Within my film I wanted to create shock
and suspense with my audience as these are common conventions used within the
thriller genre, after receiving the feedback from my first draft I found that I
had failed to achieve that. So I went back and reshot what I needed to and with
the help of some people I had decided to use slow moving paced shots and slow
edits to help create the suspense part of my aim. When editing the ending I
wanted my protagonist to be seen in a state of panic so I decided to cut
the whole shot into four separate shots and then edited the scale of the shots so
that they appeared to be smaller than the screen. After doing that with each
shot I decided to move them at opposite sides to each other, this helped show
the disorientation my protagonist was now feeling and also to show her changing
as a character into what the audience later sees when she pushes the blame onto
her fiancés mistress, this I hoped would help to create the emotion usually
created within thriller films. You can see below just how I did that.
For my target audience I wanted to create the idea that
the relationship between the two characters isn’t a homely one and they are not living
the perfect life; I found when researching the conventions of the thriller genre that the characters within the film have conflict with each other, which is the main aspect I wanted to included within my film. So I used that convention and also the idea that they are not living a happy life and juxtapose them so I set the majority of the
film and also where the main argument happens within the kitchen where traditionally that is the most domestic part
of the house. I wanted to take this idea further and placed a ‘home sweet home’
wall art on the kitchen wall which is seen in the shots behind my protagonist,
this shows just how much it isn’t a sweet home but sweet revenge revealing the
irony within the mise-en-scene.
Further in the film when my protagonist walks in on my antagonist
she stops next to the mirror where the audience can see her reflection, showing
her twice. This is again shown later after my antagonist has fallen down the
stairs, she goes to check his pulse and again is positioned next to the mirror
where the audience can see her reflection. Including the mirror as part of the
mise-en-scene helps show that there is now two different sides of my character
and now after she has committed a murder this has created a different side to
her which is also shown through her state of distress sequence.
An important convention within the thriller genre is sound, throughout my film there are few scenes where there isn't any non-diegetic sound, I found when watching A Perfect Murder that using quiet eerie non-diegetic music offers and produces more reactions and affects to the audience which is what I aimed for when creating my film. When researching clips of how they used this technique I found one of when Douglas' character is planning the murder of his cheating wife, the music arises when Douglas mentions a '... tragic confrontation ...' this alarms and also informs the audience that this is bad and dangerous.
I used
similar techniques in my film, the beginning sequence the non-diegetic music
starts playing quietly but as the situation starts to unravel and when my
protagonist finds out his infidelities the music gets louder and more harsh but
as the sequence comes to a close the music changes again to reflect the
emotions which are being felt and the music becomes slow and somewhat sad. I
aimed to create a suspense shock at the end of my film, so to make this
happen I decided to when my protagonist blames the mistress for the murder to
cut the music and the screen to black so the audience are stunned for a few
sequences until she says ‘Lily Blitz’. I did this to create the suspense shock
I initially aimed to create as the audience is waiting for what happens next
eagerly and do not see or expect her to blame someone else. This is a
common theme for thriller genres as the film is left on a cliff-hanger,
making my audience left wanting more and feeling like they have been left with
questions to which they have no answers. Throughout my film I used the
telephone as a motif as it is the main prop in the film and is the reason for
why many of the events happen. At the beginning of the sequence I used the
non-diegetic sound of the mobile phone ringing signifying the arrival of
something which ended up being my protagonist learning of his mistress and I
also, at the end sequence, used the hang up dial tone to signify the end of
something else which happened be the death of my antagonist and the
downfall of his mistress.
I decided when filming to position my
actors in separate shots to distance them from each other and also to show and
enforce the idea that they are no longer together and totally alone. The
only shot in which they are shown together during the beginning sequence is
when my antagonist is trying to persuade my protagonist that nothing is wrong
but when he tells her the truth they are both pushed back into their own shots
again separating them both. This also conveys the idea that because they are
alone and don't have each other that they are vulnerable and are not protected,
also common within thriller films and what I aimed was to place my protagonist
in a dangerous situation which she has to fight for herself to escape from
which is exactly what she does in the end sequence that results in
the death of my antagonist, which is also another
common convention for thriller films.
To conclude I have used many elements of influences and used the stylistics to fulfill my aims and also to create my film, having explored the conventions of the thriller genre this has helped me to create a film which my target audience feel the need to go and see. However I feel that I could have used more of the thriller codes and conventions more throughout the film and also the ones in which I have used I could have made more clear for when I received feedback there was confusion as to which genre it fell into.
Word count - 1588
Word count - 1588
