The document provides an overview of key forms and conventions of the thriller genre. It discusses prototypical characters such as a brave male protagonist and mysterious antagonist. It also outlines common iconography in thrillers like guns, cars, and detectives. Additionally, it notes thriller conventions for lighting/color, sound, locations, fonts, and common themes around crime, corruption, and humanity's darker sides.

1. GENRE RESEARCH
R E S E A R C H I N G T H E T H R I L L E R G E N R E

2. FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
• The forms and conventions are what can alter the appearance and effect of a movie.
They will be included in more detail in the rest of the slides, however in general the
forms and conventions can build the tension in a movie or create a subtle and calm
environment. No matter what they are they will be the bases for your movie genre of
choosing.
• I’m going to be choosing thriller for my genre.

3. ARCHETYPAL CHARACTERS
• Typically in a thriller the main protagonist is often a brave male who seeks to restore
peace.
• The antagonist is most likely to be a mystery or will be hidden from the audience, they
often seek revenge for someone else or the main protagonist; Based open past events.
• Hard men equip to danger are usually reinforced such as police officers or any other
armed special service.
• Sometimes the least suspected characters are put in place (people who abandon
society like more loner type characters or those going through a mentally unstable
time)

4. ICONOGRAPHY
• Symbols often found in movies that can link to the thriller genre are;
• Guns
• Cars
• Detectives
• Low key lighting
• Fast paced editing/action scenes.
• Canted imagery
• Tense music

5. LIGHTING AND COLOUR
• Colors tend to be dark and muted to create a tense atmosphere and foreshadow dark
events that may lie ahead. Although, different aspects of color can be inserted into a
thriller to symbolise different meaning; glowing white can contrast against any dark
scene as a symbol of good fighting evil. If the lighting is low key it can sometimes
narrow the perception of the viewer and restrict the view. This therefore heightens the
suspense of a film and creates mystery on the antagonist.

6. SOUND
• Whether the sound is diegetic or non-diegetic it can create a thrilling atmosphere.
However as a viewer I think the non-diegetic sounds can create a more thrilling
atmosphere to the viewer as it visually makes a scene more realistic and sometimes
more tense, even though we know they cant hear what we hear it can enhance the
action or foreshadow a sudden change of events.

7. LOCATION
• Clearly for a thriller you will need a more skeptical location to enhance the other
features of the movie. Some settings or locations may include;
• Churches
• Prison
• Cities
• Government offices
• Police stations
• hospitals

8. FONT
• The fonts that usually accompany thrillers are usually quite ominous. It enforces the
genre right from the start. Usually black contrasting against white; or other colour that
suggest danger or thriller such as red and faded dark grey colors. The font style is
usually twisted, distorted

9. THEMES AND REPRESENTATIONS
• The main theme ideas for thrillers are;
• Crime
• Spies
• Government
• Corruption
• Conspiracy
• Terrorism
• Darker sides of humanity (3 mental poisons)