Conventions of a Thriller opening

Camera- Many different camera shots are used within a thriller. There are several main points to focus upon.
 If a character is shown to be vulnerable, the angle of shot should be taken from high above. This makes the character look small and insignificant on the camera and gives a hint that danger could be coming. Another typical shot is, when a character is dominant in a scene, the camera is used from below. This makes the character seem powerful as they cover a large surface area of the camera lense, become the central focus and look larger than normal as they fill the space the camera can shoot.
 It is also important to keep to the 180 degree rule in order to maintain a professional look throughout shooting. If this rule was broken the characters would flip from left to right and back again throughout one conversation leaving the audience confused as to who is saying what.
 The rule of thirds should also be taken into account to give your shot a more exciting look. If a character wass put straight into the middle of a shot, they would take up most of the room. By putting the character to the left or right of the shot, it allows the camera to show the surroundings and set an atmosphere as well as show the storyline.
 By using a variety of camera shots it helps to get the storyline across quickly and gives hints to a characters personality. In example, by filming a conversation between two people in only three different shots, the audience could easily work out the sociala status of the two individuals.

In this shot, the child looks very vulnerable. She is made to look small

and the direct eye contact makes the viewer feels as though she is looking at us personally in a troubled way. By making the character a child, she is already more vulnerable than that of an adult as her personality and human skills are not yet developed, she is in more danger to be lead in the wrong direction and end up in trouble than an adult.

The man in this shot looks very dominant. He is made to look big as most of his body covers the camera lense and he is the only thing in this shot, demanding our attention. His stance suggests power as he has what looks to be a short tempered attitude by having his arms crossed. As well as the shot being taken from below, making the man look powerful, but he also has a strong physical appearence by having his muscles on display, making him look much more dominant than the child in the other shot.

Editing- In a thriller, the way in which you edit can change the whole perception of the film. Shots can be edited to make them change quickly with fast flashes of blackouts, this would be good to use in a fight scene to show the fast paced atmosphere and how each character is putting lots of effort into the fight. By using a slow arrangement of camera shots, an atmosphere could be created slowly to increase the emotion put in the footage. This could be used in a scene of romance, building up the tension slowly to show the intensity and personal feelings of the character. Fade to blacks and fade to whites are easy to add and make the film look much more effective so that it isn't jumpy when scenes change. It gives the piece a more professional vibe and ensures that the audience doesn't get confused with what is going on in the piece, for example a man couldn't be walking down the road to his car and then be in the car, but by adding a black out it would miss out the inbetween section and make sense to the audience without taking up large amounts of time, watching him get in. It is also possible to speed up the pace of a shot, or slow it down depending on how you want the shot to look and change the colour and style of the shot to make it relate to the time period of atmosphere of the film. By using many of these different editing techniques, it is possible to make the opening look as realistic and professional as possible.

Narrative- In a thriller opening you could have a narrative piece. It could happen at the start of the opening, demanding the audiences attention and causing them to become familiar with the main characters voice. As well as this it could happen throughout the opening whilst the scene is happening without sound. The characters voice becomes the story teller as well as the footage. In some openings, when two characters of the same sex are acting out a scene, it is difficult to tell which one is speaking until you hear both voices of the men. In our opening, I would rather use one girl and one boy to ensure that our audience know exactly which character is talking. The voice over needs to be planned effectively to ensure that it makes sense with the scene which is playing. For example a character could not speak about somethting which has not yet happened as it would confused the audience and lose their focus in the film.

Mise-en-scene- It is important to ensure that this fits in with your piece. If a group chose to act a scene out from say the 1920's, it would be important to ensure that what ever is captured on camera fits in with the same era.  This includes everything such as costumes, setting, speach, machinery etc. If one thing was out of place then the atmosphere would be ruined. By having the mise-en-scene wrong, the whole piece becomes unbelievable and makes the film look very unprofessional. By having so much to think about, it would be helpful to sit down in a group and discuss what would make our opening look the best and talk about things such as what time period we want to aim for, the costumes in which we could get hold of and the prime location to make everything come together. It is important to plan this carefully to in order to get the best filming we can.

Sound- Different types of sound can be added to a Thriller opening. Diagetic and non diagetic. Diagetic sound is what happens in the film, i.e. a conversation happening between two people. This must be recorded during filming to work! Non diagetic sound could consist of a range of things. Sound effects are often added to film openings to make something sound alot more exaggerated than what it would in real life (often used in fight scenes.) They could also be used to add to an atmosphere, something dark and mysterious coming to a climax could result in a crash, sound effects could give you many options to use for this, smashing of glass, the thud of someone falling over etc. All of the effects add to the final outcome of the filming to make it more believeable and tension building. Music is also very important in a thriller opening to set the scene. If done right, this could create the right environment for each individual thriller. Something mysterious could have a slow low note track where as something very fast paced and dramatic could have a fast beat music beat with percussion instroments with all manner of notes to make it fit effectively to the filmed piece.