The darkness is a representation of isolation and vulnerability as the victim is unable to see as they have something covering their face. This as well as the conventional thriller soundtrack and the struggling dialogue from our female victim sets the typical thriller scene, one that is conventional to the genre and in order for our thriller opening to be successful it had to also be conventional.
Arguably i would say that although our characters where essential in the development of a audience/character relationship and the source for most of our tension without our opening i would say that lighting was our most influenual micro element when i came to our creativity and understanding of thriller conventions. We understood that in order for our thriller to be that of a conventional one low key lighting needed to be prominent throughout and so we looked to do this but we encountered problems with filming. The set became too dark to film and so we thought that by using small lights he could light up the set in a eerie yet professional way to ensure we could get the correct scene.
As you can see in the pictures bellow the two lights provided an excellent contrast of both low and high key lighting allowing us to take advantage of the low key lighting convention and create a mysterious blurry effect in doing so which allowed us to further the concept of hidden identity and mystery surrounding our antagonist and his motives.
If was to compare my thriller opening to a successful thriller opening i would have to choose Halloween as i took allot of insertion from it to make it as conventional as it is. The similar use of the POV shot which can be seen bellow is conventional as it helps builds tension as the audience is put in the antagonists shoes, and are unaware when or what he might do, allowing them to understand his mental instability and therefore further the tension and suspense as they know that he is unpredictable.
Halloween P.O.V
Phobia- P.O.V (My thriller opening)
Although not completely identical we both shared to same general concept that seeing from the antagonists point of view made the film much more tense as the audience are unaware what they are going to do. Halloweens P.O.V shows the antagonist watching the female victim. Her femininity, beauty and blonde hair suggests venerability. Her being naked also suggests that she is defenceless to the attack, furthering my initial interpretation about her vulnerability during the scene. The theme of vulnerability is why they are used again and again as easy targets for murderers throughout the genre as the audience feel even more scared of the antagonist as they are killing a symbol of western vulnerability. This contrasts my P.OV as i focus more on the iconography, the knife. I do this to enhance the feeling of danger to relatable to the more modern thriller conventions of violence and gore in films such as Last house on the left. As the antagonist paces the room, focusing on the weapon builds tension making the audience feel uneasy. So in taking inspiration from films such as Halloween i am able to make my film conventional and therefore successful.
This post demonstrates some understanding of how your thriller sequence is successful, in terms of the micro elements. You have also started to consider another thriller to compare to and have included points on the conventions and micro elements, which supports your understanding well. But you need to explore your points in further detail, to discuss the conventions of a thriller.
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