Thriller Conventions

Camerawork:

Close ups and Mid shots - Showing Emotions and actions of the characters, they also make the audience feel involved and claustraphobic.

Composition & Framing  - Exculsion of objects to create tension

Camera Angles - To show power and authority

1st/3rd person view - 1st person used to show perspectives also creates empathy through the victims eye's.

A good example of a good soundtrack has to be Jaws. This soundtrack is a good because it uses the chromatic feature by only going up a half tone, it makes it sound like a heartbeat and also the speed increases as it goes along. Also the instrument used to play the piece is very deep, and then you get the high pitched violins then play over the top making it sound like screaming or panic.

Editing

Transitions - Dissolves link events, Fades to white/black shows time passing by, Quick cuts  creates tension, Non-chronological creates tension because its harder to understand.

Thriller Conventions

Titles - Who's in it, people roles in the making of the movie and idents (Film Company).

Introduce key characters and create atmospheres.

Plot intro - Creates an unsettling feeling, key events?

A good example for this is Bangkok Dangerous. The opening for Bangkok dangerous is good as it obeys two types of signifiers from thrillers but relates more to action. One of these is that it is from the point of view of a criminal, this gives us an inside feeling of what it’s like to be a criminal. The other is action thriller as it involves guns being shot and escaping which heavily relates to action thrillers.

Sound

Music/Soundtrack - Atmosphere and enhance the plot - Always stringed instruments (Abient)

Avoid dialogue - Maybe choose voice over

A good example for this is friday the 13th. It’s has good sound because it uses children’s voices; they say things like ‘he is coming for you’. This would make a good soundtrack because it uses the chromatic feature to make it sound more intense and also the percussive sound makes it sound like a heartbeat and it also gets faster which adds tension.

Mise-en-scene

Props - Hint plot, knifes and guns suggests that someone will get hurt.

Setting - Realism and isolation, needs to seem realistic

Males - Authority/ Power/ Killer/ Hero

Females - Damsel in Distress/ Powerless

Lighting - Light and Dark - Atmosphere

A good example for this is the film Snatch. It uses the fact that it is a gangster thriller and shows the brutal side to it. The main characters would be dressed differently to the other characters making the audience aware that the other characters aren't as important. Also in a typical gangster thriller there are always gun shootings, stand-off's & drive by shooting. This makes Snatch a good gangster thriller because it very stereotypical and this creates an atmosphere that the audience will only get with this specific sub-genre.

Narrative

Revenge/ Crime/ Justice

Psychological effect

Dual Narrative

Sometimes things dont go in logical orders

A good eample of this is Momento, the film starts from the end and works it way back to the begining. This is a good film because the audience find out information when the main character does in the film. This is very good because it makes the audience feel more involved and also makes them think about what actually happened.

Sub-genres

Techno, Supernatural, Religious, Crime, Action, Psychological, Film Noir, Sci-fi, Conspiracy, Medical, Spy, Political, Eco, Disaster and Romance.