Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

When making a film target audience is greatly considered, as it determines the genre (and subgenre), marketing techniques, distribution company and also age rating, and catering to the right audience helps with the success of the film. To determine the audience for our thriller film, we looked at other thrillers similar to ours such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Se7en, and the types of people who watched these films. Typically, thriller films have mostly a male audience, possibly because they involve dark and violent themes.


The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a gritty and violent thriller about a kidnapping, which is similar to our film, meaning that this film was our primary inspiration for our target audience. This film appealed much more to males than to females, probably due to its dark and violent themes. Which is also probably why people under the age of 18 have watched it, and the largest number of people in a particular age group are people aged 30 - 44 years and non-US users as it is a niche film set in a fairly unknown area of the UK, meaning more of its audience comes from the UK rather than the US.



Se7en is a mystery or crime thriller, it is similar to our film as it has horror elements in it. The film's audience mainly consists of males, but still has a large female audience. In terms of age, 30 - 44 year olds and 18 - 29 year olds dominate the audience, meaning that it has a much larger and more diverse audience than The Disappearance of Alice Creed. Also, more non-US users have seen it, not necessarily UK users, but the UK is probably a big audience as the film is in English. This film is more mainstream than The Disappearance of Alice Creed, which is reflected in its large audience from the number of votes on IMDb.



Our audience

Our thriller film is similar to both Se7en and The Disappearance of Alice Creed, meaning it would have a similar audience of 30 - 44 or 18 - 29 year old males mostly from the UK. As our film is more similar to The Disappearance of Alice Creed, because of its niche subject and location, also because its low budget and independent and has similar themes, our audience would be more similar to this film.

A typical viewer of our film is Callum, a 30 year old man from England, who likes films with violent and mature subjects, which are dark in tone and fairly complex. He enjoys films set in the UK, as well as old UK based rock bands. These things also somewhat reflect his social background as he comes from a British lower/middle class family, so prefers gritty films, and unpolished and grungy sounding music, such as old rock. Callum listens to 6 Music which is an alternative radio station which focuses on playing a wide variety of music, including a lot of unheard and new music by upcoming artists in various genres, mainly focusing on indie guitar music, Callum likes medias which help develop and build new talent, including low budget indie films. He likes The Disappearance of Alice Creed, as it is based in the UK, and is violent and unlike many mainstream films he has watched, it also has a more serious tone than other films he has watched. He also likes the film Se7en because of its serious tone and dark themes, as well as the mystery and complex characters. Callum likes thriller films that play on fears such as abduction and death, he likes films which involve mystery and encourage the viewer to think about the film. He prefers to watch films on cheap streaming sites such as MUBI which also includes a lot of films he likes, rather than mainstream sites such as Netflix, where he can't find many films he likes, and also Cinemas as they don't often show films he's interested in.

[updated] Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender

In our thriller opening, we used the convention and representation of women as the victim. Vulnerability is a theme often portrayed in thrillers, especially portraying women as vulnerable. We used this stereotype in our thriller as it would work better with a female, instead of a male victim, as people tend to sympathise with women more and feel sorry for them more than males, it also fits the genre as women are often represented as fragile and weak in other thriller films. Similar to our film, The Disappearance of Alice Creed portrays the character of Alice Creed as vulnerable and a victim, as she is kidnapped, put in danger and is hurt. In our film the female character is kidnapped and hurt, reinforcing the representation that women are victims. Women are often used in thrillers to emphasise the morality of the antagonists, as hurting or kidnapping a woman helps reinforce the antagonist's danger and inner darkness. In terms of camera, the camera often cuts out part of the character's face in the first and second parts of the opening, which could imply that she is powerless as part of her is cut our of the shot, and usually to imply power and dominance, the camera includes the whole face of the character in the centre or with the use of the rule of thirds. In our film the character is often off centre in the shot or central but part of their face or their entire face cut out. However, this character challenges usual conventions regarding women in thrillers, as she is given more time on screen than the other character who may or may not be male, as usually male characters are given more screen time, this could represent her as dominant, but other aspects of the film clearly show that she isn't.

