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Evaluation Question 1

“In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?”

The primary aim of a Thriller film is to create tension, excitement and suspense for the audience

Films are often set in urban or suburban areas, utilising the environmental aspects such as streets and quiet buildings

The narrative usually revolves around a mystery or puzzle that requires solving

The hero is usually the only person able to solve the problem

They are usually a secretive person, and are likely to be an outsider

Violence is usually a very central theme

It often reveals the workings of particular powerful institutions such as the police, the army or the government

Social injustice may also be a theme, and it will be solved

Most of the time, there will be a rational, rather than a supernatural, explanation of the mystery

Conventions of the Thriller Genre

We used music and varied paced editing, as well as parallel editing and ambiguity, to create tension effectively

Our opening was set by a river, partially on a road and partially in bushes. Although this isn’t a very urban area, it worked well for what we needed it for as it was very secluded and gave us lots of varied areas to use. Also, as all the characters were in smart clothes, it suggests that the film will move to a more urban location later on

The briefcase provides part of the mystery; why was the agent unconscious on the ground next to it, and what did he see inside it that made him run? There are also a number of other questions too: Who was the girl? Why

was she shot? Why is the antagonist after the agent?

As an agent, the protagonist (the one with the briefcase) would likely be very secretive, and keep himself apart from other people, as is seen in many other thrillers, such as North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock

How our film uses these conventions

We included violence in the form of the female agent being shot. Although the actual shooting is not shown, the gunshot and body still appear and the implications of the violence are clear

The government are implied to be involved due to the fact that the characters are all agents. As one of the agents is the antagonist, it is inferred that there are two opposing organisations involved

No social injustice is depicted in our film because it is just the opening, and therefore there was no opportunity or need to go into detail about the plot of the rest of the film

As the film appears to be about two rival agent organisations, it is highly likely that nothing supernatural would be to blame for any conflicts or problems, and one of the organisations, probably the one that the antagonist works for, is behind it instead

How our film uses these conventions

There are many sub-genres of the Thriller genre, including:

Crime

Disaster

Mystery

Spy

Psychological

Sub-genre

Political

Religious

Supernatural

Sci-Fi

Conspiracy

Looking at the conventions that are in our film, especially the presence of agents and some kind of important or desired item (in the briefcase), our film seems to fit best within the spy sub-genre

The spy-thriller genre usually encompasses films in which the protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists.

The subgenre usually deals with the subject of fictional espionage in a realistic way. Many films are set in the British Secret Service. The spy film usually fuses the action and science fiction genres, however, some spy films fall safely in the action genre rather than thriller (i.e. James Bond), especially those having frequent shootouts, car chases etc.

Sub-genre

For research, we looked at the openings to:

The Dark Knight Rises

Taxi Driver

Se7en

http://marysasthrillerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/real-thriller-films-opening-analysis.html

Originally, we wanted to do something similar to the Se7enopening, but we couldn’t come up with an idea that fitted the genre and also would be long enough for us to fill a 2-3 minute video

Eventually, our final film wasn’t particularly influenced by any real openings that we looked at, although the idea for the story may have subconsciously come from other Thrillers such as the Bourne films, Knight and Day, The American and Salt

Comparisons to real openings

Comparisons to real Thrillers

The scene where the femaleagent is running mirrors thepart in Salt where AngelinaJolie is running away from enemy agents who are tryingto capture and kill her

This shot of Agent Smith in The Matrix is very similar (accidently) to the shot of the antagonist looking at his pocket watch. Not only are they both in suits and sunglasses, but where they are standing in the frame is also similar, as is the fact that they are both checking something (Dan’s pocket watch and Agent Smith’s earpiece