My group and I have carried out research in aim to discover people's personal preferences in regards to an ideal thriller in hope to aid us to produce a good opening sequence and enable us to get a good idea in regards to an appropriate target audience. We decided to create a questionnaire for 40 participants as we felt this would make our results more reliable and inform us on our audience's ages and preferences.
Intro:
Research was carried out by using a questionnaire to find out 40 different views from random people. We came up with 10 questions that are linked to thriller films which we then used to ask the audience, whilst this was done we videoed the interview which was called Vox Pops. I have 3 examples below of the Vox Pops that I put together and filmed. Vox pops:
Questionnaire
Below is the questionnaire that my group and I created. We chose these ten questions as we felt they related to thriller films and would produce answers that would enable us a group to use the information we gather to create an effective likeable opening thriller scene while remaining in regulations of our chosen target audience. We asked questions in regards to age and gender to determine who likes what and to produce a good idea of an audience who would enjoy our thriller opening sequence.
This is one of the questions that I asked within my questionnaire, the reason for this is because I wanted to know the number of females and males that took place within my questionnaire. I wanted to see if the results that I get would have been accurate in terms of the two different genders. I have taken on board that most of the people i questioned were female rather then male, so they may have similar interests in thrillers then what males would have.
I also asked people the age group they were.The age had an impact on the questionnaire because of the different certificates that there were for different types of thriller films. The questionnaire shows that the majority of people that filled in the questionnaire were of age 16-18, this shows that most of the results will be based around people of that age group. The second most common age to fill out this questionnaire was people of age 13-15.This has helped me as i have taken these results on board, i will definitely try to target the 16-18 age groups in my thriller sequence as that is the most common age that watch thriller films.
These are some of the conventions of a thriller genre. The highest percentage was Pychological. This shows over 70% of the people i asked chose the psychological genre to being their favourite, this is where the characters in the films are in some way mentally unstable and emotionally drained. This is very popular in most thrillers, with not very many preferring crime ad sci-fi, the statistics showed that around 30% of people enjoy crime and sci-fi thrillers. For example, they were expecting an antagonist and a protagonist, but this is more popular in a horror film rather than a thriller. This has helped me to determine the type of thriller to use in y own sequence. I will try to use some scary and crime scenes, using a psychological plot would be a lot more complicated and advanced for me to try to use.
In this question, i asked each person if they enjoy the identity of the antagonist to be hidden, over 80% agreed that they do like hidden identities and only 20% that did not like hidden identities, generally the people that don't like hidden identities are the ones that don't enjoy thriller films as much as the ones who do like hidden identities as it creates more fear, not knowing what to expect. With these results it has made me and my group decide for the antagonist in our opening scene to have a hidden identity. This should create quite a few conventions for my sequence such as suspense, tension and surprise. These are key elements that you need to try to create in order for the scene to be a successful thriller film.
We used this question as we wanted to know what ways the general public prefer the victim of a
thriller to be killed. We wanted to know these results so see what way the female victim in our sequence to be murdered, and over 60% agreed that they prefer weapons such as a knife or a chain saw as it creates more fear then say a victim killed by a rope or being strangled. Weapon are probably the most popular ways a victim is killed as it os conventional created shock and suprise, this makes us feel sympathy towards the victims as they are being murdered. We have taken this on board and decided that the antagonist in our sequence will have some type of weapon but we haven't decided what kind of weapon yet but it will be some type of blade weather it is a knife or axe etc.
I asked the general puplic what their preference is to where the thriller is filmed, these results came back as 55% saying an abandoned setting, with the 2nd most popular being at 30% perfering alleys or roads. We wanted this question answered as the setting to a thriller is vital as for example an abanadoned setting is conventional where as a light setting full of people is not conventional. This gives us an idea of what the audience prefers, the setting to our sequence will be filmed in an abandoned, hidden place such as a forest. This will help us to create suspense and fear for the audience as we wonder what will happen to the victim.
This is one of the key elements to creating a thriller sequence. We asked the public what their preference is to the setting of a thriller film and 55% agreed that an abandoned place is the best setting, with alleys being at 25% and hidden places at 15%. This has helped us to decide that our narrative will contain an hidden, abandoned place rather than somewhere remote and popular. These are conventions of a thriller as it creates fear and suspense as we as an audience worry for the victim knowing that anything could happen.
