Blog Post 02 -- Thriller Genre

THRILLER film examples:

Vertigo (1958) Psycho (1960) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) The sixth Sense (1999) Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Triangle(2009) Black Swan (2010) Shutter Island (2010)

coherence (2013) Get Out (2017) Parasite (2019)

Actors and Directors

actors:

• Leonardo DiCaprio — Shutter Island, The Departed, Inception,

• George Clooney — The American, Argo, Michael Clayton, The Peacemaker

• Harrison Ford— The Fugitive, Patriot Games, Air Force One, Witness

• Bruce Willis —Die Hard, 16 Blocks, The Fifth Element

• Brad Pitt — Fight Club, The Devil’s Own, Spy Game, World War Z

• Tom Hanks —captain Phillips, Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Inferno

• Morgan Freeman — 13 —Kiss the Girls, Wanted, Outbreak, Lucky Number Slevin

• Kate Winslet —The Life of David Gale, Hamlet, The Dressmaker, Titanic

• Matt Damon — The Bourne Series, The Departed, Green Zone

• Jennifer Lawrence — Mother!, Red Sparrow, The Hunger Games series, Devil you Know

How did THRILLER GENRE CHANGES OVER TIME???

The evolution of thriller genre changed by the development of technology and change in trend & audience taste. A prior in this field of thriller genre is direct Alfred Hitchcock, he devoted himself to thriller movies and his style is exaggerate anxiety and fear, which is now a convention. Psycho is an classic example of this.

Moving onto 70s and 80s, more of the violence element is involved in the movies with more novel adaptation. A famous one would be the godfather.

into 1989, as "death calm" released, A new idea id introduced—element of possessions and mass-murderer. Character will always need to escape from the villain with almost guaranteed death.

90s and present, thriller movies mostly have a focus on psychological disorder, obsession and violence.

All of that above could linked to Neale’s theory of repetition and differences. Conventions and stereotypes being repeated times but they are the sign of thriller and this is also thing make them typical and suitable to audience taste. However, thriller evolved because differences exist, this is what make them unique and developed in varieties of elements and innovated ideas. This is beneficial for the whole film industry to subvert the convention.

(reference fromhttps://prezi.com/hgvjhsucmoa5/evolution-of-the-thriller-genre/)

Sub genres and hybrids of this genre

• Psychological thriller -- The Bad Seed (1956)

• Action thriller -- The Dark Knight (2008)

• Crime thriller -- The Killing (1956)

• Political thriller -- Argo (2012)

• Supernatural thriller -- The Sixth Sense (1999)

• Spy thriller -- Mission impossible

• Legal thriller -- The Pelican Brief (1993)

WHO IS THE TARGETED AUDIENCE?

younger adult (between age of 18--30), both male and female is likely to have an interest in thriller movie. As they can bear the slight pressure (violence and fear )that the film bring to them and might appeal by the feeling of suspense and excitement which lead to a soaring of adrenaline. Also, people around this age bracket are appeal by the realness and graphic action around the intense storyline.

THRILLER WITHIN DIFFERENT MEDIA .

Thriller genre is one of the most popular genre to use in different medium. For example, on Switch or app stores from smartphones, the most welcoming games is always fall under thriller genre. Couple of examples for that will be “granny”, “The last of us” “uncharted” “Five Nights at Freddy’s”.

For books, many thriller movies are adapted based on novels. Also, reading give people more imagination space to construct the scenes and images, which causing even more suspension and sense of psychological fear. examples will be "silent patient" "gone girl"(adapt into movie).

One of the reason why the presence of thriller genres rise in trend within different medium is that when produces and developers find out it is popular and people would like to spend more capital on to to fulfill their needs sensory stimulation, they will produce more, and that is the foundation of repetition. They seeks to achieve profit maximization so their are increasingly amount of thriller product could be find within the dynamic market.

IMPORTANCE OF GENRE TO AUDIENCE AND PRODUCER

• For producers, genre can be summarize as the idea they has been tried and test for many times. This helps to minimize risks and unexpected expenditure in collecting audience changing taste and film industry. In terms too satisfy their audience and maximize profit, they will not take prior to be the risk-taker.

