One day film assignment

To make our one-day film assignment, we first began to search the school for a room/space that would accommodate our mise-en-scene. Although we did not have a clear idea of what we wanted to include in the two minute piece, we knew that we wanted it to follow a murderer. We used an app on one of my group member’s phone to ensure that we had adequate camera quality.

Scene Analysis: A Beautiful Mind

Below is an analysis of the climax of A Beautiful Mind

Mise-en-Scene Cinematography
  • the mise-en-scene is depicted as a dark, dreary, and overall negative. With a consistent emphasis on the stormy atmosphere, and shaking trees it is clear that something bad is about to happen.
  • Everything in the scene seems to be broken. The gate and windows of the house are left ajar, and the shed is damaged and cracked.
  • Inside of the house everything seems to represent a typical family home, but the grey tones of the stormy weather outside is carried inside to house, and no lights are turned on.
  • the baby in danger and naked in the bath and exposed to create a sense of vulnerability among the audience, and enforce the overall negative connotation of all of the visual aspects of the scene
  • in the beginning there are multiple occasions where the camera is focused up at the sky, emphasizing the weather, and the foreshadowing that it embodies.
  • Because this is a breaking point in the film, the cinematography is used as a tool to guide and help the audience decipher between what is part of John’s imagination and what his wife is actually seeing. For example, many times when the camera is behind Alicia’s shoulder, Parcher and the others that John sees are not visible, but when the camera is following John they are crisp and clearly present. This being said, sometimes the cinematography is used to confuse the audience, because there is still a sense of doubt and mistrust in John’s diagnosis. For example, when Alicia is approaching the shed, the camera is positioned way back in the trees, suggesting that she may have been watched, further complicating the two worlds.
  • The director also strategically uses angles to identify John as a threatening character in this scene, even though he is the protagonist of the film. The full body of the baby is shown from and aerial perspective, suggesting vulnerability, while John is looked up to from a lower perspective. An example is when he is walking down to stairs, chasing after Alicia and the baby.
  • director also uses many closeup of Nash to emphasize his confusion and delirium. Another way that close ups are used is to hone in on marcy’s features (the little girl), and establish her importance in his revelation.
Editing Sound
  • Editing is standard until John, Alicia and the baby enter the living room. The shots become quicker and are compiled rapidly, helping to build tension among viewers.
  • To enforce that Charles, Marcee, and Parcher are hallucinations, the editor uses jumpshots and slow motion to portray them getting close to John (like when marcy grabs his hand, or when the image of charles jumps from a bust shot to a close up).
  • Color correction and montage style editing is used to identify the contrast between John’s flashbacks in chronological order and what is happening in the present. The pace of the jump cuts are sped up, even more, making the situation even more climactic. Frantic transitions are used as a device to almost transport the audience into Nash’s delirium
  • The sound as a whole is very influential and adds to the tense atmosphere of the scene as a whole.
  • the diegetic sounds of the rain and thunder increase their intensity as the scene develops. For example the thunder in the very beginning only suggested that the storm was impending, but when Alicia realizes that John has had another break, the rain begins to pound and the thunder is more intense. Also diegetics, the baby crying elevates the negative tone. The sound of Marcy’s voice is soft and ringing, highlighting her youth.
  • When Alicia becomes suspicious of the open gate at the beginning, the radio sounds begin to play, which I would consider non-diegetic, because we later find out that the radio is not real, and only serves as a symbol of John’s illness. Another very prominent non-diegetic sound in the frantic piano that comes in and out throughout the scene. It stops for good, and is replaced by only the sound of rain at the end when Nash comes to realize that he is in fact hallucinating.

 

Purpose of this climax: All of the elements of the scene work together to increasingly build tension. The Mise-en-scene is constantly dull, and negative, the sounds becomes more intense, and the editing becomes quicker as the scene moves forward. Cinematography not only contrasts the protagonistic image of John earlier in the film, but helps the audience decipher between what John is hallucinating and what is real.

