Psychological Thriller icons

Most psychological thrillers involve a particular icon that reappears throughout the film as part of a symbol or a reoccurrence to 'play' on the protagonist's mind, whether they appear in the protagonist's dream or real life, they have a big part to play in the psychological aspect.


Black Swan

Throughout Black Swan there are many different icons that show that the main character, Nina (Natalie Portman), is losing her mind. The main theme for the film is ballet, and further into this theme the ballet show is Swan Lake, so there are many different icons just from here.

Nina's personality reflects that of a swan, so the theme of bird is throughout. There is a close focus on the body with bones and joints. As well as this, there are lots of close ups to show these icons.

One of the biggest icons that reflects the swan theme is the use of black feathers throughout the film and trailer. At the very end of the trailer, in the pivotal moment, Nina pulls what appears to be a black feather from a scratch on her back.

This scene is important for the trailer because it at the very end of the trailer, leaving audiences asking what they just saw, why it happens and what happens after. The music also emphasises the frightening effect this scene does. It's a very good example of Barthes Hermeneutic Code, because nothing in the scene makes sense so it makes audiences question what has happened.

This icon and theme is also used in other promotions for the film. An example is the poster below.

Donnie Darko

The character, Donnie, has an imaginary friend who is wearing a bunny costume. This is referenced to throughout the film often. Not only does the character and icon of a rabbit appear in the film and the trailer, other forms of promotion use the icon.

 

There are a lot of shots of the protagonist seen through various canted and obscure camera angles. This shows the character's mind.

  

Other themes and icons throughout the trailer are fire and storms.

Although there are still many close ups used in Donnie Darko, the psychological visual aspect comes from the repetition of icons such as the bunny rabbit, storms and fires. All of these are used in the film's poster as well as the trailer.

 

The Machinst

The Machinst is about a man who works on a machine, so the title of the film is pretty obvious. This is a big part of the story, so the theme of machine sounds are very apparent throughout the trailer and the film. Another big icon of the film is the game 'hangman', which appears on the character's fridge unfinished and the character comes back to this game throughout the film and the trailer.

This icon is also used on the film's poster, because of it's importance to the film's story.

The main purpose for icons in the film is similar to that of Barthes Hermeneutic Code. The code is unexplained so audiences do not know the full story and therefore, they are forced to keep guessing throughout the film. It's similar to the Action/Proairetic Code because the icons do not raise questions. Most of all, the Barthes media theory is mostly applicable to psychological thriller codes because of the Semantic Code, which is the voice of the person showing a deeper meaning of the symbols.

A very important symbolic icon in The Prestige (2006 dir. Christopher Nolan)

For my trailer, I'm going to have a few different icons. My most used icon will be a mask, because my film is a psychological thriller about a young female's mind, the mask acts as a form of anonymity and the identity of the people wearing the mask is unknown. The mask is symbolic of captivity, anonymity and being trapped. Masks, especially plain masks like the one I am using, take away a person's identity and personality, so the mask is very symbolic which could hint to what the film's plot is about. 

Shot list

Shot	Description of the Shot
Shot 1	Medium shot with a movement from eye level to high angle, handheld of little girl painting. Camera is behind girl.
Shot 2	Medium shot, eye level, capturing face of little girl. Handheld
Shot 3	Very high, medium shot of little girl, capturing image of painting. Camera moves down to focus on the painting still at a very high angle.
Shot 4	Medium shot, eye level, of bed as woman wakes up. Still
Shot 5	Extreme close up of eye and then lips. Eye Level. Still
Shot 6	Close up, eye level of woman’s face. Still
Shot 7	Over the shoulder, eye level medium close up of woman. Woman is on left hand of shot as mirror reflection is captured on the right of the shot. Still
Shot 8	Long, high angle, shot of newspaper. Zoom into headline of newspaper.
Shot 9	Medium, eye level shot of woman opening door. Still
Shot 10	Long, eye level, shot of masked man in bushes. Still
Shot 11	Medium, high angle shot of woman looking through book. Still
Shot 12	Close up; pan out, of knife on floor.
Shot 13	Long shot, pan down from eye level, of masked man in car.
Shot 14	Medium, eye level shot of little girl screaming. Still
Shot 15	Close up, eye level of woman screaming. Still
Shot 16	Long, eye level shot of woman running through trees.
Shot 17	Medium shot, eye level, handheld shot of woman walking. (Camera is behind woman)
Shot 18	Close up, eye level, handheld shot of woman walking. (Camera is behind woman)
Shot 19	Extreme close up, eye level, handheld shot of woman walking and then turning. (Camera is behind woman)
Shot 20	Close up, eye level shot of woman asleep. In background, masked man can be seen. Blurred shot at first but then zoom puts two characters in focus.

Filming schedule for Saturday 15th September

Filming schedule

1300 Film make-up close up’s

1330 Film mirror scene

1400 – 1530 Film montage scenes of:

#1 Girl opens door and peers out (camera from outside)
#2 Water washes face as if scared

1500 Film last scene of girl waking up in bed with masked figure in background.
1515 Film girl waking up from nightmare scene

Costume, Props list and Location

 Now that the main storyboard is complete, I began to plan what would be required when filming these pieces.

Costume
• Girl – Pyjamas | Pretty dress with leggings/tights | Different dress and tights

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The pyjamas are only really required during the scenes where the character is seen in bed, this is because of the normal representations of characters.
Despite the lead female having a mind that plays on her, she is still a lead and has to have the codes and conventions of a female lead. Therefore, she still requires to  have pretty, ideal clothing which is why the pretty dress is essential.


