Jo's five Thriller textual analysis'

Abduction

The film opens with an extreme long shot overlooking nothing but tree tops and a mountain in the distance. A light source is coming from behind the tree's in the distance to act like natural sunlight that shadows slightly over the tree's. We don't know what the film is about as it doesn't reveal any characters, or obvious sources to expose what location we are in.

From this shot the camera uses tracking to reveal what is visible of a car below on a road using a high angle shot. The tree's still cover the majority of the frame but a new source is introduced. In the next couple of seconds it is obvious the camera is tracking this remote car as the tree's that were in focus before are not covering the road. From this point i have noticed a long take has been used to cover these identified shots, using no cuts. The pace relies on the subject we are drawn to: an accurate pace of a car. This may try to represent the cars pace, to give a sense of realism for the audience to have relation to the driver.

 
Now I can identify the first cut that has been used to jump closer to our subject. It uses a plain straight-in transition to emphasize our approach rather than using a fade which may create a slow reaction which will just drag the shot out. It is still filmed from an high angle shot, almost a birds eye view. 

As the camera wants to stay parallel with the fast pace coming from our subject, a shallow depth of field has naturally been created which makes the trees visible in the frame out of focus. It seems the light is

Still using the same take without any cuts in between but rather zooming in closer to our subject, a character has become visible on the bonnet of the car while the vehicle is still moving. We as an audience are immediately questioning the boundaries this character has as they seem they go the extreme to have a good time to rebel.

This is the second cut i can identify, again it uses a straight in transition to avoid dragging out the shot. It is filmed from a low angle directly facing the lower front of the car only, that then hovers over the subject into a high angle which reveals our newly introduced character in a more comforting shot to familiarise ourselves of the character.
to conclude the intro of 'Abduction', I believe the film producers want their audience to egstinguish the characters lifestyle and question why they have this attitude. Possibly rebelling against their free will, or putting on an act to cover up their damaged background?

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Hidden

The film opens with a frozen image of what looks like a quaint village with buildings built up on one another. Text starts to scroll in by letter, eventually filling almost the whole frame. It finishes, then fades out to reveal the whole background image again.
The text is in a white tone with basic typography  - it is calming, along with the background setting. I think if it were to be in black it would come across quite harsh and powerful as to layering over the still image.  There is no sound coming from the type appearing on screen to possibly portray a live typewriter, it just rather portrays a non - diegetic aspect.


Originally i suspected this was a still image but a distant character becomes visible crossing the frame at a fast pace. There is no dialogue but vague sound coming from their movement. From what i can see, this character is dressed in smart costume, a suit at that - which often suggests wealth and a good job. He may possibly live in this location.

More into this take, i can identify two more characters that separately enter then exit the frame.  The second character I cannot visualize as they are dressed in all black who then pass' a dark car which camouflages them before they exit the frame. They may be dressed in this way for the audience to suspect what they do for a living and do they really live in the building they came out of that is straight ahead of the camera? Moreover, the majority of this particular building is hidden by a large bush. 
Off-screen sound of loud 'thumps' and 'bangs' are vague in the background, that appear earry and echo at points. We as an audience cannot see what source is producing this sound which again creates suspicion, which contrasts with the peaceful setting. Hence this, I can recognize another off-screen sound of birds that occur throughout the scene to exaggerate its positive impression.

I believe this is a long take, although the film producers may have captured a still image then when the shot is altered with characters entering, the filming starts. To make this more realistic i think they used the off-screen sound throughout.                     

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Provoked

Lighting introduces the film by a match stick being lit with a naked flame to transfer onto a candle. The sound coming from the match stick being dragged across the box is exaggerated to possibly suggest the films 'plot point'.

This long take i have verified runs on a naked flame guiding us from wall to wall revealing possible memorial photographs hung, further leading us towards a destination.  A none-diegetic soundtrack is playing over the shot which sounds like a flute and light beat of a drum which produces a suspicious rhythm to create a little discomfort for the audience. It does not suggest a positive nor negative mood, but an approach of it to soon be discovered. 

 

 One of the revealed photographs is of a beautifully dressed Indian women which may possibly be a key aspect of the films settings referring to the culture it is set in. This may also relate to the non-diegetic soundtrack that is still playing against the shots. I believe all of the photographs that the camera views are purposely from a low angle to create realism in looking up at photographs in daily approach. This may try to suggest a character is looking up at them.

Later into the take, a door is opened which implies to the audience this may be a characters action and furthermore the camera may be encouraged to film from a characters perspective. So now we know the candle that occurs in every shot until now may be held by our suspected character. The candles light in this same take reveals what is visible of a bedroom. Back to the idea of our characters perspective, i think this shot is filmed from a slight high angle looking down at a subject in the room. It is had for the audience to verify what the subject is just yet due to the minimum light source that has been used in every shot other than our significant candle.


This long take stops suddenly on a close-up of another character asleep, then awakening by the convenient approaching light. This automatically raises questions from the audience. Who are they? Why are they there? Do they live there? 

Another cut directs us back to our original characters point of view looking straight onto the bed. This may show our new characters physical awakening using a medium close-up, which may suggest their discomfort. 



We still aren't familiar with our original characters appearance and who the may be as an individual. More questions are being raised on this other character such as 'are they breaking into the opposing characters home?' or 'are they actually a close relation just visiting?'



The next shot is from a low angle view of a row of semi-detached houses alongside an off-screen sound of a ghastly scream which we straight away think is coming from our previous exposed character. We know this as we are directed straight back to the scene of 'him' in the room who is now on fire rolling around on the bed. It is now adjusted to a long shot to reveal the whole room. It then focus' on a shot of only their feet and bottom of the bed in the frame. This appears an interesting shot the me as we cannot see our characters reaction through facial expression, although can still hear his screaming through a slight off-screen sound. We can rather only see his physical reaction.  




Another shot that still uses the previous off-screen sound is of a more detailed shot of the row of houses to identify the location we are in. As an audience we know the incident that has taken place is in one of these houses from the orange glowing window with smoke aggressively sieving out of it.  


The scene being set at night creates more realism to the shot as the fire is a significant on screen light source that catches the audiences attention.