Narrative Image: The Man Who Wasn't There

The narrative image on a DVD cover can be constructed in the following ways:

(Signifiers & Signified)

Camera:

-Medium Close up: You can see his expression, but still see other things happening around him and can see the scenery he is in.

- Lit from the left, the right of his face in shadow. Also lit from behind his right shoulder (as we look at him): The light from the left could be either a street lamp or light from a window, due to the brightness of the light I think it is probably night time. Another factor that adds to this idea is the light from behind his right shoulder is in line with where the cars headlights would be, and the car wouldn't have headlights on if it was day time and light.

Mise-en-scene:

-White male, wearing a suit and a hat which is tipped slightly downwards, top button loose with a cigarette hanging from his mouth: He is wearing a suit so is probably well off or in a good job. He has a hat on, which is possibly to shadow his face and shield his identity. His top button is loose and he has a cigarette so he probably isn't just waiting quickly for someone, he has been there a long time and is trying to relax.

- He is in a car, steering wheel is at front of frame and he is leant back in his seat: The steering wheel helps to set the scene of the car. He is leant back in his seat either because he is relaxed and making himself comfortable, or trying to keep his face in shadow to hide from somebody, he isn't meant to be there. The car with his posture connotes a stake out, his outfit also adds to the idea of him possibly being a detective.

- It is a black and white picture: It is set in possibly 50s/60s, it is an old film.

- The car in the side window is blurred: That car is moving, not his car, he is parked. He also isn't touching the steering wheel which supports this idea.

- Around the picture itself is writing above it and below it: It frames the picture so the picture looks like you are looking in through the front windscreen (which you are supposed it), the writing just helps emphasise this by giving it borders.

- List of actors and directors: Having a list of directors and actors above and below would draw in the audience, it advertises not only the film but the actors and directors to help consolidate the genre.

People:

- White male, in his 30s/40s, wearing a suit: He looks like a well off man who has possibly just come from work.

- Narrowed eyes, staring intently: He is really focusing on what he is watching, he is possibly trying to figure out who someone is or is slightly shocked and intrigued by what he has seen.

- Leant back against the seat: He is relaxed, comfortable and calm.

- He is looking to our right: He is looking out of the window at something in particular, concentrating on a particular person or what they are doing.

- His head is slightly tilted, the cigarette in his mouth is drooping: He is intrigued by what he can see and is concentrating on that. His cigarette is drooping because he isn't thinking about it, he is distracted by what he has seen and is watching intently.

- He has wrinkles: He may have a stressful job such as a detective, also shows his age.

What is the narrative image of the film and how is it constructed through the DVD cover?

The narrative image of the film isn't overly apparent through the cover. It shows you that it is an old film with a possible detective theme running through it. The DVD cover is used mainly to raise questions within the audience and get them intrigued to make them watch the film. His intent stare is specifically used to make you want to see what he is looking at.

The Woman In Black

I recently went to see the theatre production of The Woman In Black. It is of the thriller genre, however it is quite unique as a theatre production in the respect that there are only two characters (three including the woman in black herself, who never speaks and rarely appears on stage for more than a few seconds). So the whole story is set out and told by these two characters.

When I first found out about the lack of characters with speaking parts (you are told of other people within the story, however they aren't played by people) I was shocked and a little bit sceptical that a whole production, lasting about two hours, could work with only two people. I found it hard to believe that suspense and the enigma that is key to a thriller could be built up in an affective way.

However I was wrong, having seen the production has made me realise that you do not need a lot of characters on the stage to be able to create this feeling. Keeping the stage simple and not cluttering it with people or props made the audience concentrate on the plot in more depth and detail and you find that you aren't constantly being distracted by what someone else is doing on stage and so you notice small details which you may not have otherwise.

