Thursday, 24 March 2016

Thriller Poster


I originally started this assignment with the idea of researching and creating a poster based on the horror genre. However, after much research on this and other genres, I decided to base my work on the thriller genre. I felt there was much more information and more successful films/ directors and actors that work within this genre.

About the Genre
Thriller uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewers mood giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. 

Thriller in Film
As online streaming sites and films are becoming more readily available, there has been a large number of thrillers in the last few years with the introduction of Netflix, Amazon Video etc. 

Audience
Thriller films usually have a huge amount of interest although the target audience is mainly 18+ or R rated due to violence and psychological issues that may be portrayed which younger viewers may find rather disturbing. 

Iconography
The iconography of thriller often includes some form of weapons such as guns, knives etc. Knives are often used to suggests the ideaof danger and murder to the audience. There are lots of similarities between thriller and horror. One of the most iconic scenes which uses knives is the shower scene in ‘Psycho’. Also, confined spaces are often used to scare the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. An example of this was shown in 127 hours. Shadows are common in psychological thrillers as they show a sense of danger and makes the audience anticipate what is going to come next. Guns are also used as a common weapon which helps to add a sense of realism to the film.
There is also a lot of dramatic music and breathing sounds used to create tension and have the audience on the edge of their seat. 


Directors Associated with the genre
There are many directors associated with thriller films such as Martin Scorsese who is considered one of the greatest directors of all time. He has made a large number of thriller films such as The Departed, Shutter Island, Cape Fear along with many others. He won Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed. He directed his first full length film in 1967 and thriller films are considered to be some of his best work.
Another director that is well known for producing thriller films is David Fincher with films such as Se7en, Gone Girl, Zodiac with many more.
Also, Quentin Tarantinho is famous for movies such as Kill Bill and True Romance.



Filming Techniques
Thrillers usually feature the same elements as a horror. For example, there is often low key lighting and quick cuts used to build tension. There are also lots of montages of shot. Also, there are lots of high angle/ birds eye shots to make the figure or object looked down upon seem vulnerable and powerless. Thrillers are often shot to make the audience know just enough about the story but not enough to guess it to keep the suspense up throughout the whole film.


Setting
The typical setting for the thriller genre is often an urban city in order to make it seem as realistic as possible. It can however be set in almost anywhere. Psychological thrillers may be set in a hospital where a character is based. It will usually be dark or set of a night.


Stars
Stars such as Leonardo Di Caprio could be linked with thriller films based on his roles in The Departed, Shutter Island, Blood Diamond and many more. As we can see, he regularly stars in Martin Scorsese’s thrillers. Also, Ben Afleck is known for his roles in Gone Girl, Argo and The Town to name a few. Gary Oldman is also renowned for staring in films such as Leon; The Professional, The Contender etc. Also, Kevin Spacey is known for his roles in Seven, The Usual Suspects and A Time to Kill.

Narrative
Thrillers are often based around the genre of crime although there can be sub genre’s as you can have thriller\horror and thriller\action. Thrillers narrative is very reserved so there is not much information given out. There is an equilibrium and then the equilibrium is disrupted and then restored again.
Thrillers like to keep the audience guessing on what will happen next and it has twists and turns. There is often questions that will be unanswered until the end of the film or a false clue to throw the audience off track. 

Feedback
The feedback I felt I received during this assignment was overall positive and I was able to get new ideas from it before the final submission date. However, I felt I could have done better to get a higher grade and feel that the mark given was fair. 
I agree that the statement I made about the target audience being mainly 18+ was quite bold and it really does limit studios as they have not got much of a wider audience. There are lots of examples of 15 rated thrillers or even 12A rated thrillers  I could have used. For example, Shutter Island and Prisoners. Also, I really could have added much more images so it wasn't predominately text based and broke it up a bit. 

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