1. E S T H E R R O W E
What ways does your Media
product use, develop or challenge
forms/conventions of real media
products?

2. Subgenre
After looking in depth at the
codes and conventions of
typical/ well known
thrillers, both American and
British such as–The Usual
Suspects – Psycho – The
negotiator, I began to notice
recurring themes, such as
the way that fear, death and
horror is created and I
wanted to explore these in
more depth by confining
ourselves to a subgenre.

3. Subgenre
From our survey we could see that
‘psychological thriller’ was by far
the target audience’s favourite
subgenre. So we began to research
in depth into this genre; watching
films like ‘funny games’ and ‘the
lady vanishes’. Both of these are
films that were made on reel film
and then remade later, so we
found it helpful to watch both
adaptations and see what the
filmmakers did similarly in order
to see what they felt was effective
in pushing the narrative.

4. Subgenre
We wanted to input the
things that other filmmakers
found effective, when
creating psychological
thrillers, into our film to
create the best experience
for our target audience. We
noticed that in both films
and adaptations the
antagonist gets in the way of
the relationships/
friendships which becomes
frustrating for the
viewer, who has been
investing emotion in the
characters.

5. Subgenre
Therefore we wanted to create this
sort of emotional investment in
the characters so that when the
antagonist steps in, the audience
are frustrated/horrified, a key
convention of the thriller genre.
We decided that we wanted the
first few shots to create an
emotional attachment between the
viewer and the protagonist. So we
began to look at films which
displayed deep emotional
attachments between characters.
For example, Atonement, The
Great Gatsby or My Sisters Keeper
and The Little Princess, though
not thrillers they helped us to look
at how filmmakers portray
relationships.

6. Plot
Here we decided to USE
conventions of the thriller
genre. Throughout thrillers
that we had researched we
found that commonly the male
was the antagonist and the
female was the vulnerable
protagonist. We decided to
comply to this convention of
media products as we found
that our target audience
collectively decided in the
survey that they wanted to have
a female protagonist
.HOWEVER we wanted to take
this convention further.

7. Plot
When looking at the typical codes and conventions of
the thriller genre we found that a particular code was
mixing up gender roles in a way that confuses the
audiences pre-embedded ideas. In honour of this
convention we wanted to create a 1st scene that
explored male dominance, making it seem like violence
received from the male was a potential theme. Then we
would surprise the audience by having a girl, innocent
and pure looking usurp this role and act with violence.
Through this we wanted to create an element of the
unpredictable in our plotline to comply to the effective
conventions of the psychological thriller.

8. Plot
We also looked at films such as
Fight Club and Shutter Island
where the protagonist is a
male, we found that these films
were particularly effective in
addressing the enigma code of the
genre however we felt that the
surprise of the innocent girls
taking part in crime was more
‘psychologically’ appropriate.
After watching Films such as
Orphan, where this surprise is
inherently evident we decided to
develop this technique with two
girls. Who are on an equal
level, but one dominates the
other, even through her own
mind.

9. Making the protagonist vulnerable:
We were particularly influenced
by the likes of films like
Psycho, predominantly the attack
scene in the shower. We looked at
the fettishization of the woman in
this scene, the scathing shots of
her in the shower which are both
powerfully shocking and equally
effective in making her look
vulnerable. We also looked at how
the use of her nudity makes her
exposed, the tense music in the
background makes us fear for the
character – therefore we wanted
to input this into our work:
creating a vulnerable and
susceptible character.

10. Making the protagonist Vulnerable:
We however wanted to
develop this idea, inspired
by Hitchcock. So we looked
at making the girl completely
vulnerable; looking at our
society today we found that
the most vulnerable humans
are young girls. Therefore we
decided that our protagonist
would be a young girl and
that the concept of being
attacked by her equal was
incredibly strong as well as
capturing the psychological
thriller theme.

11. Location: Scene 1
For this whole scene we had
one purpose: to make the
character look smaller and
therefore more vulnerable.
After watching films such as
Pans Labyrinth, where the
main character is under
dominant, looming objects
that accentuate her
vulnerability we realised
how effective this technique
was.

12. Location: Scene 1
We also wanted to look at the
representation of the classes:
Psychological thrillers like the
modern Funny Games look at
the bringing down of the upper
classes and their lack of ability
to cope. We also found that in
the film Atonement; where a
young girl is portrayed as
crushed under the aristocracy
of her family, we felt incredible
empathy for her. Therefore we
wanted to exemplify this same
domination of class that leads
to vulnerability.