Film Analysis: A Beautiful Mind

In Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind we are let inside of the head of the main character, John Nash. The film follows Nash’s journey as he not only makes major advancements in mathematics, but develops multiple deceiving relationships, continuously blurring the lines between what is real for Nash and what is real for the audience. In the beginning of the film, we see John Nash arrive at Princeton university as a graduate student. It is apparent that he lacks some social skills, but later explains himself as being better with numbers rather than people, so it is easy for the audience to cast aside. It is the very first day at princeton where John meets his best friend and his roomate Charles. Later in the film, it is apparent that Nash had been summoned by the US government in need of his mathematical expertise to work against Russia. The tension of his “secret” work leads him to become severely paranoid, building tension for the audience as thus far, John’s mental illness has yet to be revealed. As we reach a climax of the film,  his wife, Alicia, has him admitted to a mental hospital where he is then diagnosed with schizophrenia ,and it is revealed that Charles, and the entirety of his government work was nothing but a figment of his imagination. This plotline is conducive to the stereotypical psychological thriller genre, as the climax of the film fills gaps in the story, and reveals hard facts rather than being further tricked by the abyss of mental instability. His mental illness also causes the audience to question his credibility as the visuals that Nash has produced for the audience is contradictory to what is concrete. This being said, we reach yet another climax when John forgoes taking his medicine and falls into another bout of hallucinations and paranoia. He has a psychotic break and puts his family in danger, believing that they are an obstacle in his government work. This tangent of the film is unique to its genre as this time, the viewer is more aware of the true circumstances than Nash, the main character, but still is forced into the perspective of Nash himself.

A Brief History of the Psychological Thriller Genre:

To understand the subgenre of psychological thriller we must first understand the thriller genre as a whole. The entire premise of a thriller— whether it be a literary work, a film, or a play— is to stimulate and excite the audience. It is to put the audience at the edge of their seats, capitalizing on suspense and tension. Thrillers evoke uncertainty, surprise, anxiety, and in some cases sheer terror. A psychological thriller includes many of the elements listed above, but has a heavy focus on the psychological state of one or many characters (tends to focus on the psychological state of one more often than not). Despite the changes in content over the years, there are general trends that manifest themselves in the underlying themes of the films of every decade: Reality, perception, intuition, existence, purpose, identity, and death are a few to name. Psychological thriller tend to take a step beyond the superficial plotlines of many similar types of films, creating a complex story that many times can intrigue the audience to view it once or twice more to “decipher its secrets”

Hitchcock came out with his first psychological thriller, The Lodger in 1926. This film happened to be the third developed silent film, and was at heart, a Jack the Ripper story.This was not the only successful psycho thriller that Hitchcock put out on the market in the early decades of the 20th century, he continued to release films such as Murder!, Number Seventeen, and Blackmail (his first film with sound). These early Hitchcock films set precedents for the genre, shaping it into what it is today. Also notable from the 1930’s is the german film M, directed by German Fritz Lang is centered around the unusual behavior of a man and his preying on children. Hitchcock continued to mark his territory as a key influence as he continued to make films of the genre all the way through the 70’s. In the 1940’s, he released many thrillers including the Oscar winning Rebecca about a relationship between a young woman and an emotionally inept widower; in the 950’s Hitchcock even began to add color to his films, producing works including Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, and most notably, Vertigo. In 1960, hitchcock put out one of the most iconic psychological thrillers if not films of all time: Psycho. Many films that followed were inspired Psycho, we can even see tributes to its infamous shower scene mirrored in films today.

Through the 80’s and 90’s psychological thrillers became more vivid, capitalizing on the “trapped” protagonist. One great example of a film emerging from the 80’s is Phillip Noyce’s Dead Calm in which the female lead must fight for her life on a yacht against a crazed castaway. In the 90’s the genre explored themes tied to investigation and serial killer afflicted with mental illness. In 1991 The Silence of the Lambs by Jonathan Demme was released, seamlessly merging crime investigation and psychopathic behavior.

The roots of the psychological thriller can be seen in the modern work produced of the genre. Themes from Hitchcock and other prominent directors manifest themselves in works such as Gone Girl, Shutter Island, Split, Girl on the Train and countless others. Still, fast pace editing and high stake plotlines are integral to the psychological thriller.

The Psychological Thriller

My group has decided that we are interested in the psychological thriller genre. Below are some films that I hope to watch to further evaluate the content conventions, style, and requirements of the genre and consolidate our choice and proceed with confidence.

–Psycho

-The Girl on the Train

-The Matrix

-Silence of the Lambs

-Inception

-A Beautiful Mind

-Get Out

-Jacob’s Ladder

-Split

-Shutter Island

-Fight Club

My Group

After careful consideration, my group has been decided. My group members are Tommy Mccabe, Hunter Goodman, and Julian Riley. Although we are unsure of definitive positions, Julian is a very talented cinematographer, Tommy is interested in playwright, and Hunter and I are discussing which of us would be best suited to take on the role of either director or producer. It is most convenient in terms of location and will also hopefully be an efficient and collaborative team!