Camerawork in the shower scene- Psycho

Camera work in the shower scene-Psycho

                 
One effective shot Hitchcock uses in this scene is this low-angle shot of the shower. This is effective because it makes the audience feel like they are suffocating and almost unable to breath, due to the posisitioning of the camera, which symbolises drowning which leads to anxiety and distress. This effect is caused by the way that the water is spraying down onto the camera, which is the audience's viewpoint.

Another way Hitchcock uses camera work successfully is through the speed of the cuts, for example at the start of the scene the cuts are quite slow and casual, whereas leading up to the murder in the scene the cuts become extremely quick. This was powerful as it helped reinforce the panic and fear in the scene. The way the cuts increase in speed throughout the scene also subconsciously foreshadows to the audience that something bad is about to occur.

Hitchcock also uses edits effectively in this scene. One edit that is particularly successful is this edit of the close up shots from the drain to the eye. This edit worked well as the middle of the drain was perfectly aligned with the centre of the eyeball. This is effective for an audience member as when you watch the water going down the drain and transitioning into the eye you realise that she is dead and you watch the life being poured out of her. The way the water trickles down the drain reinforces this.

 

Intertextual references in COUNTERPLAY

In many thrillers they often make reference to other powerful Medias, this is a common theme in many thriller films. An example is the film The Matrix which contains many references to the Wizard of Oz such as when Dorothy goes Oz connecting to when Neo goes out of the matrix and into the real world with the others.
Intertextual references are used to enhance and extend the meaning of the film to the audience

Intertextual references also make films more captivating, as the audience has to decipher and notice where they are and figure out where they have seen them before, whether in real life or in another film or aspect of the media. This is something have tried to include in our 2 minute opening.

Some of our ideas for our thriller COUNTERPLAY have been taken from the 1996 film Fear, starring Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon. The plot for the film Fear is that "When Nicole met David; handsome, charming, affectionate, he was everything. It seemed perfect, but soon she sees that David has a darker side. And his adoration turns to obsession, their dream into a nightmare, and her love into fear." This plot synopsis was taken from IMDB

In our film we wanted to give it a darker edge, we filmed all of it, except the cross cuts to the chess scene at night, the darkness of the shots raises more suspense and tension among the audience and it works really well.

The idea for the cross cuts came from the 2012 film House at the End of the Street. There is a scene in there where they use cross cuts to raise tension and create suspense in the audience and we decided that this was highly effective and that we should use something like that in our thriller task. The scene (the video of which I have included below) at 2.05 where Carrie Anne escapes and is running towards the house, lived in by Elissa and it cross cuts to Elissa on the phone completely unaware that she could be attacked at any moment. This is hugely effective and another part of the scene that is also highly effective is when we see the room through Carrie Anne's eyes and it flickers at cuts around and this is effective because it shows her perspective and we know how she is feeling.

COUNTERPLAY script

The Script for COUNTERPLAY

We decided to have no talking in our 2 minute thriller opening because that would increase the tension even more. We are going to have one word spoken and it is going to be the word "Checkmate" in the cross cut to the chess scene at the point where the music reaches the crescendo and it cross cuts back to the cracked phone lying on the floor.

Planning and mind map

This is the mind map of ideas for our thriller task.

We decided in the end to have our title as "COUNTERPLAY" and the font in which it would be written would be taken from da font and would be "erthqake".

We decided good props for our main, female, character (Grace) to be holding would be a bottle of vodka, vodka would connotate a party spirit and show the younger and wilder side of our main character. We also decided she would have her phone with her because technology also works with the age range we were using and then we could use the shot from the story board of her texting her dad to say she was on her way home.

We decided the location would be a city at night and that we would be filming down a dark alleway which would be spooky and we could use the shadows to hide the antagonists face. We also found a dark alleyway that wasn't too dark because it had diegetic streetlights and then we could also use non diegetic torches to cast shadows and light.

We had our main character (Grace) as a teenage girl leaving a party in the early hours of the morning. Our second main character (Lewis) was the antagonist following her as she left the party and cut down a dark alleway.

Storyboard

Below is the storyboard of shots for our media studies thriller filming task. They are in the order of how we will edit them together, but they are not in the order in which we filmed them.



Shots 1-3

Shots 4-6

Shots 7-9

Shots 10-12

Shots 13-15

Shots 16-18

Shots 19 & 20

Deciding on a name for our Thriller

The name of our thriller is COUNTERPLAY, the dictionary definition of Counterplay is

A threat or offensive position in chess intended to counter an opponent's advantage in another part of the board.

Counter play is also a synonym for avenging. This is effective to the audience as it makes them wonder about what might happen after the opening sequence and how the revenge might take place. Counter play suggests that something will be retaliated, it also makes the audience think about whether it will be positive or negative and who it might involve.

Revenge also connotes that something will happen to the angagonist. That revenge will be taken against him for what you see in the first opening two minutes of our thriller.

The word play connotes a game which could be considered as fun, but it also gives it a macabre menacing feel to it because life, and what you see in our thriller, is not a game.

The word ‘play’ in the title is also ironic, this is because its suggesting a game, however, as it is a thriller the audience will know that the word is juxtaposed as the film is dark rather than fun like a game. On the other hand the revenge at the end of the film could be seen as a reward which you usually get at the end of game.

The fact that it has cross cuts to a game of chess links to the name because it is achess move and the cross cuts will create tension.

 

 

Explaination of planning of our thriller opening

Explanation of planning of our Thriller opening

Explanation of planning

We had a list of all of the tasks we would need to complete and then shared them out between us. Most of them we decided to complete as a group so that we would all have input and a decision in the opening of our video. The tasks we did individually we made sure we conferred with each other and sometimes other members of our class to ask them what fonts they liked and whether they would come and see our film.

The tasks completed individually were

Location and Mise en scene- Ali Hunt

Detailed mind map of ideas and storyboard- Amy Roberts

Costume planning- Alice Heffer

Plot Synopsis for our thriller opening scene

Plot Synopsis of our Thriller opening scene

Plot synopsis

Our film will start with a young adult woman leaving a party and being followed down a dark alley by an older menacing looking man. We will have cross cuts to create tension of men playing chess in a dark room. When the male catches up with her he abuses her and when she returns home to her family she breaks down and tells her father about what happened and then he becomes the protagonist and hunts down the antagonist, the young girl’s abuser, to get revenge for what he did to his daughter.

Mise-en-scene in film noir