Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?
Thriller films have typical conventions, just like any other genre of film. This ranges from the films always creating enigma, being restricted and unrestricted narration, iconography through use of camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound.
Convention 1: Enigma
Enigma is something every thriller film will want to incorporate into their movie because it makes the qudiecne question the film and will keep their full attention and engagement.
'Face Off' which was released in 1997 by John Woo immediately shows enigma in the opening sequence because it shows a man and a young child looking very happy and content on a merry-go round (figure 1) but then shows a man pointing a gun at them (figure 2).
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| Figure 1 |
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| Figure 2 |
My film also creates enigma as there is a voice over which quotes things about being afraid, scared and makes the audience question if this opening actually has anything to do with fear, as nothing happens until the end and they are only shown one character until the end 3 seconds. The opening also creates enigma through the hall scene because it's unclear if this is the present day, in the past or in the future at the beginning.
Convention 3: Extreme Close Up Shot (ECU)
Thrillers like to include many extreme close up shots throughout their films because they focus at a much closer angle, in comparison to any other shot type. Because of this the camera receives a high amount of detail onto the person/object that is in the frame, making the audience feel as though their that close to the person/object too, keeping their attention.
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| Figure 1 |
The thriller film 'Inception' (released in 2010 by Christopher Nolan) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio uses an extreme close up shot within the first 30 seconds of the film starting (figure 1). This image reflects the purpose of this shot type because it's presents the desperation his face to the audience who have just began watching, ensuring they continue watching to find out why he's appeared in this state.
Inception's opening also used another ECU (figure 2) of a gun on a wooden desk. This was done to shock viewers and to keep their attention as they predict who's it is, what will they do with it etc...
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| Figure 2 |
Similarly, I used many extreme close up shots in my thriller opening because I wanted to convey the sense of loneliness and fear that the Eliza felt standing in the hall. I had an ECU on her right eye closing (gif 1).
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| Gif 1 |
We felt this conveyed emotion and sadness, as well as another ECU we did on both of her eyes abruptly closing a few seconds later (gif 2). We then made a quick cut from this ECU to titling, which created a shocking affect.
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| Gif 2 |
In addition, we also used an ECU on her lips as she heavily breathed in and out (gif 3). This emphasized the intensity of the scene.
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| Gif 3 |
We then had another ECU on her upper chest and collar bones during her heavy breathing (gif 4). This shot really portrayed the thriller genre in my opinion as her breathing could have stopped any minute.
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| Gif 4 |
We used a pan on another ECU twice. We used the same shot style in the woods scene (gif 5), as well as the hall scene (gif 6).
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| Gif 5 |
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| Gif 6 |
The camera was positioned in an ECU shot type as it panned down her right hand arm down to her hand as it tightly clenched, in both scenes. We did this because it showed continuity and I thought it would be unique to do the same shot type in both of the two locations.
Lastly, we used another ECU at the end of the opening when the stalker place his hand on Eliza's shoulder (figure 7).
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| Figure 7 |
By applying the camera in this position it allowed viewers to feel the intensity that we tried to portray and also allowed them to see the shock and fear in Eliza's face.
Convention 4: Unrestricted and Restricted Narration (Sound)
Narration is commonly in used in thriller films because it usually gives the audience an incite to the narrative of the film, however in some thriller films the narration can confuse the audience, but this will be done on purpose to create that enigma.
The 2003 film 'Adaptation' by Spike Jonzes uses narration from 18 seconds into the thriller until 1:54 seconds and it is highly effective because the male voice is speaking about himself, which allows viewers to make the assumption that he is the main character, therefore already there is an incite to the narrative.
Our film has a narration from 14 seconds into the opening up until the ending of the opening, but with gaps in between. We wanted to do a narration because it meant our opening would definitely fit in the thriller genre and would add to the enigma of it as the narration only gave a very narrow incite to the film.
