3. Conventions of
Thrillers
A crime normally happens which is caused by the antagonist.
There is always a victim of some sort. Normally that person would be a missing person, a dead body or a hostage.
There is an antagonist who has the purpose of causing chaos or a problem that will need to be fixed during the movie.
There are some sort of clues that the protagonist will follow to solve the problem or be led to a trap.
There will be a moment when a character will talk about how clever the antagonist is.
There will be something that the antagonist wants or is trying to get. The crime at the beginning will often hint towards
the thing they are trying to get
A person trying to cause problems by saying one thing and doing something else instead. This will often affect the
protagonists plans.
There is normally a deadline by which the protagonist has to figure out who the antagonist is and stop him or her from
doing more harm.
Someone life will be risked as they get closer to defeating the protagonist.
There is often a false ending when you think it is over but it is deceiving and there is one final challenge.
The narrative will create tension and adventure for the audience. It can also tend to be quite violent and aggressive. It will
also be action based.
Blood and injury.
Isolated locations.
The colour scheme is usually quite dark and de saturated.
There are diegetic sound effect such as footsteps and noises in fight sequences.
Fast paced editing during fight sequence and tense moments.
Or slow paced editing to create tension and leave the audience waiting and wanting more.
Creepy and eerie music.
Close ups to show serious emotional reactions this will often be when someone find something out.
Tilt shot to show disorientation or create chaos.
High angle shots to make someone look weak and vulnerable.
Low angle shots to make someone look powerful and dominant.
I used these websites to make notes and find out the convention of thriller movies:
https://storygrid.com/thriller-genre/
https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/thriller-conventions
5. Camera
This is a comparison between Taken and our
opening sequence. In both scenes there is a close
up and some sort of sound machine. In ours the
mother overhears the kidnapper on the baby
monitor taking the baby and in Taken the father
is overhearing his daughter being kidnapped. The
close up shows the importance of the sound
device as that is how the parents know that
something is going wrong and happening to their
children.
There is a close ups to show serious emotional
reactions. This is typical of the genre as
thrillers tend to be a very character driven
narrative and it feels more personal. In both
scenes there are parents reacting to the kidnap
of their child.
6. High angle shot on the kidnapper when walking up the stairs. Makes her seem
vulnerable even though she was the one doing the kidnapping. This leads you
to believe there is more to the story.
7. Editing
The duration of the shots are quite long and the
slow paced editing creates and builds tension
which will eventually gradually get faster which
is very typical of the genre. It makes you want to
keep on watching because it intrigues you and
you want to know what happens next.
Blocky text, metallic sort of
looking, shadows. Bold and
dramatic. Emphasis.
8. Sound
This is a comparison
between The Birds and our
opening sequence. In The
Birds there are children
singing in the background
when all the birds
accumulate that has sinister
undertones. The birds are
quite scary and are all
bunched together while the
children are singing happily.
In our opening sequence we
have calming baby music in
the background which has
eerie undertones.
9. Mise En Scene
Low key llighting, sneaky around
and up the stairs, not meant to
be there,
In both scenes the
antagonists are
wearing dark
clothing.
10. Differences
In most movies for example: Taken and Man on fire it is
the man who saves the day and rescues their child but
in ours it is the mother which goes against the typical
thriller conventions of the man or father saving the day
and resuing the child and being the powerful one.
11. We didn’t do many low or high angle shots on the characters which is normally
what thriller movie would have. This is to make the characters either seem
powerful or more vulnerable. In our opening sequence we wanted to make the
characters feel more relatable. As the mother is experience a highly traumatic
situation and the feelings she goes through as she realizes what has happened
and that her child has been kidnapped. Also the kidnapper is made to feel
more relatable as later later on in the film you will realise she is probably not
an evil kidnapper but she is probably really troubled and struggling and there
is more to her story.
12. Action sequences- ours isn’t as action packed
for example there are no guns and weapons
in our opening sequence.
13. Characters
She is behaving in the way a protagonists would usually act but it is a women
instead of a man. She is following all the typical conventions of having serious
emotional reactions and being scared and panicked
In the movie kidnap it is also a female protagonist whose child has been
kidnapped and behaving in the typical way protagonists would act.
15. Tone
De saturated
Pace sets tone
Sound fills tone
Make audience feels tense and on the edge
16. What are the typical conventions of opening sequences
eg intro to a character, titles etc and how have you
either used or challenged these conventions?
Our title is quite blocky and has shadows around it- typical for a thriller
movie.
17. Steve Neale genre theory
Genres are made up of repetition and difference.
In a horror movie there is normally dark, low-key lighting, tense music, jump
scares abandoned buildings, forests.
Repeated through lots of films
Audience becomes familiar
Audience tend to like that repetition because it makes it easier for us to
understand the genre
Conventions- common features
18. Social groups represented in our opening
sequence.
In our opening sequence we have represented women.
We have represented parents.
We have represented middle class.
19. How have we represented these social
groups
Women: mother in opening sequence at home with baby working.
Parents: the main character is a mother. Plays on a fear that most parents
have of loosing a child or having a child taken.
Middle class: they live in a nice home.
20. Characters and social groups
represented in a countertypical way.
Dad feels protective and
normally go after the child
rather than mother.
In our opening sequence the
mother is conventional as she is
the one at home looking after
the kids but she is also not
conventional as she is working
and normally it would be the
man/father to discover the
kidnapping and go out and get
the baby back. But in ours it
would be the mother.
21. Editing
In our opening sequence we did quite slow paced editing. The reason we did
this is because the mother is really tired, it builds tension because the
audience know the kidnapper is going up the stairs but then there is a shot of
the mothe calmly sitting at the dining table. The mother also doesn’t know
her baby is being kidnapped which is quite a dramatic moment.
If this was a real film, later on we would do more fast paced editing. This
would be during scenes when she was trying to get the baby back.
22. Camera
We did a lot of close ups on the
mother to show that she is
extremely emotional and that is
how a mother or women would
react conforming to that
stereotype of women being
emotional and vulnerable.
23. Sound
Non diegetic music playing in the background. Intensifies as the scene gets
more tense, parallel sound meaning the music fits the image on the screen.
Eerie, creepy, something is going to happen
24. Mise En Scene
The parents bedroom is full of things. There is a cot, a baby monitor. The
baby is clearly very well looked after and taken care of in a nice home which
represents the social group of middle class.
25. Laura Mulvey and Van Zoonen
Laura Mulvey:
Goes against as she is the powerful one that will get her baby back and she is
also a working mother.
Van Zoonen:
Women are represented as domestic.
The mother is at home looking after the baby.
26. Levi Strauss
Binary opposites:
Kidnapper vs Mother
But also goes against it as we find out that the kidnapper may be the birth
mother and so the two characters may have more similarities than the
audience think.
