1. In what ways does your thriller use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real thrillers?

‘The Neurotic’ is considered an independent thriller due to its use of mise-en-scene and the characters costumes, but also because of the soundtrack. There were many iconic thriller films that were used to influence the opening. The one thriller that heavily influenced our film opening was the movie ‘Se7en’. This is because the use of jump cuts in the film itself gave us ideas on how we wanted to do our thriller. We used jump cuts between the two characters ‘Eve’ and ‘the Stalker’. This creates a definition and a divide between the two characters. Another technique we attempted to grasp from ‘Se7en’ is its use of scratchy font which appears to add an unsettling element which then ties in with the story line; of how everything is uncertain and can be erased and changed whenever. Adding to this for the plot line we used the story line in Red Road except we switched the gender roles and made the woman seem more vulnerable by casting her as the victim. And the male character is in a state of dominance because he is playing the stalker and is the one following the female. Although it may be perceived as the stalker is the weaker character due to isolation and loneliness, but also having to face some sort of rejection from Eve’s character. Another aspect of Red Road which influenced ‘The Neurotic’ was the use of lighting. In our thriller we chose to use ambient lighting to add to the independent thriller genre.

The film ‘Layer Cake’ provided us with ideas for costume for characters. Daniel Craig’s character is dressed in a dark suit which is similar to Harley’s character who plays a stalker. The dark suits are linked to men. This may give the interpretation that males are being represented as possibly having a dark past or they are being shown as being secretive. This is exactly what I wanted to come across to the audience from the stalker’s character. ‘Layer Cake’ also has many interesting camera angles which we also tried to incorporate into ‘The Neurotic’, such as tracking shots of when Sarah is moving past the trolleys with the light also following Sarah. Even though the plot is a conventional story line and doesn’t cause much controversy it still enables enigma’s to occur which is necessary in the film opening. The continued use of thrillers also meant that there had to be some sort of originality so only to an extent did we choose to use other thrillers for inspiration because we felt that we would rather our thriller was different then copy other films. Even we attempted to incorporate many different thrillers to allow the audience to be able to engage into the movie but also be able to make links and understand better. Another film that our thriller's camera angles were used from was the film 'Strangers on a Train'. In 'Strangers on a Train' there is a camera shot of when the two strangers first walk into the train station and so we wanted to specifically use this shot in our thriller too. This camera shot of the feet allow the audience to establish the character before the characters face is shown. Which is why we did it at the end where both characters leave because we wanted the stalkers identity to be sealed throughout the whole opening and so the feet close up was an effective way of doing so.

We had many title ideas for out thriller, we considered ideas for example 'obsessed' to suggest how the stalker is obsessive over Eve. Other initial title ideas were 'the stalker' and 'the follower' but we felt that none of these titles made an impact nor explained the thriller. So finally we decided on 'the Neurotic' which we felt that made the best impression about our thriller. 'The Neurotic' also seems different to other titles. It gives a strange yet creepy suggestion. The word 'Neurotic' is used in this case to describe something peculiar and abnormal. The word is also used to specifically suggest the stalker and his personality. Another film that is about a person who is a stalker is the film 'Obsessed'. This film closely relates to 'The Neurotic' although in this film they have cleverly used the gender roles and as a result the woman plays the role of the stalker and the man is left to play a victim. The voiceover that was used is strange element to be used in an independent thriller seeing as it is more mainstream. The voiceover was in fact characterised after the character 'XXXX' who is played by Daniel Craig in the thriller 'Layer Cake'. Craig's voice is also used as a voiceover in 'Layer Cake' to enforce his role as a cocaine dealer. The voiceover also emphasises that he is in control which is the attempt we made in our thriller 'The Neurotic'. Another main point to consider is that in 'Layer Cake' Craig's character is left unnamed and listed in the credits as 'XXXX' which is similar to our thriller where we have not named Harley's character and he is just known as 'the Stalker'. The use of this creates an ego for the male characters and allows distance between the character and the audience which adds a sense of mystery.

Moreover, we focused closely on binary opposites and realised that our thriller attacks: good and bad, crime and innocence, past and future etc. All of these are covered mainly throughout the thriller opening. The use of this allows a balance of the characters and means that the oppositions created means that the film is universal and the audience can relate to at least one of the characters. To an extent the main binary opposite that has been considered is men versus women and who will come out as better? The clash of the sexes? Although this may well not be thought of as a binary opposition it is still very well indicated in our thriller opening that it is ultimately men against women. To continue the use of extreme close ups such as on the 'The Stalkers' and his hand build up tension and also make the audience focus on the scene or the object being shown.


These use of close ups give emphasis but also allow focus on the character themselves and enable better establishment of the character. For example the extreme close up of the eye means that 'the stalker' always is watching Sarah's character, Eve, where as the close up of his hand signifies impatience and time ticking away. As you can notice from the film stills there is a use of high contrast for the stalkers character and a use of black and white. There were many influences for this use of high contrast. One of the main ones was the crime thriller 'Sin City' which was co-directed and had Quentin Tarantino as guest director. The film was set in film noir but because of the use of high contrast and its modern adaptation it became known as neo-noir.


Both of these stills are in neo-noir which gives and old feeling but also has a modern twist with a creepy element which is what we were targeting for our thriller opening 'The Neurotic'. As well as using films for inspiration we used the famous British photographer Bill Brandt for a source of inspiration. Brandt's use of high contrast photography is interesting and cleverly used to capture somewhat unusual photography. Brandt's work allowed us to use high contrast in an effective way which made our thriller seem appealing to a young audience whilst being neo noir at the same time. Here is a collection of Bill Brandt's work in a presentation:

From the collection above you can see Brandt's work reflects a lot of high contrast photography which was our aim within our thriller to ensure we use this element of high contrast and incorporate it into our film cleverly to provide a contrast between the characters. The high contrast that was used is only used for the stalkers character and not Eve's character because the male is being represented as evil and negative hence the use of black and white.