Analysis of past student thrillers

After Eight

After eight is a thriller film by Laura Bankole staring Michael Rhodes and Stacey Talbot. The thriller is very mysterious as we haven't actually got any evidence of anyone doing anything wrong however we know something bad is happening. 

Camera 

The camera shot begins with a long shot of the garden giving us a clear view of the emptiness. we then see a man walk into the camera. The scene changes into a close up of a woman washing the dishes. then back to the man walking forward. during the whole scene of the long shot of the man walking up to the shed the camera alters to the close up of the woman, which creates effect as it is almost an distraction to what the man can be doing. then there is a close up of the man, the camera angle is low showing us his power. the camera is then put on the ground and we see him walk across and then goes back to how it was in the beginning except this time it is a long shot of him waling towards us yet still the woman washing the dishes.

After this the scene moves into the house were we have a close up of the woman cooking creating a calm atmosphere as she is doing something normal. there is then a shot, reverse shot of the two characters while they were talking. there is then a close up of the chopping board, the ax and knife and the blood. this creates effect as it is the first warning we get to something bad that is going to happen. which creates suspense as it is a abrupt change from the calmness of her cooking as we thought there couldn't have been anything that could have gone wrong in the moment. then there is a close up and we only see the woman back as she pours the milk as if it is hiding her identity from us. the camera then zooms in into the weapon, once again giving us another warning, enhancing our thought to something that is going to go terribly wrong.

Editing

The film begins with many transitions of the two scene in the film of him walking up to the shed to the woman washing the dishes. there are many jump cuts between the scenes until the both meet. there is also a lot of overlapping editing as the camera keeps showing her washing the dishes as he goes into the shed and comes back to the house. when both of the characters are talking there is a shot, reverse shot. the opening begins with a slower pace, it slowly builds up as the music and scene gets more tense. this creates effect as we expect something bad to happen making the audience feel scared.

Sound 

In the title we her rain and thunder which tells us the kind of mood the film is. throughout the beginning of the trailer there is this high pitched sinister music which is very high pitched. above the non diegetic music there was the diegetic music of her washing the plates. we hear the kettle and there was also the sound of the nature in the background when the man is outside. we can hear barking which gives a realistic feel to the film. there is also the sound of her chopping the vegetables which calms us down from whatever is happening outside as what she is doing is a normal thing.  the sound jumps from the nature to the sounds indoor which enhance the different scenarios e.g form the good to the bad.

There is dialogue in the film towards the ending. when the man enters the room we hear them talking with the chopping at the back ground. "are you ready for this" when the male character says this we wonder what they're ready for and this creates fear and tension and makes us wonder if they're both villains. there is a non diegetic sound of piano keys playing as the high pitched sound gets louder and deeper building up the tension making us expect something bad to happen. All together the sounds are very chaotic which is resembling how we feel as we are confused to what is happening.

Mis-en-scene

The scene begins with a man who is dressed in a smart wear, he looks like he just came from work. he is carrying a bag which is quite big. this looks mysterious as we would expect him to be carrying a briefcase instead. we wonder why he would need such a huge bag and what is inside it. we think that maybe he is a serial killer and he may be carrying a dead body in there as he looked so suspicious and kept looking back for assurance that no one was there watching him. the scene then cuts to the woman who is washing the dishes, the plait she is washing is heart shaped and red, indicating love and calmness inside the house whereas in comparison outside there could be bad things happening. the love heart plait could mean that she is with him or someone else. the scenery is located in a garden inside a shed. whereas the woman is located inside a house in the kitchen.

The woman is making him dinner, this creates effect as it is trying to make the scene look as normal and calm as it can, as if it is trying to fool us into thinking that there is nothing bad happening. however during the whole scene we don't see the woman's face a lot as if the film is trying to hide her identity, probably warning us that she has something to hide that the film doesn't want us to know.. we wait for some sort of warning however it is fine until the very end when we see the chopping board covered in blood which on top of it was an ax and a knife. this creates effect as during the whole opening we thought that the man was probably a serial killer who was going to kill his wife, however things changed when we saw the blood and the ax making us rethink the whole situation believing that she may be the bad person after all.

