Angels and demons

This Ron Howard film,captures the conventions and the many features in a thriller. It is a sequel to the $224 million film, the Da Vinci Code. Just like the Da Vinci Code, it is an adaptation of thriller fiction writer,Dan Brown's trilogy. This I story is set in modern Rome to go with whole idea of religion vs science as it also includes elements of science. This idea is becoming an increasing modern convention of thriller ls as more films are beginning to use this plot.
By watching this movie, it gives me more ideas as to what to include in my film apart from the normal obvious conventions which disengages the audience.

Product Research- Black Swan.

Black Swan 
I haven't watched this film but this trailer really intrigued me. The trailer really builds up into a crescendo, as it was subtle and implicitly shows that it is a thriller.

Editing and Camera
The fast paced editing near the end really captured my attention because it adds to the disorientation of the viewer. The close ups of the protagonist's face allow the audience to see the change in her mental state. This combines well with the increasing pace of the editing to show her growing confusion. Another close-up that was interesting was this hand-held one that helps to create a sense of paranoia around the protagonist.

Mise-en-scene
This shot is interesting because of the way the light and her outfit creates a sense of innnocence being surrounded by darkness - a conventional theme in thrillers

Narrattive and Themes
The story line also can immensely help with our piece as it explores something similar to split personalities and again involves the human mind etc. The trailer uses the right amount of generic conventions to me, as it uses dark lighting when needed, breathing sounds add to the effect of helplessness and despair.
Conclusion - elements to consider:
Dark/dim lighting.
Crescendos/ tension building
Fast paced editing/ closeups of random objects to distort views
Panting/breathing
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Product Research: When a stranger calls.

Having already seen this film, I would say that trailer is much better than the actual film. The build up of tension and suspense was going all the way through it. The major problem with it is the way the characters are not very convincing. The choice of generic conventions are very obvious, the typical story-line of the 'curious babysitter who goes to investigate instead of doing as she was told'. What I liked about the trailer was the long periods of silence which adds to the tension and fear. It also makes things ambiguous because the audience can't hear what's going on. Mise en scene aspects are the dark lighting, implying danger and mystery.
The cuts are fast paced, and distorted, however you can see they clearly link, this makes the thriller more generic as it's mysterious.
There are also many close ups, which we can use in our piece to show each character's expression and how they react to parts of the film. In this trailer the main protagonist is faced with many dramatic events, and the audience will be able to see this clearly.
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Product Research- Identity Film Poster

This movie poster is interesting because of the images in the foreground. The hand represents a person, presumably the main character, the fingers represent the many people this character can be or the people the character meets. This allows us to make a connection between the title of the film and the image. The base of the hand is person screaming, this gives an idea that it's a thriller film without even watching it. This again is relevant to our own piece, because we will be developing the idea of split personalities and finding yourself psychologically. This film poster suggests that this can be all within the human mind, and can have many ways it can affect people. What I disliked about the poster was the tagline at the bottom, seems to generic almost gives the story away.
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Product Research: Seven Film Poster.

This movie poster is relevant to our thriller as it seems show split personalities. The emotions with red lines through them seem very generic as they could represent names of victims being killed off etc. The main characters faces seem sinister, and Brad Pitt's face appears to be edited using film noire, this shows the character in half light side, and half dark side, implying that this character is neither good nor bad. This film poster is helpful for our group because we can use some ideas from it, to recreate our own. I liked the way the seven emotions relate to the name of the film, this makes sense to an audience as all link together. What I didn't particularly like was how generic the film poster looks, it almost looks too typical.
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Unbreakable

I worked my way through another M. Night Shyamalan film: Unbreakable, which really engages the audience through its fantastic visuals, camera angles and effective sound used.
The visuals of this film is shown through a broken glass which links in with the themes of death and loss and also blood as the the glass breaks and the pieces are scattered everywhere. The names of the a actors and actresses are seen through the broken glad which sets the tones for the film. It also uses a striking ray of light through the title 'UNBREAKABLE' with a black background to symbolise danger.
In the trailer, the voice of the characters engaging in conversation which overpowers the shots been shown as it is giving background information adds the thrill and tension to the whole film.
One thing M. Night Shyamalan does well in his films in the thriller genre is that he engages or tries to engage his audience right at the beginning of the film by shooting at different angles, using appropriate lighting, visuals and sound to create a lasting effect on the audience.

The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense presents the main character as a little boy just like in a lot of thrillers and also horror movies which children as they're vulnerable and are easier to get the audience to empathise with them. This quickly engages the audience. Just like most thriller, every 'event' happens at night time when everyone seems vulnerable as it is the end of the day. It is also a physiological thriller hence links in with the mind and how it works. This makes the evening the perfect setting and atmosphere to create the most tension and suspense.
What this film does well is it uses the main character to portray the main themes and ideas. It also uses the older characters through their fear of the dead to captivate audience as old people are meant to comfort the children. This adds the thrill and fear to the film.
All the above adds works well and links into the film's plot.