The shining

my last lesson with Mary on Monday 15th of December, we watched a thriller film called the shining which I’m quite familiar with and find that it is a perfect example to give us an idea on how to create a thriller film using different techniques. while watching the film we had to fill out a sheet which was about how the music, camera shots and editing created high levels of suspense and tension throughout the film. This film definitely keeps the viewers wondering and thinking what’s going to happen next?
The director gives us the advantage of knowing more information then the characters but the director still makes us ponder and confused about the ending which makes it more interesting and thrilling.

Within 5 minutes of the film we already have an idea of the aim the directors trying to target or do we? The viewer may think they know what’s going to happen but on the contrary the director tries to confuse them when the whole plot of the film is going the opposite direction of what the viewers were .thinking would happen, which gives them a pleasant shock . Firstly the introduction soundtrack is a heartbeat affect which links to the camera shot of a birds eye view following the car, it seems like there’s a predator which signifies that the viewers have more power then the characters about the dangers there going to face, and also this birds eye view shot establishes remoteness and isolation I could already feel the tension building up, which shows that they made a good choice showing us the of the neglection happening In this scene by using the heartbeat effect and BEV. As we see more into the film we notice that there are initial stones which gives a cabin fever “signal” to the audience where the plot is going , the fact that the audience know the story makes us more engaged to the film, were already waiting for him to go mad and kill which makes the audience continue watching the film.

furthermore I find that the hotel was a great location to pick, the scene wear Danny rides his bike in the corridor, the camera is on the same level as Danny and is following behind him (tracking shot) along the corridors, which creates great suspense because we don’t know what’s around the corner of these corners and the fact the camera shot is behind him makes us feel what he’s feeling. And also the close-up of the room number ’237’ signifies that danger is lurking around and something bad is going to happen. When Danny enters the maze it gives us the same suspense as the corridors (not knowing what’s around the corner) but this time the sound repetition which gets louder and louder and the anticipation grows because the audience are curious on what’s going to happen when the sound reaches its final and loudest tone . The tracking shot in the maze shows us the different representations of the characters for example Jack and his leg limp slows him down which creates suspense but Danny also creates suspense ‘coz he’s speeding up, showing that both characters might meet at the end of each corner and each time the music gets louder we expect that to happen.

Overall the film was a great thriller film and it really gave us ideas and different techniques that we should use for our thriller film to create the tension and suspense needed. This film showed me that it’s not only about the location , its about how each scene signifies a certain plot behind it and how the camera shots are used to represent the meaning and you need to add the effects, soundtrack etc to give that high level of suspense needed for a thriller film.