Researching the conventions and codes of thrillers

By Sydney Giddings

Codes and conventions include:

• Fast pased editing and quick cuts- going from one scene to another

• The colours black and white- grey scenes • Mirrors and stairs- showing reflection or for the stairs

showing where they are heading.• Protagonist and antagonist- a good guy and a bad guy• False ending- when it originally ends then something

else happens, maybe the beginning of a sequel.• Tilting- when the camera follows a person either from

toe to head or head to toe.

The silence of the LambsIn this scene:We see that the camera shot they have used is a point of view from the killer, so we are seeing what they are seeing. The colours they have used is green, which goes off of the convention of thriller, but it still adds to the tension as on screen we see it like we are looking through night vision goggles.We also see the hand, which adds to tension as it makes the audience think about what is he going to do, also gives us the sense of knowledge as we are the only ones who knows that the killer is behind her and she is clueless about it. We also faintly see the gun that she is holding in her hand, so it is a flip from the original conventions of the killer looking for them, but instead it is the good guy hunting down the killer.

The plot:When a young girl goes missing, F.B.I agent Clarice Starlin (played by Jodie Foster) must find her, before she gets killed by a psychopathic killer called Buffalo Bill, but in order to get into the twisted mind of a killer, she must seek answers from another psychopathic killer, Dr Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins) . Dr Lecter is a manipulating, cannibalistic killer. But in order to get the answers, she must gain trust with the killer, will she be able to trust him to give her the correct answers?.

In this scene:The camera shot used here Is a long shot, as we can see the setting of the scene, which is a prison. This gives the affect that Dr Lecter is a serious killer as within this long shot we can see that already Hannibal is different from the rest as his cell is clearly at the end, as we can see the chair outside of his cell, and his cell is the only cell that does not have any shadow coming out of it. This creates the tension of thinking what are we expecting?, what will he look like?We see the colours here are dark, apart from the lighting along the hall way, and outside of Hannibal's cell, over looking the chair, which creates shadow, this also creates tension as we now know that the prison is not a nice place to be in.We also see the stairs in the background behind the chair, this is a classic convention in a thriller as this makes the audience think what is up there, and the shadow which is created from the light makes the stairs look creepy adding the prison.

The other camera shot being used here is a point of view shot, in this scene we are looking at this through clarice’s eyes as she turns to walk to the chair. This gives the audience the illusion that they are there, which makes them feel more tense and scared, like how the character is feeling at this point.

In this scene:The camera shot used here is a close up of Clarice, as we can see her emotion which in this case is looking scared as we can clearly see her eyes are focused on Hannibal.But we can also see Hannibal’s emotion as well as we can see his reflection in the glass, this lets the audience know how both of them are feeling at all times, but this creates the convention of thriller as they use this reflection to show that this character is not to be played with as we are more focused on the character who is worried.In this scene we can see the contrast in colours, as in the background it is dark, as then you get the characters which stand out, this lets us see their faces clearly so the audience knows what they need to look at.

The OthersIn this scene we are seeing nothing behind her as there is a fog, this is a convention of thriller because it gives the audience the sense that something could be behind her and that it is not that safe where she is. Also it gives the audience a sense of confusion as when we think of fog, we think of loosing a sense of direction, which if you look at the characters facial expression, she looks confused and lost.Another thing is the black and white, while we are not seeing a lot of white, we are seeing that she is wearing black and the background is grey, this is a convention because it emphasises the danger of her surroundings.

Here we are seeing the two conventions of the use of stairs and the use of black and white.We are seeing stairs as a typical convention as this could suggest the safety or the danger they are walking into, But in this case this character is walking down the stairs and we can not see her face, only a silhouette of this character, this could indicate that she is a antagonist.The use of black and white; we see that at the bottom of the stairs are dark and you cannot see around you, but at the top of the stairs we can see that it is lighter, and the window, we can just see that it is still foggy, but it is still bight which suggests to the audience that at the top of the stairs it is safer to be.