REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS

Reflective Analysis

For our AS Film production coursework, my group and I decided to create a sequence from a thriller film. We targeted our audience from teenagers to adults (15-30 year olds). Our targeted audience will be mainly male, due to the high level of action in our film also the antagonists are female which would draw our male audience in more, giving them "something to look at". To display the generic conventions of a thriller we employed a range of micro features, focusing on two specific areas which were cinematography and sound (both digetic and non-digetic) to create a suspense, tense atmosphere. I took response for cinematography in production of the film and most of the post-production editing.

The narrative of our film is two robbers breaking into the house knowing that the woman who owns it has the large amount of money hidden somewhere in one of the upstairs rooms. To establish the protagonist being in the house by herself, I decided to start off the sequence with the camera on a tripod opposite the house and film a wide-shot of the house so the audience could see that there was only one light on in the whole house, indicating that she is solitary. When the scene cuts, to further establish that the protagonist is alone and to create suspense there's a mid-shot of her in bed before she turns the light out and goes to sleep (instead of using the tripod to keep the camera still, I simply left the camera on the bedside table as I thought for the mise-en-scene it visually looked nice). It then quickly cuts to the wide-shot outside for the audience to see that it was her light. Now that the house in complete darkness, it begins the tense atmosphere for the audience as darkness connotes the unknown.

The next key uses of cinematography further throughout the rest of the sequence. I decided that it would be best to discontinue using a tripod and have the camera handheld but steady as I needed to follow the antagonists around the house smoothly and freely. Having the camera handheld definitely adds to the tense atmosphere and builds it up because as the audience, we are up close to what is happening and some shots look POV, making the audience feel like a third robber. Using the camera handheld turned out quite well however I felt quite an amount of pressure as I needed to make sure that I had a steady hand so the camera didn't shake too much whilst filming scenes when I was following the robbers. I tried to only move my body and keep my arms and hands completely still and I think the footage came out quite well and wasn't too wobbly. Most of the footage as I was filming was quite dark so I got a torch to brighten some of the shots and also to establish the whole robbery feel to the scene as the antagonists had torches too. I had to hold it next to the camera which added to the pressure as I was holding two things at once however I re-shot some of these scenes to make sure the camera was completely in focus and it was the best quality it could be to capture the action.

When it came to editing the actual footage, it was all quite easy and the main problem we had was establishing which soundtrack would be best. At first I thought it would be good to have no soundtrack and just keep the original sound from the footage although everything was all too loud like the footsteps. I quietened the sound levels however the digetic sound got very boring and didn't build up the tension we wanted so one of my group members  found a soundtrack and I placed it over the new quietened footage. We had the soundtrack playing all throughout the sequence and quietened it down when the antagonists started conversing about the protagonist asleep in the bed. Their dialogue builds suspense as the sequence comes to an end as one of the robbers says "Get rid of her", indicating at the woman asleep in the bed and the soundtrack begins playing again. As the other burglar wraps her hands around the protagonists neck, she gasps. I loudened the  sound levels of the gasp as I thought it would be a good climax to the sequence, ending the build up of suspense for the audience.