We asked the question what gender do we prefer the victims to be, we thought that more people would say female and we were correct with over 85% agreeing that they prefer a female victim. This is conventional to a thriller as females are seen to being sweet and innocent and have no chance being able to defend themselves from a male antagonist. This as an audience makes us sympathize more with a female than with a male, so we have decided in our opening sequence the victim will in fact be female.
In this question, 85% of the public said that they like jumpy scenes in thriller films, with only 15% saying they don't. Therefore it makes sense that we do include some jumpy scenes in our sequence to keep the audience interested and to create shock and suspense. I feel without them the scene can become less scary, making the audience disinterested which makes us feel less sympathy for the victim. Our main objective is wanting the audience to fear for the victims life and to agree that our sequence has been successful, this is one of the reasons why we don't want to use a male victim.
The last question we asked was if the public enjoyed plot twists, 65% said they do with 35% saying that they don't. Even though we wanted to know the aswer to this question, our group are still unsure weather or not we will include a plot twist, either way i don't think it will create a big impact on the sequence as having a plot twist dosen't nessasarily make the scene scarier. This is somethig that we as a group will need to discuss but it is likely that we won't use a plot twist as the percentage difference is massive.
A narrative is important because it tells us the story line, with out it could confuse the audience as there is no real plot to the film and with lots of things happening and no story to it, the film would not make sense it would be very random and for a thriller unrealistic as the events happening would not connect together. For the film to be successful, there has to be a narrative.
Main:
Considering a narrative for my thriller
A house in the middle of the Countryside. There will be 3 female victims who wake up locked in different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Will the victims escape before it is too late or will one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement?
I will include the 5 main elements;
Setting & Iconography- the house is the setting, i will use ropes and knives as the Iconography.
Costume, hair & makeup- no makeup and hair will be plain and natural to show the victims innocence, wearing old baggy jumpers.
Facial expressions& body language- will represent fear and suspense
Lighting & colour- low-key lighting, dark and dull colours.
Positioning of characters- scattered in different rooms, thinking they are the only victim.
I will be working in a group to produce an opening sequence of a thriller. I will be working with Chloe Eustace, Elizabeth Lawrie.
Elizabeth's Narrative Idea:
A group of friends are going on a camping trip for Alice Morgan's 18th birthday, little does she know the females in her family have been plagued by a curse since the 1800s. Every once in a while, a female in the Morgan family on their 18th birthday, usually of good nature and innocence, are said to have been taunted by a young ghostly figure before mysteriously vanishing and said to be claimed by an demoniacal being.
During the 1800s, William Morgan, a relative of Alice, broke the heart of a beautiful young woman named Elise Elliot, she was a young maid working for William and his wife Anna. Elise and William had a whirlwind affair, and eventually called their relationship off, explaining to Elise he never loved her, only his wife. Unknown to William, Elise was of Romany decent, she was in fact a gypsy. Elise was riddled with unbearable heartache, excruciating grief and anger, so much so she cursed William before taking her own life. She cursed the whole Morgan family because she wanted William to pay for the pain he had caused her and wanted her suffering to be remembered for all eternity.
Alice, leading up to her 18th had been having what she considered of odd dreams, she had been vividly dreaming of a young woman weeping over a man she had loved and lost, a woman eventually revealed to be Elise Elliot. Alice reveals to her friends the strange dreams she has been having while camping in the woods by her house, shortly before the ghostly taunting's commence.
Advantages- Contains enigma- not sure where the curse is coming from
Innocent female victims- conventional to a thriller
Victims being taunted by a ghostly figure- contains suspense, shock & mystery
Disadvantages- More conventions are needed such as Iconography & setting
quite a complicated narrative, will be hard to use for our own thriller sequence.
Chloe's Narrative Idea:
The main character is a girl (One of the Victims), her parents are away for the weekend and decides that she could have a party with friends. She lives in a pretty abandoned place in the town where there is only the neighbours. The party gets out of hand when everyone starts bringing there own friends and there is actually a murderer been brought to the party. They try to work out who is the killer (antagonist) but people keep dying one by one leaving only the females alive, the males at the party are being killed first. Advantages- Contain enigma, abandoned area - makes the victims more vulnerable, we s an audience sympathise more.
Only female victims survive, shows audience their strong but we also fear for them.
Disadvantages- male victims being murdered, not female. Not conventional to a thriller.
Needs more conventions added to make it a thriller (weapons, lighting, blood etc.)
My Narrative Idea:
A house in the middle of the Countryside. There will be 3 female victims who wake up locked in different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Will the victims escape before it is too late or will one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement?
