Research thriller

THRILLER
COURSEWORK TASK – KRISTINE GULDEN

INDEX
- Definition and aspects of classification
- How does the film institution use genre?
- How do audiences use genres?
- History of thriller genre
- Thriller and sub-genres
- Codes and conventions
- Famous thriller directors
- Famous thriller films
- Mood board
- Use of research
- Bibliography

Kristine Gulden 2012 «Welcome to Forbes», October 18, 2012.
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml.

DEFINITION AND ASPECTS OF
CLASSIFICATION
Genre in film is a method to classify and divide films into categories based on its
content. Any film can primarily be divided into two genres; documentary or
fiction. The difference between these genres is whether the film is supposed to
document an event that is happening/has happened in reality. A fictional film has
contents that are written by an author.

Furthermore, films can be divided based mainly on four variables: storyline,
narratives, actors, production environment, mise en scene (costume, setting,
props, lighting) and target audience. Some genres would be comedy, action,
adventure, romance, science fiction and also thriller. However, a film can also be a
categorized into multiple genres because its content has a wide range of
elements that fits into multiple genres.
SOURCES
«Film genre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia», October 16, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre.
«Filmsjanger - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmsjanger.
«What is Genre and Gulden Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 16, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.
Kristine How is it 2012
«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis.

HOW DOES THE FILM
INSTITUTION USE GENRES?
Genres makes it easier for film institutions to limit the range of producing films,
as some genres are more expensive to produce than others. Some independent
film producers might not even be able to produce films in the action/thriller
genres because of a low budget, and such genres require expensive special
effects to be able to compete at a certain level with other production companies
which specializes within these genres.

Genres also limits the audience and makes it easier for film institutions to focus
on certain audiences. If they were to advertise a film they would show the trailer
related to other films of the same genres, for example showing a comedy trailer in
a cinema exhibiting a comedy film.

SOURCES
Kristine Gulden 2012
«What is Genre and How is it Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 16, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.

HOW DO AUDIENCES USE
GENRES?
Genres also help audiences choose the film they would like to view
because genres the audiences will be familiar with the general
situations of the film based on which genre it is in, and they would
therefore immediately be able to tell whether or not the film would
be of their liking, although the level of liking depends on the
individual and film itself.

SOURCES
«What is Genre and Gulden Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 16, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.
Kristine How is it 2012
«Connection Café: My Audience is My Community», October 18, 2012. http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2011/08-august/my-audience-is-my-community.html.

«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-
HISTORY OF THE THRILLER
GENRE
One of the very first thriller films was a comic by Harold Lloyd from 1923,

titled Safety Last!, but the breakthrough of the thriller as a film genre did
not come until Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang made films that set the
standard of the modern thriller genre, starting with The Lodger (1926)

and M (1931).

Throughout the decades, more thrillers were made, and in the 1950’s,
Hitchcock added Technicolor to his films, casted big film stars and fancy

thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis.
locations which took the thriller genre to a whole another level.

After the assassination of President J. F. Kennedy in 1963, political and
paranoid thrillers became very popular.

SOURCES:

GENRE

Throughout the 1970’s and the 1980’s the thriller genre in general
became very popular, and suddenly the film industry had many new

thriller film directors, who’s behind some of today’s biggest thrillers over
all, such as ‘Jaws’ (Steven Spielberg, 1975) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (Martin
Scorsese, 1976).

In the 1990’s, crime and mystery thrillers became more popular with

serial killers and investigations.

SOURCES:

GENRE

As of today, many thrillers borrow previous themes from earlier decades,

but many thrillers also borrow aspects from the horror genres with
sadistic violence and terror. However, action thrillers and spy thrillers
have also increased in popularity with thrillers such as ‘Batman: The
Dark Night Rises’ (Christopher Nolan, 2012) and ‘Taken’(Pierre Morel,
2008), ‘X-men: First Class, 2011’ (Matthew Vaughn) and ‘Casino Royale’

(Martin Campbell, 2006)

SOURCES:

THRILLERS AND SUB-GENRES
Thriller is a genre in film which emphasizes on suspense and leaving the

audience ‘at the edge of their seats’ in excitement as they film they are viewing

and the story they are following is reaching the climax. They often have a

protagonist with a weakness which the antagonist is trying to exploit to prevent

the protagonist from escaping a dangerous situation.