However, in our film we challenged stereotypes of gender in a way, as our antagonist's gender isn't revealed, which takes away the identity of the character and makes them more mysterious as well as dangerous. Usually in thriller films, the antagonist is male, which reinforces stereotypes of men as being violent and dominant as well, and the female characters are used to reinforce this. For our film, the antagonist is used to portray the idea that anyone can be a villain and rough and violent, which challenges stereotypes of the thriller genre and creates a sense of danger and unease and creates tension in our thriller opening. The antagonist's costume helps create a genderless and mysterious character, as the hoodie, gloves and trousers are fairly gender neutral as they are black and help hide the character's figure, and the gloves and hood hide the character's face and hands. the colour of the antagonist's clothes also create a sense of danger and unease, which is reinforced by that the antagonist is placed at the far right side of the shot and half of their body is cut off by the edge of the shot, which also creates a sense of mystery as well as unease. The character is also not given very much time on screen to reinforce the mystery which adds more danger to the character and reinforces the idea that anyone can be a threat, as the character isn't given enough time on screen to have an identity.

Age

Our film reinforces stereotypes that young people are naïve, as our main character is a young adult or teen and gets kidnapped in the opening, which also helps portray young people as vulnerable. However, we have tried to challenge representations as young people are often represented as innocent, which we have challenged with our character's mysterious background reinforced by the location in the first half of the opening and her clean clothes in the location, as well as certain shots of her which hide the top part of the character's face, these help challenge stereotypes of young people as innocent. In addition, the character is also represented as a typical teenager, as she wears clothes typical of that age, as well as representing the naivety and vulnerability of teens and young adults. A few shots to represent this show her from behind, emphasising vulnerability. This shot shows our young female character from the back, unaware of a potential danger, representing her and young people as powerless as well as naïve This is also similar to films of this genre as the opening of Essex Boys represented the young driver as naïve as well as powerless and the film The Disappearance of Alice Creed uses a young character to be kidnapped and reinforce fears of young people getting kidnapped or harmed due to their vulnerability and possibly lack of awareness, similar to our thriller film opening. The editing also reinforces the lack of awareness of the young character, as it gets faster and faster, implying that something bad is going to happen to her but she is oblivious to the threat.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Pre-Production

Before we started filming, we planned our films using a range of media platforms to document and research different aspects of the film. We used blogs as they allow different medias to be displayed on them such as videos and PowerPoint presentations, so we could vary the presentation of our research. Blogs also allow us to edit past post and make improvements, which is easier than if we used paper to plan and research our film, and with the addition of comments we were able to get feedback on our posts and be able to edit them to improve them, making blogging interactive. In addition, because they are online, the internet is more accessible and quick to access for research.

Other sites such as Youtube were also used during the process of Pre-Production for the preliminary task and for research on different aspects of film making, this site is a rich content platform and many useful videos can be found on film making, as well as clips from other thriller films to aid our research and inspire aspects of our film. Another site used during pre-production was DaFont, which is a website which provides a very large range of fonts making it creatively empowering, as the fonts are also free to use and download, similar to Freesound which has a large range of sounds and soundtracks to use which are free to use. One drive allowed our group to collaborate on different parts of the research such as the mood board, where we could all communicate our ideas on one platform to each other. Dropbox allowed public sharing, it was where shots from different openings and scenes of films were shared, we could access them easily and use them in our research and analysis.

Production

During the filming we were able to use HD cameras which are useful for film making as they allow instant playback, meaning that we could watch the shots back and decide whether we wanted to keep them or re-shoot them, the cameras also allowed control over settings, zoom and framing which made it easier to film. The HD cameras also had SD cards which meant that a lot of footage could be filmed and transferred onto a computer easily for editing, and we could film lots of different versions of one shot and decide which one we wanted to use later, which may not have been available in old camera versions, which wouldn't have allowed such a high quality image as well. During production we used different lights to create different effects in the last part of our film, we used industrial lights at one point to contrast with the dark scene at the end, and a simple phone light to brighten the location a bit more and also add meaning.

Post-Production

During the editing stage of our film we were able to use a non-linear editing software, Premier Pro, which allowed us to edit our shots into any order and change the order of the shots, as well as refine the edit or the clips by tweaking the colour or cutting the length of the shot to fit the film better. A wide variety of tools were available, making it creatively empowering, as we were able to use transitions and effects on the program. On the editing software we were able to add and alter different sounds including music, we could change the length, volume and pitch on the program as well as layering sounds to create an uneasy atmosphere in the opening. Another thing we were able to do for our thriller was adding titles for credits and the title of the film, the program allowed us to change the fonts, colours and positions of each of the titles and also how long they could be seen for and when they would appear. This helped us to create a more professional looking project as we could consider the background and place the titles accordingly. 