Advantages- 3 female victims- a conventional thriller as it creates tension and suspense for the audience as we fear for the female victims, they are scared and vulnerable which makes us worry.
abandoned area- isolated being only in the presence of themselves, the antagonist and his family. This creates enigma as we as an audience wonder weather the antagonists family will ever find out.
Disadvantages- more conventions, what kind of editing would be used, mise-en-scene.
would be difficult to find a setting with an isolated area with a segregated basement.
Final Group Narrative:
Two young girls, Holly and Gemma are on their way to a party. Holly is driving down a dark deserted road when her car breaks down. Gemma and Holly start to panic when they relise their phones have no signal
Forest / abandoned area / broken down car
Female Victim
Weird noises - car radio
Being followed
visible breath (cold)
no signal
friend goes missing
Narrative Theory: The theory that we have chosen is Todorov's Theory, this is where either the film starts off as Equilibrium or Disequilibrium.
Equilibrium is where the film starts off happy with everything being normal.
Disequilibrium is where everything erupts, making the film not happy.
Todorov's Theory;
Summary:
Our narrative is conventional to a thriller as the eating of it is in an abandoned place with a female victim. With non-diegetic music being added, this is all evidence to show that our narrative is conventional.
How does the opening sequence of the film Halloween, inform the audience of the conventions of a thriller film?
Introduction:
The purpose of an opening sequence is to give the audience a taste of the intentions of the film, foreshadowing what could happen, setting the scene and theme of the film. It is also to intrigue the audience and give us an understanding to the type of thriller weather its a murder or psychiatric film etc. It is there to introduce the narrative, the opening sequence should contain the credits of the cast, producers and directors etc. It should also contain iconography such as weapons/blood and the 4 micro elements which is; sound, miss-en-scene, cinematography and editing. Although these things should be added, it should be to a small extent as you shouldn't give to much information away, just enough to keep the audience wanting to watch more.
Cinematography: Throughout the opening sequence, Cinematography is used to create the 4 main elements in an conventional thriller such as; shock, surprise, suspense and tension for the audience. It involves using different camera shots/angles to create them 4 elements, to engage with the audience. Throughout the sequence, P.O.V. is used to show the perspective of the antagonist, this has been used to make the audience feel although they are in the antagonists shoes, for example as he enters the house, he goes into the kitchen and grabs a knife out of the draw, this creates suspense as, we as an audience don't know who the antagonist is or what he looks like. A high-angle shot is used as the camera zooms out, this is to reveal who the antagonist is after he had killed the victim, it revealed to be a little boy standing in his clown costume, holding the bloody knife he used to kill the victim, looking startled as his parents arrive home, with the audience seeing how shocked they were by their facial expressions, this left the audience completely shocked and surprised as we didn't expect the outcome, a little boy who killed his own sister. Using the high-angle shot in this case was effective as it gives the audience a more shocking reaction as it makes the boy look smaller, powerless and innocent. Also at the very end, the camera zooms out to show the mask that the boy was wearing, which was used to shock the audience as the mask looked quite frightening and then the camera moved across to the boys face it the two things don't add up which is shocking.
Editing: Editing in a thriller film is vital as it helps to create more suspense and fear on the audience, if a thriller scene lacks it then the audience would find it harder to feel the tension and fear that the film is trying to show off. Many different editing styles are used in the opening sequence of Halloween, one of them is Slow-editing. Slow-editing was used as the antagonist was walking up the stairs towards the victim's bedroom, this builds tensions and suspense and the audience have an understanding as to what was about to happen to the victim. After the antagonist killed the victim, he left her bedroom, this then changed to fast-editig as the pace of the film started to increase. The antagonist then runs down the stairs and out of the front door to where he he takes a firm holt, stopping as his parents car pulls onto the drive. This is coventional to a thriller as the different editing styles builded tension for the audience, as it changed from slow to fast editing, it tells the audience that possibly the antagonist is starting to panik as he's relised what he's done was wrong, you can also hear his heartbeat which shows his adrenaline was picking up.
