Narrative Image of Blood Simple

Looking at the dvd front cover, the audiences attention will imediately have questions to ask about the central image such as "Why can we only see the bottom half of his body" "What is he hiding?" and "Why has he got a shovel?"



The title is written in blood red colour and the audiences attention is drawn to the word 'Blood' which makes the audience ask "Will death be a main theme of the film?" "Is the man in the shot a killer?"



There is no tag line which leaves questions unanswered and the audience will want to watch the film to find the answers to their questions.

Some of the typical features of the thriller genre all appear in the cover, such as the shaddow, the word 'Blood,' the colour red, the darkness and the shovel which all suggest thriller.

You can tell that it is an independent film becuase the main actress is relatively unknown. It also isn't very dramatic, its just a simple image, which lets you know it isn't a major hollwood production. The image seems very set up, and the signifiers of thriller and theme of murder are so over-done, which creates a sense of dark comedy.

'Blood Simple' Cover Analysis

Camera
There is a very low camera angle on the cover which hides the top half of the persons body; this suggests that he is hiding something aswell as his own identity. His feet do not start until half way up the shot and his shadow is cast across the bottom half of the shot and is cut off in the corner of the shot. This makes him look as though he is looking at something out of shot that the audience cannot see.

Mise-en-scene
The shot is mainly in dark colours but with blue in it. This suggest evil aswell as blue being a very cold colour. The word 'Blood' in the title is in very large font and along with the colour blue makes you think of 'cold blooded' and 'death.' The light source is unnatural, maybe from a streetlamp, and it comes from directly behind him leaving him in silloutte. This makes him look eveil as he is looking into the darkness. There is a shovel in the shot with the man; this suggests digging. Along with the connotations of evil, the audience will assume he is digging a grave or burying a body. The title 'Blood Simple' is in bold red font. The word 'blood written in red connotes death and murder.

People
The person in the shot has big feet and baggy trousers, which lets the audience know that he is a man. His clothes are dark which suggests mystery and that he has something to hide. His feet are pointing in the same direction as his shadow, which shows he is lookign into the darkness at somethign the audience cannot see. This shows that he is evil and he is hiding something which will be revealed to the audience if they watch the film.

I want to see this film, click image for wikipedia site.

This is a good example of an independent thriller, it has good examples of low-budget effects and a good portrayal of American Youth at the time. It is these that I would like to include in my thriller, an accurate portrayal of british youth today and effective, low budget effects.

Research on Sub-Genre

The sub-genre of thriller that I am am goign to research is the horror-thriller genre. I have chosen this as it would be interesting to find out about and it is also one of my favourite genres of film. The wikipedia definition of thriller is 'In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened.' It then goes on to say, 'What sets the horror-thriller apart [from a thriller] is the main element of fear throughout the story.'

Examples of films that fall into this genre are:

Saw
28 Days Later
Jaws
Scream
Alien

These films all contain the typical conventions of thrillers, such as suspense and the theme of 'hero' vs 'villain' but they contain more gore and is generally more scary and jumpy than a typical thriller.

Research

An independent film, is a film with a low budget, usually with unknown actors, created by small production companies. They are more individual and original than the big budget productions, because they arent concerned about trying to change to suit the box office. The development in affordable high-definition digital video cameras lead to an increase in production of independent films in the 1990's and 2000's.


Successful Independent thrillers:

The Blair Witch Project
'The Blair Witch Project' is an independent American film based on a local legend of 'The Blair Witch.' The film is in an unusual documentary style, and features three unknown actors, playing themselves. The film was particularly anticipated because posters and other advertisements lead people to believe that this was a real documentary, and the three students in the film had gone missing a year previous to the release of the film. 'The Blair Witch Project' was extremely successful and went on to make over $248 million worldwide.

This Is England
'This Is England' is an independent British thriller based on the lives of skinheads in Britain in the 1980's. The lead role is filled by 12 year old Thomas Turgoose who had never acted before 'This is England.' It had great success, with Turgoose winning a BAFTA for 'Most Promising Newcomer' and the film winning 'Best British Independent Film.'

Idea

I've just had the best idea!!

Plot

The main character is a detective called 'bob' in the police force who goes to visit his sickmother in hospital. During an investigation of a suspected suicide of a woman, he find something strangely familiar about her child. He starts to suffer from headaches and has starnge dreams about a man that scares his but he cannot see his face. He wakes up in a cold sweat on the floor. One evening he has a severe headache and imagines wakes up the next morning in bed he comes in to work and discovers that the father of the child was killed in the night. He cannot think who could have killed him. He visits his mother in hospital the next day and when talking about the child in the investigation, he suffers from a severe headache. He wakes up in a straightjacket in a cell in a mental institution. His mother comes to visit him and she tells him that when he was a child he suffered from blackouts whenever he thought about what his abusive father did to him in order to unconciously block out his unhappy memories. But one night aged 9, during one of his blackouts he stabbed his father who was killed. She reveals that she knew what was his father was doing to him but was too scared to do anything about it. She then tells him that the child said that he saw 'bob' killing his father and he will have to stay in the mental institution. The End. It sounded much better in my head.

Initial Ideas

I see that everyone is thinking up ideas for their thriller so i thought I would start thinkign about mine. I dont have any ideas yet but im going to brainstorm what i like from some of my favourite thrillers.

Some of my favourite thrillers are The Panic Room, Disturbia, Rear Window and Phone Booth. I like the way that the film is shot mainly on one location. I would Like to incorperate this into my thriller.

I also like horrors and slashers and would maybe have this as a sub-genre, as used in the Saw Films.

I would want my film to be set in the modern day because in modern day thrillers technology aids the hero, such as the ankle tracker in Disturbia or the Call tracer in Phone Booth.

Im thinking up ideas at the moment but i'll post again when iv got something to write.

James