Thriller Final Cut

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Thriller Rough Cut

Strengths
There is continuity and flow in the edit.

Weaknesses
There is no soundtrack, which needs to be added to help build tension, and other sounds such as a phone ringing need to be added. The shot at 0:19 is wobbly and not very smooth panning over to the tree. Also, titles need to be added and the font needs to be changed at 0:13. Half of the film needs to be added.

Soundtrack

Soundtracks in film openings

Se7en
In the opening of the film Se7en, diegetic sounds of the city are used as the character gets ready for work. There are sounds of cars and people, which create a busy atmosphere in the city which contrasts to the silence of the inside of the character's apartment which helps create feelings of isolation and loneliness in the scene. Sounds of keys being picked up, lights being switched off and cups being put in the sink are emphasised which reinforces the loneliness in the scene as they emphasise the silence in the character's apartment. Later in the opening, the diegetic sound of the metronome is used to reinforce ideas about the character to do with order and precision, as well as loneliness. The title sequence uses distorted sounds and music to create a chaotic effect, it includes scraping sounds, screeching and creaking sounds which create a confusing and chaotic mix of sound with a slightly grungy feel. The music and sounds get louder and louder towards the end of the title sequence, as well as faster, building tension.

Layer Cake
This film uses narration at the start, with calm music playing in the background which alters slightly at the start to match the tone of the opening better, it changes to calm electronic music to fit the light tone. The narration is also calm and laid back suggesting a cool, light tone. Nearer to the end of the  opening an energetic light rock piece plays as a car drives down a long road, this is used to get the audience excited and to change the tone from cool and relaxed to excited and energetic, to get the audience engaged and enthusiastic, it helps represents themes such as crime as cool, and possibly even glamorous.

Essex Boys
At the beginning of the opening, silence is used while information is displayed on a black screen, this is to build tension. After this the silence is replaced by only diegetic sounds of a garage door opening, a light turning on and footsteps, which are all emphasised and used to cut through the silence, but also to maintain the tension as there is no non-diegetic sound at this point. The sounds of the garage door screeching open could be representative of certain elements or themes of the opening, such as violence. Non-diegetic music plays when the car is driving, which sounds like electronica and rock, the music could be used to help set the tone of the film and also get the audience more engaged and interested in the film. Other diegetic sounds include emphasised or added punching or hitting sounds, to emphasise the violence in that part of the opening, as well as car sounds, footsteps and shouting.


Our Film

For our film we will need to collect or record diegetic natural sounds such as wind or trees rustling and bird calls to emphasise the location and the isolation of the area. Other sounds we will record or find will be sounds of a phone ringing from a caller and to the receiver, as well as some non-diegetic instrumental sounds or music, so the piece isn't too silent and boring, the music will hopefully get more intense and loud as the opening progresses up until the kidnapping to build tension. Also, sounds such as the antagonist's footsteps, leaves or branches rustling which already exist in the film. Diegetic sounds will be used to create tension in our piece and emphasise actions and the location. Sounds will be collected from various websites, especially music/non-diegetic sounds as well as the sound of a phone ringing (from both sides of the call). Sounds such as the diegetic sounds of the wind will be recorded or emphasised from the footage we already have, whichever creates a better atmosphere and doesn't sound like it cuts every time a shot changes, so we will probably be using recorded sound to make the piece and the edit smoother.

Conventions of a Thriller Subgenre

Psychological Thrillers

Psychological thriller is a sub genre that focuses on the unstable psychological state of its characters, they usually involve mystery as a plot point or a feature of the characters, elements of horror, mystery and drama are often incorporated in psychological thrillers. Themes often explored in psychological thrillers include reality, perception, mind, purpose, identity and death, and these are used to develop the plot or the characters.

Codes and conventions

In psychological thrillers, one of the main elements to distinguish the subgenre from other types of thrillers are flashbacks, these are to often confuse and disorient the audience as it distorts and disorients time in the film, they make the audience think more about the film. They are also used to create mystery but also to reveal important elements of the plot which the audience overlooked in a previous scene, or the character and show reasons why the character is how they are.

