T H R I L L E R FILMS.

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements.

The primary subgenres are mystery, crime, and psychological thrillers.

Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.

The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies.

T H R I L L E R FILMS.

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

Give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.

H I T C H C O C K Q U O T E S

EXAMPLES

How we attracted and addressed our audience.

OUR FILM.

It is very important to attract and address your audience as they are your critics. They are the people

who will be seeing your creation and you want to deliver the best experience possible. To do this you

have to be very careful when deciding location, props and characters as they must all flow together. A good

place to capture your audience is in the opening.

Inspiration comes from similar genre films and films with similar story lines. Many thriller films open with very innocent and calm feeling settings such as the

French film ‘Ils’ we watched in class. The film opened in a school setting, a perfectly ‘normal’ place which

everyone can relate to, this also being a key feature as it doesn’t throw people off instantly. The setting merely lies in their mind subconsciously which means it doesn’t

divert attention from the plot itself.

As there was three of us in our group we had three different sets of ideas and backgrounds. This was very helpful to the group as we could all give each other

tips and say what we thought of each others input. Not only this, but it was quite inspirational to see what we could come up with. We also had different friendship

groups and knew very different people so we could easily find out a general demand or something that was appealing to many other people.

Together we devised a shortlist and forwarded our ideas to each other. This included the props, costume, characters and location we would use. As we spilled out our ideas

we drew together one final one which took ideas from the others. This then made something unique which we called ‘Inconsolable’ – our final production.

We listed out characters, drew up story boards and found the perfect name. This then gave us a foundation to show to our friends and peers in order to see if it was what

they wanted and this is how we went on to attract and address our audience.

How we went about attracting/addressing the audience

This is the opening scene of our production. It introduced the film with an innocent feel, a technique we used as it allowed us to reveal certain things where we thought they should be, for example we could decide when to introduce ‘the man’.The colour scheme Is also very fitting as it is bright pink. This stereotypically means femininity and helps emphasise the character of the little girl.

The scene is also set in a typical young girls bedroom which leaves room to expand on the storyline within this setting. By using different angles we could show all parts of the room as this room would be a key setting later on in the story. By doing this it allows the audience to become familiar with the setting so they don’t get distracted trying to work out where the characters are.

Scene 1

We thought this was quite a clever scene as it allows the audience to try and piece the storyline together. The wardrobe dominates the screen shot, this is typically bedroom furniture so it could be used as a background whilst we focused on introducing the main character. The mirror is also key in this shot as we see the character from behind and from the front in his reflection. This gives the audience a 2dimensional view which leaves some of him hidden and yet to reveal. The blue colouring also makes the shot masculine.

Scene 2

This shot is mainly of a bathroom decorated in natural colours to switch it up from the blue, masculine room. This time we are shown the left side of the characters face which gives us more of an insight to what they look like. This is important because he is slowly becoming revealed to the audience but it builds up a sense of secrecy which is an important feature of thriller films. Using techniques like this keep a grip on the audience’s attention.

Scene 3

This setting is a part of a typically normal house and is something which everyone can relate to. It shows stairs which instantly suggests the character is moving locations and is possibly planning to leave the house as the previous scene showed him getting himself ready. This is another technique which keeps hold of audience attention as we want to find out what is happening. The stairs are a prop themselves as they almost act as a cliffhanger effect as we want to know where they lead to. They connect the storyline.

Scene 4

This scene shows a standard British style living room which I think is something that the audience may question as they will have their minds wondering what will happen next. It has a mixture of both masculine and feminine features within it which distract the audience from the idea that the girl is in a different house. Having this idea hidden was powerful for us as we could choose when to bring it in.

Scene 5

This scene is quite powerful as it has the black and white newspaper with an aqua background. This is in a terminal optical area and as it is quite a vibrant colour it contradicts the dull feel of the black and white newspaper along with the article. The door on the left also allows for an event to happen whether it be the transporting or introducing of a character.

Scene 6

This is another scene which shows a female character in a house but it is very clever as you presume she is in the same house. We recognise the character from the first scene which also allows us to build up a profile of her. As the audience presume the house is the same, we have a chance to insert a twist or another feature which grabs attention. This scene helps to build up the next part of the story line and the main colour is very feminine.

Scene 7

This is just a simple scene which basically indicates the end of a day and the start of a night as she is going to bed. As we know night time is a typical time for crime to take place so although it is the end of the day it is really just the beginning of the next storyline. The audience can see through this therefore it makes them want to carry on watching.

Scene 8

Comments

“The colour of the walls help to create a warm atmosphere which is almost creepy on its own as it makes you think something bad is going to happen”

“Opening the scene with two female characters is very powerful as it prevents any masculine/stereotypical male characteristics”

“I like the fact it is in a bedroom as it is easy to imagine what it is like to be in that situation”

“The props such as the teddy bear and the simple everday clothing make It realistic”

“Even the accents add to the vibe and atmosphere because it is very British and Northern which make it unique”

Use of music

From the very start we planned to compose our own music as we thought this would be the only way to capture the right feel and

provide the film with the right emotion. Composing your own music allows you to have a massive scope in terms of audience attention as

you can control emotion at whatever point you want in the clip. Music theory explains how certain chords can create a certain atmosphere

and that is what we aimed for.

The film idea itself is also quite unique so a unique piece of music would be the only thing we would consider. Having control on such a

major part of the production was also important for us.

The software used to create the soundtrack was Cubase which is a professional music production programme.

Unique selling point of our production

A unique selling point of our production is that is very British in terms of setting

and props which is quite exciting for this type of film as they are typically American or European. This meant we could bring in new and fresh ideas to the genre. The film would also be distributed by small film labels so again this add

independence to the production and creates a niche for it in the market.