Why Is Genre Used? What is a Thriller Genre?

Why is Genre used?
Genre is mainly used to determine the experience the audience will have while watching the film, and from this, appeal to a specific audience. For example, when going to see a horror movie the majority of the audience of such a film would be interested in horror films and looking to be scared, however, when seeing a romance, the audience would have been attracted by the conventions of a romance film.

What is a Convention? Why/How are they used?
Conventions are certain stereotypes that are associated with a genre, for example, roses are a common convention of romance films, due to the romantic nature. Conventions are commonly used to appeal to an audience within a film and to inform them what type of film they should expect, from the one being advertised, this give the audience grounds to base which film the audience would like to watch.

What is a Thriller Genre? And What Conventions are Thrillers Associated With?
Thriller is a specific genre that contains its own specific conventions that certain films match. For example, films such as 'Heat' fit perfectly into the Thriller genre. Commonly found in thrillers are; exciting plotlines, in which the protagonist is chasing or being chased, a shocking twist or discovery and usually contain tense situations. Thrillers are a widely enjoyed, as there are so many variations, the sub-genres of thriller spread out across a multitude of different styles.

Thriller Sub-Genres

Sub-Genres of Thrillers
There are many variations of sub-genres in the Thriller genre, these are a few examples:

Psychological Thrillers

Films such as 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' can be classified under the Psychological Thriller, as the plotline revolves around the unstable mental state of the protagonist, which leads to many of the events in the film. Psychological thrillers tend to be less violent than other variations, however, there are some exceptions.

Supernatural Thriller

Supernatural Thrillers focus more on extra-ordinary other-worldly encounters and how they affect the character, however tension is usually built in a similar way to some Horror movies and the supernatural 'being' is shown later on in the film. An example of a popular supernatural thriller is 'What Lies Beneath'.

Comedy Thriller

Although Comedy Thrillers are less common than other sub-genres the plot usually involves a comedic protagonist or plotline, however thriller elements are mixed in, for example, in 'Mr and Mrs Smith' the plotline is trivial and many of the situations in the film are amusing, however, there are thrilling elements such as the shootout scene in the house.

Legal Thriller

Legal Thrillers most commonly involve a courtroom and a lawyer, the protagonist is usually someone who is a key individual in the outcome of the case, such as a lawyer or judge, the film 'Witness' could be considered a Legal Thriller although it does not take place entirely in a courtroom, the film has enough legal basis for it to fit into the sub genre.

Crime Thrillers

Crime Thrillers, unlike Legal Thrillers, usually take place at the crime scene itself, the protagonist is usually the criminal, and the audience usually experience shoot outs and car chases, much like a film in the Crime genre, however, the circumstances are usually thrilling enough and supply a significant twist, so as to include it in the Sub Genre. An example of a Crime Thriller could be 'The Silence of the Lambs'.

In my opinion the psychological thriller and the supernatural thrillers are most appealing to use in our thriller opening sequence, I feel that the slight horror elements that are enveloped in these thriller sub genres add to the suspense and thrilling nature of our piece the most effectively. We would also be able to work well with these, as our idea of being buried alive could be manipulated to become very thrilling.

Introduction to Genre

What is a Genre?

A genre is a category in which different types of films enter into, depending on their conventions, for example, a film like 'Taken' would correspond with the requirements to fit into the 'Thriller' genre. However, there are other definitions that can more specifically define a film, such as a sub-genre or a hybrid genre. Examples of these could be a 'Psychological Thriller' (Shutter Island/ Sub-genre) and a 'Disaster Thriller' (Dante's Peak/ Hybrid genre). However these definitions are required, as many thrillers are significantly different from one another, for example, thrillers such as 'Mr and Mrs Smith' differ entirely from 'Taken'. The comic undertones in 'Mr and Mrs Smith' are mixed with strong elements of thrillers to create a funny yet thrilling film. However 'Taken' focuses on the more serious elements of a thriller, and the focus is almost entirely on thrilling the audience. However we are still presented with two films that share the same thrilling aspect. Although they create and achieve this aspect in different ways, on a basic level, the films are similar. In both films we are presented with thrilling shootouts and car chases, and the audience's response would be similar when watching either film. Within a genre however, films share many of the same traits, for example, in a crime thriller, the audience would expect to be watching a film that not only thrills but also involves the audience with the crime in question, while also providing the audience with a fair amount of action, however, not as much as many action films include.

Minute Meetings

18 November 2014

What have you done?

We planned locations and angles for scenes.

Decided what props we need.

