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There are only two characters features in our short film introduction: The murderer acted by Thomas Arch, and the Victim acted by myse;f Grace Pickard. Throughout the film the characters names are not revealed. This is to create a sense of mystery and unknowing which could make the film instantly seem daunting to the audience as they are not fully aware of what is happening.
One of the main aims in our short clip was to show the audience the difference between the murders thoughts and the victims. Although this was mostly done using the separation of black and white footage and coloured footage, we also focussed on other factors which could get this message across. The shots featuring the murderer show that he is heavily dressed in army boots, heavy trousers, and a dark hooded jumper. This acts as a contrast to the victims dress attire which consists only of a dressing gown. Here we wanted to highlight the victims vulnerability as she is dressed so lightly compared to the murderer who is wrapped in layers of clothing which makes him seem more threatening.
The environments which the characters in habit also exaggerate their differences. At the beginning of the clip, the murderer in featured outdoors, picking a lock to break in through a door, and then trudging down some old brick steps. This instantly creates an unwelcome, shabby persona for the murderer as his setting contrasts to the victim who is featured in a clean and tidy bathroom which provides her with an innocent and honest appearance.






The clear difference between the characters, I believe, causes suspense for the audience, as they are aware that these very different individuals are eventually going to meet and, predictably, wont get on.
We used Mise en scene to show the clear separation between the victim and the murderer throughout the setting and props. The three main props included in ‘Fixation’ were the; bathtub, dressing-gown and the knife. The idea of shooting the death scene in the bathtub was taken from the film ‘What lies beneath’ which we researched during our textual analysis. In the film, the cinematography of shots used to create a thrilling atmosphere was , in my opinion, very powerful.

Link to bath scene in ‘What lies beneath’



We took some ideas from this scene such as the camera angles shooting down on the bath and the use of the mirror as shown in the image of grace in ‘fixation’ above. I think that the dressing-gown is a very important prop for sending the audience a message about the victim. In addition to contrasting with the murderers clothes, as I have already put forward, the dressing gown also plays a significant role in highlighting the victims vulnerability and therefore creates more suspense. In our close up shot of the woman’s feet when she is getting into the bath, the dressing-gown falls to the floor leaving the woman naked. This symbolises her vulnerability and defencelessness which causes tension for the audience, and hints to them that something maybe about to happen, keeping them on the edge of their seats. My favourite of the props was the kitchen knife which again we used from our research on the film ‘Psycho’. We thought that the traditional element of including a sharp, daunting knife would contribute a chilling and spine tingling experience for the audience.






Even though this choice of weapon is so cliché for a thriller film, by using close ups and black and white contrasting, I feel that we were able to create a bloodcurdling atmosphere.Overall, I believe that these factors would attract a more youthful audience because of the cliché storyline and props as well as the typical American style horror storyline.