Trailer for Inception.
Inception Conventions -
- The heavy, low bass like track in the back ground which speeds up over the course of the clip.
- The timing of each beat at the beginning with a clip and the production company names.
- The tone in which the main character speaks over the top of the clip is slow and fits with the music.
- It challenges the Thriller convention of having an evil bad guy and good guy, instead we are unsure which is which.
- Like with The Godfather, the main character is almost always wearing a kind of suit or formal clothes.
- The lighting on the clips and on the titles are very dark giving the feel of somthing wrong.
A Walkthrough of Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock.
Now the 1960 Trailer for Psycho.
Psycho Conventions -
- Set in a remote motel and "creepy" house.
- Loud horns are heard after Hitchcock says "Woman was first seen", Gives us the impression something bad is going to happen to her.
- The use of high pitched, screeching music in the background on the second clip gives extra tension to the film.
- It may be the effect of the black and white film but there is very dim lighting in the film showing darkness.
- As the clip progresses we hear faster paced music with extra beats.
- The hero is wearing a formal suit.
- Along side the music the length of the clips gets shorter and they move by quicker.
- A broken font title gives another "creepy" feel to the film.
A Short Clip from Vertigo.
Vertigo Conventions -
- Soft, High pitched music again adding to the tension and suspense of the scene.
- Dim lighting although this may be because of the black and white filming of the time.
- The clip is set in an urban landscape but in a dark secluded alley.
- Hero again in a formal suit.
- The hero appears to be an investigator which seems to also be a convention in Hitchcock's Pyscho.
- Shots are very slow and seem to give time to allow the viewer to take in all the movie and assess what the character is doing, possibly also giving the viewer the chance to mentally pose questions as to what he is doing.
Although Genres can be similar between films, the conventions they use can alter greatly and still conform to their genre.
Non Diagetic Music/Sound is a great asset in the Thriller Genre as it can effect the tension and suspence given from a clip, shot or scene.
What I have learnt that will make me a better film-maker?
When using Music, Non Diagetic or Diagetic, make sure it fits the tone/feel of the film.
I do not need to conform to all Thriller Conventions in order to make my film a Thriller.
How will what I've learnt make my final film better?
Linking to my previous point, we will carefully look into what sound effects and music we use in our final piece.
We also now have others works to give us inspiration and ideas to put into our film.
How do I follow up this research? What is my next step?
My next step is to look at a few clips from other genres and see how conventions are shown.
