For this task, I looked at a previous media student’s thriller movie and analyzed it against the given criteria, looking to see why the grade it received the grade that it got. This is helpful to us as current media students as we can see the areas in which we gained marks and pick up techniques and basic ideas for our own thrillers when we make them, we can learn from the previous student work.

I have chosen to analyse the piece ‘MEGAN’ as I believe it was very successful in meeting all of the criteria and I found it very profesionally made, I was very inspired and intrigued by this piece and hope to be able to maybe create something close to this standard.

Here it is:

In order to analyse the thriller, we were given a success criteria which is below:

Holding a steady shot

There are several examples within the piece that display a steady shot, for example in the very beginning when there are snapshot shots of different rooms in the house, you can tell that these have been filmed with the camera securely on the tripod, giving the film are more  professional look as the camera isn’t shaking. It could be used to convey the stillness and peace of the house at the beginning, a contrast from when things begin to become more sinister, which then a range of different frames will be used to creste this sense of unease.

Framing a shot

A wide variety of different camera angles are used in order to convey different atmospheres to the audience. One good example of a specifically effective camera angle is when the camera is focused in on a close up shots to specific areas of the girl when she becomes distressed by the events, for example, there will be a clip of the main action and then it will cut back to a close up shot of her hands grabbing at her hair in distress, focusing us in on this so we can gather the fear of the situation.

Variety of shot distances

The variety of shot distances is a stand out feature of this project. There’s several quick close up shots of things such as the girl’s face and the door handle rattling however most of the shots of the man are further away, more long shots, so that way, his identity remains a mystery but we are given a huge close up on the effects he’s having in the woman, yet we don’t know really anything about him which creates an element of mystery which is key in a thriller film.

Appropriation to task

This thriller opening is extremely professional, a tense and mysterious atmosphere is created throughout, the acting from the two characters is extremely professional and I feel as though it is very successfully fulfilling the task brief. We have the stark contrast from the distressed innocent woman to the dark and scheming man which creates an believable and gripping plotline.

Mise-en-scene Selection

All aspects of mise-en-scene seem to have been carefully and purposefully selected in order to create an extremely effective and professional looking thriller. The average, everyday setting of a normal house starkly contrasts with the sinister events that are playing out, it comes as a shock to the audience however makes it more relatable for them. This is also the case for the costumes of  the woman and the man, the woman wearing very comfortable looking, casual clothing such a slippers, and the man wearing purposely all black clothing, signify again the innocence of the woman and the dark, mysterious nature of the man. The lighting also is very bright when the woman is getting on with her mundane tasks, such as mopping the floor, however when things begin to turn sinister with the man, the lighting becomes far more low-key, heightening the tension.

Editing for meaning

This thriller is also very cleverly edited to display the story which we can tell is in chronological order as we as an audience can see the woman getting more and more distressed throughout as the man comes closer. We get snippets of the woman alone in her distressed state,these clips being in black and white to show the miserable state she’s in, all the colour faded. These black and white clips are then edited amongst the coloured clips of her being watched by the killer therefore it’s edited to almost show an insight into her mind  as we see the events playing out in chronological order and then clips of her in fear are edited throughout this, displaying more clearly the killer’s effect on her.

Shot transitions 

There are some shot transitions displayed within this opening, for example when it changes from reality to the black and white visions of her, there’s a fade transition used to show the change from reality to her mental state. It creates a sense of tension, as the fading means it quickly becomes another image therefore when it cuts so quickly some times you are left in suspense, not sure what’s going to happen next.

Sound with images 

There is creepy music throughout the entirety of the thriller which almost resembles somebody screaming, perhaps representing the woman mentally crying out for help. This tense music is also accompanied by specific sound effects in places for example, when the camera is on a close up shot of the woman, there is a sound effect of her breathing as if she’s been shocked or she’s in fear, showing her fear and building tension as we uncover the story. Another example is when the foot slams loudly, this loud sound effect over the already eerie music is tense and shocking, and fits in perfectly with the scene.

Using Titles 

The titles are rather simplistic within this thriller however I think it’s effective within this case as the visual style of them fits perfectly with the theme. The titles appear in a quite a small font at the top of the screen in different shots however every single first letter of each title is in a red colour which seemingly signifies the blood that is shown repeatedly throughout the opening, show the sinister atmosphere of this thriller, killing is involved.

