Thriller

•Thriller is a very broad genre of film. • The main elements that are used is suspense, tension and excitement. •The main intensions of a thriller is to stimulate the viewers feelings and moods giving them a high level of anticipation, surprise, uncertainty, anxiety, stress and even terror. •Thrillers are mainly inclined to be very quick and fast paced and adrenaline rushing.• Film techniques like cliff hangers are very commonly used.• The main and most important aim of a thriller is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats.

Thriller

• There are many different sub sections to the theme of a thriller movie:

• Crime thriller• Mystery thriller• Conspiracy thriller• Psychological thriller

For my coursework I am working in a group. We are trying to create a thriller movie. However to do this we had to look at

normal conventions that associated with this type of genre. So that we as a group can incorporate these conventions into our

movie.

Thriller

• A typical crime thriller would involve two characters which come into conflict with one another. The main plot is that a protagonist

character who is seen as vulnerable and weak is set against a problem or mystery or an escape. That seems impossible.

• The protagonist is mainly shown as a: hostage, victim, weak and vulnerable.

Archetypal characters:

This is Shelley Duvall in ‘The Shining’. She is playing a weak victim.

They are mainly played by women or girls as they are seen as more naive and weaker then men. Mainly they look exhausted scruffy, and ill. As they are normally in a confined space when being held

hostage or have barely slept because of their problem they need to solve. The main character always wants to achieve sympathy from

the audience so that throughout the film the audience always wants to see the protagonist to achieve their goal.

ThrillerArchetypal characters:

This is an example of a stereotypical female in a

thriller. This is Sara Paxton in

‘The Last House on the

Left’.

Thriller:The antagonist is mainly shown as a criminal, stalker, kidnapper, assassin, and being evil usually with a vendetta or plot to take

revenge. They seem to always look strange with a sense of madness about them. A thriller always has an antagonist

character. This is someone who represents the evil in the film someone whose intensions are corrupt and dangerous. Mainly

played by a man in his late 40’s.

Archetypal character:

This is Anthony Hopkins who played

Hannibal Lecter in ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’. He was the antagonist

character.

Thriller: Mise-en-scèneLighting is especially important as the audience can assume what genre the movie is by the way the lighting is displayed. In a normal thriller different levels of low key lighting is used. This will create a mysterious secretive like impression. The normal convention for lighting in a thriller would be very dark and gloomy lighting.

Low key lighting is very conventional of any thriller film as it builds up suspense. By the use of color we

can depict a mood or atmosphere. The normal conventions for a thriller would be the color black grey and red. As each of these colors symbolizes

darkness and mysteriousness.

Examples of low key lighting. The photos are not showing a lot of detail so it is mysterious.

• Costumes and Make-up is used so that we can produce a character and present them in a way that we would want the

audience to perceive them. In relation to thriller films a normal character would be a young women fearful and in tears.

Therefore the conventions towards makeup would be someone with smudged make up who looks very fragile and upset.

Thriller: Mise-en-scène

Thriller: Mise-en-scène

• Setting And Props – In a typical thriller movie scenes would take place in locations that seem to have a dark scary atmosphere. This would be a haunted house, or a forest. The dark forest setting is a more stereotypical location with crime thrillers where murders rapes and conflicts can take place.

The most typical props associated with

thrillers would be things such as knives and guns.

Thriller

Normal ways of using sound:

All the films I have analyzed have incorporated non diegetic music playing in the background essentially to build a certain atmosphere at the beginning of the film. Some films use dialogue at the start usually spoken by the most important and influential character. This is shown in the film ‘Kill Bill Vol 2’. Were the main character speaks about the events leading up to the present time.

Thriller: Common Editing

Commons editing: Most stereotypical editing features of thrillers is the use of writing being shown over the

top of action being played on screen. This is what ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ has done. Instead of including the title and credits at the beginning of the film this

thriller has incorporated them during the first scenes. The writing is clearly written in black and white. Which

are two very distinctive colors. Which are normally associated with a dark and gloomy atmosphere.

Jump cuts/short takes are extremely common in thrillers as there are many things happening that we are unaware of so jump cuts/short takes fill us in but also they create a quick fast passed feel to the film. The main reason thrillers use jump shots is to create suspense and confusing which helps keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Thriller: Common Editing

Long shots are also very well known to be added into thriller films. These are largely used to set the scene. These shots are well known

to be used in the films like The Dark Knight. Another camera angle to be quite common in thrillers are high angles mainly to represent a powerful and dominant position. The position of actors introduced into a scene or the film do not seem to differ from the films I have

study the actor normally tends to be positioned in the middle of the frame.

Thriller: common camera angles and movements

The most commonly used camera movements at the beginning of a thriller film are tracking and panning shots. An example of this is in the film ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ as when the main character is

running tracking shots were frequently used. The most typical shots used in thriller films seems to be close ups and extreme close ups. These shots are greatly used in films like ‘Kill Bill Volume 1’ and 2 also in the film ‘Se7en’. These shots are most frequently used to

create suspense, excitement and mystery at the beginning so that the audience get grasped into the movie very quickly so that they

are hocked from the start and want to watch more.