Conventions Within Thrillers

There are many conventions within the thriller genre and four of them especially I want to use in our thriller opening.

The first convention is having a complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions. Thrillers tend to use this, mainly to keep the audience questioning what is going on and also to make the viewers try and work out what is happening. This convention can be seen in our thriller through the use of the mysterious letter. The audience never fully see what the letter says in the opening, this will leave them wondering and guessing what the content actually is as at many points the letter is unraveled and they are able to see the reactions of the people that have read it and also even the possible outcome of the letter. They do get to see how they girl got the letter in a flashback but again they never get to see the actual person who gave it to her, they only get to see glimpses of who it was, and know little about the appearance of the man as he never shows his face and wears all dark clothing.

Another convention that will be in our thriller is a crime at the core of the narrative, in most thrillers there is often a murder. The viewers stay hooked as there is usually a crime in the core of the story line and this keeps their attention drawn to the film so they know what has happened and the details about it. In our thriller, there is a crime, it's murder but at the very beginning of our opening we start of with a newspaper page of a girl which says 'missing' on it and a setting with no clear paths as to what happened, the audience may think the dog walker could be the culprit. As the crime is at the core, it isn't usually given away easily and usually investigated into, in our opening it is clear that a murder has happened from the arm of the girl found on the tracks however the audience doesn't know who has done it and why they did it so they will carrying on watching to find out.

Themes of voyeurism is another convention which is apparent in our thriller. This convention is well known within many of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers. It is usually about someone who tends to be oblivious to the fact that they are being spied upon. This is because voyeurism can be defined as, 'To gain pleasure from looking, unbeknown to the subject'. This relates well to the girl who is the victim in our opening is being stalked and doesn't know who the person stalking her is or why they are following her or where they spy on her from.

The last convention which I feel is an important factor within our thriller is mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist's plight. In any film the mise en scene is very important and thrillers are no exception to this as the mise en scene needs to be relevant to the protagonist and their feelings/emotions. For example if the character is feeling sad they should be put in a sad place with dark lighting where as if they were happy they should be in a happy place with soft, bright lighting and happy surroundings. This convention is important in our thriller opening as there are essentially two main settings including the flash back, one full of gloom and the other a happy, safe place. These are the train tracks where the girl character was probably at her lowest mood, and the setting and lighting would recognise this as the scene would be very dark and sad. The other is her room in which she is happily talking away on the internet to her friends with no idea what is about to happen, the room is open, bright and full of colour and happiness. These two settings contrast each other mirroring the contrasts in mood the protagonist has.