The document provides an overview of the thriller genre in literature, film, and television. It indicates that thrillers induce feelings of excitement, anxiety, tension, suspense, fear and similar emotions in viewers/readers. The genre includes tales of espionage, politics, financial schemes, adventure, military fiction, technology and religious plots. It is difficult to define but involves media that thrills audiences.

1. CREATIVE
CRITICAL
REFLECTION
Faidra Koutsouri

2. THE GENRE
OF
THRILLERS
A thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television
whose primary feature is that it induces strong feelings
of excitement, anxiety, tension, suspense, fear, and
other similar emotions in its readers or viewers—in
other words, media that thrills the audience.
The thriller genre, like all the categories of mystery
fiction I have been attempting to describe and illustrate
during the past few columns, is as difficult to define as
art or pornography, and its borders are as fuzzy as my
memory after a second bottle of wine. Among its
components are tales of espionage, political nastiness,
financial schemes, adventure, some military fiction,
high-tech shenanigans and even weird religious plots.

3. CONVENTIO
NS OF
OPENING
SEQUENCE

4. MY SEQUENCE'S GENRE
My movie is a Thriller with action and
suspense. It tells an exciting fictional story about a criminal activity
based on religion. Also my thriller is very suspenseful as the
audience will be left with lots of questions. This is evident as at the
end of my opening sequence, they're left with a confusing & unusual
image about what happened.
As all the movies have a deeper meaning behind them I choose to use
gender roles and make the audience question about the gender
choices that I made.

5. GENRE CONVENTIONS
AND CHALLENGES
It is very common in thrillers to use a dark pallet of
colours and cold weather. It makes the audience feel
uncomftable.
Also the choice of filmimg in the woods it is a very
interesting choice as it promises action and suspence.
Here is an example of the action Netflix series called
"forest".
In comparison with this serries my film has the same
genre in terms of location and camera angles.

6. CRUSADE AND OPENING
SEQUENCEThe purpose of a thriller's opening sequence is to get the audience
on edge and excited to watch the film. There are many ways of
achieving this.
In the beginning of the sequence I used titles.The titles were
represended on a balck backround with white letters. It is a simple
way of making the titles but in combination with he wide shots of the
priest running and the voiceover, I achieved having
a powerful opening sequence.
Moreover there are some sorrt clips of nature in order for the
audience to be aware of the space and place that it has been filmed

7. LIGHTING AND COLOURS
Lighting is very important In any genre of film however in thriller
films like Crusade lighting is one of the main conventions.
This is because the lighting is usually able to make the audience feel
suspense and tension throughout the piece.
The darker the colour is more sinister the film sees.

8. To have that impact
in my movie I used
low-key lighting in
order to create an
atmosphere in a
scene.
I used this darker
lighting in the last
few second of the
sequence that the
actress witch does
the
voiceover reveals.

9. IDEOLOGIES SURROUNDING MY
MOVIE:
Religion
Gender
Roles
Good and
Bad
Social
status

10. HOW ARE THE
IDEOLOGIES
REPRESENTED
THROUGH MY
FILM?

11. GENDER ROLES
THE WAY THAT CERTAIN MOVIES CAN TAP INTO OUR NEED FOR
ACCEPTANCE, OUR QUESTS FOR ADVENTURE, AND EVEN OUR
CURIOSITY AROUND DANGER IS THE REASON WHY LINES FORM OUTSIDE
THEATERS AND AN ENTIRE AUDIENCE CAN HAVE A SIMILAR REACTION TO
A SCENE. EVEN IF IT’S FANTASY, THE THINGS WE SEE DISPLAYED ON
SCREEN CAN FEEL REAL. AND DEPENDING ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES,
SOME FILM CHARACTERS CAN HELP US NAVIGATE THE TENUOUS
POSITIONS OF BEING HEROINES IN OUR OWN LIVES, TOO.

12. POWER AND
GENDERTake a strong female character, for instance.
When we’re dealing with our own issues,
watching a film starring one can be a
welcome escape as well as a push in the
right direction.
In the movie Devil wears Prada Merlyn stip is
a boss of a company. The movie might be
not a thriller but still has many similarities
with my movie Crusade.
Both characters are females and they have
more power than males in both movies.
They are women who are comfortable using
power. Most female characters in the mass
media“hold and use private power as wives,
mothers, partners” The Devil Wears Prada is
unusual in that the female characters are
dominantly viewed in their roles as career
women who use power effectively in the
workplace.
In my film the female character Patricia
Arqueate is the boss in the film and the two
henchmen take order from her.

13. ANOTHER COMPARISON
One of “Captain Marvel” coolest surprises was the fact that the Kree
hero Mar-Vell is a woman, played by Annette Benning, instead of a
man as in the comics.
The same surprise about the gender role appears in my movie too by
having as a boss a woman played by Patricia Arquatte.

14. HOW DOES
MY FILM
REPRESENT
DIFFERENT
SOCIAL
GROUPS?

15. MALES
CHARACTERS
IN MY
SEQUENCEIn my sequence I used three male
characters. It was an important
challenge for me to reperesent the
male roles in a non stereotyical
way. For example in movies you
usually doesn’t expect a doctor to
be the criminal of the film. This is
what I did in my sequenec, I
represented the priest as someone
who is involve that something that
he shouldn't. And to make that
clear I directed him running and
then hidding behind a tree. The
directions that I gave him not even
make the film more interesting but
it makes the audience questioning
what is happening.

16. TO BE
CONTINUED
Another challenge that I
found was that It is very
important to make clear to
the audienc ethat it is a
thriller with action and not an
action movie.
A gun to your head it is a
very common shoot in many
action movies. I chose this
shoot in order to have more
action in my film.
In comparison with the
film Gibbs that it is an action
film I realised that Crusade
has a lot in common. For
example the camera angles
that are very important They
are pretty much the same.
Close ups of the main
characters and mid-wide

17. IN DETAIL.

18. SHOOTS
There is a plain, out of focus background
so as not to distract from the facial
expressions of the character. This kind of
shot is used to show the sorrow of
characters as it is simple and doesn't have
too much going on.

19. Here, we have the iconic close up from the
shower scene in horror thriller film
'Pyscho'. The close up not only
emphasizes the sheer terror on the
woman's face, but it also adds suspense
as we are not able to see what she is
scared of. This adds suspense because as
an audience we are only seeing the
reaction and not what caused the reaction.
Close ups are often used this way in
thrillers, especially horror and
psychological thrillers, as it adds a lot of
suspense.
The feeling of this shoot has a very similar

20. MALE CHARACTERS
In my movie the male characters take
orders from the boss female character.
It is very unsual for female charecters
to have more power than male characters.