Marking Another Students Work

The thriller begins with a close up of a man’s eyes looking scared. He’s saying the words ‘no’ to indicate that he is in trouble.

There is a pleonastic sound of a gunshot and the man’s head falls out of the camera shot. A picture is then revealed of a girl with a circle around her face and the word ‘NEXT’ is written underneath in red pen. The red indicates danger and shows that she is in trouble. Non-diegetic music is played in the background along with non-diegetic ambient sounds such as rain falling on the floor. Rain is often seen in thrillers as it makes them appear darker and gloomier, creating a good atmosphere for a thriller.

We then see a girl talking on the phone using diegetic sound which raises questions as we don’t know who she’s talking to or what they’re talking about as we can only hear one side of the conversation. The non-diegetic music is still playing in the background, it is a slow song that is being played on the piano and is quite gloomy which fits with the atmosphere that the rain brings.

The girl is wearing a bright, yellow coat which stands out from the dark, dreary brick backgrounds. The yellow can also represent happiness, which is ironic because of the depressing atmosphere of the opening. She is then followed by a figure in black who blends in with the background. This shows that he is unable to be seen, therefore she doesn’t know he’s there or that he’s following her. A range of shots including long shot, mid shot and close ups of key aspects such as a foot walking in the same place as the girls, indicating that she is being followed.

Fades are used for a few of the transitions to show a passage of time when the girl is walking. Her movements are also slowed down at some points to help build suspense.

The girl is then seen entering a house and turning the light on. This light indicates the safeness of her own home, unlike the outside streets. Again, some footsteps are shown to walk in the same place as the girl was to show that she’s being followed. A close up is used to show that this is a key moment as we know the following is going to come to end soon. The follower’s black silhouette figure is then shown in front of her door which creates mystery as we don’t know who this person is. A close up is shown of his finger pressing the doorbell, representing another key moment as she is about to lose the safety of her own home by opening the door to him.

 As the girl opens the door, creaking sounds are heard. Creaking doors are often related to thrillers as they are creepy sounding and create tension within the audience. A non-diegetic heartbeat sound is shown in the background. This creates even more suspense and builds more tension as we don’t know what’s going to happen. The door is opened slowly to continue the building of suspense.

Thriller Analysis - Black Swan

Black Swan Analysis

Notes:

Starts with opening credits

Classical music, with hint of mystery, spooky

First shot is a long shot of a ballerina in a spotlight

Close up of feet as she dances – performing in a ballet

Music change as the man in black enters the shot

Pan round the two people into close up of her face expressing worry and fear

Close up of his face – stern, dangerous, determined

Music change as the man in black changes to black swan – much more fast, danger near

Girl in white – innocent, man in black – mysterious, dangerous, contrast good and bad

Zoom out shows the change of girl’s outfit and behaviour – transformation

Fade to black, music fades

Shot of girl waking up from the dream – happy

In terms of Mise on Scene – black background with single white spotlight, performance telling a story, feathers costumes, colour representation (black and white)

 

 

Essay:

The film starts with the opening credits and title of the film. Classical background music starts to play, however the music has a more mysterious, dark part to it as well. The first shot is a long shot of a girl wearing white in a bright white spotlight, then a close up of her feet shows that she is a very talented ballerina as she begins to dance.

We see that the white represents her innocence and this continues as a man in black enters the shot. The man is dressed in black representing mystery and possibly danger. The music also slows down and becomes but deeper as the man appears which tells us that something important is about to happen.

The shot pans around the two characters until we see a close up of the ballerina’s face which expresses worry and fear.

We then see a close up of the man’s face which is stern and determined-looking. When the man transforms into a black swan the music becomes much more fast-paced which represents the danger that is approaching. This is when the contrast between good and bad is shown most, using the black and white colour representation.

A slow zoom out shows the transformation of the ballerina’s outfit to a swan costume with feathers.

The scene then fades to black and the music fades. Then there is a cut to the girl in bed waking up from her dream looking happy. In terms of Mise en Scene, the background is black with a white spotlight representing the contrast between good and bad. But the opening is portrayed mostly through their expressions in the ballet performance, through choreography, facial expressions and costumes.

