Inspirations - Miss Georgiou ( on going )

In this post I will be evaluating all my inspirations that I have gathered from my research into thrillers. You can take inspirations from anywhere that has to do with what you would like to make, in my case I'll be making a thriller opening scene. So my inspirations will come from watching thriller films, posters, music that help create suspense,surprise and tension as those are conventional to a thriller. To be able to create my own thriller opening sequence I will need to refer on all my research to give me ideas of conventions and techniques to motivate me on what to include in my own piece. 

In my first post I researched into the BBFC: British Board of Film Classification, which is an independent, non-governmental body which classifies films in the UK.This research has helped me learn about the different types of age classifications from the BBFC.This inspired me to have an age rating of 15 because my target audience will be allowed to watch it and the themes included in my film could be too graphic for any age that is younger than a 15, so that's why I decided to go with 15. Also I would like to create suspense for them to carry on watching the film. Unlike horrors in a 18 they often have disturbing themes and their opening sequences usually start extremely gory. However in my opening it'll start with a small amount of gore as the antagonist does kill someone but the audience wouldn't see this take place which creates suspense, tension and shock when the audience figure it out which is conventional to a thriller. 

In my second post I did a time line of the different thrillers from 1940s to the present day to see how thriller films have evolved. First of all i learnt what the thriller genre is;Thriller is a genre of literature,film and television programming that uses its main elements suspense, tension and excitement. This gave me a more understanding of the genre so i can include the elements of a thriller in my opening sequence. In this research it did not give me any inspirations but instead it gave me information on what I should include to make my film more modern and scarier as the technology nowadays has improved than the 1940s. But what has inspired me from this post is the evolution of thrillers and how sound and editing has a huge impact on a thriller, this has inspired me to use as many sound effects and editing that I believe will make my thriller conventional.

Mise-en-scene is the french term of everything the audience sees within the frame, there are five elements setting & iconography ,costume (hair and makeup), colour & lighting and body language & facial expressions.
In this post i analysed the elements of mise-en-scene of the opening scene of The Woman In Black which is a film about A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals. I've learnt that all the five elements of mise-en-scene are essential to a thriller, as it helps convey the story,help set the mood,environment and create relationships with the characters.  It also makes the audience have more understanding and interest for the film so they will continue to watch. Mise-en-scene clarifies every ones position in the film for example, the girls are the protagonists and the black figure is the antagonist in this film.

The woman in black covered with a veil 

With the woman in black the mise-en-scene used were quite simple, this will help me with my thriller as it inspired me to use less as it builds up more tension because the audience will expect more. Firstly in this film film, the antagonist is a woman who wears black hence the title. Her costume is all black which conveys death, power, mystery this can also be associated with fear and the unknowing. The use of her costume is conventional to a thriller as the colour black exaggerates how dark she is creating enigma as she likes to be not seen, this makes the audience feel tensed. This inspired me to use the colour black as my antagonists costume will almost camouflage his surroundings creating suspense and tension in the audience. The antagonists hidden identity in the woman in black is that she is wearing a black veil this inspired me to also have a hidden identity in my thriller. In my thriller the iconography I'll use is a white mask as my antagonists hidden identity to convey that he doesn't want to be seen and that he feels more powerful. You will see the boy wear the mask when he is standing in the way of the girl who has fallen over in the forest whilst she screams. The use of having his identity hidden in this part has an impact as it makes the audience question why he didn't have the mask on earlier and also why he is hiding his face creating suspense and tension. Also the use of this will have an impact on his victims as him hiding his face is quite stranger which could provoke fear for the protagonists and the viewers. Therefore the audience will feel tensed and frightened when they see the antagonist who is masked as he cannot be trusted and that he is a dangerous character within the thriller sequence. 

