Past Student Work Analysis 1

I analysed "A Stranger Knocks" created by students from Windsor Boys School which was a Psychological thriller. They used all 4 Micro areas in order to create the sequence which was 2 minutes long.

The first area i will be looking at is Mise en scene, they used a PlayStation as one of their props to give the audience a normality feel to the scene where a few boys are spending time together. They have also used very casual clothing to emphasis the stereotypical teenage look. With this representation we can also relate the setting of the sequence as a stereotypical teenage boys bedroom. Some props they have used to portray this look would be weights, speakers and colour scheme of the room. The high key lighting in the bedroom is again used to create the casual feel, but also so we can see the facial expressions, as the sequence continues and the boys walk down stairs the low key lighting becomes darker to create suspense.

Secondly we analysed Camera work, the boys used a variety of camera techniques to create meaning to their sequence. The tracking shot used both times that the character/characters walked down the stairs to the knock created suspense, and as the audience we feel slightly scared as to who the stranger is that knocks. They used a zoom effectively once they were at the bottom of the stairs as they zoom in onto the small transparent window at the top of the door, this again makes the audience question whether we are going to find out who the "Stranger" is. A match on action is used when the character opens the door too see who knocked on the door, which created enigma again as to who the stranger is.

The boys used different sounds and music for different scenes of the clip. Again, the sound of the mobile phone going off gave that normality feel to the sequence, stereotyping teenage boys. The sound they used for the knock was very clear, emphasised and used at the right time. The music they created and incorporated into their sequence was parallel at all the right times therefore helped to created tension and thrill.

Like most opening sequences they stuck to very few different settings keeping the clip simple and continuity of the clip clear. During the process of editing within their clip they used a technique to blur the vision of the character as he walked down the stairs, this increases the suspicion added to the conventions of a sub genre.

The Mise en scene didn't create enough suspense and didn't emphasis the sub genre of their thriller.They didn't use any type of costume or make up to portray any phsychogical thriller convention traits, and the setting they decided to use didn't have me sitting on the edge of my seat.

To develop this sequence more they could have improved the quality of their filimg, for example when they zoomed in on the small window at the top of the door, they didn keep the camera focused on the window they let a dark wall come into focus which was innapropriate. Secondly they could have increased the variety of their camera teckniques.

From the sequence we can clearly see that the group tried to use high key lighting in the bedroom scene and low key lighting in the scene down the stairs, however when trying to use the low key lighting they didn't handle it professionally and made it so dark that we couldn't see the faceial expresions.

I don't think they used their four micro areas to the best of their ability, and didn't put much thought and effort into the costume, make up, location and lighting to overcome this. Due to this if i was to grade this group they would recieve a D.