the coen brothers

Ethan Jesse Coen and Joel David cohen are known together as the Coen brothers, who produce, direct and write their films jointly. In 1984 they wrote their first film Blood Simple, set in texas twisting simple stories to make complex plot lines. the film starred Frances Mcdormand who starred in many Coen brother films follwing. Their next film was 1985 crimewave, directed by Sam Raimi, and written by him and the Coen brothers. in 2003, they made intolerable cruetly, not conforming to their usual genre of a dark and twisted thriller, it starred george clooney and catherine zeta jones and the romantic comedy shocked and silenced critics. they then went onto make the ladykillers and no country for old men, which recieved 4 academy awards including best picture, best director, and best adapted screenplay, as well as best supporting actor received by Bardem.

Ellie.

Initial Idea

Using the influence of the Coen brothers style of directing, we are producing a short series. Our establishing shot is a high angled long shot which reveals an unnamed female, through a series of fast jumpcuts, who is seen to be captured as she releases cries for help, the fast editing and quick tempo non-diagetic sound will increase tension. There is then a cut away and then we then fade from black and zoom out, tracking back out of the darkness to reveal a midshot point of view shot of a locked door, with a blood stained key. It then zooms in to an extreme-close up of they key,and a steadicam follows a mysterious hand (now blood stained) unlocking the door and there will be a diagetic on screen creeking of a door, whilst its slowly pushed it open, panning around the room to reveal the 'hostage.' the handheld cam, follows the man into the room, where he sits down, shown through the camera movement opposite the 'hostage.' the relaxed character, is reading a newspaper and says directly to the camera 'its happening again.' this creates a synthetic personalisation as the audience thinks she is talking to them, and feel in the position of the cameraman. A deep, off screen voice then says 'where is it now?' creating tension through the unknown. The responce 'same as before' doesnt give anything away, and then the final utturence 'oh sh...' cuts off to close the scene remaining unknown.

Ellie.