Inspirations - Miss Miller

To create a thrilling and engaging thriller we need different inspirations. We get inspirations from many different things like other thriller films that we have watched, I have watched at a few different award winning thriller films and looked at the different sounds, camera angles and the mise-en-scene used by the directors. You can so take inspirations from personal experiences or other people who have ideas. Our group took many inspirations from films such as shutter island, scream and halloween. We looked at different clips from these films that created tension, surprise, shock and suspense.

One of the clips I looked at was one from Shutter Island were Leanardo Di Caprio was walking through the prison. The lighting used in this clip inspired us as it create suspense as we cannot see what is ahead of him and are waiting for something to happen to him. This is because the only light in the corridor is the flame he is holding in his hand and this does not light up the whole corridor just the space in front of him. This creates suspense as anything could be out of reach of the light and waiting to attack him. This makes the audience on the edge of their seat waiting for a killer or anything to scare them. This inspired me as in my piece I want the audience to be on the edge of their sets and what the director of shutter island did in this clip is something i want to do in my thriller to create suspense.

Another clip we looked at was the original scream, this gave us all sorts of inspirations about mise-en-scene. This is one of the best films when analysing mise-en-scene, it includes things like iconography, setting, hair and make up, costumes. All these things are conventional to the thriller genre as many thrillers have a few of these elements but I chose this one as it has the most conventional things. The conventions Used in this film inspired my group to use some of the same conventions as they creates a lot of suspense, shock and surprise. We have decided to use a villain who's identity is unknown, just like from scream, as it creates mystery within the audience as they are unsure of whom the killer is and also allows them to have their own suspicions of who the killer is. Although our killer isn't seen throughout the whole of the opening sequence until right at the end. Another idea we took was the murder weapon, we decided to use a knife as the murder weapon as this is very conventional and the audience will expect to see a knife. We took an inspiration from scream because it created tension and suspense for the audience as they are awaiting the death of a specific character, in addition the use of a knife means that the girl might not die instantly which will make the audience sympathise with her because she is suffering.

We also looked at a clip from Saw V, from this clip we analysed the cinematography used and suggested why they might have used different camera angles. This clip has a lot of different camera angles in it which is why I analysed it. Me and my group looked at this clip and a few camera shots inspired us. One shot that inspired us was a high angle shot, this shot was used in Saw 5 to portry the inferiority of the charecters in the scene. We will use this shot from the point of veiw of the killer to portray his superiority and the victims inferiority.  This is very effective as not only do we get a high angled shot we also get the point of view of the killer. This shows that the killer is looking down over the victim which implies he has loads of power of them and can do what he likes. We will use this shot to create a negative relationship as people might frown at the fact he is looking down over them. Another shot that has inspired us was the shallow focus shot used when focusing on the keys in the box which is the most important thing in the shot. This makes the audience focus on the importance of the keys and think about what they mean and the significance of it. This shot is used to create a relationship between the character’s and the audience, this is because the audience can empathise with their situation and therefore like the character’s more. I will be using this shot in my opening sequence when we focus on the 2 candles at the table and one blows out to show the death of the wife. We used this specific shot as it will make the audience focus on the candles and think why one is blowing out and not the other. This creates suspense as the audience are either waiting to see whats happened or to see whether the other one will blow out. This shot is effective as it is only concentrating on the candles and nothing in the background, this means that the audience can look at nothing but the candles. 

In The Strangers clip I analysed, the director uses Mise-en-scene very well to create suspense, surprise, shock and tension. From analysing this clip I can take diffrant ideas about mise-en-scene and use them in my own piece. I can take ideas about all 5 elements of mise-en-scene and use them to try and portray certain ideas to my target audience and make them feel shock, suspense, surprise. From analysing this clip I have also learnt that thrillers don't tend to have a lot of dialogue in it and so replace this with music. I am going to use minimal dialogue in the thriller to try and create as much of the 3S' as possible. I have also noticed that you dont need that many props to create a good thriller just a good setting, low key lighting and a unknown killer covered by even the simplest mask. One of the key elements of Mise-en-scene that has inspired me is the idea of an unkown killer through costume. This inspired me as it creates the 3 S', This is because in my opening sequence we do not want the audience to know who the killer is and will not know throughout the film but will want to know who the killer is. 

In the Jaws clip i watched and analysed, the director uses sound very well to create surprise, suspense, shock and tension. From analysing this specific clip i can take a few ideas as inspirations. I believe that sound is the most effective method of creating suspense, shock and surprise as if there was no sound we wouldn't have a clue what was going on and when to expect the unexpected. I will also use this clip as the sound in this sets the mood and creates an eerie atmosphere and that is exactly what i would like to do in my thriller clip. It helps the audience to connect with certain characters by putting them into the mindset of that character, which helps the audience to respond emotionally. One sound technique used in this clip that inspired me was the diegetic sound at the end of the clip when the man is surprised to see a shark. We hear a hammock swinging which shows the atmosphere is quiet which shows the shock and surprise of the characters. I will use this in my thriller as I believe it helps the audience create an emotional relationship with the characters as it shows how scared the characters are. 

Overall i have found looking at other clips very useful as i can look at the good parts and use the ideas of it for my own thriller. In addittion i have found this useful because as we gathered many ideas and inspirations for our opening scene, this enabled us to make our thriller more effective and enaging for the audience. By researching, we were able to see what sort of iconography and camera shots professionals used and whether they created suspense or surprise. This helped us make our group narrative more realistic therefore making the audience more sympathetic for the victims and more hatred towards the villian.