Spy-thriller Genre Research

By Amber Grundy

Thriller and its Sub GenresThriller films are fast-paced and keep the audiences adrenaline rushing. Thriller films also keep the audience on the edge of their seats as they build up tension.

The subgenres of the Thriller genre are:

• Action

• Spy

• Horror

• Mystery

• Psychological

• Suspense

• Crime

• Supernatural

• Conspiracy• Political• Techno• Drama• Disaster• Legal• Religious• Medical

History of Thriller films

Thriller films were first introduced in the 1920’s by a man called Harold Lloyd. He made the very first thriller comic called Safety Last. However, it was Alfred Hitchcock who made the very first Thriller film

1920’s- 30’s• Alfred Hitchcock made his very first thriller which was a silent thriller in 1926 called ‘The

Lodger’ which was about Jack the Ripper.

• Britain's first sound thriller was made in 1929 by Alfred Hitchcock that was called Blackmail.

1940’s• Hitchcock continued to make suspense thrillers and he won an Oscar for one of his films

which was called Rebecca. This was combined with other genres to make it appealing to a wider audience.

• 1941 he released a film called Suspicious which was about a women in danger of her own husband.

• He later directed a film called the Shadow of Doubt which was based on a true event in the 1920’s. It was about a serial killer called the Merry Widow Murderer.

1950’s-60’s• In the 1950’s, Alfred Hitchcock added a new convention to his thriller films. He added colour

as previously they were all in black and white.

• Blonde haired women were also used as the main character rather than brunettes as they were seen as a sex icon in 1950’s films.

• Thriller films released in 1960’s: Cape Fear- Lee Thompson, The Night of the Hunter- Charles Laughton

1970’s-80’s• Thriller films in this era became more like horror films as they were scary but also contained a

lot of violence. However there was still a difference between the horror and thriller genre.

• Films released in this era were: Frenzy- Steven Spielberg (this contained a lot of blood and gore), Don’t Look Now- Nicolas Roeg.

Thrillers in the 21st Century• Films contain more blood, violence, gore and death.

• The plots are now more modern compared to previous thriller plots. This is because they have started to involve violence and world problems by including governments and other institutions such as the army and police.

• Films released in this era are: Hostage, Ride, Captivity and many more.

Alfred HitchcockAlfred Hitchcock is a director who was most famous for his thriller films. Altogether, he has directed more than 50 films and he has been given the award of the greatest ever film maker in 2007 by the Daily Telegraph.

He started off making silent films. However, since he has now introduced dialogue. He has a distinctive directing style of allowing the audience relate with the characters, by using certain camera angles which copy a person’s view. Usually, if he had a female character within his films, he would use a blonde female character as these were seen as sex icons in the last 1900’s. He also used unique editing to show the point of view shots to build up suspense and tension for the audience as he wanted them to be scared. Finally, he usually had twisted ending with violence, crime and murder.

History of Spy filmsSpy films had ideas taken from real life events such as wars.

The first spy film was by William Le called 'The Great War in 1897’’. The film was about a French attack on Britain planned by a Russian spy.

1920’s-30’s• Most spy films were based around the British secret service and other institutions such as the

army.

• Aliens were seen as villains, and the hero's were the spies and/or protagonists.

• Terrorism, violence and assassination attempts were often seen in most spy films in this decade.

• Alfred Hitchcock created spy films in the 1930s to go with his thriller films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Sabotage and The Lady Vanishes. These included civilians being caught up in international conspiracies.

Spy films continued to have the same conventions, narratives and characters up to modern day.

History of Spy-Thriller films

1920’s-30’s• In 1928, one of the very first spy-thrillers was made called Spies by Fritz Lang. This film was

the inspiration for the James Bond films that were made many years after.

1940’-50’s• Two Spy- thrillers were made in 1949 called ‘Cloak’ and ‘Dagger’ by Fritz lang.• 2 spy- thriller films made in 1952 included Henry Hathaway's Diplomatic Courier and Joseph

Mankiewicz’s Fingers

1970’s-80’s• In 1974, Francis ford Coppolla made a tense spy thriller called the Conversation.

