Obsession:
Student Thriller
The production starts off with a full screen image of the ‘Miramax
studios’ logo. The logo is presented as a full screen title telling us that it
is important information, and the colors of the logo are white writing on a
black background. This has been chosen because the black and white contrast
with each other as binary opposites and create a sinister atmosphere. Next the
‘fractional studios logo appears, this again is full screen on a black
background and the image and writing are in white. The crow is all black with a
red eye, black symbolizes darkness along with red symbolizing fear and death,
the use of the red in the crow’s eye makes the crow look more sinister and
dangerous all of which sets the mood for the upcoming thriller, fear. Crows are
a bird associated with mystery and power, many people see them as a symbol of
superstition and bad luck, therefore the crow has been used as it helps to
create the thriller genre of dark and evil and also adds to the sinister
effect.We then have the title of the opening of the thriller, ‘Obsession’. This
is full screen so we focus on it. The writing is white and Sans Serif and the
background is black. This shows us the binary oppositions
and foreshadows the genre of the piece; thriller. There’s no sound, and the
silence is significant until a non-diegetic, industrial rock type of music
plays with a repetitive, machine like rhythm. This is played while the titles
are still on. This creates a sinister atmosphere.
As the titles fade out, the music becomes louder and louder and hits a
crescendo. From this we have a sound bridge of the music (hitting the
crescendo), and takes us to the emphasized diegetic sound of a tap dripping.
The music dies out and we hear the diegetic sound of the water hitting the
basin of the sink. This has been done to build tension from the audience and to
emphasize the sinister atmosphere the scene is intending to create.The shot is
an extreme close-up and we see the water dripping one-by-one. Whilst the music
is still playing there is an emphasized sound of water dripping from the tap.
Sound bridges are constantly used to link each of the shots within the
opening scene. We cut away to a long shot of a hill from inside the house
looking out of the window, followed by a series of ellipsis edits showing other
point of view shots looking out of other windows is the house. In the corner of
one of the shots is a pair of binoculars, these are placed in order to imply
that the character is spying or stalking someone. The camera is slightly
wobbling on these shots adding to the effect of the point of view. Here there’s
natural light used and it’s bright. This creates controversy with the fact that
it’s a thriller and the setting seems positive. On this shot we have white,
overlay titles. These are in sans-serif, which tells us the film does not
require intelligence to understand the plot; it implies that the film will be
action filled and modern. The titles grow as we cut away to a medium close-up
of the window. Here it’s still ambiguous but we feel due to the mysteriousness
of the opening that we have seen villain.
From here we cut to a montage of cuts; the titles disappear and we cut
away to a bed shot, here it’s at a low angle. There’s high key low contrast
lighting involved to represent more a feeling through the camera work. We cut
away to a high angle shot of a mobile phone; it’s an extreme close-up to show
the significance of the phone. The phone also shows the modern era juxtaposing
with the exterior of a rural area. The phone turns on; here we hear a diegetic
sound of the phone vibrating once again to reinforce the significance. Only a
hand appears and this could show, once again, the importance of the phone. We
once again get overlay titles, in the same font, as we fade into another
close-up of the t-shirt. From this we cut to a low angle of a coat, the low
angle could suggest dominance alongside with the dark lighting. From this we
cut to a close-up of the zip of a blue jacket someone is wearing. We hear the
diegetic sound of the jacket zipping up; this creates ambiguity because we
still don’t know who the person is as we’re yet to see his face. To reinforce
the idea of mystery we cut to the back of the character who is putting his hood
up. This allows the audience to believe he is trying to hide himself and makes
it more of an ominous opening.
We cut to a close-up of his shoes on a red carpet. The red carpet could
give the idea that something is going to go wrong due to its negative
connotations of blood and death. The black shoes also signify unhappy things;
on top of this we have more overlay titles. From the fairly static pictures so
far, there’s a match on action edit of him walking out of his bedroom door. We
have a close-up of the door; we hear a diegetic sound of the man walking on the
ground and the door opening. We then cut back to the previous shot on the floor
to represent the match on action.
From here, we’re once again looking at the back of the character to
continue the mystery as he walks down the stairs. We cut to a low angle long
shot of the stairs, with the camera cutting off his face. The titles are still
ongoing from here as the ellipsis edits of his morning routine continue, we
hear the diegetic sound of his cereal crackling as he pours the milk.
We feel a sense of normality with this character currently as he’s
partaking in everyday activities so it’s something we can relate to. But
alternatively, his character is never fully revealed which consequently allows
us to think something is wrong, something bad is going to happen and he may be
the villain. This idea is supported by the non-diegetic music in the background
at this point, the same industrial rock music that played at the beginning.
