Thrillers are well known in the world of film for particular distinguishing attributes that set them apart from, say, a romantic comedy. For example the typical aspects of mis-en-scene usually follow these rules: lighting is low key, utilising greens, blues and greys to create a grim, bleak atmosphere (a good example being ‘The Matrix'
shadows are often used as they can communicate a feeling of intimidation or threat to the audience.Our thriller opening was set at night – immediately limiting the amount of light we had to film with. We tried to make the lights inside the house slightly dimmer than they normally would have been to keep with the conventions of thriller – using a filter over the redhead and picking which lights to turn on very carefully. We chose not to use any coloured gels (e.g. blue or red) as we felt these were not appropriate to the scene taking place and would only detract from the realism of our piece. Our class evaluation mostly stated that the lighting was ‘effective’ and ‘relevant’ although a little dark in some places.
The sound accompanying the action in a film can hugely affect the atmosphere and immediately alter the genre under which something falls. With diegetic sounds the main conventions are that dialogue is spoken clearly so the audience can follow the story but typically the male characters will have quite deep, intense voices. Louder noises (e.g. explosions, gun shots, screams) will usually be emphasised to create as much effect as possible in order to shock. Diegetic music if used will normally be of a popular song so that the audience can relate to the character (e.g. in ‘I Am Legend’ the protagonist often sings and plays a well-known Bob Marley song. Although this is not a traditional thriller-esque piece of music, it adds a sense of familiarity and involvement for the audience and when put against the zombie backdrop becomes quite chilling). As for non-diegetic sound, thrillers are synonymous with mostly orchestral music – ranging from the screeching, sudden and sharp sounds created by a violin in ‘Psycho’ to much more resounding, beautiful drawn-out chords that can provide an appropriate backdrop for a more sad moment. In scenes of pure action, however, it is more likely to hear computer-generated music with a combination of a lot of different instruments (almost always involving a drumbeat throughout to build tension).
In our piece, we have put a lot of emphasis on non-diegetc sound, with the background noises hardly noticeable through the music over the top. We did this to demonstrate how the antagonist would be feeling at this point – barely aware of other things going on around him as he struggles to do what he needs to do in what he knows is a limited time (we didn’t take the sounds out completely though because we still wanted it to be realistic). The music we used was done by a friend of my family who creates soundtrack music in his spare time. It wasn’t made specifically for our opening, yet we felt it fit the atmosphere perfectly; our class seemed to agree, giving very positive comments such as ‘music really worked’, ‘kept atmosphere going’. It is fast-paced, starting slower and building throughout gaining more musical motifs as a counterpart to the original melody. The instrument used is a keyboard (one with the ability to cheat a lot of other instruments’ sounds) and the music sounds quite modern. We chose to start it on the second shot as this is when he first enters the house and when the real action begins; it decreases in volume when the girl comes home to show that the man needs to be quieter, but then slowly builds back up towards the end. When the title of the film comes up the music changes to signify the end of the opening sequence, and to add interest to the title.
Speaking of titles, they too are something to take into consideration when creating the opening to a film dependant on the genre. There are a variety of different ways to present the title/credits to be thought about. For example, they can be completely separate from the opening, - either on a simple black screen or set against their own mini narrative which is related to the main story in some way. An excellent thriller example of this is in ‘Se7en’, (youtube clip 1). This is a useful device for filmmakers as it sets up the atmosphere for and gives you a feel for the rest of the film, even though it’s not always directly related. It also works well if you have a lot of credits to fit in so that the audience’s interest is sustained. Another interesting way of presenting credits is to incorporate them into the mis-en-scene (perhaps on books, written on walls etc.) this can be seen here, taken from the film ‘The Matrix' (youtube clip 2). This is less commonly seen in thrillers as it can be quite comedic, though if done well can be highly effective also.
We chose to put our credits layered over our opening as we didn’t want to interrupt the action. They are quite small and in the corner of the frame so as not to distract from what is happening, we also chose which shot to put each name on carefully so as not to ruin a really interesting or important parts of the opening.
Our title comes at the end of our sequence and is set out as having one word on each slide separated by shots we filmed of a clock (relating to the title – ‘No Time For Goodbye’). These shots are very quick and only give the viewers just enough time to take in what the slides say before cutting to the next (to sustain the tension). The font is fairly ordinary and coloured white on a black background as we didn’t want to seem to cliché by using a traditionally thriller-esqe font or the colour red but still wanted it to stand out.
The text itself jolts slightly and moves (we took the basis of this idea from ‘Se7en’) as we thought that was more intriguing and appropriate than a static, straight-forward title. The comments we got for the titles were along the lines of ‘cool and different’, ‘appropriate to piece’; although some people said they didn’t notice the credits. Had we had longer for the whole opening (say 5 minutes rather than 2), we would have definitely considered putting the credits and title in their own narrative as this may have improved the atmosphere. However, with that there would have been danger of trying to over-do it and making it look too complicated which would given less time for editing our actual footage (which is more important to us).
Costume and makeup can also be extremely important in creating effective characters with a possible need for realistic injuries or diseases etc. As with most genres, in thriller films the costume of a particular character can tell the viewers a lot about them – perhaps using darker colour for the antagonists and brighter, less threatening colours for the protagonists.