Soundtrack: At the beginning of the scene, diegetic sound is used coming from the victim and her boyfriend as the antagonist is staring at them through the window. As the antagonist start walking towards the door to enter the house, eerie music starts to play, turning the sound into non-diegetic as the antagonist and victim does not speak, this is conventional to a thriller as the eerie music sets the tone of a thriller, making the audience aware that something bad may about to happen. The eerie music then stops as the antagonist pulls the knife out of the draw, this is to create suspense and tension as the sound all of a sudden goes silent, all you can hear is the sound of the antagonist slowing picking the knife up, scratching the knife on the surface. This is conventional as they want the audience to see and hear how sharp the weapon is and that we know that there is going to be blood and almost certainly death. The music starts to play again, hearing the victim humming and the clock chiming in the background as the antagonist enters the bedroom. The pace of the music speeds up and becomes louder as the knife slashes her body. The antagonist then panics running down the stairs to the front door only being able to hear his heartbeat, this is conventional as it shows possible the antagonist is starting to panik and has reliesed what he has done was wrong; creating shock and suprise for the audience.
Conventions: Many different conventions are used in this scene. The first one is low-key lighting, this was used throughout to create a conventional sequence, I think that it is also used because the murder takes place on Halloween night and halloween represents dark, evil and hidden identities. The only time when the light starts to brighten, is when the antagonist enters the victims bedroom, this was possibly done to give the audience a warming or sign that something bad was going to happen to the victim. Another convention used was P.O.V camera, throughout the scene it was filmed in the antagonist point of view, watching every move he made through his mask. This is conventional to a thriller because it is unclear who the antagonist is and what he looks like until the very end, where the camera goes from P.O.V to a close up of the antagonists face, this was done to shock the audience, building tension as we were waiting for the killer to reveal himself.
Characters: The antagonist is an unknown character and holds a hidden identity until the end of the scene, with the camera remaining in P.O.V throughout. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates the 4 key elements; suprise, tension, suspense and shock for the audience as he pulls off his mask in front of his parents, standing in shock as the boy stands there holding the bloody knife. This creates enigma as the mystery of who the antagonist is, is unravelled at the end. This is conventional to a thriller as the whole idea of the scene being a mystery makes the audience fear as we don't know what to expect, with the victim also being a young blonde female, making it conventional as it makes the victim out to being innocent and vulnerable. Male victims are hardly used as they aren't conventional in a thriller, this is because we as an audience don't feel as worried for them and feel less sympathy to them being murdered.
Narrative: The narrative of the film was based on a halloween night which make sense with the plot as the antagonist is wearing a clown costume with a mask, hiding his identity, this all assosciates to murder and death. This was created to shock and suprise the audience, by the end of the scene it had created suspense and enigma as the mystery of the killer was finally revealed. I feel that this films target audience should be set at 15+ as it contains blood, death and nudity.
Conclusion:
Overall, the sequence informs the audience of the conventions of a thriller by the evidence of what goes on in the scene, all of these conventions fit together to make a successful thriller film, even though it was the opening scene, it contained almost every convention that i had listed such as; antagonist, female victim, knife, blood, low - key lighting and eerie music. This is all evidence to inform the audience that the film we are watching is a thriller.
Summary:
This analysis will help me on planning my own thriller as i will try to use all of the different elements listed above, i know that i will need to use as much of it as possible for my thriller to be successful such as editing which is a key element for creating suspense, miss-en-scene, cinematography, different types of sound and the most important which is a narrative. I need to make sure that my thriller sequence does in fact contain all of these elements.
Introduction: Conventions are elements that are common within different film genres, for example in thrillers, it is patterns that can be used/seen in different films from the same category. For example, some of the conventions in my chosen clip has slow editing, blood/gore, non-diegetic music and low-key lighting, these are all apart of what you would expect to see in a thriller film. The clip that i have chosen is the ending scene of Sinister, i chose this because i think that it has a good list of conventions, containing the 3 most important elements; shock, surprise and suspense.
Main: Antagonist: In this sequence it shows a twist, the little girl turns out to be the antagonist, killing her family one by one, we know this because each family member is tied up laying on the floor, behind the victim you can see the girl picking up the axe and holding it above her head, getting ready to slash at him, this creates suspense and shock as we fear for the families life, what shocks us the most is that the antagonists victims are her mother, father and brother, as an audience we can create a relationship with the characters as it make us feel sympathy towards the victims as they are being murdered by their own daughter and sister. This is conventional to thriller as it contains blood/gore and an antagonist with a weapon.
