Shadow of a Doubt:- Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was best known for his Thriller movies. One movie he created was Shadow of a Doubt in which is a Thriller. This film has many conventions of a thriller. The film starts of with a people in a ball room dancing in full unison. The music is called the Merry Widow in which starts of as cheerful and joyous. We then see a dissolve of the ball room to an industrial site. Throughout this shot a sound bridge occurs, where the sound carry's on into the next shot. However, the music changes to a deeper sound in which is parallel to the images shown. This shows the difference between the upper class and the under class people.

From the industrial site, another dissolve shot was used to show a rusty old broken car. This shows the type of things people may see in an industrial site. The music used establishes a polluted run down environment in which is still parallel to the images shown. Another dissolve is used to a long shot down a street showing children playing. The music is still parallel showing the wealth of the area.

Each dissolve used is to show where the main character is and the environment he is in. The final dissolve used was to show the character for the first time in the film. The character (Charlie) is laying on the bed, however he looks dead. Charlie is smartly dressed witha cegar in his hand. The room in which he is in is shown in low key lighting to show the distinctive shadows in the room. The only source of light is from the window.

In the scene, the camera moves around to show detail in the room, which signify's the important things to the character in the film such as: money lying on the table and on the floor. This shows that Charlie is wealthy however, because some of the money is on the floor, it shows that he does not care too much about his wealth.

When the lady comes in, Charlie looks calm and worn down. When the lady pulls down the blind, the shadow becomes more distinctive, and the music plays. The music sounds deep and dangerous, which shows that danger is coming. When the blind covers his face, Charlie opens his eyes and comes to life. This shows that he is a dangerous person. Throughout the scene no dialogue is used to establish Charlie's personality, it is all done visually.

When Charlie sits up, he smashes his glass onto the floor. This shows that he is violent and angry as he has just heard what the lady has told him about the two men who came looking for him. The low key lighting also shows that he is violent and angry because of the shadows, as they cover some of his features when he is in the room. When Charlie walks out of the room, the music becomes louder and more dramatic. The music stays the same as he walks towards the two men outside, and becomes softer when he walks past them.

As the two men follow Charlie, they walk in full unison with each other and the music. This shows that they are after Charlie and that they usually get what they want by going through the routine.

High angled shots are used to show where the characters are going. The two men follow Charlie and the high angled shots shows them as they are powerless. As they are shown powerless on the ground, the camera pans to where Charlie is, as he is looking down at the two men. However Charlie is shown in a silhoette. This shows that Charlie is mysterous and and sinister, and he is always one step ahead of his enemies.

A dissolve is used to show where the next character is. The film then takes us to Santa Rosa. This area is shown as very clean, happy, posh, calm and for upper class people. The music here is cheerful and shows that people in Santa Rosa has a better quality of life than where Charlie is.

We then see a straight cut to a girl named Charlie. She is Charlie's niece. The little girl is shown the same as Uncle Charlie. This is called mirror imaging where they are shown to be possitioned the same. However, there is more light in the room. This shows that she is a good person.

Overall, i think that this is a good opeing of a film, because it establishes the characters personality from the beginning, in which helps the audience understand what each character is like. It also used varies dissolve shots in which helps the audience to understand the environment each character is in, to show how they live and how they prefer to live.

In addition, the lighting was used in an excellent way as the lighting showed what kind of personality each character has visually, as sometimes the dialogue may not be clear to the audience.

Student Thriller:- 8 Ball

The opening sequence of 8 Ball was created by some students. There were many excellent shots that created an excellent opening. For example: some high angled shots were used to show the snooker balls on the snooker table. Each ball that went into the pocket were shown with the victims. This created the sense that the snooker balls were the killers symbol, so people would know who it was when that symbol was recognised.

In additon, long shots were used to show the character body expression when he was after his last victim. The long shot created the sense of a dangerous and creative person, as the body expressions shown was seen as hard, confident and smart.

Furthermore, inthe opening sequence of 8 Ball, we, the audience do not see the killers faces and some of the victims faces. This tells us that there is a big mystery in the film. It also suggest that, the killer knows what he is doing to make sure that no one catches him out.

