1. Mis En Scene
We decided to use a man in a
suit so that he was approachable
and relatable. It allows the
consumer to feel as if it could be
them, or their father or husband.
Everyone knows a businessman
who wears a suit to work so we
felt that this would make him
easier to identify with. This
character is stereotypical in film
and appears in almost every
action film. It applies to the
conventions of a thriller, as does
the setting. By putting him in a
dark room we are applying to the
stereotypes in thrillers. A dark
place connotates as danger. Also
because it’s dark, you cannot see
the identity of the villain, which is
common in films like this as it
creates tension and fear in our
consumers, as well as leaving them
wanting to discover who the villain
is and what his motive is.

2. Use of Monitors
We used the monitors in our film
because they increased the
tension. By having the victim shown
twice it confuses the consumer as
they don’t know what angle they
are seeing the scene from which
also helps the villain hide in the
shadows which is again, tense. Also,
it gives the impression that the
victim is being watched and is
isolated, which makes the viewer
question the situation. Also,
applying to the conventions of
thrillers as this is used in quite a
few other thrillers, we have the
kidnapped child shown on a
monitor. This creates panic, as
because she is not actually in the
room she cannot be saved, as well
as hiding from us her location. She
could be in the next room or in a
different country, we don’t know
and this makes us feel uneasy.

3. Use of the Eye
The eye is a very common convention in thrillers. From the Grandfather of all
thrillers, Psycho, the eye makes our audience uncomfortable and unsettled, particularly a
shocked, bloodshot one as this has an enigmatic effect as we as the consumer wonder what
they are looking at. It also connotates that something bad is going to happen. By having our
first image as an eye following something across a room we accented even further, because
this meant he was watching a person, and because he eye
is bloodshot, it insinuates he is scared
and upset. By being able to get all of
this across to our consumer before they
even see his location means that from
the very start the audience feels uneasy
and unsure of what is going on, which is
the effect we were trying to use
throughout. They way we used this
however challenges the way this
convention is stereotypically used.

4. Use of a blue glow
The lighting in our piece was
meant to seem as if it mostly
came from the monitor, so
when the monitor turned
blue it created an eerie
effect.
We chose to do this because
it not only gave the room a
weird glow, but accented the
smoke from the cigarette.
By using an unusual lighting
we applied to the
conventions of most thrillers
and this portrayed to the
audience that the scene was
meant to be tense, allowing
them to know how to feel.

5. Text over scene
Originally we thought we would
have the titles over black, but
then decided to have them
over our piece. This is a split
convention and both styles are
typical of thrillers. We chose
this as we felt that it would
interrupt the flow of the piece
to much if we separated the
titles. Also this technique works well for us as the names
and companies we are putting
up aren’t big stars, like in
Se7en, when the titles are
over a black screen because
they have big names like Brad
Pitt.

6. Knife Scene
We chose a knife as our weapon
because we felt it created the
most tension and suspense. By
having a knife not a gun, the
audience feels as if the villain
could attack the victim at any
moment and to any degree,
where as with a gun, one shot
and you are either fatally injured
or killed.
Also, we applied to the
convention of thrillers by using it
as a threatening object, rather
than an object actually used for
violence as from my experience
of watching thrillers, once
violence occurs, usually the
tension is broken. It is prior to
this that the audience feels
uncomfortable as they are
unsure of what will happen next.

7. The use of fire
This is a torture technique commonly
used in thrillers. By dangling
something close to the face of the it
is not only a way of increasing the
tension, but also a way of making the
villain seem more malicious as he is
almost teasing the victim. This
indicates to the audience that the
villain is a stereotypical psycho type
character. This is as opposed to if we
had left our piece with the villain
only threatening the victim when he
wanted information, then the
consumer may feel as if he is just
after the information, and that he is
happy to let him go if he does. We
wanted the consumer to get the
impression that the villain is enjoying
torturing and kidnapping the victim,
as this is more intense.

8. The use of a close up
The close up is a very emotional
shot. It makes the consumer feel
sympathetic for our victim as
they can see in their eyes that
they are seeing something sad
or painful, and because we are
on their side, we automatically
obtain their feeling. This effect
only works when you can very
clearly see how they are feeling
because it is the slight details
that make us feel sorry for him.
For example, the slight welling
up with tears, our the small
gasp.
It intensifies the emotion, while
at the same time creating an
ambiguous scene, as we aren’t
sure what he is looking at that is
making him feel upset.

9. The use of a title over black
We decided that although
our titles were over the
video sequence, we would
apply to the convention of a
title over black as we felt
this was a good way to end
our sequence. Also, this
made it so that the only
thing that you focused on
was the scream, which is
important.