techniques and conventions of a thriller

AS Media Studies- Foundation Production Portfolio

• What are the common techniques and conventions of a thriller?

Techniques of a Thriller Film:

Titling:

Most of the films I've studied have seemed to have their credits done over a black screen with some non diegetic music playing in the background to set the scene. It is also common for some films to start with a particular event before titles start to show, my examples include Terminator 2, Kill Bill vol1 and The Departed which all before beginning show you a clip of what probably the film will be about. Another convention of titles is that usually the most important film companies or actors in the film are shown first in the credits.

Camera movement:

Tracking and Pan shots is what’s commonly used in the beginning of thriller films, particularly a certain group of people who we should be interested in as the audience. An example is the bank heist scene in The Dark Knight where the camera tracks the group at certain points. Zooming in and out was a rarity that was only seen in Dark Knight during an action scene.

Framing of shot:

The most typical shot used in thriller films seems to be the close up, greatly used in both films Se7en and Kill Bill vol 1 to build suspense and mystery in the beginning. Long shots have also been a commonality among thriller films being used in both Dark Knight and Terminator 2 to set the scene and show the audience where the action will be taking place in the upcoming events of the film.

Camera angles:

Things that seem to be quite common are the low levels of framing and the high angles at certain points, the high angle is used mainly to show those in a powerful position but they might also be used such as in Terminator 2 with the first arrival of the terminator shown to be in control and having most of the power. There seems to be main characters in the beginning which seems to have the majority of power and this is shown through the camera angles.

Mise en scene:

The general location used in the thriller movies I've studied depends on the story of the movie themselves and because of that there’s a lot of difference in location. Lighting is a key aspect used in most of the films such as Terminator 2, Kill Bill and se7en where they all use lighting but for different reasons, while trying to set up a particular overriding tone or atmosphere for the upcoming film. Such as Terminator 2 using lighting with machinery to set a Sci-Fi thriller theme.

Editing:

Jump cuts become a commonality during thriller films as they were used in two of my films, both Terminator 2 and Dark Knight. This is usually because multiple things are happening that we’re unaware of and the jump cuts fill us in, they allow us as the audience to make assumptions on what the story or characters will be like. While the jump cuts are built up in both Dark Knight and Terminator 2 they eventually draw to a close, however the cutting rate seems to increase which ultimately seems to lead to a miniature climax of the introduction.

Sound:

All films analysed had non diegetic music playing in the background creating a sound bridge to create a certain atmosphere. Some films such as Dark Knight or Kill Bill use dialogue, even if not that much - this usually gives us an insight to the characters motives or their relationships with other characters in the film. Silence and sonic exaggeration are 2 techniques used in both Dark Knight and Terminator 2, This is very thought provoking and does well to build up tension, which seems to be a strong convention for thriller films.

Actors positioning and movement:

The intro is our first introduction to a character so they normally tend to be in the middle of the frame, this is the case for Kill Bill and Terminator 2. Their movement however seems to be very dependent on the situation they’re in at the time, while some like in Terminator 2 and Dark Knight seem to be quite organised in what they’re doing so their movement seems to be quite co-ordinated although sometimes erratic. A characters movement usually tells us something about the person, and through the movies analysed i can see some move frantically while others are slow and calculated. So it seems a convention for their to be two different groups with two different movement patterns.

Conventions of a Thriller Film:

A thriller is a movie genre which follows specific devices in order to build a certain effect on the audience. These days, many thriller-genre films possess a hybrid set of conventions; however, they still share a set of the same characteristics of the generic thriller-genre. In a thriller-genre film, often, the narrative will centre around a crime. Many popular thriller films, for example, revolve around a serial killer on the loose. The films try to convey a lot of action in order tothrill the audience.

Often, the protagonist will have an exploitable weakness that the antagonist will take advantage of. This may lead the protagonist to be thrust into perilous situations in order to build up suspense and action in the movie. This is shown in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” where, in one particular scene in the movie, the protagonist, Det. John Ferguson is chasing after his lover up a bell tower, despite being a sufferer of acrophobia. Due to his fear, he is unable to continue after her, and sees his lover plunge from the top of the tower to her death when he becomes paralysed by a surge of vertigo – this is sometimes also a characteristic of the thriller-genre, where the movie is named after a difficulty of the protagonist. Throughout the movie, the antagonist will drive the protagonist deeper and deeper into an intricate, often sinister plot, leaving the protagonist feeling hopeless. This will continue until the climax of the film when the protagonist finds a solution or a method to defeat the antagonist.

Thrillers will often introduce an enigma (or series of enigmas) in the beginning of the movie, and then complicate them throughout the story until the climax. Enigmas are essentially mysteries of the plot – this can range from the audience not knowing the true identity of a killer, such as in “Psycho” to the audience finding out the identity of the murderer immediately, but then the characters in the story have to find out who they are. This plot device is known as dramatic irony and is also used in thriller-genre films to build suspense, as the audience knows more than the characters in the story, and then is able to be fearful for them. These points are the general fundamental driving factors in a thriller-genre film.