Analysis of Thriller - After Life

After.Life

After Life is a psychological and supernatural thriller. The name suggests a supernatural however while watching the film there are 'mind tricks' involved as you do not know whether the girl is alive or dead or in the afterlife.

Conventions

For psychological

-Anna wakes up and is being told she is dead however she is breathing and talking therefore we do not know the truth about her identity.

-Anna has the trauma of her life and the car crash which she still has nightmares about.

-She is not sure if she is real or not. 

For supernatural

-The antagonist is said to have an ability to see people between life and death.

-There is a plot twist at the end where we do not know if this is true or if he is the one killing them.

Mise-en-scene

Props - The first scene the antagonist only has four items, a flower which he puts on the dead man's suit, and a needle, medicine, and a camera on a table. The next scene there are very little props as they are in a apartment where the only prop used is a cigarette. The scene changes again to a school where there is are chicks in a class room which also makes diegetic sound. As this is parallel editing the scene flicks from Anna to Mr Hutton. Anna has props such as paper, pen and also a pot of pills and Mr Hutton has a coffin and a board showing his profession.

Costume - Anna - a red under garment. The colour red was a good colour to choose as it stands out from the rest of the white apartment and is also the colour associated with death and blood. She later has on working clothes of a school teacher of dull colours.

Paul - wears a suit for work which also has dull colours apart from a blue tie which stands out showing he has importance in the film.

Mr Hutton - He is also wearing a suit with all the colours different shades of grey showing his relation with death.

Body Language - Mr Hutton also stands up straight with pride as if he were better then others. Paul is more slouched however is trying to reach out to Anna by putting a hand on the glass she is showering behind. Anna also stands up straight however more with tensions then pride however there are times when she seems to each up, this is when she slouches against her desk.

Editing

-The opening of this thriller uses parallel editing, showing the protagonist and the antagonist in their lives before they have met each other. 

-The main transition used is a cut. When the filming goes from the antagonist to the credits there is a flash dissolve to a white screen using a flash from a camera as a link. The same transition is used to go back to the storyline.

-The credits are red writing on a white background where they dissolve slowly in and out of focus. 

-A dissolve is used each time the filming goes to a different location. Making the change in location important.

Camera work 

The different distances of the camera goes from one extreme to the other, this makes you anticipate as you feel someone bad is about to happen, it also makes you disorientated. The different angles of the shots lets you see who is the important character in the scene for example at the very beginning of the film there is a low angle shot of the antagonist and a high angle shot of a dead man who he is talking to. This shows that the antagonist has the power in this situation has control on the man in the coffin. In a lot of the shots there is a small amount of movement that could be described as hand held however it is too smooth and precise to be. The movement seems to follow the movement of a character, this also makes it disorientating and makes you feel as if you are really there watching them. They also use some slow zooms. Here is a list of some of the shots in sequence;

Cantered low angle

extreme close up

close up high angle

Pan of body

birds eye view close up, zooming out moving to side

...

establishing shot

over the shoulder

extreme close up

slow zoom

hand held

extreme close up

establishing

long shot 

over the shoulder

...

tracking 

extreme long shot

long shot

extreme long shot 

close up 

extreme long shot

close up 

Sound

At first there is no soundtrack which makes the scene creepy as the only sounds are diegetic such as foot steps, water dripping and a sudden camera flash is well as speech. After the camera flash the sound track begins with the credits. The sound track is mainly played by the piano in a slow minor key which makes it mysterious, upsetting and very eerie. There is also heavy breathing and cymbals this adds to the feel of the music. The music then turns quiet however is still played over the footage and non-diegetic sound for a little while until it stops at the change of location. When the soundtrack starts again it is very quiet however builds in volume for a few minutes until it then stops to the sound of echoing footsteps and lights fuzzing then sparking out.