Codes and Conventions of Thriller

Changes, Developments & Storyboard

Due to disagreements and conflict that cannot be resolved within our filming team, we have decided it will be most beneficial for all of our opening sequences if we split into two groups. For the rest of this project I am going to be working independently. I have been inspired by the reality TV show catfish, which entails fake social media accounts stalking and pyschologically abusing people over the internet. Because I still wanted to incorperate the technological themes in my independent project, I have decided  on an online stalker/catfish narrative. I have created a sotryboard of shots to work from over the next week (as follows.) I want to work with the juxtaposition of technology and nature with including shots of trees contrasting with the technology and social media heavily incorperated within the opening. As it is January, trees are still without leaves, which creates an omnious and creepy atmosphere, which I want in my thriller.

Survey Results

I created my own independant survey containing questions about thriller to gather some results and ideas for our own thriller opening sequence. These were my results:

Question 1: What is your favourite sub-genre of thriller?

Horror: 14.29%
Action: 28.57%
Pyschological: 57.14%

The majority prefer pyschological thriller, which is probably the easiest to film for an amateur and my personal favourite so my thriller will be of the pyschological sub-genre of thriller.

Question 2: What do you think are the most effective features in a thriller?

Music: 42.86%
Editing: 14.29%
Camera Angles: 14.29%
Mise-En-Scene: 14.29%
Narrative: 14.29%

Titles recieved 0% however I am still going to research into thriller titles, but my main focus will be to find appropriate music to play behind my recorded voiceover.

Question 3: What do you think are the most appropriate colours for the titles in a thriller?

Red: 42.86%
Black: 14.29%
Grey: 42.86%

I think red titles are effective in thrillers because the colour red connotes danger, blood and violence, typical connotations of thriller. I also think black titles are effective because black is quite omnious and bold.

Question 4: What narrative would you most like to see in a thriller?

Murder: 28.57%
Stalking: 14.29%
Supernatural: 14.29%
Pyschological: 42.26%

Similarly to question 1, the majority enjoy pyschological thrillers, and because murder or supernatural narratives would be very difficult to film and produce, I am going to create a hybrid of a stalking narrative and pyschological.

Question 5: Do you think it is important for the title sequence of a thriller to be intense?

Yes: 85.71%
No: 14.29%

The majority said that the title sequence of a thriller to be intense, and while I have seen several thrillers that have quite normal, quiet and calm openings (including unfriended) I am going to make the opening to my thriller omnious and creepy rather than intese, to grip the viewer into wanting to see more.

My survey results can also be seen here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/6tLY3LBxjdNDcYnyc2FhvpZN6hNDeOwDYuGwxSvI7Wk_3D

Unfriended - Exsiting Technological Thriller Analysis

Unfriended

Unfriended is a very interesting opening sequence to analyse becuase the entire movie is seen through a computer screen. Unfriended is a huge inspiration to my groups ideas for our opening sequence as we liked the technological themes because it is very current, and has an element of social realism. The establishing shot is of a live stream website page, titled "Laura Barns Suicide," establishing the genre as a thriller, and quite a dark one due to the connotations of death. The video shows a young girl shooting herself, and it has clearly benen filmed on a phone camera, making it very realistic and the simplicity of the filming through a phone is juxtaposed to the shocking suicide, making it that much more shocking and disrupting. We also see another self-filmed shot of what lead to the suicide, but all we see is a teenage girl who is unconsious, which we can assume to be due to alcohol. 

On the screen we can see multiple computer tabs, making it very current as they are all current websites and social media sites commonly used. We can also tell from the layout of the computer screen that it is an apple computer, suggesting the antagonist is wealthy. We want to use this tactic in our opening sequence, as well as live action shots we want to include some shots of a computer screen and social media accounts, to add that technological element to the stalker theme.

While the computer user is using several different applications, it recieves a sudden facetime call, which shocks the viewer as it was silent before. This is something I could incorperate and use in my thriller opening, to grab the attention of the audience and create tension that is conventional of a thriller. Throughout the opening sequence it is mostly silent apart from noise from videos and the facetime call ring tone, however we can hear typing and mouse clicking through the computer, adding to the realistic quality of the sequence and making it interesting and quirky, as the whole movie is.

Captive - Exsisiting AS Level Media Opening Sequence Analysis

Captive Analysis

The first AS level piece I am going to analyse is “Captive”. A false age certificate has been created and placed at the start of the piece to create a sense of authenticity. The establishing shot is a close up shot of male hands ties behind a chair with rope, covered in blood. The mise-en-scene here instantly connotes the thriller genre and suggests themes of kidnap, abduction and torture. A sound bridge is used from the black screen before the establishing shot is shown, of single raindrops, creating a sinister atmosphere, typical of thriller. We then see a shot of the protagonist’s ankles, strapped to chair legs with rope. From seeing this characters shoes as converse sneakers, this implies they are fairly young. The mise-en-scene in this shot suggests the torture/kidnap themes further, as the chair is placed in a puddle of water and blood, which is also smeared on the legs of the character. We are then shown a medium shot of the characters face, again covered in blood, fitting with conventional mise-en-scene of thrillers. Behind the protagonist is graffiti that the camera isn’t focused on. This element of mise-en-scene suggests an urban setting but not high class, and in a secluded area. In this shot we begin to see titles, which are shown in a jumpy, technical manner, suggesting unease and abnormality. We then hear the diegetic sound of camera filming, suggesting a narrative enigma of kidnap and that he is being watched.

