Mise en scene and editing are both important factors when filming a thriller, helping to intrigue the audience and create suspense. Mise en scene helps the audience create a sense of realism between what is happening on screen to their own lives and assists the audience in recognising the locations that the characters are in and what kind of situation they are in. This includes settings, props, lighting, costume, make-up, composition, body language and facial expression. Editing helps to create a continuity effect, helping the audience to tie together scenes and create a fast pace.
The first 2 minutes is made up of many different shots and we are not shown whether this is in the same place or not. In the first 30 seconds we are shown a man lying in bed reading a book. We can tell he is in his bedroom as the props used all connote what you would have in your own bedroom, such as a bed, bedside table, lampshade, bookcase, curtains and a picture framed on the wall. Although these things usually create a homely atmosphere because of the low key lighting used I think it created a tense atmosphere. The man in the bed is wearing just a plain white t-shirt so we assume this is bed clothes. Throughout the shots with him in he is also centrally framed and so always the audiences main focus. This was then reinforced when the character took his reading glasses off and the camera did quick cuts between the character and a metronome standing on the bedside table. This creates a fast pace and the straight cuts from the metronome back to character mirrors the metronomes side to side movement. This all helps to create a vaguely tense atmosphere.
The audience then sees a shot of an open book and from here onwards there is a very fast pace and straight cut’s. This is edgy putting the audience on the edge of their seats due to the tension that it causes. The next thing we see is the credits starting with the main colour being black and white text over the top. The typography used is similar to that of a child’s which gives it a twisted edge and makes it quite creepy. This shot fades into the next shot, showing a picture of hands which were hand drawn with a red line down the middle, up to this point this is the brightest colour used so far due to the rest being dark, this fits in well with the low key lighting. Also seen in this shot is a shadow moving across the screen, which can creep the audience out. Many of the images seen within these opening titles can be quite horrific such as the shot of a blade scraping against someone’s fingertips, this raises questions and enigma making the audience want to know why?. Throughout the opening credits, the moving images all include things being done by someone, including Photo developing, picking up books etc, we see the characters hands but nothing else, this also raises questions and enigma as we do not know who the character is. The photo that is being developed is a picture of a distressed boy, this is an image that can stick into the audience’s minds as well as other shots with horrific images. We then see the text of seven written across the screen in different type fonts, some quite scratchy and some child like-all connote the same kind of twisted scenario. Again the background is black and the font is white creating contrast.
The next shot which again is a fast straight cut shows several pages of a book and also shows the man’s fingers who we recognise from before as they have bandages round the tips, is writing in it. This intrigues the audience as we can’t see what he is writing it has an element of enigma and so does the actual character himself as we want to find out who he is. Using the quick cuts it doesn’t give the audience enough time to see all the information within each shot and so they therefore want to know more. In the next few shots there are many flashes confusing the audience and creating suspense and tension as we are not sure what is going on. We then get the use of red again-which can connote blood and anger but we are not sure what exactly the picture is in the red. Again there is a shot of credits and the white writing is then reinforced with white scratches across the screen.
The next series of shots flash back and forth between text and images, all the time involving the audience as they are wondering what the relevance of these are. In these images we again see this mystery characters fingers crossing things out, highlighting pieces of information. The use of all these things such as the extremely fast pace and the quick cuts all keep the audience guessing and therefore intrigued. This is an important feature in any thriller.
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