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Case study

The opening scene of Kill Bill uses lighting, color, costumes, camera techniques and a cliffhanger to effectively establish the thriller genre. Chiaroscuro lighting is used to create shadows on the female character's bloodied face. A black and white filter references the film noir subgenre and emphasizes the dark tone. The character's wedding veil clashes with her bloody makeup, generating intrigue. Extreme closeups capture her emotion while compositional techniques like the rule of thirds hold the audience's attention. The cliffhanger of Bill shooting her just before the titles leaves the audience in suspense about her fate. These elements immediately immerse viewers in the mystery and danger typical of thrillers.

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Case study Kill Bill Establishing and developing genre
Lighting The Third Man Chiaroscuro lighting is used straight away in the opening of Kill Bill because this uses light to create shadows, half of her face is In shadows and all we can see is the other half covered in blood and bruises with a vale. This is effective to establishing genre straight away because the this type of lighting is often used within thrillers such as in The Third Man so the audience associate the lighting to the genre. Furthermore the dark part of the screen that is in one third of the screen could be metaphorical in suggesting there's more to the shot than what we can see, which is a very scared, vulnerable and beat up woman, we don’t know how or why she is there and in that condition, this is how many narratives of thriller films open, putting the audience straight into the deep end with them having little knowledge of it for example in the Casino Royale opening where the audience straight away get a fight scene. Additionally the lighting is used effectively like when Bill is wiping her face with a handkerchief she turns her head more to the shadows, like she's trying to hide as more of her face is in the dark. However when Bill pulls out a gun she quickly moves out of the shadows, as she's trying to plea for her life she faces him more, its all metaphorical. Chiaroscuro lighting is often manipulated in order for there to be metaphorical reasoning's behind it in thrillers, such as hiding in the shadows like in Once Upon a Time in America. Once Upon a Time in America
Colour In the opening to Kill Bill a black and white filter is put over the top because its effective to referencing the sub-genre that is Noir thriller. This is because the black and white creates connotations of bleak and dismal, which reflects the situation that the character we see is clearly, because of these connotations and the characters costume and make up, we start to anticipate that something bad is going to happen and that her life is possibly threatened. Additionally this black and white filter makes all the key mise en scene clear to the audience; we can clearly see that there is blood and bruises on her face; we can clearly see intended dark shadows; Bills name on the handkerchief is obvious; the tears of terror shine and glisten more to the camera so we see more of her emotion which is pure fear. Moreover the is white on black titles are also heavily used in Noir thrillers such as in The Big Sleep which is another film noir film, this is because the white on black opening titles set up to the audience that something dark is going to happen, which is the narrative of most film noirs, because the emptiness created by black consuming most of the shot constructs connotations of evil and danger. The Big Sleep
Costume, make up & accessories The female character which we see in this opening is wearing a costume and make up to reinforce the noir thriller sub genre. The only piece of her costume we can clearly see is her wedding vale which is white, which has connotations of happy and angelic. However this completely contradicts her make up which is gory as there's shocking amount of bruises and blood on her face which makes us assume she has been badly beaten up, these are darkly coloured so completely clash with the vale and the connotations created by this makeup is death and danger. All because of her makeup and costume the audience are constantly at the edge of their seats wondering how and why this has happened to her, which is what a thriller is definitively meant to do. Although the makeup looks extreme it doesn’t look unrealistic, this is conventional of the thriller genre because one thing that defines a thriller is the story is always realistic, and if the gore was too over the top that would contradict this rule
Costume, make up & accessories Although we don’t see Bills face we can interpret a lot from the little revealed to us in the opening. For example he is wearing dark cowboy boots and dark trousers, he has a southern American accent, and we can kind of see that he is tanned, these are cultural signifiers to the audience, we can figure out that he's evil and dark because of how he interacts and reactions from the other female character in this opening. This psychotic individual is generic within thriller films, the fact that he has his own name on a handkerchief, he looks well kept and that he has flashy jewellery on suggests he has a big ego which backs up the psychotic label given to him. Many thriller films have the antagonist as psychotic or mentally ill such as Norman Bated in Pyscho and hints to these problem can often be subtly shown through their costume, make up & accessories.
Camera angles, Shots & Composition Extreme close ups are often used in thrillers to capture a characters emotion for the audience and this is exactly what the director is doing in the opening of Kill Bill. In this opening the character is crying and shaking out of fear and terror, for most of the time in this the camera is only on her face and stays stationary, apart from a few seconds when Bill is walking over, this is so the audience can really take in and feel shocked from the victimised and terrorised female character, so the audience can then start to feel the intense desperation and danger she is in. other thrillers that do this are for example The Dark Knight rises The rule of thirds is also used in this shot to keep the audiences attention on the important parts of the shot like her face or the word “Bill” The dark Knight rises
Cliff hanger In this opening a cliff hanger is used to create suspense and mystery which is what a lot of thrillers do because it can add to the concept of the narrative which can often be mysterious, dangerous, dark, exciting and more. The cliff hanger in this opening is Bill shooting the female character and then it straight away cutting to titles so we don’t find out if she's alive or not, but just before he shot her she tells him she's carrying his child. This happens in a matter of seconds so is very intense and shocking to the audience, the diegetic sound of a loud gunshot when Bill shoots her makes the audience jump and is a sound bridge into the next scene which is titles. This is conventional of thrillers to use cliff hangers because it puts the audience at the ‘edge of their seats’ straight away into the film and makes them want to find out what happened.