Thriller - Initial Idea

I would like for the opening sequence of the thriller to explore the morning routine of an assassin. Visually the audience is first introduced to the setting through a number of establishing shots of the bedroom. The bedroom will be fitted with prestigious props, alcohol, guns, drugs and other such items. This is a crucial part of the sequence as it displays the items that allow the audience to denote what type of person the protagonist is, such as for example a gun, I.D. card and cocaine clearly point towards an extraordinary persona. Afterwards the assassin will be  shown lying in the bathroom in a pool of blood with cuts all over his left arm. This is to display the emotional state that the protagonist is currently in, as well as the contrast between the way he acts after he wakes up and the way he looks during the process of waking up. The next couple number of shots will represent the character waking up, covering his scars in bandages, and dressing up in a suit. At this point the audience should be astonished by the simplicity and emotionlessness that the protagonist portrays while getting ready.  Succeeding an aerial shot will display the protagonist walking into the bedroom. In addition to presenting what is happening the aerial shot reveals the overall state of the room,and additionally a girl sleeping covered in sheets at one side of the bed. Shortly after the shot begins the protagonist will enter the bedroom and the girl will wake up and begin conversing with the the main character. The girl will have some type of an issue with the protagonist, which will cause him to secretly begin reaching for his gun, which will gradually build suspense and tension. Although ultimately the assassin will not take out his gun as he will be interrupted by a phone call that he answers after leaving the bedroom. The phone will be a job offer for the protagonist, who is a contract-killer. After accepting the job the assassin will return to the bedroom, smile at the girl, say his goodbyes and leave the room. I would like this to leave the audience in awe of the main character, which is what I hope will interest them in the rest of the film as they want to find out who the protagonist is.

Sub-genres of a Thriller

A Psychological thriller is a film, which places emphasis on the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states. An example of a psychological thriller is Shutter Island. Shutter Island explores the mental issues and instabilities of a young patient at a correctional centre with serious delusional issues.  The following film can be classified as a psychological thriller because it mainly develops upon the protagonists psychological and emotional state as the film progresses.

An Action thriller is a film that melds together the main characteristics of a thriller together with recurring action sequences, tension and suspense. John Wick is an example of an action thriller. The film is mainly composed out of action sequences separated by thrilling builds up and an atmospheric suspense that drag the audience into the film. The following film is model exemplar of a film that is able to meld together the aspects of an action and thriller film together so well, that the film simply flows.

An erotic thriller is a movie that places emphasis on eroticism and most commonly revolves around some sort of sexual relationship. An example of an erotic-thriller is Basic Instinct. Erotic Thrillers are not very common an dare rarely well received. The latest widespread erotic-thriller 50 Shades of Grey was generally received very poorly by the public.

A disaster thriller is a film that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device, whilst being enriched with the characteristics of a thriller such as suspense and tension. Into The Storm is a disaster thriller thats main plot device is a storm that is gradually laying destruction to to the local setting. The film is composed in a similar manner to John Wick, as it consists of action sequences separated by thrilling builds up and and atmospheric moments and dialogue. Most commonly disaster films display a character or group character attempting at escaping or facing a natural disaster.

Genre, Subgenre, and Hybrid Genre

A genre is a category of film in which a viewer can come to expect certain elements consistent with that genre. The most common conventions around which genre texts are classified are the plot, setting, style and structure, and iconography. A film can be classified by more than one genre. In that case the less prominent genre is identified as the films sub-genre. If a film represents the qualities of more than two genres it is classified as a hybrid genre, or in other words as a genre that is a mixture of other primary genre categories.

For instance the film Kill Bill can be classified by its most prominent genre, which is action. Although it can also be classified by either its sub-genre or its hybrid genre, which are as follows, action - romance and romance- drama -action. From the following it can be seen that a sub-genre is represented as an additional genre that is presented after the films main genre main genre. As for the hybrid genre, it is displayed by the three genres which are all present within Kill Bill to form this type of a genre hybrid. It is important to note that a film can be classified by a certain genre if it possesses a number of aspects prominent to that genre. I am saying this because that is the case with the film Kill Bill, which is at time comedic, dramatic, action packed and/or romantic.

Films such as What Women Want and Avatar are other good examples of films with prominent genres, but not exclusively represented by does genres. The film What Women Want  displays primary aspects of a comedy but is packed with romantic moments and sounds that aid in the forming of its romance sub-genre. Avatar similarly is mainly a sci-fi, but possesses enough characteristics of a thriller to be identified as a sci-fi - thriller.

Conventions of a Thriller

A convention is a way in which something is usually done. Conventions in media pieces define what genres are given to this media pieces. For instance if a film possess the conventions of a typical comedy than its genre is comedy. Of course this means that each genre is set by certain significant conventions. The conventions of a thriller are mainly that a thriller has to create tension and suspense throughout its storyline to capture the attention of the audience. Other conventions of a thriller although still aid in defining a film as a thriller are not necessarily present within every thriller and are most likely purposefully not used in certain films. Anyways the most significant conventions of a thriller are low-key lightning, tension-building music/sounds, quick cuts, shadows, changes in the angles of shots and a protagonist that is at the mercy of the antagonist at some point of the film. If a film possess all of the following characteristics and more it’s main genre is a thriller. That is unless there is another genre even more prominent than that of a thriller within a piece. Additionally if a film possesses only some of the following characteristic its sub-genre can be defined as that of a thriller. And lastly if a film portrays some of the following characteristic more than others, and posses some characteristic of other genres then it can be defined as a thriller with a sub-genre such as psychological, crime or drama.

Preliminary Task - Reflection

Today I, together with a group of classmates, have finished editing the preliminary task. By doing so I have learned how much time editing a media piece can take, and what steps to take in order to shoot a good sequence so as to make editing it simpler. When we shot our preliminary task we captured a number of short shots. This disallowed us from creating a smooth continuity due to do some of the continuity errors created through wrong camera and/or actor movement. For this reason next time when I will be shooting with any group in particular we will capture a wide and mid for the whole sequence as to make sure that there is a shot which the sequence can revert to in case any other transition does not work. Through the creation and edit of the preliminary task I was our group was also able to practice the capturing methods of shot reverse shot and match on action. We did this by filming the sequence from different points of views while capturing certain moments more than one time. This made it easy for us to cut on action, as well as input use the shot reverse shot technique during the conversation between actors, all while editing. Generally I'd say that this task allowed me to improve upon my filming and editing abilities, all while practicing working with a group, which I will have to get used to in preparations for our thriller project.