Analysis of He loves me, he loves me not.

We watched a romance thriller, He loves me he loves me not which was released in 2002; it is about a woman who falls in love with a married doctor, she tries to convince him to leave his wife for her. I particularly liked this thriller because it isn't an obvious choice, this thriller thinks outside of the box to create suspense and tension.

The thriller creates a feminine, love vibe right from the beginning with the pinks and reds and flowery mise en scene. It connotes a valentine feel, with love hearts and pinks right from the start; the slow cuts to start with create a minimalistic,peaceful feel. The suspense in the beginning is created through the tranquility, as an audience we know that not everything is going to stay like a fairytale for very long. This thriller is one that is created through the tension that is built from the music and the minimalistic qualities.The different camera shots like the CU's and MS create tension as they show the characters expressions and therefore give us a feel as to what the character is thinking. This thriller is certainly one that thinks outside the box, music and camera shots along with editing are all very key in creating the tensional/thriller vibe.

Thriller Sub Genre's.

We looked at many different thrillers, all of which had a sub genre. We looked at romance thrillers, physiological, action and horror. My favorite out of which we looked at was the supernatural/physiological thriller- What lies beneath.

This genre inspires me at the moment because I find it to have a lot of suspense that is created just through the genre itself. I believe that the music and camera shots that are created through this genre enable more suspense and tension, I feel that as group we could experiment with different shots in making a thriller like this.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term used to describe the visual referencing between films whereby films literally "borrow" from eachother. You may recognise certain camera angles, snippets of sounds, methods of editing and aspects of mise en scene that you have seen in others. 

We watched the iconic shower scene from Pyscho and then watched three other scenes from different films to identify the "borrowed" asepcts from Pyscho. In What Lies Beneath a man brings a dead woman upstairs and puts her in the bath, whereby he runs water and talks to her. This scene uses similar aspects of Pyscho as similarly the woman is the victim, high angle camera shots are used of her in the bathtub and this suspenseful scene is set in the bathroom, in the bath which is reflects Pyscho.

 In Fatal Attraction a man sneaks into a house and attacks a woman where they brutally fight with eachother all over the house. This scene resembles parts of Pyscho as some of the violence takes place in the bathroom, however the woman attempts to attack the man with a knife which switches the roles in Psycho. Although when the woman attacks, the sound of the attack is heightened similarly in Pyscho and the shadowy lighting and mise en scene is also used.

In The Stepfather the man chases a woman upstairs into the bathroom where he kicks down the door, tries to stab her but he is stabbed by her with a sharp piece of mirror. This scene mirrors part of the iconic Pyscho scene as once again the action takes place in the bathroom. In addition, the man uses the same weapon, a knife to brutally murder the woman, however things change when the woman is able to attack the man first. 

The final clip we watched was a student thriller called Succubus. IN this clip, a girl comes in whilst a young man is taking a shower and stabs him. I beleive this clip resembles Pyscho the most, as it follows the idea of being stabbled in the shower. Howeverm in this case the young man is the victim. Similarly to Pyscho  there is suspenseful non diegetic music used before the attack, the deigetic sound of the shower is used in the background and close up shots of the victims body parts are shown. The mise en scene resembles Pyscho from the knofe, to the blood all over the bathroom.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between films. Quite literally films "borrow" from each other but it is very different to plagiarism as they do not really copy anything so nothing is infringed.

We started off in our lessons by watching an iconic scene from the movie "Psycho" then determined which scenes were borrowed from it on three other clips. What lies beneath, Fatal attraction & The stepfather. In what lies beneath a man is holding a woman in his arms and walks up a flight of stairs and then takes her and puts her into a bath tub: the scene borrows from psycho, the scene is remeniscent of the almost identical scene in psycho when the man takes his mother up the stairs, even the same camera angle is used. In fatal attraction a man and a woman are fighting all over a house and then she comes at him with a knife; this scene is borrowed from psycho also because it looks similar to when a shadowy figure stabs the woman in the tub. And in the stepfather a man does an everyday thing like shaving and washing his hands that put the audience in a false sense of security, the psycho homage is the camera angles that are very well captured.

Collateral Suspense Analysis

The movie Collateral is a movie filled with suspensful moments that keep the viewer on the edges of their seats. There is a lot of actiona and also long pauses that build tension, it is a perfect mix of action-packed thriller and calm negotiation scenes that make an excellent movie.

In our media lesson we had to identify three scenes that we found to be the most suspensul in the whole movie. Although there were many scenes that were filled with tension I have found three that stand out.
The first scene i found was the scene where an unknown man falls from a house balcony onto Max's taxi. In this scene Max is sitting in his taxi waiting for his passenger (tom cruise) outside a housing complex in the back alley. the music is calm and relaxing in the scene and nothing seems out of the ordinary as Max prepares to eat his sandwich. Suddenly almost out of the blue this almost scerene environmentet is disturbed with a loud bang that comes from a man's body falling onto his taxi. This scene is especially effective at creating shock because the audience is lead into believing everything is normal and then that happens.
The second scene that i identified is the chase scene outside the hospital, which takes place after Max steals the hitman's briefcase and makes a run for it and his passenger is in hot pirsuit. The scene is very effective in creating a very exciting confrontation becuase the music is really fast paced and the camera shots are from many angles and cut from max to the passenger to create the speedy chase effect. The last scene that is a good example of suspense is the crash scene where max gets more and more irritated by his passenger and gives up and so decides to crash the car. Thie scene builds massive tension because the audience can see Max is angry through his facial expressions but we don't know exactly what he's going to do.

Collateral Suspense Analysis

Collateral had many suspenseful moments throughout the film to engage and entice its audience. We were given the task to identify three scenes in the movie which we found were very suspenseful. I think the opening of the film which shows a bag exchange was very suspenseful. The tension was created by the orchestral non diegetic soundtrack, and the sounds of the hustle and bustle of the airport helped give off a sense of rush and urgency. The sound of the collide is amplified and many close up shots are shown of the actors so we can see their facial expressions and the tension between them. There are shots from a distance with legs walking past the camera which is effective in creating a busy environment and the idea that their exchange is not obvious.

Another suspenseful moment in the film was when an angry looking man arrives in a house looking for someone. the editing was much faster and quick cuts were used to create urgency. The non diegetic music was rocky and upbeat and the camera angles were slightly tilted, also there were weapons in the scene which automatically creates tension and fear. 

A third suspenseful moment in the film was when two men were conversing in a dark room. Tension was created by the close up shots which showed the characters change in emotion. The non diegetic music changed also, become quite spooky and sincere and shot reverse shots was used. The editing in this scene was also fast paced at times, which built suspense.

Meaning Of Suspense

apprehension about what is going to happen

an uncertain cognitive state; "the matter remained in suspense for several years"

excited anticipation of an approaching climax; "the play kept the audience in suspense"