AS Media

2.  A thriller is a film that tries to build up
suspense in order to create fear in the audience.
 Generally thriller films have a protagonist (a
hero/main character) and an antagonist (a
villain) who battle against each other in
different ways depending on the film and the
storyline.

3.  Quick cuts
 Diegetic sounds of heavy breathing, screams, sounds of
anger
 Non-diegetic sounds that are eerie in order to create
suspense
 Montages
 Protagonist being defeated by the antagonist at some
point during the film
 Music to create tension with differing sounds (loud
and quiet at different times)
 Shadows
 Dark lighting
 Black and white effect
 Changes in angles of the shots

4.  The protagonist is generally a male as the
stereotype of males is that they are brave
 The protagonist wants to save the day
 The antagonist doesn’t generally have to be
introduced straight away in the film and is
sometimes hidden until later on during the film
 The antagonist is generally someone who
wouldn’t be expected to be bad/evil
 The antagonist is generally a male as they are
seen as strong enough to kill or over power
people

5.  Generally a lot of jump cuts are made so that the
storyline is not completely revealed
 Cross cutting is used in order to show that the two
characters being shown in each cross cut will soon
cross paths and meet especially if during these
cross cuts the antagonist and protagonist are being
shown
 Voice overs may be used in order to have someone
narrate the film and generally the person narrating
the film is usually a main character, this builds
suspense as the audience may assume they are evil
or something bad happens to them
 Some scenes may be in black and white or a darker
effect

6.  Music is used to create suspense and is one of
the most important things for creating
suspense so, this means that the music used
has to fit what is coming next and is usually
eerie, starts off quiet and may become loud if
something is about to happen which creates
tension
 Diegetic sound such as heavy breathing and
screams are made usually when something is
about to happen (breathing heavy – to create
fear) or when something has happened
(screaming) which may cause the audience to
join in with the sounds and scares them too

7.  Either the protagonist or antagonist is introduced in
the beginning scenes and there are generally close ups
and extreme close ups of the character in order to show
their facial expressions so the audience can work out
what emotions they are feeling
 There may be a focus on a certain prop throughout the
movie to emphasise the significance of this film and
they will use extreme close ups to show this
 If the antagonist character is shown there will be quick
cuts in order to hide who they are so that their identity
is not revealed, so a silhouette or shadow may be
filmed
 The

8.  An establishing shot is usually used in order to
show the audience where the filming is taking
place and how this location will have relevance
to the rest of the film
 Lighting tends to be very dark and dim which
creates tension as the audience cannot see
everything in the scene as there are dark spots
so this creates tension
 Make up
 Acting