Conventions of thriller films

As the main task within my AS course is to create a 2 minute opening to a thriller film, we were given the task of looking into the conventions of thriller films. When we think of thriller films we stereotypically expect to see a number of things: eerie music, dim lighting, an abandoned house, the list goes on! Thriller is a broad genre used in literature, film, gaming and television and is usually fast paced, full of suspense and frequent action.

 

There are many sub genres to the thriller genre itself:

+ Spy thrillers - Spy saving the world, e.g. James Bond.

+ Political thrillers - Conspiracy movies, can be based on real events.

+ Military thrillers - Set at war, e.g. Saving Private Ryan.

+ Conspiracy thrillers - Discovers something they shouldn't.

+ Medical thrillers - Hero fighting drug companies etc.

+ Forensic thrillers - Forensic experts with their lives at risk.

+ Psychological thrillers - Conflict between characters is emotional rather than physical.

+ Horror thrillers - Can incorporate other elements, not that realistic.

 

Hybridisation is the mix of different thrillers meaning they could belong to many different sub genres. Thrillers usually overlap with mystery stories but the crimes are on more of a grand scale. The standard plot elements are violent confrontations where in a thriller, the villain is defeated, whereas, in a mystery, the mystery is solved. The idea of thriller films is influenced by noir films.

 

Other elements of thrillers:

+ Protagonist vs. Antagonist - Conflict between hero and villain.

+ Levi Strauss binary opposition - Good vs. Evil.

+ Cheap surprise - Jump scares in horror films.

+ Make it personal - Something personal happening to the main character.

+ False ending - Thinking the film is over but there's still time left for things to go wrong or get better.

+ Theatre of mind - Not telling the audience anything to keep them guessing throughout.

Lighting

We are now preparing for the production of our thriller films and so recently we looked at the use of lighting and how that can create certain moods and feelings. Our task was to take a range of shot types (either stills or film) and try and use lighting to different effects. Here are some definitions of particular ways use lighting:



Chiaroscuro Lighting

Chiaroscuro is characterised by harsh lighting that creates an extreme contrast between different areas

3-point fill lighting

3 lights create a normal-looking scene with soft shadows and average colours. Using a 3-light set up to provide normal lighting across an entire object, the exact opposite of chiaroscuro. This is used in most ‘normal’ scenes with any object in focus.

High key lighting

Uses harsh, bright lights to reduce contrast in a scene, giving the scene a white-washed, clean look that doesn’t have any shadow in frame.

Backlighting

When the scene is lit directly from behind, usually by some form of natural light, where it is used to create a silhouette. Can be used for a variety of effects but is most common in romantic films.

Artificial lighting

Light that comes from intentionally man made light sources, such as light bulbs or fluorescent lights. Artificial lights often have a blue-grey hue or a harsh yellow-orange hue.

Natural lighting

Can either be natural light coming from the sun or a light source that has a light yellow or white hue. Used in combination with other lighting effects (3 point fill).

Here are some of the shots that me, Beth and Jess took to practice some of these techniques, some of these shots were edited using Photoshop to really emphasise the lighting and colour:

 

 

After playing around with a few filters I got lots of different effects on the images which I feel came out well. We got some of these filters by increasing contrast, desaturation, increasing primary colours i.e. blue to form the cool look. Hopefully when coming to edit our thriller opening we'll be able to use these to create a more eerie effect.

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