Evaluation of a Student Thriller - Obession

Obsession Student thriller from Holly Entwistle on Vimeo.

The production starts off with a full screen image of the ‘Miramax studios’ logo. The logo is presented as a full screen title telling us that it is important information, and the colors of the logo are white writing on a black background. This has been chosen because the black and white contrast with each other as binary opposites and create a sinister atmosphere. Next the ‘fractional studios logo appears, this again is full screen on a black background and the image and writing are in white. The crow is all black with a red eye, black symbolizes darkness along with red symbolizing fear and death, the use of the red in the crow’s eye makes the crow look more sinister and dangerous all of which sets the mood for the upcoming thriller, fear. Crows are a bird associated with mystery and power, many people see them as a symbol of superstition and bad luck, therefore the crow has been used as it helps to create the thriller genre of dark and evil and also adds to the sinister effect. We then have the title of the opening of the thriller, ‘Obsession’. This is full screen so we focus on it. The writing is white and Sans Serif and the background is black. This shows us the binary oppositions and foreshadows the genre of the piece; thriller. There’s no sound, and the silence is significant until a non-diegetic, industrial rock type of music plays with a repetitive, machine like rhythm. This is played while the titles are still on. This creates a sinister atmosphere.

As the titles fade out, the music becomes louder and louder and hits a crescendo. From this we have a sound bridge of the music (hitting the crescendo), and takes us to the emphasized diegetic sound of a tap dripping. The music dies out and we hear the diegetic sound of the water hitting the basin of the sink. This has been done to build tension from the audience and to emphasize the sinister atmosphere the scene is intending to create. The shot is an extreme close-up and we see the water dripping one-by-one. Whilst the music is still playing there is an emphasized sound of water dripping from the tap.

Sound bridges are constantly used to link each of the shots within the opening scene. We cut away to a long shot of a hill from inside the house looking out of the window, followed by a series of ellipsis edits showing other point of view shots looking out of other windows is the house. In the corner of one of the shots is a pair of binoculars, these are placed in order to imply that the character is spying or stalking someone. The camera is slightly wobbling on these shots adding to the effect of the point of view. Here there’s natural light used and it’s bright. This creates controversy with the fact that it’s a thriller and the setting seems positive. On this shot we have white, overlay titles. These are in sans-serif, which tells us the film does not require intelligence to understand the plot; it implies that the film will be action filled and modern. The titles grow as we cut away to a medium close-up of the window. Here it’s still ambiguous but we feel due to the mysteriousness of the opening that we have seen villain.

From here we cut to a montage of cuts; the titles disappear and we cut away to a bed shot, here it’s at a low angle. There’s high key low contrast lighting involved to represent more a feeling through the camera work. We cut away to a high angle shot of a mobile phone; it’s an extreme close-up to show the significance of the phone. The phone also shows the modern era juxtaposing with the exterior of a rural area. The phone turns on; here we hear a diegetic sound of the phone vibrating once again to reinforce the significance. Only a hand appears and this could show, once again, the importance of the phone. We once again get overlay titles, in the same font, as we fade into another close-up of the t-shirt. From this we cut to a low angle of a coat, the low angle could suggest dominance alongside with the dark lighting. From this we cut to a close-up of the zip of a blue jacket someone is wearing. We hear the diegetic sound of the jacket zipping up; this creates ambiguity because we still don’t know who the person is as we’re yet to see his face. To reinforce the idea of mystery we cut to the back of the character who is putting his hood up. This allows the audience to believe he is trying to hide himself and makes it more of an ominous opening.

We cut to a close-up of his shoes on a red carpet. The red carpet could give the idea that something is going to go wrong due to its negative connotations of blood and death. The black shoes also signify unhappy things; on top of this we have more overlay titles. From the fairly static pictures so far, there’s a match on action edit of him walking out of his bedroom door. We have a close-up of the door; we hear a diegetic sound of the man walking on the ground and the door opening. We then cut back to the previous shot on the floor to represent the match on action.

From here, we’re once again looking at the back of the character to continue the mystery as he walks down the stairs. We cut to a low angle long shot of the stairs, with the camera cutting off his face. The titles are still ongoing from here as the ellipsis edits of his morning routine continue, we hear the diegetic sound of his cereal crackling as he pours the milk.

We feel a sense of normality with this character currently as he’s partaking in everyday activities so it’s something we can relate to. But alternatively, his character is never fully revealed which consequently allows us to think something is wrong, something bad is going to happen and he may be the villain. This idea is supported by the non-diegetic music in the background at this point, the same industrial rock music that played at the beginning.

Once the person has left the house we fade to black. From here we cut to him walking, he does have a bag which allows us to think he’s going somewhere. Maybe he is going to school, or on the other hand he may have alternative motives which we, the audience, aren’t aware of. 