13. Location: Scene 1
With these points in mind, we
chose to place this scene in an old
manor house, suggesting that the
family are high in society which
leads to her loneliness and later
her madness.
Loneliness/isolation was also a
key theme when choosing location
which we felt would lead to a
connection of empathy between
the child and the audience. The
manor house was therefore left
clear of props or obstructions so
that all our attention was drawn to
the girl who looks small in a big
room. We used wide shots to
establish her naivety.

14. Location: Scene2
Here, After analysing Psycho we
wanted to mirror the same
invasion of privacy that is so
effective in building enigma. Here
we chose a domestic location, a
personal location, a bathroom. In
the process of decoration. We felt
that the peeling of the paint, the
floorboards obviously being fixed
all added to the sense that
Annabelle’s (our main character)s
mind was unhinging. She’s moved
from a huge room to a confined
space which illustrates her
madness, looking further at the
conventions of the psychological
thriller.

15. Location: scene 2
Looking at other psychological
thrillers such as Funny Games we
found that the idea of being
tortured in your own household
was sickening and also was a
eclipse of any safety that you felt
in your personal space. It related a
sense of enigma and discomfort to
the audience which we wanted to
incorporate into our video.
However we wanted to develop it
by having our character drowning
in a place that was usually for
relaxing, relating again to the
psychological convention that
safety is removed and replaced
with fear. An invasion of privacy.

16. Colour
Through colour we decided that we wanted to create a
platform for Levi Strauss’ binary opposition theory.
We wanted to create a contrast, designed specifically
to make the viewer feel discomfort. This was
something that we hadn’t experienced in our research
of the genre, however we had experienced it in our
research of theatre. Looking at how ‘theatre of cruelty’
students used juxtaposition to engulf fear inspired us
to challenge the industry with new ideas.

17. Colour
Therefore, during our first scene we created a room
full of warm tones, oranges and light reds which
helped create a sense of heat in the room, a safety. In
contrast to this we created a second scene which was a
binary opposite, full of semitone blues and dark grey
colours that were able to bring a cold/ melancholy
feeling to the scene. This was used to help the
audience to sense that real danger was
coming, making them feel discomfort.

18. Sound
Watching films such as ‘The Woman
In Black’ and ‘Shutter Island’ we
began to see the impact of a film score
which was used in both to build up an
intense atmosphere for the viewer.
Therefore we decided to write a score
of our own, we used a call and
response platform for our music to
echo the relationship of Annabel and
Alice but instead of using a drum for a
beat we used pencils and whiskey jars
to represent the inevitable demise and
danger that is engulfed in their
friendship. These sharp blunt
sounds, we felt, were very effective in
bringing in dark undertones that are
so essential to the thriller genre.

19. Sound
Looking back over the use of
sound: we found that though
the score was effective in
building intensity, we wished
that we had had more
moments of silence to allow
enigma to build with natural
anticipation. Films like ‘The
Other Side’ use long periods
of silence, where uncertainty
is effective in bringing alive
fear. If we were to remake
this film this is something
that we would definatly
incorporate.

20. Sound
In the first scene, in terms of Diagetic sound we
decided to accentuate the sound of footsteps in an
effort to make the male seem dominant over the
room which complied to the typical conventions of
the genre. His loud voice again echoed our dramatic
intentions for the scene.
We found that Todorov’s Equilibrium theory helped
us to make choices on this scene. For example, having
sound continuously through the clip suggested how
repetitive Annabelle’s life was, when the music
finishes we then as a viewer expect a change of
equilibrium; Building enigma and mystery.

21. Mise- En-Scene: props
After delving into the conventions of
the psychological thriller we decided
to overall challenge the use of props.
After seeing a stage production by the
group Frantic Assembly, we noticed
that they barely had props unless they
were used and were inspired by this
for our film. We decided that if it were
to be psychological then it needed to
not have many things that were
tangible to other senses, we wanted to
have the main focus to be the
personalities of the characters and the
emotions at play to fully build up
intensity without distractions.
Therefore throughout the scene we
decided to not have any props.

22. Mise-En-Scene: Costume
For the Girls we wanted to echo
the fear created in the film ‘the
shining’ when the unnerving two
girls wear innocent school clothes
which is relatable and builds up
fear. Therefore we had them wear
childish clothes to accentuate their
innocence, as well as having them
in pastelly/ creamy colours of
white and pink to show their
naivety to the outside world.
In terms of the adult we had him
wear a suit to make distinct his
class and his capabilities as a
richer male character.

