Elements That Inspire Me From Disturbia

Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window made in 1954.Disturbia stars Shia LaBeouf as a teenager called Kale Brecht who, while confined to house arrest, thinks he has witnessed a murder when spying on his suspicious neighbour, called Robert Turner portrayed by David Morse.

Elements of the film that inspires me are:

CAMERA

The camera work in the film inspires me for different reasons. In the film there is a lot of perspective shot. I like the perspective shots because it feels like what is happening and being seen by the character is as if the audience is being the character so it’s more likely to get a more realistic reaction from the audience.

There is also a lot of extreme big close ups to the face of the characters which makes the audience focus on the characters facial expression.

I also liked how the establishing shot at the beginning of the film was a nice shot of a peaceful and calm area and then after it goes to a car crash which changes the whole mood of the film which is almost consistent till nearly the end of the film.

CHARACTERS

There are 6 important characters in Disturbia. I think all the characters are represented as a bit cliché, but some more then others for example:

Robert Tuner (murderer) is represented as smart and sly. He is late 30ish and has pulled back slick hair, he also come across mysterious (who comes out of unexpected places) because he up to something.

Kale Brecht is represented as the teenager who has been affected by the death off someone close. He first comes across as lazy and not that smart who does typical teenage boy things. But later in the film he is represented as smart and misunderstood.

I think the characters do inspire me because if they do come across as cliché the audience has a set mind on what is going to happen and that can always be wrong.

NARRATIVE

At the beginning of the film before any characters are introduced the audience hears dialogue between two people which is ‘think he sees us’ ‘nah he can’t see us, trust me he can feel us watching’. Then the audience find out that it is the dialogue between the father and son talking about fishing. But what inspire me is that the first words of the film is all about the whole film because of the spying on the neighbor that is a murder basically “feels that he’s being watched” by Kale and his friends so he tries to kill him and his mother as well as friends.

There is also a lot of shouting in the film which I think is needed in thrillers.

This can been seen in the clip above

SOUND (MUSIC)

The music played sometimes goes with what going on in the film for example when Kale has a messy room and is being lazy the audience can hear the song ‘Because I got high’ from Afroman. This inspires me because I think it is good to have suitable music that relates to what’s going on or the mood in the film but not too much music.

Also what else inspires me is that there is a lot of use of orchestral music specifically violins which is played a few times in the film when something bad/wrong is happen and the violins get fast and louder. It inspire me because when I was watching the film it created suspense and tension for me also it made me think that something scary was going to happen and something that did make me jump did happen but I couldn’t guess when it was going happen and if I was to make a thriller film I would like to make that effect happen to the audience.

EDITING

In the film the pace of the cuts changes. The cuts were very fast sometimes when something was happen like when Kale is escaping from Robert while looking for his Mum making the audience jump and keep their adrenaline running through the scarier parts of the film, but when there’s not much going on or when the audience thinks nothing is going to scare them that moment of time the cuts get a bit slower but it (doesn’t linger  on a person)  and then all a suddenly a/few fast cut happens making the audience jump a bit because it was unexpected like in the scene when Kales mum is behind the open refrigerator door or when Robert is hiding behind the mother while she is tied up with a knife and it inspire me. Also I like the cross cut between Robert and Ashley in the super market and the car park because it was unexpected because I thought Robert would of left the super market but he knew Ashley was watching him.

Other thing that inspired me was the way the film was made so that the most unlikely things that would make you jump made me jump because it was unexpected. Also at the ending of the thriller film when I thought that Kale was going to save his mother and cut the rope Robert appears from behind he from the dark which was also unexpected because I the audience was made to believe Robert was somewhere behind Kale so he was running from him looking for his mum but Robert was already with his mum so misleading which is why it work well. So it would inspire me that if is was to make a thriller film I would make it misleading a bit and really unexpected making even the most innocence things be a bit scary.