Similar to traditional film noir, modern psychological thrillers also use shadows and low key lighting for a similar effect. They are used to represent a character's morality or inner darkness, the low key lighting creates a contrasting chiaroscuro effect which is often enhanced by black and white. Another reason shadows and low key lighting is used is to create tension and the feeling of uncertainty.

Mirrors are used a lot in psychological thrillers, they are used to reflect the characters and their morality and inner self. They could also be used to represent the character's state of mind, as a cracked mirror could represent a damaged or broken person, or state of mind.

Psychological thrillers often include montages and quick edits are used to create a sense of disorientation as well as panic. They can be used to confuse the audience or help establish the tone or reinforce the feelings of panic in the scene.

Another important element to psychological thrillers that separate it from other thriller subgenres, and horrors especially, is the location, as most psychological thrillers are set in urban areas instead of rural areas like horrors. This could be to make them more realistic than horrors, as they also focus more on smaller, more personal issues which add to their characters which are often focused on more than the plot, unlike horrors.

The camera movement is often quick and the camera is often handheld, this is to create a sense of panic, and put the audience in the position of the character. The camera movement lets the audience know how the character is feeling especially when they are feeling panic, the camera helps the audience empathise with the character.

Tense, eerie music is used to create feelings of panic and to reinforce the quick, disorienting camerawork, this type of music is used to build up tension in the scene. Sometimes the music juxtaposes with the scene which is also used to create a tense, eerie atmosphere and tone.

Themes

Reality
Perception
Mind
Purpose
Identity
Death

Examples

Shutter Island
- In Shutter Island themes of reality, perception, the mind, identity and death are explored as the character finds out about himself, and his true identity as well as the deaths of people close to him which caused his mental state and inner darkness. The film incorporates conventions of the mystery thriller subgenre and also incorporates horror conventions, such as the location, which is more horror than thriller as it is isolated and mostly set in an asylum, which is a common setting for horrors. Flashbacks are used, which is a convention of the psychological thriller subgenre, they allow the audience to gain new information with the character, which could also be conventional of the mystery subgenre. The film focuses on the characters more than the plot which is another convention of psychological thrillers, as they usually focus more on the mental state of the characters and personal issues rather like Shutter Island does.

Se7en
- The film Se7en explores themes of reality, purpose, death, and the mind as the film focuses on each of the character's state of mind and is focused around murder. This film also incorporates conventions of other genres and subgenres such as horror and mystery, the main plot is centred around a mystery, like Shutter Island. Conventions of psychological thrillers in this film are focusing a lot on character as the main character is established in the opening before the main plot is. Another convention are the locations, the main location is the city which is a convention as most psychological thrillers are set in urban areas. Horror conventions could be seen in the isolated and grim locations as well. Another psychological thriller convention Se7en uses is low key lighting and shadows, especially in the opening, which is also similar to traditional film noirs.

Other examples - Memento, Black Swan, Vertigo

Essex Boys

How are metaphorical spaces used to create meaning in the opening of Essex Boys?

This shot uses claustrophobic space with the reflection of the neon lights which look like prison bars which could be foreshadowing future events and the fate of the character in the shot, the bars create a feeling of entrapment and suggest that that the character is trapped in the surroundings and his fate. The darkness of the scene emphasises to the feeling of entrapment, and the bright bars in the shot. The darkness could suggest that the character has an inner darkness or that there is no hope for him left.

The large space of the seemingly never ending plain makes the character seem insignificant and powerless. In the shot we can see the horizon which emphasises the space and also the helplessness of the character and therefore his desperation, which is reinforced by the leading lines that lead to the vanishing point at the horizon. Also, the character is placed at the bottom of the shot which emphasises the space and the character's desperation. In addition, the vanishing point is off centre which could suggest uncertainty about the character, the character's destination or fate. The colour palette also emphasises the metaphorical space, as the colours are all very similar and there is little contrast in the shot, this makes the plain seem even larger and the character even more insignificant compared to the space.

This shot uses light and contrast to create space and meaning as the darkness surrounding the light tunnel creates and enclosed or entrapped space within the shot. The entrapment in a dark space could suggest danger or represent the immorality of the character, the tunnel could also represent his transition to a life of crime. The leading lines in the shot could reinforce the idea of a transition or journey to criminality, they lead to a vanishing point in the tunnel which is where the light is coming from, which could suggest that there is hope, alternatively, the light is surrounded by darkness which could suggest that there is no hope for the character or the future in this film.

