Inspiration - Georgia

Inspiration

We need inspiration to get ideas for the film, without inspiration it would be very hard to create a film of the top of your head, not using any inspiration from any other things. Also to know what has previously worked and not worked, you can take ideas from other films and just anything around you. I have taken ideas from The Shining, Se7en and Silence of the lambs, Halloween : resurrection and The strangers, all of these thrillers have given me ideas for my film, this will help me know what camera angles to use and what conventions would be used, also I know the sounds that would suit my clip and when to use them.


The research into cinematography post helped me identify which camera shots, angles and movements I would like to use in the thriller sequence, the main camera technique I will definitely use is high angle, I feel this is a key camera shot in thrillers and lets the audience see that whoever the high angle is focusing on is in real danger and extremely helpless at this time, helping create a relationship between that character and the audience as the audience will fear the character. The film 'silence of the lambs' inspired me to use the high angle as I thought it used it particularly well, this really emphasised the power Hannibal had at the time and this is what I want to demonstrate in my thriller sequence with Marius (the antagonist), I will use this angle when Marius is attacking/has attacked Chloe (the protagonist) with a knife after she attempts tp escape from him, it will also be used when she is scared walking through the forest, before she is  attacked, this will show she is vulnerable and helpless at the time.

 A shot we will use is POV, this shot makes the audience feel as if they are within the film, helping create suspense, shock and surprise, this helps engage the audience, this was also used in the film silence of the lambs, it helped create shock to its maximum effect as the audience felt as if they were in the film and could see the gruesome details of the antagonists face, we will use this when the victim is running from the antagonist, from both the victims POV, this will help engage the audience, the audience will also be able to create a relationship with the victim, they will be able to emphasise toward the victims situation and understand how much danger they are in. The movement we will use is panning, this can be used to create suspense, surprise and shock, this was used effectively in silence of the lambs as it panned across Hannibals whole cell, showing us a little bit about his personality and then panning over to him, the audience are in suspense as to what would be at the end of the panning, when the camera is showing Hannibal, the audience are surprised as well as in suspense again, the audience wonder what he is doing but the audience realise it is not good, we will use the panning movement when the victim is face to face with the antagonist, we will start on the protagonist, standing still in fear, the audience will be in suspense wondering what is causing this, the camera will then pan over to the antagonist, creating shock and surprise, the audience will feel sympathetic toward the victim as the realise she has little chance of survival and is clearly inferior.







The research into mise en scene helped me decide on things such as setting, lighting, iconography, etc. I know that the setting will be an isolated area, the forest, this creates suspense within the audience due to them knowing there is no chance of her getting help because she is in an isolated area, this causes the audience to become more fearful of the antagonist as they know he is in complete power and sympathetic for the protagonist as she has little chance of survival, we will use the forest in our sequence and hope it will build suprise, shock and suspense, due to the forest being an everyday place, this makes it more realistic engaging the audience much more, I used the movie se7en in this research and it uses an isolated area in the final scene, it is extremely effective and builds extreme suspense, leaving the audience on the edge of their seats.
The iconongraphy will be different to se7en, in both there will be weapons used to show where the power/dominance is at the time but in our sequence it will be a knife instead of a gun and instead of the protagonists having the weapon (like in se7en) the antagonist will have it, creating shock in the audience as the know how much power he has and that he will easily overpower the protagonist and also fear of the antagonist within the audience, the superiority of the antagonist will create shock and also make the audience feel sympathetic toward the helpless victim. Lighting will be like in se7en, during dark/eerie scenes the lighting will be low key in se7en this was proven effective and really put the audience on edge, making for a big shock when something big happened, this lighting leaves an enigma about the scene as well as builds suspense, we will use low key lighting throughout the victims time in the forest, this helps create suspense and portrays to the audience the danger she is in, creating sympathy toward her within the audience, the costume for the antagonist will be all black, showing the danger and also putting a sense of enigma around him, the audience wonder what his real identity is and fear him due to the black clothing and mask hiding his face showing the danger he is, this was inspired from the movie 'Halloween', in this movie the antagonist wears full dark clothing as well as a mask, this successfully created an enigma, the victim will wear white/bright clothing, this shows the innocence and harmlessness of the girl and makes the audience extremely sympathetic towards her as they wonder why such a horrible thing would happen to such a harmless girl, it also shows where the power and dominance lies, should the antagonist attack the victim. The body language from the antagonist will be extremely shifty, as will his assistants, it will make the audience cautious of the characters and wonder what their true objective is, the victim will have innocent, almost a careless way of going about, she will unknowingly walk right into danger, causing frustration but at the same time sympathy from the audience.

The research into sound was also helpful, this allowed me to understand the different types of sound techniques used in thrillers, it allowed me to understand when and why they are used, I used 'the shining' to research this and I thought it used sound extremely well, the use of the sound track helped build suspense extremely well, then the shock in the audience was even more effective due to the big build up, this inspired me to use soundtracks to build up tension while the antagonist is in the scene the soundtrack will always be present, this will help the audience create a relationship with the antagonist as they fear him and know that he brings danger, for diegetic sound we will use things such as dialogue at the beginning, this helps the audience follow the narrative and stay engaged in the film, we will also use the cracking of leaves and voices the audience cannot see for off screen, this creates shock and makes the audience even more fearful of the antagonist, they realise there is no escape from him and she has no chance of survival for the victim, creating sympathy from the audience towards her.

Research into editing styles was a useful post, this helped me understand the different editing styles used in films and what effect they have on the audience, this post helped me realise which editing styles I definitely want to use, I decided a reaction shot would be effective in a thriller as we need to show how the protagonist is reacting so the audience see that she has little power in the situation, the face of the antagonist is hidden but the audience assume that the character is calm due to the body language, he seems in complete control and is never seen running, yet always there. The second editing style I will  use is timing of shots, this can be used to create suspense within the audience as well as set the mood, when it is fast there is a sense of panic about the scene and the audience are shocked, when the editing is slow it causes suspense and the audience are frightened as well as on the edge of their seats, the audience feel fear towards the antagonist from this technique as they can see the protagonist is in panic running away or cautious so instantly realise that he is dangerous, this fast timing of shots will be used during the protagonist running away in our opening sequence.

The conventions of a thriller post was extremely helpful, this post put all the conventions into perspective, basically generalising other posts, the biggest convention of the thriller genre is suspense, shock and surprise, these three conventions are key to thriller films, without them it would not be a 'thriller', I used the film 'Halloween' to see how all the conventions worked, how they were created and how they effected the audience, I will use all three of these in my groups opening sequence, this will make for a quality thriller sequence, the antagonist is key to all these conventions as well as the protagonist, without these to characters the three conventions would be extremely difficult to create, these conventions make the audience watch on, without these the audience would not be engaged, they wouldn't be bothered about watching the next part of the film, this would be poor and is not what I want in my thriller sequence, this is why this part is so key to the opening sequence.

All of these posts were key to the development of the thriller my group are creating, without this research I would not be as knowledgeable on the subject as I am currently and would make a horrific opening sequence, the films I have analysed gave me ideas I have restructured and turned into my own, helping me create a good thriller.