I made this blog as a record of my AS media coursework. The brief for this is to make the opening title of a new fiction film in the thriller genre to last a maximum of two minutes.
The film “Memento” is a great example that includes these techniques in the first 10 minutes. It includes a number of enigma's; who killed Leonard's wife? What has happened to Leonard's car window? Why does he kill Teddy? There are also many potential red herrings, as Leonard can't remember anything so what we believe to be the truth, may not be. This opening grabs the audience attention and leaves us wanting to watch more.
This is also a “psychological” thriller, which has to do with the mind, conflict and past. In this case the suspense is coming from within Leonard, who is trying to resolve conflict in his mind. As he has short-term memory loss, he is stuck with the tragedy of his wife’s murder. Another type of “psychological” thriller is when suspense is created between two or more character playing deceptive games or trying to demolish the other’s mental state.
Cause and effect- a character’s motivation and plotting help tell an interesting story, this is an automatic use of “continuity editing”.
Continuity editing- this is when we try to make sense of one shot by joining onto the next.
Enigmas
This is a puzzle or a difficult problem. In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to solve before the narrative is resolved and the film ends. An example of where an enigma is used in a thriller film is; “Taken” (2008) where the father finally finds his daughter while looking for her throughout the film.
Red herrings
A red herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. This can work with other devices such as enigmas to create suspense.
Cliff hangers
This is where a main character is in a difficult situation, this attracts the audience to keep watching to see how the dilemma is resolved, this feature is sometimes but not always used. An example of were a cliff hanger is used in a thriller film is; “The Italian Job” (1969)
“McGuffin” by Alfred Hitchcock was one of his plot devices that became well-known. It stands for magnificent nothing which is used to motivate the character and advance the story, but has little relevance to the story. Mechanical elements that are used in typical cook stories is a diamond which the characters spend the whole time looking for the it and becomes the McGuffin which has helped advance the story.
“North by Northwest” (1958) is another of Hitchcock’s films. This is includes the main character Thornhill, he has been sent to meet Kaplan who will explain to him why he has been mistaken for a government agent. This is an example of a red herring as we are led to believe that Thornhill is going to get help, in fact he is being targeted at.
There are many different types of thrillers and conventions that a thriller film should follow.
The thriller genre is divided up into five different sorts of thrillers; this includes spy thriller, political thriller, conspiracy thriller, legal thriller and physiological thriller.
For a “Thriller” type film to have this label it must follow a set of rules that consist in the film, these may be that there is always a villain or a hero who come against each other at some point in the film. Another convention may be that the protagonist is put into situations where they are at risk, however in many cases they make it to the end. Furthermore a thriller film must include elements of danger and moments of suspense and shock.
An example of where thrillers create suspense is, in the film “Rope” (1948) by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock completed this film by shooting 10 minute clips as the camera only had a short storage space which he then tried to hide the individual edits when putting the film together. This film tells the story of two young and wealthy men who murder a friend just to test if they can get away with it. The suspense is created when the two men have a dinner party including close friends and, the parents of the dead man, whilst the dead body is stored in a chest in their sitting room. As the audience watching the film, we are all wondering “will they discover the body?”
A way of creating moments of shock for the audience is taking a situation where there is a bomb in the classroom but both teachers and students are unaware. If the director wanted to create suspense he would let the camera reveal the bomb and let the audience anticipate and wait for it to go off but instead, it just explodes and kills all present, thus leaving the audience in total astonishment.
“Thrillers are films of suspense that are supposed to install terror into the audience” Susan Hayward
I made this blog as a record of my AS media coursework. The brief for this is to make the opening title of a new fiction film in the thriller genre to last a maximum of two minutes.
