Research into Conventions - Miss Miller

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.