Enzyme, Pharmaceutical Aids, Miscellaneous Last Part of Chapter no 5th.pdf
1 - Conventions
1. The Repertoire of Elements: Action Thriller
Stock Characters Stock Narrative
- Agent of the government - A kidnapping or theft of an important
subordinate/some important documents
- Doubtful hierarchical figure
- Kidnapping of the main character partner
- One enemy of the “good guys” usually having
a connection to the main character - Theft of government codes or money
- A civilian character, in the wrong place at - Main character has to confront the enemy and
the wrong time, common that he does not get on recover the “goods”
with main good guy.
- An assistant who helps him along the way who
- Wife/girlfriend of the main character who is becomes very good friends
innocent to the fact of her husband/boyfriend
being an agent.
- Side-kick of the main character
Stock Setting Iconography
- Warehouses - Guns
- City Scapes - Briefcases
- Dark Houses - Sunglasses/Shades
- Abandoned locations - Smart phones
- Tall buildings/sky scrapers - Laptops
- Smart cars (Mercedes, BMW)
- Suits
- Modern technologies
2. Similarities to our Production
Our production did not use all the clichéd props and
settings as in other famous thrillers like The Bourne
Ultimatum or Collateral. In thus such films, they use
sunglasses and suitcases and such but because of our low
budget, we based the film mostly exterior, especially since
we were using long shot lethal weapons and did not want to
alarm anyone. We did not need to use sunglasses as we were
filming inside and at night, which would not have made sense
to our story. We used a gun which is not an abnormal prop
used in action films. Usually, they are small side arms but
since we did not have access to any realistic looking
pistol’s, we changed it up and used a larger rifle. We stuck
with a suit for one character as this seemed a sensible
idea.
Even though he was a military Colonel, we did not have the
finance for such a project and we agreed that a suit would
work the best and it was easier as it could be supplied by
the actor without too much stress of sizing and other
things. Also, for Nicolas, the robber, we improvised and
asked all the members of the group to bring in what we
thought would be appropriate for a robber and the common
suggestion was “dark clothing”. And dark clothing is mostly
what he is wearing in the film.
A warehouse was the most popular location in the films we
researched but being a practically none-existent budget, we
went for a house. It was perfect as it fitted in with the
story without distracting the audience from the action.
3. Similarities to our Production continued
We also chose to keep the theme of modern technology visible
throughout, using other such props as a laptop and memory
sticks/card to evoke the era and what the film is likely to
consist of. Since most thrillers use some forms of
technology, we thought it would be hard to latch an audience
without it. We had originally planned to show a smart car
(BMW) driving off from the exterior but we decided to keep
it all exterior but his type of car would have fitted in
with the themes of thrillers.
I did not want to be extremely predictable by having a
secret agent which is not very original so I decided to go
for an army/secret organisations mix. This seemed less
obvious and I got to share my love and knowledge of the
military, and having military characters meant it was a
great opportunity to include guns naturally, rather than
just wanting them in it for the sake of it being a thriller.
Keeping the theme of advanced technology in, we decided the
storyline should still be along the lines of theft but not
of money or people, but of secret information.
When the Colonel walks in and sees “Nicolas”, he hesitates.
This was because the two of them were very good friends and
the Colonel didn’t really want to have to shoot his friend.
We were originally thinking about having a small scene at
the beginning whereby we see Nicolas getting ready and there
is a picture of the two of them together. However, we did
not have enough time to go into detail with it and stuck
with what we had.
