Before creating a clip, it is a good idea to think about everything that has inspired you from things you have previously watched. It helps you to gather your ideas, and possibly expand on some ideas of your own to make sure they create the best effect. We can take our inspirations from anything, such as books, TV programmes, films, pictures, narratives in general (such as those used in music videos) etc. An inspiration is anything which you thought was good and gave you some ideas; it can be anything.
I have taken my inspirations mainly from other thriller films as this is related back to the task of creating our own thriller opening.
When looking into mise-en-scene, I analysed a clip from the film Asylum, called “Leave me alone” I have learnt that thrillers don’t always need any iconography or many different settings, and sometimes by keeping everything simple, you can create the best effects. This will help me in creating my own thriller clip as it inspired me to plan to keep the majority of the conventions simple, such as only using one location, so that my viewers don’t feel overwhelmed unintentionally by all that will be used in the scene.
I plan to use this idea in my thriller opening by only having 2 settings, which are a forest and a river, and 2 pieces of Iconography which are a rose and a scarf. The forest is conventional to thrillers as it is isolated from everything, meaning the victim will be unable to get help. The river can be found in most forests, and suits our narrative. Not a lot of thriller films use underwater clips as this can be tricky to film and so by including it, will make our thriller film unique.
In most thriller films I have seen, the victim is always stereo typically a female dumb blonde girl. I didn't want to follow this stereotype and thought instead I could use other elements of mise-en-scene to clearly portray the victim. The iconography of the scarf will emphasise the youth of the girl, due to its pretty pink design. This is the same for the everyday appearance of the girl, in a pink dress, looking natural. This is a clear way of presenting the victim to the audience, instead of copying what every other thriller narrative does, but still keeps it conventional.
To help me decide on what worked in a thriller film and what didn't, I looked into the history of thriller films and focused on how they have changed over the years.
Thrillers films are those which have an element of pure suspense, excitement and tension. When researching different thriller films, I noticed that they have changed and developed a lot over the years. Looking back on earlier films they seem somewhat unrealistic compared with what we see know, but this is due to the development in technology.
Having researched into thrillers films varying from the 1940`s to the present day, I have discovered what has worked well over the years and what has not. For example, the most successful narrative used since the 1940's is obsession. This will help me when deciding on a narrative for my thriller opening sequence, as I will base my narrative on a similar theme. This should help to create suspense in my opening as it has already been proved to have been successful.
This research inspired me to use a similar theme of obsession in our group narrative. The idea in my groups narrative, of the several flashbacks and the enigma created from not knowing who the killer is or why he killed the girl, makes it seem like he was obsessed with killing this girl, and also suggests that the girl was obsessed with finding out how she died.
When looking into the conventions of the thriller genre, I analysed a clip from the film "House of the end of the street" called "the basement scene". This post allowed me to use all of my knowledge of the conventions of a thriller film in the single post to show my understanding. I talked about the different types of sound used, cinematography, editing and aspects of mise-en-scene such as low-key lighting and costumes, hair & make up.
This post helped me gain some ideas as to how I can use these conventions when making my own thriller clip. For example, I could use a high angled shot to quickly show my audience who the victims are, without wasting too much time. I learnt that sound is what makes any clip have an effect on the audience, as without it, the images are not scary. This post helped me realise that I can use as many or as few of the conventions of the thriller genre in my own thriller clip. It inspired me to be courageous with the decisions we make, so that as long as we can justify why we used them and what effect they create, then anything can be used.