In lesson, we created vines, in order to practice camera techniques and get a small understanding of the effects that each particular camera angle or technique can portray and what these things convey to an audience about a particular scene or character.

Here are some examples of a few vines in which we experimented with some different camera techniques-

1. Tracking- following the character, understanding the bigger picture envolving them, there’s an interest in this particular character, we can understand their situation and feel as though we’re involved with them through tracking.

2. Extreme close up- shows intense moment of realisation and the effect that this particular moment had on a character, if it’s of a character, or shows the key importance of the object to the story if it’s of an object.

3. Long shot- shows only the full body of the character, shows the interest in this particular character in this moment, at this point they are the dominant, most important character.

The thriller movie opening sequence that I chose to analyse independently was, ‘Shutter Island’. 

This opening sequence was rather different from that of ‘The Hole’. It was a lot more mysterious, hardly any details of character and  explicit themes were given away from this opening however, setting was displayed very prominently suggesting it’s significance, as the place mentioned in the title. It was also more tense and fast paced, only giving the audience little glimpses of what’s to come.

My analysis of this opening is linked to the image of the poster.

In class, we analysed the opening sequence of the thriller movie, the hole.

The opening sequence to this thriller overall was rather successful, it was gripping and rather tense in moments and sometimes confusing in places however, introduced us quite nicely to the film and gave us a good insight into what it may be about and what’s coming up next.

For this research task we looked at the conventions that make a successful thriller, what goes into a thriller film in order for it to be placed within this genre but also the elements that make it a success.

The conventions in which we based our analysis on were:

• The protagonist of the story,
• The antagonist,
• The theme in which it surrounded,
• The iconography displayed,
• The setting in which we saw
• and the enigma or mystery to be uncovered throughout.

Below, is a PDF of my mind map of two thriller films:

For my homework, and for preparation for the thriller project, I watched the thriller, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.

The story line is that an FBI agent, named Clarice Starling, is going to help find a missing woman to try and save her from a serial killer who is pursuing her. This serial killer in particular kills and then skins his victims. Clarice, as research to get to grips with the twisted mind of the killer, talks to another psychopath, Hannibal Lecter, who once was a respected psychiatrist as she is but then things went downhill.  After speaking to Lecter, she realises that the serial killer will be crafty and everything with him will be a psychological game meaning she will often have to read between the lines he provides, to get to the bottom of the mystery, making her job all that much harder. However, in the end, Clarice graduates from the FBI academy after cracking the case which was that a man called Buffalo Bill was behind it all along.

Some elements that I specifically expect to see in a thriller are:

• A kidnapping scene – these are often placed in thriller films to create a problem and to add some tension but also fear, for the lives of the children or the person. However, they could also show the bravery of the Protagonist who will inevitably save them.
• A protagonist and an equally opposite antagonist- although seemingly obvious, a heroic protagonist and a completely opposite evil antagonist are essential to a thriller movie as they bounce off of each other and always clash on view points, ultimately creating rivalry and therefore bringing the excitement and tension to the movie.
• Vast settings and Low Key lighting- These two aspects are often within a thriller film, the Vast settings creating a sense of isolation to the characters, which builds up the mystery, there’s no one around so anything could happen. The dull, low-key lighting also helping to create this mysterious and dark mood.

The brief-

A continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

Over the past few lessons,we, as media students have been working on our preliminary task of making and editing a short video, bearing in mind the continuity editing rules.

Evaluation

• I have used the following camera techniques- close up, long shot, panning. 
• I used these techniques to create a sense of/that – I used different camera techniques to convey different things for example the close up was to show the clock ticking, the significance of time running out, the long shot was to show charlee walking down the long corridor, to show she had a long way to walk before she arrived and I used panning to pan across from the door to the action to make sure the actors were in shot. 
• I have learnt to use the following continuity editing rules – the 180 degree rule when filming, also the match an action. 
• I used the rules to – the 180 degree rule to make sure that the characters maintain the left/right relationship with each other, so we don’t cross the line, and it doesn’t become a reverse shot. 
• I have learnt to use the following tools/techniques in premier pro – cropping, cutting.
• I used the tools to – to crop the clips to the right length to make sure that the match on action was accurate and the cut tool to either remove clips entirely or move them around within the project, change their position. 
• If I was to do the project again, I would- I would refilm some shots if they weren’t quite right for example the shot was too zoomed in or if any of the actors corpsed during filming, just so it would be perfect.

Here is our final project, im rather happy with the way it turned out:

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.