Decided how much time we will spend shooting at each location.

Targets:

Tom: To ask if you are allowed an hour out of the music video.

Eliza:

Freddy: Think in more detail about the Pavilion scene.

Claudia: Make a Facebook group and add us all so we can share pictures etc from the lesson.

Good vs Bad:

What went well and why:

Decided where we want to film and how we will film scenes in the classroom.

What went bad and why:

Didn't discuss fully what we are going to film at the Pavilion & the angles we will use. Didn't have enough time as we thought of the idea at the end of the lesson.

19 November 2014

What have you done?

Today, we focused on our thriller length and complexity, and decided it was too long for an introduction sequence. We completed our story board for tomorrows practice lesson. We created a Whatsapp group so we could communicate more easily. We fitted our sequence into around two minutes and finalized the locations and props for tomorrow.

Targets:

Tom: To find time from the music video to go and take part in the practice film session.

Eliza: Finish the storyboard drawings.

Freddy: Check over the original idea, make sure we haven't missed anything that could make our sequence more thrilling.

Claudia: Contact each of the group to make sure Whatsapp works.

Good vs Bad

What went well:

We established a way of contacting each other easily, so we can organize things when we are at home. We also managed to decide on a story that will fit roughly into the timespan.

What didn't go well:

We wasted a little time deciding on ideas that would fit into the timespan and still be tense.

20 November 2014

Today we filmed the reccy shoot filming each shot in chronological order, each in one take.

Targets:

Claudia-upload videos onto laptop so we have back up copies.

Eliza-

Tom-catch up on what missed and go through what problems came up

Freddy-

Group- discuss ways to lengthen the sequence. Maybe we could write some dialogue so that there is more substance to the shots so they don't seem as long.

WWW- it was useful to see how the shot pieced together and it helped us to get a more visual idea of how our thoughts worked together, therefore making it easier to adapt and add in ideas to our sequence to improve it.

WWB- we need to discuss in more detail how to extend the sequence as it only came up to a minute. so that held us back as we were running out of ideas and we need to discuss in more detail how to adapt our idea.

MINUTE MEETING (21/11/14)

What has worked well:

    To increase the tension we positioned 'claudia' in the background to show a hooded figure in the background which the girl cant see. this worked well we thought as it shows the thrilling side of the opening scene opening the question of "who is the person in the background?"

    Another thing that worked well we felt was the camera angle we used to show the girls face expressions of fear and vulnerability. we used a closeup which worked really well to show these emotions to the audience and increase suspense of whats going to happen to her.

What didn't work so well:

    We felt the general pace of the opening scene wasnt quite right and we maybe need to work on that to make it quicker and therefore more tense or slower and slower. This definitely is a weakness of the piece at the moment as it isn't flowing very well with the pace we used in the tester film.

    Also to improve the piece we think that we could add more to it whether thats mroe sound or another twist or even cut things out and replace them with other ideas because most of the group agree at the moment the stroyline isn't strong enough to create that thrilling effect on its own but needs more to be successful.

24 November 2014

What have you done:

Noticed our idea was still too complex and we were trying to channel too many ideas into one, Decided final idea, of being at a funeral, we see a lot of sad people and then the camera pans down to the coffin & we see the woman is alive. It then cuts to a man laughing. We also talked through a few points for the pitch

Targets:

Eliza: prepare pitch for tomorrow

Freddy: create a story board for the pitch tomorrow

Claudia: inform tom on what he missed in today's lesson.

WWW:

today we discussed what was bad in our idea and what we could do to make it better, we finally decided our final idea & everyone is happy with it. Decided who was going to present the pitch & who is going to write feedback.

WWB:

Left it quite late to decide our final idea, which made our overall summary & opening sequence suffer. We didn't really have a clear pitch, we just talked through a few ideas of what we want to include, as eliza is presenting the pitch, she is going to finish it at home.

26 November 2014

We started to make mood boards which we created through any photos which we felt connected to our opening scene of our thriller piece. These included the inside of a coffin and the different shots we might use to show her trapped such as point of view angles or closeups. Also to our mood board we added words such as 'trapped' setting the scene of the tense situation shes in. Also we looked at the type of graveyard the coffin would be buried in and added those pictrues to the mood board.Also we added pictures of the girl who would be in the coffina and the general look we imagine her to have.

Targets (all pretty much the same)

Eliza=continue looking for photos for the mood board

Claudia= the same

Tom (if able to )= also look for some photos which link with the ideas for our thriller title sequence

Freddy= same

18 November 2014

What have you done?

