Thriller genre: key conventions.

·     Lighting - tend to be slightly odd for example dim, broken, eerie. Spotlights or highlighting certain things that relates to the story line either the moment it is shown or perhaps later on, creation of shadows.

     

    Editing-  Quick/ short shots, Flashbacks, Black and white rather than colour, 

·      Secluded settings- abandoned house (tends to be a large building or warehouse) broken windows, dark corners, wires, scaffolding, used to be ornate and grand type rooms, wallpaper coming off walls. Woods, lake, vast emptiness.

·     Protagonist- similar to the audience/from the audiences point of view which makes the audience sympathize with the character and so create suspense when the character is in trouble. Moments of weakness (when the antagonist closes in on the protagonist- pace become faster, shots become shorter, fast music and so creates tension and suspense)

·     Antagonist- has a lot of knowledge, seems to know everything, one step ahead- teasing with protagonist, leaves clues to lead protagonist in wrong direction, mutated in some way perhaps scars on face, or looks perfectly normal allowing audience to trust them.

·      Plot twists- sudden change in direction, unexpected i.e. antagonist is not who the audience thought it would be, Mind games,

·      Camera angles- high and low angles can emphasise the power of the villain or the vulnerability of the victim. Dolly Zoom or Hitchcock zoom can create a surreal effect which can give the audience the sense that they are falling or an object is zooming, The canted angle  (when the camera is tilted to create a sense of instability and uncertainty from the characters point of view) 

3 Directors in the Thriller Genre

David Fincher:  

Originally from Denver, Colorado he was born august 28^th 1962. Originally he started out working on TV Commercials and music videos, he worked with the likes of Billy Idol, nine inch nails, Madonna, Aerosmith and Iggy Pop. Concerning films his most notable films are alien 3 ( his debut film), seven, the game, fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac. His most recent work is the girl with the dragon tattoo. His movies often involve single frames that flash onto the screen in the middle of a scene, this could be shown as a flashback for a character, the use of a fluid tracking camera which allows for the audience to follow characters smoothly and quickly.

Alfred Hitchcock:

  Born 13th August 1899 in England and died the 29^th April 1980 in Los Angeles, California. He was known as the master of suspense because he used various camera angles and lighting to create effects of suspense that had not been used, or not been used as much, before him. He made an appearance in all of his films as an extra, when he started doing this he would do it in the beginning so it would not deter people from the plot. Some of the films he is most known for is Vertigo and Physco. He was also very well known for using the Dolly zoom, in which when the camera moves in the zoom angle is zoomed out to keep the subject the same size but the background size changes. He used it so often that it also became known as the Hitchcock zoom.

Martin Scorsese:

 He was born on 17^th November 1942 in New York. He achieved a degree in film communications in 1964. He has also achieved many awards,Academy Award, a Palme d'Or, Grammy Award, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAS, and DGA Awards. The big shave was his first colour film and was his third ever film. His first film was called, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” although his first film that he is widely known for was mean streets. He is known for including dark themes, unsympathetic characters, religion and unusual camera techniques in his films.

Link to "The Big Shave" by Martin Scorsese- I liked this because what happens is unexpected and shows how Scorsese created quite abstract/dark things early on. 

Video to show how the Hitchcock effect works.

Thriller Genre Mood Board

Youtube

So I found some useful video's on youtube that I used to help understand and give definitions for the 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot and match on action, and thought it would be a good idea to post some on here, so here they are.

180 degree rule:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4KFM_CLoQ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmUN3tg0i0

Match on Action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKS2d6TyiWo&list=UUxEnmuImALmJ56P2I-ueJQA&index=26&feature=plcp

Shot/reverse shot:

This is one I found looking around and doesn't directly relate to the 3 rules/shots but I liked it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=rSnCu43QzeY&NR=1

Preliminary Task Storyboard

Definitions for 180 degree rule, Shot/reverse shot and Match on Shot.

180 degree rule- This is a tool to keep continuity throughout the film and to keep the audience orientated, as the film is meant to be what they are seeing. So the 180 degree rule is an imaginary line drawn across the shot. The cameras go on either one side or the other but once they are on one side they have to stay on that side. This means that what is being filmed in the first seen on the right hand side stays on the right hand side and doesn't suddenly, without an explanation, move to the left hand side in another scene.

Shot/ Reverse shot- This uses the 180 degree rule. It coud be used in a scene where a conversation is taking place, for example the camera goes behind the person that is being talked to allowing the camera to see the person who is actually talking and the back of the person who is being talked to. The same thing happpens when the person replies but the other way round.

Match on shot- This is when you cut from one shot to another but has the same action and pace as the first shot.