Thriller Conventions

Sub-genres

Examples of Thriller sub-genre:

Sub-genre	Example	Convention
Action	Speed	Explosions, violence
Crime	The Silence of the Lambs	Sometimes from P.O.V of criminal, sometimes from P.O.V of protagonist working against them
Psychological	The Sixth Sense	Conflict is mental, not so much physical. Situation could damage sanity of protagonist
Conspiracy	FlightPlan	Confronting a powerful organisation
Disaster	Poseidon	Enormous disaster takes place
Eco	The Day After Tomorrow	Protagonist has to stop a threat to the environment
Legal	Cape Fear	Based in courtroom, lawyers
Medical	Contagion	A virus spreads
Mystery	Fight Club	Someone or something has to be found
Political	The Constant Gardener	Government is involved
Religious	The Da Vinci Code	Myths, religion, religious objects
Romantic	True Romance	A relationship grows between two of the leading characters
Spy	Skyfall	Adventures involving agents, gadgets
Supernatural	Inception	Psychic skills, good vs. evil, ghosts, vampires
Sci-fi	Alien	Aliens, perhaps imaginary ideas, futuristic
Dystopian	Rosemary’s Baby	Rebellion, oppression, an environment or situation similar to hell, post-apocalypse for example

 

Camera Work

Establishing shot-location

Mid-shot- characterisation

Close-ups- Disorientation/claustrophobia

Composition and framing:

Key props, framing creates suspense

 

Use of camera movement/angles:

High/low angle shots to show power/status

Use of perspective- 1^st/3^rd person:

1^st person=empathy

Editing

Dual narrative- shows complex narrative/ tension

as story converges. Editing- straight cuts- pace=tension.

Use of flashbacks.

Thriller Opening Conventions

Drama: Tension

Use of music

Titles- name of film-actors/directors; company name

Confusing questions

One significant event  

 

 

Sound

Use ambient sounds- music/noises- fade in/out= atmosphere.

Diegetic/non-diegetic.

Voice over to create back story

Avoid dialogue

 

 

 

Mise-en-scene

Setting- realistic, isolated

Costume- realism

Weapons-realism, everyday items

Lighting- Shadows etc.

Actors- males-Protagonists/Antagonist

 

 

Narrative

Disorientating- Starting halfway through an event- audience questions

Chronological?- flashbacks/forward

 

Thrillers from the last 50 years (roughly)

 

 

Psycho-1960

Director:Alfred Hitchcock

Starring:Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh

Premise:A young woman stays at a hotel that is run by a man and his mother.

Cape Fear-1962
Director: J. Lee Thompson

Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Polly Bergen

Premise: A prisoner is released and stalks the family of the lawyer that was responsible for putting him in jail.

 

Rosemary's Baby- 1968

Director: Roman Polanski

Starring: Mia Farrow

Premise: A couple move to a new apartment and are surrounded by strange neighbours. The pregnant woman is paranoid that her husband promised the neighbours that the baby can be used as a sacrifice for their unusual rituals.

 

 

 

Deliverance- 1972

Director:John Boorman

Starring:Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight

Premise: A group of friends go on a trip to the American back-country

 

 

Jaws- 1975

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss 

Premise: A great white shark starts to attack people living on a small island

Carrie- 1976

Director: Brian De Palma

Starring: Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie

Premise: A 17 year old girl with telekinesis is pranked on prom night, pushing her to the edge

 

The Shining- 1980

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall

Premise: A man gets a job as a janitor at a hotel and moves his family there during the winter, while no one else is staying

 

Blue Velvet- 1986

Director: David Lynch

Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan and Dennis Hopper

Premise: A young man finds a human ear in a field, and when he tries to find out where it came from and why it is there, he gets dragged into a dark story

 

 

Fatal Attraction- 1987

Director: Adrian Lyne

Starring: Michael Douglas and Glenn Close

Premise: A man has a weekend affair, but the woman does not want it to end

 