• For audience, genres creates a familiar pleasure and satisfied their needs in entertainment and escapism from reality. Audience gets opportunity from genre which already being classified to choose what they want to see and expected.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF FILM CLIPS

1. BABY DRIVER (action comedy)

mise en scene	camera	sound	editing
sunglasses- sense of calm, confidence and a stereotype of being cool and use to hide their identity —always suggest that there is a mission to take action on.	eye line match when catching each person’s reaction(eye level, close up by dolly in) when they sits in the car	diegetic sound— when the driver click the button of the mp3, the music	quick cuts follows the music — fast rhythm giving audience the sense of excitement.
Matching costume almost like a uniform — in black suits —A sense of community as everyone is wearing and we could tell from it that they are experienced. However, create contrast with the drivers casual clothing	a lot of dolly in and zoom in— take audience gradually into the scene. handheld tracking when they reach car park — nervousness	cheerful pop music (sound from guitar and base) however associate with a nervous situation of car chase — shows the driving ability of the driver and also element of comedy.	cross cutting between the driver and bank — create contrast, highlight the ignorance of the driver.
red car — signify danger but also the absurd and hilarious. Stands out from the black and white police cars.	almost every shots are movement shots — feature of action movie, create sense of continuity	no dialogues — focus on visual effects

2. Lock Stock and 2 smoking barrels

mise en scene	camera	sound	editing
warm lighting — slightly low-key: create a atmosphere of mysterious and unpredictable	close up to the movement of the man showing the card (which is bigger )	with a stress sound when each card dropped (shows the significance of wining this game)	cross cutting between face and card — build tension
poker cards — gamble	3 dolly in to the character’s face— capture immediate reaction— his anxiety after each card being display—building up tension (enigma) make audience interested about the result	music start as the card dropped from Eddy’s hand —pop music with a fast rhythm shows his disorientation.	cut on action — convey each act has been take is crucial to decide the result of this game
	dolly zoom — shows the disorientation of the character, and his
	handheld tracking when Eddy make his way out — blared background and shallow focus in his face — he lost the game.

3. PSYCHO (thriller)

mise en scene	camera	sound	editing
darkness inside the window — mysterious and unknown foreshadowing business under table	establishing shot of buildings and city	string music --—dramatic, fast and jerky. threat and anxiety create sense of oppression which is a convention	sentence on the first scene tells date ,time and setting --make it look realistic
A partner wearing expose clothing— no social distance signify close relationships, sexuality often infer dangers.	left panning meant to give uncomfortable feelings. use especially in thriller movies.	combination of high pitch and low pitch string music as bam together with diegetic sound -- unpredictable melody foreshowing the murder events	shot reverse shot shows a conversation between-- we are able to see the blinds repetitively --film noir
white bra and dress — pure —possibility of being victim. Marion is at passive composition when she first introduced--lie on bed -- similar position as when she died in the bathroom	dolly in to half open window — introduce more details , build tension and sense of suspension		long take of panning without cuts create continuity but with a sudden jump cut disruption, breaks the audience sense of security and expectation of further panning.
male gaze— beautiful and attractive woman being a convention of thriller movie.

4. Since of The Lamb

Mise En Scene	Camera	Sound
forest - mist -mysterious with a girl running create enigma of who is she, what is her identity, will there be anything happen to her?	high angle shot of Jodie —make her looks weak	mixed in diegetic (bird and sound of wind)and the orchestral non-diegetic sound. Give audience ambiguous sense between peaceful morning and sense of tension
Jodie is exercise in a relative mysterious forest — foreshowing something is going to happen on her.	close up to facial expression which determined, expose more of her personality, which is someone won’t easily give up.	when Jodie move close and start running, the volume of music increase, and few other variety of instrument is added in, continue to build tension and draw audience’s interest.
dark and desaturated natural lighting — darkness and murder commitment	eye line match and POV when Jodie’s eye is searching on the wall of what’s going on — the crime scene photo —might means that she is involved.	When she looks at the photo board, the music start again. Suggest that She will be a significant part of the crime.
inside the elevator, Jodie is in the middle of several man with red t- shirt, again, she look small and vulnerable in comparison.	stable camera : capture whole process Jodie running into the mist — shoes her disorientation throughout the crime associate with BILL BULL next.