the roadrunner is considered his masterpiece and are today regarded as one of the best cartoons every made.
However, unfortunately Warner bros (the company which he was working for) was shut down in early 1963. So he and his staff were eventually hired by MGM productions with  the incentive to create more Tom and Jerry episodes and theatricals. Again much to his displeasure, Tom and Jerry were discontinued  four years later in 1967. So he produced and directed the TV special 'How the Grinch stole Christmas'.

Chuck Jones is undoubtedly regarded as one of the founding fathers of animation and has frequently been hailed as a large contributing factor and influence towards the industry.

Chuck Jones and his signature creation 'bugs bunny'

In one of his most notable productions ' the roadrunner' it contains various laws and rules which are:

The roadrunner has the ability to enter the painted image of a cave while the coyote cannot.
Sometimes the coyote is allowed to hang in midair until he realizes that he is about to fall down and get hurt, known elsewhere as the Roadrunner and Coyote moment.
The coyote can overtake rocks and cannons which fall down earlier than he does and ends up being hit by them.
If a chase scene occurs on a cliff, the roadrunner is not affected by gravity while the coyote is and eventually falls down.

As you can see i have basically outlined the basic Chuck Jones rules.

Types of thrillers

Types of Thrillers

To my understanding, the main film genre 'Thriller' consists of many sub-genres and these sub-genres are:

Crime thrillers- This sub-genre of thrillers contains elements of both crime films and thrillers respectively, these particular films offers story lines based on either successful or non successful crimes which undoubtedly creates large amounts of suspense and excitement. These films more or less focus on the criminals in comparison to the police force-and these types of film often consists of criminal behavior such as murders, robberies, assault, etc. A good example of crime thrillers is most noticably 'Seven' which stars Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Gwenth Paltrow, respectively.

Spy Thrillers-This sub genre consists of the protagonist or in some cases, protagonists who are normally agents which are employed by a government . This specific sub genre was arguably popularised and established in the British Cinema were great British directors (most noticably Sir Alfred Hitchcock) contributing greatly to this. The most obvious and simple example of this sub genre is the James Bond films.

Psychological Thrillers- This sub genre consists of the conflicts between the protagonists  and the antagonists does not usually involve violence, but the conflicts are indeed mental. in these types of films, characters do not necessarily need their physicality to beat their enemies, but would rely on their mental strength, or in some cases, their mental stability.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock is known for the successful psychological thrillers he himself directed, these films include, 'Psycho', 'Shadow of a doubt' and 'Suspicion' respectively.

Legal Thrillers-This sub genre consists of the main characters as lawyers and people in those sectoral departments. The ideology of Justice normally is the central point in which the film surrounds. This sub genre of thrillers are not as  common in comparison to popular thriller sub genres such as spy thrillers and crime thrillers. Most notable examples of legal thrillers are 'The Pelican Brief', 'The jury' and 'The lincoln lawyer' respectively.

Welcome Post

Welcome Post and information about me

Hello, My name is Victor Akindele. I am currently 16 years of age and have completed my gcse examinations prior to this welcome post, and my results were very good.

Now, at this moment in time i am currently studying for my a level examinations, for i chose to study mathematics, economics, government and politics and of course media-at which i plan to achieve all A's in AS and also in A2.

Well at this moment in time, i am finding all my a levels fairly easy and indeed manageable, especially economics.

So the incentive of this post was to simply welcome the examiner who will mark my blog, and to also give the examiner more information about me.

Coursework Brief

Well to summarise. The purpose of the coursework which i will complete, is to be able to have more knowledge and understanding of what it takes to create successful thriller movies, the different types of thriller/horrors eg, political, spy and finally to have more understanding of what successful thrillers consist of, for example the different types of lighting techniques, used for different, respective purposes, eg2 low-key lighting, high-key lighting (were more filler lights are used. in addition, this particular lighting technique makes the lighting in the film (or clip) look realistic.

Also, the coursework will also consists of analysing previous successful thrillers and what filming or lighting techniques the respective directors used in order for their thrillers to be successful. An example of a successful thriller which i will analyse and somewhat scrutinise will be 'The Manchurian Candidate'-both the 1962 version and the 2004 version, respectively.

