Research thriller

THRILLER

COURSEWORK TASK – KRISTINE GULDEN

Kristine Gulden 2012

INDEX- Definition and aspects of classification

- How does the film institution use genre?

- How do audiences use genres?

- History of thriller genre

- Thriller and sub-genres

- Codes and conventions

- Famous thriller directors

- Famous thriller films

- Mood board

- Use of research

- Bibliography

«Welcome to Forbes», October 18, 2012. http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml.


DEFINITION AND ASPECTS OF CLASSIFICATIONGenre in film is a method to classify and divide films into categories based on its

content. Any film can primarily be divided into two genres; documentary or

fiction. The difference between these genres is whether the film is supposed to

document an event that is happening/has happened in reality. A fictional film has

contents that are written by an author.

Furthermore, films can be divided based mainly on four variables: storyline,

narratives, actors, production environment, mise en scene (costume, setting,

props, lighting) and target audience. Some genres would be comedy, action,

adventure, romance, science fiction and also thriller. However, a film can also be

a categorized into multiple genres because its content has a wide range of

elements that fits into multiple genres.SOURCES«Film genre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia», October 16, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre.«Filmsjanger - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmsjanger.«What is Genre and How is it Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 16, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis.


HOW DOES THE FILM INSTITUTION USE GENRES?

Genres makes it easier for film institutions to limit the range of producing films,

as some genres are more expensive to produce than others. Some independent

film producers might not even be able to produce films in the action/thriller

genres because of a low budget, and such genres require expensive special

effects to be able to compete at a certain level with other production companies

which specializes within these genres.

Genres also limits the audience and makes it easier for film institutions to focus

on certain audiences. If they were to advertise a film they would show the trailer

related to other films of the same genres, for example showing a comedy trailer in

a cinema exhibiting a comedy film.

SOURCES«Film genre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia», October 16, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre.«Filmsjanger - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmsjanger.«What is Genre and How is it Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 16, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.


HOW DO AUDIENCES USE GENRES?

Genres also help audiences choose the film they would like to view

because genres the audiences will be familiar with the general

situations of the film based on which genre it is in, and they would

therefore immediately be able to tell whether or not the film would

be of their liking, although the level of liking depends on the

individual and film itself.

SOURCES«Film genre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia», October 16, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre.«Filmsjanger - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmsjanger.«What is Genre and How is it Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 16, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.«Connection Café: My Audience is My Community», October 18, 2012. http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2011/08-august/my-audience-is-my-community.html.


HISTORY OF THE THRILLER GENRE1920-

30’s

One of the very first thriller films was a comic by Harold Lloyd from 1923,

titled Safety Last!, but the breakthrough of the thriller as a film genre did

not come until Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang made films that set the

standard of the modern thriller genre, starting with The Lodger (1926) and

M (1931).

1950’s

Throughout the decades, more thrillers were made, and in the 1950’s,

Hitchcock added Technicolor to his films, casted big film stars and fancy

locations which took the thriller genre to a whole another level.

1960’s

After the assassination of President J. F. Kennedy in 1963, political and

paranoid thrillers became very popular.

1970-

80’s

Throughout the 1970’s and the 1980’s the thriller genre in general became

very popular, and suddenly the film industry had many new thriller film

directors, who’s behind some of today’s biggest thrillers over all, such as

‘Jaws’ (Steven Spielberg, 1975) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (Martin Scorsese, 1976).

1990’s

In the 1990’s, crime and mystery thrillers became more popular with

serial killers and investigations.

Present

As of today, many thrillers borrow previous themes from earlier decades,

but many thrillers also borrow aspects from the horror genres with

sadistic violence and terror. However, action thrillers and spy thrillers

have also increased in popularity with thrillers such as ‘Batman: The

Dark Night Rises’ (Christopher Nolan, 2012) and ‘Taken’(Pierre Morel,

2008), ‘X-men: First Class, 2011’ (Matthew Vaughn) and ‘Casino Royale’

(Martin Campbell, 2006)

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directors, who’s behind some of today’s biggest thrillers over all, such as

‘Jaws’ (Steven Spielberg, 1975) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (Martin Scorsese, 1976).

1990’s

In the 1990’s, crime and mystery thrillers became more popular with

serial killers and investigations.