The non diegetic soundtrack in thrillers can communicate a lot if they mix well with the moving image, for example 'Face Off' (1997 by John Woo) chose as very effective soundtrack when the father and son are on the merry-go round as it's a very soft, light and joyful sound, matching the happy scene, however when the villain is shown the soundtrack changes to a very violent banging sound and they made a great transition from one to the other. Therefore we also wanted to do this and incorporate the feelings of the scene into the soundtrack, so we used a softer sound to begin with and it gradually built up, parallel to the moving image.
Convention 5-Titling
Titling organisation was important for our thriller. We knew we wanted it to be quite plain and simple, especially because independent research in thriller genre films titling conformed to this idea. The title of our thriller reflected the titling used in "Face Off" (by John Woo) and "Psycho" (1960 by Alfred Hitchcock) because they used white, simple text on a black background. We thought this worked very effectively because it was clear for the audience to the information but is still dark and secretive, like our thriller. For our ending title (figure 1) we adjusted to font size to a larger size because we wanted it to be shocking and to fill the frame, similar to "Hannah" (2011 by Joe Wright) in figure 2. We added titling in throughout the beginning, middle and end of the thriller because it looked professional and sophisticated, similarly to other thrillers such as "Rear Window" and "The Dark Knight". We put our logo and production company at the beginning (figure 3) as most other thrillers to this, such as "Face Off" and "Rear Window (figure 4).
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| Figure 1 |
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| Our thriller titling |
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| "Face Off" titling |
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| "Psycho" Titling |
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| Figure 2 |
Figure 4
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| Figure 1 |
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| Figure 5 |
As a group, we wanted our
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| Figure 2 |
opening to incorporate iconography for thriller of the thriller genre, therefore we used low key lighting in half of the opening (hall scene). We didn't want any lights on in the room, apart from our one spotlight and we filmed the majority of the scene when it was completely dark outside, therefore no sunlight was coming through the large window. But for the woods scene we filmed in the natural daylight to create a contrast with the two settings. Having the woods brightly lit also juxtaposes the fact that during that time is when she is being followed, but in the minimal hall lighting nothing else is there with her. The thriller 'Phone Booth' (2003 by Joel Schmacher) uses natural daylight too (figure 1) and 'Kill Bill' (2003 by Quentin Tarantino) uses low key lighting (figure 2).
We wanted creative through the camera by including a wide range of shots and pan's, tilts and tracking, especially as all thrillers do this. We used a pan 3 times, but we used the same idea for 2 of them and did one pan slowly (gif 1) and the other at a quick pace (gif 2), to create variation and continuity.
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| Gif 1 |
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| Gif 2 |
We didn't use of the typical props, such as gun's, knifes or any other harmful weapons, which some thriller films include, such as 'Inception', 'Face Off' and 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' included because it wasn't necessary for our story line, similarly to 'Silence of the Lambs' who also don't include them. Similarly, no fake blood was needed either.
Filming in the woods was stereotypical for the thriller films, but we used this setting because we believed it would help convey the genre. Thriller 'Silence Of The Lambs' also used the woods in their film (figure 3). We had a male for our antagonist and a female as the protagonist which is also stereotypical, similarly to 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed'.
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| Figure 3 |
We edited the whole of the hall scene into a black and white filter during post production and this was inspired by 'Kill Bill' as the film is all in black and white (figure 4) and it looked very effective and gave that sense of innocence, more than colour does, therefore we like it for the hall scene footage.
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| Figure 4 |
Thriller films apply to Todorov's theory with 3 main stages:
1. Equilibrium-The beginning of the story and protagonist is calm and secure
2.Disruption-action that caused the story line to change
3. New Equilibrium-the problem has been fixed
The disappearance of Alice Creed conforms to Todorov's theory as the story begins with Alice in a committed relationship with Danny but then he takes her hostage for 'her own good' and threatens her with a gun. But it ends with Danny dying and Alice escaping (the new equilibrium).
But our thriller doesn't conform to Todorovs theory as it doesn't start with an equilibrium or end with a new equilibrium but it does use the typical theme of a stalker which is a realistic issue some people experience.
Level 4 - well done
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