Daniel Rayson

Task number 1, stills of thriller conventions: To the left is a screen grab from the later part of our opening thriller sequence. A technique we have employed here is the style of lighting (low key lighting) which is classic by other thriller movies, this adds to a convention of creating a feel of confusion and illusion of the viewer. It is dim lit creating an eerie and unnerving feel within the location that the character Nate is in, it adds a feel of danger to the viewer, as it isn’t as clear to what is on the screen and can confuse them. I think it worked well within the scene we was shooting and gave the effect of confusion and danger we was hoping to achieve.

To the right is a screen grab from the dialogue between the character Nate (inset) and our other character Lucas. One technique we have aimed to use here was a use of shadows which is closely linked to lighting. It is used by many thrillers; it adds to the convention off setting up enigmas and questions to the audience, I believe an effective one. Shadows can be used to represent an inner darkness within a person, and they can also add to eeriness and tension that is being created. I think we used this technique effectively to add to the enigma convention as we know Nate has locked away a dark secret within him that Lucas is trying to find out. It makes him look menacing and can throw questions to the audience like ‘Is he the antagonist?’

To the left is a screen grab which is a flashback in Nate’s memory which occurs during the dialogue scene between Nate and Lucas. This is an effect we have put to use here is flashbacks which are commonly used within thrillers linked to memory and things which have occurred in the past. It adds to creating enigmas and questions to the audience. Flashbacks contribute to a sense of time and space disorientation which causes more confusion to the audience. It is also a common effect used in thrillers because it can give insight into to a characters past building up the audiences understanding of them, although this can be used as a red herring and lead the audiences perception of the character down the wrong path. Overall I think our use of flashbacks adding to the convention of enigmas and questions, working well building up tension in our thriller and also making the thriller interesting to watch by breaking up the long parts of dialogue.

Daniel Rayson

To the left are two separate screen grabs which are within the thriller actually two consecutive shots to show the use of the next technique with have employed which is the use of quick cuts. This technique again adds to the thriller convention of confusing the audience and throwing questions to them. This is a technique frequently used by thrillers when the tension is building to make it faster paced and intense. I think it worked well within our thriller as it opens showing shots of props around the house which if they were slow would be boring whereas by making them quick shots keeps it interesting, but also confusing. I think this technique has worked well with our thriller increasing the pace of the thriller and also adding to the building of the tension.

To the right is a screen shot of the technique of using different camera angles. This is a technique used in all films and not just the thriller genre although it does have profound effect within thrillers as a low angle shot like the one demonstrated to the right can show that someone has power, which within our thriller the audience would presume that Lucas does based on his smart dress therefore this camera angle helps to reinforce this view. This adds to the thriller convention of creating enigmas as the audience questions who this man is and why does he seem to have the power. This technique could have been employed more to show the power basis within our thriller opening but where it was used I think it worked well.

To the left is a screen shot I have taken of the dialogue between our two characters Nate and Lucas the convention that we have used here is specific to the type of thriller we was going for which is a psychological thriller. This can be where the characters are preying upon each other’s minds, they could be playing deceptive mind games or trying to destroy the others mental state. Within our thriller Lucas (to the left) is trying to retrieve a memory which Nate has locked away within his mind, this memory seems to be the key to getting justice. Overall I think this convention worked okay as it was the type of thriller we was trying to achieve. It could have been better if we had thought about the dialogue more and scripted it with better terminology present within it and also made it more obvious to the audience who the character of Lucas is.