HISTORY OF THE THRILLER GENRE

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Present

As of today, many thrillers borrow previous themes from earlier decades,

but many thrillers also borrow aspects from the horror genres with

sadistic violence and terror. However, action thrillers and spy thrillers

have also increased in popularity with thrillers such as ‘Batman: The

Dark Night Rises’ (Christopher Nolan, 2012) and ‘Taken’(Pierre Morel,

2008), ‘X-men: First Class, 2011’ (Matthew Vaughn) and ‘Casino Royale’

(Martin Campbell, 2006)


THRILLERS AND SUB-GENRES

Thriller is a genre in film which emphasizes on suspense and leaving the

audience ‘at the edge of their seats’ in excitement as they film they are viewing

and the story they are following is reaching the climax. They often have a

protagonist with a weakness which the antagonist is trying to exploit to prevent

the protagonist from escaping a dangerous situation.

Some main subgenres within the thriller genre could be conspiracy thriller,

disaster thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, psychological thriller,

supernatural thriller, crime thriller, mystery thriller, and the list goes on.SOURCES:«.: Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller», October 18, 2012. http://jwhite-suttonmediaas.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/codes-conventions-of-thriller.html.«Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers», October 18, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-conventions-of-thrillers.«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis..


CODES AND CONVENTIONS

MISE EN SCENE

Suburbs/urban cities: Thrillers often takes places in the suburbs or in urban

cities as it makes it relatable for the audiences. Thrillers often takes places in

the suburbs or in urban cities as it makes it relatable for the audiences.

Low key lighting and shadows: Low key lightning causes shadows and dark

colours can represent the inner darkness of a character, but can also add

suspense as the darkness is ‘unknown’ in the sense that it is hard to know

what is hiding in the dark and creates a mystic atmosphere.

SOURCES:«.: Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller», October 18, 2012. http://jwhite-suttonmediaas.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/codes-conventions-of-thriller.html.«Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers», October 18, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-conventions-of-thrillers.«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis..«AS Thriller Film: Thriller Genre Codes and Conventions», October 28, 2012. http://asthrillerfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thriller-genre-codes-and-conventions.html.



MISE EN SCENE

Flashbacks and black and white: Flashbacks create non-continuity in the storyline

and can confuse the audience, but also clear things up as it allows the audience to

understand more of the narrative. The black and white effect is a convention in the

thriller genre as it gives greater contrast to lightness and darkness, but is also

commonly used in flashbacks to inform the audience that this is not the present.

Mirrors and stairs: Mirrors and stairs are conventions often used in psychological

thrillers. The reflections in the mirrors can reflect the character’s inner self and can

reveal the character’s hidden identity for the audience, which can for example be a

dark identity, or a trapped identity. Stairs are used because it takes the character to

a higher/lower level, and the stairs can also lead to something unknown.SOURCES:«.: Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller», October 18, 2012. http://jwhite-suttonmediaas.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/codes-conventions-of-thriller.html.«Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers», October 18, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-conventions-of-thrillers.«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis..«AS Thriller Film: Thriller Genre Codes and Conventions», October 28, 2012. http://asthrillerfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thriller-genre-codes-and-conventions.html.



CINEMATOGRAPHY

Thriller films often have a recurring change in camera angles and an

obtrusive editing with fast cutting rhythm to raise the tension in the current

scene by giving the scene a quick movement.




MUSIC

Thrillers use scores and soundtracks to raise the tension and suspense

within a scene. A scene with action would include a score/soundtrack with

fast rhythms, while a mystic scene would include a slow score/soundtrack

with dark tones. The absence of music is also commonly used as it gives

attention to the synchronous sounds parallel to the event on screen.



FAMOUS THRILLER DIRECTORS

«Alfred Hitchcock - Television Tropes & Idioms», October 16th, 2012. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/AlfredHitchcock?from=Main.AlfredHitchcock.

SOURCE: «Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16 th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.«Alfred Hitchcock - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock.

ALFRED HITCHOCK,

born 13th of August 1899, was an English

film director and started his career as a

title designer for silent films early in the

1920’s and debuted as a director in 1925

with The Pleasure Garden. Throughout the

1930’s he created a good image as a

director with lots of good thrillers. He has

got two stars on the Hollywood Walk of

Fame for his contributions in the film

industry. Alfred died April 29th 1980 in LA,

California.



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SOURCE: «Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16 th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.«Steven Spielberg - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/bio.

STEVEN SPIELBERG,

born 18th of December, 1946, is one of the

world’s most influential film directors. He

started his career in the film industry as an

assistant editor on ‘Wagon Train’ from

1957, but his breakthrough as an

international film director wasn’t until 1975

with ‘Jaws’. Some of his other bigger films

are ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993), ‘E.T.’ (1982)

and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998).



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SOURCE:«Quentin Tarantino - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/bio.«Quentin Tarantino - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Tarantino.: «Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16 th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.

QUENTIN TARANTINO, born

March 27th, 1963, is an American film director.

