Conventions

Firstly we discussed conventions as a class.

Conventions are certain elements which make up a piece of media. For example props, music, costumes, make-up, lighting, camera shots, characters, location and plot are all conventions of film.
Every genre of film has different conventions which make it fit into that certain genre.
Thriller films for example might generally have the following conventions: Firstly, props are an important part of any film, for a thriller they might include blood, knives, guns, cars, gadgets. The music and sound generally varies for suspense. For example, at one point it might be really quiet to build up tension and then there might be a huge explosion to make the audience jump. Perhaps there might be a car chase with up-tempo music to build excitement. Often, stock characters are used in a thriller film. For example there is usually one main hero character on a mission, a villain who gets in the way of the hero and a love interest for the hero (along with many other characters). Thrillers are generally set in very urban areas with lots of buildings and people because if it was set in a more remote location it would be too similar to a horror film. In order to create a mysterious mood, most thriller films are set in dark places or at night. The plot of a thriller has multiple climaxes as it is created in order to thrill an audience and the endings are not generally happy and some can end on a cliff-hanger.

We then watched the opening of a thriller film called 'I am Legend'
(2:05-5:08)

(0:00-2:27)





Analysis:
The opening of 'I am Legend' uses conventions effectively to create a successful start to a thriller film. The initial shot is an extreme long shot of a city landscape which tilts upwards to show the desertion of the area. Immediately it is recognisable that it is very abnormal for a city to be deserted at any time and we begin to wonder what has happened. There are many cars visible in this shot but none of them appear to be moving again we ask why. There are a lot of sounds used with the first shot like bird song, crickets and the wind howling but there are no sounds of human activity. Also, the fact that the sounds are so exaggerated creates the impression that nature has taken over. This reinforces the mood of emptiness and keeps the audience engaged. There are other shots following this which portray the same thing. The next shot is a high angle shot (bird's eye shot) which pans over the city showing the extreme emptiness making us ask how far it goes on for. The amount of tall buildings and roads sets the scene in New York. Suddenly a moving car comes into shot it then becomes central making us immediately realise that there is one survivor. 
The next shot is of someone picking up a gun - the camera tilts up to show the mans face in a medium close-up and we see the determined look on his face. By seeing the gun we initially link it to danger and assume that this character is not one to be trusted. We then see the eye contact between him and his dog and we begin to realise that maybe he is not such a bad character, this relationship is explored more later in the scene. The way that the dog and his owner mirror each other by looking out of the window in the same way connotes the strong relationship between them. The sound of the car becomes louder and louder and almost battles with the sound of nature - this begins to portray the theme of man and nature. There is then a point of view shot showing birds flying away. This could make the audience empathise with the man when everything seems to be running away from him. The speed  of the car shows that he is on a mission and has obviously done it before and has maybe not been successful as he is very accurate with his driving. A poster comes into shot saying "God still loves us" as it is zoomed in on we see the words "but do we care?". This again makes us want to know what has happened. 
It is a very long period of time before any words are spoken in the scene, this is to build tension. When the first words are eventually spoken they are from the man asking his dog "what you see? what you see?". Because the fist words are a question, it gives an idea of his character questioning life or perhaps himself. Suddenly, a deer jumps over the front of the car which makes the audience engage more because it was unexpected. It then becomes clear that the man is hunting for food and tension increases when the car gets faster and sound becomes louder. The deer outsmart him which gives the impression that this situation has happened on various occasions and we get the idea of the main character to be very annoyed about doing this all the time so we have sympathy for him. The car is forced to stop as a huge standstill of empty cars is visible as though the entire city had come to a sudden stop which creates a mood of horror. There are also many abandoned police cars which creates a mood of trouble. The camera zooms on the main characters face in order to show his expression so the audience can empathise with him further.
Next we see the man and his dog moving slowly through overgrown grass. The jump in time connotes that they have been searching for a longer amount of time and the overgrown grass suggests that it has been neglected along with the rest of the city for a long time. We see posters for modern Musicals like 'Wicked' and 'Hairspray' which is threatening to the audience because it suggests that this disaster is set not so far in the future and makes us wonder more. We see a part of a deer who disappears quickly behind something. The man slowly creeps up on it for suspense with his dog by his side and watches the animal carefully before making any sudden movements. This shows that he is experienced in hunting as he is very careful not to lose the deer. It is silent, adding to suspense. Just as he is about to shoot a lion pounces on the deer and sound increases to keep the audience engaged. He becomes more unsure of his actions to shoot the deer when a family of lions enter the scene. He watches the lion and slowly lowers his gun. Did he do this because he didn't want to kill the lions, because he didn't have enough bullets or out of respect because the lion got to the deer before he did?  This again adds to the theme of man and nature and failure. Then an alarm sounds on his watch at he looks at the sun - meaning that the sun was beginning to set. He lowers his gun completely and speaks to his dog: "Lets go, Sam". Through out the scene, the main character and his dog seem to look out for each other and protect each other. For example when the dog barks when the lion arrives in the scene, he seems to be protecting his master. In addition, the way he looks out for his dog makes his character seem more caring as the scene goes on - he is almost like a father figure - this makes us care more about the character and feel sorry for him. This adds further to the theme of man and nature. The final shot of the scene tilts upwards and shows an emblem of the Batman and Superman logos. This causes the audience to compare the character with these superheroes - is the character a hero? We could also make the comparison by thinking about how the superheroes are isolated from society because they are different from everyone else and the main character in this film is obviously very different as he appears to be the only human being left on Earth. This adds to the theme of isolation.