The plot
Below is a summary of the plot:

Eel Marsh House stands tall, gaunt and isolated, surveying the endless flat saltmarshes beyond the Nine Lives Causeway, somewhere on England's bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived - and died - alone. Young Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm's senior partner to travel up from London to attend her funeral and then sort out all her papers. His task is a lonely one, and at first Kipps is quite unaware of the tragic secrets which lie behind the house's shuttered windows. He only has a terrible sense of unease. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the back of the church during Mrs Drablow's funeral, and later, in the graveyard to one side of Eel Marsh House. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals not only cannot or will not give him answers - they refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence, at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him - and her terrible purpose. (source: http://www.thewomaninblack.com/)

So...
This has got me thinking about my thriller opening sequence and I have decided that it would be a good idea to keep it quite simple, so that the audience aren't being distracted by things which are not essential to the story. There isn't a need for extravagance to engaged the audience. I feel that when I come to make my opening sequence I will be more prepared to keep the characters to a minimum and the scenery simple so that it isn't too busy and distracting.

Thriller moodboard

The following moodboard is a collection of pictures I feel sums up the feelings, emotions or conventions of the thriller genre.



The moodboard contains images portraying:

• Fear
• Seduction/femme fatale
• Tunnels & Stairs - entrapment
• A love interest
• A secluded, derelict building
• Voyerism- watching someone from shadows
• Guns - Weapons
• Murder
  
  

What do we expect of films within the genre of thriller?

What do we as an audience expect to be in a film of the thriller genre?
During a thriller we expect to be thrilled, we crave suspense, we want to be intrigued and we want a twist at the end to shock us. Although often if we are right about the ending we are just as satisfied because we have correctly predicted it, this often makes us feel like we are familiar with the genre and know a lot about film.

As an audience we expect certain themes within the film, such as:

• Anticipation
• Obsession
• Attraction
• Love
• Tension

We also expect there to be a villain, this villain can be in the following forms:

• Murderer
• Crook
• Gangster
• Strong Protagonist (we follow them throughout the story as our hero/heroine, even though he/she does wrong we empathise with him/her)
• Psychopath
• Sociopath
• Stalker
• Terrorist
• Fugitive
• Conman
• Corrupt Policeman

We also expect there to be mystery to draw us into the story and keep us thinking. There should be meetings between villains and heroes too, police raids are common, conspiracy and fraud. Stalking is also a convention which we see quite a lot within the genre.

Death should occur, it can either be pre-determined and planned, which is usually the case with a more sinister killer, or it can just be spontaneous, normally the killer is provoked or pushed over the edge to a place where they consider things they wouldn't normally do. This sort of killer is normally mentally traumatised by the guilt/memory of their actions.

As an audience we also expect dark colours to feature throughout the film, this gives a sinister feel and by concentrating this with shadows in particular areas of danger it signifies to us that something isn't right in that place. It adds to the feeling of suspense and emphasises villains and dangerous situations such as confrontations.

They normally feature detective characters who operate on the edge of the law, they don't abide by the regulations. Due to this they normally end up taking more risks and eventually solving the crime that other more cautious people may not have.

We expect deception, treachery, corruption and murder to occur. Often there are dark criminal underworlds and seedy underworlds where murder and plotting take place. Night shooting and shadows help to emphasise these places.

Genre

Why have genre?
Genres have certain conventions which help the audience to identify the type of film it is. If they are able to identify which genre of film it is they will have a rough idea as to whether they will like it or not, and this will either make them interested in watching the film or not, depending on their preferences within genre as a whole.

Whose uses genre?
Genre is used by both the audience and the industry to be able to identify films.

Genre is used within the industry by producers, directors and editors alike to be able to make good decisions about the type of shots that should be used, the type of characters etc. Basically they use the genre to be able to determine the following factors: characters, themes, iconography and narrative.

If conventions within the thriller genre aren't used in a thriller film then it will be difficult to tell it's genre so it won't appeal to the target audience as it is intended to do.

Where do genres come from?
Conventions come from multiple films using ideas from one specific film. By sourcing/referencing these ideas and incorporating them into their own film with a new twist, you get a collection of films with similar ideas. Referencing an idea from a film and using it in another is called intertextuality.

