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9 Frame Analysis

The first frame shows our second ident for ‘Nonplus’. We decided to create a fairly simple ident for ‘Elevation Studios’ because it was quite obvious and would be easy for the audience to understand. However, for ‘Nonplus’ we decided to make the ident a lot more ambiguous and would have the audience scratching their heads asking questions like: “What is Nonplus? What does it mean? This is exactly what we created this for. We took inspiration for ‘Nonplus’ from the company ‘Syncopy’ who also took the same route we did with creating an ident because they are both very related to the Thriller genre in which they ask more questions than answer.

The second frame is the first shot in the film and also introduces us to the victim. This is significant not only because it is the first shot in the film, but also because it will show you immediately whether you audience is invested into the film already or not. In my opinion you need to start a thriller film with a fast sequence which starts of with a speedy shot. This is exactly what we have done in our film. The first shot simply consists of the victim running down some stairs, but it has the audience asking who this character is and why are they running. We chose this because this is a more modern way to open thrillers these days with films such as Limitless and the Dark Knight being two good examples.

The third frame is an example of the cinematography that we used. This is the first shot of a match-on-action that we used as the victim is opening and running out of a doorway. We used this so our camerawork and cinematography would look professional because this is an example of many shots that you would conventionally see in a thriller film. In this shot we showed the victim grasping the door knob and pulling it back with extreme force to show that she is terrified and wants to get out of that building straight away because she has just been subjected to a horrific event.

The fourth frame is showing the first set of titles. It depicts the antagonist (presumably) brushing their finger across the knife which they have used to assault the victim with. We chose to use shots including the knife for all of our title shots as it would create continuity within the sequence. Also halfway through the shot the picture will change from colour and clear to black and white with a static and ghosting effect. We did this to suggest that there is something more sinister going on within the plot of the film and that the audience is being prevented from seeing the true story. This would create tension and suspense among the audience.

The fifth frame is showing and establishing shot of our location which within the story is a set of flats where the crime is committed and is where we later see the antagonist clearing up the scene. We chose to use this location as it was urban and is the conventional place in which a murder or assault is committed. An example of this would be the famous ‘Sloth scene’ in Se7en. We also darkened the shot during post production to give the location more of a gloomy and back streets feeling so that nobody in the audience would want to ever go there. The building is also located in a place where cars frequently pass which would make getting away from the building that much more harder for the victim.

The sixth frame is an example of our post production editing and special effects. The shot shows the victim looking at her bloody hand whilst breathing heavily. We added a red tint to the shot which made the blood more noticeable. This is a point of view shot so that the audience could experience what the victim was seeing and so that when the bloody hand is shown, the audience will feel even more tense than the victim and maybe a little bit disgusted. This was our aim as a conventional thriller will show blood at frequent points during the film (mainly a crime, action and psychological thriller).

The seventh frame shows another title but this time shows to the audience what genre they are watching. In all titles shots and many points during the film, the audience gets a good look at the knife which the antagonist uses. This shows we are in a thriller because the common choice for a thriller antagonist would be a knife (sometimes also a gun). We used this as well because knives can do a lot of damage when used but also kill people slowly and painfully, which is what our antagonist wants to do, so it is obvious that they would use a knife. This would make the antagonist a lot more sinister.

The eighth frame is the final shot of the opening sequence and shows the victim being grabbed by the mouth by the antagonist. We did this to surprise the audience because we thought that the antagonist was still in the flats so the victim would be safe. Also, this shot show how we depicted our characters through apparel and costume. As you can see the victim is wearing a white shirt which represents that the victim is good, but the antagonist is wearing a black glove which signifies that they are evil and sinister. We used these colour coding because this is a common convention among thriller films that the protagonists will wear lightly coloured clothes whereas the antagonists will wear darkly coloured clothes.

The final frame presents the title of our movie: The Path of Descent. We chose this title for various reasons. The ‘Path’ part of the title is based on the fact that the victim is trying to run from danger but no matter where she goes, the antagonist will always be there. The “Descent’ part of the title is because during the opening sequence, the victim is constantly running down pathways that are steep (i.e. stairs, park pathway…). All together the title means that the no matter what the characters do, they will always be put into terrible situations that are inescapable. We added a static effect to the font to make the title look a lot more sinister and evil.