Long shot from the purge 

In my cinematography post I researched the different types of camera angles and shots taken from the film The Purge (2013), to see how they help create certain moods and atmosphere within the film and audience. Cinematography is also the act of capturing photographs images in space through the use of a number of controllable elements. These include the quality of the film stock, the manipulation of the am era lens, framing, scale and movement. What inspired me from this research was to use a long shot, this was used when the group of people holding weapons were walking towards the Sandin's house. This inspired me to use a long shot in my thriller when the antagonist is standing in the way of the victim who is currently on the floor injured in the forest. This shows the different status between the two characters, the antagonist looks more powerful and dominate in the scene which makes the audience and victim feel threatened as she is in a vulnerable position building a closer relationship between them. Also in The purge, it had a close up of the Polite Leaders face on a eye level, this showed his facial

Extreme Close Up 

expressions and invaded the audiences personal space making him look quite threatening which provoked fear and tension within the audience. From this , it has inspired me to use an extreme close up instead of a close up because I will use this shot when the antagonist wakes up from his flashback. This will be occupied with a sound which emphasises and provokes the shock element within the audience and the protagonist. This technique draws the audiences attention and has a dramatic effect because of its artificial aspect which will also intimidate the viewers as the frame is taken up by the characters eye which makes them feel tensed.


My sound post was based on the film The Shining - Here's Johnny scene, this particular thriller film had a various amount of sounds that help show the shock,suspense and surprise elements to effect the audience. This clip inspired me to use a non-diegetic screechy sound within my thriller to show that the antagonist is not in the right state of mind and is unstable. The use of this sound will make the audience feel tensed as the sound will be unsettling like it was in the shining. This certain sound will appear when the antagonist is walking Also in the shining clip , it had the use of silence in the film, this was used when the antagonist was closer to his victim. This inspired me to include silence when the antagonist is walking closer to the girl in the forest, this is because it'll make the audience feel awkward and tensed for the victim as they do not know what to expect to happen to her. Moreover the use of the sound being silent in my opening thriller could represent that her life is over and that theres no escape, this creates a closer relationship with the girl as she is stuck in the situation and she has no way of getting out. The use of silence is conventional to a thriller because it makes the audience feel tensed and wonder whats going to happen next because sound in thrillers have a huge impact but so does silence. 

Reaction Shot 

After sound , I researched into editing with the scene ' Olivia's death ' from scream 4. As this scene was of the antagonist killing one of the three friends, the editing in this had a huge impact on the audience. What inspired me in this scene was to use a reaction shot, as this was used to see Kirby and Jill's reactions from the window to Olivia's death. I will use the reaction shot in my thriller when the friend of the victim who was killed by the antagonist, finds her friend dead in the middle of the road where the antagonist was once placed at. Having the friend placed in the same place where the antagonist was laying at the beginning of the thriller will create tension and suspense as the audience were used to seeing him there. It could also suggest that the reason why her friend is dead was because it was his doing, because she's laying there and his no where to be seen. When I use this reaction shot it'll allow the audience to see the facial expression that she has towards her friend dead, which will mirror the audiences as they will too be as shocked as her. The use of this also helps build a connection with the girl as the audience emphasise her because of what she's seen and they can relate to her as they're roughly the same age so they wouldn't want that to happen to them. Also the timing of shots included in scream 4 inspired me to include them as well in mine. Firstly, like Olivia's friend walking up the stairs the editing here was slow, this created suspense within the audience. I tend to use the same editing style within my thriller when the girl walks towards the antagonist body which is on the road. The use of the slow editing creates tension and curiosity in the audience as she is slowly walking towards his body. This makes the audience feel on edge as they do not know what is going to happen next also this will be shot in a point of view shot which will exaggerate the shock that will happen later and also puts the audience into her shoes. 


This post was very helpful because it gathered all the inspirations that I've had from all the research posts I've done previously. All the different types of posts and films that were included had roughly the same thing as they were following the Aristotle narrative theory where theres good and evil. Also the films that I looked into help give me a more understanding and idea of the different elements within a thriller film that'll make it conventional and provoke suspense, tension and shock within the audience. Therefore, when I look back on this post later on, I will remind myself the inspirations that I was inspired by to conclude my individual or group ideas with our thriller so that we know what to include that'll make our thriller sequence successful.