A graphic match is used to follow the boy as he walks, this is done from a front angle long shot, this is used to continually shoot his walk and move time on so it does not get boring for the audience. An ellipsis edit is then used to introduce a young female character, who we presume is the victim. We presume she is the victim because she is a young female character, using Propp’s theory about character roles in films she fits the character of the ‘princess’ or damsel in distress. The constant sinister background noise merges into a happier melody accompanied with diegetic bird noises in the background to create juxtaposition. This has been done to portray to the audience a little about the girls character, the bird noises are to represent her innocence and happiness compared to the contrapuntal non-diegetic music represents the danger she is unaware of. We can see that she will be the protagonist character in the film and soon become the victim. The music is used to create happiness around this character in order to create a love for her so when the girl later becomes the victim the audience feels empathy. A cut away shot is used to show both characters walking along the same path, not together but with the boy following behind the girl. As the girl comes into contact with another boy we hear the diegetic sound of their interaction and greetings. Meanwhile in the background when another person appears we see the boy, who we presume is the protagonist, disappear behind a tree, this is done to show the audience he does not want to be seen. This is done to create tension from the audience as we know something bad is soon going to happen however the girl does not. Doing this gets the audience involved with the film and entices them to watch more.

Throughout this the music is still playing in the background. Overlay titles are being shown over the scene in white writing, overlays are used to as they are an important piece on information within the star of the film, however they are used as overlay as it makes the beginning of the film flow as we focus on the action.

The girl drops her bag as she is walking; this makes the audience question why she dropped her bag? Did something make her drop her bag? A high-angled shot is used which creates a sense of weakness and vulnerability about the girl. As the girl bends down a medium close up is used and we see the boy stood behind her however when she stands again she looks around and they boy is no longer there. We see she looks concerned, we can tell she senses a presence of some sort.

he is no longer there showing the audience that he is stalking her and makes us wonder where he is which then builds tension and creates an air of mystery.

The screen now fades to black and the music tempo and pitch decreases and once more the sinister sound that was used at the beginning of the film. An ellipsis edit is used to take us to a street, at first the lights are blurred used to create a sense of unknown and mystery amongst the audience, this then focuses showing a long shot of the street. 

It then cuts to a long shot of the victim (the girl) walking down the street alone, her face is dark as chiaroscuro lighting is used. This makes the viewer’s uneasy and on edge as they do not know what is going to happen next however they know the girl is in danger. Another cut to medium to long shot of someone else walking behind her who is unidentified, the character has a bigger body build and their hood up so we presume this is the boy from earlier. At first we just see one figure however as she continues to walk the second figure emerges from behind her, this creates a shock to the viewer and build the tension as we realize that the incident. The diegetic sound of cars is used in the background as this links with the scene and makes it realistic, simultaneously the non-diegetic music is building in the background towards a crescendo, and this mirrors the action of the film as we know the disaster is drawing near. A medium shot of the attacker’s legs standing in front of the victim just before an extreme close up of the girls mouth is showed as we hear the diegetic sound of the girl screaming in a loud, unpleasant pitch. A dissolve edit is used to transition the shots, the use of the dissolve here helps build the tension as it is quite a slow edit, is also makes the characters seem closer than they have ever been.The shot of the boys legs is used in order to show a barrier between the audience and the girl, is makes her seem more helpless and provokes emotion from the audience of a will to help her. We are not shown what makes her scream as is creates more interest and a want to know what is happening, it leaves us on a cliff hanger in order to be hooked for the rest of the film. We assume that the boy who features in the start of the film has attacked her in some way; we are just not sure as to whether she survives the attack or is the attacker gets found. What will the resolution be?

A cracking sound of faded voices end the scene whilst the film title is shown again, flickering each letter on and off. This leaves the opening of the sinister tone needed to continue this effect throughout the rest of the film.

I think the opening as a whole was very well done and creates the sinister tense mood that thrillers need. The end scenes help to build the tension for the viewer because of the lighting and non-music used. All of the editing done is smooth and does not create confusion or a jump in the flow of the opening so the viewer is clear about what is happening. An area that could be improved is the middle section of the opening, when it is shot in daylight outside. I think the process is a little drawn out and could have been done more efficiently and less confusing to keep up the flow of the film.

Research into Thriller Conventions

A thriller always consists of a hero, stereotypically a middle aged man who is high ranked in his profession and doing well for himself. The hero usually tends to have a flaw, perhaps a mental disorder or physical handicap. Different examples of this type of character are Christian Bale in The Dark Knight, a billionaire who despite his status is a lonely grumpy man.

