Joyride (Gillespie) 1995

Joyride is a clear thriller as it creates suspense and keeps the viewer on edge throughout the whole film. The setting is outside and at night along the main road beside a woods, an immediete sense of the bewilderness, not many people around. Minimal lighting would have been used in order to see the setting, but maintaining a sense of reality. The costumes used are normal, with the kidnappers in traditional dark clothing and the police officers in uniform as they would be in real life.

Its themes and issues represent a male character who is held hostage by two other males and the film shows the struggle that takes place. The appropriate props have been used in order to create the right atmoshere that are relevent to the film, such as two cars, an electricity pole and weapons. The characters who kidnap the man portray qualities that fit in with the role correctly which is to clearly seem threatening and dangerous, their facial expressions and body language come across as fierce and serious which gives the viewer an immediete judgement on them.

The sound used is mostly diegetic, for example the car engine and rain, but a non diegetic soundtrack is used to create suspense throughout most of the film, it changes tone when the main action is over to a more slow, neutral sound. The rain acts as pathetic fallacy, it contributes to the unnervy atmosphere and is typical of thrillers/horrors.

The film uses genre/style conventions uniquely as a lot of it is shot whilst moving (in a car) which can often be hard in order to keep the camera steady. There are several shots in the boot of the car which is also impressive as it may be diffuclt to film in such a small space. I find it inspiring that the film is highly entertaining, it keeps the viewer on edge as they do not know what is going to happen, the narration is restricted.

The advantages of the short narrative are that there is little build up, the action takes place straight away and the viewer is engaged throughout. The film itself possess's the qualities that make it a successful thriller such as the setting, sound and characterisation which is inspiring for me in creating my own thriller.

It seems to follow the typical thriler film conventions and although the victim is saved, we are suprised that the film still ends on a low, the character gets killed through getting set on fire which is perhaps different from other thrillers that often end on a high.

Although as viewers we are unaware whether the victim is innocent or not, we sympathise with him and almost put ourselves in his position. The film overall is a successful short film thriller and maintains engagement throughout.