Overview and Evaluation of the Finished Product.

Our thriller was based upon the true-story of Dr Shipman who murdered his patients by overdosing them on their prescription medicines. Therefore in order for our thriller to generate tension and an ominous atmosphere we had to ensure that our set for the doctor’s consulting room and the waiting room was authentic. Consequently we used our grandparents to portray the vulnerability of elderly people who lay in the hands of the powerful doctor. Careful casting was evidently essential in ensuring realism and credibility. We used Russell Layton, a professional actor to act as the doctor to ensure that he looked authentic and create a sense of fear for the audience. We also went on a reccy of one group member’s house prior to filming to ensure that the retirement waiting lounge looked authentic, we also asked him to prepare the lounge before shooting so that all furniture and essential props for mise-en-scene were properly organized. Also, to ensure that our thriller would generate tension and was generically authentic our series of snapshots explored the motivations of one abusive doctor who wished to abuse his position and end the lives of his vulnerable victims. This was delivered through a narrative that cross-cut between the experience and p.o.v of the antagonist and his targets. (Also see ‘evaluation of our pre-production process’ post)

Through our shots, we portrayed the high and powerful status of the doctor juxtaposing the stereotypical vulnerable old patients. Whilst the doctor was preparing the injection to kill his patient, we used several extreme close-ups of the doctor with a sinister smile on his face. We continuously cross-cut from close-ups of the old woman waiting in the waiting-room to the preparation of the injection. I felt that this cross-cutting made our product this caused tension as the audience anticipates the eminent dramatic event. I feel that the mise-en-scene of our thriller was successful because it gave credibility to our story and in order to generate tension, our set has to have a degree of believability. Sound was a particularly important aspect of our production in that it brought a fairly flat narrative sequence to life by emphasizing the tension implied at key moments. Specific sound added included a non-diegtic voice over of a scripted sequence of statements, with strong Biblical connotations that read by the supposed voice of doctor. We also sourced ambient sound from our sound library which was underlaid beneath the visual sequence and the levels were adjusted to reflect the key moments at which the tension rose significantly (e.g. when the doctor takes the pre-prepared vile of drugs from his trouser pocket in preparation for the killing of his victim.) It was also important that the diegetic dialogue was emphasized at strategic points such as when the doctor enters the nursing home and greets the nurse as this is the moment at which his character is established.

Our thriller sequence was generically authentic as it adhered to the key conventions of the genre in its traditional form by focusing upon a conspiracy and employing the use of privileged audience knowledge in anticipation of a dramatic event. Our product establishes our key characters, the antagonist, the doctor and his motivations, in which the audience has a voyeuristic view-point centralizing the action of the scene and making the audience overlook in this uncomfortable position. We prolong the doctor’s preparation of his equipment which creates a sense of delay and therefore increasing the discomfort of the audience. This increases and focuses the fear and apprehension of the audience which is a key convention of an authentic thriller. One pivotal moment which brings tension to its peak is when the doctor has finished preparing the syringe prior to murdering his patient. This moment focused the audience attention on the doctor’s specific intentions and reinforced the element of conspiracy, also confirming the audience’s suspicions about the doctor providing essential privileged audience knowledge.

Our thriller however did have several weaknesses, the lack of focus on the main victim which reduced the vulnerability of the victim and failure to explore the intentions of the doctor. If we exposed the defenselessness of the main elderly victim this would emphasize the discomfort of the audience. However, our thriller sequence was successful through the effective casting and realism of the mise-en-scene. This is very important as it ensured realism and made the thriller product believable. Our sequence is well shot and edited together to create continuity in support with an ambient sound-track. The thriller sequence establishes filmic style leaving the audience anticipating more.