By Liam Thomson
Why is film genre important?
Genre translated actually means type, it is a French word.
A film genre determines how a films storyline is going to flow.
It helps allow the director to create effects with camera shots
and camera movements according to the Genre.
A genre allows the audience to know what to expect. E.g. A
comedy would appeal to people who would want to laugh
where as a thriller appeals to people seeking action.
Genre: 1. A type or class: "Emaciated famine victims ... on television
focused a new genre of attention on the continent" (Helen Kitchen).
2. a. A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by
a distinctive style, form, or content: "his six String Quartets ... the most
important works in the genre since Beethoven's" (Time).
b. A realistic style of painting that depicts scenes from everyday life.
Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/genre
Thriller Genre.
Thriller genre is hard to describe as it covers a wide range of
films that merge into one. E.g. Science fiction/thriller,
crime/thriller. These films are classified under the ‘hybrid
genre’ label.
Each thriller film is created to create suspense and anxiety
within the audience. For example ‘The following’ builds up
very slowly. This helps the film however, and builds up the
suspense.
Thrillers also include enigmas within the narrative which the
audience expect to be solved at the end.
Thrillers work at different levels.
Thriller films are know for their action and danger scenes,
creating a thrill for the audience. However a thriller film can
do much more than just that. A thriller film can give the
audience a psychological experience. This means that the
film makes them feel more than just a thrill, instead they are
forced to make an emotional attachment to the film maybe
due to fear or perhaps empathy. Ways of showing this
symptom could include crying, shivering and so on.
Thriller films and audience.
Thriller films have the gift to keep the audience in their seat
throughout the film. They do this by making the audience feel
emotions that they wouldn’t normally feel in other films.
Some of these include...
Suspense
Anxiety
Tension
Excitement
Danger
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock is considered as one of ‘The greatest’ directors of
thriller films ever. He inspires many young directors with his early
work and continues to impress throughout his career.
One of the most famous films Alfred Hitchcock ever directed was
‘Physco’. The infamous shower scene is still a talking point in
modern day directing and people often talk about how the camera
work is used to create such tension and anxiety throughout the
audience.
Hitchcock was born in 1899. As a young directed he created many
silent films and early talkies. As he grew older he moved to America
and became an American citizen whilst maintaining his British
citizenship. It was in America (Hollywood) where Hitchcock really
made a name for himself, directing over 50 feature films.
The extra-ordinary
Thrillers have the amazing ability to take a normal
man/woman or child and throw them into a world of chaos
and destruction. That's why sometimes thrillers create such
an emotion within the watcher, the audience watch and feel
like that what they are seeing could easily be them, the
storyline becomes believable. Camera techniques makes
ordinary objects seem dangerous and mysterious, tying all of
the storyline together.
How do they create suspense?
One way of creating effect in a thriller film is lighting. Lighting
can change the way in which an object or character is seen.
One technique of lighting is called ‘Film noir’.
Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by
French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed
the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and
themes were of many American crime and detective films
Source: http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
Themes and conventions
Often in a thriller film the narrative will twist and turn, causing
chaos within the storyline. This makes the audience often
wonder what the outcome of the storyline will be and they
often find themselves guessing.
Images and objects around the hero often portray the
storyline and the outcome of the his actions.
Often our hero has a flaw which is then used against him by
our villain. An obvious example of this is superman and
kryptonite.
Characters
Often in thriller films characters have much more to them
than the eye can see. In most thriller films a character has a
history which links him to the story in some way. For instance
in ‘Die hard’ our protagonist is an ex cop, making him
involved in the plot.
Some characters can have more than just an occupation
however. Some characters may have mental problems.
Often characters are dark characters, maybe stalkers or
criminals. These are often the villains.
Initial Ideas
Movies that we watched and drew inspiration from include,
‘The following’, ‘Scream’ and ‘One hour photo’.
These films are very much based on the idea of a stalker
following their victim. This idea is presented in our opening
sequence of our film
We want a woman to play the stereotypical helpless female
victim in our piece. We also want to use the idea of a mask
on the stalker, showing that he has no emotion in what he
does. We developed this idea through the film ‘Scream’.
Location wise we thought off filming done some ally’s in the
‘North Laines’ because they are really narrow and get across
a sense of being alone and confined.