Lauren Bromley: 2009

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

In what ways does “Taking Lives” conform to or subvert what you consider to be the forms and conventions of the thriller genre?

In “Taking Lives” there are more conventions and forms that conform to the thriller genre than subvert against it. A thriller film has an occurring theme of action and danger in sever scenes. The purpose of a thriller is to create suspense, tension and apprehension which will therefore leave the audience intrigued and questioning what will happen next. Therefore the director uses many different conventions through out the film that we would expect to see from a thriller genre.

Firstly, the film contains numerous puzzles, enigmas, mysteries, chases and problem solving. These are all typical in a thriller because they can all be very intriguing and exciting. For example the scene where Angelina Jolie discovers the real murderer to be the man she has just had sexual relations with. The scenes contains a chase building up the suspense using several media techniques including sound and camera angles to eventually discover another death in the lift. The director uses these to keep the audience interested and question what will happen next. Therefore it relates to the purpose of being a thriller by creating suspense and tension.

The specific camera skills and movements that help to create the tension in this scene are extremely important. For example in this particular part of the film several close up shots are used of the subjects head and shoulders this is effective because it shows the audience clearly the reaction of the actor which helps achieve its purpose in “Taking Lives” as it shows Angelina Jolie’s shocked and disturbed reaction. Adding to this, another camera skill used during this scene is a tracking shot which is good in following the chase when Angelina is following the murderer. It follows the movement of the actor which also helps build the suspension and therefore conforming to the conventions of what we expect from a thriller genre.

Furthermore, another technical convention used well in “Taking Lives” is the director’s use of sound and editing. The non-diajetic music is generally fast paced and mysterious to build the suspense. In the specific scenes where action and danger is to be conveyed specific music is used in the background to build up tension. It is used in a way that establishes a certain atmosphere for example the music will start off fairly quiet, simple and slow then as the scene goes on further and the character gets closer to the danger or what they are about to discover it becomes louder, faster and more complex. It also silences at the right times to create a bigger shock for the audience This helps the atmosphere become more exciting and keeps the audience interested which is what we expect from a thriller film.

Editing throughout the film plays a key part, for example shot reverse shot is used and straight cuts which generally are to switch between characters to show their reactions to an incident. Therefore the audience can identify and relate to the actors reaction straight away.
Also a convention that is used well in “Taking Lives” is the use of lighting and colour for a certain effect for example throughout the film there is fairly dull lighting and most of the scenes are filmed at night only a few shot in the day. Also the colours used are mainly black, grey and brown there is not many bright colours used this is effective because these dark colours are assosciated with horror, mystery, murders all the genres that are involved in a thriller. The absence of colour gives the audience a negative impression and relates to death and murder well, which is a key factor in “Taking Lives” therefore the use of lighting and colour the director uses conforms to what we expect to see in a thriller genre.

However, in “Taking Lives” there are some conventions that subvert to what we would consider to be forms of a thriller genre. For example the mise-en-scene the settings and costumes used in specific scenes such as the end scene where Angelina Jolie kills the murder are simply normal, everyday backgrounds. She wears a white dress and yellow cardigan which can be seen as typical for a female and in a background of a normal house in an everyday kitchen but this is not something we would expect in a film that contains horror and danger, we would expect a more dark and dusky setting. However this is effective because the action that happens in the film becomes more of a shock to the audience as they are not expecting danger to happen with the mise-en-scene. It makes the techniques and skills the director uses stand out more and exaggerated. Also by using a normal character and setting it makes the audience empathise and understand what the character is going as they can relate to it. Therefore this is a convention we wouldn’t expect to see in a thriller but it also effective and used for a specific reason.

Over all “Taking Lives” does have more conventions that conform to the forms of a thriller genre than subvert against it. However both work well in this film because the audience are always kept in suspense and wanting to keep watching therefore the film achieves its main purpose which makes it an effective thriller. It differs from other thrillers by the way it subvert to the genre by using ordinary characters and setting but the director uses this for a certain effect which works well to achieve it purpose

Saturday, 21 November 2009

Continuity Piece

Continuity Evaluation

We did a short continuity piece in preparation for our Thriller, to experiment all the different camera angles that are used for a certain effects. The theme of our continuity was action and we based it on a secret agent escaping from the school. We used this idea because it was useful in being able to try the different camera angles but exciting at the same time.

Firstly, within the mise-en-scene of our continuity, we used costume to create the effect of a secret agent. The actor mainly wore black such as the blazer and trousers, we did this because this costume is stereotypical of a spy agent that we have seen in other films and therefore conformed to our theme of action. We also added a black brief case as a prop to enhance this “spy agent” look to help emphasise our theme to the audience. We decided to film our continuity in the school because being such a large building it gave us a wide variety of setting and camera angles for us to film which was the objective of making continuity.

Sound was also an important feature in our continuity piece; we tried several sound tracks before finding the best one. The song we used was “The Prodigy – Warriors Dance” we chose this particular song because it was an upbeat and fast tempo track, which was relevant to our continuity as the actor was running fairly quickly around the school therefore using slower music would not have gone well. However, during the editing of this piece we discovered that the sound track may have been slightly too fast for our continuity. We had to use a programme called “audacity” where we could specifically edit the sound track itself; therefore we were able to adjust the tempo and speed in particular to match the speed of the actor running around the school which made our continuity more appealing.

We tried out several different camera shots and angles throughout our piece. For the opening scene we used a low angle shot, which makes the subject look more empowering and dominant which conforms to what we expect of a secret agent. Following this we kept the low angle however using a mid shot which allowed us to give more detail in particular to the costume whilst still giving an impression of the whole subject. We then filmed a high angle shot of the actor running down the stairs to give a variation of points of view for the audience, this angle is used to show the subject in a weaker, less dominant place which is relevant for our continuity as the secret agent is still in a risky position, it builds tension and leads our audience to believe there is real tension. Adding to this, we also experimented using a birds eye view angle to show the scene from directly above, we used this to show the audience a completely different perspective to create a dramatic effect that the viewers can see something the subject can’t. Further more, through out our continuity we included several close up shots and extreme close ups for a certain effect where the subject or certain feature takes up the whole frame, this allowed us to show a very in depth detail of the secret agent and yet again give the audience a variety of point of views. Finally we filmed an establishing shot which showed the whole scene and subject for the audience to see the entire setting; we used this along a long corridor with the secret agent running past the camera at the end to view the whole scene.

In our continuity piece we did not use much specific editing, in 2 scenes we included slow motion for example in the first scene when the subject comes through the door the slow motion emphasises the rush and almost exploding through it to build excitement and tension of a chase. Also in the establishing shot we added this to exaggerate the actors movement, the running is an important and an essential that is stereotypical of a secret agent which is why we therefore emphasised this.

Over all I was pleased with our continuity testing out all the different camera angles I feel will help us with our Thriller it will give us a variety of angles to try out for certain effects which I now understand.