How is 'Scream' Conventional ? ( Updated )

Scream is a thriller set in a exotic location , a suburban styled house located in the middle of woods with only one road in sight. The opening scene starts with the main female character , played by drew Barrymore , getting set for a night in watching a horror movie. The phone rings and it appears they person on the other end has dialed the wrong number however , as the scene goes on we learn that the caller has set up a trap that is going to lead to her boyfriends capture and death as well as her own death.






The cinematography used in the opening scene represents the genre as it represents the emotion from the characters for example , there is use of a close up which shows the facial emotion , it is portraying fear as the character realises her fate could be death , this is conventional of a thriller as fear is shown along side a thrill of not knowing whether the character will survive or not. Another usage of cinematography within the opening scene is a long shot , where the antagonist or the murderer is chasing the female character with a knife , at this present moment we as an audiecne have faith that the character will survive however as the chase goes on we see that the killer catches up with his vitcim , a scuffle breaks out with the vitcim defending herself however , the murderers strength shows and he gets the upper hand , he then launches at her with his weapon and cuts a gash through her throat . At this moment two characters turn up to the house , which appear to be the vitcims parents , the vitcim See's this and tries to make one last move to save them however it is too late , she collapses and the parents enter the house unknowing of there fate.This is conevntional of a thriller as the cinematography used within the opening shots allows use to etatblish it uses the idea of disrquilbberum , and therefore begins within an high temp, which is a key element of thriller genric films.

The use of sound in the extract starts with a off-screen sound of screaming followed by the movies title at this moment with notified that the film will feature fear , as the scene continues there is use of digectic sound with the phone ringing , this makes the scene more realistic and leads us on to our narrative. The character is cooking popcorn which s digectic as well , becomes a pattern in the scene , as at the start it was cooking slow and there was only a slight popping niose to represent how the scene and character emotion was relaxed however as the scene progressed the popcorn had more of as tempo which portrayed how the scene was progressing as well as the characters emotions which were fear. The soundtrack at the start of the film also represents the conventional thriller sound as it starts with a slow low beat drumming noise and builds up as the film enters it opening scene.



The shot reverse shot when the female character was watching her boyfriend being held captive was a effective use of editing , it represented the convention of thriller as it created a sense of a fear based thrill as both characters are trying to escape from this situation and are scared , this follows by the girlfriend not being able to save her boyfriend and therefore the boyfriend is brutally murdered. The use of costume allows us as an audiecne the establish the character roles within the film , the female character is wearing a white jumper which represents her innocence and purity , however , on the other hand , the antagonist or the murderer , is wearing a black cape which represents death and negatively , featured with a white mask which we assiocate with the theme of Halloween or fear.

Lighting in scream is conventional as there is a low key lighting effect which enhance the shadowing effect , such as where her back is against the wall the light is low and there is a nervous feeling that the light creates. Another lighting technique used in the extract is natural lighting which is using outside lighting in a outside location for example , when the scene continues outside where the murderer is chasing the vitcim , this is effective as the scene becomes more realistic.Furthermore the use of low key lighting creates a negative mood within the scene and creates a gloomy atmosphere , this allows the audiecne to anticapate that something negative is going to occur.

Iconography involves all the props that are featured in the clip , in the case of scream we see weapons such as knives , which add to the violent effect , we also see household domestic items such as chairs , appliance and furniture ,  this adds to the effect of a average location.

Scream is a conventional thriller film , this is shown in the opening scene as it portrays a list of conventional elements , the use of the elements portray this , the use of sound , lighting, costume and cinematography are key in the conventional aspects of the film.Anaysling this clip from scream has helped prepare me for producing my own thriller film by learning how to create effect using the conventional elements for example i know what elements such as lighting , sound and cinematography to include to produce a conventiuonal and effective thriller.