Some main subgenres within the thriller genre could be conspiracy thriller,

disaster thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, psychological thriller, supernatural

thriller, crime thriller, mystery thriller, and the list goes on.

SOURCES:
«.: Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller», October 18, 2012. http://jwhite-suttonmediaas.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/codes-conventions-of-thriller.html.
«Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers», October 18, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-conventions-of-thrillers.
«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis..

CODES AND CONVENTIONS

MISE EN SCENE
Suburbs/urban cities: Thrillers often takes places in the suburbs or in urban

cities as it makes it relatable for the audiences. Thrillers often takes places

in the suburbs or in urban cities as it makes it relatable for the audiences.

Low key lighting and shadows: Low key lightning causes shadows and dark

colours can represent the inner darkness of a character, but can also add

suspense as the darkness is ‘unknown’ in the sense that it is hard to know

what is hiding in the dark and creates a mystic atmosphere.

SOURCES:
«AS Thriller Film: Thriller Genre Codes and Conventions», October 28, 2012. http://asthrillerfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thriller-genre-codes-and-conventions.html.


MISE EN SCENE
Flashbacks and black and white: Flashbacks create non-continuity in the
storyline and can confuse the audience, but also clear things up as it allows the
audience to understand more of the narrative. The black and white effect is a
convention in the thriller genre as it gives greater contrast to lightness and
darkness, but is also commonly used in flashbacks to inform the audience that
this is not the present.

Mirrors and stairs: Mirrors and stairs are conventions often used in psychological
thrillers. The reflections in the mirrors can reflect the character’s inner self and
can reveal the character’s hidden identity for the audience, which can for example
be a dark identity, or a trapped identity. Stairs are used because it takes the
character to a higher/lower level, and the stairs can also lead to something
unknown.

SOURCES:


CINEMATOGRAPHY
Thriller films often have a recurring change in camera angles and an

obtrusive editing with fast cutting rhythm to raise the tension in the current

scene by giving the scene a quick movement.

SOURCES:


MUSIC
Thrillers use scores and soundtracks to raise the tension and suspense

within a scene. A scene with action would include a score/soundtrack with

fast rhythms, while a mystic scene would include a slow score/soundtrack

with dark tones. The absence of music is also commonly used as it gives

attention to the synchronous sounds parallel to the event on screen.

SOURCES:

FAMOUS THRILLER DIRECTORS
,
born 13th of August 1899, was an English
film director and started his career as a
title designer for silent films early in the
1920’s and debuted as a director in 1925
with The Pleasure Garden. Throughout the
1930’s he created a good image as a
director with lots of good thrillers. He has
got two stars on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame for his contributions in the film
industry. Alfred died April 29th 1980 in LA,
California.

«Alfred Hitchcock - Television Tropes & Idioms», October 16th, 2012.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/AlfredHitchcock?from=Main.Alfre
dHitchcock.

SOURCE:Kristine Gulden 2012TopTenREVIEWS», October 16th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.
«Best Thriller Directors -
«Alfred Hitchcock - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock.

,

born 18th of December, 1946, is one of the
world’s most influential film directors. He
started his career in the film industry as an
assistant editor on ‘Wagon Train’ from
1957, but his breakthrough as an

«Steven Spielberg Style & Fashion / Coolspotters», October 16th, 2012.
international film director wasn’t until 1975
with ‘Jaws’. Some of his other bigger films

http://coolspotters.com/directors/steven-spielberg.
are ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993), ‘E.T.’ (1982)
and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998).

SOURCE:
«Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.
«Steven Spielberg - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/bio.

