Group Analysis of The Usual Suspects

This clip is the start of the thriller The Usual Suspects, it does not include the credits which is a pan of the sea introducing the actors in the film.

The Usual Suspects is a crime thriller, written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. The thriller which received 2 Oscars starred Stephen Baldwin and Kevin Spacey, the film includes a twisted storyline about a boat that was destroyed and the key to the mystery lies with the one survivor whose story leads to five crooks in a police line up.The conventions of a thriller are shown through the camera, editing, Mise-en-scene and sound to create tension and mystery.

Camera by Whole Group
In terms of camera, there is a frequent tilt involved to reveal an identity or a situation. For example when the fire is lit there is a slow tilt to establish the character on the boat urinating to prevent the fire from spreading any further. This presents a sense of mystery to the scene as the camera slowly reveals the body of the man but the tilt is cut just before the character's identity is shown. 
Between cuts there is a zoom in on the ropes which gives a sense of voyeurism as to the audience, it feels as though the scene is being watched.

Mise-en-Scene by Aimée

Mise-en-scene is used to portray the thriller conventions into the opening of The Usual Suspects by creating tension and mystery. The location of this opening scene is firstly shown by the camera by using a pan, it is the sea and the pan of the camera that shows the wide range of emptiness which establishes the setting. The sense of being alone in this scene makes the audience possibly feel tense as to why it the characters in the scene are alone and if them being alone will create danger. The location is established in the scene with editing showing a matched cut and the camera showing a zoom on ropes giving the impression that they are on a boat, supporting the credits of the sea. The props in this scene give a sense of the characters and the mystery of the opening scene. After the credits you are introduced to the scene by matches being lit for a cigarette in a line which was then dropped into some fuel, this creates a sense of danger for the audience as fire may be hard to control, we are then shown another fire source later on in the scene which is a gold lighter.This may create tension as to whether the lighter is going to be used to create fire but it also shows the wealth and power that that character has in contrast to the box of matches. This is a binary opposition possibly showing the protagonist v antagonist or weak v powerful, the use of binary opposition create a tradition convention for a thriller. The wealth of this character is extended by the used of camera showing a close up of a gold watch. A eye-catching prop used to create apprehension is the leaking oil barrel, after seeing the fire being created by the small matches makes the audience realize the possibility and danger that there may be a fire. In the scene you are shown various dead bodies firstly by the fire passing one man and the wealthy man walking past another with a gun indicating he is the antagonist, this constructs the sub-genre for this Thriller that it is crime and violence which are main conventions of a thriller.The lighting of the scene is very dark but the characters are shown through a reaction shot when the lighting up of a cigarette from the gold lighter is used revealing the face; again fire being a hazard.The lightening at the end of the scene is brighter to show the character and his importance when he is speaking to the investigators.

Editing by Anna
In the first 5 minutes of Usual Suspects, editing is used to emphasize the slow motion and detail in the scene. A slow cutting rate is identified to show the slow motion of the cigarette dropping to provide a tense feeling to the audience as they know it won't be a wise action to do. The slow motion is supported by the build up of sound which is known as a crescendo. This helps the audience to build up excitement for what's to come in the film as sound plays a big part in making people tense and eager. This is also supported with the slow cutting rate.
Near the end of the first 5 minutes, a zoom in on an area of ropes is shown to portray the sense to the audience that someone is watching the scene which is called voyeurism, commonly used in thrillers. After the camera zooms in on the ropes, editing is used to use the effect of dissolving to help hint to the audience that the next scene where the first character that speaks was the person watching through the ropes. The character in the next scene tells the audience the sense of the time and location when the previous scene occurred by saying: "It all started 6 weeks ago back in New York..."

Sound by Danny 

This thriller has the non diegetic sound of an orchestra playing over the petrol lighting. This gives the effect of tension because the orchestra playing feels like something big is going to happen with the sound bridge building up to something. At the very start the lighting of a match the diegetic sound is over emphasized to add more drama to the scene this builds the effect of that he will use that light to do something important. Also you can hear the diegetic sound of pouring before you see what he's pouring or what/who hes pouring on, this adds the effect of mystery it gets the audience asking themselves questions of why and who so builds the thriller effect of mystery. The non diegetic sound of footsteps does the same you only hear them first so they also build this effect. Also the loud volume of the explosion shows how epic the explosion was giving the effect nothing will be left.