This document discusses several key elements and conventions of thriller films. It notes that thriller films need specific conventions like dim colors to avoid becoming generic. It also highlights the importance of breaking conventions occasionally, such as having the "dumb blonde" character survive, in order to create variation and appeal to wider audiences. Finally, it defines thrillers as films that create thrill, excitement and intense emotions through the use of suspense, tension and excitement across various subgenres like crime or mystery films.

1. Wednesday 7th
September
Lesson 1
The Generic conventions are what define a film and must be present in order
to make the audience enjoy them. Examples could be:
 Mise-en-scene
 Setting
 Special effects
 Sound/music
 ETC…
Thriller films need to have specific conventions, for example they all need to
have dim colours, if they don’t have this they run the risk of becoming a
generic film.
Iconography is an object associated with a certain genre. For example a horse
or cowboy hat would be associated with a western.
The important thing in being a genre film is to break conventions, for example
for the dumb blonde to survive. This is to create variation between Thrillers
and make the film unique. It also helps it appeal to a wider range of target
audiences.
The definition of a Thriller is a film that creates thrill and excitement and to
have an intensity of emotion. There is a wide range of Thrillers like spy Thrillers
ie James Bond.
A Thriller uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. It
includes many sub genres like crime or mystery. Thrillers have an atmosphere
of menace, violence, crime and murder. Society is seen as dark, corrupt and
dangerous; they often include plot twists, red herrings and cliff hangers.
A red herring is when the film tries to deliberately mislead the audience or
makes the audience think one thing when in fact it’s the opposite.