Past thrillers

Past thrillers:

'SILENT WATER'

• Dissolves were effective at showing a passing of time and I felt it almost resembles the characters disillusioned thought.
• The female character in the background appears to be saying nothing and just stars implying she is a ghost.
• The main character is wearing black and the ghost wearing white which implies the ghost’s innocence and suggests the main character’s guilt and negativity.
• The non-diegetic piano tune is repetitive and slow making it seem really creepy.
• The action codes are very powerful such as stroking the picture of her best friend and the opening is made more successful by the background anchorage from the voiceover. –A well written script.
  
  

'Under the Gun'

• Low Lighting implying this is the villain’s lair and gives a feeling of eeriness through the dramatic shadowing.
• The mise-en-scene of alcohol, guns, cards, men in suits etc.. Helps to suggest the themes of the film such as gangster culture, crime, revenge, heists.
• The camera distancing was very close throughout which gave this sense of claustrophobia, secrecy and entrapment.
• The pace was very slow and coupled with the fades to credits, gave the impression of a passing of time. This is successful as we understand that the victim has been held hostage for a long time.
• The script was very effective and well written as this set up the expectations of this villainous character easily. Also the music is questionably diegetic which would imply that the villain is listening to this relaxing yet meaningful song – all the more suspenseful.
• The male villain wearing a black suit, shows confidence through his dialogue and calm state of playing cards, and appears not to get very aggressive. This is more enigmatic as the audience can relate to this seemingly reasonable character.
• The black clothing of the female implies that, although she is the victim at present, she has a dark/evil past to her. -Also shown through the fact that her face is half shadowed from the light, similar to the males. This therefore suggests her involvement in this crime.
  

'Exposure'

• This action orientated opening sequence is successful as it follows all continuity rules: never crossing the 180degrees line so the audience are always aware of the characters sense of direction , using shots more than 30 degrees from the last to avoid the effect of ‘jump cuts’, using eye-line matches, matches on action, and shot reverse shots. Also the distancing increases and decreases gradually which helps move the audience smoothly across physical space. For example, the match on action of opening and closing the bedroom door seems continual from shot to shot.
• The domestic setting and use of diegetic sound makes the sequence really realistic, for example, keys rattling, packing a suitcase, slamming door etc.
• I really like the montage of different shots near the end, as this connotes a passing of time yet we still understand what has happened in this condensed time.
• The colouring is very successful also. The black and white colouring suggests this sequence is from the past yet more than this, the stark contrast to the yellow/saturated colouring of the other room suggests something is very significant about this room.
• The introduction of non-diegetic sound and the long forward low level track of the character walking towards ‘the room’ also heightened suspense and builds the audience up with an expectation of something very significant about to happen.
• I love the fact the sequence is so simple yet extremely effective. –The audience can easily relate to this yet the focus on simple action codes like packing a suitcase and running around arouses many questions. - I.e. there are still many potential narrative developments.
• I feel the action orientated sequence was shot very well and there was much to take in and therefore I think the superimposed credits on the sequence proved successful as they did not disrupt the viewer’s experience.