Research of the thriller genre

  When doing background research into the thriller genre, I came across the 8 primary elements.

1) Either the villain or victim faces death somewhere within the film
2) The forces of antagonism should be stronger than the protagonist.
3) The protagonist either goes on a quest or finds a character who they cannot "put down"
4) The plot is usually a mystery. This needs to be solved by the end of the film.
5) The narrative is usually of the protagonists point of view.
6) The characters must be realistic. It shoud look natural and unforced.
7) There are two major themes for a thriller. Desire for justice, the morality of individuals.
8) Small but significant detail, the victim should portray the only flicker of innocence throughout the film, showing good humanity in a corrupt film.

 These 8 charactertistics give a basic outline as to what a thriller film should entail. By studying these closely, my group should be able to express ideas of what would make a good thriller film. The main idea is to chose an antagonist and a protagonist and discuss how each side will display whether they are good or bad. The plot, to some extent should be kept vague. We are only doing the first two minutes of a thriller film and so mystery needs to be kept after the film is finished to make the audience want to watch more. The opening of films should be one of the best parts as it is the oppurtunity to capture your audience. Usually, films put shocking footage or a flash back which the audience would not yet understand to encapture them. This will give an immediate emotion to the audience and keep their concentration on watching the story line develop.


http://www.twelvepoint.com/?q=blog/8-primary-elements-thriller-genre

Psycho; The old version of this film was created in 1960. It was and still is extremely famous for it's murder scene, filmed in the shower. Due to the fact that this film was, and still is so popular i watched the original version. The shower scene is mostly made up of close ups of the victim, highlighting their struggle for survival throughout the murder. As you can see from the mood board, the audience is hardly shown the murderer at all. The only thing we see is a silhouette of a man. By the film showing the victim to be a woman and the murderer to be a man we get the comparrison to genders. Women are stereotypically shown in thrillers as being weak, helpless and normally easily to kill off. Men are shown as dominant, the villain, strong, powerful and destructive. By including these two characteristics from two extreme ends of the scale the audience have a good idea as to who will get their way in the film.

 The mise-en-scene in this film has had a lot of time put into it in order to make it look as professional and effective as possible. The film was filmed in black and white. This could connotate the idea of good and evil throughout the film. White stands for peacefulness and purity where as black stands for evil and corruption. The shower also looks and stays very simplistic throughout this scene. This is important due to the audiences focus leaving the action and wandering onto whether the bathroom appliances are to their taste. Nothing should distract the audience from the film at this point as it is the peak of anxiety for the audience within the film and should be viewed with concentration, not distraction.

 Many point of view shots from the victims side are used in this scene. This is so that the audience see how clueless and vulnerable the victim is to have someone else in the room with her, and adds to the tension by the audience feeling it their responsibility to get involved with the film and tell the lady she needs to be careful. This gives the audience that "edge of the seat" feeling. By the victim being in the shower, it is seen as a private place where people should be alone. This plays on the victims vulnerability by the woman being naked. The fact that the character is showering, and transforming from dirty to clean plays upon the fact that a dirty murder is about to take place, resulting in the womans death. 



 Typical characteristics of Thriller films
Breaking the law comes up alot in thriller films. The audience should go through the thought process of whether they think that what the character in the film is doing is justifiable, or morally wrong.Within this genre of film, the character usually breaks the law by displaying an act of violence or even murder. Violence could occur due to many different reasons. Vengance, hatrid, competition, an unhealthy mental state, religion, etc... The audience will weigh up the pros and cons for the character commiting a crime and decide on whether they would do the same thing as the character if the situation was the same. This is a vital decision as it will change the way each individual audience member will view each action of the film. Films usually sway the audience to make a decision by showing a film from a biased angle to ensure every individual thinks the same. This will keep the maximum amount of people interested and enjoying the film by relating to the main character.

 Making a bond with a character is important during a thriller film. Usually, the audience either feels companionship towards a character and therefore supports them, or is disgusted in the way which the character has acted and feels hatrid towards them. These two extreme emotions keep the audience on their toes throughout the film and encaptures their mind. The audience will decide whether the character is purely evil, or whether they are a good person doing an evil thing for a valid reason, leaving them sympathetic.