Section 12: ANALYSIS OF COMPLETED THRILLER

THRILLER

 ANALYSIS

TITLE OF FILM: OBSESSION

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

The film is about a man is over superstitious to the point of being obsessed. The story is told through the actions of the main character, although he is performing everyday activities the way he does it is strange. This shows the audience his superstitions and leads you to wonder what is in his mind. As well as the superstitions adding to the suspense the character is odd because of his silence and lack of facial expression. This all takes place in an ordinary house that contrasts with the strange character.

The narrative structure is the way the audience is brought into the film. The audience expects to be kept in suspense by a thriller. This story is told by giving hints and subtleties building excitement for the audience leading them to believe something strange or unusual is about to happen. The film quickly shows that the main character has dark secrets in him because of his superstitions and strange behavior and makes the audience ask questions.

THRILLER CODES AND CONVENTIONS

The audience expect certain things from a thriller, these things are known as codes and conventions and makes a genre recognisable. This thriller is a psychological thriller based on a superstitious obsessive person.

The tension is built through ‘Partial Vision’ because the audience isn’t given the whole story either in the narrative or in the camera shots. The strange things like not stepping on cracks and throwing salt over his shoulder not only build up the curiosity of the audience but also add to the suspense and ‘partial vision’ because they leave the audience with questions. There are hints that things are not right such as the picture of the girlfriend and a middle-aged man living in a house with his parents. This also leads the audience to question and creates suspense.

 There is no speech, which adds to the mystery and is  ‘Partial Vision’. There are signifiers which the audience recognise as belonging in a thriller, such as mirrors and the candle. The mirrors also represent the reflection of the personality.

CAMERAWORK

At the start a high angle shot is taken to show he is small and insignificant and that there are bigger things going on around. After this a lot of close up shots were used to focus on the character in order to emphasise the detail of his emotions.

An over shoulder shot was taken of him cleaning a mirror placed at an angle so the camera could not be seen in the mirror, then a shot was taken of him cleaning the camera lens so it looks like the audience is watching from the mirrors point of view, it can give the image that something is looking at him from inside the mirror itself. This links to his supernatural beliefs because it replicates his fears and strange emotions.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Props were included that proved his superstitions, these were the salt, the mirror and the candle. The candle was an icon that is linked to the supernatural and created atmosphere in the flickering shadows. The mirror is a prop, which represents looking into the soul and revealing hidden secrets. The knife and his fear of cutting himself symbolised danger. The photo of the girlfriend was used as a flashback to his life when he wasn’t obsessive.

The costumes were ordinary day clothes because this was in keeping with his ordinary character and contrasting with his strange state of mind.

There was no natural lighting as the scene was set first things in the morning so artificial lighting was used. This meant even lighting could be applied throughout the film, and this contrasted with the shadows against the candle.

SOUND

There was no speech or sound effects to make the audience guess and the atmosphere slightly eerie. The only sound was non-diegetic music that can’t be heard by the characters only by the audience. The music slowly built up suspense, increasing in tempo, rhythm and volume, with a strong beat.

EDITING

The story was shown through linear narrative to show the chronological events in the morning.

The flashback was used as a white flash before the shot of the photo appears to show that he had a different and happier life, before he became obsessive about the superstitions.

Eye line match was used to show what he was looking at, such as when he was cleaning the mirror. This focused the audience on what he was looking at and emphasised what he was thinking.

The thriller was almost 4 minutes long when the criteria was that it had to be roughly 2 minutes so lots of the video had to be cut and moved about. There were lots of cuts to build up excitement and tension.

GRAPHICS

Credits were at the beginning to show the producers’ names using a black background and bold white writing. This gave a dark feel to the thriller.

At the end of the film as the candle goes out, a dissolve effect was used on the title to make it appear mysteriously as the smoke of the burnt out candle rises into the air, then the title dissolves out as the smoke begins to dissipate.