The History of the Thriller Genre

Thriller is a genre which is used in literature, film and television to create suspense, excitement and tension. The most common use of this subgenre to thriller are mystery, crime and psychological thrillers, however there are also many other subgenres. Thriller is also very closely coincided with the horror genre, To which both use suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences. The genre of thriller film developed from well known novels. Then later these novels were studied and adapted and later reproduced into a thriller film.

A film is portrayed as a thriller when the storyline gives the audience thrills, and keeps them on the ’edge of their seats’ as the plot builds up towards the climax. The tension is usually built up by a character being placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap which seems impossible to escape. There is also use of life threatened during a thriller film, as the main character is usually unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in an extremely dangerous situation.

The common plots in crime thrillers are ransoms, revenge and kidnappings, which are elaborated on for the effect on the audience. In mystery thrillers, the common methods are investigations and the ‘whodunit’ technique. This is technique when there is a complex plot of a detective story where the audience is provided with clues of the identity of the criminal. The elements which are usually shown in a psychological thriller are mind games, stalking, death traps, obsession. These elements are generally combined to a certain extent, where it creates a complex plot which creates thrills the audience.

The atmosphere in a thriller film is also enhanced through the lighting and use of music. An example of this is from the opening of the film ‘Alien’ by Ridley Scott in 1979. In the opening of this film, the lighting is minimal and dull, this creates the atmosphere of suspense and mystery which links into the thriller genre.

One of the most well known and popular thriller films is ‘Psycho’ which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was produced during 1960. This film is a psychological thriller based on the American 1960‘s time period. The film was adapted from the 1959 novel which was written by Robert Bloch also called ‘psycho‘. Both the film and novel are based on the cases on convicted serial killer Ed Gein, this therefore allowed the directors of the film to associate the film with other genres such as horror, drama and mystery, as well as the thriller.

Overall, the genre of thriller is used in various ways to create an atmosphere which excites, thrills and entices the audience to carry on watching a film. This is done in several ways, such as through the use of lighting, mise-en-scene and also with the added use of non diegetic and diegetic music. The thriller genre was a popular genre during the past fifty years and is still increasingly popular within the industry today.

Evaluation - Beth's Research

Beth's research of title sequences throughout history has helped me learn about how title sequesnces have changed. As she's added in links to the title sequences she's looked it, it helped me see the change and then see what Beth's opinions on the title sequences were. It was interesting to find out what title sequences used to be like, and what they are like now. To improve her research Beth could have made it more detailed, maybe saying about why they have changed and made more specific descriptions on how they have changed.  

Beth's History of Title Sequences Research

Beth's research of title sequences in recent history has given me more of an insight into how title sequences have changed and developed over the years. It was great for our research and pre-production to find out what title sequences were originally like before the digital age of film and what they are like now. Beth has also posted the  links to the title sequences she's looked it so that we (The Group) could have a look at what she has been watching. This piece of research that Beth has done has helped me to more fully understand how title sequences have evolved and also what Beth's opinions on the title sequences were. I think to improve her research  Beth needs to involve more detail in her analysis as it wasn't very detailed and could maybe include some more technical analysis. Maybe saying about why they have changed and made more specific descriptions on how they have changed.

Questionnaire Re-Post

As a group, we have decided to re-post our survey in the various mediums of Facebook, Twitter ect so that we can accumulate more responses as our past online survey and physical survey only returned around 25 results. We think this re-post of our blog will help make our research more reliable and accurate in its results. We want to be recieving a total of at least 60 survey responses.

A post of the responses and an evaluation wuill follow in a post once we have accumulated enough results to feel confident in our research.

Questionnaire Evaluation

Myself and my group were very happy with the amount of response that we received for our survey. We received a lot of different answers for our  questions in our questionnaire and this really helps our research. I'm going to do a short evaluation of the answers we received for each question:

Q1) The genders of the people who answered isn't really relevant but we know from this question that   more of the answers were by female's which may explain why some of the following questions are answered as they are.

Q2) The fact that over half of the people who answered this question were over 16 means that they will most probably have seen an 18 and 15 rated film at some point, although some of them probably shouldn't have!

Q3) This is an interesting set of answers, almost half of the people who answered think that discrimination should be aloud to be in films. This is probably answered while thinking 'Only if its within the context of the film rather than just out of spite by the filmmakers'. This is my approach to the situation but over half of the answered think that it should have no involvement at all. Maybe these people haven't thought how I  andv
others have have about the situation.

Q4) This question is a split pot. Its almost 50-50. We don't plan to necessarily use sexual or sadistic violence on our film but it is interesting to know peoples views on it, which seem to be surprising as half of the people who answered feel they are not easily shocked by the subjects.

Q5) I noticed that no one thought that self harm or suicide is shown in films positively which is something that I completely agree with. It is interesting that 36% thought neutral as they must not have had an opinion on this.

Q6) The responses for this question are as our group predicted. Nothing really to elaborate on here.

