Thriller is a novel, play, or film with an
exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. The character
goes on a journey and will happen in big cities or towns.
Conventions:
We chose a psychological/conspiracy thriller as our
questionnaire feedback said that most people liked the psychological thriller sub-genre. We also chose it
as when we were researching thrillers, we did enjoy how most psychological thrillers plots unravel slowly (for example; Shutter
Island, Black Swan) which is why our production ends on a cliff-hanger. We also asked on our questionnaire what they expect from a thriller and the majority said clever twists/unusual outcome which is why we tried to make ours a little confusing. Our feedback also said that they didn't really like the stalker theme as it’s very stereotypical and been done a lot, so we decided to
refrain from doing that in our production. Also when deciding our plot we wanted something similar to The Lovely Bones as there is a murder and how the main character is a young female. We were also
going to do a narration, as in The Lovely Bones but
decided that it would maybe unveil the story line too much to our audience. This also challenges the typical lead male character stereotype
that’s in many thrillers.
Most thrillers include many shots (SEE PREZI) especially close-ups as
they, if used effectively, can build a lot of tension so we wanted to use close-ups
as well. One example of this is Se7en,
in which the close up of the metronome adds depth to the character and also makes
the audience ask questions. We also wanted to show establishing shots to set
the scene to make it more realistic and to show that it’s set in a town/city. For
example The Lovely Bones shows lots
of establishing shots or long shots to show the location and scenery. In thrillers they edit either really quickly
to make it very intense (e.g. Se7en)
or edited really slowly to make it more dramatic (e.g. Memento). In thriller films the mise-en-scene is very realistic
e.g. clothing. Action, spy, political thrillers are usually set in towns or big
cities e.g. London, Paris. The film Unknown
is set in Berlin. Supernatural, psychological are usually set in lonely
isolated places e.g. woods or mountains. This helps the plot of the film as it
makes it busy and fast paced like cities are. The costumes tend to be very normal/casual so
it almost becomes realistic. In Contagion which was a medical thriller
they made the costumes very normal so the audience think that this could happen
to them. They do the same with make-up. We used a natural light in our which
was good as it made a bright backdrop. There is artificial or natural light and
sometimes light is used to cast shadows to create depth. They use torchlight in
crime thrillers to show it’s an investigation (e.g. Se7en). Many props add an
atmosphere to the thriller film. In ours we used bloody cloth to build suspense
and to make the audience think what and why it is there. The actors are a lone cop, a male protagonist
and female victim or sometimes the female is the heroine e.g. Salt. In our thriller the main character
is both the victim/heroine.
To make an effective thriller
opening you use many variation of shots e.g. close-ups, establishing shots,
long shots. Thrillers use establishing shots to set the scene and close-ups to
build tension. Flashbacks are used to show a different time in the story. It can sometimes be
a bit confusing but also can build up the story. It is usually an interjected scene that takes the narrative back
in time from the current time. One example of a thriller with flashbacks is The
Butterfly Effect. It uses flashbacks to build up the story of why he gets
blackouts. It is used very effectively and builds up the suspense to see
whether he will figure his life out. It also uses flashbacks to alter the story
and make the audience worry whether it will go back to normal so therefore
builds tension. Long shots build suspense as you can see a big spectrum of
what’s going on in the shot. Dual narrative is used to show two perspectives in
one story. It is also an effective technique to show one or two people at
different times e.g. Great Expectations.
The shots are usually edited together quickly to make it sharp and jumpy or
really slowly to build suspense and tension. If it’s edited together really
quickly then it’s structured either in time or non-chronological order. The
structure has to make sense or else the audience will be left confused. Sound
also helps these two factors. In thrillers they usually use slow/dramatic music
or fast/quick paced music. One example of slow/dramatic music is Shutter Island. They use the sound of
the fog horn to integrate into very slow and dark music which then builds
suspense. A lot of the time they will keep the diegetic sound but enhance it
with non-diegetic sound. By making the mise-en-scene very normal it makes the
film very realistic which is what thrillers tend to convey while horrors are
very over-the-top and unrealistic. One film that breaks some conventions is The Talented Mr. Ripley. Many thrillers
have inspired us. The Lovely Bones has inspired our plot as they both involve a
young girl getting murdered. In The
Lovely Bones the girl that gets murdered figures out her own murder while
in ours someone else does. 
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