Seven - Analysis Notes

Narrative Structure

·         Follows generic thriller storyline

·         Theory of equilibrium

·         Non linear

·         Audience immediately faced with questions

Thriller Codes and Conventions

·         Question and Answer model – Who are they? What are they doing and why?

·         Concealment – Face is hidden

·         Transformed City

·         Protraction – Partial vision

Camerawork

·         Sequence – Close up / extreme close ups

·         Slow zooms

·         Short shots

·         Various angles

Mise-En-Scene

·         Low key lighting

·         Black and white

·         Red slides/ wash

·         Person creating book

·         Person stitching

·         Person deleting words from book

Sound

·         Diagetic – Dialogue, metronome, tv, radio

·         Non Diagetic – Suspense building music.

Editing

·         Fast paced – typical of Thriller

·         Beat match – Match actions to music/sound effects

·         Collage

·         Double vision – Camera shakes

Graphics

·         Text – Some look handwritten/ stamped/ sketchy

·         Printed

·         Flashing – Confusion

·         Text in white

What is a Thriller? Notes

                       

What is a Thriller?

   A broad genre of television, literature, or film that involves suspense, tension, excitement and mystery to appeal to an audience.

Sub-genres of Thrillers:

·         Psychological  - Donnie Darko (2001)

·         Crime – Seven (1995)

·         Supernatural- Carrie (1976)

·         Action- Silence of the Lambs (1991)

·         Medical-

·         Erotic-Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

·         Horror-The Exorcist (1973)

·         Political-The Contender (2000)

·         Religious- The Da Vinci Code (2006)

·         Disaster- The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

·         Legal – A Time To Kill (1996)

Martin Rubin – ‘Thrillers’ (1999)

·         C K Chesterton – The Transformed City

·         British author

·         Modern genre set mainly in urban environments

·         ‘poetry in modern life’

·         Transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary

Northrop Frye – The Heroic Romance

·         Hero is almost always an ordinary person

·         Ordinary person is forced to behave in extraordinary ways because of his situation

·         “Moves the world in which ordinary laws of nature are suspended slightly”

·         Enchanted forest – Modern city

John Cawelti – The Exotic

Modern city – enchantment and mystery                            

·        

·         Intro of the familiar

·         Location

·         Artefacts/objects /props from the middle East/Orient

W H Matthews – Mazes and Labyrinths

·         Origins- Greek mythology

·         Hero often finds themselves in an extraordinary situation

·         Faced with mazes full of dead ends and twists in order to reach the villain

·         Audience are presented with hero’s puzzles and problem solving

Pascal Bonitzer – Partial Vision

·         Audience only see so much

·         Elements hidden to create suspense for the viewer

·         Blind spots leave unanswered questions for the audience

·         ‘What we don’t see is just as important as what we do see’

·         Character is placed in an ‘unlimited prison’

Lars Ole Saurberg – Concealment and Protraction

·         Suspense works in 2 ways to pull the audience in different directions:

·         Concealment – Hiding something from the audience

·         Protraction – Deliberate delaying of a suspected outcome ie. A bomb explosion/a planned killing

Noel Carroll- The Questions-Answer Model

·         Audience are presented with questions that they wait in suspense for the answer ie. Will the hero die?/ Who is the killer?

1.       Probability factor – A ‘sure thing’ is less exciting than the battle against the odds.

2.       Moral factor – Morally right outcome increases involvement

·         Maintains focus and interest