Fonts

Shooting Schedule

Storyboard

Location Scouting

Possible Locations

Type of location needed	Possible places	Advantages	Disadvantages	Who will get scouting photos of this location?
Woodland area	Near Jai’s home, Mulbarton	- Away from the public, won’t be interrupted - Nice lighting - Quiet - Not much background noise	- Mulbarton is far away, not easily accessible	Jai
	UEA woods	- Safe - Easy to get to - Nice lighting	- Possibly interrupted by the public - We may need permission to film there - Background noise (traffic/people)	Anya
	Near Ash’s house, Costessey	- Away from public, won’t be interrupted - Quiet - Very little background noise - Grungy - Safe	- Costessey is far away, not easily accessible	Ash
Small, dark room	Back of tech block	- Easily accessible - Safe - Works aesthetically	- Noises from students - Limited time to film - Strict permission needed

Character, costume and props

Treatment/Pitch

Plot

The scene starts off with several landscape shots, with the sounds of nature and a phone calling someone. As the phone goes to voicemail, we see the first shot of the protagonist. She sighs and leans against the tree that has been marked, playing with the phone in her hands. A shot from the perspective of the antagonist is seen, watching the antagonist from a distance, behind a tree. Back to the protagonist, she begins to pace in irritation, checking her watch in the process, indicating the person she was to be meeting is late. The first glimpse of the antagonist is seen with an over the shoulder shot, with a focus switch from the antagonist to the protagonist. Another phone rings from the protagonist, which she pulls out to reveal is from her mother. It is quickly declined and returned to her pocket, the original phone still present. Back to the antagonist, we see them inch closer towards the protagonist, with a pause at the end to see them soak an old rag in what appears to be chloroform, shown in an extreme close up. This is followed by a close up of the protagonist’s face and shoulders- she moves to the left to reveal the antagonist has now moved to behind her, still slightly at distance, though the next shot is once from the perspective of the antagonist as they move up closer behind the protagonist. Tension is maximised with a close up of the protagonist, still, glancing around slightly (expressing paranoia) and finally looking into the camera, moments before a hand holding the rag is wrapped around her mouth and nose. A struggle between the two ensues, using a hand-held camera for a panicked effect. Within this, the locket is pulled off. This continues until the shot changes to the same as behind the tree from where the antagonist once was, which shows the last of the struggle before the protagonist passes out. She falls back against the antagonist and they begin to drag her. Connecting the shots, we then see the legs of the protagonist being dragged out of shot, leaving only the locket on the ground, dirtied.

Proceeding a cut to black, there is a master shot of the new location, a basement of similar confiding room. The protagonist is seen in one corner of the shot, hunched over. There is then a close up of the protagonist regaining consciousness, panicking, and rising, followed by a shot of her hands which have grabbed around the bars that are confining her, Back to the face, we hear the sound of heavy footsteps and we see the protagonist look down and retreat backwards. The camera follows her eye line to reveal a crack beneath a door, showing the silhouette of a person’s feet. A switch is then made to the other side of the door where you see the protagonists' feet, and a bag being dropped on the floor (the same one as is seen in the first scene). They call someone, and 'It's done' or something similar is heard, and then a shot of them walking away follows, with the sounds of their boots. Back to the protagonist, we see a shot of her which is followed by the darkness being replaced with an extremely bright, sterile light. Finally, an extreme close up of the protagonist is seen, showing her confusion, then her panic. The shot ends with an abrupt cut to black, like a switch.

Influences

One of our main influences for our psychological thriller came from ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’, where the idea of some form of kidnapping originated from. From there, our choice of locations were inspired by the projects of previous students both from in school and other schools, due to the atmosphere that was provided from more secluded locations such as forests and grungy rooms. A minor influence that we have used to make the filming smoother is from the BBC version of 'Sherlock', as although it is not a thriller, the idea of on-screen texting as a way of showing calls and messages could be used a more interesting idea than using the cliché of showing the phone. The idea for the locket came from the film 'Se7en', as within that film the wallpaper cutting is suggestive of the protagonist's past, and we felt a similar concept would be effective in our piece. Films such as 'Tower Block' and 'Saw' were the influence for our second scene, as both films involved a character trying to escape a room after been trapped, which we felt would fit the tone of what we were trying to create. Lastly, the idea for having scenes viewed through the antagonist's perspective came from the film, 'Ratter' as we felt it would be effective in showing a different side of things and introducing more shot variety. 