Moviemaking Techniques180 Degree Rule

Video Editing and Shot Techniques: Study of jump cuts, match cuts and cu...

The Manchurian Candidate (2004) Trailer

Low key lighting

This is a diagram which simply show how low-key lighting works. This very distinct lighting technique is used very much in thriller/horror films and it has been used for more than half a century.

The Manchurian Candidate 1962

The Manchurian Candidate
The original 1962

The Manchurian candidate is a thriller film which was released in the early 1960s. The suspense filled thriller consists of an intruiging yet interesting storyline.

The film stars very much star-studded names most notably, Frank Sinatra who is widely known for his exceptionally singing talent, Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey.

It is about a young man ,who formally was in the army and fought in the Korean war, was brainwashed to act as an assassin for a communist conspiracy. However, to the viewers knowledge they would assume that the mans mother (played by Angela Lansbury) is the person who is brainwashing him into doing things and also it is assumed that the only method in which the man can actually be brainwashed is by him playing solitaire and physically seeing the queen of clovers, this man who was brainwashed was the step-son of a right-wing politician in the united states of america who, towards the ending of the film, wanted to become the next vice president-elect Mr John Iselin.

In the production of the film, Sinatra recommended Lucille Ball to play the part of Raymond Shaw's mother, however the director of the film insisted on giving the part to Angela Lansbury whom he had worked with in a previous film entitled All Fall Down.

The film has one noticably difference from the book itself. This difference is that in the book, Mrs Iselin (Raymond's mother) brainwashed Raymond into having sexual intercourse with him. Simply due to the fact that this act would not have been condoned by ,both the audience and the film makers respectively, it was replaced with Mrs Iselin brainwashing her son and she kisses him on the lips just before the climax of the film.

Manchurian Candidate

The film has risen to critical acclaim, not only by thriller genre fans but also by film critics.

The film currently holds a 98 per cent rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film critic website.

To add to the films critical acclaim, famous film critic Roger Ebert described the film as an exemplary "great film".

Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) (Trailer)

The Birds Official Trailer #1 - Charles McGraw Movie (1963) HD

The Birds

"The Birds", 1963 Directed by: sir Alfred Hitchcock


"The Birds" is a 1963 horror film which some elements of suspense are added throughout the film. The horror stars Tippi Hedren (this was her breakthrough film) and amongst other stars such as Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and the then tender Veronica Cartwright. This subtully intense horror film portrays an american women (Tippi Hedren) who was on a quest to look for her potential partner and love interest (Rod Taylor) in Bodega Bay California, however while she is in that area the atmosphere there dramatically changes due to the grotesque attacks on the residents of bodega bay by the most unlikely of creatures-birds.

The motives and incentives behind the attacks in the horror movie  were not proven and remains a mystery throughout the film. The methods and tactics used by the birds were unbelievable, unthinkable and simply "not of their intelligence" as quoted from the elderly actress in the film which her character studied birds and their origins, but she was far from right due to her not thinking that birds could ever do such monstrous things and as i've said before, due to her perception that birds simply did not have the wit to attempt the attacks.

The film marks Tippi Hedren's movie debut and she was commended for her efforts on the film, even though it seems as if there were not any problems during production of the film and about the film,  indeed there was.  There was a quite notable incident which took place during the production of the film; in a particular scene Tippi Hedren was simply told to just go upstairs and enter a room and do nothing-which she in fact did, however not knowingly hundreds of birds were released onto her resulting in her having numerous scars and immediately having treatment. (she was promised that the birds used in the scene will be mechanical ones but in fact they were not). This incident has since scarred her for life-well this is what she has claimed in one of her autobiographies.

However, away from the negative side, the film has been generally commended for the directors use of a soundtrack and the use of animation in the film.

In addition, the film has been regarded as the seventh best thriller of all time by the American film institute, and Bravo awarded it on the 96th spot on ' The 100 scariest movie moments ' for the scene where the birds attach the city. So generally, the film has received very high critical acclaim for its various elements which were used to make the film an outstanding thriller. To add evidence to this point, the movie critic website Rotten Tomatoes has given the film an approval of 95% and it has been described as "Hitchcock's last unflawed film" by film critic David Thompson. This piece of information just further explains that this film,despite what occurred in its production, is generally perceived as a success.