Q7) Personally, this was one of my favourite questions as I knew the results would be split. I agree with the majority with this one and think that over using swear words and profanity can ruin films. Its good to know that people hold the same views to this as our group does.

Q8) We knew this question would have split opinions but it seems like there is a definitive result for this question which is surprising, although we did expect to have Violence as the top selected answer as this was a shared opinion in our group.

Q9) This question was answered exactly as predicted so theres not much to say here.

Q10) This, once again, was a question that was answered as we predicted whilst sharing our views on the topic discussed in the question.

Sci Fi: A Brief History

These are my class note's on our lesson regarding A brief history on the genre of Sci-Fi

This reserach into the history of Sci-Fi intreseted me a lot as the history to the genre, as well of most genres of film, are basically unknown to me. The first thing I learnt about the making of a new Sci-Fi films, or new films in general, is that no two films are the same. The nature of films is that they are constantly evolving, changing little things about the film so 1, they are not the same as previous films in the same genre and 2, arent so different that fans of Sci-Fi or whatever genre are still going to pay for tickets so that they can see the film.

This explained to me the reasons that older Sci-Fi's and newer Sci-Fi's are so different. Things such as current events and folk tales play a huge part in the making of Sci-Fi's. EG in the 40's the 'Roswell Incident' was huge in the news, talking about a ufo landing in New Mexico. This sparked a craze in alien invasion and ubduction films. Were as now, a lot of Sci-Fi films are about conspirecy theorys and alternative realitys as these are subjects that are relevent and talked about in current society.

In all, this lesson has not only taught me about how Sci-Fi's were born andhow they have evloved, but how genres are constantly grwoing and developing to make new and exciting plots and storys.

RESEARCH: What's allowed in films rated 15 and 18? The BBFC (Done by Imogen Welsford)

DONE BY 

IMOGEN WELSFORD

This is Imogen's research on what should be allowed to be in 15 and 18 aged rated films. This is an extremely useful piece of research as when we are making and producing our own thriller openings we need to know what we can include in piece and what it would be rated if we release it. The main pice of information i ave taken from all of Imogen's research o age ratings is that basically when creating a 15 age rated film, film makers are restricted in what they can include in their films. They are not aloud to include full nudity, not aloud to include discrimination (AKA Racism, Homophobia etc) and are not aloud to use unjustifiable swearing that is nothing to do with the context of the film and the dialogue that is present. 

Overall I think that from this research done my Imogen that our film is most likely to be rated as a 15 as we feel that we will almost definitely include any of the actions in our film that will force the 18 rating upon it. The quality of the research by Imogen is exceedingly good and can only help with our understanding of the BBFC's approach and ruling when it comes to rating films in terms of the age a person needs to be to watch. If we keep on creating pieces of detailed research such as this one we should have a very good start to this piece of coursework. 

Questionnaire Results

This is our teams results for our Research Survey

                 EVALUATION OF OUR RESULTS WILL FOLLOW IN A PENDING POST

Previous Students Films

In last wednesdays lesson we watched some of the previous media students films from last year. Watching these films made myself and our team realise what our films are realistically going to look like and that we will need to continue doing research to get our knowledge and skills up to the standard of the grade A films. It was really helpful to watch these previous pieces of work and to compare them to the films which we analysed for our research.

In the lesson we were also given a mark scheme for the films so that we could try and decide for ourselves what grades we thought the openings were. This exercise really helped me to understand how and what our films are going to be marked on and now that I have a mark scheme this also means that I can refer to it for help if I need it throughout the planning to see what we need to include. This lesson has opened myself and our groups eye into what making a thriller opening will really be like and what our films are likely to consist of. 

Mid-Research Check Up

As a group, we decided to make a quick check up on what we had accomplished for our research so far. 

After realising that between us we had analysed 8 thriller films openings, researched the codes and conventions of thriller films, researched hybrid films, researched how the age ratings system works and produced an online survey exploring thriller films, we knew what we still had to accomplish to finish our research.

We know need to just evaluate and post to our blogs each others work and then do a quick research blog into the history of title sequences. Once we have done this we should have finished our research. 

Thriller Opening's: Team Research Evaluation

As part of our contextual research for our coursework our team (Myself, Charlee Murphy-Frost, Imogen Welsford and Bethany Ainsworth-Coles) have been watching and analysing the first few minutes of various thriller movies so that we can discover and find out why these films were successful and what makes a good thriller opening sequence.

The first thing that i picked up on when reading our teams blogs is that AUDIO & MUSIC plays a key role in a thriller opening. It's used to help create a sense of atmosphere in the film and also to set a mood, accompanying what is happening on screen during the sequence. Our group have all picked up on this and have posted about the audio and music used in thriller openings and I think that the work we have done will help us to progress in the making of our own thriller opening.

