Student film analysis one (thriller)

The first film I am analysing is called Blackout

I think this film is a good thriller film, it has alot of the conventions you would associate with the thriller genre. I especially thought that the editing and some use of camera angles is really effective when building suspense.

The steady beat of the music gives an intense feel and also gives the sense of someone running from something, the drum beat on the first beat of every bar gives te feeling that somethingis getting closer and increases suspense, the music is also in a minor key, this automatically sets a sombre tense mood. The editing really sets the intense and fast pace. all the cross cuts to different parts of the boys body and seeing him run to different areas creates confusion and draws the audience in. There is good editing on the male antagonist throughout. By the use of high camera angles on him and the balaclava he wears it hides his identity, this is a convention of thriller films, by hiding the identity it makes the audience intreged and want to know why its hidden and who is behind the mask, encouraging them to watch further.The quick cuts throughout gives a sense of time passing. The location of this film is quite good in my opinion, the fact that its set in an average house on a normal middle class street means people are more likely to empathise with the characters, situations and relationships.

Although this film meets alot of the criteria for a thriller film the film itself feels more like a whole short film rather than a film opening like its meant to be. The credits started off well by having the production companies first, the title came on screen at the right point but possibly a little early as ususally it would be shown between 30 and 40 seconds whereas in this film it was at 18 seconds. The rest of the credits such as music and editing came right at the end of the film which is very wrong when it comes to film openings, this also makes it look even more like a whole film. Although most of the camera work is good sometimes the pans are very shakey, this indicates that a tripod wasn't used or wasn't available. It would have been better to reduce the amount of pans used instead of having shakey ones as they aren't all shakey, it makes the whole film look slightly less consistent. As there was so much narrative introduced in the opening (chase and fight scene) it could make the audience feel less involved as its harder to empathise with the characters or get to know them.