The document discusses conventions used in the opening of a psychological thriller film. It describes using non-diegetic music to build tension, as seen in films by Alfred Hitchcock, as well as including close-up shots to engage the audience with the main character's facial expressions. However, it also discusses deterring from conventions briefly by using a calm soundtrack before ramping up the tension. This is intended to catch the audience off guard and enhance the tension-building effect of the music.

2.  Similar to the opening of the
psychological thriller vertigo and several
other psychological thrillers, our thriller
has synchronous non-diegetic
soundtrack in which is used to the effect
to increase tension within the scene.

3.  We decided to follow this convention as
we believed it to be a key part of a
thriller to keep the audience on the
edge of their seats while tension builds
up, this would apply to any sub-genre of
thrillers.

4.  Our inspiration to follow such convention
would be that of the works of Alfred
Hitchcock, his use of music within his
psychological thriller are fantastic examples
of how sound can be used to great effect
to keep the audience alert and at unease.
We wanted our soundtrack to have a
similar affect on the audience, in that we
didn’t want them to feel at ease, as that
wouldn’t be very thrilling for them,
especially given the complexity to our
narrative.

5.  However we didn’t only follow the
conventions, as we decided to also
deter from this use of tension building
soundtrack from the beginning, but
instead play a calm, peaceful
asynchronous non-diegetic soundtrack
near the start of our thriller openning.

6.  We used such a different style soundtrack previous to the
more dramatic conventional one, as we believe this will
add to the effect of keeping our audience at this unease;
that by playing this soft calm music, it will contrast greatly
with the mise en scene as well as cause the tension
building music to have a far greater affect on our
audience, as the difference in soundtracks would lead to
the tension building music to be just that more effective as
the audience wouldn’t be expecting the tension build up
to come, let alone what could potentially occur at the
end of this build up from the soundtrack; this will keep our
audience guessing and unaware of what will occur later
on in the narrative much like the desired effect in which
Hitchcock looks to achieve with his use of sound.

7.  In our thriller opening, we used a variety of
close ups/extreme close ups, this is used
very often in thrillers, specifically in
psychological thrillers, again this has the
effect of communicating meaning to the
audience, and thus can be used to great
affect when trying to keep the audience at
this alert and unease state of mind, similar
to the mindset of the character we are
trying to represent in our thriller.

8.  Again our inspiration to follow such a
convention would be Hitchcock, a good
example of the use of a close up to
good effect would be in “Psycho” there
are multiple close ups of the main
female character, in order to show her
emotion (facial expression) and thus
keep the audience engaged with the
narrative.

9.  Similarly we used many close ups in order to show facial
expression of the main character, however we gave away
little clues; by keeping our main character to have a
sustained “normal” facial expression through out the
opening, it gives nothing away to the audience in terms of
the thoughts and feelings of the main character, I believe
that this helps to keep our narrative a mystery to the
audience, and keep them in the dark despite giving them
the opportunity to look into the main characters eyes. This
lack of diversity in facial expression shown in close up shots
also represents the mind of the character, being a
schizophrenic psychopath, in that lacking a conscience
leads to a lack of emotion, even after potentially
murdering somebody, this lack of emotion would be seen
as obscure by the audience and would keep them alert
as they look to try to understand the feelings of the
character.

10.  To conclude our thriller opening follows a variety of
conventions to other psychological thrillers, such as
using a soundtrack to build tension and using close
ups to not only add to the tension but also allow the
audience feel more engaged with the characters
and their thoughts and feelings, even if they can’t
understand them as they don’t suffer from a similar
mental illness as to that the main character is
representing. However our thriller also challenges
some conventions of psychological thrillers, such as
the use of an asynchronous soundtrack to be used to
contrast against the tension building soundtrack for
what we believed to give added effect as keeps the
audience unaware of what could happen within the
narrative, as the pace of our thriller isn’t constant.