Researching Genre

Studying thrillers

What is genre

Genre is a category of a certain type of film, the genres include:• Action and adventure • Animation• Biopics • Bollywood • Comedy • Crime • Documentary • Drama • Family • Horror

• Music documentary• Musicals • Period and historical • Romance • Science fiction and fantaisie • Short films • Sport • Thriller • War films • Westerns

Thrillers

A thriller is described as consisting an exciting plot which is rich in suspense.

Types of thrillers

• There are many different sub genres to thrillers:

- comedy thrillers- Crime thrillers- Psychological thrillers- Supernatural thrillers - Erotic thrillers Etc..

Characters

Most thrillers demonstrate a narrative in which good fights against evil. Therefore there would typically be two main characters…The antagonist and the protagonist/ hero

Typically portrayed as a crazy/psycho character who's main goal is to harm the protagonist

Portrayed as the victim of the antagonist’s actions or the person attempting to stop the antagonist’s plans

Plot

In some cases these conventions of good vs. evil, protagonist vs. antagonist aren’t followed, in many thrillers the protagonist can ultimately become the antagonist of the film and cause more harm than the original protagonist.

PlotThrillers tend to variety in story lines so to create tension and suspense, this making them unpredictable.

Steep incline where suspense is slowly built up

Climatic scene where the built up suspense lead to, something bad most likely happens

Everything is resolved and tension goes down

A twist is set on the plot ending the film in a plot hanger, this is extremely common for thrillers as for some films the aim is to play with the viewer's mind.

Some films would end at this point with a “happy ending”

Props

Many thrillers tend to have a sense of mystery, and in many cases it is never resolved leaving the audience with many questions. To achieve this some films would use a Macguffin, a prime example of this is The Case in pulp fiction.

Sound

For example, in the opening sequence for the shinning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgCejsyS0t8The sound score does not suit the image of in the scene, the use of eerie music instantly informs the viewer that the film is a thriller/ horror.

Non-diegetic sound is a crucial part of thrillers. The sound tends to be a variation of low and high pitched scores, which vary in speed depending on what is happening in the scene or what is to happen further on therefore it is also used to foreshadow and build suspense

SoundIn thrillers Non- diegetic sound is also used to suggest what is happening in a scene. For example, in the iconic shower scene in Psycho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjhOhH-V3EThe music score is used to demonstrate the danger Tony Perkins posses over Janet Leigh as it does not start until he enters the scene and ends when after he leaves and Janet collapses dead.

Setting Most thriller films are either set in a remote area, somewhere eerie, mysterious or even haunted. Or even in a small remote town.

Both The Shinning in Psycho were set in remote large hotel/homes

My work

One key element that my work will include will be that of mystery and also most likely a twist In the plot.