1990’s-present day• The spy-thriller genre today contains explosive action scenes, new technology and twisted

plots. An example of a present spy-thriller includes Mission Impossible III.

Conventions of Spy-ThrillerNarrative• The narrative of a typical spy- thriller genre is usually a hero or a group of heroes fighting

against an enemy whilst completing a mission or objective.

• The film will always clearly show the danger that the hero faces.

• There will always be a danger or death threat in a thriller. A twist in the plot is often seen to trick the audience about what is going to happen next.

• The narrative of a spy- thriller will cover-up important information from the viewer to suggest secrecy.

• Excitement, suspense, adventure and tension is normally created in a spy thriller genre to thrill and captivate the audience.

• Thrillers sometimes include elements of science fiction, mystery, horror, crime, conspiracy and sometimes include fight or chase scenes.

• Often includes working Institutions such as the police, the government or the army.

Typical Spy-thriller -Todorov narrativeEquilibrium: an equilibrium shown in the first few scenes will create a sense of normality for the audience and the main character who is normally shown in the first few scenes.

A disruption- a disruption will happen from where the normality and narrative will change.

Realisation- everyone realises what the problem is and the characters and events will suddenly become connected.

Attempt to resolve- the tension builds up and things need to be resolved so the narrative can carry on.

Resolution- most things are sorted and everything comes together. The audience now understand what is going on.

Re equilibrium- things change from good from bad and the narrative is back to normality and the narrative can have a new equilibrium.

Flashbacks• Creates a feeling of disorientation that can leave the audience feeling confused.

• Sometimes used to give the audience information about a characters past and can help the audience understand the film more

Sound• Sound is important in a spy-thriller genre as it gives the film more meaning, helps to build up

suspense and can also set the mood for the film.

• Long and fast paced non-diegetic sounds that play in the background get the audiences adrenaline running and builds up tension.

• Some thriller genres have silence in the scenes before something bad happens which also creates tension for the audience.

• Sometimes spy-thrillers contain voice overs to build suspense.

• Ambient sound is sometimes used in thrillers to create a panic situation.

• Orchestral music makes the audience think something bad is going happen.

• Sounds in a spy- thriller start of slow and gradually turns fast pace to build up a dramatic scene.

• Sound bridges throughout the scenes.

Setting• Dark colour schemes are used to suggest mystery.

• Settings of a normal environment is often seen as this creates realism.

• The Woods or a forest is sometimes seen in spy-thrillers because the dark surroundings would create an eerie atmosphere

Lighting• Low key lighting is used a lot in thrillers as this creates an

eerie atmosphere and darkness so the audience are unaware of the surroundings.

• Shadows in thrillers are created through artificial and low key lighting as they represent darkness and evil within the scene and characters.

• Three point lighting - three different lights are used and the intensity of these lights are altered in order to create mysterious and eerie effects.

• Back lighting is used to show the more dominant character in a scene or to create a silhouette

Editing• Reaction shots or slow motion is used in both spy and

thrillers. These clearly show the characters reaction or actions to particular events.

• A lot of fast transition cuts all together show fast paced action and gives the audience a ‘never ending’ feeling about what is going to happen next

Themes• True story, isolation, loss, death, stalkers, murders, assassins,

espionage, hostage and investigation

Camera• Tracking shots are used a lot in the spy-thriller genre to follow characters. This is because it is

fast paced and it exhilarates the audience. It also puts the audience in the antagonists point of view.

• Close ups and extreme close ups are used to show facial expressions and even details of props.

• Wide shots show the point of emphasis in the middle of the frame so the audience can see the surroundings of the characters.

• Two shots can show the relationship between characters but it can also show the differences in the characters which make the audience wonder why they are together.

• Canted angle shots are used to suggest to the audience that something is about to change.