We planned locations and angles for scenes.

Decided what props we need.

Decided how much time we will spend shooting at each location.

Targets:

Tom: To ask if you are allowed an hour out of the music video.

Eliza:

Freddy: Think in more detail about the Pavilion scene.

Claudia: Make a Facebook group and add us all so we can share pictures etc from the lesson.

Good vs Bad:

What went well and why:

Decided where we want to film and how we will film scenes in the classroom.

What went bad and why:

Didn't discuss fully what we are going to film at the Pavilion & the angles we will use. Didn't have enough time as we thought of the idea at the end of the lesson.

19 November 2014

What have you done?

Today, we focused on our thriller length and complexity, and decided it was too long for an introduction sequence. We completed our story board for tomorrows practice lesson. We created a Whatsapp group so we could communicate more easily. We fitted our sequence into around two minutes and finalized the locations and props for tomorrow.

Targets:

Tom: To find time from the music video to go and take part in the practice film session.

Eliza: Finish the storyboard drawings.

Freddy: Check over the original idea, make sure we haven't missed anything that could make our sequence more thrilling.

Claudia: Contact each of the group to make sure Whatsapp works.

Good vs Bad

What went well:

We established a way of contacting each other easily, so we can organize things when we are at home. We also managed to decide on a story that will fit roughly into the timespan.

What didn't go well:

We wasted a little time deciding on ideas that would fit into the timespan and still be tense.

20 November 2014

Today we filmed the reccy shoot filming each shot in chronological order, each in one take.

Targets:

Claudia-upload videos onto laptop so we have back up copies.

Eliza-

Tom-catch up on what missed and go through what problems came up

Freddy-

Group- discuss ways to lengthen the sequence. Maybe we could write some dialogue so that there is more substance to the shots so they don't seem as long.

WWW- it was useful to see how the shot pieced together and it helped us to get a more visual idea of how our thoughts worked together, therefore making it easier to adapt and add in ideas to our sequence to improve it.

WWB- we need to discuss in more detail how to extend the sequence as it only came up to a minute. so that held us back as we were running out of ideas and we need to discuss in more detail how to adapt our idea.

MINUTE MEETING (21/11/14)

What has worked well:

    To increase the tension we positioned 'claudia' in the background to show a hooded figure in the background which the girl cant see. this worked well we thought as it shows the thrilling side of the opening scene opening the question of "who is the person in the background?"

    Another thing that worked well we felt was the camera angle we used to show the girls face expressions of fear and vulnerability. we used a closeup which worked really well to show these emotions to the audience and increase suspense of whats going to happen to her.

What didn't work so well:

    We felt the general pace of the opening scene wasnt quite right and we maybe need to work on that to make it quicker and therefore more tense or slower and slower. This definitely is a weakness of the piece at the moment as it isn't flowing very well with the pace we used in the tester film.

    Also to improve the piece we think that we could add more to it whether thats mroe sound or another twist or even cut things out and replace them with other ideas because most of the group agree at the moment the stroyline isn't strong enough to create that thrilling effect on its own but needs more to be successful.

24 November 2014

What have you done:

Noticed our idea was still too complex and we were trying to channel too many ideas into one, Decided final idea, of being at a funeral, we see a lot of sad people and then the camera pans down to the coffin & we see the woman is alive. It then cuts to a man laughing. We also talked through a few points for the pitch

Targets:

Eliza: prepare pitch for tomorrow

Freddy: create a story board for the pitch tomorrow

Claudia: inform tom on what he missed in today's lesson.

WWW:

today we discussed what was bad in our idea and what we could do to make it better, we finally decided our final idea & everyone is happy with it. Decided who was going to present the pitch & who is going to write feedback.

WWB:

Left it quite late to decide our final idea, which made our overall summary & opening sequence suffer. We didn't really have a clear pitch, we just talked through a few ideas of what we want to include, as eliza is presenting the pitch, she is going to finish it at home.

26 November 2014

We started to make mood boards which we created through any photos which we felt connected to our opening scene of our thriller piece. These included the inside of a coffin and the different shots we might use to show her trapped such as point of view angles or closeups. Also to our mood board we added words such as 'trapped' setting the scene of the tense situation shes in. Also we looked at the type of graveyard the coffin would be buried in and added those pictrues to the mood board.Also we added pictures of the girl who would be in the coffina and the general look we imagine her to have.

Targets (all pretty much the same)

Eliza=continue looking for photos for the mood board

Claudia= the same

Tom (if able to )= also look for some photos which link with the ideas for our thriller title sequence

Freddy= same

18 November 2014

What have you done?

