Jonathan Russell's films

The film ‘Taking Lives’ takes a very simple story line and adds a number of different plots twists and shocks to become an effective, suspense filled thriller. Many thrillers will follow the basic grounds of a detective hunting down the murderer such as ‘Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Psycho’ and the subject film ‘Taking Lives’, however it is the suspense, horror and excitement that makes the audience want to see them. ‘Taking Lives’ for instance, contains all the aspects of a successful thriller, from action packed car chases to gruesome and shocking moments.
Through the clever uses of camera angles, low key lighting and climactic music; we as an audience are gripped to the edge of our seat through the tension and air of unease created. And finally when we do see something frightening, the tension builds once again to prepare us for the next moment, even though the shocks try to catch us off guard when we are not expecting it. This shows the creation of tension, usually used as a great convention of the thriller genre. These are the standard conventions of a thriller, and therefore we know that ‘Taking lives’ does achieve its reputation as a successful thriller.
However there are some points that subvert what we expect to see in a thriller. Many parts of the film may lead us to question whether the film should be classed as a horror rather than a thriller. The obvious connection to horror portrayed through shocks, frightening moments and horrific images. When we see the moments such as a hacked-up body falling through the ceiling, it’s the horror aspect that makes us want to keep watching. The use of music acts as a great ally in helping to create the horror genre. Films throughout the past 50 years have used music to create all emotions imaginable and one of the most effective is tension, unease and horror. One of the most famous pieces of music to show these effects is that of the most famous thriller of all time, ‘Psycho’ by Alfred Hitchcock. The legendary shower scene, is still considered one of the most frightening scenes in film history, this is through the suspense created by many aspects, one being the music. This links to the conventions of a successful thriller, however some would still class this certain convention to be prominent in the horror genre as well.
Also the familiar leading actress Angelina Jolie acts as an unbelievably attractive detective who strives to capture the disturbed psychopath. However the character also acts as a bit of ‘eye candy’ for the viewers and as a familiar actor which people would recognise her work. In real life, its unlikely some one as good looking as Angelina Jolie what run round with a gun fighting bad guys, but that’s what recognise as exiting, and therefore creating another reason for an enjoyable film.
The protagonist (Jolie) is also faced with problems and puzzles which must be solved to uncover the truth. These problems are used to show the mystery aspect of a thriller and make people question themselves and the information given. Also the strong theme of psychology, not only in the murderers way but also within the lead character. Jolie’s character is driven into anxiety, confusion and most importantly fear throughout the progression of the case. Also the fact that we can relate to the leading character and fell sympathy for her introduces the sense of normality into our minds. Through these points we can see the connection to the universal conventions of a film in the thriller genre.
On the other hand, the horror side to the film is equally balanced with the action genre, the car chases, gunfights and intense explosions that keep us gripped. The film is very successful is spreading out its mix of genres, in a single sequence we can go from a tense, dark, scary house to a car chase down the streets of Montreal. In this sense the film to appeal to both genres and therefore open to a wider variety audience. This confirms that the combination of genres within the film ‘Taking Lives’ is used to create the successful conventions of a thriller.

In this continuity piece, our aim was to create tension and suspense but also keeping continuity. We opened the piece with a series of establishing long shots and panning shots with a calmer and slower paced feel. The pace quickens when we see a close up of two people running through a puddle, one after the other. The fast paced music has also faded in at this point creating the outset of a chase scene. I picked this music for our piece because of the fast drums, and eery guitar and the constant build up in beat. We then cut to a tracking medium full shot of the character in front running to from right to left of the frame. This is a clumsy mistake which I have identified, in the shot before the people were running from left to right, different to this shot.
The next shot has been very well timed with the music, we see the close up of the man run and stop facing the camera. He turns around and sees no one, when the music reaches a break we timed is so it was just as he turns to his left to see the hooded man walk towards him. Then we see the front character run into the building and down the corridor using a medium full panning shot about 90% from this we used a transition to cross blur the shots to again create a feel of disorientation and to also keep the pace fast. We cut to low angled close up of the first character running into shot and stops as lights go out. We also placed a thunder roll sound effect here to emphasise the lights going out and also to create suspense. The first character runs towards the camera and down the corridor in a tracking close up which turns into an over the shoulder shot, where we see the hooded figure standing at the end of the corridor. The lighting in this scene is especially effective in creating the darkness of the 'evil' character's face. However the light behind him does confuse the audience by wondering if he is good as he has light behind him where the other scared character is in complete darkness. cutting to an extreme close up of the scared person's finger turning on the light switch and then cutting to a fast panning to over shoulder seeing no one standing down the corridor as the lights flicker on.
To conclude the sequence we added a reverse angle close up of the scared person who turns to the hooded figure standing behind him. We cut to an close up of the scared persons eyes and quick faded to black with a series of sound effects to give the conclusion mystery, horror and shock. The final cuts were made to be black and white to create the feeling of fear and horror. We wanted to show that there was no colour left here, no good to save him and no hope.