• Montage of shots

• Tracking and panning shots are used in the opening scenes of thriller films

• High angle shots sometimes used to make a character feel vulnerable or weak

Colour• Single black and white shots are used to

create a dark and gloomy feel to the film. The connotations of black is death and misery which could forebode the rest of the film if it is seen in the opening sequence.

Costume• Costumes determine a characters mood or personality and an audience can form an opinion

on a character by their costume

• Characters working for a particular institution tend to normally wear suits and look smart

• The hero is usually in a disguise so the villain doesn’t know who they are

• Costumes clearly show the audience who the hero and villain are

Props• Props make a scene look realistic

• Mirrors are used a lot as it can show the darkness and evilness of the character. This makes the audience feel nervous and uneasy

• Guns, knifes- these can show the audience who the hero and villain are and create a violent tone to the film

• A white shower curtain or a tap and blood are used in some thrillers, particularly in murder scenes. Thee pleonastic sounds of the dripping tap is usually used.

• Props can add a sense of suspense to the audience because they will wonder what the reason is for the characters the props

Spy film:Casino Royale trailer- James Bond (2006)

I chose to look at Casino Royale as it one of the most famous James Bond films and it is an extremely popular spy film. I wanted to find out the typical conventions of a spy film.

James Bond goes on his first ever mission as a 00. James Bond faces Le Chiffre who is a banker to the world's terrorists. Le Chiffre is taking part in a poker game at Montenegro, where he must win back his money, to make sure he is safe in the terrorist market. M, who is the boss of MI6, tells Bond to attend this game and stop Le Chiffre from winning. James Bond and his help from Felix Leiter, Mathis takes part in the poker game.

Characters- James Bond (main character) shows male dominance. A beautiful women is featured a lot, this could suggest she is used as a sex icon in the film as she is portrayed as being sexy and glamorous.

Costume- James Bond is either seen in a suit or smart, casual clothing as he is a very high class male.

Setting- In a casino, on a plane- no action here, calmness. Not much action is taken place at night, near the sea, on a boat.

Props- Guns, knifes, playing cards- guns and knifes are typical of a spy film as the audience are expecting violence and action taking place.

Lighting- High key lighting in casino and on plane as nothing is really happening and the audience can clearly focus on the setting and characters actions. However, when action takes place inside low key lighting is used to show danger and hope.

Sound- Non diegetic voice over monologue of a women over the army scene explaining who Le Chiffre is. Fast paced music throughout the middle to the end of the trailer to show it is an action based film. Empathetic sound is used when the action of cards and dice in the hand move in time with the music. Pleonastic sounds of kicking in the action is used to show the forced used. The famous James Bond sound track is non diegetic over the action to show it is all about him.

Camera- Close up of playing cards after the establishing shot of the casino to show the audience where the characters are. Close up shot of Le Chiffre (villain) to show his facial expression and eyes. Pan shot of the interior casino to change the audience view so they can see Le Chiffre.

Editing- Black and white scene at the start as the connotations of this is danger. Fade in and fade out transitions are used. these are used a lot in spy films as they create mystery.

Thriller:A Walk Amongst the Tomb Stones trailer (2014)

Matt Scudder ( Liam Neeson) is a former cop. He is asked by a drug dealer to find the men who kidnapped his wife. Matt Scudder refuses but the drug dealer goes to see him again and tells him how his wife was killed. Matt Scudder agrees to find the men. He does some research and finds out they have taken more than just one women and that every women they’ve taken is connected to a drug dealer. He found out from another family that their little girl had been taken but this time Scudder tries to make sure she's returned alive unlike the rest.

I chose to look at A Walk Amongst the Tombstones because it is about kidnapping and it mainly focus’s on one character throughout the whole film whereas a lot of films have lots of different characters in different situations. Therefore I wanted to look at the conventions of this type of film.

Characters: Kidnappers, Drug dealers, and the hero (Matt Scudder). The hero is male character therefore shows male dominance. Unfortuanaly, it is women that are captured and this suggests they are vulnerable, weak and have the stereotypes of being victims and need saving by a male hero.