Task - Watch part of a thriller film and analyse.
THE DARK KNIGHT
(0:00 - 1:25)

The Dark Knight (2008) is a thriller film sequel to Batman Begins (2005). I will be analysing the first scene from the film. It starts as a long shot showing the landscape of an urban scene with many tall buildings. The audience automatically assumes that the film is set in a city in America. Like most thrillers, it is set in a city so that the audience might be more familiar with the setting and therefore feel more threatened by the events in the film. The camera zooms into a building with many windows. Reflected in the windows, many more buildings are visible, giving the audience an idea of how big the area is. A humming sound is heard which increases volume as the camera zooms to the building. This creates suspense and makes us wonder what is happening in the building. However this suspense is broken when one of the many windows is smashed which could make the audience jump because of the change in sound. The shot switches to a man holding a gun who had just shot the gun to break the window - we immediately link this to violence and feel threatened. The focus then changes from the gun to the man holding it. He is wearing a clown's mask. The mask connotes a mood of mystery and also makes the audience insecure. The fact that the mask is of a clown and the gun could suggest that what is underneath the mask is the very opposite as a friendly entertainer seen at a child's party and is something very dangerous. The masked character then fires a second shot but this time it has a cable attached to it - the audience could make the connection that they may be attempting to break into another building. The next shot is of another man holding a bag and a similar clown’s mask. As there are linking these two men we might think that there are weapons in the bag. The camera then zooms in, focusing on the mask. The expression of the mask becomes more visible as very intimidating and creepy. The man rushes into a car with blacked out windows which again reinforces the theme of mystery and gives us a fear of the unknown. Again, it cuts to the man in the building but he is joined by a second man. Now that we have seen 3 different people involved we get the impression that there could be a team of criminals. The two men travel across the zip wire onto another building. The music builds up and sounds like a ticking clock, this builds tension. Now we see 3 masked men in the car discussing splitting money, then it cuts to the 2 other men on the roof of a building talking about "the joker". All of a sudden the 3 men barge into a bank and order the people to keep their heads down. Screams are heard which gives a mood of terror. One of the masked men pulls a man up from behind his desk and drops him on the floor which gives us an idea of how strong and destructive these men are. There are many changes in shot in this opening and many switches in location, this suggests that the film may be very fast moving and exciting for the audience. From the beginning of the film, we can already tell there will be a themes of mystery and violence. Even though superhero films usually fall into the action and adventure genre, in my opinion this is more of a thriller because of the mystery involved, the tension built up and the psychological climaxes.