Thriller Research

Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements.The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies.
Thrillers are mostly characterised by an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder by showing society as dark, corrupt and dangerous, though they often feature a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested. Thrillers heavily promote on literary devices such as plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers. They also promote on moods, such as a high level of anticipation, adrenaline rush, arousal, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes even terror. The tones in thrillers are usually gritty, slick and lurid.
The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres. Though each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods. Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings and, more common in mystery thrillers are, investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality and obsession. While elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations, paranoia and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.
"Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller."  A thriller is villain-driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles that the hero must overcome.

Conevntions of a thriller:

I am going to look into the conventions of the thriller genre This will help  give me some background research for the thriller opening and the typ.e of things that might be expected to be included in it.

 

- Music that is dramatic to builds tension 

-Quick, choppy camera angle changes

- Strong lighting and the use of darkness and shadow

- A lot of quick paced action to keep it interesting and buzzy

- A feeling of hopelessness or desperation – looking like theres no way out

- Titling – dramatic build up before the movie even starts

- Camera s shoot close and personal distance of the characters to create a feeling of involvement and make it feel like you are there.

- Props and symbols that set the scene and are common to thrillers – guns, weapons, police, time

- Dramatic irony – where the audience know more than the characters

I have thernt that a thriller is a move that causes tensions and suspence but maintains the excitment as the main element in the movie. I have also lernt that there are different sub headings of genre for example crime, mystery, pyschological and paranoid.