Having conventions in a thriller is an essential element to include in a thriller film. An example of an convention is an antagonist, female victim, blood and diegetic sound. An example of a thriller which is popular and successful is 'Scream' this is because it contains a lot of diegetic sound of the victims trying to get away in fear hewing things such as screaming and heavy breathing. Also all the victims are female which is conventional as they can come across as more vulnerable, these are what makes the film scary and exciting. I tried to include as many of the conventions listed above when filming my own thriller sequence.
The plot of the sequence is about two girls that are best friends but they have an argument and fall out, one of the girls then becomes obsessed with the other and starts following her around, taking pictures of her and posting it around her room, the girl is then kid-napped by her. I decided that I wanted the antagonist as female as we wanted to make it a bit different and leave it on a twist. I feel that my thriller sequence defines the thriller genre as I used tried to create suspense and tension where possible, through the use of different camera angles such as a close up of the antagonist watching the female victim as she passes him on the road, this is where I zoomed in emphasising the fact that she has a knife in her hand.
In class, we studied the forms and conventions of the film 'Halloween', an example of a convention used is a P.O.V shot. This was the end scene, where the camera is shown to be in the antagonists point of view. This is where the antagonist is looking through the mask as he is about to enter the victims bedroom. This created tension as we as an audience could see the weapon in the antagonists hand so we knew as he entered the room that the girl was likely to be stabbed and murdered.
A hidden Identity is used as the antagonist wants to remain a secret. An example of a convention that I used in the thriller production is low-key lighting. This is used in the end scene as the antagonist is chasing the victim. This is used so the victim cannot see where the antagonist is and doesn't know whether she is safe or not. This is to create suspense for the audience as we worry for her life.
Using low-key lighting is conventional to the thriller genre because it brings mystery and worry to the audience, as a young girl is walking alone in the dark it makes you more aware that something bad is likely to happen. Another example I used was mise-en-scene of the antagonist having a hidden identity, this is conventional as it builds tension upon the audience as we don't know who or what the antagonist looks like, as the victim is a young girl it makes the audience nervous as to weather she would be able to protect herself.
One more micro-element I included was non-diegetic eerie music throughout, however some parts I increased and decrease the volume, this was to build tension for the audience, espiecally so the audience hear the sound of the antagonist walking towards the victim, this is an example where i decresed the eerie music volume so the footsteps could be heard, this build up suspense. and make the scene seem more dramatic.
I tried to include the 3 S's, shock, suprise and suspense in certain areas of the sequence, for example at the beginning of the sequence, it shows the antagonist sitting in a dark room on her laptop, looking at pictures of the victim on facebook, the pictures of the victim hanging on the wall, this shocks the audience as you would not expect to see this as it makes the antagonist seem obsessive and twisted, I also included a knife as part of the iconography, from which i zoomed in onto it to ephasise the the knife as the audience dosn't know what the victim is capable of, this generates suspense as the audience wonders whether the knife will be used on the victim or not.
An example of an editing style which i used was dissolve, towards the beggining, the two girls are sitting together laughing and taking pictures, this then dissolves to wear the victim is walking and the antagonist is watching her, adding dissolve was to emphasise that something bad was about to happen, as it dissolves it gives the audience a sense that the film is isnt going to be happy and fun anymore, asif all the good slips away. This was to generate supense as we wonder what the female antagonist wants to do to the victim. It also is suprising to the audience as you would not expect this to happen in broad day light in the subarbian streets.
I would say that my thriller sequence is conventional however there are a couple of scenes that are not to add tension and twist the audiences perspective, for example i used low-key lighting, a female victim, a knife as a weapon and dietic sound of eerie music, these are all examples of what you would expect to see in a conventional thriller. However, instead of typically having a male antagonist, i had a female one. This was to create more suspense for the audience as you would not expect to see a young female dark and twisted. This was done to make the audience wonder what the antagonist was capable of.
