Wednesday, 16 January 2013

RESEARCH: Holiday Homework 2- Watching a thriller film

As a part of my research of thriller films, I watched the Psychological thriller 'Orphan', to not only better my understanding of the numerous conventions of a thriller film, along with the numerous sub-genres, but to also look for different types of inspiration and ideas for my thriller opening. 



'Orphan' is a 2009 American Psychological thriller film directed Jaume Collet- Serra and starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman. The plot of the film centres around a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious nine- year old girl, named 'Esther'. 



From watching the film and researching film audiences, particularly for thriller films I came to the conclusion that orphan has a target audience of adults. This is due to the complex themes, such as family, children, parenting, marriage and death- all in which older audiences understand and can relate to, in many aspects, in contrast to young adults and teenagers. 

The film also features some violent and distressing themes such as still births, murder and abuse, in which would be too intense and upsetting for younger audiences.  

Opening title sequence

The opening of the film follows aspects of the conventions of a film opening. For example it features the strict order to start with:

It starts off by showing the production company 'Warner Bros. Pictures', along with an a graphical edit on the logo, in which the same graphic are later featured in the film. 


It then goes on to show the production company 'Dark Castle Entertainment'.

The film then goes against the strict order of a film opening title sequence, by then going on to show the title of the film.

Intertexuality

The uses intertextuality, to borrow certain aspects from the 1982 musical film 'Annie', in which also follows a young girl adopted from an orphanage. For example both films share similarities in various scenes. 


During this scene of 'Annie', the young girl is seen sharing a joyful moment with her adoptive father, in which they begin to adapt to each other as father and daughter. This shot also shows Annie's character looking up at her adoptive father in happiness and joy.   

Similarly in this scene 'Orphan', Esther is seen sharing a joyful moment, with her adoptive father, in which appears similar to 'Annie', making it clear to the audience that this is the point of the film in which both character adapt to one another, as father and daughter. However this differs to 'Annie', in that this is shown through an over the shoulder shot to signify, the father's security over new daughter and her adoration for him. 



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