Movie Conventions Research: The Smile


         Smile, released in 2022,  was directed by Parker Finn. The premise of the story follows a psychiatrist working in a hospital when she gets a frantic patient. This patient discusses how she was seeing people, including dead people, eerily smiling telling her she was going to die. The woman then brutally kills herself in front of the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist begins seeing people creepily smiling in front of her as well. The rest of the movie follows the psychiatrist's journey in attempting to stop whatever she is seeing and save her life.        


What elements (Conventions) of the genre that you chose to base your final task on does this movie have?

       The movie utilized a multitude of thriller conventions. It included many close-up and extreme close-up shots of characters' faces in order to capture their reactions. Furthermore, it also utilized a variety of high-angle and bird eye shots, which almost always became canted shots creating a sense of discomfort and suspense. Tracking shots were used to follow a character in a moment of tension, for example, at the beginning of the movie where the psychiatrist meets the woman who would eventually kill herself, the woman began violently screaming while crawling into a wall, and the camera followed her throughout that action. While the movie didn't have blood-gushing action scenes, the clothes still reflect her journey. The clothing reflects the psychiatrist's mental journey rather than her physical one, with her clothes switching from professional to loungewear after the event with the woman. The lighting is dark and gloomy, reflecting the situation the psychiatrist is in, with a bright light shining on the psychiatrist.  


What elements (Conventions) of the genre did the movie have that you like?

         I loved so many things about this movie. I loved the use of the canted angle to show the uneasiness of the main character. Unfortunately, I don't think we will be able to create this type of shot in our movie, as my tripod doesn't allow for that kind of movement. I love the use of clothing to show the character's journey, both mentally and physically. This is something that we will be able to recreate with the resources we have!

 What elements (Conventions) of the genre did the movie have that did not appeal to you?

     My one and only complaint with this movie is the lighting. The dark and gloomy lighting, while it served its purpose of creating anxiety, made the movie too hard to watch. When watching you would have to be searching for what you're supposed to see instead of enjoying the movie. For our project, I will still keep the lighting dark, however, I will use enough lighting to ensure the audience can still understand what is happening.

Thank you so much! 


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