 There is a quick cut from this to a split screen of CCTV footage, and the protagonist is in one of the quarters.  This editing technique is effective because it shows the viewer a further detailed view of the setting and causes a sense of uneasiness, making the viewer wonder who is watching. We then hear a high pitched sound that is drawn-out, played in time to the camera losing focus, which is typical in thrillers when showing a flashback. A sound bridge is used to carry the high pitched nose across to the next shot, which is an extreme close up of the characters bloodied face. The director has used this to plant enigma codes in the viewers mind. Shot-reverse-shot is used from the protagonist to the protagonists’ point of view which isn’t focused, suggesting he has suffered and isn’t in a clear state of mind. There is silence before a loud non-diegetic bang, shocking the viewer and grasping their attention. From this, suspenseful music continues throughout the next few shots, building in intensity, conventional of the thriller genre. As the music quietens, we hear the struggled breathing of the protagonist, becoming more and more panicked. There is then a close up shot of his eyes, to further emphasise the panic and fear created. As the music greatly increases in pitch, we see a split screen of the CCTV camera again, and a girl dressed all in white (typical of horror thriller) walking across one of the quarters, which then cuts out, suggesting this character has supernatural power and may hurt the protagonist. We see a wide shot of the protagonist who begins to scream for help, over the high pitched building non-diegetic orchestral music, as the antagonist walks past the window in the shot, creating an eerie atmosphere. Quick cut editing is now used to show flash back shots of how this narrative came to unfold, showing the protagonist without blood and injury, walking around a rural area. This juxtaposed mise-en-scene suggests he is in the urban setting against his will and is being, as the title suggests, held “captive.” Shot reverse shot is used here between flashback shots and the protagonist screaming, and a sound bridge is used of the screaming for help, connoting that the protagonist was completely unaware of his fate. We see a two shot during a flashback of the protagonist walking while the antagonist watches, and he is unaware. All of these camera shots suggest he was abducted by this character. We see a reflection of the protagonist in the water as he is being abducted, typical of title sequences as it plants narrative enigmas, and doesn’t directly show the narrative. After this, a black screen is showed and the title “Captive” is shown in the same typography as the credits were throughout the sequence, and the music and screaming suddenly comes to a stop. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93fH1fUQ-Lw 

Research Into Thriller Titles

The typography of the titles in thriller are very significant to opening sequence. I am going to look at several iconic opening thriller sequences to look at their titles to give us ideas for our own titles. I will look at some stills of thrillers and some moving sequences.




The titles for "Seven" are intriuging because they use a play on words and use a "7" in replacement of the "V" in "Seven," representative of the seven deadly sins, This co-operates with the thriller genre and plants narrative enigmas right from the showing of this first title. The colour of the typography is white on a black background, and in its simplicity puts the focus on the word play in the title itself. The typography is intended to look jagged, but to me looks like





The titles for "Insidious" are very conventional of the thriller genre, with thin, gothic typography that is red, connoting death, danger and blood, all typical of the thriller genre. From viewing the film myself first hand I can also add that this particular title is only shown for a matter of seconds at the climax of suspensful music, which is shocking and jumpy, similiar to the whole asthetic of the film.





The titles for Shutter Island are interesting because the onomatapeic word "shutter"  is represented with the jagged style of typography. The typography is also big and bold, in the shocking bold manner that the film portrays, and again blacck and white, putting the actual title in focus.

Thriller Production Companies

In this post i'm going to take a look at some of the production companies that specialise in the thriller genre. This will help my group and I in the production of our own thriller because we can see what methods are effective in creating an entertaining thriller opening sequence.

Hammer

The first production company I am going to look at is "Hammer." Hammer is a British production company that was founded in 1983. Hammer once dominated the horror film market, specialising in the gothic genre and thriller. It is in multiple partnerships with various other production companies including Warner Bros. While Hammer takes credit for modern horrors such as "The Woman In Black," but some more honourable mentions are their productions of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein." They were also responsible for a mini-series named "Mini-Hitchcocks," a series of black and white low budget films.

Warner Bros

While the broad-based, fully-intergrated film production company that is Warner Bros is widely recgonised for it's varaiation of genre in film, through a deeper look into their work I have found that some iconic action thrillers have been produced by them. These include "Inception," "The Dark Knight" and "The Shining," all highly recognised movies. These productions further stress the flexibilty of Warner Bros in terms of genre. The American company is headquartered in Burbank, Calafornia, and is one of the "Big Six" American film studios, and a member of MPAA (Motion Picture Assosiation of America).


Dimension Films

Dimension Films is an American production company and distribution studio, which was owned by The Walt Disney Company, however is now owned by The Weinstein Company, and is one of America's "Mini-Majors" in terms of production companies. The studio's franchises include "Children Of The Corn," "Scream," "Spy-Kids," "Sin City," and "Scary Movie," clearly taking an interest in comedy-thriller with the production of "Scary Movie." The company is currently producing the "Scream" series for MTV. Founded in 1992, Dimension Films is headquartered in New York.


In terms of thriller production companies, our opening would be most suited to "Dimension Films" as our genre is more horror-thriller rather than action-thriller which is popular with Warner Bros.