THRILLERS Reasearch task 1- Natalie Tawney

Genre Genre is french for the term type - it is used to categorize media texts. The term ‘Thriller’ refers to any film that generates suspense and excitement in its’ audience as a major part of its narrative. In a typical thriller the hero has to thwart the plan of the villain and overcome any obstacles throughout the narrative that the villain presents. The villain's plan is usually grand in scale and will cause mass destruction. Audiences expect a thriller to be gripping and make you want to find out more. Thrillers should give you an excitement that you wouldn’t usually come across in your everyday lives.

Time-line of the thriller genre Early Thrillers- 1920’s/30’s Alfred Hitchcock helped to promote the thriller genre when making an early silent film called ‘The Lodger’.Hitchcock directed the first thriller film in Britain. 1940’s In 1944, director George Cukor created a psychological thriller called Gaslight. Therefore showing the different sub genres with in the thriller genre itself. 1950’s Hitchcock started to add technicolour to his thrillers, leading to ‘Strangers on a Train’ in ’s Alfred Hitchcock’s first release in 2 decades, ‘Frenzy’, was released into the thriller genre in 1972 with R ratings for its vicious and explicit strangulation scenes. 1990’s Thrillers that were made in this period were mainly psychological and included mental films and character escape e.g. Rob Reiner’s ‘Misery’. Modern day Thrillers these days have tried to divert themselves from classic themes to a more gorey horror one e.g. ‘Cellular’.

Sub genres and hybrids Thriller sub genres Psychological e.g. Shutter Island Crime e.g. Usual Suspects Dystopia/ post- apocalyptic e.g 28 days later Horror e.g. The Decent Action e.g. Die Hard Spy e.g. Mission Impossible Genre is not static- it needs to evolve/ develop, this is why sub genres (subdivisions of a genre of film) and hybrids (mixed genre) exist.

Characterisation Narrative conventions- Crime themes drive the narrative. Enigma codes- secrets in the narrative to be revealed: cliffhangers, twists in plot etc. Action codes- disruption solved through action. Character representation / roles- Hero- protagonist (often male). Villain- antagonist (nemesis). Dispatcher- someone who sends the hero on their quest. Damsel in distress- female who needs rescuing. Helper- sidekick. False hero.

Mise- en- scene -French for ‘placing in the scene’. Setting- Gives us the geographical element and emotional psychological element. Props- These establish character/ offer information, objects contribute to narrative. Costume and makeup- Tells us about the historical content, social status, character situations and changes, they can emphasise a particular character within a scene. Body language/ facial expression- Eye contact shows relationships and power, facial expressions show emotions/ state of mind, body posture indicates mood and status, Proxemics show us the social distance between characters and therefore indicate relationships. Lighting and colour- Colour is read differently by different people but we all atribute meaning or connotations to different colours. Lighting in a scene generates mood and atmosphere: High key lighting- bright sets, Low key lighting- dark/ high contrast.

Construction Camera work- Thrillers often use interesting angles and shot sizes to create suspense e.g. Alfred Hitchcock uses lots of canted angles in his films to make it more exciting. Extreme close ups and point of view shots are often used in thrillers to hide characters’ identity. Editing- Jump cuts are used to keep the audience on edge whereas cross dissolves and used to give a creepy/ eery feel e.g. the drain turning into the victim’s eye in Psycho. - both are common in thrillers. Sound- Sound effects such as screams and stabbing noises are edited in to scare the audience. Non-diagetic music is added to create a certain mood and diagetic sounds are added to set the scene.

Bibliography Slide one- Genre- overview-a overview-a Slide two- Timeline of the thriller genre- tpykynog/history-of-thriller-genre/, image: Alfred Hitchock. tpykynog/history-of-thriller-genre/ Slide three- sub genres and hybrids- oxforddictionaries.com, images: Shutter island (2010), 28 days later (2002) Slide four- Characterisation- image: Drive (2011) Slide five- Mise-En-Scene- wikepedia, images: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Descent (2005)