Past Student Thriller Analysis

The  first past student thriller I have chosen to analyse is " The Catalyst". I think the ident is effective as it looks professional. I particularly like the use of colours; the colour of the font matches the colour of the sky. I also like the music used as it is a catchy recognizable tune, however to improve I would suggest that some form of animation is added to extend the duration. During the opening scene of this film we see a male using a knife to open a door. This intrigues the audience as it is quite obvious that he is breaking into the house. Once inside the house the unidentified character enters a bedroom and takes out a rifle which he uses to shoot someone. during the shooting I particularly liked the editing technique where the the audience could see through the characters eyes whilst he was aiming the gun.I also liked the match on action used at this point as the continuity is perfect. Another strength is the slow motion used after the shooting as it builds suspense and adds to the shock of the incident. However a weakness is that at around 2:19 there is what could be classed as a continuity mistake as we can clearly see buildings out of the window which he was shooting out. This is a mistake as when the audience see from the characters point of view the area is completely rural. Another thing that this group could of done to improve is include more fast paced editing during the part where the victims companion is running away. The continuity editing at 2:39 is also extremely impressive. .Another editing technique that was effective was the fade at the end of the intro. The fade introduced the title which I think was a clever way of bringing in the title. During this film non diegetic sound was used extensively and was the more dominant type of sound used. Although diegetic sound was used (for example the footsteps at 2:30) I feel that this intro would have been more effective if more was used. Overall I feel that this intro was filmed and edited to extremely high standards.




The second past student thriller i have chosen to analyse is "waking Up". Firstly i feel that their ident is good as they have used black and white only, which are contrasting colours. This not only makes "Tesseract Studios" stand out but it also creates a sleek professional look. The sudden sound that appears as the ident comes on is effective as it startles the audience into paying attention. I also really liked the animation used as having the company title come on the screen before the image and the rest of the text makes the company more memorable as its the first thing the audience see. The colour of the text used throughout the title sequence is white; this is effective as it is a light colour that does not distract the audiences attention to the extent in which they are no longer paying attention to what is happening. Throughout this opening a mixture of diegetic, non diegetic, off screen and on screen sound is used. For example the voice over is effective as it not only allows the audience to hear the characters thoughts but it also gives the audience some background information and some of the plot. The first couple of shots are effective as they establish the scene in which the first part of the opening is set. Fades are also used between each establishing shot. Another effective shot is the point of view shot at 0.25. This shot is effective as it allows us to see through the protagonists eyes. This shot quickly cuts into a shot of the protagonist running towards the camera then to a long shot. These shots are effective as the continuity is are perfect. The narrative itself is good as it is a fairly original idea. I particularly like the bit at the end where he is looking in the mirror and his alter ego appears. Overall I feel that this is an effective opening to a thriller.




The last past student thriller I have chosen to analyse is " The Routine". Firstly i feel that their ident is pretty poor as the animation and the image looks unprofessional. I also feel that the name of the production company is weak as it does not flow very well when said out loud which could make it unmemorable. Another downside about the ident is that their is no sound. I think sound is very important when it comes to idents as the sound becomes a trademark to that production company. However the actual title sequence itself is very effective as the white font stands out as it is brighter than the rest of the image. I also like the way in which the different titles were placed throughout the sequence; particularly the one against the slipper. This is a creative and inventive way of setting out titles. Another strength of this film is the sound. The film starts with diegetic sound;the alarm clock. This was a good way to start a film as it starts at the beginning of the day. The music used is good as it creates a cheerful atmosphere which tricks the audience into thinking nothing bad is going to happen. At 1:15 the music suddenly stops and the screen goes blank. The screen goes blank for around 3 seconds then the image returns however the music does not which could suggest there is a problem. After the blank screen we hear the alarm clock go off again however this time we are observing the protagonist waking up from a different point of view and it appears that the alarm clock has moved and so had one of his slippers. This causes the audience to start to question what is going on. Then when he is in the bathroom we see him cleaning his teeth from a different angle and from that angle we see his reflection in another mirror. We then see a person dressed completely in black walk past him. This startles the audience as they are sure something bad is about to happen but it doesn't. Eventually something bad happens and he gets knocked out. At 2:20 our protagonist wakes up but he's in a different location. The rolling shot used after this point is very effective as it shows the audience that he is laying on the floor. Overall I think the narrative was very creative and clever but the ident really let this opening down.