Choosing a genre and the conventions of that genre- Thriller

Thriller

After researching the openings of multiple film openings. I have decided that the genre that I want my film opening to be is the genre of Thriller. This is because I have found that ambiguity (popular in Thrillers) is extremely effective at creating a sense of intrigue for the audience. I feel that this can be an extremely accessible feature to use in my film opening that almost forces the audience to think for themselves and work out and infer the real meaning in a shot. This is important as the film opening is only 2 minutes long so I need to test the audience as much as possible in this time to make the opening have video that requires inference to work out the true meaning of it which allows it to be more effective on the audience.

Evidence of ambiguity is shown in the opening of The Dark Knight (where the film has elements of the genre of Thriller). This opening hides the identity of the robbers but leaves hints to the identity of one of the robbers through the fact that the robbers are wearing clown masks which infer that the Joker is present.

This is also used in many Thrillers such as Fight Club which infers that Edward Norton’s character is in fact Tyler Durden and that Brad Pitt is just a figment of the main character’s imagination by flashing Pitt’s character on screen before Norton’s character meets him. This subliminal messaging helps to secretly put Pitt’s character into the minds of the audience without them realising it and to show the jarred mindset of Norton’s character which infers that not everything that is shown on the screen is in fact real which links to the end when it is revealed that he multiple personality disorder.

Another large element of the genre of Thriller is a big twist near the end of the movie, an element of this is also found in The Dark Knight's opening where the Joker reveals that it is him under the clown mask pretending to be just one of the bank robbers. There were hints to this before with the masks themselves indicating the Joker's presence but did not specifically state that he was present.

Twists are also found in in Thrillers like 1999's The Sixth Sense where (throughout the whole movie), there has been lots of evidence to suggest that Bruce Willis' character is actually dead. Evidence of this is shown in the fact that he dies at the start of  the film and then just cuts to the future and that Haley Joel Osment's character can see dead people as well as other small hints. These are things that do not directly tell you is that Willis' character is a ghost, they only infer it. This big twist allows you to realise how the film was showing the audience the twist on screen and yet they did not realize at the time of watching the film.

The genre of Thriller is a type of film genre that breaks down into many sub-genres such as:

• Action Thriller (Dirty Harry Die Hard, Rambo and Point Break)
• Comedy Thriller (Mr. and Mrs. Smith and In Bruges)
• Crime Thriller (Seven and No Country for Old Men)
• Spy Thriller (Unknown and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
• Psychological Thriller (The Talented Mr. Ripley and Shutter Island)
• Supernatural Thriller (Chronicle and The Sixth Sense)
• Technology Thriller (I, Robot and Eagle Eye)
• Horror Thriller (The Purge and Psycho)

Thrillers use a wide range of devices to build and create certain effects on the audience. These effects include heightened tension and suspense as well as confusion that then later becomes realisation. There are many similarities between the Thriller genre and the Horror genre and they are linked between its two main sub-genres which are horror Thrillers and psychological Thrillers.

A more common or 'generic' Thriller will often take place inside a mysterious and isolated setting. However, this is not always the case as many Thrillers break this mould by incorporating a more modernised element to the movie.

Not all Thrillers contain these elements and some movie's genres are up to personal interpretation. However, the conventions above are some of the characteristics which help to identity a Thriller from other genres.