1. Daniel Rayson
Task number 1, stills of thriller conventions: To the left is a screen grab from the later part of our
opening thriller sequence. A technique we have employed
here is the style of lighting (low key lighting) which is classic
by other thriller movies, this adds to a convention of
creating a feel of confusion and illusion of the viewer. It is
dim lit creating an eerie and unnerving feel within the
location that the character Nate is in, it adds a feel of
danger to the viewer, as it isn’t as clear to what is on the
screen and can confuse them. I think it worked well within
the scene we was shooting and gave the effect of confusion
and danger we was hoping to achieve.
To the right is a screen grab from the dialogue between the
character Nate (inset) and our other character Lucas. One
technique we have aimed to use here was a use of shadows
which is closely linked to lighting. It is used by many
thrillers; it adds to the convention off setting up enigmas
and questions to the audience, I believe an effective one.
Shadows can be used to represent an inner darkness within
a person, and they can also add to eeriness and tension that
is being created. I think we used this technique effectively
to add to the enigma convention as we know Nate has
locked away a dark secret within him that Lucas is trying to
find out. It makes him look menacing and can throw
questions to the audience like ‘Is he the antagonist?’
To the left is a screen grab which is a flashback in Nate’s
memory which occurs during the dialogue scene between Nate
and Lucas. This is an effect we have put to use here is
flashbacks which are commonly used within thrillers linked to
memory and things which have occurred in the past. It adds to
creating enigmas and questions to the audience. Flashbacks
contribute to a sense of time and space disorientation which
causes more confusion to the audience. It is also a common
effect used in thrillers because it can give insight into to a
characters past building up the audiences understanding of
them, although this can be used as a red herring and lead the
audiences perception of the character down the wrong path.
Overall I think our use of flashbacks adding to the convention of
enigmas and questions, working well building up tension in our
thriller and also making the thriller interesting to watch by
breaking up the long parts of dialogue.

2. Daniel Rayson
To the left are two separate screen grabs which are within the
thriller actually two consecutive shots to show the use of the
next technique with have employed which is the use of quick
cuts. This technique again adds to the thriller convention of
confusing the audience and throwing questions to them. This is
a technique frequently used by thrillers when the tension is
building to make it faster paced and intense. I think it worked
well within our thriller as it opens showing shots of props
around the house which if they were slow would be boring
whereas by making them quick shots keeps it interesting, but
also confusing. I think this technique has worked well with our
thriller increasing the pace of the thriller and also adding to the
building of the tension.
To the right is a screen shot of the technique of using
different camera angles. This is a technique used in all films
and not just the thriller genre although it does have
profound effect within thrillers as a low angle shot like the
one demonstrated to the right can show that someone has
power, which within our thriller the audience would
presume that Lucas does based on his smart dress therefore
this camera angle helps to reinforce this view. This adds to
the thriller convention of creating enigmas as the audience
questions who this man is and why does he seem to have
the power. This technique could have been employed more
to show the power basis within our thriller opening but
where it was used I think it worked well.
To the left is a screen shot I have taken of the dialogue
between our two characters Nate and Lucas the
convention that we have used here is specific to the type
of thriller we was going for which is a psychological
thriller. This can be where the characters are preying
upon each other’s minds, they could be playing deceptive
mind games or trying to destroy the others mental state.
Within our thriller Lucas (to the left) is trying to retrieve a
memory which Nate has locked away within his mind,
this memory seems to be the key to getting justice.
Overall I think this convention worked okay as it was the
type of thriller we was trying to achieve. It could have
been better if we had thought about the dialogue more
and scripted it with better terminology present within it
and also made it more obvious to the audience who the
character of Lucas is.