The Silence of the Lambs- 1991

Director: Jonathon Demme

Starring: Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins

Premise: In order to track down a murderer, an FBI agent  has to speak to an imprisoned cannibal for help

 



Fight Club- 1999

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Edward Norton and Brad Pitt

Premise: An insomniac bored with his life meets a carefree man that makes soap. They both start up a fight club for others wanting to escape their dull lives but it spirals out of control 

 

Kill Bill Volume 1- 2003

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Uma Thurman

Premise: A group of assassins attempt to kill a pregnant bride at her wedding rehearsal, but instead put her in a coma.  After waking up four years later, she wants revenge

 

Oldboy-2004

Director: Chan-wook Park

Starring: Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu and Hye-jeong Kang

Premise: A man is inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years. When let free he has to find his captor in five days

 

 

Taken- 2009

Director: Pierre Morel

Starring: Liam Neeson

Premise: The daughter of an ex-CIA agent is kidnapped and he must travel to Europe to find her

 

 

 

 



Seven: Opening Analysis

One of the first shots of the film ‘Seven’ (or ‘Se7en’) is a bird’s-eye-view, and possibly a point of view shot, of four or five objects lined up on a table. This establishes character as we learn that he is an overly organised person. Also, two of the objects are an FBI badge and a knife, which show that he is likely to be a detective. The fact that the objects are lined up neatly could mean that he has probably worked in this profession for a long time, as this has become his mundane everyday routine.

We move on to the next scene, where we see a dead body. This shows that our assumption that the protagonist is a detective is correct, and that he is investigating a homicide. There is very little light in this scene- only some natural light coming through a window. This is consistent throughout the entire opening; there is barely any light. It is quite eerie because it is difficult to see what people are doing, and that anything could happen. It is also very appropriate as the mood of the film very dark, as are the characters.

As the scene moves outside, we expect there to be a relief in the lighting, but there is not. This could be paralleled to how there is now relief for the detective- William Somerset- and he can never forget about the things he sees on his job. It is a very gritty setting and appears to be an area downtown there is quite sleazy- suitable for the gritty events in the film. We hear rain and thunder when the scene is taken outside too, which may be an example of pathetic fallacy- the depressing weather is comparable to the gloomy and disturbing happenings of the film.

We are introduced to another character- David Mills. He is much younger than Somerset, and more laid back. He is chewing gum in the shot and wearing a leather coat showing he is relaxed and naïve and has less experience than Somerset. After this, we see a shot of Somerset, in a very shadowy place. His clothing is reminiscent of a film noir character. He is mysterious and lonely, and thinks mostly of his job. He also does not have that much dialogue, meaning that he may prefer to be on his own than being with others.

A mid shot/two shot is used to show David Mills and William Somerset. It could be juxtaposing the characters as very contrasting personalities- they’re working together professionally but it does not look like they are connecting.

Later in the opening, we see and hear a metronome ticking at Somerset’s house. It reinforces the idea that he finds it hard to have relief from and stop thinking about his job, as he has to have noise when trying to sleep so that he can shut out any memories.

The credits then begin and we hear some unusual and disturbing sounds- screeching, metal clanging, thudding. They all sound sudden and harsh, and it adds to the way the images shown allow us to look in on the life of a killer. Some of the images shown don’t answer questions, but only give us more to ask.

When the credits have ended there is an establishing shot and the word ‘Monday’ in the corner of the screen. The image of the building is again dark, murky and very monotonous. As we enter another crime scene, the only light available is from the torches. We see some strange images like blood and a tin can. It is quite unpleasant, however we still do not know what is happening, and they do not answer any of the questions we have. Another grotesque image is seen; the man with his face down in his food. It is unsettling to look at, because the person’s skin has gone quite pale as if they have been there for a while. The audience feels like they are the detective because they have so many questions and they try to answer them from what they see in this scene.