In ‘Face-Off’ Travolta plays a middle aged head detective (as proven by his wall of achievements). His flaws are that he is still grieving over the accidental death of his son, and the fact that he and his wife are no longer as close as they used to be. Strauss’ idea of an equilibrium is apparent through Travolta’s character as he starts off as a happy family man, spending some quality time with his son. This is then followed with the disruption as Cage accidentally shoots his son. When this happens, the shot is slowed down so that the sense of panic is emphasized and we can see the expressions on characters faces. The resolution (we can only assume as we have only watched the opening of this film) is that Travolta, being head detective manages to somehow catch the villain (Cage), and somehow manages to resolve his flaws, by becoming closer with his wife and finally be at peace about his Son’s death.

In comparison, Bruce Willis, in the ‘Sixth Sense’ plays a middle aged child psychologist who is highly ranked in his profession as proven by the plaque that he has just been awarded. Willis’ flaw (although not apparent until the end of the film) is that he is dead. In these thrillers, the hero’s seem to consist of the on-going idea that they are usually middle aged men, highly ranked in their profession but consisting of a flaw. 

Thrillers also consist typically of a villain, usually a middle aged man like we would expect the hero to be. We often find a lady character that plays the ‘damsel in distress’, who we often find falls in love with the hero. For example, in ‘ Dead Again’, the ‘damsel in distress’, (Emma Thompson), falls in love with the hero of the film ‘Mike Church’, played by Kenneth Branagh, who again is stereotypically a middle aged man who is a high ranking detective. 

Claude Levi Strauss’ theory of ‘binary opposition’ is always present in a typical thriller film. Some examples of these could be: day and night, hero and villain, life and death, black and white, strong and weak and the protagonist and antagonist. We often find in thrillers that the antagonists take action at night and the protagonist takes action during the day time. This links in with light connoting purity and darkness connoting evil. In ‘Ills’, the opening scenes show us a murder taking place at night, accompanied by the use of stormy weather (pathetic fallacy), despite not seeing the antagonist at night, we see his work. This then cuts to a lady who we can only assume is going to either be the ‘damsel in distress’ or the hero walking through school halls during the day time, which could reinforce the idea that she is pure. ‘Hero and villain’ is the most obvious binary opposition that we see in thriller films, for example: Travolta and Cage, Pitt and Spacey and Pacino and Di Nero. Again, stereotypically all middle aged men.

Todorov’s theory of narrative structure states that thriller openings consist of an equilibrium, followed by the disruption (often some sort of crime, usually a killing of some sort), and eventually at the end of the film is the resolution. 

An example which proves Todorov’s theory of narrative structure is the film ‘Memento’. The equilibrium is how Leonard used to be; a happily married man, doing well in his job as a highly ranked detective. The disruption occurs when his wife is killed, and he suffers an injury to the head, leaving him with short term memory loss. The resolution is left open to interpretation as we do not know whether he finds the man who kills his wife, although the clues are there to suggest that he does. Leonard also suffers with a flaw, like most protagonists in thrillers. His is that he suffers from short term memory loss and cannot make new memories since his accident, and in order to catch his wife’s killer must use a series of notes and tattoos.

Psycho: This film starts with a woman at work, she’s happy and the whole atmosphere is positive, it is only when she steals the money and the mood changes. This is typical of a thriller as it usually starts with a positive scene to create the contrast between good and evil. Later on in the film we see the woman get murdered in her own bathroom, however id this was the opening of the film it would lose suspense.

Opening Titles

There are a few different ways in which titles can be shown in the openings of films. Examples of two different ways are in the films, Sixth Sense and Face Off. In the film Sixth Sense the titles appear in white with a black background.

This makes the audience concentrate just on the titles and in this time period the mood of a thriller can be created as it is done in Sixth Sense by using sinister eerie music, and the moving ghostly text used in the titles. Different styles of fonts are used for the titles, usually San Serif and Serif. The font in these titles is ‘Sans Serif’ portraying it is more youthful and does not need as much intellectuality to be able to follow the film.

The introduction of ‘Usual Suspects’ uses the title sequence really well. At the start we see on the screen;

• Polygram filmed entertainment & Spelling Films International Presents
• A Blue Parrot/Bad Hat Harry Production
• A Bryan Singer Film

The above titles were all white writing on a black background with smoke rising from the bottom of the screen. Words are in Serif which tells the audience that the film is for people of a higher intelligence and the film requires a lot of concentration.

After these opening titles we have overlay titles of what we assume are less important aspects of the film. This consists of names of the producer and people within the film. We then cut to a clip of a cigarette in a glass ash tray; we presume this is where the smoke is originally coming from. The final title is ‘The Usual Suspects’ in a large white font on a black background with the smoke. The smoke connotes mystery and fore, this is portrayed later on in the film when an explosion occurs.