Intertextual References for our Thriller -Tom OD-

What Intertextual references do I want to make?

It is important in Thrillers to make reference to other influential medias, as this is a common theme in many films within the genre. For example, The Matrix contains many references to Alice in Wonderland, like when Neo follows a girl with a white rabbit tattoo.
Intertextual references make films seem more real and engrossing, as the audience has to decode and notice images and messages that they have come across before in real life. This is something we feel it is important to incorporate into our opening.

One small intertextual references would be to Utopia via our soundtrack and character
choice. As I explained in the soundscape post, my main influence when producing the soundtrack was Cristobal Tapia De Veer's work on the Utopia soundtrack. In this sense I have implicitly referenced aspects of his sound in my work by using reversed melodies and metallic sounds to mimic his unique style. 

In terms of characters, we have used a disturbed, mentally unstable character. This is similar to the character of Arby from Utopia. Arby is in a state of ambiguous mental disorder as a result of early trauma during his childhood; the Network use his lack or remorse and emotion to train him into a ruthless assassin. Although our character is not as dangerous as Arby, he is in the same state of emotional ambiguity- he lacks morality, as is hinted at when he draws the Stanley blade at the end of the clip. We would implicitly reference the character by getting our actor to hold the same blank facial expression that Arby does.
 The idea of a mentally unstable character relates to themes of insanity which is a key theme in many Psychological Thrillers, hence why it would be effective to use this disturbed character in our opening. 

One of our more explicit intertextual reference will be to nature documentaries, for example, Life Stories by David Attenborough. We reference David Attenborough's documentaries in the projection video, in which animals are hunted and killed in gruesome ways. We were influenced by the predator prey relationship in nature and felt that this was best observed in non-fiction animal documentaries. I feel it would be effective to mirror this explicit reference with implicit references to the documentary style. A subtle way to do this would be via camerawork.
In Life Stories, vast extreme long shots are used to show the landscape within which the animals in question live. These shots are also known as establishing shots as they establish the 
location, tone, themes and other features for the audience. These are often contrasted by close up shots of the animals in question. This is effective as it establishes that the animal is the focus of the program.
(Examples: extreme long shot displayed above a close up to the left of this text.) 
In Thrillers, extreme close ups are used to capture specific detail, for example, a close up may be used of a character's face to show what emotions they are feeling. Extreme long shots are often used to the same establishing effect in Thrillers as they are in nature documentaries, although Thrillers often focus more on the emotional tone of the clip rather than the spectacle of the setting. I feel that the shots in nature documentaries like Life Stories are used to make the audience feel slightly detached; they act as a constant reminder that we as an audience are merely observers. I wish to mirror this in our Thriller by using close ups of actors to explore their emotions but also extreme long shots to establish a dark tone and possibly even to create a sense of awe in the location. This all helps to make the audience feel detached from what is happening, just as a killer must feel before a kill- a key idea acting as part of the predator prey relationship theme present in our clip.

Another intertextual reference I thought would be effective could be done using props.
In the famous 1971 film A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick, the main character Alex and his cohorts drink a milk based substance often referred to as Moloko Plus (although there are multiple variations of the substance in the film.) This drink spurs on the characters to commit horrific crimes for there own amusement; in the film, Alex calls this 'ultra-violence'. Milk is a drink which carries connotations of childishness, and it's white colour creates connotations of innocence. I thought the juxtaposition of the childish drink and the horrific acts concerned with ultra-violence was very effective and made the characters seem more menacing, as they are infantalised in a way which disturbs the audience. I felt that it would be effective to use a glass of milk as a prop which our disturbed character drinks as a way of infantalising the character, to make him seem more vulnerable but also as a way of subtly referencing moloko plus and foreshadowing violence later in the Thriller. The closing shot will be a close up of the disturbed character flicking open a Stanley blade; this fits nicely with the idea of ultra-violence which the milk symbolizes. This reference creates an underlying theme of action which is masked by the child-like connotations of milk, and helps to create a sense of urgency for our protagonist and antagonist: The protagonist family member must prevent her relative from doing anything dangerous for fear that he may hurt himself, while the antagonist institute member works to try and take away this mentally unstable man before he does damage to anyone else.   

It is important in Thrillers to reference other films of the genre, so I looked into similar Psychological Thrillers that explore themes of insanity and decided that Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island was the strongest example of the theme of insanity that I wanted to make prominent in our Thriller.
The reference I intend to make once again relates to camerawork:
In Shutter Island, a repeated camera motion is that of circling the subjects of the scene. The links below are two examples of this, the times above indicate when the circling motion occurs.

The repeated circular motion connotes infinity, as a line drawn as a circle never truly ends. This fits the theme of insanity nicely, as it can be associated with repeating the same actions over and over for what feels like forever, which would surely drive a person mad. The circling creates an air of judgement; the person being circled is almost under scrutiny from the person that circles them. This also links to insanity, as it replicates a feeling of paranoia for the character being circled.

I think it would be effective to circle our disturbed victim character; he stands still for the whole clip, so circling him would make the shots he is in more dynamic. In addition, the sense of paranoia and infinite action are created which help to enforce the character's unbalanced mental state. In addition, the motion references Shutter Island's disconcerting camerawork, helping to establish that our clip is of the Psychological Thriller genre.

The final reference I wish to make is to Breaking Bad; the American hit drama is a dark story of a school teacher turned meth cook after he discovers he has cancer. The show delves deeply into themes of crime and death, themes I think would be very effective if used in our Thriller. Breaking Bad is extremely well produced, particularly in it's use of camerawork. The shot below is particularly effective in creating a sense of drama and anticipation.

I would like to replicate this shot to create tension in our Thriller, as I feel the stanley knife acts as a suitably brutal murder weapon, but also because the low angle shot allows the audience to see three levels of acrion; the knife, Walter's face, and the backdrop of the lab. This makes the shot more dynamic and interesting for the audience to watch.

In conclusion, the majority of our references will be subtly, implicit references via camerawork, however we will explicitly reference the glass of milk. These references help to carry across the theme and tone of the opening, and even though our group has not chosen the most obvious references, they may still be used to equal effect.