• Mask figure 1 – Black top, trousers and cape/big cover
• Mask figure 2 – Black top, trousers and cape/big cover
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The 'mask figures' are characters in my peice, however they are representations of the character's mind. So the costume for these characters has a colourscheme of plain black, so there is no characterisation or emotion in the clothing. The loose clothing makes for bigger appearances.

Props
• Plain, human masks x 2

The masks are my main iconography in the film. The masks are plain and in the human form shape, so they come across

• Mascara | Lip-gloss | Hairbrush
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Locations
• Forrest – POV run | Running through forest crying
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• Bedroom – Wake up from nightmare | Wake up with figure luring in the background
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• Room with mirror – Make-up closes ups | Mask disorientation

• Room with large window – Montage clip of mask
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Actor profile

The main character for my film trailer is a young female, so I made a list of people I knew who fit in with this criteria.

The most important thing when finding an actor for this piece of work was making sure that they were willing to be involved, so my cousin Louise who is a female, young and very interested in acting was a strong choice. Because of her interest in drama and acting in the future, this made it very easy to choose her because she would be willing to work well in an acting piece.

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My character is a young female, because the female mind is considered more susceptible and the threat of a young women losing her mind is more frightening because females are considered more fragile.

Storyboard of trailer

Here is my first draft at a storyboard for my trailer. Once I have a definite plan for filming and begin to film, I will convert this storyboard to one with better images.

My target audience

My target audience from Nnadinee

Psychological thriller codes and conventions

Now that I am planning my final trailer, I need to look at the codes and conventions of Psychological thrillers, and not just the trailers but the films.

Psychological thrillers are the subgenre of thriller. So they typically include:

• Low key lighting
• Shadows - represent darkness and cause tension
• Quick cut editing -to accentuate the feeling of suspense and tension
• Close-ups - to show facial expressions for audience to emotionally attach
• Behind shoulder shots - to cause tension and panic
• Eery music - to cause audience to feel concern and tense
• Twists - a reveal at the end to shock audiences (and character)

Psychological thrillers include all of the above, but there are more that apply strictly to Psychological.

The sub-genre comes from thriller but contains elements of horror and focuses more of mental strength instead of psychical.

In terms of Todorov's narrative theory, the equilibrium is when the main character's mind is at ease. Their psychological state is at the point where they feel content, so after the disruption that causes them to question motives or act strange (recognition), their attempt at repairing it is so their equilibrium is safe.

Propp’s character theory can be used to describe psychological thrillers. The Hero is the main character, the one who faces the struggle, like most films however the villain could  be a few different characters. The Villain could be the actual hero's mind or another character who is playing on the hero's mind.

Other codes and conventions of a psychological thriller are:

• Death - death or very serious injury is usually a threat to the protagonist
• Reality - the protagonist constantly questions what is real or false
• Black and white - sometimes black and white is used to emphasise binary opposites - black/white, light/dark
• Mirrors - mirrors are a true reflection of ones sense, so they are often used to question the protagonist or another characters true identity.
• Photographs - similar to mirror, they sometimes reveal something about a character.
• Flashbacks - to disorientate audience and protagonist as well as hint to secrets
• Phobias/fears - the protagonist's fears are used against them to make them feel isolated
• Feeling of 'Entrapment' - closed spaces make audience and protagonist feel claustrophobic

 Source:

Ideas for own film trailer

With the research I carried out investigating real Psychological Thriller trailers, I looked at the scenes, icons or storylines that inspired me to help with creating my own psychological film trailer.

Below is a small brain storm I created with a few different ideas for a film.

After looking at this plan and putting it into perspective with what I resources I had and what I could achieve with what I had available, I created a rough idea for my film, looking at my inspirations and the icons I will focus on.

Brief main idea: Focus on a young girl who's life is going very smoothly and life appears very normal (Barthes- events do not arouse suspicion). But then small events start to become eerie and spooky, causing suspicion to what the girl's life. Reflections start to become obscure, icons such as masks and blood start appearing in her day to day life and she is constantly questioning her own motives as the trailer goes on.

Icons: Masks, blood, obscure reflections. 

Main inspiration: Black Swan, Donnie Darko

Identifying my target audience

Here is my audience feedback questionnaire that I used to distinguish my target audience.

I chose my genre of a psychological thriller, but I needed to find out who the direct audience is for psychological thrillers were, so I conducted a questionnaire to find out what age and gender people who liked psychological thrillers were. I didn't want my questionnaire to be too obvious, so I made sure I wasn't straight out asking if the person liked psychological thrillers.

 

Here are my compiled results:

From this I found that the majority of people who class psychological thrillers as their favourite films, are female compared to males. Males seem to prefer action, comedy and horror films whereas females prefer romance, comedy and psychological thrillers. After doing further research I found that because psychological thrillers are not completely horrifying and frightening, but instead work on emotions and mental tension, females are more intrigued by the story because they feel more sympathy for the characters because they are presented as being victims. It could be argued that females are have more sympathy for others in general, compared to men.

I also found that the majority of the people who selected psychological thrillers as one of their favourite genre were aged between 16-45, quie a large range. I think that psychological thrillers can play on people's minds quite a lot and could be seen as threatening, so audiences have to be aged 16+ in case the film is too frightening. I think psychological thrillers interest people and don't particularly show a specific aged character, so the characters can be young or old and therefore the genre appeals to many different ages. Therefore I don't wish to narrow the age of my target audience to speficially young people, so my age range will be from 18-40 but can expand either side.

I was pleased to see that the majority of people said that 'tension' was a big part of psychological thrillers, because that is what I aim to include within my trailer. The most selected answer was 'mental instabilities' and 'scary moments'.