Mood Board

For our Thriller opening, we chose a psychological thriller as the sub-genre which will take influences from other psychological thrillers such as Stephen King adaptations. We will use shots that help portray the mentality of the characters and help create an enigma surrounding both the antagonist of the piece and the protagonist, hopefully portraying them as morally ambiguous. Little hints will be placed in the shots such as the props and costume ideas shown on the third slide of the mood board to create suspicion such as the multiple phones as well as the idea we had about the protagonist's clothes being overly clean.

Our locations, forest and small room, were chosen to reflect the themes of paranoia and feelings of being lost or being watched, which are mostly conveyed through the forest location. This will be reinforced by the different types of shots we will use, for example, close ups to create claustrophobia in the frame and uncomfort, and shots behind trees and vegetation in the forest. We may also use long shadows in shots, inspired by traditional film noir, to create a distorted look, while adding to the mystery.

We came up with a few ideas about editing, such as the ghosting effect which we may use to add to the sense of disorientation, mixed with possibly a handwritten, messy font which would also reinforce the disorientation and chaos which we will be attempting to portray in the opening scene.

What do directors seek to establish in the openings of thrillers?

Thriller openings aim to establish important elements in the film such as tone or mood, the location and the characters. 

Tone/Mood

The disappearance of Alice Creed establishes the tone with the intense music in the first scene. The music makes fairly normal things, such as shopping, suspicious and establishes a dark tone for the film and creates a sense of foreboding. The music builds up the audience with anticipation which is reinforced by the constantly moving camera. The panning camera is used to reveal important items or actions in the shot, such as the part where the camera pans over a row of parked cars to reveal the two characters breaking into a van, or the part where the camera pans over a set of items being packed and reveals each item as worse than the other items already revealed. The camera is slow and smooth which adds to the anticipation the audience is already feeling from the music, which slowly gets more intense as the scene moves forward and things are revealed such as the intent of the two characters in the scene.

Shallow focus is used in different parts of the opening scene of The disappearance of Alice Creed especially when the characters are doing seemingly normal things, the shallow focus makes whatever the characters are doing seem sinister and suspicious. This is reinforced by the music in the scene which also makes the characters and their actions seem suspicious.

Characters

The film Se7en successfully establishes the character of detective Somerset in the first scene. I uses light, space and props to make the character seem isolated and brings up questions about his past. Metaphorical space is used to imply that the character used to have someone in his life and misses them, which is reinforced by a prop in a different shot. This shot is successful in establishing his character through the different props and their meanings to the character and implications to the audience. For example, the badge tells us that the character works for the law which is shown in the scene again as the director establishes him as a detective through the use of a classic costume, which is a convention of film noir. The gun could connote violence and could foreshadow events later in the film, which is reinforced by the knife which also shows that he is paranoid or wishes for control which is reinforced by the precision and neatness of the placement of the items in the shot. The pen show preparedness and reinforces the implication that the character wants more control in his life.

Similarly, the film Double Indemnity uses costume to establish the character in the opening scene, but for a different effect, the character wears a classic costume but it is used in a way to obscure most of his face and body to make him look suspicious and to imply that he has a dark side. This is reinforced by the director's use of long shadows and darkness, a convention of film nior, especially in this shot. This shot could be breaking the rule of thirds as well as the character has been pushed very far to the left, and left is sometimes associated with evil or badness, which could reinforce the idea that the character has a dark side. Later in the opening scene, another character is well established as a femme fatale, which is another convention of film noir.

Location

The Third Man establishes the location of Vienna in the opening scene with shots of grand interiors with banisters that create long shadows, disorienting leading lines and geometric shapes. The disorientation links to the chaos of the war and the effects of the war in the post-war period in Vienna. This shot reflects Vienna at this time as the lines lead out of the frame, creating a disorienting shot which is reinforced by the dutch angle used here and the long shadows create unusual shapes, which all create connotations of chaos and help establish the location and the mood of the location at the time.

Se7en opening

The opening of the film 'Se7en' successfully establishes tone and character through use of lighting, props, sound and space.