The plot of the sequence is about two girls that are best friends but they have an argument and fall out, one of the girls then becomes obsessed with the other and starts following her around, taking pictures of her and posting it around her room, the girl is then kid-napped by her. I decided that I wanted the antagonist as female as we wanted to make it a bit different and leave it on a twist. I feel that my thriller sequence defines the thriller genre as I used tried to create suspense and tension where possible, through the use of different camera angles such as a close up of the antagonist watching the female victim as she passes him on the road, this is where I zoomed in emphasising the fact that she has a knife in her hand.
In class, we studied the forms and conventions of the film 'Halloween', an example of a convention used is a P.O.V shot. This was the end scene, where the camera is shown to be in the antagonists point of view. This is where the antagonist is looking through the mask as he is about to enter the victims bedroom. This created tension as we as an audience could see the weapon in the antagonists hand so we knew as he entered the room that the girl was likely to be stabbed and murdered.
A hidden Identity is used as the antagonist wants to remain a secret. An example of a convention that I used in the thriller production is low-key lighting. This is used in the end scene as the antagonist is chasing the victim. This is used so the victim cannot see where the antagonist is and doesn't know whether she is safe or not. This is to create suspense for the audience as we worry for her life.
Using low-key lighting is conventional to the thriller genre because it brings mystery and worry to the audience, as a young girl is walking alone in the dark it makes you more aware that something bad is likely to happen. Another example I used was mise-en-scene of the antagonist having a hidden identity, this is conventional as it builds tension upon the audience as we don't know who or what the antagonist looks like, as the victim is a young girl it makes the audience nervous as to weather she would be able to protect herself.
One more micro-element I included was non-diegetic eerie music throughout, however some parts I increased and decrease the volume, this was to build tension for the audience, espiecally so the audience hear the sound of the antagonist walking towards the victim, this is an example where i decresed the eerie music volume so the footsteps could be heard, this build up suspense. and make the scene seem more dramatic.
I tried to include the 3 S's, shock, suprise and suspense in certain areas of the sequence, for example at the beginning of the sequence, it shows the antagonist sitting in a dark room on her laptop, looking at pictures of the victim on facebook, the pictures of the victim hanging on the wall, this shocks the audience as you would not expect to see this as it makes the antagonist seem obsessive and twisted, I also included a knife as part of the iconography, from which i zoomed in onto it to ephasise the the knife as the audience dosn't know what the victim is capable of, this generates suspense as the audience wonders whether the knife will be used on the victim or not.
An example of an editing style which i used was dissolve, towards the beggining, the two girls are sitting together laughing and taking pictures, this then dissolves to wear the victim is walking and the antagonist is watching her, adding dissolve was to emphasise that something bad was about to happen, as it dissolves it gives the audience a sense that the film is isnt going to be happy and fun anymore, asif all the good slips away. This was to generate supense as we wonder what the female antagonist wants to do to the victim. It also is suprising to the audience as you would not expect this to happen in broad day light in the subarbian streets.
I would say that my thriller sequence is conventional however there are a couple of scenes that are not to add tension and twist the audiences perspective, for example i used low-key lighting, a female victim, a knife as a weapon and dietic sound of eerie music, these are all examples of what you would expect to see in a conventional thriller. However, instead of typically having a male antagonist, i had a female one. This was to create more suspense for the audience as you would not expect to see a young female dark and twisted. This was done to make the audience wonder what the antagonist was capable of.
You have provided a basic analysis of your opening sequence, giving some examples of the micro-elements used, as well as some conventions identified in research and used within your sequence, explaining why they were used to an extent. You need to think carefully about how your thriller follows conventions and other thrillers, elaborate on other micro-elements and inspirations used, compare your sequence to other successful thrillers and elaborate on points made.
ReplyDeleteYou need to:
1) Elaborate on why you used certain micro-elements at certain times and what you wanted them to create for the audience
2) Compare your sequence to another thriller and explain how it is similar
3) Elaborate on why your sequence follows conventions of the thriller genre and how it defines the genre
4) only mention things analysed in research if you are going to explain how you used it in your sequence