GS27 Foundation Portfolio 2011: Thriller Research

Thrillers are ‘One of cinema's largest, all-encompassing genres, this type features films whose main ingredient is suspense, excitement and tension.’ [8] There have been hundreds of thrillers which have been created and some of these thrillers have been hugely successful whereas others have failed.

The most famous thrillers include:

-Pulp Fiction (1994)

-Se7en (1995)

-Fight Club (1999)

-Psycho (1960)

-The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

-Vertigo (1958)

and some of the thrillers which have failed are:

-Compelling Evidence (1995)

-The Sobbing Stone (2005)

-Blood Deep (2005)

As you can see by the date that these films were released it is clear and easy to realise that thrillers used to be extremely successful but in this modern day they are failing slightly and not reaching their potential. However thrillers are still fairly popular.

As well as influential films in the thriller genre there are also influential directors, actors and actresses which have had a great impact on the thriller genre.

The most famous directors of thriller films include:

- Alfred Hitchcock

- David Fincher

- Stanley Kubrick

- Martin Scorsese

- Christopher Nolan

- Brian De Palmer

- Ridley Scott

-Quentin Tarantino

The most famous actors and actresses in the thriller genre are:

- Jack Nicholson

- James Stewart

- Cary Grant

- Janet Leigh

- Leonardo Di Caprio

- Robert De Niro

Thriller is a genre of film which ‘promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension’ [5] which are used as the main elements to scare and shock the audience. There are also subgenres for thrillers and the primary subgenre is psychological thrillers and other popular subgenres for thrillers are political thrillers and paranoid thrillers. Fight scenes and chase scenes are common conventions for thrillers to excite the audience and they also hide important information from the audience to build suspense and to scare and surprise the audience. Death is also a code and convention in thrillers and it also creates mystery.

There are many different subgenres of thrillers but the main subgenres are:

- Crime Thriller,

- Conspiracy Thriller,

- Psychological Thriller

- Mystery Thriller

There are other subgenres of thrillers which are a Disaster Thriller, an Erotic Thriller, a Legal Thriller, a Medical Thriller, a Political Thriller, a Rape and Revenge Thriller, Religious Thriller, a Supernatural Thriller and a Techno Thriller. I have chosen to look at the different subgenres of thrillers to help me decide what genre of thriller mine will be and I will mostly likely use the main genre of thriller and create a psychological thriller because these are interesting and exciting.

There are a various amount of different codes and conventions for thriller films. These codes and conventions are what make the thriller. ‘An atmosphere of creeping menace and sudden outbursts of violence, crime, and murder characterize these films’ [9] and ‘Thrillers often present a vision of the world and society as dark, corrupt and dangerous.’[10] Thrillers are usually mysterious so that the audience do not know what is going to happen next. Thrillers usually have fast cuts which are simple because this builds up tension and suspense but it also keeps the thriller flowing so that the audience don’t get bored and are constantly on the edge of their seats and they don’t know what is going to happen next. Thrillers are used ‘to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax.’ [6] Some of the shots however are sometimes long and this is done on purpose to build suspense. The plots in thrillers aren’t usually clear and this is done to keep the audience guessing so that they don’t know what is going to happen. The lighting used in thrillers is usually dark and dull and the lighting is also used to create shadows to make the thriller more mysterious and also to scare the audience. Fight and chase scenes are also usually common in thriller films because they are exciting. Thrillers use ‘suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences.’ [1] Thrillers are also supposed to ‘thrill’ the audience and keep them on the edge of their seats. A common convention of thrillers is death because most thrillers include at least one death because this is seen as scary and there are also dangerous situations. Another convention of thrillers is that the male characters are usually the villains and the female characters are usually the victims which can be a negative stereotype of women because it views them as vulnerable and weak. ‘The main characters are also traditionally men’ [7] however women lead characters are becoming increasingly popular but thrillers are still mainly male dominated. Thrillers usually take place in ordinary cities so that it scares the audience because the audience will then be able to relate to the film. These are the main codes and conventions of the thriller genre but some subgenres of the thriller genre have slightly different codes and conventions so that it fits in with the subgenre.

The target audience for a film is probably the most important aspect that will make a film successful because the bigger the audience the more successful the film will be. This is why I need to decide a target audience for my thriller and it will be better if it has a wider target audience because this means it will appeal to more people and more people will view it therefore it will become more successful. I need to decide which audience to target my thriller at. There are many different audiences such as different ages and genders and I need to aim my thriller at the correct age and the correct gender to make it more successful. To give my thriller a wider target audience I will most likely direct it to all age groups and both genders. Most people believe that males prefer watching thrillers more than females but this is not always the case.

Opening credits and sequences for thriller films are extremely important because they set the tone of the film. In my thriller I only have a maximum of two minutes which means that I don’t have a lot of time to show the credits for my thriller however this makes it easier for me to edit. According to Wikipedia the most common opening credits order is: (Name of the Distribution Studio), (Name of the Production Company), (Producer's Name) Production or/and (director only) A Film By (Director's Name),Starring, Film's Title, Featuring, Casting, Music, Production Design, Editor, Director Of Photography, Producer, Story, Writer, Director. [4] As you can see there are a lot of credits that I need to include in my thriller because I want my thriller to look professional.

Sources

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_%28genre%29

[2] – http://www.imdb.com/chart/thriller

[3] - http://www.imdb.com/chart/thriller

[4] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits

[5] - http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html

[6] - http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html

[7] - http://www.illiterarty.com/genre-thriller

[8] - http://www.allmovie.com/explore/genre/thriller-942

[9] – http://www.allmovie.com/explore/genre/thriller-942

[10] - http://www.allmovie.com/explore/genre/thriller-942

[11] – http://pinartarhan.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/pulp-fiction-poster.jpg