To widen my knowledge of the conventions used in thrillers (especially the ones similar to how I would like mine) I watched the beginnings to a few films. The film that interested me the most was ‘When A Stranger Calls’. We studied these conventions ant tried to use them at all opportunities.
In our thriller opening we aimed to hook our audience from the word go. This is vital in a thriller so we aimed to creating tension within the allotted two minutes. Inside these two minutes we also had to find a way of putting the film titles in, in a way that added to the thriller, not distract the audience away from the tension and suspense. The opening is vital to the rest of the film as it will either entice the audience to keep watching or it can put them off and they may not choose to watch much of it, ways in which we managed to make our thriller interesting was with the use of interesting camera shots. We used a range of camera shots including close ups (to add tension and show emotion on faces). We used various shots including close-ups, pans and long shots in order to fit in with the conventions. We used pans in order to show the location to the audience. We filmed in a gloomy bunker in order to set the mise-en-scene. We developed on this convention by using an open field as our second location. This suggests vulnerability, as the field is open and bare. This allows the audience to connote that the victims are in a vulnerable situation.
(From Our Thriller Opening)
(From ‘When A Stranger Calls’)
With our editing we used quick transitions in order to create tension and a feeling of suspense. In all only our titles were the only clip that was longer than 2 seconds. We did this in order to leave the audience with a feeling of mystery and confusion; this is a convention in many thrillers, using inspiration from Disturbia (2007) and When A Strange Calls (2006).
Sound is important also. This includes the use of sound effects, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. We used the sound of a ticking clock; we thought this suggests progression of time, and a loss of any idea of time or location. This will leave the audience on edge, as they will be unsettled. We decided to mute all of the diegetic sound throughout our thriller. This was because we deemed it would fit in with the conventions to use only non-diegetic sounds in order to build more tension. We chose music with gradual crescendo in order to get peaks in our tension. We used the use of sound as a big way of increasing the tension and a way of hopefully involving the audience more. These would be included to up the suspense and tension throughout our two-minute opening. The Mise-en-scene of the opening is also vital in order to hook our audience in. We filmed in gloomy environments to show fear, our props were things like ropes and are associated to things like fear and crime when mixed with the setting we chose. We used the cigarette as a big prop throughout our opening, to show routine and give our villain a more thorough and intelligent way of committing his crime, rather than something that had no thought and effort involved.
In the opening to ‘When A Stranger Calls’ it uses very little diegetic sound. There is a sinister backing track playing in the background leaving the audience with a sense of anticipation as the opening progresses. The shots used are quick. This is in order to build tension and an element of suspense, quick camera shots shot lots of emotion, different locations and different things happening in a short space of time. There is a happy medium hit between it being too quick and the amount of information that is given been show to the audience. There are a few long pans showing location to the audience but after these the shots are quick and mainly Mid-shot to Extreme-close-up. Using close ups and mid shots means that the audience can see lots of emotion on the faces of the actors, this allows them to connect with them. Also close ups can be used as a way to give a feeling of claustrophobia. This allows the audience to infer that the film will have a fast tempo to it. The fairground sets the Mise-en-scene throughout the opening. This implies fun is being had, however this is a contrast to the sound and the pace of the shots. This will hook the audience as they will be confused as to what is going on, there will be a sense of mystery as to why such sinister sounds and quick tempo building shots are used over the image of something so innocent.
It is not unheard of however for directors to ignore the conventions and go off on a route of their own in order to make an attractive thriller. A Clockwork Orange (1971) is a perfect example of this. Director Stanley Kubrick seemed to make a thriller filled with satirical humour. Making an almost fantasy world to draw the audience in it was a unique viewing experience and still is now, and as one of the biggest cult films of all times it shows that it doesn’t always pay off to stick to every convention. Many thrillers seem to stick as close to the realms of reality as possible in order to allow the audience to relate to it in a frightening way, or an exciting way however in A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick did quite the opposite, allowing the audience to be invited into this fantasy world if you like, thus enthralling the audience and trapping them into watching the film by sticking to none of the conventions
I tried to challenge the usual thrillers by allowing the audience most of the information. Usually the villain is hidden away from the audience and the mystery is unravelled at the end in order to bring the production to a resolution, however my media production is shown from the perspective of the villain, unusual as it is usually shown from the side of the hero or heroine. I thought this added a certain sinister spin onto our thriller. It doesn’t allow the audience to connect with the villain however it heightens the emotional response that the audience will have with our damsels in distress. The use of damsels in distress is another example of stereotypes in our thriller.
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