Task 2.2: Thriller Genre Conventions

A generic thriller film story plot often has a protagonist who is somewhat heroic, or if he's not heroic then he is there to keep the plot going but will usually do good. The antagonist's identity is usually hidden and will uncover as the film goes on. He usually has something to do with the protagonist and his life story. However, this is only an example of generic thriller films, sometimes they are a lot more complex and have much more complicated stories.

Other classic thriller film characters are ones like psychotic killer, spies, assassins, detectives and a lot more. These character are in the film to build intensity for the audience, it's supposed to make it feel like it could happen to the audience. A thriller film's goal is to make the audience feel anticipation and uncertainty whilst at the same time excitement. 

Some of the main themes of a thriller are things like terrorism, political conspiracies or a chase and suspense.  

The iconography consists of things like low lighting and tension music building. Films like 'Fight Club' did this all the time with it's low lighting and it's soundtrack made specifically for the film. For example, the low lighting is shown in this frame of the film: 

Here, the lighting is mainly made up of one above the door and another on the wall. There's probably some lighting behind the camera giving it a miserable and mysterious feel. This kind of lighting is found in other thrillers for the same reason and it makes it a convention for them all. Also, the mise en scene in this frame shows a run down, urban setting which is, again, another convention, done to make it look like a gritty place.

Thriller films add non diegetic music in the background to build up the situation and add intensity. The music will often get louder and faster in situations that's meant to make the audience feel like thy're not going to get out of the dilemma they're in. Some films get their own soundtrack made for them which helps make the film it's own.

Quick cuts are a very common way of changing shots in thriller films as it makes the audience get worried and caught up in the action. It's used a lot in shot reverse shots in order to make the people talking a lot more intense. An example of shot reverse shots used to build intensity is in a film called 'Heat'.

This thriller film uses shot reverse shots quite a lot in this cafe scene as it is the protagonist and antagonist talking to each other. In fact, this thriller film doesn't use the generic 'heroic antagonist', instead, the protagonist is a bank robber and the antagonist is a detective. But still, it uses the convention of having a detective in the story which is quite common.
Another example of detectives being used in thrillers is another David Fincher film called 'Seven' where the two main characters are detectives and they fit into the convention of having a heroic character.

Something that was quite common in noir-thrillers is the use of shadows. This is where dark lighting and shadows first became popular along with its black and white shots. This is done to, again, add a gritty feel to the film along with mystery to the characters.
A classic use of black and white is in Hitchcock's 'Pycho'. This is film has the classic shower scene of someone about to be killed in the shower. The music is also built up in the scene to add to the intensity and horror of the situation.