Team Meeting - 19/11/08

Today we watched a sequence from the horror Switchblade Romance directed by Alexandre Aja produced in 2005. We watched a sequence about 25 mins into the film which has conventional thriller techniques. This includes the Sound, Editing, Mise-En-Scene and Camerawork.

From this we can see many features that we like to include in our thriller opening.

The non-diegetic sound track of the sequence includes tense thudding which we can relate to being a heartbeat and high pitched sounds which are uncomfortable to listen to. The heartbeats create an atmosphere that we feel uneasy in and makes us feel that the woman character is panicking and feeling scared due to the tempo of the beats. Also the high pitched sounds are uncomfortable and the audience know that there is an off balance in the scene.

We also hear heavy fast breathing from the woman indicating desperation and slow deep breathing from the killer showing he is calm and searching for the woman. This makes the audience feel uneasy and makes them aware something is wrong.

The high pitched sounds that were used made the audience very uncomfortable. It made them feel the suspense and tension created within the scene. Plus, because high pitched voices are very uncomfortable to listen to as a audience.


There is not a lot of editing used within the scene, but the use of editing such as how the cuts are used create tension in itself. The cuts at the start of the scene were going at a fast tempo during screaming going on probably down stairs. It then got very slow during when a man opens the door slowly when entering. With longer duration for clips it creates suspense.

Also there was a use of parallel editing. This is when two storys are going on at the same rate of time. The man trying to find the young woman whilst the other story was the women trying to hide from the man.


The lighting and other components of mise en scene also relate to the tension in the sence. Dark lighting is used to make it unclear and dull. It creates a tense atmosphere. The slasher has grubby bloody hands showing his impurity. The size of the rooms also creates tension as they are so small creating a sense of costaphobia.


Rob, John and Dan