23. Mise-En-Scene: Costume
Girl in bath: here we wanted to link
this scene to Psycho, in which we
found the nakedness of the woman in
the shower both shocking and fearful.
Therefore with our character in the
bath we used this same technique to
build fear.
Alice: All in black, here we wanted to
use simple colour symbolism. Black is
a colour that connotes misery and
death therefore we dressed her in this
to give a foreboding sense to both the
character and her narrative. As well as
to contrast her earlier pastel
colours, showing how over time the
conscience grows more
powerful, adding to the mystery of the
psychological thriller genre.

24. Character
In terms of casting we were
heavily influenced by films where
children are made to look
vulnerable for example: The Little
Princess, Orphan and Madeline.
We found that pale faces, rosy
cheeks and blonde hair connoted
innocence and purity which was
admirable as well as effective in
creating empathy. We also felt
that this was effective in creating a
shock, when the Propps narrative
role of the princess that they seem
to comply to is subverted by
having one of them turn into the
antagonist.

25. Character
We also kept this same innocent look
with the older girls, however we
changed their hair colour to darker.
We felt that this emphasized how her
mind has decayed over time, we also
wanted to emphasize the two sides of
her mind and how growing up has
effected her. As well as this we found
that intertextuality helped us a lot
with character, looking at books
where children were captured as wild
such as Alice in Wonderland helped
us to understand how children are
normally portrayed in ‘madness’
books. Therefore we decided to use
the name Alice to perhaps foreshadow
the thrilling nature of the narrative.

26. Character
The research lead us to discover that generally children in thrillers appear to be slightly
abnormal, their reactions to horrific and in some cases paranormal events are often less
than what would be expected from most children (almost as if they are use to it). However
at the same time they have a childlike innocence about them, this innocents makes you
wish to protect the child and the audience develops an attachment to the character.
Another common convention is the use of dramatic irony, where often the child realises
something is wrong or can see something that nobody else can, however the adults think it
is there child imagination creating a situation that is not in fact true. The audience knows
also that the child is telling the truth and feel sympathy towards the character. This in itself
makes the audience dislike the other characters for not believing the child. A good example
of this is "the shinning", where the child senses something is wrong however the mother
does not straight away believe him.
We included a situation of this nature within our product, the protagonist (during the first
half of the movie in which she was younger) could see an imaginary girl of which the adult
role in the video could not see. The audience naturally disliked the adult role, not only for
his strict attitude towards the sweet young girl, but because they have seen the imaginary
girl themselves and therefore think she exists. We wished at this point for both of the
girls, the real and imaginary, to be portrayed as young and innocent and just having fun.
This innocents is broken when the scenes antagonist, the dad is introduced.

27. Editing/ Lighting
When looking at the conventions of the thriller
genre, we noticed that a particular colour used
inherently when editing which creates ‘eery’ tones. We
decided to follow this convention when editing our
bathroom scene as it added to the essence of mystery
in the filming which is key in the creation of
Psychological thrillers.
We also wanted to use rapid match on action shots
throughout both clips to add to the enigma of the
genre.

28. Editing
In the beginning scene, after seeing the film Becoming
Jane, we noticed how effective fade-through-dissolves
were in showing how time passes. Therefore we
decided to take this element, although not key to the
thriller genre, to create the sense that Annabelle’s life
is dull but full of Alice.
During the bath scene we also wanted to use
short, rapid shots which we felt were important as they
contrast to the one long shot in that scene- the murder.
Therefore we felt that this contrast evoked fear in the
audience which we felt was particularly effective.

29. Voyeurism
In terms of Voyeurism we
decided that, mirroring shots in
‘psycho’, we would have shots
that moved down her bare
legs, bare shoulders in a way
that almost objectifies her and
makes her look vulnerable to the
viewer adding to the sense of
mystery.
Throughout the entire piece we
used a lot of moving
shots, particularly in the
beginning in order to accentuate
the dizziness and static energy
of the young girls as they dance
which adds to the confusion of
storyline and the enigma code.

30. Camera Shots
We also used the contrast between close and wide shots
to show the difference gained over 10 years. In the first
scene we used wide shots mostly as well as canted
angles to establish authority between the male and
female and their ages. However in the second scene we
mostly use close shots which draw attention to detailed
aspects of the films and accentuate the personal
situation that she is in, making the disruption and
violence more shocking.