2. My thriller ‘Who Am I?’ could be compared to other thrillers like the ones analysed on my blog. These thrillers that are similar to my product are in particular ‘American psycho’, ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘Seven’. They are similar to my thriller because of narrative and codes and conventions. The narratives are similar because it is the centred around the killer as the main character. This is shown in ‘American psycho’ and ‘Donnie Darko’, because both of these products used the killer ,or person who is outcast from everybody else, as the main character to base the story around. Also my narrative and these products narratives both involve aspects of the killers home and personal lives as a theme for the audience to follow. Also there are a lot of similar codes and conventions between my thriller and these examples. The similarities lie in the visual aspect as well as the narrative outline. Visually what is similar is the graphic use of blood to shock the audience, but also to make a connection between the pictures of a dead body and the character being covered in blood. The use of blood is also made more visual for audiences watching ‘American psycho’ and ‘seven’, my thriller is similar because in ‘American psycho’ we only really see blood against white objects and this is to make it stand out and this is what I did by using fake blood on a white t-shirt. Another code and convention I used was the existence of some form of mental illness, because in ‘American psycho’ and ‘Donnie Darko’ mental illnes is used as the motives for the characters actions, and I used the same characteristic for my character. Another code and convention I decided to use was the tense music and this compares to ‘Jaws’ because the most remembered aspect was the classic ‘Jaws’ theme. Pictures and music example from my thriller
3. The reason that I chose to make a thriller that concentrated on the main character as being the killer is because it allows the audience to relate and make a connection with that character because they are experiencing his normal everyday life as well as his darker side. Also because the audience get to hear the characters background they can fully understand the reasons and motives for this persons actions. Also I wanted the audience to maybe feel a little sympathetic for my main character so that they don’t know how to feel when he kills somebody it makes them question their own moral values as to what they can consider a bad person. I also chose to have the main character still in education and 18 years old because normally we associate murderers as being much older people and this makes it more shocking that the character is so young, but has no idea about it. Another reason for the killer being my main character is because mostly in every story or every walk of life the more interesting characters are the bad ones and this is because they have a much more darker past and therefore more character profile to offer to the narrative. I decided to include mental illness, blood, a dead body and a male killer because of the influence of other thrillers that I have seen. Also because of the other thrillers that I have analysed the codes and conventions between them all were similar and this was what helped me to decide what to use in my narrative. The codes and conventions of the other thrillers were the main influence for most of my decisions for a visual aspect of the thriller opening. I decided to use the blood because it seemed it has to be there for the shock effect on the audience and I decided to use mental illness as a theme and a motive so that a killer motive and cause and effect was made more realistically possible to the audience Can see both characters from my thriller and American psycho in normal clothes fitting in.
4. Another code and convention of the thriller genre that I decide to stick to was the music that creates tension and suspense for the audience. This influence came from thriller products such as ‘Jaws’ and ‘Seven’, and this is because the music in these was rememberable because of how it made you feel during the film and I wanted this to also be a theme in my thriller. Example of my dark ominous music I decide to do a couple of things differently so that my thriller could possibly be considered an original idea. I decided to use a montage of pictures of the first murdered victim throughout the entire opening of the thriller, I did this to create a separate story to the one that was already happening, and also to create a question answer model so that the audience had something to think about like ‘who is she?’. Example of montage pictures I also decided to use a much younger killer than ‘Seven’ and ‘American Psycho’, this is because we as a society have this pre determined idea that all killers are much older and possibly middle aged because of famous cases such as Jeffrey Dahmer. I chose a younger killer because it is more shocking. You can see there is a big difference in ages
5. The narrative structure of my thriller opening is pretty clear because it transitions from day into night and it is made pretty clear to the audience so there is no confusion, but I deliberately introduced the montage to kind of throw the audience a little bit because hat they don’t realise is that when the film starts it is one day and the montage sequence is the day after, but because we see Stephen walk home at night on the first day we are made to think that when we see him wake up in the woods we are seeing the following day from the first but were not it’s the third day because the montage was the second day and the character cant remember it. This makes the narrative slightly linear but also a little bit non linear because it does not flow from day to day, beginning to end, it mixes in the days to create deliberate confusion for the audience. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 We chose to film in a normal suburban area to match the characters personality, and this was also influenced by other thrillers such as ‘American Psycho’, and this is because in ‘American Psycho’ his surroundings are wealthy businesses and he looks like he would fit in and in my thriller the characters surroundings are a suburban area which match him because he is a normal young male with a very plain background, also when he wakes up in the woods he is confused and feels secluded from the world and his surrounding are a secluded woods and this matched the characters feelings. During the film there is a lot of different camera angles to express the characters emotions. When he walks out of his home and up the street the camera peds down to a low angle extreme long shot and this is saying to the audience that he may appear normal but distance and keeping low are what is needed to avoid this person because he has a darker side to him Low angle extreme long shot
6. It also shows his self seclusion from the rest of society and makes him stands out and also because of the angle of the shot it shows this character as having the power. Other thrillers like ‘American Psycho’ have a lot of big close ups or mid close ups of the characters to show his depraved madness and I used the same shot but to show the characters confusion at his surroundings in the woods. Can see the differences in emotion with the same kind of shot I used a lot of low angles just to show character authority, but I also decided to use a birds eye angle shot of the character waking up in the woods and this was because I wanted it to look as if some kind of higher power willing him to wake up and realise what he has done. Birds eye close up
7. In making this opening I was highly influenced by the other thrillers that I have analysed. Thrillers such as ‘Seven’ and ‘American psycho’ gave me the information that I needed to make an opening and after finishing the project and witnessing it being viewed then I would say that it has been a success due to the feedback that we received from viewers and also how many views that our video has received on youtube. This shows that codes and conventions are key to making a successful thriller movie and if they are followed then the film will be very successful. I think that my opening is a good example of how to use the codes and conventions to create a good thriller product, but I think that I could have had more time to create a longer film then it could have shown a lot more conventions than just gender, blood, music and mental conditions.