When reading through my groups posts, Imogen's posts stood out. Her analysis' in both of the films that she looked at were very thorough and taught me a lot that I didn't already know. The point that I took the most information was her analysis of the actual title sequences themselves. She explained how the use of different colours and shots were essential in success or failure of an opening title sequence. Apart from Imogen's posts, I think our group as a whole have thrown up some very good ideas and points that we need to consider and research more into when producing our own thriller opening sequence.

Thriller Opening Analysis 8: The Forgotten (Done by Bethany Ainsworth-Coles)

---BETHANY AINSWORTH-COLE'S---

Thriller Opening Analysis 7: Sin City (Done by Bethany Ainsworth-Coles)

---BETH AINSWORTH-COLE'S BLOG---

Thriller Opening Analysis 6: Memento (Done by Charlee Murphy-Frost)

---CHARLEE MURPHY-FROST'S BLOG---

Thriller Opening Analysis 5: Psycho (Done by Charlee Murphy-Frost)

Thriller Opening Analysis 4: Frozen (Done by Imogen Welsford)

 ---IMOGEN WELSFORD'S BLOG---

Thriller Opening Analysis 3: Abandoned (Done by Imogen Welsford)

---IMOGEN WELSFORD'S BLOG---

Research Questionairre

This is the link to my groups online questionnaire exploring the appropriate viewing ages and conventions of films. This will be posted on facebook and twitter to try and accumulate as many responses as possible.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZXTWVWL

Do Generic Conventions Restrict or Help Filmmakers?

Group 6 2012 AS from Media @ CCC on Vimeo.

Evaluation

-  I think that as a whole our presentation went well. I think we presented our thoughts and ideas well and that we also had confidence and understanding in the topics we were discussing.

- I think we worked well in our transitions also. I think although we all had different sections we had worked on by ourselves for the presentation, the flow between all of our ideas and the correlation of our ideas all added up to a group idea that we planned out to try and communicate from the start.

- I believe that our presentation could have been improved. I think for a lot of the presentation people were reading straight from there notes, making what the were saying very wordy and a bit too wishy washy when we could have been getting straight to our main thoughts and opinions.

Thriller Opening Analysis 2: The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy

Camera Work

The extract begins with quick shots that are currently changing but from what can be scene the majority of the shots POV, this coupled with the quick edits, blurry images and echo-ey dialogue  connoting that the audience are experiencing a flashback or dream. The shot then cuts to a close up shot of the main protagonist  This would have been done to show the reaction of the protagonist to his dream of which he had just awoken from. We then see the man sit up from a medium shot showing his upper torso and head. We see only a silhouette of the man though as the camera is positioned so that the man is blocking light between the light source and the camera, creating a shadow. The shot then cuts to a hand held camera being used to follow the man with a medium shot as he walks and stands. This can be compared to the shots used in the dream as the hand held camera produces a natural camera movement and shake, similar to the dream he just had connoting that he is still thinking about his dream although he is now awake. As the new female character enters, frequent over the shoulder shots are used while the two characters converse in the various rooms they flow between. This give an audience perspective, showing them what it feels like to be on either end of the conversation that is going on between the two characters.

Editing

There is a great juxtaposition between editing styles within just the first couple of minutes of the film. The first shots are very fast paced cuts of blurry and shaky imagery. This style of editing makes it very identifiable to the audience that what they are seeing is some type of dream or flashback. The speed of the cuts rapidly increase until the shot then cuts to the face of the lead protagonist in bed, an iconic sign that he must have been dreaming. From this point editing, as mentioned before, juxtaposes that of the dream as the pace of the cuts, the decision to have longer lasting moving shots and the use of less camera angles and positions slows done the pace of the scene.

Mise-en-Scene

The first aspect of mise-en-scene the audience will see are the use of props. During the dream the audience see lots of different props such as guns, passports ect. As well as this the Lighting during the dream is very unsettled. The switches between darker and lighter shots are constant. The director would have done this to show how unsettled and anxious/nervous the host of the dream feels. Once the dream ends this changes, the lighting becomes very constant. The scene is very darkly lit, denoting that it is night time. The man is wearing shorts and a thin vest, a symbolic sign of heat. The set is very culturally correct. As this scene is located in india, the use of a 4 poster bed with an insect net surrounding it and things such as beads hanging from doorways represent their location in the world. This is supported once the main character and the lead woman walk onto the deck of the house were the audience then sea a beach with the ocean over the edge. 

Sound

During the 'dream' at the beginning of the extract, audio is used in all of the quick paced cuts so for a lot of the time its hard to tell what exactly the sounds are but we know that most of the sounds are diegetic, the sounds that the audience can here are the sounds coming from the various things on screen. As well as these sounds, non diegetic music is introduced into the background. This would have been used to create more of atmosphere of anticipation and fear than would have been possible if the music were not there. Once the dream ends, the sound that is used is entirely diegetic. Sounds such as the crashing waves and wind are used to signify the location of the scene (Near the sea) and other sound such as creaky doors and taps running are all used to create a sense of realism within the beginning of the film .