Research on Thriller Genre

An article on the website suite101.com breaks the thriller genre down in to 12 different sub-genres. I have then wrote a small paragraph to briefly explain the sub-genre with an example of a film that would fit into it:

Action Thriller - action and excitement is the main focus of the narrative, but elements such as mystery and crime can also be heavily involved. Example: Die Hard (1988)

Conspiracy Thriller - The protagonist must uncover/prove a truth in order to avert looming danger. Example: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Crime Thriller - these films centre around the consequences of a successful or failed attempt at a crime for the authorites and/or the criminals. Example: No Country for Old Men (2007)

Disaster Thriller - these films concentrate on the events surrounding a man-made or natural disaster and the effects on the people involved. Example: The Day After Tommorrw (2004)

Erotic Thriller - a thriller which encompasses some sort of sexual theme. Example: Basic Instinct (1992)

Legal Thrillers - thriller's that involve some sort of legal case where there are greater risks for the people involved. Example: A Few Good Men (1992)

Medical Thriller - a medical proffessional must find a cure for a frightening medical problem. Example: Awake (2007)

Political Thriller - the protagonist must fight for the stability of government against those who wish to benefit from it. Example: The Crying Game (1992)

Psychological Thriller - thrillers that play with the theme of the characters mind and where the action is usualy driven through the characters. Suspense is used widely. Example: A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Religious Thriller - based on religious teachings or customs, are usually controversial with how they portray the subject. Example: The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Spy Thriller - the protagonist is a government agent who must thwart a rival organisation. The theme of deception is prominent. Example: The Bourne Identity (2002)

Supernatural Thrillers - are similar to horror films, but incorporate less violence. Paranormal forces are the main subject of the film. Example: Carrie (1976)

Ofcourse all of these genres can overlap each other in films. The depth of the thriller genre gives me a lot to work with in my film.

Planning: Genre for my film

I have decided that the genre of my short film will be the thriller genre. I have made this decision because the thriller genre can encompass aspects of many other genres, such as romance or horror. This will allow me more options with the way I shoot the film and the script also. Thrillers also regularly employ the use of devices such as cliffhangers and suspense, which as I am only shooting the opening of the film, gives me a lot of possibilites to make the clip interesting for the viewer.

Reflection on continuity exercise

Through the process of making the video, I found out that continuity editing is the process of editing together seperate shots so that they have a logical coherence to them to allow the viewer to relate more to the action taking place. I also know now that various media techniques are used to create this sense of continuity such as the 180 Degree Rule and the use of shot/reverse shot.

The next time I use continuity editing techniques, I will think more about how I could edit the footage together before I actually shoot it. This way I will not find myself with difficulty editing the clips together because there are obvious differences between the shots.

A thing that I could have improved my video with is to not include a zoom in the shot, as this does not fit in with the continuity theme. On another note I could think more about the lighting in the shots to improve the clarity of the film.

Preliminary: Shot/Reverse Shot and Video

Shot/reverse shot is a technique used in film where a shot of one character looking at another is followed by the other character looking back towards the first character. In these shots, the 'other' character may be off-screen, but the viewer gets the impression from these shots that the two characters are looking at one another.
The use of these shots is to create a sense of continuous action for the viewer so that the shot sequences seem logical to them in terms of the plot.

180 Degree Rule Presentation and Video

This is my presentation detailing the 180 Degree Rule for Media Studies along with my video of a short film where the rule is broken.

The 180° Rule

View more presentations from ThomasSibbald.