Thriller Opening: The Disappearence of Alice Creed

The current status on our Preliminary is within final stages, despite a few problems we encountered. Hopefully this week we will finish the remaining filming and also complete the editting process for our preliminary. Once completed it will be announced in the blog.

However we move onto our Foundation Portfolio and our group are moving onto thinking about the new task at hand; to create a 2 minute opening for a thriller.

In our textual analysis lesson we watched and analysed the opening of the film "The Disappearence of Alice Creed". This is the opening five minutes but we only studied the first three minutes...


We had to consider the four aspects of film when watching the piece to gain an understanding of how a thriller is contrcuted via Mise en Scene, Editting, Sound and Camera Work.

Our analysis demonstrated the techniques used in this thriller.

CAMERA WORK

Various POV shots were used such as the camera being placed on the bonnet of an oncoming car to the antagonist's car. Another POV is used once the antagonists had finished the room. A high angle shot is used to look down so we can see their accomplishments.

When the two are shopping for the tools a depth of field is used to focus on the tools so the audience can see exactly what they are e.g. electric driller, saw, rope etc. All of which could lead towards something bad that is about to happen.

SOUND

The change in music as it goes from the two in the DIY store to the quiet empty room helps create a sinister mood and tension between the two places. The music in the empty room features a tapping hi-hat which acts like a clock or a timer as if there is a countdown on this room or there is a matter of time until an event happens inside the room.

The sound is vital in this piece as the characters do not exchange words verbally the sounds of drilling and stapling of the tools in exaggerated to emphasise what they are building to communicate this is someone of much significance they are making and something relevant to the film. Other sounds are exaggerated throughout for example the squeak on their shopping trolley, a natural normal everyday sound but when used in context with everything else become quite sinister.

The two characters do not speak throughout the whole piece and their facial expression is minimal. This combination of minimal facial expression and dialogue (diagetic sound) creates tension and leaves the audience asking questions. This effect would not have been accomplished as well if the two characters were talking throughout, maybe about what they were building or what they were going to do, by instead having no speech it leaves it to the imagination of the viewer and as it goes on the audience gains an understanding of the sinister events that may soon happen as the two prepare the room for some sort of confinement or prison.

EDITTING

The length in cuts of the two in the hardware shop compared to the desolate house are different to establish the difference between the two environments and the pace slows down. The empty room uses longer slower cuts and features a few slow panning shots around the room whereas in the hardware shop the shots are quicker and have a faster pace even though both mainly feature straight cuts.

One jump cut is used when the two are laying sheets over the bed and this jump cut helps skip the parts of actually putting the bed cover on and it suggests a quick pace and that time is moving too fast for us to keep up.

MISE EN SCENE

The two characters also seem like robots or human less as they do the exact same actions without speaking as they both move and act in time together like machines.

Even though it’s not something the film makers could have organised the use of colour in that the sky is very dark and gloomy adds to the effect of the evil the two antagonists are to commit. If it had been blazing sunshine the perspective would not have been brought across as well.

The props used in the piece are also contributory to the sense of a thriller. All their tools are ones that could cause damage; a drill a hammer etc. All of these add to the use of the audiences imagination into guessing what they will be doing.

The lighting is quite dark and this connotes their tension surrounding what the two may be doing. The room they build is dark and lonely and once they've boarded up the windows the room is even darker with no ambient light getting in. Even the shop they buy the mattress from is quite dark in lighting which could suggest that the darkness is following them. The setting of the forest has a gloomy lighting to it as well and the dense trees creates a claustrophobic quality to the setting.

From this analysis we gained a better understanding of what we would need to incorperate into our thriller and the imagination that's going to be needed to create a successful thriller.

George