The main elements of a thriller film consist of suspense, tension and excitement to entertain the audience and maintain the genre's theme. In many thriller films, certain sounds and editing are crucial to create and reinforce the genre - here are the conventions of a thriller:
Narrative
- Crime: There is usually a crime/mystery involved in the storyline/plot of the thriller.
- False trail: there are usually false clues and paths to mislead the audience.
- Protagonist and Antagonist: all thrillers involve protagonists and antagonist; at one point both will come together in a scene of action where the protagonist will come out on top overall.
Mise-en-scene
- Quick cuts: develops suspense and tension by making the film fast-paced.
- Changes in camera angles: gives more information and excitement for the audience (low angle could make someone look more powerful - high angle could make someone look vulnerable).
- Shadows: this is a great use of lighting which again can create suspense/tension and mystery.
- Characters: characters mainly include; detectives, criminals, police, terrorists, psychos, people with dark pasts and many more.
- Character's costumes: for most crime thrillers there is a smart dress code, i.e detectives/police will wear suits; however this does not always apply as different characters will be wearing costumes to fit their role in the plot.
The title sequence of 'LOST' is very short and only uses sounds and the typography and movement of the title to show what the genre of the series will be about. However, this technique is cleverly used to give no insight of the up coming events in the episode - here we can see no thoughts or clues can be found in the sequence to show what the series will be about. Despite no clips, images or pictures the sequence immediately interprets a sense of mystery and adventure, hence the title being 'LOST'; this leaves the audience baffled and intrigued to know what the future story and plot will be about. The sequences begins with a blank black screen, where the title emerges in a plain and basic yet blurry font; from doing this we can see the creator is even making the title hard to make out, let alone the whole storyline, which audiences will find full of twists and turns right from the start; also the basic font again giving no clues. We can see the title spins and gradually becomes clearer as it slowly comes closer to the camera; this could suggest or hint to the audience the way the series will unfold: from no clues, to suspicion and finally the answers. This we can see is very clever and effective to draw in the audience and make them carry on watching and find out the answers to 'LOST'. The music in the sequence reinforces the sense of mystery - its slow, unearthly sound increases volume as the title gets nearer to the camera; as the title disappears through the camera the sound also disappears. There doesn't seem to be any camera movement or angles involved in the sequence, this makes the whole sequence unbelievably basic however with the sounds added we can see a contrasting and powerful title sequence to portray the genre of mystery.
The film 'Se7en' uses a fantastic title sequence to deliver the genre, not only of thriller, but also horror. The disturbing pictures, music/sounds and colours build a horrific, vile and mysterious image of what the contents of the film will be about. The opening of the title sequences begins with an extreme close up which is focused on a book - here we can see the dark, plain and blank colours, therefore, giving a general washed out effect which is used throughout the sequence. Throughout the whole sequence extreme close ups are used while the camera frames change very quickly, many times from images/movement to blank black screens with credits on; this is very significant as the audience can reflect and question the previous image, while also being informed of the credits on show. As the sequence goes on we can almost make out a story unveiling - the question brought to mind is "Who is this person?" and "What is he going to do?" - the gruesome pictures and images continuously reinforcing the genre and unnerving atmosphere.
The non-diegetic sounds play a big part in producing a blood-curdling sense and atmosphere; at the beginning a slow ghaustly and mysterious beat is accompanied with creepy, unexpected screeches; the beat gradually increases until a fast, powerful and intense rhythm is formed. While the music plays, flashing images flicker for split seconds, resulting in a transparent, projection effect - this again reinforcing the mysterious, weird and unnusual atmosphere. The high - or even birds eye view - camera angles used gives the audience focus on the object displayed, as shadows surround most frames to show the darkness and evil of this person. The actions of this person such as the cutting of the paper, slicing of his finger tips and stitching of the book metaphorically symbolises images of creulty, immorality and monstrosity; this gives us clues and ideas about the rest of the film that awaits.
The credits are also effectively used as the font appears as a bright light which is handwritten: small and very thin. These credits also flicker which relates to some of the previous images. The title flashes extremely quickly - like a projection - in a similar font as the credits, except bolder and larger when compared - this shows more importance of the title and reinforces the mysteriousness once again, as quick camera shots leave little time to figure out what they have seen. Finally, as the title sequence comes to an end, the fast beat intense music stops and the words "You got me closer to god." are heard; this would certainly imply that death is involved in the film, therefore, suppling the finishing clue to the sequence.
The title sequence of the fantasy action film '300' creates an unusual, bold, unique and exciting intro to the film. As we can see the whole sequence consists of full animation artwork, eery /sharp sounds and very few colours; the use of techniques gives the audience a vague outline of what the plot of the film will be about (war/fighting) as the minimal use of colours and unusual shapes create bold 'shadows' of figures. The immediate splash of red introduces the audience to a blood and gore film which is greatly effective in showing the audience what the whole main genre of the film will be about, while the animations generally give the scene of a whole battle taking place; from this we now know the film will include a whole number of battles and fights.
The techniques in camera work used is also very effective to interest and excite the audience; the camera begins with a blank, black screen when the sudden splash of blood is introduced, at this point the camera uses the slow motion technique as the blood tracks across the screen - we soon find out this technique is used a number of times when blood is again introduced. As the camera movement quickly zooms out and slowly pans we can see the animations have more depth while also unusually look 3 dimensional, this makes the sequence look very strong with a lot of quality. The quick zooms are reinforced with rapid background movement of the spears and arrows flying through the air - when the weapons hit and draw blood slow motion is used, again creating a strong and powerful blast of the blood.
The camera uses close ups of the animations and also a lot of 180° shots, making the scene more 3-D, and one could say, realistic - despite the purpose lack of detail and colour. The contrasts in the bright colours of the background and the black animations creates a strong image as a suggestion of darkness and evil is applied to the black figures. Not only does the bold colours and camera movements relate but also the diegetic sounds. The continuous eery and sharp sounds include screaming, slicing and impact noises, not only does this give the sequence the whole sense and atmosphere but also hits perfect timing with the animations; as a spear hits a figure an immediate scream/slice/impact sound is projected to the audience. This is essential in making a great and effective sequence for this film.
Finally, we can see the names of the creators are positioned inside the black figures with a red 'blood' font. However, unlike the splashing of the blood, the camera zooms/pans to see the writing already positioned, there is very little movement - maybe even none - of the typography; from this we know it has been done to prevent confusion and make the text clear, easy to read and presentable. The title of the film '300' is very similar to the previous texts as it also has the bold, red 'blood' font, however, it does rapidly splash across the black screen; this obviously draws the audiences attention as the quick change in camera shot brings the audience to focus on its main target - the films title. Overall, by how this has been created and portrayed we can see an effective, quality and dynamic title sequence which greatly relates to the film, its theme and genre!