, born
March 27th, 1963, is an American film

«Quentin Tarantino’s Best and Worst Films of 2011 - Nerd Reactor», October 16th, 2012.
director. As a 21-year old, he started to work

http://nerdreactor.com/2012/01/16/quentin-tarantino-best-and-worst-films-of-2011/.
in a video-shop, and got into the world of
film. After meeting a film producer at a
Hollywood party, who encouraged him to
write a script. The result was ‘Reservoir
Dogs’ in 1992, which was a great success
and his career as film director started with a
boom. His most famous film came out two
years later, ‘Pulp Fiction’ which won the
Palme D’Or Award at the Cannes Film
Festival, and was nominated for best picture,
best director and best original screenplay at
SOURCE:
«Quentin Tarantino - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/bio. the 1995 Academy Awards.
«Quentin Tarantino -Gulden 2012
Kristine Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Tarantino.
: «Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.

,
born November 17th, 1942 is a
prestigious American film
director. He debuted as a
director with the film ‘What’s a
nice girl like you doing in a
place like this?’ in 1963, but he
is most known for films like
‘Goodfellas’ from 1990, ‘Shutter
Island’ from 2010 and ‘Taxi
Driver’ from 1976. He has been
nominated for over two
hundred awards, whereas he
«Martin Scorsese - Page - Interview
have won 106 of them. Magazine», October 16th, 2012.
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/marti
n-scorsese-shutter-island/.

SOURCES:
«Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.
«Martin Scorsese - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/bio.

«Pictures & Photos «Pictures & Photos «Pictures & Photos
from Jaws - IMDb», from Pulp Fiction - from Psycho -
October 18, 2012. IMDb», October 18, IMDb», October 18,
http://www.imdb.com/ 2012. 2012.
media/rm3161889792/ http://www.imdb.com/m http://www.imdb.com
tt0073195. edia/rm3216480512/tt0 /media/rm24904724
110912. 48/tt0054215.

«Pictures & Photos «Pictures & Photos from «Pictures & Photos
from The Dark Knight Taken - IMDb», October from Inception -

FAMOUS
Rises - IMDb», 18, 2012. IMDb», October 16,
October 18, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/me 2012. «Pictures & Photos from V for Vendetta -
http://www.imdb.com/ dia/rm1321833728/tt093 http://www.imdb.com/ IMDb», October 16, 2012.
media/rm834516224/ 6501. media/rm3426651392/ http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1691979008/tt04
tt1345836.

THRILLER FILMS
tt1375666. 34409.


«I’m Hunted by Shadow People Shadow People – The
Haunting of Sunshine Girl», October 18, 2012.
MOOD BOARD

http://hauntedsunshinegirl.com/shadow-
people/shadow4/.
«Impossible world: Motion picture and animation films», October
18, 2012. http://im-possible.info/english/art/films/inception.html.

«Two Dollar Cinema: August 2011», October 18, 2012.
http://twodollarcinema.blogspot.co.uk/2011_08_07_archive.html.

HOW WILL I USE THIS
RESEARCH IN THE FUTURE?
Now that I have analysed the thriller genre, and have improved my

knowledge of the genre in general, I will use this research to make a thriller

of high standards. My newly gained knowledge will be transferred to the

production of the film to make it with a professional quality as possible.

I will use many of the conventions such as fast cutting rhythms and music

to create further suspense in my production. The setting will be somewhere

the audience can relate and create a mystic thriller with low key lighting and

dark shadows.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
«Alfred Hitchcock - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock.
«Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16, 2012.
http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.
«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012.
http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis.
«IMDb: Genre: Thriller», October 13, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/genre/thriller.
«IMDb: Most Popular Thriller Feature Films», October 13, 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=thriller&sort=moviemeter,asc&start=51&title_type=feature.
«.: Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller», October 18, 2012. http://jwhite-suttonmediaas.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/codes-
conventions-of-thriller.html.
«Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers», October 18, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-
conventions-of-thrillers.
«Martin Scorsese - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/bio.
«Quentin Tarantino - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/bio.
«Quentin Tarantino - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Tarantino.
«Steven Spielberg - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/bio.
«What is Genre and How is it Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 14, 2012.
http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.
«AS Thriller Film: Thriller Genre Codes and Conventions», October 28, 2012.
http://asthrillerfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thriller-genre-codes-and-conventions.html.


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