As a 21-year old, he started to work in a

video-shop, and got into the world of film.

After meeting a film producer at a Hollywood

party, who encouraged him to write a script.

The result was ‘Reservoir Dogs’ in 1992,

which was a great success and his career as

film director started with a boom. His most

famous film came out two years later, ‘Pulp

Fiction’ which won the Palme D’Or Award at

the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated

for best picture, best director and best

original screenplay at the 1995 Academy

Awards.



«Martin Scorsese - Page - Interview Magazine», October 16th, 2012. http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/martin-scorsese-shutter-island/.

SOURCES:«Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16 th, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.«Martin Scorsese - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/bio.

MARTIN SCORSESE,

born November 17th, 1942 is a

prestigious American film

director. He debuted as a

director with the film ‘What’s a

nice girl like you doing in a

place like this?’ in 1963, but he

is most known for films like

‘Goodfellas’ from 1990, ‘Shutter

Island’ from 2010 and ‘Taxi

Driver’ from 1976. He has been

nominated for over two

hundred awards, whereas he

have won 106 of them.


«Pictures & Photos from Inception - IMDb», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3426651392/tt1375666.

«Pictures & Photos from V for Vendetta - IMDb», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1691979008/tt0434409.

«Pictures & Photos from Jaws - IMDb», October 18, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3161889792/tt0073195.

«Pictures & Photos from Pulp Fiction - IMDb», October 18, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3216480512/tt0110912.

«Pictures & Photos from Psycho - IMDb», October 18, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2490472448/tt0054215.

«Pictures & Photos from The Dark Knight Rises - IMDb», October 18, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm834516224/tt1345836.

«Pictures & Photos from Taken - IMDb», October 18, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1321833728/tt0936501. FAMOUS THRILLER

FILMS


MOOD BOARD

«Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Transformers», October 18, 2012.

http://www.thetransformers.net/category/transformers-news/transformer

s-dark-of-the-moon.

«Andy’s Film Blog: The Best of 2010», October 18,

2012.

http://filmreviewsnsuch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/best-

of-2010.html.

«Two Dollar Cinema: August 2011», October 18, 2012. http://twodollarcinema.blogspot.co.uk/2011_08_07_archive.html.

«blood « under the arbor beams», October 18, 2012.

http://underthearborbeams.wordpress.com/tag/blood/.

«Impossible world: Motion picture and animation films», October 18, 2012. http://im-possible.info/english/art/films/inception.html.

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«AC Miller Photography - Your Daily Dose of Chicago: Urban

View 6 of 6: My Urban View», October 18, 2012.

http://acmillerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/urban-view-

6-of-6-my-urban-view.html.


HOW WILL I USE THIS RESEARCH IN THE FUTURE?

Now that I have analysed the thriller genre, and have improved my knowledge

of the genre in general, I will use this research to make a thriller of high

standards. My newly gained knowledge will be transferred to the production of

the film to make it with a professional quality as possible.

I will use many of the conventions such as fast cutting rhythms and music to

create further suspense in my production. The setting will be somewhere the

audience can relate and create a mystic thriller with low key lighting and dark

shadows.


BIBLIOGRAPHY«Alfred Hitchcock - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock.

«Best Thriller Directors - TopTenREVIEWS», October 16, 2012. http://movies.toptenreviews.com/directors/list_thriller_director.htm.

«Conventions of a Thriller - Brief History - Mood Board & 9 Shot Ana...», October 17, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/UsmanShah2/conventions-of-a-thriller-brief-history-mood-board-9-shot-analysis.

«Film genre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia», October 13, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre.

«Filmsjanger - Wikipedia», October 13, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmsjanger.

«IMDb: Genre: Thriller», October 13, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/genre/thriller.

«IMDb: Most Popular Thriller Feature Films», October 13, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=thriller&sort=moviemeter,asc&start=51&title_type=feature.

«.: Codes & Conventions Of A Thriller», October 18, 2012. http://jwhite-suttonmediaas.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/codes-conventions-of-thriller.html.

«Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers», October 18, 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-conventions-of-thrillers.

«Martin Scorsese - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/bio.

«Quentin Tarantino - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/bio.

«Quentin Tarantino - Wikipedia», October 16, 2012. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Tarantino.

«Steven Spielberg - Biography», October 16, 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/bio.

«What is Genre and How is it Used in Film - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com», October 14, 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/what-genre-used-film-16152.html.

«AS Thriller Film: Thriller Genre Codes and Conventions», October 28, 2012. http://asthrillerfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thriller-genre-codes-and-conventions.html.

Education

Research thriller