THRILLER

THRILLER GENRE• Thriller is a type of genre which provokes lots of

different emotional responses from the audience by sending the audience down false plots and false clues which makes this genre very complex. There are many sub-genres in thriller for example Crime (The Departed), Sci-fi, Horror(Identity), eco/disaster (The Day After Tomorrow), stalker , serial killer (Se7en), psychological (The Talented Mr. Ripley), spy (The Bourne Identity), action (The Fugitive) , drama (End of watch) and that is what makes this a more complex genre than other films.

• Thrillers keep the audience on the edge of their seat by creating nail biting tension and anticipation

• The narrative would keep the audience guessing by giving minimal information and creating plot twists that would surprise and excite the audience.

• The protagonist and antagonist would be your conventional hero and villain, however the protagonist is normally just an ordinary guy and the antagonist psychopath.

History Of Thriller

• One of the earliest thriller movies was Harold Lloyd's comic Safety Last. (1923), with a character performing a daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper. Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang helped to shape the modern-day thriller genre beginning with the films The Lodger (1926) and M (1931), respectively.

• Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most influential characters on the thriller genre in the 20th century and is just as significant now a days as well. His intentions were “to give the public good healthy mental shake-ups”.

• Hitchcock used a technique called a MacGuffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. The most common type of MacGuffin is an object, place or person or other, more abstract types include money, victory, glory, survival, power, love . The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It may re-appear at the climax of the story, but sometimes is actually forgotten by the end of the story. The MacGuffin stops the audience figuring out the plot before the film is over.

• In the 1970’s to the 1980’s the thriller genre saw an increase of violence in the film genre with hitchcocks first british film for two decades Frenzy (1972) rated r for its explicit strangulation scene. The 70’s saw the rise of steven Spielberg who would go on to become one of the most critically acclaimed Directors after one of his first hit films (1971) Duel .

Narrative themes and conventions• A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space. A narrative is not a random string of events.• Thrillers have a ‘restricted narrative’, which gives the least amount of information about the plot, generally the antagonist

has a hidden identity. The narrative begins with a crime or mystery which in turn then has to be solved throughout the film.

• The narrative in thrillers leaves the audience in suspense, tension and disbelief for example in End Of Watch (2012) in the ambush scene the audience is left in tension after they are tricked into following someone in to a trap and the audience are left wondering how they are going to survive. The diegesis is very sinister and shows that there is a lot of serious crime going on and you have no idea its happening.

Todorovs Narrative Theory

Todorov suggested that the conventional narratives are structured in five stages. In Thriller films the stages unfold in the following way:

1 – a state of equilibrium at the outset (No crime)

2 – a disruption of the equilibrium by some action like a crime or murder

3 – recognition that there is disruption of the equilibrium so there starting to resolve the problem

4 – attempt to repair the equilibrium by hunting the villain or finding clues

5 – a reinstatement of the equilibrium by the villain getting caught or the crime is solved.

This type of narrative is used in most main stream movies.

Characters• Typically in thrillers there is the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist is the hero and the antagonist is the villain.• The Protagonist Often everyday person who is in wrong place at wrong time Or a cop / ex-cop / cop duo drawn into a

seemingly impossible case and the protagonist has a flaw which is exploited by the antagonist. Thrills are maintained when the Protagonist is placed in dangerous, life threatening situations.

• The Antagonist are often Convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, serial killers, kidnappers, terrorists and their identity may be hidden for some of the film

• Vladimir Propp’s character theory (1895-1970) :He believed there were 8 different characters roles 1 - Villain2 - Hero3 - Donor (who provides the hero with essential objects)4 - Helper (someone who will aid the hero)5 - The princess (might be the prize for the hero, or captured by the villain)6 - Father of the princess (will reward the hero)7 - Dispatcher (may set the hero a task)8 - False hero (a deceptive character)Mainly in thrillers hero , villain and the princess are used.

MISE-EN-SCENE

• The definition of mise-en-scene is everything you see in the set/scene; props, costumes, lighting, makeup, figure expression and body language. We expect to see certain objects that we associate with that genre that are iconic in the mise-en-scene, this is called Iconography. i.e. In a thriller genre we would expect to see blood, knifes, guns, cars and more...

• The Setting/Location is unique in a thriller as it enhances the suspense creating an atmosphere which abducts and creates various emotions of the audience . Your usual setting for a thriller is a urban city, suburbs, underground tubes or even an obscured and exotic places such as deserts or a rain forest.

Cinematography

• An establishing shot - Intends to show the audience where the action is taking place, usually the first shot, however in thrillers they want to give limited information so the audience keeps guessing about the characters and locations which help create a climax and suspension.

• Medium Close up – Shows the face and chest area. You see more detail in what the actors are wearing or what has happened to them in that area of their body.

• Close up – Used to show the intensity of emotions, and show the characters emotions up close & personal so you can see the pain or happiness they are embedded with.

• Extreme Close up – Shows extreme detail. It is used to point out great detail which may give clues and suggestions to the audience’s feelings & thoughts.

• P.O.V shot – You see from the eyes of the character and there quality of vision. This is good in thriller as you experience the character from a first person view

• Associated P.O.V shot – You are more detached than the P.O.V shot, you see over their shoulder, but you still get to see what they see.

• High angle and Low angle shot– The high angle provides a view from above making the character look small, venerable and weak as you are towering over them. Which in Thriller is good as it can show the power and greatness of certain characters and how intimidated they feel.

• Pan – The camera moves horizontal on a tripod. In Thrillers it will be used to follow the characters actions/movements in certain areas.

Sound

• In film there are two different types of sounds :

• Diegetic – Is Sound that is naturally occurring in the scene e.g. Dialogue, Traffic...

• Non-Diegetic sound – Is Sound put in afterwards in the editing process e.g. Voiceover, Film Score, SFX and/or a soundtrack to create a mood and enhance the atmosphere.

Editing

• Editing is an element of the post-production part of filmmaking and is the process of merging different shots together and adding SFX, soundtracks and maybe colour corrections.

• Continuity editing is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of filmmaking of narrative films. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

Audience

• In Thrillers the audience expect to be obtaining an adrenaline rush, a suspense and to be on the edge of their seat taking in every single detail on certain scenes and through out the film the expect to have a murder or mystery they can go along with to try and solve with the character without any interactions.

• The audience you want to target with the thriller will all depend on the certain decisions you make through out the filming and editing of the movie. The narrative theme and conventions will also come in to play when targeting an audience

• I personally think all thrillers have a target audience age range from 15-50+. This is because the decisions and settings of the films. Certain thrillers may be more for younger generations where others... The older.