Evaluation 1 – Conventions of a Thriller

Georgia Martin

Editing• We have the most camera time on our MP this is to demonstrate him as a

protagonist. He is supposed to be a good guy coming to visit a school which suggests he is in touch with the community, by having the most camera time on him it tells the audience that for this part of the film he is the main character and the good person. There is less camera time on the assassin as he plays an antagonist he is the bad guy in the film, he shoots the MP for his own selfish reasons, you can never see his actual face in the film only partly his face and body, this is because it builds tension and suspense when an identity is a secret

• We created dramatic irony, by cutting to the assassin as the MP is talking shows that the audience knows there is danger but the characters do not know which creates suspense

• Our film is similar to JFK as an MP/ President is shot by an unknown assassin, our film is similar in conventions to this one as firstly the protagonist in both is the political figure, we have shown the political figure with the community as in JFK.

Editing Similar to JFK we used dramatic irony to create tension, the audience knew he was going to get shot but the cast did not. Our product has conformed to generic expectations as in these films such as JFK they let the audience know what is going on before the cast in the film know, this is common for a political thriller

Sound We have used non- diagetic sound in our thriller to create tension, our non-diagetic sound is the music. The music is fairly slow and gloomy implying to the audience that something is about to occur, The diagetic sound of the MP’ speech is too demonstrate the genre, the further show it is a political thriller and to reel people into the speech before the shooting.

However, the sound we have put in our film subverts generic expectation because for example in the film JFK there is the sound of a trumpet in the opening sequence instead of music which ours has, the trumpet is slow and fairly quiet which suggests that something bad is about to happen. Our film also subverts generic expectations because usually in a political thriller the political figure talks about their political ideas through diagetic narrative such as in JFK in the opening sequence the narrative is saying how “Kennedy is being soft in communism” which is expressing political ideas which could lead to why he got shot. In our film we have no political ideas shown which also subverts expectations

Camera In our film we used wide shots of the MP to show his body language as fairly chilled out before the shooting occurs, you can see him as dressed smartly so is important through a wide shot.

We have also used close up shots, these are used to show emotion and surprise, we have a close up shot on a student to show her shock and surprise when the MP is shot.

Furthermore, we used a long shot to symbolise the mise en scene and genre elements, it showed the theatre we were using a whole and the MP from the assassins perspective

Long shot

Camera • Our film has conformed to generic expectation as camera shots are used very

similarly to other political thrillers such as Vantage Point.

The long shot in Vantage Point, similarly to ours is used to show the mise en scene of the location to show the political figure like ours is in touch with the communit

Mise En Scene- Costume

In a film, costumes are a very important aspect, in both my film and Vantage point costumes clearly show binary opposition the good characters are both dressed smartly in suits also implying authority whereas the bad characters are dressed very casual, showing in general society they have no authority. Also, we conform to generic expecations of a political thriller as the political figure is always dressed smartly

Mise en Scene- Actors Our actor is someone strong in sense of authority but weak in strength, as he gets shot, this conforms to generic expectations as mostly in a political thrillers the MP is not the strong hero, however in White House Down which is a political action thriller the President manages to help save people which suggests that our film in this way subverts generic expectations

Mise en Scene- Props• In most political thrillers, there is either some sort of shooting or attack in ours

there is a shooting of an MP so the prop used is a gun, the gun is there to suggest violence and threat and keep the audience on the edge of their seat as it is in the thriller Vantage Point. We did not use any fake blood in our film as we thought that it was cliche and unnecessary this subverts expecations of a thriller as no blood was involved

Mise en Scene- Location • Our location for our film was a school hall, where the MP was giving his speech in

front of students. This conforms to generic expectations because in films such as Vantage Point although the political figure was not talking to school children he was still talking to members of the community for a similar reason. Location is very important in a film as it sets the scene for what is going to occur next