We planned locations and angles for scenes.

Decided what props we need.

Decided how much time we will spend shooting at each location.

Targets:

Tom: To ask if you are allowed an hour out of the music video.

Eliza:

Freddy: Think in more detail about the Pavilion scene.

Claudia: Make a Facebook group and add us all so we can share pictures etc from the lesson.

Good vs Bad:

What went well and why:

Decided where we want to film and how we will film scenes in the classroom.

What went bad and why:

Didn't discuss fully what we are going to film at the Pavilion & the angles we will use. Didn't have enough time as we thought of the idea at the end of the lesson.

19 November 2014

What have you done?

Today, we focused on our thriller length and complexity, and decided it was too long for an introduction sequence. We completed our story board for tomorrows practice lesson. We created a Whatsapp group so we could communicate more easily. We fitted our sequence into around two minutes and finalized the locations and props for tomorrow.

Targets:

Tom: To find time from the music video to go and take part in the practice film session.

Eliza: Finish the storyboard drawings.

Freddy: Check over the original idea, make sure we haven't missed anything that could make our sequence more thrilling.

Claudia: Contact each of the group to make sure Whatsapp works.

Good vs Bad

What went well:

We established a way of contacting each other easily, so we can organize things when we are at home. We also managed to decide on a story that will fit roughly into the timespan.

What didn't go well:

We wasted a little time deciding on ideas that would fit into the timespan and still be tense.

20 November 2014

Today we filmed the reccy shoot filming each shot in chronological order, each in one take.

Targets:

Claudia-upload videos onto laptop so we have back up copies.

Eliza-

Tom-catch up on what missed and go through what problems came up

Freddy-

Group- discuss ways to lengthen the sequence. Maybe we could write some dialogue so that there is more substance to the shots so they don't seem as long.

WWW- it was useful to see how the shot pieced together and it helped us to get a more visual idea of how our thoughts worked together, therefore making it easier to adapt and add in ideas to our sequence to improve it.

WWB- we need to discuss in more detail how to extend the sequence as it only came up to a minute. so that held us back as we were running out of ideas and we need to discuss in more detail how to adapt our idea.

MINUTE MEETING (21/11/14)

What has worked well:

    To increase the tension we positioned 'claudia' in the background to show a hooded figure in the background which the girl cant see. this worked well we thought as it shows the thrilling side of the opening scene opening the question of "who is the person in the background?"

    Another thing that worked well we felt was the camera angle we used to show the girls face expressions of fear and vulnerability. we used a closeup which worked really well to show these emotions to the audience and increase suspense of whats going to happen to her.

What didn't work so well:

    We felt the general pace of the opening scene wasnt quite right and we maybe need to work on that to make it quicker and therefore more tense or slower and slower. This definitely is a weakness of the piece at the moment as it isn't flowing very well with the pace we used in the tester film.

    Also to improve the piece we think that we could add more to it whether thats mroe sound or another twist or even cut things out and replace them with other ideas because most of the group agree at the moment the stroyline isn't strong enough to create that thrilling effect on its own but needs more to be successful.

24 November 2014

What have you done:

Noticed our idea was still too complex and we were trying to channel too many ideas into one, Decided final idea, of being at a funeral, we see a lot of sad people and then the camera pans down to the coffin & we see the woman is alive. It then cuts to a man laughing. We also talked through a few points for the pitch

Targets:

Eliza: prepare pitch for tomorrow

Freddy: create a story board for the pitch tomorrow

Claudia: inform tom on what he missed in today's lesson.

WWW:

today we discussed what was bad in our idea and what we could do to make it better, we finally decided our final idea & everyone is happy with it. Decided who was going to present the pitch & who is going to write feedback.

WWB:

Left it quite late to decide our final idea, which made our overall summary & opening sequence suffer. We didn't really have a clear pitch, we just talked through a few ideas of what we want to include, as eliza is presenting the pitch, she is going to finish it at home.

26 November 2014

We started to make mood boards which we created through any photos which we felt connected to our opening scene of our thriller piece. These included the inside of a coffin and the different shots we might use to show her trapped such as point of view angles or closeups. Also to our mood board we added words such as 'trapped' setting the scene of the tense situation shes in. Also we looked at the type of graveyard the coffin would be buried in and added those pictrues to the mood board.Also we added pictures of the girl who would be in the coffina and the general look we imagine her to have.

