Conventions Of Thriller Opening Title SequencesDaniel Bruce

Suspense

• The build up of suspense is often a key convention of a

film classed in the Thriller genre. Take unstoppable for

example, With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train

barrelling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young

conductor race against the clock to prevent a

catastrophe. A nerve-racking pursuit which has the

potential to drive the audience mad with anticipation. A

common way to build suspense is through a ticking clock

or the sense that time is running out scenario, with a few

hundred peoples lives at risk, Unstoppable is certain to

thrill its audience as time begins to run out on a

seemingly hell bound train, which has no plans to stop.

Suspense was a key technique used in our thriller film

when the audience were constantly trying to guess the

ending and whether Jack would be reunited with his son.

Flashbacks and Dream sequences

• Dream Sequences are often found to be quite common in Thriller films, used by directors to take the audience on a journey to take them away from the equilibrium of the film, this technique would put many audience members on the edge, and this conventions very much resembles what the producers want to create. In Inception (2010) a great deal of the storyline and action takes place in dreams, allowing the filmmaker to explore infinite possibilities, such as the ones in the clip i have linked where the entire city is seen to be exploding in front of the pairs very eyes. Dream sequences also allow an array of special effects to be used to intrigue the audience members and possibly introducing disequilibrium. I myself felt that as the director of Ultimatum a dream sequence would be fitting in order to build tension and further engage my audience, giving them an emotional attachment to the film, we used a white flashing screen to show the audience that Jack was experiencing a touching flashback.

Equilibrium and Disequilibrium

• Another convention in Thrillers is that the plot centres around injustice (Disequilibrium) but solves these wrongs thus returning to the Equilibrium. This is the case in the hit film Safe House where A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge. The film thrills the audience via mixing good and evil, mixing an innocent police officer with a notorious criminal. In our opening title sequence Ultimatum, we have Jack who appears at first to be an ordinary man with a decently payed job, however we see him become a highly skilled, professional assassin when the call comes through, putting all he ever cared about on the line, thus causing a disequilibrium that only Jack can resolve.