Untitled
tashshadat
These images denote a medium close-up of two females in the shower. One has been taking by the ‘Psycho shower scene’ and the other is from our own thriller opening. The fact that these image display females in the shower, could adhere to Laura Mulveys Male Gaze theory. This is the idea that women are represented as sexual objects in media. Also because they are identified in the shower, it could also sustain the idea of vulnerability and their lack of awareness of what could occur later on. We imitated this scene because it was very popular and many people would be able to make the link between these two mediums. We framed Chloe in the shot the same way as the woman in the ‘Psycho shower scene’ to symbolize her lack of consciousness. When our viewers watch our thriller opening they will be able to discover that Chloe and the damsel in distress in psycho have different roles, however, as time progresses our target audience will later realise that she’s in danger. Yet Chloe’s character isn’t a victim at this moment in time, therefore it subverts the representation of women in thrillers.
The image above shows similar shots, one being from ‘Dexter’ and one being from our thriller opening. The hands in these shot are of the main characters. However the antagonist hand is more relaxed with blood on it and ‘Dexter’s’ hand looks more firm and clenched. The framing of our shot allows other objects to be seen such as the banister and radiator whereas in ‘Dexter’s’ one the background is shallow focused and green, which could be the wall paper, but that the difference with ‘Dexter’, the director deliberately doesn’t add focus to the background, while we did to signify that she is in her own home. The shallow focus is typically used to emphasise a certain area in the shot. (Depth of focus)
The image above illustrates a title within ‘SE7EN’ and our very own. We made a connection with ‘SE7EN’ because the director of the film purposely crossed out the eyes of this young boy. They are both in fact close-ups. We all thought it would be a great idea to do the same, however, we decided to cross the whole face out instead of the eyes to suggest that the protagonist is a target and not someone that isn’t trying to be revealed. Crossing out parts of the face suggest that an identity is trying to be hidden and kept a secret, the eyes are a key facial part which represents someone’s character. The fact that in our own opening credits we have used two of the same pictures of myself; the protagonist, it gives the sense of repetition and it reinstates my character, foreshadowing a portion of the opening.
Many thriller films use close-up and extreme close-ups in their openings. The reason for this is because it allows the viewers to clearly see the facial expression and movement, it a great way to direct the viewer’s where the focus should be. We used various shot types and camera angles so our opening is not considered as being boring and dull. When framing our shot we made clear of what we wanted and didn’t want in the shot. Everything that is composed in the frame should have a purpose, also depending on what’s in the shot it could have a different meaning or view towards the audience. Both of these images denote females’ eyes, however one is from ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and the other one being ours. The image from ‘Pretty Little Liars’ denotes the word ‘LIAR’ on her left eye. In contrast we had used SFX makeup to represent the protagonists’ brutal outcome. The eyes symbolize an individual and their presence.
