Researching Genre

Studying thrillers

What is genre

Genre is a category of a certain type of film, the genres include:• Action and adventure • Animation• Biopics • Bollywood • Comedy • Crime • Documentary • Drama • Family • Horror

• Music documentary• Musicals • Period and historical • Romance • Science fiction and fantaisie • Short films • Sport • Thriller • War films • Westerns

Thrillers

A thriller is described as consisting an exciting plot which is rich in suspense.

Types of thrillers

• There are many different sub genres to thrillers:

- comedy thrillers- Crime thrillers- Psychological thrillers- Supernatural thrillers - Erotic thrillers Etc..

Characters

Most thrillers demonstrate a narrative in which good fights against evil. Therefore there would typically be two main characters…The antagonist and the protagonist/ hero

Typically portrayed as a crazy/psycho character who's main goal is to harm the protagonist

Portrayed as the victim of the antagonist’s actions or the person attempting to stop the antagonist’s plans

Plot

In some cases these conventions of good vs. evil, protagonist vs. antagonist aren’t followed, in many thrillers the protagonist can ultimately become the antagonist of the film and cause more harm than the original protagonist.

PlotThrillers tend to variety in story lines so to create tension and suspense, this making them unpredictable.

Steep incline where suspense is slowly built up

Climatic scene where the built up suspense lead to, something bad most likely happens

Everything is resolved and tension goes down

A twist is set on the plot ending the film in a plot hanger, this is extremely common for thrillers as for some films the aim is to play with the viewer's mind.

Some films would end at this point with a “happy ending”

Props

Many thrillers tend to have a sense of mystery, and in many cases it is never resolved leaving the audience with many questions. To achieve this some films would use a Macguffin, a prime example of this is The Case in pulp fiction.

Sound

For example, in the opening sequence for the shinning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgCejsyS0t8The sound score does not suit the image of in the scene, the use of eerie music instantly informs the viewer that the film is a thriller/ horror.

Non-diegetic sound is a crucial part of thrillers. The sound tends to be a variation of low and high pitched scores, which vary in speed depending on what is happening in the scene or what is to happen further on therefore it is also used to foreshadow and build suspense

SoundIn thrillers Non- diegetic sound is also used to suggest what is happening in a scene. For example, in the iconic shower scene in Psycho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjhOhH-V3EThe music score is used to demonstrate the danger Tony Perkins posses over Janet Leigh as it does not start until he enters the scene and ends when after he leaves and Janet collapses dead.

Setting Most thriller films are either set in a remote area, somewhere eerie, mysterious or even haunted. Or even in a small remote town.

Both The Shinning in Psycho were set in remote large hotel/homes

Print Media

Before films are released Print media such as posters are released, this gives crucial information to the audience such as the name and release date of the film, who stars in it and the genre of the film.

Print MediaTagline: a memorable phrase

that that will associate the film with it, mostly used for a

dramatic affect and interest the viewer as it displays the genre of

the film or reviews on key aspect of the narrative without

giving away the whole plot.

Main Image: the picture of the main actor(s), also depicting an

event and themes that are represented in the film, it also shows who stars in the film.

Production Blurb: would contain the names of the production team

(writer, producer ect.) and also institutional logos and in many

cases the release date of the film.

Film Tittle: the name of the film, the font and colours used are

another indication to the genre of the film, dark colours such as

black have negative connotations as they are used to depict

something bad, such as ‘black cats’ being unlucky.

Print media

These posters show that films with the

same genre follow the conventions of

film posters when marketing their

films. This films follow similar plots in

which the main character goes on a

“murder spree” and therefore words

such as ‘Terror” are used to depict the

events in the film, these words also

having negative connotations.

My work

One key element that my work will include will be that of mystery and also most likely a twist In the plot.