Codes & Conventions of Genre

The chosen genre for my short film will be Thriller,

Codes and Conventions -

• The films usually include death either it being the protagonist or someone else's.
• The narrative is shown through the protagonist's point of view.
• Shows innocence in a corrupt world (Image to right).
• Protagonist may have to deal with mental problems as well as physical problems.
• Characters - May include stalkers, assassins, innocent victims, dangerous women and some may include romantic triangles leading to murder.
• Male characters are typical protagonists however females are now becoming more common.
• Plots include characters having conflict between each other or from their pasts.
• They often present the world as dark, corrupt and dangerous and in Hollywood they usually endings where the evil is overcome and defeated by the good.
• The tension is usually created when the character is placed in a dangerous situation, a mystery, or a trap in which there is no escaping (Image above).
• Some thrillers include a puzzle in which both the audience and the protagonist have to solve to survive.
• There is usually a cliffhanger that leaves the protagonist in either a good or bad situation.

• Lighting is important in the thrillers as it allows the audiences emotions to be moulded into what the director wants them to feel, an example would be 'Disturbia' where the lack of lighting makes the audience feel vulnerable and exposed.
• Camera shots, angles and editing are important as they create the pace and tempo of the moment, whether it be a slow, tender and emtional scene between the male and female love interests or a fast paced and action based fight scene where the protagonist is fighting for their life.


• Music can change the impact and atmosphere of the scene whether it is drum beat or violin strings. It also revels to the audience and informs them of the characters true emotions and intentions, an example would be a certain character would have a motif, which is played whenever they are on screen or when something terrible happens to them, an example would be in 'James Bond Casino Royale' the character 'Steven Obanno' has his own motif and is played whenever he speaks or is shot.

For the love triangle an example would be 'Fatal Attraction' where Michael Douglas' character who is the protagonist who is being stalked and threatened by Glenn Close's character. Throughout the film Close's character is seen to be deteriorating in her health as she rapidly becomes ill and insane with love and jealously towards Douglas' character.

 

A well known and successful suspense thriller is Alfred Hitchcocks 'Rebecca' (1940)

This films works as a thriller today because of the elements its habits, the idea of a man remarrying after the death of his first wife is still common in todays society. So the idea that his second wife going crazy over the fact her husband may still love his deceased wife could reflect some cases in todays society, so it still has the thriller qualities which may have reformed over the years.

1998 American thriller film sees a man finding out about his wife's affair which leads him to pay off the 'other man' and convince him to murder her.



This scene shows in a light of how I want my film to be like with the edit. The black and white and colour scenes, with this it shows how I want my film to look like, with the current scenes in black and white with the flashbacks in colour however in this scene the flashbacks are still black and white but the brightness and contrast has been heightened to give it a white and yellow look. 



(1 minute 20 seconds - 2 minutes 18 seconds)


For my film I will use many of these stylists to help recreate the thriller genre, the idea of death towards the protagonist of antagonist will play a bit part within my film, as the end sequence will be a 'who's died?' as both characters may face death. Having the narrative told through my protagonists view will be crucial to make the audience sympathise with her and be on her side throughout the film and also agree with what she believes and wants for example, the death of her fiance. So I will have my narrative told through my protagonist through a series of flashbacks that they are having. Giving my protagonist the idea that her fiance should be killed after cheating on her may tell the audience that she is suffering from mental issues as the idea of having him killed is a tad extreme. Having a protagonist with mental issues isn't uncommon in the thriller genre so I will be using this stylistic to explain the idea. The whole premesise for my film will be the conflict between my protagonist and antagonist (Bliss and James). For the ending of my film there will be a cliffhanger where the audience doesnt know who has been killed and who has been successful, cliffhangers are common in thrillers so is a good stylistic to use for my film.

I will use lighting in my film to reflect what my protagonist is feeling, an example would be at the beginning it will be sunny and bright but as the film progresses the lighting will become darker and more grey to reflect the depression and mental state that she is slipping into. For the camer shots I will use slow paced and mostly close ups to help the audience connect and build a relationship with the characters. For the music, I will be using eerie, slow paced music which could contain violins or deep piano sequences to help create the tension at the end when the flashbacks are coming to a close and when the victim will be killed. Using this type of music works well with thrillers because it helps to set the audience on edge and also throughs them with the severity of the music.