This part of the scene uses sound to help establish the location and contrast with the character of detective Somerset. The diegetic sound of the busy city sounds such as police sirens and people etc. create a sense of chaos which could be a reason why the character wants more control in his life. Also it contrasts with the character and his actions in this part of the scene as we see him doing up his sleeves and making his clothes neat for work, which imply order, it contrasts in another way too, it compares his fairly empty and lonely apartment to the busy city outside and reinforces the character's loneliness.

This shot successfully establishes the character of detective Somerset, each item in the shot is spread out evenly apart and straightened, this could suggest that the character wants to have more control in his life so he takes control of the most minor things, which suggests that his life is slightly chaotic. It could also imply that he likes order which is reinforced by the badge in the middle, which also shows that the character is important in his work in the force.The knife could suggest that he feels paranoid or insecure. The paper flower suggest sentimentality and creates an enigma surrounding the character from the first scene which is added to by his precision with the items that also suggest something about the character's past.

The lighting in the first part of the opening scene, when the character is getting ready for work, is cold and quite dark, this could reflect or draw influences from the dimly lit scenes in some film noirs. Also the main character is a detective and wears quite a classic costume which are main elements of film noir. The lighting creates feelings of loneliness and isolation as well in the scene which is reinforced in other shots. The character's neatness or precision with his coat and his bed reinforce the idea that he wants more control or order.

Space or framing, and lighting are used interestingly in this shot. Firstly, the framing of the shot means the character is off centre and not following the rule of thirds, it implies loneliness and isolation, the space next to him suggests that there was another person in his life but there isn't anymore, reinforced by his placement in this part of the scene, which leaves a space next to him on the bed. This reinforces the mystery surrounding the character. Also, the light comes from natural light sources which are the two lamps seen in this shot, this adds to the sense of isolation and loneliness in the scene, also, the light on the left could also represent the other person and suggests he misses them, while adding to the mystery of the character.

How does the director of The Third Man use mise en scene convey different connotations?

The Third Man uses lighting and location to reflect the hopelessness of the post war period in the sewer scene which is set in the sewers of Vienna. Vienna was the location of the film, it was chosen because of its division at the time and the city symbolises mistrust, failed communication and separation, because of the events of the war, which were perfect for The Third Man. 

This shot is dark and the only light source comes from the exit, which isn't in the frame. On one hand it could convey hope as the only light comes from the exit or escape, implying that the character will make it out of the sewer and escape capture. On the other hand it could suggest entrapment as the darkness is surrounding or trapping the light, which could imply that the character won't make it out. Also, these could be representative of the time it was filmed and the time it is set as it could represent the trapped but hopeful feelings of the people during the post-war period. Secondly, the lines of the shot lead out of the frame, which create distorted shapes in the frame, which could represent chaos or disorientation, this links with what is happening in the scene. The messy and cluttered feel the shot is giving through the shapes and leading lines could be representative of the feelings of the character trying to escape.



Space is used in this shot to convey isolation and helplessness, as the character is surrounded by a huge empty darkness through a long shot. The darkness surrounding him could represent his morality and his vulnerability in this part of the film and could also be representing the helplessness of the people recovering from the war. Additionally, the lines lead out of the frame to convey entrapment which is reinforced by the placing of the shot, which is close to the edge of the sewer wall, creating a claustrophobic feeling. In this shot there is also a single light source which could also represent hope or reinforce entrapment or isolation. In each shot the light could be seen to be guiding the character through the maze of the sewers, reinforcing hope in the shot. 

This shot shows the character standing in front of the only source of light in the shot, this could suggest that the character has a dark side and is untrustworthy, which is reinforced by previous shots showing large shadows and by the events. This could link to the symbolism of Vienna and the sewers, as Vienna represents mistrust and division and the sewers symbolise the darkness or evil under the city of Vienna or Europe. Alternatively, the character blocking out the light could symbolise that there is no hope left, reinforced by the darkness swallowing the light at the edges, creating a slightly claustrophobic feeling as well. 

Varying shapes and diagonal lines of the spiral staircase trap the character in the frame and the high angle of the shot create a sense of hopelessness and symbolise the characters loss of power in the scene, reinforced by his central position in the frame, which also reinforces the feelings of entrapment. The lack of contrast and light in the shot emphasises the character's defeat and vulnerability, it represents that all hope is lost. Once again linking to the post war period and the time it was set, conveying the general feelings of vulnerability and hopelessness.