Thriller Film Conventions

There are many conventions seen and used in thriller films that help convey the meaning of thriller film, all of these elements help add suspense and tension to the film. Some of these codes and conventions include: 

Non Diegetic music is a common convention seen in all films, however in thrillers; it can change a scene entirely and alter the mood felt for the audience. 

The non diegetic sound heard in the opening of the film Annabelle is a prime example of how non diegetic music is used in films. It starts of extremely quiet using a mixture of string and wood instruments to create a sinister feeling; they start and stop and various times causing the audience to feel on edge, because just as they think it has stopped, it starts up again. This sound begins to build from around 0:40, getting louder and far more intense than before. This alerts the audience informing them that something is approaching as we often associate sound getting louder to something coming closer. Around a minute later, the non diegetic sound reaches it climax with the instruments almost sounding as if they're screaming as they all come together, before suddenly halting all at once. This technique forces the audience to not let their guard down as just as they think the worst is about to come, all danger is eliminated and they're left in silence. Silence is a powerful thing to use in thriller films, as means the audience's attention is focused on the action and also makes them conscious of any other wary noises. After this, a child's musical box plays followed by a sinister sound growing louder in the background before it all cuts off.  

Character conventions of a thriller usually star a group or a family as the protagonists; it's rarely one person - however sometimes this is seen in films.  This is because the audience tend to feel at ease when there is a large number of people; however this is also an advantage for film makers as it gives them more chance to kill off characters without the audience knowing. For example; the group of 'Purgers' from The Purge.

When they do realise the number is dwindling, this increases the tension felt during the film. For Apparition, we decided not to stick to this convention as we felt that introducing a variety of characters in the opening wouldn't be as effective and would take the attention away from the suspense element. 

The antagonist is a villain who usually keeps their true identity hidden throughout the film to increase tension and fear, for example the masked killer from Scream. If the audience and the protagonist(s), don't know who they're afraid of; it makes the atmosphere a lot more intense and frightening. We decided to stick to this convention, keeping the identity of the antagonist a secret until the end of the opening. Using subtle hints throughout increased the suspense of the film and built up to the climax, the reveal of the antagonist.
 

Theme; stereotypically, the theme of thriller is something realistic which heightens the fear factor as the audience are forced to believe that this scenario could happen to them. This is why thrillers usually include being set in houses, neighbourhoods and happen to ordinary people like the majority of their target audience. We stuck to this convention for our film opening as it's set in a home with the protagonist being a young girl. The time period is somewhere in the future and it's not unlikely that something possibly a virus or disease could cause apparitions of ourselves to walk among us.  

Cinematography conventions include the type of camera shots. When filming the protagonist, extreme close ups and close ups are used to show their facial expressions when certain things happen. This is so that the audience can see and often subconsciously mimic these expressions seen. Reactions shots are used during dialogue as well as shot reverse shot for the same reason. In our film opening we decided we wasn't going to use much of these as there isn't much dialogue used, as we feel it's better and much more effective for a film opening to have little to no dialogue. This heightens the suspense and forces the audience to pay attention to detail. 

For the antagonist, low angle shots and an over the shoulder shot is usually seen as it's an effective way to show the villain without revealing their identity. Keeping an identity a secret is also an effective way to increase tension and these camera shots and angle allow the antagonist to be viewed in a fearful way. We stuck to this convention as we wanted to keep character b's identity a secret and this was the best way to do so. 

EDIT: I have included screenshots of our final film opening as examples to show how we recreated this conventions.

Editing is another convention seen as jump cuts and cross cutting is relied on heavily to not only confuse the audience further fuelling the tension but also to give the audience more information that would have been too dull to show using continuous editing. This type of editing often reflects reality as it's far more common for people to view and remember traumatic events in a series of unrelated flashbacks that don't happen in a chronological order.

When creating Apparition, we used cross cutting to show that something sinister was going to happen (character B outsider the house) which adds to the suspense. During the voice over, we also used jump cuts to show smaller details of the house in order to subconsciously remind the audience that the setting is a natural, realistic one which once again enforces that this could happen to anybody in real life and therefore increases the fear element.  

EDIT: I have included screenshots of our final film opening as examples to show how we recreated this conventions.

Mise en scene is an important convention for thriller films. The location of many thrillers take place in a realistic setting such as a house or local building (eg; a school, hospital etc) as this makes the action that takes place more surreal, in the sense that the audience could believe that this scenario could happen to themselves; which is why we stuck to this convention and set our film opening in a house. 

EDIT: I have included screenshots of our final film opening as examples to show how we recreated this conventions.

The costumes we thought about, often in thrillers the protagonist wears everyday clothing in order to remain similar and relate back to the audience whilst the antagonist wears darker clothing to symbolise evilness. However, we decided to break this convention by making the protagonist (character A) wear dark red, this colour has connotations of danger and bloodshed which are subconscious triggers and warnings for the audience that something bad will happen to this character.



EDIT: I have included screenshots of our final film opening as examples to show how we recreated this conventions.

The antagonist (character B)  we decided would wear grey to symbolise death and ashes hinting that this is what character B would create; death and peril. Both characters we made them wear the same clothing, this way the audience could (if they were paying close enough attention) realise that they could be the same person.

EDIT: I have included screenshots of our final film opening as examples to show how we recreated this conventions.