How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
My film product utilizes conventional camerawork techniques seen within the genre of psychological thrillers. These include the appropriate use of handheld cameras and the use of angled shots. Psychological thrillers utilize a variety of different shots, and the sound and mise-en-scene elements contribute to the genre of the film further. This genre creates story that focuses on the unstable psychological states the characters are in. The title reflects the disturbing premise that is set between the two main characters, which is to "ruin your life." As a convention, the titling is fitting and it holds true from the humble beginnings to the chaotic downfall that the actors of these characters understood with portraying the characters. Psychological thrillers use mystery, drama, action, and paranoia to properly elevate the quality of their film. Mise-en-scene transforms the film opening more towards psychological thrillers. Films in this genre utilize ordinary settings with apparently ordinary people. This is highlighted in my film opening through the plain costume design and deliberately plain settings, such as the library. Silence of the Lambs accomplishes this within its own opening, in which many of the individuals are seen wearing uniforms, with exceptions to the people of seniority. The setting for the opening of this film appeared fairly ordinary, with a forest and offices being shown. Mise-en-scene in psychological thrillers attempt to evoke a sense of realism in their film, to draw viewer’s attention. My film represents individuals who are students or other working individuals who are young and reasonably economically stable. My film represents students the most strongly. The issues posed in this film are the most important. One of these issues is of boredom, and perhaps loneliness as well. As a psychological thriller, my film aimed to address this issue that every individual faces. A film focusing on boredom is not always the most common thing seen, but the topic of loneliness is addressed much more. A highly successful film in the most recent years highlighted this. This film was Mr. Robot, where it strongly conveyed these issues to their audiences.
A significant example of mine is when I wanted to follow conventions of
producing dark scenes as seen in psychological thrillers. The glaring
problem with this is that the cameras were either not advanced enough to
handle low light scenarios, or the lighting was not effectively used or
placed. After reflecting on my first time filming, I knew I was
struggling with both issues. I used different camera shots to demonstrate some meaning from the film. I initially used a long shot of the exterior of the library, to produce an immediate setting. This scene was shot with a handheld camera because it would produce an appropriate amount of instability to make it seem like someone is watching from a distance. After a prolonged horizontal pan of the interior of the library ending with one of the main characters set on the right third of the screen, there is a cut to the action of the actor muddling through a book. This was a nearly a wide shot to demonstrate the character's body language and to provide some focus on the background, which is a well-lit area with many white tones that match the costume of the character. All of this serves to introduce the character in a mundane manner, while knowing that his actions are what you would expect within a library. The slow movement of the horizontal pan, and the wide shot of the character immediately develops a tame tone with some dissonance as more of the character's actions are revealed. Psychological thrillers often make use of framing that incorporates the environment and the character, as well as movement, to create some appropriate sensation of uneasiness or dissonance within a character. At this point, I'm only slightly hinting audiences about the mental state of the character. The next set of events serve to build upon this purpose of subtly showing the character's boredom and troubled mind as the representation of psychological states is something many films demonstrate though framing and movement. After a take that longer than most of the other takes, there is a cut from action as the character knocks a flashdrive, which is the main prop in this scene, towards the ground. The insert shot of the flashdrive served to drive meaning into the object, which is what it conventionally does, and it also serves as an element that characterizes the character and introduces him further. This insert provides another element that helps embody the character's state of mind without revealing everything immediately to the viewer. This is unlike some other films because it attempts to control the audience's collection of events to the same extent that the character attempts to piece together things as if it was some mystery. After the insert there is a vertical tilt to the actor, the tilt has a slow movement and an extreme low angle is produced as a result. Low angle shots are commonly used to establish power dynamics or to embody different perspectives. In this scene, the low angle accomplished both and more. The character is looking directly down at the camera, where the object is relatively placed. Therefore, the audience knows that it is now being looked at as the flashdrive, and the meaning is henceforth produced. The character establishes a power dynamic and reflects mentally towards the flashdrive, deliberately taking his time to pick it. The low angle characterizes the Alex even more because he is being shrouded in darkness from the harsh lights set above him, the darker shading of his body demonstrates his darker or more malicious state of mind. Alex is once again conventionally set in the left third of the frame.
After this important introduction, the premise of the film is innocently established, the progression towards this development uses different camera techniques that are commonly seen in psychological thrillers. This extreme high angle contrasts the low angle from a few seconds ago and it serves to characterize Alex once again while providing some focus on his hands while avoiding his face. This is to show that he is currently devoid of significant emotions. The shots for dialogue utilized a highly common technique, which is the shot-reverse-shot. This is able to control when the character's facial expressions are shown and the use of this over a phone call is a slightly unique element as it preserves the angles of the shot-reverse-shot but it alters the location. Towards the ending section of the opening, Alex is shown in a close up, which typically serves to show the emotion of a character. I used it to show Alex's emotions of how he is searching for something to oppose his boredom which is consuming his though processes as shown with the previous shots. The final shot that had the most significance in framing was when Alex was the subject that was set parallel with the background. Half of his face is showing in another close up in the right third of the frame, this shows that his emotions seem to have improved after making a strange dare within the dialogue. Although this shot only shows half of his face, which would reasonably symbolize that he is hiding some other emotion or he is only showing half of his face.
The film opening mostly used short takes and almost longer takes were used to emphasize certain portions. There were sound effects that were dissonant when Alex was looking at the flash drive in order to demonstrate some instability in the character, as seen in other psychological thrillers that incorporates these sound effects, like Jaws or Silence of the Lambs.