The non diegetic sound was very good at keeping with the images. This is because of the pace of the music. The pace was quick and in time with the images, and also showed the killers personality. The music was parallel with the images.

There were many transitions used in the opening sequence. The main tranisition used was the dissolve. This transtion showed time. This is done by when the killer put a certain ball into the pocket on the snooker table, that same ball would be on the victim when found.

In addtion, the shots were very still. This showed that the students filming used a tripod to film the shots. This is brilliant as the shots were clear and not wobbling about. Also, the sequence of the shots were excellent, because it told the story and the meaning well (soviet montage). However, when the students used a pan shot, the moving was very edgy and not smooth.

The opening sequence of 8 Ball was also very good because it showed that dialogue was not needed, and the acting was not necessary and your body language and facial expressions told the story.

However, there are some criticisms of the opening sequence. Firstly, most of the images were too dark and could not establish the lighting very well. Also, there was a loss of focus in the film at some points of the sequence. This did not allow me to establish what was going on in the shot, because the focus of the camera blurred the vision.

Overall, i think that 8 Ball is a very good opening sequence because it showed good shots, a soviet montage to show the meaning of the shots, the music and the body language of the characters.

The film Seven (Se7en) has many conventions of a thriller that has been shown in the opening credits. Firstly, there are many series of extreme close up shot that has been used. The extreme close ups show the character writing, cutting off his skin to make sure he does not have any finger print, the blade in particular is shown in this shot, to show that audience we he is using to cut his skin. We also see an extreme close up of the character turning the pages of his book that he is writing. However, back lights are used to create a silhoette in which we, the audience can only see the characters shadowy like hand.

Furthermore, close ups are also used. We first see a close up of a drawing of two hands on his book, witha slight shadow on the top right corner of the screen. This shows that the character has a dark side to his personality. Extreme close ups are used when the character cuts photographs, colours peoples faces and cross out words that refer to sex. This shows that the character is obssessive.

In addition, a series of close ups and extreme close ups are used to show the photographs and the words he writes in the books and how he creates the books. The shots also show that the character does this very carefully. This shows that he takes pride in his work for someone to see what and how he thinks of certain agenda's. Also, the possitions of the objects are either straight or at an angle to show the character's thinking. There is also the color red on the needles and his fingers. The red represents danger and tells the audience that there is danger coming in the rest of the film.

Throughout the opening credit of Seven, we see the cast and the crew of the film. The names are shown after flashes in a black background. This suggest the mind of the character. It suggests that his mind is very distorted and psychologically unfit. The flicker of the titles also suggest that his mind is a good, quick thinker of making choices and creating ideas.

Low key lighting is mainly used in most of the shots. This is because low key lighting creates distinctive shadows using the key and back lights, in which is used to show a dark side to the characters personality. However, top lighting is used in some high angled shots, to show the books and photographs, and it also shows that characters hand features.

The non diegetic sound is very edgy and distorted in which represents the characters mind. The non diegetic sound has creaking, drums, echoes and also something that sounds like a chainsaw. With all these instruments and sounds put together, the non diegetic music represents the character's state of mind and also suggests that he is incrediable psychologically unstable. Also, there is no dialogue in the opening credits to show that he works alone. The music is also parallel to the images.

Overall, i think that Seven is a briiliant opeing sequence that represence a thriller. This is because it clearly shows some convetions of a thriller: It reflects the characters psychological state of mind, a crime at the core of the narrative ( e.g. murder) and themes of voyeurism. Also, the camera shots and the music used show these conventions. The way the shots are sequenced in the opeing sequence shows a good understanding of the characters mind and point of view.

Coventions of a Thriller

• A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily)
• A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
• A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
• A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered (captured) and drawn into a complex web of intrigue (lots of problems that must be solved) by the antagonist.
• Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations.
• Themes of identity.
• Themes of mirroring.
• Themes of voyeurism (spying. watching, sometimes shown in point of view shots).
• Protagonist with a flaw (character defect) which is exploited by the antagonist.
• Titles often reflect an aspect of the protagonist/antagonist's psychological state.
• There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
• Misé en Scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist's plight.