3. THE TITLE OF THE FILM
The title of our film challenges the normal thriller conventions of a title. It is quite
long, “When the Wind Changes”, whilst lots of other thrillers have fairly short names,
for example, “Cape Fear”, “The Boy”, or “Jaws”, and so challenges the convention of
having a short title.
Our font is also quite standard, which is typical of a thriller film. It is plain and white,
and so doesn’t give the audience any idea of what the film will contain. For example if
the title was red, and dripping with blood, then the audience could guess there will be
violence, but our title doesn’t do that. The plain white keeps the audience in suspense
as it doesn’t give the audience any clues, and suspense is a main convention in any
thriller film.
4. THE SETTING/LOCATION
Our setting followed the conventions of a thriller film in that it was an unusual
isolated location. We set ours in a windmill, whereas other thriller films have been set
in big mansions or in abandoned hospitals, all of which are rare and isolated locations
which the public generally don’t have access to. This creates suspense as the audience
knows it is hard for the characters to get help, should they need it, and so this again
follows the typical thriller convention of creating suspense and tension.
The second part of our thriller was set in a hospital room, where our character was
locked in. The room was quite run down, so again is a setting creating suspense as we
generally think of hospitals as being clean and well kept.
5. COSTUMES AND PROPS
Our costume followed the conventions of thriller films very closely. Our character wore
very casual clothes, as seen in various other thrillers such as “Jaws”, “The Boy”, and
“Silence of The Lambs”. This is because it allows our audience to put themselves in the
place of the character as they can relate to them.
Our props also followed thriller conventions. We used fake blood in our thriller, which
follows the thriller convention of violence and gore, however our character ended up
ok, so this challenges this convention slightly as in some thriller films the characters
involved with the violence don’t survive.
6. CAMERAWORK AND EDITING
On one hand, our cinematography and editing followed the conventions of a thriller,
as we used short shots of the windmill, put together using rapid editing to create
suspense of our audience, as well as some close ups and extreme close ups of our
protagonist to effectively display her emotions to the audience, all which is typical of
thriller films.
However, on the other hand, we also used some slower shots of her running, and her
walking around inside of the windmill, which aren’t as common in thriller films, so we
challenged the convention. Lots of thrillers use short shots to create suspense, while
we used long ones to do the same thing. We also used a fade between two of our
shots, which also challenges the conventions of thriller editing, as they tend to use
rapid editing to create fear and tension.
7. HOW THE OPENING SETS UP THE STORY
Our thriller is typical in its conventions of how it sets up the story. We see that the
thriller is based around a crime, an assault, which is seen in many other openings in
films like Jaws for example, where again a character is attacked. Our opening also sets
up suspense for the rest of the film through the convention of micro elements that
combine. You see a bit of her running, then a shot of the windmill, then her running
somewhere else, then her in the windmill and so on, and all these little elements come
together to create suspense as you can’t tell exactly what is going on, for example
what she is running from. Our opening also shows the convention of mirroring, with a
manipulation of perspective, as one moment the camera is behind her, and the next
the camera is the mirror, and so this sets up the rest of the story in that our plot could
be confusing and would consist of illusions to our audience to create an enigma until
the truth is revealed at the very end.
8. THE GENRE AND HOW IT SETS IT UP
Our genre is a horror/psychological thriller. You can see the conventions of the horror
thriller in the beginning and middle, where she is running away from something, and
is then attacked, as the conventions of a horror thriller is that the conflict the
character faces is physical.
You then see the conventions of the psychological thriller towards the end when she
is in the hospital room. Most people would feel safe in hospital but the character still
seems scared, and so this is where the psychological convention of mental and
emotional conflict comes is seen.
9. HOW THE CHARACTER IS INTRODUCED
Our character is introduced almost immediately in our opening which is against the
conventions of normal thriller films. Most thrillers start with equilibrium – everything is
ok, and the leads on to disequilibrium – something goes wrong. However our
character is seen running away from something in the very beginning of the film, and
so it is clear there is disequilibrium from the start, and so our character is already in
trouble.
Because our character starts in trouble, rather than starts ok and then gets into it, it
makes our audience even more uneasy as they don’t know what situation she is in,
only that it isn’t a good one. It also could leave them doubtful that our
character/thriller will end with new-equilibrium as it hasn’t started with it, and so this
shows how our thriller defies the equilibrium – disequilibrium – new-equilibrium
convention that most thrillers have.
