9) Hitchcocks traits in our Prelminary planning

Why/how did we chose to use Alfred Hitchcock’s style of filming a thriller?

In the first shot there is a close up mirror shot of Dannii, with a foot in the background which shows double identity, which is a trait of Hitchcock’s thrillers, showing the audience that Dannii has two different sides to her. The foot in the background also creates mystery and suspense, to help build up to the shock when the audience become aware of the mystery.

To get from the first shot to the second, we used a panning shot, down to a close up of her blood covered hands, progressing into a zoom in to the plug to emphasise the double identity that she is able to wash away the evidence without anyone being aware and carry on with her ‘normal’ life that the characters think she lives. The audience will know about Dannii’s two sides, which is effective for Hitchcock’s movies and will show thriller traits keeping the audience a part of the narrative. We then cut to a panning shot of Shannan walking through the toilet door on her phone, completely unaware that someone is dead in the toilet she is about to go in, we then cut to Megan’s body on the floor which is the first time the audience see her whole body which builds up the shock and then adds to the suspense and tension as Dannii is still in the toilets, from the close up of the body we cut straight back to a close up of Shannan’s face to reflect her state of mind and to show her shock. This also builds tension for the audience as they are aware that Dannii is the killer and Shannan is in danger.

 We then use a panning shot of Shannan turning around to see Danni looking in the mirror washing blood of her hands which is letting her secret out and through an over the shoulder mirror shot, Danni and Shannan have a conversation;

-      Dannii: Now it’s your turn.

-      Shannan: What?! What do you mean?

-      Dannii: You know what I mean.

During the conversation there is a quiet sinister sound track, which the gets louder as the camera gets further away.

After this conversation, we use a progressive long shot of Shannan and Danni staring at each other. The camera continues to get further away, and eventually goes out of the toilets and watches the toilet door shut. At this point the music is at its loudest and stops when the door shuts fully so the audience are left unaware of what happens to Shannan which creates tension and suspense to find out the mystery.

Storyboard of our preliminary plan:

 

Natasha