Thriller Tech Mood Board Blog Post

Thriller movies have several conventions that are shown repeatedly in most Thrillers. Thrillers and other genres have technical conventions which consists of Mise-en-scene, Camera, Editing and Sound. All of these conventions make up a Thriller, but will tell you why in more detail.  

FlightPlan

The movie Flightplan is about Kyle Pratt who brings her daughter along a plane that she had made and its one of the biggest planes that has two storeys. While Kyle is sleeping on the plane, later after the plane has taken off, when Kyle wakes up, her daughter is missing but no one seems to know where she is or even if she boarded the plane at first.

Camera:

The convention we see here is Camera. The shot used is a long shot displaying Kyle waking up from her sleep and seeing that her daughter is missing from her seat. The camera angle used at 0:40 is straight on. The effect that this convention has on the audience is that the straight on angle connotes  immersiveness and makes the audience more involved. This shot begins to speculates questions for the audience such as "Where is her daughter gone? How can a child go missing from  a plane when 33,000 feet up in air?" and this starts to add to the thriller experience of the film. 

Mise-en-scene:

Mise-en-scene demonstrates all the conventions of a thriller through; lighting location, costumes, era, performance and lastly props. The lighting in this shot is artificial and low key and the location is set in a plane. The lighting allows the audience to see what time of day it is and the darkness adds the mystery of the missing daughter, also the locations of the plane is set in a crowded atmosphere surrounded my several people, however, Kyle is alone without her daughter and the shot portrays her loneliness very well. The protagonist being alone is a very common convention in thrillers.  The era of this movie is set in the present day and the actress Jodie Foster delivers tension and seriousness through her facial expression. The blankness of her face denotes the shock she is experiencing and this develops the audience to behave in the same emotion of shock that Kyle is feeling. Her performance also connotes where the mystery begins in the movie and the audience realise that the thriller storyline is based on the daughter being missing and the urge to find her. 

Editing

Flightplan uses plenty of editing and majority of the trailer is put together through editing to successfully create the mood and atmosphere of a thriller. In this short clip from the movie, I have chosen from 1:49-1:57 an opening sequence of where all the action pack begins and the quick titles make the trailer much more fast pace and construct the effect of flashing lights. Making the middle of the trailer more fast pace achieves the typical convention of seeing happy families at the beginning and taking it slow, and then ending with the action movements and the protagonist trying to solve the mystery. Gradually, making the trailer more and more fast pace throughout, builds the suspense and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats. The dark background on the title sequences is used to heighten the glowing blue light shining out of the words and this is eye-catching for the audience. The intense movement of Kyle makes the audience out of breathe and adds to the immersive thriller experience. 

Sound
At this point of the movie, specifically at 1:58 minutes where a rapid drumming sound progresses in the background of the trailer and appears to make the pace more faster as the image being illustrated is that Kyle  is rebelling from the rest of the plane in order for her to finally find her daughter. She takes a courageous amount of action which makes the audience intrigued. 

Orphan

The Orphan begins with a couple looking to adopt a child and find a sweet innocent little girl at the orphanage home whom they begin to care for. However, all is not what it seems with this little girl as she begins to behave in an aggressive manner and has many unknown secrets from her past which the family do not know of. The protagonist, the mother sees truly what the evil little orphan girl is capable of but her husband chooses not to believe. Will it be too late?

Camera
The shot i have selected from the trailer is a scene showing the mother doing research on the computer with her glasses on. The movie is a psychological thriller meaning that the protagonist which in this case is the family who are put in a dangerous situation by accident. The protagonist being put in the situation by accident is a typical convention of a thriller and the impact it has is that both the protagonist and the audience are prepared to solve the mystery and find out the reason why the young girl is behaving in such an insane manner.

Mise-en-scene

The location of this still is set in her home where it is present day. The props and costume used are a laptop and glasses and within these props have a deep and meaningful importance. The glasses represent the truth she is seeing about the girl and without them she is blinded by deceit and manipulation, whereas when wearing them, her vision is clear. The laptop allows her to receive the reliable information and crucial sources about the true identity of the orphan which allows the audience to have the information they need to solve her intentions. 

Editing

Everything about this scene at 0:58 makes the audience realise that the happiness in the trailer all turns upside down and the movement the editors edit in create a camera effect where it begins to make the audience feel shocked and quite frightened of the little girl. It makes the audience realise that the little girl is not as innocent as she seems and portray her as the antagonist due to the violent actions she possesses. The screen feels as if it is shaking in madness and this makes it hard for the audience to tolerate the little girl and initially starts to grow hate towards her. This scene is the perfect portrayal of an antagonist played in psychological thrillers. 

Sound

The sound put in at 0:58 seconds, sounds like high pitched drones in your ears and this definitely makes the sound unbearable for the audience to listen to. The sound is immersive as it feels like the person watching the trailer is actually in the same room as the screaming evil girl. It also adds that the surrounding are completely blurred out and that all we can hear is her dreadful screaming. 

Gone Girl

Gone Girl is another psychological but also crime thriller which has major unpredictable plot twists. Nicks wife Amy goes missing one day and no one knows where she is or where her body is. However, the whole town seems to blame Nick for this crime and is portrayed in everyone and the audiences eye that he is the antagonist...the abusive husband. 

Sound

The voice over of the wives voice Amy immediately portrays to the audience that she is telling the story from her perspective and she is automatically the protagonist which we side with. The voice over narrates the story and what is happening so that the audience can understand the plot a bit better. At 1:40-1:43 minutes Amy breathes the words 'I finally realised i was frightened of my own husband' which initially makes the audience question the husbands motives and believe he may have possibly done something severe to her and imediately think he is lying.

Camera   

The movie performs a clever shot of showing a long shot of the crime scene of the glass table broken but at a low angle as it shows a clue of what happened to the missing woman Amy. The image of the crime makes the audience envision what may of happened at the scene of the crime, 'did she get pushed or thrown on top of the table making it shatter everywhere' or 'was the husband the cause of it?' The thriller experience that is produced is the shot creates the power of the audience being the investigator and takes their mind elsewhere in their own fantasy of solving the murder or kidnapping. 

Editing
The editing at  2:08-2:18 is made much more fast pace and the voice over is repetitive where she repeats 'this man may kill me' and these words repeated effects the audience and it is sinks in into their minds and creates this image of the antagonist in this crime thriller being the husband. The editors put in flashing light effects to show it is dark and it is late at night and also shows the antagonists shadowed figure above the stairs. The effect of the dark shadow is that it constructs mystery as the audience cannnot have a glipse of the persons face and the unclearness raises questions for the audience. The mystery conceives the thriller exprerience created through editing.

Mise-en-scene
The era is set in the present day and uses low key lighting during 2:08-2:18. The effect this has on the audience is that the time set is to make them feel involved in the tension and also the low key lighting has a shadowy effect which bulids upon the mystery and suspicion. The performance of the actors are seriously delivered and tense as they are surrounded by a crime scene and their actions delivered are significant to the audiences mood and acknowledge the tension that is being portrayed.