Costume- Smart, casual clothing of the main character as he wants to blend in as he is undercover.

Settings- Action takes place in the streets and basements of houses

Props- Guns, knives, tape recorders, money and phones are the main props used. Money suggests threats to the audience.

Lighting- Low key lighting is used to suggest mystery as we cant see a lot of things in most of the shots, suggests something is hiding from the audience. This engages the audience and makes them want to watch the film to find out what happens. Artificial lighting from the lamp is used when listening to the tape. It is used to focus the audience on the tape and nothing else.

Sound- Non diegetic voice over monologue of the main character talking about what happened in his past along with eerie ambient sound and non diegetic music in the background. Diegetic sound of screams coming from the tape recorder. Pleonastic sound of loading up a gun is used to suggest danger and action or death is going to occur. Non diegetic sound of clocks ticking further on the in the trailer as it suggests he's in race against time and time is beating him. At the end of the trailer, non diegetic sound track of a women singing softly behind the action going on, the pleonastic sound of smashing glass and a voice over.

Camera- Establishing shot at the beginning to make the audience aware of the setting of the film. Long shots of characters so the audience can see their personalities by looking at the way they are dressed. Point of view shot is used so we can see what the character is seeing and the audience feel like they are involved.

Editing- The shots are black and white when the main character is talking about his past. These colours suggest it wasn’t a pleasant past as the connotations of black is death and danger. Fade in and fade out transitions with an eerie noise make it tense for the audience to watch. A dissolve transition is used when the Liam Neeson is stood observing a place, this suggests he has been there for a while.

Spy- thriller: Salt trailer (2010)

In 2003 Evelyn Salt (Angelia Jolie) is tortured by North Korean soldiers. She is soon traded for a North Korean prisoner and taken to safety by her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber).

Evelyn Salt works for the CIA. All of a sudden a Russian spy comes into their offices and offers an important piece of information. He sais ‘’the President of Russia will be assassinated during his next visit to New York City to attend the funeral of the recent U.S. Vice President. The name of the assassin is Evelyn Salt’’. Salt starts to then worry about her husbands safety as she cannot contact him. She then tries to run away.

I chose to look at Salt as it shows female dominance and power because women aren't usually seen as the hero's in Spy thriller films. I wanted to look at the conventions of this type of film because of the female hero.

Characters: Hero (Evelyn Salt)- The hero is the main character in the film and is played by a women. This suggests female dominance and also suggests that women aren't vulnerable and don’t always need a man to help them which beats the stereotypes of women. However, Evelyn Salt is the only women but most powerful character in the film. This makes this spy thriller film different from a lot of others because a women isn't usually seen as a hero in many of these films and it challenges the stereotypes of women being incapable and unintelligent, when Salt works for the CIA so therefore is very intelligent.

Costume: The male characters which work for the CIA are always in dark suits even when shooting. However, when the action starts to take place, the people involved in this are in bullet proof vests and protective black clothing. Salt is dressed in a suit at first to show she is professional and when she runs away she dresses casually so no one sees her.

Setting/colour: New York City- tall buildings, cathedral, indoors a lot, train stations

Props: Guns, knifes, bombs- these are typical props you would see in a spy thriller as it wouldn't be action packed without these props. Therefore this makes the film a typical spy thriller genre due to the violence created with the props and the CIA.

Lighting: Low key lighting for fighting scenes and high key lighting for flashbacks. High key is used for flashbacks as it bring back happy memories for Salt and light has the connotations of happiness.

Sound: Calm non-diegetic bridging sound throughout the start of the trailer so the audience can hear the important information in order to know the plot. This is typical of a lot of spy- thriller films. It then gradually becomes louder and turns into extremely fast paced non diegetic music with explosive sounds. Non diegetic voice over monologue of the Russian spy as he is still giving out important information for the audience however, when we see him speaking in the shot this is diegetic. Pleonastic sounds of the knifes coming out of the shoe make the shock the audience as it was unexpected.