Once the person has left the house we fade to black. From here we cut to
him walking, he does have a bag which allows us to think he’s going somewhere.
Maybe he is going to school, or on the other hand he may have alternative
motives which we, the audience, aren’t aware of.
A graphic match is used to follow the boy as he walks, this is done from
a front angle long shot, this is used to continually shoot his walk and move
time on so it does not get boring for the audience. An ellipsis edit is then
used to introduce a young female character, who we presume is the victim. We
presume she is the victim because she is a young female character, using Propp’s
theory about character roles in films she fits the character of the ‘princess’
or damsel in distress. The constant sinister background noise merges into a
happier melody accompanied with diegetic bird noises in the background to
create juxtaposition.This has been done to portray to the audience a little
about the girls character, the bird noises are to represent her innocence and
happiness compared to the contrapuntal non-diegetic music represents the danger
she is unaware of. We can see that she will be the protagonist character in the
film and soon become the victim. The music is used to create happiness around
this character in order to create a love for her so when the girl later becomes
the victim the audience feels empathy. A cut away shot is used to show both
characters walking along the same path, not together but with the boy following
behind the girl. As the girl comes into contact with another boy we hear the
diegetic sound of their interaction and greetings. Meanwhile in the background
when another person appears we see the boy, who we presume is the protagonist,
disappear behind a tree, this is done to show the audience he does not want to
be seen. This is done to create tension from the audience as we know something
bad is soon going to happen however the girl does not. Doing this gets the
audience involved with the film and entices them to watch more.
Throughout this the music is still playing in the background. Overlay
titles are being shown over the scene in white writing, overlays are used to as
they are an important piece on information within the star of the film, however
they are used as overlay as it makes the beginning of the film flow as we focus
on the action.
The girl drops her bag as she is walking; this makes the audience
question why she dropped her bag? Did something make her drop her bag? A
high-angled shot is used which creates a sense of weakness and vulnerability
about the girl. As the girl bends down a medium close up is used and we see the
boy stood behind her however when she stands again she looks around and they
boy is no longer there. We see she looks concerned, we can tell she senses a
presence of some sort.
he is no longer there showing the audience that he is stalking her and
makes us wonder where he is which then builds tension and creates an air of
mystery.
The screen now fades to black and the music tempo and pitch decreases
and once more the sinister sound that was used at the beginning of the film. An
ellipsis edit is used to take us to a street, at first the lights are blurred
used to create a sense of unknown and mystery amongst the audience, this then
focuses showing a long shot of the street.
It then cuts to a long shot of the victim (the girl) walking down the
street alone, her face is dark as chiaroscuro lighting is used. This makes the
viewer’s uneasy and on edge as they do not know what is going to happen next
however they know the girl is in danger. Another cut to medium to long shot of
someone else walking behind her who is unidentified, the character has a bigger
body build and their hood up so we presume this is the boy from earlier. At
first we just see one figure however as she continues to walk the second figure
emerges from behind her, this creates a shock to the viewer and build the
tension as we realize that the incident. The diegetic sound of cars is used in
the background as this links with the scene and makes it realistic,
simultaneously the non-diegetic music is building in the background towards a
crescendo, and this mirrors the action of the film as we know the disaster is
drawing near. A medium shot of the attacker’s legs standing in front of the
victim just before an extreme close up of the girls mouth is showed as we hear
the diegetic sound of the girl screaming in a loud, unpleasant pitch. A
dissolve edit is used to transition the shots, the use of the dissolve here
helps build the tension as it is quite a slow edit, is also makes the
characters seem closer than they have ever been.The shot of the boys legs is
used in order to show a barrier between the audience and the girl, is makes her
seem more helpless and provokes emotion from the audience of a will to help
her. We are not shown what makes her scream as is creates more interest and a
want to know what is happening, it leaves us on a cliff hanger in order to be
hooked for the rest of the film. We assume that the boy who features in the
start of the film has attacked her in some way; we are just not sure as to
whether she survives the attack or is the attacker gets found. What will the resolution
be?
A cracking sound of faded voices end the scene whilst the film title is
shown again, flickering each letter on and off. This leaves the opening of the
sinister tone needed to continue this effect throughout the rest of the film.
I think the opening as a whole was very well done and creates the
sinister tense mood that thrillers need. The end scenes help to build the
tension for the viewer because of the lighting and non-music used. All of the
editing done is smooth and does not create confusion or a jump in the flow of
the opening so the viewer is clear about what is happening. An area that could
be improved is the middle section of the opening, when it is shot in daylight
outside. I think the process is a little drawn out and could have been done
more efficiently and less confusing to keep up the flow of the film.
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