Codes and Conventions 'Shutter Island'

Codes and Conventions of  the Thriller film 'Shutter Island'

In shutter island they use a lot of stairs down to dark places, this is important to a lot of thriller films because it shows entrapment because they won't be able to escape that easily if something happens down or up to where they went, this is a large part of most thriller films because it makes scenes more tense because with dark areas and stairs anything could jump out at them, this makes the audience have a sense that something's going to happen when they get to the other side of the stairs.



Another thriller convention that is used in the film 'Shutter Island' is that they use a lot of non-diegetic sounds. Non-diegetic sound is music or sound that is added into the film but the protagonist in the film cannot actually hear this music or sound it is just to add background noise so you know how the protagonist are feeling at that time or to add sound so it gets rid of the silence before something jumps out at the protagonist. Non-diegetic sound is important in thriller films because it gets rid of the quiet scenes so then you are less likely to know when something is going to happen in the scene, also non-diegetic sounds are also used in this film to add drama to if there is a chase scene or if the protagonist is coming to a realism of what is actually happening to him, this is import because by the tone of the music or sound then the audience who are watching are more likely to understand what the protagonist is feeling at that point.

An important part in thriller films in the mise en scene, the mise en scene is everything that is in the scene, mis en scene is important in a thriller because it can make a lot of scenes seem like there is a lot more happening in the scene. Also mise en scene can also make you realise where they are, an example of this is that on 'Shutter Island' seeing the ocean makes you realise that they are on an island separated from everywhere else so that they have nowhere to run because of the waves they wouldn't be able to leave the island and they are on an island that is home to a mentalist asylum where and one point they escape from it so they are trapped on an island with a lot of mentalist patients who are able to kill them, also mise en scene can be used to show entrapment because they could show a lot of objects between the protagonist and the exit so it can be shown to say that the protagonist is defenseless because they have nowhere to escape to.

Camera angles can be used in thriller films to make more panic in the audience because in some scenes with thriller films because they can use the camera to look around corners which the protagonist cannot see and around these corners could be the protagonist that they are trying to hide from, camera angles can be used for something to seem bigger than what it is so that whatever it is will look more threatening, they can also use camera angles to make something smaller to make it seem weaker, this can be important in thriller films because it can be used to make the protagonist seem weaker by using a high camera angle and it can make the antagonist seem more powerful using a low camera angle, this is important because it makes the audience realise who is the most powerful and should be feared out of the antagonist and the protagonist, shutter island does this because the person who you think is the protagonist is actually the antagonist because it ends up being one of the mentalist patients so it makes you think he is weak because of the higher camera angles but then you realise that he is one of the most dangerous patients that they have so by using higher camera angles it doesn't make you think that he is actually going to be the antagonist. 

In thriller films they also use panning and tracking shots, this is important because they can use these in chase scenes, these camera angles are important in chase scenes because then you know who you are meant to be focusing on. These camera shots are not just for chase scenes however, they can be used if people are walking and are having a conversation as they can track them so if there are a lot of people then they know who they are meant to be focusing on.




Start of the film with the main character as a detective



End to the film with  the main character as mental patient

In this film there is a use of flashback, where the film looks back into events that have previously happened surrounding the main character, set in an earlier time than the main story. This is an example of a key convention in thriller films. After looking into this film, we decided as a group that we were interested in this technique, and liked how it could integrate two different scenarios into one. We also found that flashbacks tend to occur mostly in the opening sequences of films. We have various ideas that we are looking to use for our thriller film, therefore we considered using a flashback within our thriller opening sequence to help the narrative flow with our main character.