Overtime these group of films evolve into genres, this is because the audience like that type of film so they go to see them in the cinema, as a result film companies make more films of this genre so that they can make a profit.

Genres evolve to suit changing audiences. Remakes of films, such as Disturbia being a remake of Rear Window, use the core elements of the original but edit them to suit a different audience.

Sub-genres.
Sub-genres occur when lots of films of a certain genre have been made. This is because when there are a large amounts of a genre you get certain groupings within that genre, this then leads to sub-genres.

Sub-genres are a specialised version of a specific genre, however it has to be distinctive within that genre that there is a relatively large group with the same characteristics.

Film Still Analysis

The above still is from a thriller film, below I have denotated and connotated key features of the still, which will hopefully help me when I come to make my opening sequence.

I am concentrating on the following: Signifiers (Denotation) & Signified (Connotation).

Camera:

- Mirror creates frame within a frame: Concentrates our focus onto what is within that frame. Makes us pay attention to something we may have overlooked.

- Medium, two shot: Close enough to see body positions and facial expressions too,
can see all characters involved.

Mise-en-scene:

- Man in suit, woman in dress, hair fixed, applying make up: They are both about to go out for drinks/dinner or to an important occasion.

- Mirror reflects the woman’s face and the man is addressing the woman in the mirror: Lets us see both of their reactions and expressions.

- Hotel room: They don’t live together/emotionally attached, no long term commitment.

- Black and white coloured: Old fashioned film.

Character:

- White male, 30-40, wearing a suit, looks anxious and is facing the woman: She is in control of the situation. He is urging her to do something and is frustrated because she isn’t paying attention/listening/taking any notice of what he has to say. He is tense/nervous.

- White female, 20-30, wearing a cocktail dress, she is looking in the mirror, applying lipstick: She is in control of the situation. She is defiant of his attempts to get her to do what he wants. She is continuing to do what she wants to do. She is independent.

- She isn’t smiling, looks irritated by him: She is fed up of him pestering her to do what he wants and his attempts to look after her.

- The man is leaning in towards her, leaning on mantelpiece: He is trying to persuade her to do/not do something very important. He could be a detective and she is a witness in a case/involved in a dangerous situation. He is trying to regain some form of power in the conversation.

- Her back is turned towards him: She is concentrating on what she is doing and isn’t concerned with him.

My attempt at a thriller shot

This is my attempt at taking a shot which could be in a thriller. I then answered the following questions to try to explain it.

Explain what you were trying to achieve with your shot.
With my shot I was trying to achieve a sense of apprehension and make the audience question the shot. For example why the hand is there and what is going to happen next? I was trying to create suspense and I feel the shot is not obvious as to what is happening so it has a hook for the audience; it draws them in to find out the answers to their questions. Because you cannot see who owns the hand you don’t get the full picture of the situation, you don’t know why they are there and if this was a film, it would be a good linking shot to create anxiety in the lead up to a big incident, it encourages curiousity within the audience.

In what way does it represent ‘thriller’?
The definition of a ‘thriller’ is: a suspenseful adventure story or play or movie.
I think it represents ‘thriller’ because the shot is supposed to add suspense. By not being able to see the whole character you have no idea who they are, what they are doing or anything else about them. You can see the bars on the banister of the stairs, and if this shot was in a film you would pan out to reveal more of the situation. As it is, you cannot directly identify much in the frame except for the hand and the fact that it is grasping onto something in what could be anger or terror. It is because of this unknown factor that the shot creates suspense and makes the audience want to find out answers. A good thriller makes people ask questions, it makes them want to keep on watching and keeps them hooked from the beginning right until the very end.

What works/doesn’t work about your shot?
I think what works about the shot is the element of uncertainty as to where exactly the shot is set and who is in it; it creates anticipation which I think is a key thing in a thriller. I think what doesn’t work about it is perhaps you need something else in the shot, such as someone’s feet coming down the stairs because it looks a little too focused on the hand and as a still shot it doesn’t work as well as it could in a film, because that is all you can see and it doesn’t have a background story to make it obvious as to what it is.