Detailed analysis of Thriller Clip

One of the thriller clips we looked at in class was the 2006 film, Déjà vu, directed by Tony Scott, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.  The reason I picked Déjà vu out of all the other thriller’s we looked was because I found it managed to contained a lot of what makes a good thriller within the first 3 minutes of it, and therefore inspire me with ideas for when it comes to us making our own title sequence of a thriller.

The music itself is the first thing we hear and seems to be following what happens on set, for instance the different keys played on the piano as the title sequences comes on. Also the way the titles are presented very much relates to the film as a whole, because latter on we see that the “Snow White”, the program which the film revolves around also operates the way the title are presented with the white squares almost like targets.

In that sense, perhaps 3 different examples of foreshadowing are presents within the first 3 to 4 minutes of the opening of the film, one being the way the titles are shown representing the program, another one being the little girl dropping her doll off the boat, which foreshadows latter on everyone jumping out because of the explosion.

A key thing which makes a good thriller is of course the music being played, the fact that before the 4:15 minute, there’s a mixture of a pop song combined with the band music from the sheep, in itself created a bit of a disruption and chaos as you seem to not know exactly what is happening because you are being destructed, right up until the 4:15  minute when it changed completely to Don’t Worry Baby, and the audience seem to have a moment of relaxation, this technique is known as false sense of security, and is often used in thrillers especially those with a sub genre of horror in order to shock the audience when the real danger kick in, however here its used to highlight the innocents of the characters, by having a calm background music mixed in with shots of the different passengers mainly those of young children or older people, to highlight the innocents and unfairness that is about to happen. This same song is later on heard one more time and that’s right at the end of the film, which against makes the audience subconsciously thinking back to the beginning and all the different events that took place throughout the film and where everyone ended up being. This is what any good thriller aims to do, created a breath taking plot that grabs the audience from the start and leaves them thinking about the film even after its finished.

That is why Déjà vu inspires me, because it uses the camera work and music to create the mood it wants to and builds up suspense in order to make it a great thriller.