Not only this but the appearance is the soul thing upon which most people first judgements are made. This is utilised in the film world by shaping viewers’ perceptions through their style: do they look rich/poor clean/untidy trustworthy/deceptive. This can be particularly useful in thrillers that involve some sort of twist (as is common). For example, in ‘The Others’ the protagonist appears to be a perfectly innocent woman – she is attractive, dressed in reasonably smart clothes and is always looking washed, neatly and respectable. Stereotypically this suggests she can be trusted an so, as viewers, we have been lead to believe she is the victim of the scenario; however, at the end it is revealed she is to blame for the death of her children – completely flipping our perceptions around.
The costume for our protagonist stuck to the traditional conventions in that she wore a red dress – this both signified the fact that she had just been to a party (hence the drunken state) and, on a deeper level, that she was in potential danger. Moreover, the bright colour hints that she is the ‘good’ character. The antagonist on the other hand wore darker clothes and had a covered face (adding a sense of
mystery) – this was both for the purpose that he was committing a criminal act and needed to stay unknown, but also because this character will return later in the film, but the audience aren’t supposed to know it’s him until the end – therefore, he needs to be disguised.
Another important aspect of all film is the performance elements. The reason this may be particularly relevant to the thriller genre is because the audience need to become involved enough in the story to care what happens and form an emotional attachment – wanting the protagonist to succeed at the end. The antagonists have to be believable, threatening and in most cases frightening for a story to be successful enough to sell to today’s market. This believability is strongly liked with special affects and stunts, which are becoming increasingly popular due to society being more and more difficult to shock (something which is often very appropriate for thrillers). These kinds of cinematic techniques are usually seen in action thrillers, and they add a pace and thrill to a story that could otherwise be considered boring.
Obviously our budget for the opening was limited (non-existent, in fact) so creating realistic special effects would have been a lot harder and would have most likely ended up looking cheesy and fake. For this reason, our group chose a storyline that
wouldn’t involve a need for fancy tricks and instead communicated meaning through types of shots and mis-en-scene. Also by using no dialogue and mostly short shots we managed to limit the skill needed for acting down so that it wouldn’t affect the quality of our opening too much. However, the only affect we added to our shots was to make it clear that the protagonist is drunk when she comes home; almost every evaluation sheet filled in by our class commented on this effect, saying it was ‘good’ or ‘clever’.
Keeping the viewers interested in the film is possibly the most important thing to consider when creating a thriller. This can be done by giving the audience just the right amount of information – giving too much away will make the conclusion predictable, yet making the story too difficult to follow will automatically bore the majority of the public. Therefore, a choice between restricted and unrestricted narration is a key thing to consider; the more popular in thriller convention terms being restricted. This means that the viewers are only allowed to know the same amount as the main character(s) making you both identify with them more and be less likely to expect a twist in the plot. A good example of restricted narration is ‘Memento’, in which the protagonist experiences severe memory loss. The film has been edited in such a way that the viewers only see the parts of the action as he remembers them – switching between the chronological beginning of the story and the end, working towards the middle where the resolution takes place. This film is also an excellent example of enigma code – the way a story creates questions throughout the film (but particularly in the opening) to be answered later in the film; this is possibly the most important technique in sustaining viewers’ interest. Here is the opening sequence to ‘Memento’ (youtube clip 3).
In the first minute (or so) clear questions have been established: Who is the man holding the Polaroid? Why is the photo significant? Whose blood is on the walls and why? Who is the man on the floor? Why is everything moving in reverse? Etc. It’s such a shocking opening that you are immediately drawn into the story.
In our opening, therefore, we have raised enigma code by having no dialogue to explain what is happening (as it wasn’t needed). Also, the viewers ask questions such as: Who is the man breaking in and why? Why is he putting clothes in the bag – if he was just stealing things why would he choose things of such little value? Where did he hide when the girl came home? What’s their connection to each other? What happened after she left the room? Our aim was to leave these questions open to be resolved later (although we aren’t making the rest of the film). In our evaluation from the class this seemed to be the weakest point, however, as most people seemed unsure about where the storyline would go or how the film would continue: ‘plot a bit unclear’, ‘would have needed more after when it ended to make sense’. Evidently we have perhaps over used enigma code and it would have been better to wrap some things up more clearly before the end of our section.
Iconography is a very useful tool for making the genre of film clear. The kinds of iconography that have become synonymous with the thrillers are things such as guns, blood, knives, shadows, streetlamps, bars on windows, confined spaces, running water, covered faces etc. all of which aim to create a mysterious atmosphere or shock in some way. In our product we didn’t want to be cheesy by the antagonist having a gun just for the sake of it or using blood and violence where it wasn’t necessary; but we did stick to this iconography with the lack of light and enigma surrounding the man. One of my favourite shots is the one in the sequence of ‘door-opening’ shots, where he opens the bathroom door and we had angles the camera to film only his reflection in the door of the shower as this adds quite an eerie twist to what could have been a fairly simple and boring shot.
Lastly the setting of thrillers can vary widely depending on the story, but they tend to involve dark places, woods, police stations, crime scenes or threatening environments. However as the opening of the film was merely to set up the narrative we did not involve these sorts of places in our product. Moreover, we wanted to put across the point that sometimes your own home is not a safe place to be, and that is possibly more unsettling than any other kind of setting. This was recognised by our class, most comments using the word ‘appropriate’.
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