Research into thriller conventions

1a) Characters

Hero: usually male, of older age 35+, tall, dark hair, usually the protagonist and saves the day, loyal, faithful, responsible. 

Different examples of this type of character are Christian Bale in The Dark Knight- he is the protagonist of the film and is the actual hero, John Travolta in Face Off: here Strauss’ idea of an equilibrium is apparent through his character as he starts off as a happy family before his son gets shot, Adrian Brody in The Pianist, Daniel Craig in James Bond, Metro-man in Mega mind

 ·   Villain: usually has something significant on their face (scars etc.), evil person, and glimpse of hope but always let them down.

For example Le Chiffre in Casino Royale: he’s the villain and he cries blood as his signifier to the audience that he’s an evil character, Mega mind, the Joker (scars)

 

1b) other people to find in a thriller:

·         Hero,

·         Villain

·         The Girl (who the hero wins in the end)

·          Police Officer/detective

·         someone who gets into danger

2) Claud Levi Strauss

Day – Night            Black – White                           Protagonist - Antagonist

Hero – Villain         Dominant – Submissive          Humanity – Technology

Happy – Sad          Aggressive – Peaceful          Victim - Offender

Life – Death           Strong – Weak             

3) Todorovs theory of narrative structure

Many of the common features that occur in thriller openings are the equilibrium in the beginning, and then disruption happens and eventually, at the end of the film we have a resolution.

A few examples of this are:

Face-off: Happy family at the start, then the mood changes and the lighting etc. changes to a darker, negative feel once we cut to the Villain (Nicholas Cage). From this, we go to the act of evil which dictates the rest of the film when Nicholas Cage shoots John Travolta’s son and kills him. From here, we cut to an ellipses edit to show how he, as a detective, still hasn’t given up on finding the man that murdered his son, consequently his attempt to be the hero.

 Apocalypse now: The start to this film is different; it’s all powerful and angry where we see soldiers in their rest and relaxation time. In the background there’s fire and noises of bombs to suggest an uncertainty and uneasiness about the situation. Unlike Face-Off we don’t have a happy medium at the start.

 

Psycho: This film starts with a woman at work, she’s happy and the whole atmosphere is positive. It’s only when she steals the money from her job that we get the sense that she’s not as she appears.

4) Opening titles

There are a few different ways in which titles can be shown in the openings of films. Examples of two different ways are in the films, sixth sense and face off. In the film sixth sense the titles are inserted at the beginning before the film starts, on a black background.  This makes the audience concentrate just on the titles and in this time period the mood of a thriller can be created as it is done in sixth sense by using sinister eerie music, and the wobbling ghostly text used in the titles. Different styles of fonts are also used for the titles, common ones are Sans Serif and Serif, the font used in the 6^th sense is serif, this is a posh style of writing and suggests the film is more intense and complicated and that is aimed towards a more intellectual audience.

Face-off establishes the genre through the opening title sequence. We see binary oppositions of black and white through the title suggesting good and evil. Even though the title sequence is partially over-lay titles we still take note that the titles are shaking to ensure that we know it’s scary and a thriller. Overlay titles are used whilst the film has started and are usually placed in the bottom corner of the screen. These do not take as much attention from the audience as the focus is mainly on the film. These are used in the film Face off. The font used in these titles is ‘Sans Serif’ portraying it is more relaxed and does not need as much intellectuality to be able to follow the film.

The film 'Se7en' uses a mixture of over lay and full screen titles,

    Overlay titles                                                                    

  



Full screen titles

The introduction of ‘usual suspects’ uses the title sequence really well. At the start we have written on screen:

•  Polygram filmed entertainment & spelling films international presents
• A Blue parrot/bad hat harry production
• A Bryan singer film

To show us what the production companies are. The above titles were all white writing on a black background with smoke rising from the bottom of the screen. Words are central and in ‘Sans’ which tell the audience that the film is for people of a high intellect and will be a film that requires much concentration.

Unlike these titles, we have overlay titles of what we assume are less important aspects of the film. This consists of names primarily alongside who the film was written by and the casting director.

We then cut to a clip of cigarette in a glass ash tray; we presume this is where the smoke was originally coming from.

The final title shown is ‘The Usual Suspects ‘in large white font of black background with the smoke rising just like the beginning.