Targets (all pretty much the same)

Eliza=continue looking for photos for the mood board

Claudia= the same

Tom (if able to )= also look for some photos which link with the ideas for our thriller title sequence

Freddy= same

Moodboard

To create our moodboard we collected various different images that portrayed the kind of emotions we felt would be useful in our thriller. We aimed to find claustrophobic, dark and slightly frightening images to give us inspiration for our thriller ideas.

We felt that extreme close up shots fitted our style of thriller well, while the on going factor of a timer added the thrilling aspect to the sequence. We also felt that an establishing shot of a quiet graveyard would add a serene atmosphere to it.

Similar Media Products

While in the pre-production stage of our thriller, we drew inspiration from different media products within the film industry, to help give us ideas regarding which steps to take in our thriller. For example, our ideas were inspired by the claustrophobic nature of films such as 127 Hours and The Descent. 

We drew from the claustrophobic elements such as the arm trapped in the rock in 127 Hours, as we felt that this terrified the audience, while also thrilling them, by encouraging them to want the protagonist to escape.

However, instead of focusing on the escape of our character, we decided that we should show the audience her death, as all the emotion invested in her escape had gone to waste, which demonized the serial killer, as they feel a sense of personal vengeance towards the killer, which creates a more satisfying ending, when he is caught.

Our Four Thriller Ideas

LOL Mum (Freddy)
After a long discussion on which we thought would be easier to film and which was the idea that best fitted the genre, we decided to choose Freddy's idea: 'LOL Mum'. Although the title sounds comical, the reality was far more suited to a thriller. The idea was set to begin at a funeral, where we see three daughters mourning over their deceased mother. They discuss little things that remind them of their mother, between themselves, and all reminisce about how she used to write 'LOL Mum' at the end of her texts to the daughters, not realizing that LOL stands for 'Laugh Out Loud' and mistaking it for 'Lots Of Love'. However each of the sisters phones beep, and when they check them each text has a message from the mothers number, signed 'LOL Mum'.
We thought this idea was the most thrilling and would also be easier to film and create, we had also depicted the brief outline of the scene and how we could film each shot.


Our second idea was one of mine:
Penalties
We see an extreme close up of a man sweating, looking stressed and nervous, the background is entirely black, the camera switches and we see that he is taking a penalty, he shoots and scores the penalty, there is a fade to black, and cheering is heard, and is synchronous to the fading screen. There is a newspaper on a table with the front page being about the famous penalty shootout and how it won the mans team the cup. We see the player pack his bags, and leave his apartment, he arrives at training to find a figure in the goalposts, he walks up to the figure to find that it is his coach hanging by his neck, with white letters painted on him, saying 'You're Next'.
However, we decided that this idea would be far harder to film and the use of special effects at the beginning would be difficult to produce well.

Seeing Double (Claudia)

Man is leading a double life. He is a police officer but has also committed a lot of very bad and serious crimes. He has raped and murdered 3 women in his other life, but 5 years later he is at work and is now investigating the crime as one of the bodies has just been found. Will people find out it was him?

For the opening sequence, I would like to use several clips from different news channels about the 3 girls going missing. The clips would cut from one channel to the next and eventually the sound from the clips would play over each other and then it would cut to black. Next we would see the back of a man dragging some bodies, but we don’t ever see his face. Next it cuts to the policeman at work and we hear a voice over of a news presenter saying that a girl who went missing 5 years ago, body has been found. We see the man at work trying to investigate the incident. An image of a wrist tied to a bed flashes on the screen and then we cut back to the man talking at work. We then see another body revealed with a voice over, it quickly cuts to a woman with hands around her throat. The speed of the cuts get quicker and we see a lot more shots of violent things. Then it cuts straight to black and there is a big bang. Finally we see a man slowly walking towards the camera with his hood up but we cannot see his face.

The Hunt.

A woman has given birth to a baby girl and soon after it’s born, the baby gets stolen. The mother is an outcast and doesn’t really have many friends in the town. When she rings the police to report what has happened, they laugh and say she is still high off the drugs from labour so they ignore her. The woman decides to look for the baby on her own, but every time she gets close to finding it, something gets in the way or distracts her. Its as if someone is watching her and trying to stop her.

We see a row of babies all lying in their hospital cribs and one of them is empty. We hear a voice over of a phone call to the police of the mother reporting the baby missing and in reply we hear laughter. We then see the mother jump into a car and speed with the address of a nursery. We see a close up of the nursery’s sign, but no one to be seen. The journey continues and fades in and out of different stages. It fades to black and we hear a scream.