Section 12: Analysis of Completed Thriller

I analysed our completed thriller in the same way that I analysed four thrillers at the beginning of our coursework, using the headings: Narrative Structure; Camerawork; Mise-en-scene; Sound; Editing; Graphics.

• Narrative Structure - our thriller follows a linear narrative, as we begin at with shots of a man carrying a camera box into the building, which is explained later in the sequence as we see shots of the girl in the room are CCTV footage with 'camera 1', 'camera 2' and then one shot of our protagonist has 'camera 3' layered over the shot. We chose to begin with this as we felt that it would be easier to convey the narrative of our entire thriller by using a linear narrative rather than a non-linear or circular narrative. Ours is a restrictive narrative in that we hold back important information that you would need to fully understand the plot line; there are enigma codes, or unanswered questions that we leave to make to audience curious about the rest of the plot line. These are meant to help attract the audience and make them want to watch the rest of the film. There are many action codes which our target audiences may have before they watch our film, so that whilst watching our thriller they will draw on their past experiences of the conventions usually found in the thriller genre and this will make them expect certain conventions to exist in our thriller. These could include a killer, a victim, a hero, a dilemma or issue that needs to be solved and twists and turns in the narrative, all of which we believe we have portrayed in the structure of our narrative for the beginning of our thriller. Todorov's narrative theory states that the plot line begins with an equilibrium and balance within the narrative, which is then disrupted by some incident that causes an imbalance between powers in the narrative. The rest of the narrative is then centered around restoring balance within the 'story' world. Our narrative follows this in some ways, although we do not begin with an equilibrium; instead our film begins in the midst of the disruption, which is that the girl has been kidnapped. True to Todorov's theory however, the rest of the narrative resolves around the hero's attempt to restore the balance in the narrative. 
• Camerawork - our thriller begins with a canted angle shot showing a car pull up outside of a building. We chose the canted angle shot to immediately portray a sense of unease to the audience about what is happening, which is reinforced by the close-up shot of the wheel of the car, as this implies the importance of the car and the significance of this in the narrative, which is that the driver of the car is the 'killer' character in the narrative. The low angle shot of the man walking into the building carrying a camera box again shows the significance of this short sequence in our thriller film. The next shot on screen is another canted shot, this time showing a different man running down an alleyway towards the camera, continuing the sense of unease felt by the audience and they can use this to make links between the man running and the man in the previous shots walking towards the building. A static mid-shot shows the man jump over an abandoned trolley and out of the alleyway, followed by two more static shots of him running: the camera in front and then behind him as he runs through a town centre, showing his journey towards a currently unknown destination. The short sequence as he runs down the second alley was constructed so that his speed would be better portrayed to the audience. He runs into the alley way, hits an obstacle, and the runs past a wall, which is the key shot is showing his speed. The shot is taken from the side as the man runs past the camera quickly. These shots are followed by an establishing shot of the building designed to inform the audience where the man his running to, as previously they have not known his destination. The static shot as he runs past the mirrors we used to try and create a sense of depth for the audience and to attempt to portray the size of the building. The low angled shot of him running upstairs, followed by the hand held point of view shot and a high angled shot of him running upstairs were chosen to emphasize how far he has to run to reach his final destination, which is still unknown to us. Similar reasoning was used in choosing to use the low angled shot of him running down a corridor towards a set of doors, as the low angle implies that the corridor is very long and thus that he has a long way to run. We began to build more tension through the camerawork as the man ran through that building, particularly in the use of the match on action shot as he opens a door in the corridors, as this puts more emphasis on the fact that he has to go through these doors to find where he is heading for. We used the mid-length shot of him running towards the yellow door and then through the door to effect by then using a shot from the other side of the door as he entered the room, which allows the audience to see him enter the room and to see his reaction on entering the room, from which we can tell that he has not found what he was looking for. The mid-shot of him leaving the room and dropping a piece of paper on the floor just before the doors close we decided to use as it creates a lot of tension; the audience immediately want to know what is on the piece of paper. We than used a close up of the piece of paper to see it read 'one week' and used a pan upwards to allow the audience to see him running back through the corridors, as the audience can make the connection between the words on the paper and him running. Throughout the sequence there are intermittent shots of CCTV footage of a girl in the room that the man eventually runs into; we chose to make these shots look like CCTV footage as this implies that someone (presumably the killer) is watching her, and then watching the man when he reaches the room and finds the piece of paper.
