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The Thriller Genre The thriller genre is a difficult genre to identify it covers a very wide range of films such as Sci-fi, crime and horror; a lot of times there is a crime based narrative at the core of the story, but not always the main character sometimes being a police man (good guy). The protagonist in some films will sometimes break the law and do bad to complete what is necessary, example of this is in collateral max shot Vincent to stop him thus doing bad to do good, and restore equilibrium.
Early thriller An early example of and audience being thrilled can be associated with the Lumiere brothers in 1895 audiences fled from the theatre in terror, thriller being such an success it was aid to be the most popular mass medium of the early twentieth century
Genre in films Genre in films means the place of which category falls into some genre are E.g. horror films are intended to scare the audience, action movies what keep the audience entertained, with guns explosions film like the expendables, thrillers which are normally always dark and gloomy, but constantly keep the audience wondering what will come next and build to a climax. From all genres in films we the audience have come to except to see cretin things in certain genres. In thrillers you can sometimes tell when something is gong to happen because of music becomes more intense when reaching towards a climax.
Define genre A genre can be defined by certain things such as the setting of a story, lighting effects given by the camera, like low key lighting what will be seen in thrillers and horrors. The theme is normally similar for each genre and consist and resolves around similar concepts. The actor/actress depends of what kind of genre the film they are in. actors like Tom Crouse collateral, Leonardo De C shutter island or Christian Bale batman, theses all play serious characters in thriller films, other actors like Will Feral will appear in comedy films like anchor man and would be hard to take serious.
Sub Genre and Narrative Sub genre films are usually very ground breaking and leads to many other films copying and performing the own interpretations of films such as Neo-noir sub genres, Brick is a neo-noir film. The Narrative refers to the story structure that the film gives and specific narrative devices that are used such as guns fights and on-foot and car chases to keep suspense to whether the protagonist/antagonist will escape the person chasseing them.
Thriller Narrative Cont. Thriller films cause a high level of anxiety, keeping the audience guessing, what will come next. Things like false paths and clues will keep the audience in constant suspense. The world often being seen as a dark place but the films being set in safe places like schools, like in Brick. Thrillers will often start out with a state of equilibrium when all is fine and nothing bad is happening all characters are going about doing there everyday business. We will see the protagonists everyday life until the antagonist is introduced and will often be the reason for a death of a character disrupting equilibrium. The narrative will often twist and turn keeping the audience on the edge of there seas, until the plot builds towards a climax and sometimes stops and builds up again, with something like a death of a character, someone like the main character's best friend. The protagonist in thrillers will often have a big flaw to them, have a deep dark troubled past or just be innocent victims.
Mise-en-scene Mise-en-scene a French word meaning placing on stage; mise-en-scene consist of factors such as, the setting location of which the film is set, props that are used in the film like guns, costume helping us to interpret ate what kind of character we have in our film, make up is used for such things as wounds and cuts, figure expression is used quite often to show how the character is think or what mood set he/she is in, or how they react to something and lighting and colour are used for setting the mood in the film Iconography is an aspect genre. We expect to see certain objects within the Mise-en-scene of a particular genre; we can come to expect to see such things like guns and knifes in thriller films.
Setting and Location The setting and location plays a vital part. The location has to be fitting to the genre. Certain films need to be set in certain places for them to work, collateral is set in a city at night, to the audience this is a busy place and a lot of dangerous things happen there, in the film a lot of the scenes are set in places like dark car parks and ally ways, this is an example of the location fitting to the genre in this case being a crime thriller. Everyday ordinary urban locations are used, but extraordinary things happen there.
Props and costumes Props matter to the genre of the film, guns and knifes will be seen in thrillers, when in romance movies it isn't likely see a gun but will see props like flowers. Props contribute to the narrative, such things like red herrings are objects that are lead the audience to think it has some importance's to it when it doesn’t, example of this is collateral with Vincent's brief case, when you are lead to think it is really important but seems irrelevant by the end of the film. Such props as guns and knifes tell you about characters personalities or role in the film, when you first see Vincent with a gun you can tell he is a possible bad guy and has a dark personality. Costumes and make up are important to the mise-en-scene; costumes are used within the mise-en-scene to sometimes emphasise a character within the scene, so your attention is drawn to them. Make up can be used to show such things as cuts and wounds, panic or even pain. Costumes are used to identify the historical point in time the film is set in. Vincent ears a suit in collateral this can show he has some sort of important job or role.
