Textual Analysis: Pulp Fiction Opening Scene

Mise-En-Scene

• The lighting is natural to the scene, the light is coming from outside through the blinds, using natural light creates a sense of realism for the scene. this also challenges the typical conventions of a thriller movie because they normally use dark lighting.
• the man is smoking in this scene, smoking is usually seen as a male thing, therefore it's typical of the producers to have had him smoking because they are reinforcing the idea - because this is something men do - that men are of higher importance as they do things that women don't.
• The clothing he is wearing have lighter colours, whereas we'd normally see darker colours on a man because darker colours are what are typically associated with men, it may be taken that Tarantino is challenging gender stereotypes. 
• However, the woman is wearing colours that would usually be associated with women, she's wearing a pink top which is typical of a woman to be wearing. so, in this sense Tarantino has conformed to gender stereotyping.

Camera Shots

• For a long length of time the camera stays in the same two-shot of them just sat at the table. In the shot they're just talking and the stillness starts to make the audience feel uneasy as we feel as though the shot is still because something is going to happen, but it doesn't and this anti climax is challenging the normal conventions of a thriller because in a thriller when the frame is still for a long time, it's a build up to something that is about to happen, whereas in this scene nothing happens, Tarantino does this because it may later leave the audience thinking that after every long frame it's just an anti-climax and can shock them.\
• the extreme close up of the waitresses is face is at a low-angle, which is unusual as the connotations of this shot are that the person has a superiority or power, however this is no the case, Tarantino challenges the ideology of this shot. 
• the medium close-ups are used when each character is talking, in the frame it shows the length of the restaurant, which is important because they are planning to rob it, so the audience is able to see what they're going to rob.

Editing

• in the extract they only use straight cuts, this creates a sense of realism. this is because the continuous flow makes it seem more like real life and this means that the audience can relate to it, which is important as the audience's entertainment is the main objective for the producers.

Sound

• There is no background music, the only sounds are the two people talking and the general diagetic sounds of the coffee place. this 

Audience Research Evaluation

These graphs are the results of the questionnaire we produced with details underneath each.

This shows that the majority of people we asked were females, however we will consider this when creating our work to make sure that it is not biased.

This chart substantially shows that the main age group is between 15 and 19 compared to the others, so this may be our target audience as we know more about them.

This chart substantially shows that the main age group is between 15 and 19 compared to the others, so this may be our target audience as we know more about them.

This pie chart shows that the most Thriller subgenres are watched evenly by the people we asked so their opinions are reliable as they already have an insight into the genre.

From the information that I had this shows that crime and action thrillers are most popular for the audience that we asked.

This graph shows that the main factors that appeals to the interviewees is that they are exciting, action packed and full of suspense, so we may incorporate these elements in our work

This graph shows that 5/6 of our interviewees have previously watched a crime thriller which shows that their feedback will be reliable and not false.

This graph shows that the best plot for crime thrillers according to the interviewees consists of murders and then the antagonist getting caught, probably by the protagonist, so we may consider this during the production and filming of our work.

Loud, spooky and tense sounds are the most preferred by the people we asked for a crime thriller so this will help us choose our sounds for the intro.

By using those preferred sounds the main atmosphere that is created is a tense one, which will be idea for our thriller as it will keep the audience watching.

According to our potential audience, police officers and detectives are their main ideas for a protagonist which aids our initial ideas of using police officers.

Escaped cons and the apparent ‘helper’ styled characters are the most popular in crime thrillers according to our interviewees which again confirms our initial ideas of using an escaped convict.

Weapons were the most preferred props for our potential audience, which indicates that we may need to include some forms of weapons in the intro

This graph shows that camera angles were rather important in creating correct atmospheres as the results were close however, close ups and establishing shots were dominant so this shows what we should include during out filming.

Yet again these results were close, yet slow motion editing and fast cuts were the most preferred among our potential audience which gives us an idea of what to do during the editing stage.