• Mise-en-scene - the first four shots showing a car pulling up and a man taking a camera box into the building set the scene of the film as being in an urban environment, which ties in with the action codes audiences expect from a film in the thriller genre. The next shots of the second man running down the alley way confirm our suspicions that the film is set in a urban environment and the graffiti etc. and the dilapidated/abandoned trolley he jumps over could lead us to believe that it is a derelict area. We wanted to ensure that the audience were clear that our thriller is set in a city, so we filmed shots of him running through a town centre past shops and people to ensure that this came across. Further graffiti in the second alley way adds to our idea of this as perhaps a more derelict area. This is continued with the establishing shot of the building as it seems to be quite old and is a little run down. Inside, the walls which he runs past are mainly white, which can often suggest innocence/goodness, but the walls are also dirty and we can see marks on them, which in turn could suggest the loss of innocence or that something is going wrong. The colours in the building seem to become darker as he runs over a dark blue carpet and the white walls have black borders at the bottom which could carry darker connotations and implications of what may happen later in the narrative. The room that he runs into is empty except for a piece of paper on the floor; this shows us that someone must have been into the room before he arrived to place the paper there.
• Sound - the first sound that we hear is the diegetic sound of a car driving and parking, followed by the sound of a car door as the person gets out of the car and walks to the boot. We can hear his footsteps as he walks into the building when the diegetic sound of a police siren begins just before the non-diegetic sound track which begins as the camera cuts to shots of the man running. The diegetic sounds of a city eg. people talking, cars can be heard over the music which adds to the idea that the man is running through a city. The non-diegetic music continues over all shots of the girl in the room, but as it is CCTV footage, no diegetic sounds can be heard. We can hear the man's footsteps as he runs through the building and up the stairs which adds to the tension we feel and the music continues to build, implying to the audience that something big is about to happen in the narrative. The loud diegetic banging sound causes the music to end abruptly, and only diegetic sound can be heard as the an runs into the room. The non-diegetic sound track returns as he leaves the room, quietly at first and then becoming louder to increase the dramatic tension for the audience as he runs back through the corridors, and as the title of the film 'Justice' appears on screen. The music fades slowly as the title does.
• Editing - the screen is black at first, allowing the audience to absorb the sound of the car driving before the shot fades in and we can see the car. The shots simply cut until the end of the shot when the man walks into the building and it dissolves into the shot of the second man running down and alley way. The pace of editing increases as the film progresses and he runs further to imply his speed and again to emphasize the distance he has to run. Shots of the girl in the room are intermittent throughout the shots of him running which implies that he is running towards her and allows the audience to establish links between the two characters. We chose to end the music as he opened the yellow door into the room while we were editing as this informs the audience that something has gone wrong and that something bad either has or is about to happen. We also chose to place the end title over a black screen as this ensures the audience concentrate on only the title and are not distracted by action on screen.
• Graphics - all of the graphics are white and in official-looking fonts, which carry connotations of official documents, perhaps of the police force which is the affect I was trying to achieve in choosing the font (as the main characters in our film either are or were part of the police force). We placed the title 'Justice' at the end and over a black screen so that there would be emphasis on the title and it would standout on the screen. The other graphics with names and the production company we placed towards the beginning of our thriller so that the audience would see them straight away. These were placed over action shots of the man running down the alley way and through the town centre and came in quick succession, fast paced in order to imply the speed of the man running.