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Contents 1. overview of Thriller2. history of thriller3.Alfred Hitchock4. narrative themes and conventions of thriller5. characters 6. mise en scene7. iconography8. cinematography (camera angles and movement)9. audience expectations10. target audience11. textual analysis12.title sequence initial ideas
Thriller OverVieW. • The thriller genre of film is a genre which isn’t quite a horror because its not aimed to simply scare you and doesn’t follow all the codes and conventions. The typical thriller film in my own words would be a film with a mystery that needs to be worked out and solved before its too late, for example, all the “Final Destination” Franchise is all about working out who is going to die next, how there going to die and how to save them. A Thriller film would usually contain strong background storys to the film and to the characters to make it feel more real.
History of Thiller. • The History of the very first thriller is very debateable however it is well known that Alfred Hitchcock is renowned for shaping what thrillers are to this day His first thriller being “The Lodger” 1926. it was a silent thriller but still used the conventions of a modern day thriller but for what would scare people of that time. Another well known Thriller “Arrival of a train at la ciotat” by the lumier brothers which wasnt the first however it used a unconventional camera technique for the time of a train speeding past the camera. Which back then terrified cinema audiances.
Alfred Hitchcock. • Alfred Hitchcock is world famous for his work at building tension and suspense in thriller films, particulally psychological thrillers. His goal in life was “to give the public a good healthy mental shake up!”, one of his methods of playing on your mind is by giving false clues to who are the best guys in a thriller and who are good. Hitchcock also focused on close ups of the emotions of a character and kept the camera movement human like and made use of panning around a room so you can see small details of thing which may help you unravel the mystory.
Narrative themes and conventions. • Thrillers are well known to constist off a complex story line where an incedent happens at the beginning to interupt the equilibrium then police or an investigator gets involved and recognises the disturbance which then carry out an investigation until equilibrium is restored. Thrillers are exiting to watch because it puts you in the seat of the investigator and you yourself has to try and work out who did what. Thrillers nearly always have deeply complex characters for the protaganist and the antaganist often the protaganist has done things wrong in the past or is living a lie which you uncover throughout the film why the antagonist usually has a tortured up bringing. A good example of thrillers with complex storys would be “PhoneBooth” (2002) directed by joel schumacher because it turns out that the Protaganist who is being held in a phonebooth by a snipers order actually has to confess to his sinfull ways and that he has been cheatining on his partner.
characters. • All Thriller movies must contain at least one Protagonist and an Antagonist in order to fit the codes and conventions, for example in the “Saw” franchise there are several protagonists and one key main Antagonist (with some help!), although it usually ends in very few numbers of Protagonists surviving they still have stories and reasons why they are captured and tortured, which is usually for petty sins most people have commited. Adding a background story to characters makes the film more interesting and makes it feel more real, as if you know the people involved.
Mise en scene • Mise en scene is French meaning “whats in the scene” This covers props, costume, performance, lighting, décor and make-up. • Lighting – in Thriller usually low key lighting or for example in film noir harsh side lighting casting hevy shadows on one side of the face, this is shown in many film noir films such as “Touch of Evil” • makeup and décor would match e.g. girl locked in a dungeon, blood down her face, ripped mud covered clothes or dress as if she was drugged in a party. eyeliner smudged pale face to show her fear, why trapped next to say a skeleton of a previous victim. • Performance – in a number of Thriller films well known actors are specifically chosen because of there previous roles in Thriller films and in most thriller films, the actors play the parts as if they where really a psyho killer adding there own parts in. e.g. in silence of the lambs anthony hopkins forfills his role and adds parts like not blinking, whenever hanibal lector apears on film or stares into the camera he doesnt blink because thatshowsweakness. This was not what the dircector told him he added this himself. • the Mise en scene gives a calm feeling or less scary, in final destination five just before a major death scene we see the Mise en scene as casual, nothing scary going on, ordinary casual make-up, they do this to make you feel like it could happen to anyone.
Iconography • Iconography is about how things/ people are portrayed in a film. In Thriller films the victims or “Protagonists” are often shown as helpless and hurt but usual shown as a brave key figure, even when tortured and left for dead they are often shown as smart and strong and manage to get themselves out of trouble, for example in “PhoneBooth” the Protagonist is shown at first as helpless but you soon learn he is smart and eventually he out smarts the antagonist with the police and survives. Antagonists are usually portrayed as powerfull, insane, invinceable but usually all have one spot of weakness, sometimes there caught but sometimes there smart and quick and realise when they need to escape
Camera angles and movement When someone talks about cinematography there talking about the use of the camera angles and how the camera moves to build an affect one the scene for example if a Thriller film was to all be recorded using a static camera with actors walking into and out of the shot the film would be boring and not place you within the scene, Your typical Thriller films use a range of interesting and unatural shots, to make you feel uneasy and to make you feel like your viewing the scene and part of the action. Some films like to use Point Of View shots (POV) in order to place you in the scene because it feels as if you are really seing whats happening and your in the area. Also in Thrillers they use unconventional shots for example filming a reflection of something moving closer and closer to build tension and scare the audience.
Audience Expectations. • When watching a film, the audience develop certain expectations. Whether that be that the protagonist gets the girl, or the villain dies, or even the whole world gets destroyed. But when watching a thriller film there are certain expectations we all have for example we expect to be “thrilled”, and we expect for there to be at least one survivor left to tell the tale. In films like Final Destination some of the latest films leave no survivors but hint to us that there will be, they defy our expectations causing us to feel cheated because we wanted survivors.
Target audience. • Every film made has a target audience, and thrillers are no exception. Thrillers are often aimed nowadays at your young adult/late teenage years, anyone still young and up to date, never aimed at the elderly because they often wouldnt be able to stand watching some of the things that we have been programed into watching over the years . For example “Final Destinations 3” is aimed at the teenage boy market because it contains adult sexual humor attractive female actors who appear topless in the film, this brings in the target audience because boys are attracted to girls.
sound • Sound is an important element on building atmosphere in any genre particularly in thriller genre. most thrillers use jumpy unpredictable music. In “Pyscho” we here some juxtaposing non diaagetic sound over what at first seems a calm scene, then after a while we realise the sound actually fits to what part of the action is coming next.
