Slide 1:genre

Define genre as a concept: Genre is the category that a film falls into, the film will fit into a particular genre because of the subject matter that it deals with and because of the kinds of conventions that it has, with a horror it would most likely deal with things like murder, death and supernatural events, with the conventions you will find that things like locations will be buildings or towns that are old and in remote places. Over time genre changes, what is typical of certain genre now may be different in a few decades the reason is because the audience can get tired of films that do the same thing over and over again, with thrillers its the same, if every modern thriller used the same kinds of locations, if they all dealt with things like espionage and all had similar iconography then no one would be interested in them.

An overview: A definition of the thriller genre, outline it’s key elements: A thriller is a genre of film that use exciting plots to create excitement and interest in the audience, they then take this type of story and focus on only the most tense and terrifying moments in it to create strong emotions like fear and feeling such as panic and uncertainty within its audience. Some key elements of thrillers would be the characters, they are people that are either in danger often, like spies or police officers in rough areas, or they will be people that are put into a difficult situation that they need to get out of, this is the kind of situation that makes for a thriller, because the person isn’t used to these kinds of situations it is uncertain that the will know the right actions to take, this makes the audience want them to live but the “thrilling” feeling comes from seeing how they attempt to survive. As with the other typical thriller hero the audience will like them because they know that they are capable of getting out of tough situations but when they are put into over the top situations that are seemingly impossible to escape from despite the persons abilities, this is also very thrilling.

Audience expectations: Thrillers are known for their ability to create moments of fear and tension and because of this, these are the kinds of feelings that cinema audiences expect from the thriller genre, audiences also expect other things like a good story but for thriller its got to be thrilling, it must be something that will keep you guessing something like Inception, it has the main character getting mixed up in a pretty messy situation where he has to assemble a team to help him plant an idea into the mind of another person, tricky enough on its own but made even more tricky when he makes it clear to the audience and the team that If they die at the most important point of the mission they will be trapped in Limbo. This is thrilling and uncommon amongst normal people and this is why it is exciting, because the audience wont be able to easily figure out what kind of events may occur, they could guess but they wont be right, making it easy for them to be surprised.

Slide 2: A time line of the genreBriefly chart the history of the genre: One of the first movies to be considered a thriller was safety last; created in January 1923 it was the first film that fit the experimental stage of Christian Metz's genre theory, it was classed as experimental as it was the first of its kind and soon after it was the basis for all other movies of the thriller genre. In Metz's theory it said that a genre will be in a stage where it is classed as experimental, after that it goes through the classical stage where the films of this era would be considered classics, then comes the parody stage where elements of the genre are made fun of and then then the deconstruction stage, this is probably going on now as most modern thrillers have started to change and become deconstructed, today you will now find more than just a thriller, you will find psychological, crime, spy and other kinds of thriller.

Identify hybrids and sub-genres and give a definition: A hybrid is when a genre is mixed with two more genres movies that would be hybrids would be things like the girl with the dragon tattoo, which is a crime mystery thriller. There are also movies with sub-genres, these are movies that have a main genre and then have another one like inception which is a psychological thriller, the reason that we have these kinds of movies with multiple genres is because, after time genres become boring, so to stop this changes are made to them, what was once a noir film is now a thriller, films that would be strictly one genre would become that genre plus another that matches it, this keeps films interesting and entertaining.

Slide 3: Characterisation

Narrative conventions: The conventions of thrillers are very easy to find, the themes of thrillers will most likely involve crime, espionage, and conspiracies. The story of a complete civilian or man (or woman) who is used to danger being placed into harm’s way is another convention that will most likely fit with the themes that I have mentioned and along with the appropriate iconography like guns, knifes or any other things associated with violence they come together to form the today's thriller. These things all fit the conventions because with crime and espionage come violence and mystery, they also go with thrillers because the sense that the main character could die from those items makes the events and situations more tense and harrowing.

Character representation (hero / Anti-hero): In thrillers there are multiple types of characters that the audience will meet during the course of the movie some will be more unique and others will meet the usual stereotypes that are common in these kinds of movies, for example, the cop who is use to danger and violence being the hero or the innocent man or woman who is always the victim trying to survive the events that they have been put into. These are examples of hero characters, the first being the usual option, they are always good always brave and do whats right, the second not so much brave but they will do the good thing in the movie, there is another form of hero the anti-hero, they wont necessarily do the right thing, or if they do they wont do it in a way that a good hero would, this is good in a way because it lets the audience quickly decide what they think of the character based on their stereotypical appearance or behaviour this lets them spend the time watching and following the action instead of trying to form an attachment with the character, the audience can make a connection quickly or they can choose to become more connected to other characters until the end of the movie when the characters change based on their experiences.

Mise-en-scene (settings / props & décor / costume & make up / figure expression (performance) / lighting & colour): The mise-en-scene is everything that is in the scene, from the setting, to the props, to the lighting. For a thriller there are some specific things that need to be present to set the right moods and create the right emotions in the audience, for crime thriller low key lighting and dull colouring could be used to make a gritty and tense kind of atmosphere. The reason for this is that all types of movies are known for having a certain style, they style will be affected by everything that goes on in the scenes like the lighting the costumes and the props, if these thing all come together properly then they will affectively create the proper feelings that the films genre is synonymous with, if its a horror then the lighting, the make up, the décor and costumes should all be made for making the audience scared, same goes for thrillers.

Slide 4: ConstructionCamerawork:

The type of shot used and the amount that is shown on the screen can effect what kind of emotions the audience can feel. Close ups can make the audience feel closer and more connected to the character on screen this is the opposite for distant shots, they make people feel less connected to the character and of course the angle of the shot makes a lot of difference. The reason for this is because when we are near a character and are following its action we feel like we are going along with it and because of this filmmakers can create a bond between the characters and the audience. This works with almost all characters, from the regular hero to anti heros to supporting characters.

Editing: The way that a film is edited can also have an effect on how the audience reacts to situations, it will effect things like the mood of a scene, and it can effect how the action flows in a scene. Examples of different editing techniques would be things like transitions, when a movie transitions form one scene to another this effects how the action flows,for pretty much any genre this is important, why, because the action that the audience will be following is supposed to creating certain feelings in the audience and if those feelings aren’t created because the editing didn’t help it then the film wont feel like the genre it is supposed to be.

Sound: Sound is a very key part of a film it can give the audience information that they can use to follow the story and depending on what kind of mood your trying to set, it can help to set up that mood. With movies like horror then sometimes the sound needs to be exaggerated, like bones breaking for example, or breathing or a heart beat. If you cant have good sound that matches the events unfolding in the film or doesnt sound as fitting as possible then it would make the moments on screen feel good for the audience everything will feel

Slide 5: Bibliography

Bibliography of your research sources (at least 3 different sources, not just wikipedia!)

Film images I have used in the construction of this guide (hint: use as a starting point if stuck )

Slide 1: Heat (1995), Se7en (1995), Cape Fear (1991), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Psycho (1960), Arlington Road (1999)

Slide 2: Safety First (1923), Vertigo (1958), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), Hanna (2011) Marathon Man (1976), Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Slide 3: Rebecca (1940), A place beyond the pines (2012), Blood Simple (1984, Se7en (1995), M (1931), The Birds (1963), Strangers on a Train (1951), No Country for Old Men (1997), The Third Man (1949)

Slide 4: the Coen Brothers working on Blood Simple(1984), Drive (2011), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), explanation of the shower scene graphic match, Bernard Herrmann, one of his scores for Psycho(1960), the zither used for The Third Man (1949)

History of thriller genre - http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/69797/History-of-the-Thriller-genre/