Low-key lighting: Throughout, this sequence, low-key lighting is used. The purpose of this is to make the antagonist stand out as each time the light flashes, it flashes onto her standing over the victims, holding her weapon which builds tension as at one point all you can see is the girl and not the victims, this tells me that the goal is for the audience to engage with the antagonised. Also you can see the blood covering the antagonist hands which makes it look sharp and bold while the light flashes onto the girl, after the antagonist kills the victims, she heads toward the door walking slowly with the light started to drop until it is pitch black, all of a sudden the light starts to flash again sharply and vigerously, only being able to see the blood smeared across the walls, this is to create chock and show how horrifying the victims murders were. This keeps the audience interested as it creates tension and suspense aswell as sympathy, this is conventional to a thriller as it makes the scene more intense and frightening. Without the low-key lighting the audience wouldnt feel as sympathetic to the victims as the fear level of the sequence would drop.
Non-diegetic sound: The sound that you can hear a sharp ringing noise, which almost sounds asthough someone is screaming, this is heard throughout the sequence, it created suspense for the audience and its really not a nice sound, it's sharp and sounds like metal being scratched, which gave me goosebumps. This is conventionl to a thriller as the music blends in with the scene of the murder, if upbeat music was used it would be quite confusing to understand what is going on and wouldn't build as much tension, You can also hear some diegetic sound in the background at the coming from the video camera that is filming the murder, aswell as noise coming from the beginning of the sequence coming from the fireplace, and the noise of the video camera recording the murder. This as an audience helps us to create a relationship with the victims as the noises create fear and mystery as none of the victims say a word nor the antagonist in this scene so this makes us worry for the victims.
Slow-editing: This convention is used throughout the sequence, however it is emphasised the most after the antagonist killed the victims. As the camera starts to face the wall, the lights start to flicker showing the blood smeared across the walls, slow-editing is used in this aspect to emphasise the blood covering the walls. This is shocking for the audience as it gives us an insight into the way the antagonist brutally murdered the victims. It creates shock and surprise which is conventional to a thriller film. Another part where slow editing occurs is when the antagonist is drawing a picture of how she killed the victims (her family) i think this is done to give the audience an idea that the antagonist, which is a little girl could possibly be mentally unstable or even possessed, this is evidence to why slow-editing is conventional to a thriller.
Blood&Gore: Blood and gore is one of the most typical and popular conventions that you would expect to see in a thriller. Its's evidence to prove when an antagonist kills a victim. It is used to make the film seem realistic and to create suspense, tension and fear for the audience. In this sequence blood is shown throughout the ending of the film, it is evidence to show that the antagonist brutally murdered her victims, also it looks over-stated. The walls, floors, door, and the antagonist are all in light white colours, this is done to make the blood stand out over the low-key lighting. It also as an audience, makes us not want to take our eyes off of the screen as it makes us wonder if the killer has marked some sort of message on the walls. By the end of the scene, it shows that the antagonist did in fact paint a symbol on the door using the victim's blood. This is conventional as it creates mystery and suspense as we don't know what that symbol means.
Summary: This has helped me to decide what conventions i will use in my own thriller sequence. I will use the 4 main elements which are Shock, Surprise, Suspense and Tension, this will help me to create a basic overview of what my thriller should contain. I will also add in an antagonist and possibly a female victim. I think using a male victim is not a good idea as i have learnt that it doesn't create as much of an impact on the audience in terms of fear and shock, so i would find it a lot more difficult so female victims would be more appropriate to have. I will also use weapons, more precisely possibly a knife as it create more suspense and tension then a gun would, this is because guns are less brutal and are more likely to be used in an action film rather than a thriller.
Scream 4 Introduction
Editing is essential within the thriller genre because it helps to creates suspense, shock and surprise for the audience. The pace of the editing can be used to create suspense and sudden increase in pace creates the feeling of jumpiness which makes the audience scared of what is to come. Main
In this sequence many editing styles have been used to create effects shocking the audience throughout.
Cross cutting: there is cross cutting used in this sequence. This scene starts off with Olivia on the phone to her friends where they live next door to each other, as they were talking they could see each other from the windows of their house. Out of no where then the masked man comes up from behind and stabs her with her friends watching in shock. The scenes were cutting back and forth showing the killer stabbing the victim in her bedroom, then changing scenes to her friends reactions in their bedroom, as they are watching it happen, with one more scene showing a woman running into the victims house to try and save her. I think that cross cutting was used to build suspense for the audience and to show how different pieces of the action are related. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates tension with some of the shots being in P.O.V, using high angles making the audience aware of the other characters trying to save her.