Figurer Expression and Lighting Figurer expression can also be shown through facial expression, showing the characters emotional state of mind, by crying, laughing or greeting of the teeth. The body posture can identify the mood f the situation. The age of the character and even gender. Lighting and colour is used in different ways. In thrillers the lighting is often low key lighting to show a dark and corrupt society, that is a violent place. In thrillers places such as schools are used to show that the word is a dark place with places like this not normally being acierated with danger thrillers show that they are. some films even de-saturate there filming so gives a different effect, in Brick the film is de-saturated to make things seem darker. Lighting and colour in scenes generate mood and atmosphere, such as gloomy and mysterious place make you on edge and get anxiety.
Cinematography Establishing shot, this shot is It is usually a very wide shot or extreme wide shot. An establishing shot is usually the first shot of a new scene, are made to show the audience where the scene is taking place. Wide Angle Shot The talent takes up most of the shot, and leaves little room around the talent showing where the scene is this is called ‘safety room’ This shot is often used to show a distance between talents Extreme or very wide shots are often used as establishers Long Shot is similar to a wide shot as the talent’s whole body is shown in the frame It is often used to show the talent, their surroundings and what is happening to around them. A POV shows a view from the talents vision E.G. used in brick when Brendan is looking around in the phone booth for the girl. Associated POVthe camera is positioned behind the talent, normally tending to be over the talents shoulder. Close up shotsare of the talents face and show almost none of the location. Extreme close up (ECU)these shots normally tend to be of the talents facial features such as mouth or eyes. ECU would normally show emotion such as fear or anxiety .
Cinematography Camera angles, pan, track and dolly. High Angleare used to show a view from above the talent The camera ‘looks down’ on the subject, commonly used to make the subject appear vulnerable and/or weak. Low Anglefor a view from below the talents. The camera ‘looks up’ at the subject. This is used to make the subject appear powerful. Aerial View is a view from directly overhead, as if a bird was to be seeing the scene Hand-held shots can be used to create a shaky effect E.G. in a chase scene you would lie to give the effect of movement or even POV shots can be hand held so gives the shaky sight of the person as they look around. A pan is a horizontal camera movement, where the camera moves left to right on an tripod A tracking shot is a movement parallel to the action. the camera follows or tracks alongside the action. A dolly shot is where the camera is on a track and moves in or out. A reverse tracking shot is when the camera physically moves in or out, as the camera lens is altered to keep the talent the same size in the shot This can creates an strange effect If the camera moves closer the talent seems enlarged if it moves away, the background gains a stronger part in the shot.
Sound in Thrillers Sounds called diegetic sounds in thriller includes such things like footsteps and banging sounds, they are great for building tension in the scene and to build up tension. The diegetic sound can be used to set an environment/setting for example in ‘Brick’ when a school bell goes off in the OTS letting you know you are set in a school. Non-Diegetic Sounds are sounds that play in the back ground setting/adding to the atmosphere of the film
Editing In Thrillers Match on action is used in thrillers to show such thing like flashing through time to when some people have died or go back in time to when are alive E.G. brick OTS When the ‘cut’ is made on an action of the girls arm in the water Eye line match The character reacts to something on/off screen. This motivates a cut and the next shot shows what the character saw. “brick” shows this when Brendon looks at a photo booth. The rule of thirds is when the frame is split into nine imaginary sections. These lines are used to gain the audiences attention to certain object that are on screen.
The Target Audience Each genre has a different target audience; the audience can varies from age, gender or social class. For thriller films, The age group of the target audience is around 16-25 years. the target audience would mainly be males, though women would be attracted to the film also . target audience will be made up of students due to the age range. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VRxSPWnnMrE/TPzCh4pXSbI/AAAAAAAAAA0/kL55BycKnAA/s1600/Bar+Chart+of+Thriller+age+profile.JPG
The Audience Expection The audience has come to learn to feel a bit shocked or of balance when watching a thriller film. The audience know that there will be thrills and anxiety. Also expect to be scared a little. To have a dark and unwelcoming atmosphere, so you feel uncomfortable when you are watching the film. In the alien films the audience expects for most of the characters to die. In collateral you expect Vincent to die at the end. So in thriller you expect the bad guy to die