Camera: Close up of Salts face at the start to show she is the main character and her facial expressions show how serious she is about the situation. Over the shoulder shots, establishing shots to show the setting of the film.

Editing: Fade-in fade -out transitions change in time with dialogue. Further into the trailer, the cuts are still fades but as they fade, an ambient sound of shutters are used to seal the cut. The men are lay dead in the lift and a negative effect is put onthem for about 1 second to show the killer is dangerous. A depth of field shot is usually made on the character speaking in the shot or the one that the directors what the audience to focus on the most. Towards the end of the trailer, the action becomes much faster therefore the music and transitions become extremely faster to match the action and make it more dramatic.

BBFC (British Board Film Classification

Films are given an age certificate to show what age the content of the film is suitable for.

Most spy-thrillers are a 15 meaning they are only suitable for people 15 and over as they contain violent and dangerous behaviour, drug use, threats, nudity and strong language that some people may find offensive.

A spy thriller film wouldn’t ever be a PG as the content of the film isn't appropriate for this age range. PG films are for younger views and contain no foul language or violence.

However, some spy thrillers are a 12A such as ‘Salt’. This is a 12A because it only contains moderate violence and strong language.

Audience profile of a Spy-Thriller film

Class: Middle class

Age: 15-40

Gender- Usually male viewers

Ethnicity- The film could be aimed at any religion, however, some spy-thrillers especially in an 18 film may contain racism and discrimination against race and religion.

Income- Young teens may earn minimum wage in a part time job but older views may earn from £15,000 to £40,000 per annum.

Young and rubicam's needs: The audience would be Succeeder as they have the good things in life and want complete control of them because they don’t want to loose them. However, they may also be mainstreamers as they may follow the crowd and doesn’t like taking risks. l they may only watch spy-thriller films because their friends like them.

Lifestyle: The audience can range from people being yuppies with high disposable income and nice house to Dinkies with dual income and no children. Empty nesters wouldn’t really be an audience for this genre as they are older and the content many no be suitable.

Social grading: can range from unemployed people (E) to high earning doctors (A) depending on their interests.

The interests of a spy thriller view would be playing sports and being into the latest technology and gadgets.

Why do people watch Thrillers and spy- thrillers?

After researching the uses and gratifications theory I found out that spy thrillers are watched for:-Entertainment-Information on the genre-Social purposes- friends watch them etc

EntertainmentPeople watch thrillers to be entertained and thrilled. Thrillers create a lot of suspense and tension so therefore aren't relaxing. Some people become so engaged within the film that they forget about everything in real life and they feel involved in the films story line. They also start to feel the same emotions as some of the characters in the film.

Information purposesHistorical or social events are portrayed in a lot of spy thrillers. Different societies, religions and ideologies in the world can be shown in thrillers as they can involve a lot of traveling. This can educate people about different people, religions and parts of the world. Also people can be taught about human behaviour and emotions by watching any type of thriller.

Social purposesThey are also watched for social reasons. Some people, especially teenagers like to go to the cinema with friends. Also, they help build the basis of conversations e.g. people may talk about the film with peers or family.

Audience Theories involved in Spy- Thrillers

Social learning theoryThis suggests that people learn new behaviours by copying the values and beliefs of their role models. They learn from watching and following the examples of others. One of the main examples of this theory is a symbolic reason. A person will carry out the behaviour shown in the media by following the behaviour of someone in a film.

Desensitisation theory There is usually a clear difference between good and evil in spy thriller films and if people watch these films a lot, it could influence people to act heroically by watching a certain character or even act evil because they are so much exposed to this and behaviour and will think of it as normal because they're so used to seeing this in films.

Age popularity of Thriller films

• Young, Middle and Older ages show huge differences in popularity of genres. • Genres such as Action- Adventure , Drama, Horror films aren't popular with Older audiences. • The table shows that Murder (thriller) is more popular with the younger audience than the older

audience. This is probably sue to the violence and action taking place as they don’t like horror or action adventure and these are similar to thriller.