Analysis of past student thrillers

The Catalyst

Introduction

The catalyst is a thriller about a man who looks like an assassin who is out to kill. the guy manages to kill 3 men leaving behind a young child. We are left clueless to why he assassinated the 3 men however kept in suspense. The main actor in this film is Michael Banahene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmPjL7k9y8Q

Camera

The film began with an extreme close up of the key hole. we witnessed the assassin opening the lock with a knife. after he entered the house the camera angle was low. we only saw his legs as he was walking up the stairs and into the room. we only then see his fully body when he kneels down and there was a close up op of him. there was a deep focus, allowing us to either look at him or the gun which he placed on the bed.

Then there was a close up of the gun, the camera then focused on him putting on the gloves showing us the importance of him wearing the gloves. as he holds the gun we have another extreme close up of him looking through the gun. then we get a camera view through the gun, this created effect as we felt like we were aiming at the guy. this made us feel guilty as the sad music came on making us think we were doing something wrong.

The camera then tracks the man who ran away, this creates effect as it felt as if we were chasing him however we were hoping he will be able to run fast enough to get away. we then experienced a point of view shot from the man and felt like we had to escape as we felt the fear he felt. then there was another close up in the car of the dead man, we then get a close up of the assassin killing the guy with a rope. the car scene ends with a close up of a frightened boy and him exiting the car. the film opening ended with a close up of a battery which the man picked up. this created effect as it enhanced the importance the battery could have.

Editing

The editing was very slow paced which created effect as this film was sad. we wasn't really on the assassins side as we didn't know why he was killing the men so we felt sorry for the men. The slow motion scene gave us a feel of the other characters as that moment was probably the longest moment in their life which the slow pace of the film was exaggerating.

Sound

The introduction music was calming as it wasn't scary and made us feel like we was watching a comedy or another happy genre film. after the introduction finished the sad music kicked in, this created suspense as at this moment we  knew something bad is going to happen. there was diegetic sounds which the man made as he entered the house, for example when he opened the door.

However the film is drowned in non diegetic music as we experienced the sad music. This is evident when the assassin killed the man. we heard a long high pitch sound which made it feel like they were at war. immediately we sympathized for the man as the sad music confused our mind to think the assassin is a bad guy. the sad music gave us a feel of being in a war zone as the music is slow and matched the death of the man. 

Mise-en-scene

We first see a man dressed in a smart attire, he wore a black suit. however was carrying a knife which contradicts the way he was dressed. we didn't expect him to be breaking and entering into a house. the scene was set in a quite neighborhood. there is no one around and it and the scenery is bright as this scene was shot during the day. this also opposes the use of the weapon as we wouldn't expect him to be breaking into someones house in bright daylight. when he enters the house everything is dark which compliments the bad things he is doing. As he is the only character we see we are forced to be on his side and hope that no one comes and finds him. we feel the urge to protect him as if we are in his position and don't want to be caught.

He then enters a room where it is much brighter and drops a bag to the bed. At this point we are confused to what is in the bag as there is no dialogue. He opens the bag and inside was another weapon, a gun and a pair of gloves. this creates suspense as we don't know what he is going to do with the gun. This then indicated that he could be an assassin as assassins usually wear black clothes which are smart. the gloves proved that he thought the crime out before doing it and was prepared to get out of trouble after he was done.

He kills a man in a field area. there was a long high pitched sound and everything went slow motion. this made us feel like they were in a war zone. this created effect as even though at first we were forced to be on the assassins side, now the sadness made us feel sorry for the men. when the other man ran we wanted him to get away as the feeling of the war zone made us feel sympathy for the men and showed us how innocent they looked. the men were dressed in casual clothes which enhanced our sorrow for the men as they looked like normal innocent people who wasn't ready for death. as the area was isolated we knew that there was no hope for the men as there was no one to save them.

The next scene was in the car. we felt as if there was hope however the man was dead. this created effect as we felt the anger and fear of the character who was running away. the car all of a sudden felt like a dead end as there was no way out and no where to go. the assassin used a rope to kill the man who was running. this created effect as it felt like that we lost the fight and didn't get away. we then see a little boy who looked innocent as he was very young and we hoped he wouldn't get hurt. the assassin then left the car a picked up a battery which made us wonder what it was and why he wanted it.