Heavenly Creatures - Murder Scene

Title: Heavenly Creatures
Director: Peter Jackson
Year: 1994
Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse

A key thriller convention is time. Often crimes revolve around time ehther it be how long befor the deed is done, or how long a punishment is etc. In this scene the camera pans and zooms in to the clock to highlight the time and to emphasise the nervousness and anxiety of the scene. It also uses the same effect later on  in the clip in a cafe, and the camera focuses on a watch later on also.

In some ways, this film challenges aspects of key thriller conventions. Usually we would associate crimes (murders) with a dark surrounding because this is, more commonly than not, the type of place that they occur. However, the setting in this film is much the opposite. There is brightness throughout the entire clip. This could be seen to highligh the ruthlesness of the crime and explains to us how psychologically damaged these girls must be in order to carry out this horrific ordeal in broad daylight. A similar technique is used by Quentin Tarantino in his film 'Jackie Brown'. The character Louis, murders a woman in a public car park, also in broad daylight, showing his ruthless attitude. This clip form 'Jackie Brown' can be seen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyolVOqi90

For a long period of time in this clip, the action is in slow motion. This could be seen to represent and connote a dream like feel. It allows us to see every specific element of this scene in more detail also. A clever use of cloe-ups in this slow motion phase, allows us to gain a greater understanding of the each characters feelings and emotions. In this case, we see the trauma and anxiety the two girls are going through because of the crime they are about to commit.
The slow motion come to an end which could be seen to symbolise reality. Soon after the murder is commited, perhaps showing that in reality, bad things just like this occur.