In my earlier lessons where I studied the thriller genre, I asked myself what codes and conventions of it make the opening scenes so successful? This question is a complicated question to ask yourself or someone else and it really requires some considerable studying before a reasonable answer is found. I could only begin ask myself this question by watching one of the many sub-genres of thriller. Seven (or Se7en, as it is written in the film) is an action thriller and was an excellent benchmark for allowing me to answer this question.
In the first scene, we meet Detective Somerset, a soon to be retired policer officer. He is wearing a white shirt and dark tie, although he is hanging his tie loose until we see him tighten it a few seconds later. In the background the sound of sirens can be heard. This gives the impression that Somerset's appartment is in a busy city street. Soon after the film cuts to its first post-murder scene. Se7en doesn't show how someone was murdered, as is something that would happen in a horror film rather than a thriller. Se7en lets the audience's mind travel and wonder who was resposible or what caused the sequence commited. Although it may be early into my judgements to be saying this, this convention is one reason why I prefer the thriller genre to horrors.
At the first post-murder scene, Se7en keeps with a code of thriller that is seen in the majority of the film. This is the dark colours and murkey lighting in an effort to affect the audience's mood. The colours want to make the audience feel depressed by what they are seeing. The only time in the film where we see brighter colours is inside Mills' appartment. White is often the only bright colour you see in the thriller genre. This may be becuase not only does white represent a mixture of dark colours, but also there is balanced amount of brighter colours. Therefore, the white white you often see in horrors represents tranquility and harmony.
Although it is still early on in the film, it is easily noticable that because Detective Somerset has had his job for such a while he has a routine of doing things without thinking and allways in the same order. This is the opposite with Mills, who looks unprepared and becuase of his young age he hasn't yet found himself a routine. We see this at the same time as when we see the bright white in his apartment, so due to it's tranquility it is possible that his sometimes anxiousness represents a factor that will break the harmony, something bound to be explored later on in the film. This is one reason why this sort of peace can be broken and similar sorts of peace disturbences happen in other thrillers.
Sounds are used in the film to create a restless atmosphere. This was achieved early on by the ticking sound from the metrognome and its volume being raised to enhance Somerset's thoughts as well as close up camera shots. I believe that this has helped me to gain a better understanding of this sub-genre of thriller, but I need to watch more thriller films to be able to understand the original question I was posed.
In the first scene, we meet Detective Somerset, a soon to be retired policer officer. He is wearing a white shirt and dark tie, although he is hanging his tie loose until we see him tighten it a few seconds later. In the background the sound of sirens can be heard. This gives the impression that Somerset's appartment is in a busy city street. Soon after the film cuts to its first post-murder scene. Se7en doesn't show how someone was murdered, as is something that would happen in a horror film rather than a thriller. Se7en lets the audience's mind travel and wonder who was resposible or what caused the sequence commited. Although it may be early into my judgements to be saying this, this convention is one reason why I prefer the thriller genre to horrors.
At the first post-murder scene, Se7en keeps with a code of thriller that is seen in the majority of the film. This is the dark colours and murkey lighting in an effort to affect the audience's mood. The colours want to make the audience feel depressed by what they are seeing. The only time in the film where we see brighter colours is inside Mills' appartment. White is often the only bright colour you see in the thriller genre. This may be becuase not only does white represent a mixture of dark colours, but also there is balanced amount of brighter colours. Therefore, the white white you often see in horrors represents tranquility and harmony.
Although it is still early on in the film, it is easily noticable that because Detective Somerset has had his job for such a while he has a routine of doing things without thinking and allways in the same order. This is the opposite with Mills, who looks unprepared and becuase of his young age he hasn't yet found himself a routine. We see this at the same time as when we see the bright white in his apartment, so due to it's tranquility it is possible that his sometimes anxiousness represents a factor that will break the harmony, something bound to be explored later on in the film. This is one reason why this sort of peace can be broken and similar sorts of peace disturbences happen in other thrillers.
Sounds are used in the film to create a restless atmosphere. This was achieved early on by the ticking sound from the metrognome and its volume being raised to enhance Somerset's thoughts as well as close up camera shots. I believe that this has helped me to gain a better understanding of this sub-genre of thriller, but I need to watch more thriller films to be able to understand the original question I was posed.
No comments:
Post a Comment