What mood is created in a thriller?

What is the relationship between mood and suspense in literature?

«What is the relationship between mood and suspense in literature?» eNotes Editorial, 7 Oct. 2009, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-relationship-between-mood-suspense-literature-105927. Accessed 8 May 2023.

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«Mood» is a particular state of mind or feeling created by the writer. It can be happy, sad, creepy, foreboding, violent, etc. «Suspense» is a growing sense of urgency or anxiety that builds to the eventual climax of a story or novel. The two terms can certainly work together in many variable combinations, and both states are important in creating an overall effect. Suspense is often built simply upon the well-told wording of an exciting tale. Both the mood of a story and the suspense that builds therein help to sustain the reader throughout its reading.

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Mood includes many literary choices that an author may choose to make. For example, the words an author chooses to use can create a mood. In addition, whether a piece is written from the first person point of view or in another way also affects the mood. For example, if an author tells a story in the first person point-of-view, it seems personal or confessional. If an author chooses third person narrative, the mood conveyed would be more objective. In addition, if the dialogue is between two characters who are fighting then the mood would be tense or argumentative.

The other literary device is suspense.Suspense is created by withholding something—whether it be critical plot turns and twists or information about a character’s motives or actions done by a character that nobody knows about until the end of the novel. Suspense is essential to mystery because the author does not want the reader to understand the mystery until the end. Suspense is not only developed in murder mysteries. It is created in many stories and novels by alluding to something that happened, or is going to happen in the future, but not saying what that is until the end.

Mood and suspense go together. It is all up to the author whether he or she wants to create a certain mood in their novel. I don’t think an author says to herself, I am going to create the mood of sadness then makes a scene. I think the author says to herself that she wants to create a certain character then that character faces difficulties in life. Then how they react to those troubles causes a mood in the scene. However, I do think it is a conscious choice to use suspense. Suspense keeps the reader turning the pages. It picques the readers interest. It is beguiling. Suspense is essential for good literature.

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How lighting affects the mood of films

We always talk about the good stories, pretty shots and sets, groundbreaking acting and direction, and moving soundtrack when we catch a great film. Yet, one similarly significant element often remains unspoken during discussions and critics for all our cinema and movie streaming visits; a role that allows us to be able to see what is happening on screen in the first place — lighting.

The idea that many people have in regards to the use of lighting in the film is how it is only a form of technicality simply used to make a shot visible. However, if you have watched more than a couple of films, you would realize that every frame of a scene looks different even with repeating camera angles, actors or settings. Well, that is a difference that relies largely on, as you guessed it, the element of lighting. Ultimately, it is a useful tool not only wielded for constructing prettier-looking scenes but more importantly, a variable that is also maneuvered to create the mood in a film.

Commonly recognized as cinematic lighting, here are 7 ways lighting affects the mood of all our favorite films!

This is the most standard form of lighting used in films to not only ensure whatever caught on camera is visible, but also to bring focus to the subjects or a specific part of the frame. Commonly, the three-point lighting set up is used to ensure the scene to be less dramatic-looking by balancing the shadows and highlights caused. As its name suggests, it is formed by light sources placed at three different points: the key light, the back light and the fill light.

In the simplest way, the key light is the primary and brightest source of light, determining the mood of the shot. The back light is often placed behind the subject, separating that from the background. The fill light is then the supplementary light that lightens shadows created by the key light, while bringing out the details in the background without being distracting.

When controlled differently, each point of light can create different kinds of moods to both the looks and the story, and is ultimately what makes this set-up the starting base for many other creative lighting techniques.

2. Harsh Light

A type of lighting set up that is created by blasting and concentrating smaller sources of key light onto the subject while reducing the fill around it, the harsh light is a technique and creative choice that results in more contrast in the shot than a normal three-point set up would. With examples from most of the scenes in Fight Club, or any shots in a film noir, it can be seen that such forms of lighting draw attention to a specific part of the frame by creating dark shadows around it, forming suspense and dramatic effects along the way.

A counterpart to the harsh light is the technique of low-key lighting. Done by placing the light source under the subject, this set-up produces similar dark tones and shadows with the shots in films. Seen best with characters like the Joker from the Batman trilogy and Pennywise from the movie “It”, this lighting is popularised for setting up suspicious or antagonistic characters from the scary and ominous effects created.

3. Soft Light

Conversely, the soft light is formed by larger and more distant sources of key lights to illuminate the subject, resulting in a brighter shot with little to no shadows created. Adding on with a generous amount of fill lights used and a focus on the entire frame rather than a specific spot, this technique is used best to portray hopeful and amiable settings, like those at the beginning of “The Hobbit” and in the entirety of the film “Her”.