There is a close-up to Somerset’s face. He has a concerned expression, not because he is bothered by being in such a distressing crime scene as he has so much experience in his profession, but maybe he is concerned as the crime is very confusing and complex to solve. We see another close-up, this time of the dead man’s hands tied together under the table. The use of these close-ups means that the viewer must piece together the scene, as we rarely see it as a whole. This is made even harder as the images are obscured by the lack of light.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our preliminary task was to film and edit a sequence that would show a character going into a room and having a short conversation with another. The 180˚ rule, match on action, shot reverse shot and continuity were all aspects that we had to establish in the clip.



 

I think that one of the strengths of our sequence was our large variety of shots. This is the opening, which begins as a mid-shot and ends as a long shot as the character walks further down the corridor. I think it is an effective opening because the shot is composed so that the girl is positioned in the centre, with quite plain surroundings meaning that she is the focal point, and therefore a significant part of the film. One of the parts we could improve upon would be the steadiness of the camera. In the shot above, the camera would jump slightly as the actor was walking. We would have to practise and find ways of this not affecting the camera, perhaps holding or weighing the camera down firmly. We did use some varied camera angles, as some high angled shots are featured later when the coin is pushed across the table. However, I still think that there was room to improve on this by being more adventurous with the angles, and ensuring that sometimes they symbolised something, perhaps showing which character has power or is more superior, or maybe to give an atmosphere of being watched.  

This a contrasting type of shot that we employed for the opening of the sequence, and demonstrates the wide range of shots that we used. It is very different to the first shot as it is a close-up. I think that this is an interesting shot because the hand is slightly off-centre, dissimilarly to the previous one, where our focus was in the middle. This shot also links to the editing of our piece, as it is a cutaway- another part of the story occurring at the same time in a different place. It also builds tension, as we see
it three times, and I think that the repetition makes the viewer apprehensive and edgy.

I was very pleased with how this part of the sequence turned out because of the editing. We had two separate shots of the coin being dragged across the desk from different angles, and managed to edit it so that they ran smoothly into each other, and this is a good example of match on action. The moment straight after this- when a bag of Skittles is thrown at the character’s face- is also an example of editing in our clip that I am very pleased with. We had a shot of the bag being thrown, and then another shot of it hitting the character on the forehead. I think this also runs smoothly, as the height that the bag was thrown at matches the next part when it is moving towards her face- another example of match on action.
This is also seen when the girl pushes the door handle down, and in the next shot we see her entering the room. This is because you see that she is using the same hand on the door that she did in the previous shot.







Other parts of the editing that were successful was the shot transition that we used. I thought it was effective as it gave the impression that a few moments had passed. We decided to only use one transition, as it was quite a short sequence, and to use more would be needless and over the top. Just as the title comes on, the shot turns black and white which looks quite dramatic so is suitable for the tone of the film. I think that the title is also appropriate, as it is in red and white, and in front of the black and white background it is eye-catching.

These are our examples of shot reverse shot. We used this with over the shoulder shots when the characters were having a short conversation. Looking at these shots you can also see how we have followed the 180˚ rule. The camera would only stay on one end of the desk in order to stick to the rule, and I think that this helped to make our sequence look more professional.

 

I think that lighting is something we could have done more with, by experimenting with other lighting states.  However, I was happy with the lighting in the first shot because it is very well-lit, and then a few moments later we see two shots of the character’s feet, and the lighting here is a little darker, and you can see more shadows-especially in the part when the camera is lifted up- which I think makes it quite an intense moment.

Through the experience of our preliminary task I have learnt the significance of the preparation. The shot list and storyboard were important in maintaining continuity and ensuring that the times we used match on action would be correct. These will help us also when making our thriller because it will look professional. For this task I learnt how to use iMovie for when we edited the film. It was useful to learn about how to change the length of shots, insert transitions, put in titles and so on. A valuable lesson that we learned from the task was to film shots quite a few times, so that there is plenty of choice for editing.

When making the thriller, I think that the most important things to improve on are the steadiness of the camera and the lighting states. Having more varied lighting will give different moods for various parts of the film. Another thing that we could experiment with would be the camera angles, as these can be used to symbolise different ideas and make the dynamics more varied.