Amy Roberts' Media AS blog: November 2014

Friday 28 November 2014

How are camera angles used to create tension and suspense?

How does Hitchcock use camera angles to create tension and suspense in Pyscho?

Hitchcock creates tension by the use of the close shots of Marion which tightly frames her and allows the audience to see the emotions and feelings on her face. This creates suspense amongst the audience because they can see the tension in the lines above her eyebrows which transfers a sense of tension to the audience. Marion is placed in the centre of the shot which makes her the audience’s centre of attention. Which means the audience’s sole concentration on her.

This links with the long time between cuts. Each time the camera cuts away it gives a point of view shot of the road and how she sees it as she is driving, then when it cuts back to her face the camera has zoomed in slightly and we are that little bit closer to her face which creates a sense of unease in the audience, combining this with the pace of the editing creates tension because they know something is going to happen but they don’t know what.

Hitchcock uses the weather, as pathetic fallacy, but also to distort the car lights behind Marion’s car which gives the audience a sense of discomfort, because as they are distorted we are unsure if they're following her or whether they are just driving behind her this gives a sense of suspense to the audience because they are left wondering. The use of pathetic fallacy is when human feelings reflect the weather outside. The rain is coming down rather hard outside her car which could reflect the tension she is feeling as she is clearly running away from something.

Linking back to my previous point about Marion being centre of the shot I believe this is highly effective because the shot lengths are exceptionally long between cuts which means the audience could grow bored, but all out attention is on Marion's face and her emotions. The lighting highlights her cheekbones and eyebrows making her face seem more deep and detailed, it also allows the audience to see all of her emotions and read her like a book.

Hitchcock uses close up shots to create suspense because we cannot see what is going on around Marion we have no idea of what's going on around her, this also links to my point about pathetic fallacy because the camera is tightly framing her face we don't know if she's being followed and the weather blocks out any other chance we might have to know if she's being followed. This creates tension and suspense for the audience because they have no idea of what's to come, for Marion or in the film itself.

Thursday 20 November 2014

Aesthetic and mise-en-scene of Film Noir

Link to my presentation on Aesthetic and mise-en-scene of Film Noir

Monday 17 November 2014

Women and costume in film noir

Women in film noir

Femme fatales in film noire use their sexuality and bodies to lure the protagonist into dangerous situations which can sometimes lead to the protagonist's downfall and quite often result in the femme fatale's own death. The women in film noir are stereotypically in revealing dresses smoking or looking sultry and seductive.

The femme fatales are often half hidden by shadow or smoke in a dark room or alleyway, this could be to show their dangerous flirtatious nature and the fact they're half hidden in shadow could suggest they are a dominant or pervasive threat. The dark shadows could also represent the evil shown throughout the film. The smoke could be used to represent mystery and show the mysterious aura around the femme fatales.

In film noir femme fatales are a rebel against societies "typical" woman of the time, during the time of film noir society was rather male dominated and woman were seen as objects to be owned by men, to cook and clean and raise families rather than to have their own identity and career. The femme fatale breaks out of the traditional stereotype of the time and she is portrayed as a strong independent female. Sometimes they are portrayed as a damsel in distress and usually they lure the protagonist into danger.

Costume in film noir

The costumes worn in film noir by woman are similar throughout each of the different films. Women are shown in revealing dresses, fur coats, high heels, stockings, red lipstick and elbow length gloves. Altogether shown as elegant, dignified and graceful.

Their clothes symbolise passion and danger, showing them, to the audience, as a hazard to the protagonist. Their red lipstick could also be used to portray this as red symbolises passion, aggression, and courage. It can also symbolise sexual impulses, danger and shame.

The male characters, protagonist and antagonist alike, wear suits and fedoras occasionally making it hard for the audience to establish in the beginning who is the bad and who is the good guy.

The detective is usually dressed smartly in a suit, with gun holster. A large overcoat and tie. The men, like the women are dressed stereotypically. The black overcoats symbolise mystery and danger and this links to the fact that usually the protagonists job is something lonely or isolated such as a private investigator or something else that social alienates them from the rest of society.

Exploring Thriller sub genres

Link to the original presentation on emaze.com

Soundtracks in Thrillers

Even the soundtracks in Thrillers have conventions. The soundtrack for psychological thrillers tends to be high notes and tense music, those for action thrillers tends to be deep bass notes and fast paced and in crime thrillers there tends to be more diegetic gunshots and cars.

Sunday 16 November 2014

What is the purpose of a thriller opening?

The purpose of the opening sequence of a thriller should engage the audience, establish the plot, establish characters, set the tone and atmosphere and establish the genre. It should also raise questions which in turn hook the audience.

The thriller opening I have chosen to analyse is Inception. The clip I have analysed is above.

The opening of inception starts with setting the scene, it doesn't show much of the scene just that it's coastal. There aren't really many wide shots or an establishing shot in the very beginning just mid shots. This is to show the audience the setting and gives them an overview of the scene.

The use of guns links to the action thriller genre and foreshadows action and the talk of murder intrigue the audience. It also sets quite a dark tone and hints to the the audience that because of the use of guns there is quite likely to be murder later on. Guns also set a darker tone because they link to murder and death which casts a darker tone onto this thriller.

The protagonist and antagonist are both also introduced in the opening scene. We're introduced the antagonist by seeing a long shot of the back of his head and are not introduced to him to quite a way into the opening scene and even then we only see him from mid to long shots away. This makes him seem more of an intriguing character to the audience because they don't see him close up and it leaves them wondering what he likes and why they haven't been introduced to him yet. It hooks them in which is a succesful technique used in their thriller opening.

The canted angles used when the protagonist is lying on the beach are used to create confusion and distrust, this links to the use of crashing waves which symbolise tension and unease. It also links to the use of a flashback, we as the audience can tell it's a flashback from the intense colour used in the scene which contrasts with the dark colours used in the rest of the scene.

The main thing a thriller opening should do is make the watcher ask questions and hook the in so they watch the rest of the film to find out the answers to their questions. Some of the questions I personally asked were

Why is he on the beach?
What on earth are they talking about?
Why are there children on a beach guarded by guards with guns?
Who are the children?
Why are there guns?
How do they know each other?
"I know what this is?" WHAT IS IT?!?!
Posing questions to the watcher engages them and encourages them to watch on.

The low key lighting is typical of a thriller because it sets a dark atmosphere and a chiaroscuro light effect which works really well in thrillers adding an aspect of mystery and tension to a scene. The deep bass note playing in the back of the scene also adds to the tension and is effective because unless you're concentrating on it it's not obvious and it creates suspense and adds to the tension.

In conclusion I believe that Inception uses all the things a typical thriller opening should do to create tension, grab the audience and establish plot while posing many questions at the same time to hook the audience in and watch more to find out the answers to their questions.