Cape Fear Analysis

Cape Fear Analysis

First seen is first the ‘Universal’ logo which is played along with the sound of thunder as the image goes black and white. The first scene starts with a sound sting; the sudden sound grabs attention straight away. The music carries on very sinister and slow creating a tense atmosphere, there is dark rippling water being shown throughout. The water creates immediate tension as the sea is seen with a fear of the unknown; it also holds danger and darkness.

 As the music builds up there is a refection of an eagle shown flying across the water. The eagle is a predator which represents danger, strength and freedom.

The music gets louder as the title is shown to give it more emphasis on it, which is then followed by a distorted extreme close up of an eye shown in the water. This could create the feeling of being watched. There is then another distorted close up on the whole face, as these images come up it is making the audience question who it is and what character they hold in the film. 

There is a silhouette of half a body shown with the colour green over the water, as the colour represents jealousy and envy it could show that there is a character that wants to get revenge.  

There are hints of red shown in the water, which then turns into a whole screen of red still with the moving water. The red represents danger and is common in a lot of thriller titles and films. This then turns into another close up of eyes still with the red fade, then a change to a green fade.

It is then shown that it is a young girl talking about the river ‘Cape Fear’. The young girl represents innocence and purity, this is enhanced by the costume of the white shirt, which is also buttoned up to the top, and this could show her vulnerability. The non- diegetic sound stops when she starts speaking and there is no other sound but her dialogue. The lines she says also adds question to the audiences mind, making them wonder what the story is behind ‘Cape Fear’- “those enchanted summer nights”. This script also emphasises the characters vulnerability as she talks about the ‘magic’ she had. Her image is then faded out into black, with more titles coming up and non-diegetic slow guitar music is heard.

The next shot is in a prison cell, the camera goes slowly along the wall seeing the pictures and books which could give the impression that the man seen is quite clever. He has a tattoo on his back- which is the first the audience see’s of him- of scales of injustice. This could lead them to think that he could be wrongly imprisoned or is out for revenge, to make something equal.

The final scene of the introduction is a long shot of the character walking out of the prison. The music builds up with this, and there is also a storm starting in the background. This shows the audience that now he is released and free- like the eagle seen before- something bad is going to happen. As the focus is on him, this shows the audience that he is the main character, but leaves lots of questions like, what is he walking towards when he leaves the prison? As he keeps on walking into the camera, this shows his aggressiveness and violence, it is then clear that he isn’t a nice character, but the intense atmosphere and building music is used to show the characters emotions.

Thriller Moodboard

This moodboard is about thrillers in general. There are pictures from well known, typical thrillers that are helping us get inspiration for our own thriller.

Codes & Conventions of a Thriller

Copy of Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller on Prezi

Prelim

Prelim Description & Storyboard

We filmed our prelim on Friday 27^th January during a media lesson. We had an hour to gather the footage for the prelim. We used Maisie’s own JVC camera. This was good because we knew how to use it more than the school ones. It was also more advanced and had HD. It was also good at blocking out background noise, although it was a bit fuzzy, so we decided to put background music over the footage. We also used a tripod to ensure that the shots were steady and straight. We decided to film in the i-block corridor. We made sure that we filmed during lesson time so we wouldn’t be interrupted by people passing by. We brainstormed our idea of our short story and created a storyboard to go with this.

We decided to have Maisie walking through the corridor, opening the door and then sitting down opposite Megan to share some dialogue. We used match on action when Maisie opened the door to show our editing skills. We also used shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule during the dialogue.

We faced some problems whilst filming our prelim. Firstly, with the filming, we picked a location which we thought would be quite quiet so we wouldn’t be interrupted, however we still experienced quite a few teachers and students walking by especially in the corridor scene because the door was shut so they didn’t realise they’d interrupted until it was too late. Also, when we changed scene from the dialogue to Maisie’s exit, the lighting changed significantly and it almost looked like they were in completely different locations. This is something that we have to think about when filming our Thriller. On top of this, we struggled to use the editing software in school and although we get better at using it through time, we decided to use Scarlett’s own editing programme as it is more advanced and we know how to use that better.