Timing of shots: This sequence starts off in a fast pace, as the antagonist enters the victims bedroom, the editing styles start to speed up, this is to show the fear that the victim is showing as she tries to get away, with the antagonist moving quickly so that the victim does not get away. As the scene goes on, the pace of the shot rapidly slows down, this is as the victims friend enters the house to try and save her, this is to show her being cautious making sure that the antagonist does not hear her coming up the stairs being as quiet as she can, this makes the audience wonder what is about to happen, weather the antagonist is hiding to strike at her or that he has infact gone. This makes us as an audience feel sympathy for the girl as we are worried for her life. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates suspense and shock for the audience as everything happens so quickly then all of a sudden, slows down rapidly.
Reaction shot: This scene repeats its reaction shot many times to emphasise the fear that the characters are feeling whilst watching one of their friends being murdered, this is to create shock and surprise for the audience as they try to put you in their shoes. This reaction shot is used to show the characters facial expressions and body language to show the shock and pain that their feeling whilst watching the antagonist stab their friend continuously. Their reactions are also very exaggerated and are quite typical holding their hands over their mouths whilst gasping and screaming out 'help' over and over again, banging on the window. This makes the sequence a lot more intense as the victim wasn't alone and other characters were aware of the situation, making the audience want the victim to be saved even more. This reaction shot is conventional to a thriller as the whole of the shot is related to shock and surprise that the characters and the audience are feeling.
Summary:
This will help me to create my opening sequence as it has giving me an idea of what editing styles to use and when it is the right time to use them. For example if i was to make a scene where an intruder is trying to break in whilst the victim is in the house, i would be likely to use close ups and medium shots of the victim to show her facial expressions and body language to show her venerability and the terror she feels, also weather the villain is carrying a weapon or not. This will help to create a thriller scene.
Sound is often is often the single most important element in setting the mood for the scene in a horror film. Music may build to present that a dramatic event is about to happen or it may be upbeat but is unlikely in a horror. Horror films rely a lot on sound clips to create a scary scene. If you removed the sound from a horror film its fear factor from the audience would drop dramatically, this is because the music makes the scene even more intense, when the music starts to become more dramatic and loud, you know that something bad is about to happen.
I have chosen this scene from Scream 2 as it represents how the sound/music can make the scene become a lot scarier and intense, as the killer is chasing the victim the music starts to become louder and sharper which tells me that any second from now the victim would'nt be able to get away as the killer catches her.
Main:
Diegetic sound: You could hear the killer on the other end of the call when he kept on calling the victim. After the killer comes and creeps up on her from behind, the victim screams and starts to run away, this is when off screen sound occurs as the music dramatically starts playing off screen. You can hear the killer grunting as to show he is frustrated as he is trying to stab her with his knife but she kept getting away, this creates suspense as everything happening in the scene starts to become a lot more dramatic, building tension for the audience. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience can see how scared and vulnerable the victim is, this helps us to build a relationship with the victim as the audience sympathise for her.
Non diegetic: The sound track starts playing, as the killer is chasing the victim you can hear sound effects which are emphasised each time he lent in to slash her with the knife, you can also hear things breaking for example when the victim throws the plant pot at him, the sound of it smashing on the floor is loud, which is over the top of the music playing, this is conventional as it adds more suspense as we are wondering weather the victim will escape or not.
Parallel sound: The sound you hear in this film is very typical for a thriller film, its loud, intense, upbeat and dramatic. The parallel sound in this particular scene occurs when the killer is stabbing the girl as the music sharply stops so the audience can hear the knife penetrating her skin, and the girl starts screaming until he chucks her out the window of the house falling flat on the concrete. This is conventional as the music builds tension, telling us the girl still has hope of surviving and when the music stops, it is game over for the victim.
Contrapuntal sound: straight after the victim dies, the camera is moved to the masked killers face, showing the knife covered in her blood giving us a clear understanding that the killer did in fact stab her. At the end of the scene a sound track starts playing but nothing you would expect to hear in a thriller film, it was upbeat and quite happy, a sound track you would expect to hear in a comedy not a thriller. This is an example of contrapuntal sound as the sound does not match the expectations of the clip, it also confuses the audience as they don't expect upbeat music to play after sombody has just been murdered. This particular sound is conventional as it twists the plot around, confusing the audience.
Conclusion:
My research has taught me the different ways that sound can be used to create a particular outcome in a thriller scene, the sequence deffinutely builded up the tension and suspense by the music and the sound affects used, if sound was not used, the scene would not of scared me half as much, which tells me that sound really is such an important element in a thriller film.
It has given me an idea of what kind of sound techniques i would like to use in my own sequence, for example i would use loud, dramatic music if i decided to use a killer and victim in my clip, or quiet music to build tension and suspense.
