Question OneEvaluation

Opening TitlesA convention in many thriller movies is simple opening credits, situated on a black screen. Titles such as this build tension for the start of the film, as the audience is unaware as to what is going to happen next. Kill Bill, Essex Boys and Once Upon a Time in America are all examples of these simple, white-on-black titles.

One way in which we were inspired by real thrillers is through many shots within our film. The worm’s eye view to the left is one such shot, inspired by the very similar shot in Once Upon a Time in America (pictured below). This type of shot establishes the subject as weak and vulnerable; in this case, the victim Billy is the subject and so this shot shows his low status and threat. The killer, however, is looked up on to signify her power. This shot was suggested by me, as I remembered the similar one in Once Upon a Time in America and decided it would be a powerful ending to our film and would leave the viewer wanting to see more. However, during the editing phase of our film we decided to cut out this shot and leave it on a more enigmatic ending, as this shot of the coat falling over the camera made the opening look more like the ending of a thriller.

A worm’s eye view also very similar to the one we used, seen in ‘Inglorious Basterds’.

Worm’s eye views are relatively common in thrillers, as they create an uncertain and helpless feeling for the viewer; the audience is looking up at the action (usually from another character’s point of view) which makes them feel more involved – however, it also gives the feeling of uncertainty and helplessness because they know they cannot do anything to help the characters/

Another shot which was inspired by a classic thriller is this vanishing point located in the forest, which is almost identical to the ending scene in ‘The Third Man’. However, in the 1944 classic, Anna walks towards the camera – a contrast to our thriller in which Billy runs away from the camera and towards the end of the vanishing point. This is significant of Billy running into the unknown – and perhaps danger. Vanishing points are purposefully enigmatic; no one knows what lies beyond the point, which creates an uneasy atmosphere.

Vanishing points are a common convention of thriller movies for this reason, and so we decided to use one to make our film more authentic.

This vanishing point in ‘Witness’ is slightly different; the vanishing point is a door, with what lies behind it remaining a mystery.

A shot which was also inspired by Once Upon a Time in America is when the killer turns on a lamp to light up a pitch-black room. The chiaroscuro lighting in this scene is a commonly used lighting technique and convention in thrillers, as it helps set the mood and can be used as a metaphor for a character’s grey morality and dark intentions. Although visually similar, our shot and the one used in OUTA have narrative differences in terms of characters and plot; in OUTA, the woman turning on the lamp is a victim to a group of corrupt cops and the lamp is used as a metaphor for her – when she is killed, the lamp is turned off. However, in our thriller, the woman turning on the lamp is the antagonist and the turning on of the lamp is used to reveal her sinister intentions as it reveals a handgun.

We also used chiaroscuro lighting in this scene because we wanted to create a clear contrast between the protagonist and the antagonist; Holly, the killer, is hidden in the shadows and the dark lighting while Billy is out in the open. We have therefore developed conventions of thriller, as we have used the lighting as a metaphor for the antagonist’s dark motives.

Our main inspiration for our thriller was an opening scene in the Danish crime show ‘The Killing’. In The Killing, a young woman is running through the forest trying to evade a murderer. Many of the shots used in our film are very similar to ones used in The Killing; the ones pictured to the right, for example, are almost identical in terms of the camera position and the mid-shots. The trees in both of these shots are a metaphor for barriers and enclosure, trapping our protagonist within the foreboding forest.Isolated exterior locations are a

convention within thrillers because they can frighten the viewer; they play on the fear of being alone in an endless, uncharted place in which no one will be able to rescue you or find you if something happens to you. Evidently, we have used this convention as the protagonist meets his end in this location.

No Country For Old Men: the protagonist tries to escape from the people hunting him, running through an isolated exterior location much like in our thriller.

Our second location is a regular kitchen inside a suburban house. In our editing, we used parallel cuts to cut from the kitchen to the sequence in the forest.

To draw a bigger impact from the binary opposites between the forest and the kitchen, we tried to achieve normality by having the protagonist wash up and perform chores. This location also acted as a metaphor for the character of Billy; the claustrophobic space creates the thought that Billy is ‘trapped’, reflecting his anxiety and paranoia and the effect his forest nightmares have on him.

Claustrophobic and trapped spaces are a very common convention in the genre because the thought of there being no escape can frighten the audience, and gives them an impending sense of doom; they know that the situation is likely not going to end well.

From left to right: Kill Bill 2, Phone Booth and Panic Room: all examples of thrillers with confined spaces.

Flashbacks and Dream Sequences• A flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the

story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory. In the opposite direction, a flash forward reveals events that will occur in the future. Both flashback and flash forward are used to create suspense in a story.

In movies and television, several camera techniques and special effects have evolved to alert the viewer that the action shown is from the past; for example, the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, photography may be jarring or choppy, or the colour might be changed to black and white. These are used to help the viewer to not be confused.

• Although we did not use flashbacks in a traditional sense, we did use dream sequences with the character Billy running in the woods. However, we changed convention by putting the scenes in real life in black and white to darken the atmosphere while the protagonist’s dream of running in the woods is in colour to make it ironically whimsical, despite its dark nature. Although this may be confusing to the viewer, it is an intentional confusion because of the psychological themes within our thriller. This uneases the viewer; one of the main objectives of a thriller movie.

Binary Opposition• Another convention of thriller is the concept of opposites within

characters, locations, lighting, movement, etc. Claude Levis Strauss said that “Constant creation of conflict/opposition drives narrative”.

• In our thriller, we followed this convention primarily through locations; the trackless forest suggests an unreal world distant from civilisation, whilst in stark contrast the kitchen brings the focus back to reality (The concept of the kitchen being grounded in reality was also one of the main reason we chose to put those sequences in black and white – a colour choice which further enforces binary opposition).

- In The Third Man, locations are also used to convey binary opposition. The dark, mysterious and beautiful streets of Vienna are incredibly different from the murky, wet, dangerous sewers.

• Furthermore, the characters in our opening – much like the characters in many thrillers – are binary opposites. The protagonist, Billy, is an innocent and seemingly paranoid, naïve character. The antagonist Holly, on the other hand, is a ruthlessly efficient stalker and murderer.

- In No Country For Old Men, there is a similar binary opposition between the protagonist and the antagonist. Llewellyn Moss is a small town welder who happens to find a suitcase full of money, and naively decides to run away with it instead of carrying on with his life. Anton Chigurh, however, is similar to Holly; he is incredibly ruthless and greatly overpowers the helpless protagonist. Llewellyn Moss (left) and Anton Chigurh (right)

Vienna (left) and the dirty sewers of Vienna (right)