Along with the soft lighting set-up, comes the application of high-key lighting. As its name suggests, this set-up is formed by well, heightening the key light above the subject. This results in a relatively identical effect of the soft light, and in turn portraying characters as favorable looking, and even at times, angelic and youthful with lesser shadows around them. Think the heaven scene in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” and the shots in most romantic comedies, the use of high-key lighting widely portrays characters at peace or at the very least, nearing it.

4. Practicals

While most lighting set-ups in filmmaking are formed using studio lights, props that produce illumination, like lamps or even candles can be equally as useful to shaping looks and moods in films. Such forms of light sources are commonly known as practicals. Largely used in films like “Birdman” and “Buried”, practicals are extremely useful when shooting its wider and moving shots, since these objects that were already part of the set design could blatantly be included in the frame.

Moreover, practicals are also effective in creating logic within a constructed shot, as we are able to see where the light source is coming from. Whether it is a shot going darker because we see a character switching off the lamp, or a scene getting illuminated because a candle is being lit, practicals make a scene much more believable and even interactive, where the items that belong behind the camera come to be in plain sight instead.

5. Ambient Lighting

Widely recognized as natural or location lighting, ambient lighting is the closest to a “no-filter” in filmmaking. Relying largely or even at times, entirely, on the natural or provided lights in the location itself, such forms of light sources tend to tell more stories of the environment and the setting rather than the subject itself. It is a recognized choice that is made most popular in the film “The Revenant”, where a softer light during daytime scenes might suggest that the day is near ending, while harsher tones indicate periods of noon. Ambient lighting helps portray realism within a film while making it feel like we are following a character around rather than just simply watching them.

6. Cold Lighting

Now, we enter the territory of colour; after all, the manipulation of lighting to create different moods does not stop solely at its position and intensities.

One of the two main types of colours in lighting techniques, cold lighting is indicative of a “lower” temperature of colour, or one that takes on colour tones of blue, green or grey. You would very likely have come across such uses of lighting with films like “Paranormal Activity” and “The Matrix”. A creative choice that many a time looks unsaturated, it usually conveys a void of life in its frames. Regularly used in science fiction, horror and war-filled films, the cold lighting is greatly used to portray loneliness, dullness and quite obviously, coldness in both its settings and characters.

7. Warm Lighting

On the other hand, a complete parallel of cold lighting is the use of warm lighting. A colour scheme that is most similar to a fireplace, such forms of lighting technique often take on the tones of orange, yellow, or red. As a result, our frequent associations of warmth to comfort and coziness also reflects on the looks constructed. Best seen in films like “In The Mood For Love” and the French classic, “Amelie”, sentiments similar to nostalgia, hope, and happiness are, in turn, communicated. Commonly also seen in youth dramas, coming-of-age recounts and romantic tellings, the warm lighting is most widely used to tell stories of the better times.

Conclusion

Not all variables have to be seen to be important, as we can clearly learn from the different effects and moods created by the lighting in filmmaking. Every position, colour and intensity of the lights used can shape a completely varying look, as it can tell an entirely different story.

Now that you have learnt the basics of how lighting can affect the moods of all films, it is not too late to start noticing all these set-ups and differences in all your favourite movies, and just perhaps, even try them out yourselves!

What Is The Mood Of The Hitchhiker

The play “The Hitchhiker” by Lucille Fletcher describes the journey of a man named Ronald Adams traveling to California. When he sets out on his drive, he sees a hitchhiker on Brooklyn Bridge leaning against the cables. Throughout his trip, he sees this same hitchhiker many times. The author uses tone in the story to create a feeling of horror and makes the character appear paranoid, frightened, and frantic. Within the text the author makes the character appear paranoid through his tone when he goes to the gas station. He sounds paranoid when he asks the mechanic about hitchhikers being on the road he was driving on. He asks the mechanic “I suppose not. (casually) What about hitchhikers?” (Fletcher 337). When the mechanic tells him that there are not many hitchhikers on the road he replies quickly which makes him seem worried. He also becomes paranoid when he first realizes that he is seeing the same person over and over again. Adams says that “I couldn’t figure out how he had gotten there, but I thought probably one of those fast trucks picked him up” (Fletcher 336). The character is paranoid about the hitchhiker following him, and dreads seeing him.
Adams is also frightened during his trip, mainly of the hitchhiker who seems to follow him. He appears frightened when he sees the the hitchhiker turn up in …show more content…
He appears frantic when he is talking to Henry (the sleepy man). He is frantically trying to get coffee at the shop so he will not be alone, but he is also very tired. The sleepy man (Henry), thinks he is crazy, and tells him to go away or he will turn him over to the sheriff. Adams tries to tell him about the strange man but Henry is not listening. Another example of Adams being frantic is when he finds out his mother is in the hospital. He becomes even more distressed when he finds out that he is dead. “Death of her oldest son Ronald? Hey — what is this? What number is this?” (Fletcher,

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