Refining Ideas

After analysing some general drama and thriller film openings it was then key to refine our ideas so we were focusing on one aspect of the film world and from then on we could plan for our own film. We took inspiration from the film opening analysis, our favourite directors (Hitchcock and Tarantino) and the camera work we have knowledge on and advanced upon from our preliminary task to come up with a genre to focus on, a thriller. Camera and Sound have a huge impact on representation and creation of ambiance and with a thriller it seems like there are many techniques one could use to create that, from lighting, setting, opening titles. We felt thrillers had the most depth to it compared to any genre and we had some experience in creating drama. 

After establishing the genre we wanted to use in our own film opening was a Thriller we then had to refine our ideas. This was carried out in two ways....

• Background research into Thrillers
• Producing a questionnaire 

Background Research Into Thrillers

Definiton

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, surprise and anxiety.  

History

Over the past 30 years the thriller genre has changed a lot, this may be because of the advanced technology, special effects and our evolving culture. The thriller films that were produced during the 1940's - 1970's were based on peoples actual fears. These films were considered realistic. The modern thrillers have many sub-genre's such as disaster, mystery and crime.

Sub-genre and Hybrids

The thriller genre can include sub-genres and hybrids which may include elements of other genres; for example, crime thriller, mystery thriller and action thriller. 

(Sub-genre = a type of genre within another genre. Hybrid = two types of genres in one)       

Examples of Sub-Genre Thrillers:

Red Riding Hood (1697), an early example of a psycho-stalker fairy tale story

Frenzy (1972), a violent thriller

Dead Calm (1989), a psychological thriller

Taken (2000s), a spy/action thriller 

What does it need to achieve?

A thriller film needs to hook the audience and keep them on edge, building tension and suspense. To heighten the interest of the audience it will hide information and/or identities, such as providing misleading information to make the audience off track and confused.

Characteristics

The suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. The suspense in a story just keeps the person hooked into reading or watching more until the climax is reached.

Some classic themes/characters;

• Ransom
• Kidnapping
• Mind-games
• Death-traps
• Paranoia
• Protagonist, Antagonists, Authority (eg. Police), figure of innocence
• Death, conflict
• Quests, mysteries

Questionnaire

Now that we had some background knowledge on a Thriller we had to refine the genre so we could come up with some of our own ideas. I made a questionnaire on the free website SurveyMonkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/) to gather responses. I asked ten questions, five of which were general thriller questions and the other five would be applicable to our plans.

We received 18 responses for this question. 16.5% of the responses said 'Shutter Island' and another 16.5% for 'Inception'. In terms of directors Hitchcock's films received 11% of the vote, with Rebbecca and Physco. More importantly 71.5% of the films voted involved a plot where women are either killed, abused or threatened. 

From this we can see that the timing is not very relevant to the story according to the audience research. Just under 30 % of the ovtes wouldn't mind if it was present time, flash forward or everyday life. This allows us to have some freedom on what we choose to do. 

Analysis

After receiving feedback from our online questionnaire it was time to incorporate that into one idea. Q1 shows that 71.5% of the film chosen involve a woman being abused or abusive in some way and it would be clever to incorporate that into our own film opening. Q2 shows the majority wanted a physcological or mystery thriller and it should be very dark with a lot black or low key lighting (Q3). Parralel to our research music, with 60% of the votes, and camera work, with 16%, have the most effect on a thriller and rather than focus on the dialogue, if there is any at all, it is more relevant to enhance the visuals. Q7 and Q9 highlight how a successful thriller doesn't give of much information and it should slowly be fed to the audience as the film progresses, therefore holding a sense of supense, 36% of the voters said this is the most appealing factor to a thriller,  and secrecy. Finally Stephen Speilberg was voted as the best thriller director with a landslide 60.87% of the votes and we will look to incorporate some of his ideas.

This audience research works really well for our group. I work in a group where I am the only boy and am working with 3 other girls. One of which has recently moved into a new house with a basement. As seen with Q3 and Q4 and in unison with 'Sixth Sense' basements are perfect for creating atmosphere and we incorporating that into our film intro could make it very successful. In addition with 71.5% of the films being voted in involving women being abused or abusive then it would also make sense to set the thriller opening around a woman being abused in a private building with elements of suprise and suspense. The abuser would be a male, conforming to the sterotype that males are dominant and stronger and women are vulnerable, who would have some sort of physcological issue causing him to act in a certain ways.