Conventions of a Thriller film

This essay outlines the convetional features of a thriller film.

http://www.slideshare.net/YamiWheeler/conventions-of-a-thriller-film

Genre Research

From our questionaire, it's apparent most people think our film should be a thriller.

Thriller
The genre 'Thriller' covers a wide range of sub-genres, for example: Action & adventure thriller, Sci-Fi thriller, crime thriller... Pretty much all genres can be tied into a thriller in some way, so for this reason I'm going to focus on the overall aspects of a general thriller film, and then the details of crime thriller, as this seems most suitable.

The purpose of a thriller film is to keep the audience at the edge of their seats with constant suspense and, obviously, thrills. This usually happens by placing characters in dangerous and life threatening situations, and having them not escape until the last conceivable moment. It can also be achieved with plot twists and by leading the viewer astray, so when something unexpected happens they are genuinely surprised, and havnt been waiting for it to happen all along.
Characters in thriller films are usually dark, such as convicts, criminals, stalkers, physchotics, spies and sometimes even terrorists.

Thriller films can be dated as far back as 'Safety Last' in 1923, but its rare that a list of thrillers is put together without at least a mention of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock helped to shape what we now see as a thriller film with productions such as 'The Lodger' in 1926 and 'The Blackmail' in 1929. A favourite technique of his was to take an innocent victim, and place them in danger due to wrangful accusation or mistaken identity (for example, 'The Wrong Man'). Another much-used technique was the use of 'red herrings', an element within a plot which would lead the viewers to suspect one thing, when infact this was put in entirely to mislead the viewer and has no real significance to the actual plot.
Other examples of thriller films are 'Silene of the lambs', the 1991 production featuring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, and 'Collateral', featuring Tom Cruise.

Crime Thrillers
As the genre suggest, crime films are concerned with the actions of either a lone criminal or a gang. This is usually done in one of two ways; by either focusing on the criminal themself, or by focusing on their victim and the effects the criminal has had. Characters in Crime films are usually macho males, often with features people would find intimidating such as tattoos and piercings. The characters in these films often have very few or no morals.

Noteable crime films include the 'Dirty Harry' series of films, 'The Godfather' trilogy, and 'Pulp Fiction'. Another film worthy of mentioning is Shifty, as this is a prime example of making a crime thriller film on an extremely low budget.

Audience Questionnaire

Please fill out the following short questionnaire for research purposes.

Certificate Rating

The chosen age rating for our film is 15. Below are the classifications of a 15 film.

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Our thoughts on why we gave it a certificate of 15:

The demographic for our film is people mainly aged 15 to 50 who enjoy gripping, heart-warming stories with a sinister twist. People who enjoy related films such as Shifty and Taken may be interested to watch as it covers some of the basic elements of each without being a blatant copy. The certificate of 15 was chosen so that we can include some scenes involving drug use, kidnapping and strong violence, which may appeal to the more desensitised audience who prefer grungy, urban and realistic scenarios to glitzy Hollywood fakeries. A male audience would probably be more suited to watch the film due to the violent nature of some scenes and the overall theme, drugs. On the other hand there is something for everyone in our film, which makes it appeal to infinitely larger audience.

Inspiration for our film (& embedding test)

Our film will be based around a theme of a crime/thriller, taking inspiration from such films as 'Shifty' and the '...hood' series of films.

Introduction

Welcome to Ochre Digital Productions' blog.

Josh Perree, Ben Lucas, Matthew Jones and Callum Norton will be adding to this blog as part of the Media A-Level course, in which we shall produce the first 2 minutes of what is supposed to be professional film.