This document discusses conventions in crime thriller films and analyzes several trailers, including for the films Se7en and Nightcrawler. It notes several typical conventions seen in crime thriller trailers, such as up-beat opening music, fast pacing, disturbing shots, disequilibrium over equilibrium, and a scare shot at the end. The document discusses how the author's group's crime thriller trailer challenges conventions by featuring a young drug dealer as the victim rather than a stereotypical mafia figure, and a dirty police officer as the villain. It also notes that crime thriller trailers typically do not follow a clear narrative or reveal the full plot.

1. By Abdel Touzani

2. Researching new media at the start of
the project made me more conscious of
the typical forms and conventions of real
media products out today. ‘Se7en’ is a
typical crime thriller film which I chose to
briefly analyse. However, as a group we
did look through around 10 or so crime
thriller films including ‘Salt’, ‘
’Nightcrawler’, ‘The departed’ . Analysing
these trailers both physically and
mentally we found that the typical
conventions of film were were:

3. • up-beat diegetic and/or non-diegetic sound to start off
with builds suspense and allows the audience to think
something is coming.
• During the shots of ‘Inside Out’ lots of fast paced shots
and sound were used to create the that complements the
action on screen.
• A disturbing shot, often someone killed, dead or hurt.
• More disequilibrium (horror scenes) than equilibrium.
• The editing becomes more apparent, more shots.
• More cuts and more transitions during the
disequilibrium scenes.
• Most often has a vulnerable character and a villain.
• The soundtrack often changes to create a thrill.
• A scare shot at the end of the trailer.

4. We challenged conventions of a typical
crime thriller trailer by having a young
drug dealing male as the victim. This is
challenging conventions because
stereotypically it is a mafia type man
who usually makes deals such as this
one. We also had a dirty police officer
as the villain.

5. Looking further into forms and conventions of crime
thriller films/trailers, I found that crime thriller trailer don’t
often follow a narrative. Although the actual film will
follow a narrative the trailer itself does not as it would
give too much of the plot of the film away. Trailers such
as se7en and night crawler all have trailers that do not
explain the plot of the film properly.
Here are a look at the trailers.
Se7en Trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=J4YV2_TcCoE
Nightcrawler Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8kYDQan8bw

6. Our crime thriller trailer does not follow the correct form of its
theory. As the trailer is not inin full view of the plot meaning we
don’t know exactly who the characters are.
Many narratives structure a film in a fashion that goes:
- State of Equilibrium
- A disruption
- A recognition
- An attempt to repair the disruption
- A return to equilibrium - New Equilibrium.
Our horror trailer follows:
-Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Disruption, Disruption,
Fatality, Equilibrium.
I've used elements of convention theories, but there will not be
any links to 'new equilibrium' as we needed to keep the
audience guessing on what is about to happen.

7. Overall I believe my final product and tasks both,
challenge and develop forms and conventions of
real media products. I believe they look realistic
and would easily fit into the crime thriller genre.
I feel that our crime thriller trailer does actually
challenge conventions via the dirty cop and
confusion of who is good and who is bad within the
trailer. But, uses traditional crime thriller antics and
follows the form of an original horror trailer.