Thriller Coursework

For my AS Level coursework I have been asked to make the opening scene of a thriller movie. I didn’t really know much about thriller movies before I started media but I have now gained some knowledge about them.

Thriller movies began in 1914 with ‘The Perils of Pauline”. In the late 1930s thrillers became more popular with Alfred Hitchcock making the Point of View Shot. The 1970s then bought a new kind of thriller such as The Godfather. The Thriller of today has added more suspense, chase scenes, special effects and is more high tech making them more interesting and exciting for the audience.

There are 6 main types of thriller movie which are:

Action Thrillers, these often contain a race against the clock where there is an obvious antagonist. There are a lot of guns, explosions and violence. These films often contain elements of crime and mystery films but these take a backseat to the action.

Crime Thrillers, this type of thriller offers a suspenseful account of successful or failed crime. These films focus more on criminals than crime fighters.

Erotic Thriller this type of thriller consists of erotica and thriller where the woman is the antagonist and kills the man. These became popular in the 1980s and the rise of VCR dispersion.

Horror Thriller, The conflict between the characters is mental; and emotional and the main characters will become the victim or victimise everyone else. Often in horror thrillers the woman is objectified. As the final girl remains she is powerless and cannot escape but she soon finds strength and gets out.

Techno Thriller, this type of thriller focuses on technology, which is usually military, and the technology is described in a lot of detail which makes it essential for the viewer to understand the plot.

Psychological Thriller, in this type of thriller the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. This is until the violent resolution at the end of the film. The film Hannibal can be classed as a psychological thriller but it also has aspects of other types of thriller also.

Conventions Of Thriller.

The camera work of a thriller helps to enable the audience feel suspense and know that they are watching a thriller through the use of POV shots and Close ups and also Extreme close-ups. the audience perhaps do not know what is going to happen and a close up can show something important in the shot. The editing of a thriller is also very important. Using cut aways can mean that the audience do not see the main events that are happening and this creates suspense.

Lighting in a thriller is often dark and when there is light it is used to highlight an aspect of the camera shot. this makes thrillers dark films and they can be very disturbing. The sound/music used also has an effect on the way a thriller is perceived. often sound is used and not much dialogue is in the film and this lets the audience figure out how the character is feeling for themselves. the music used is often sudden in places to emphasise an event but it can also be slow moving which helps create suspense for the audience.

I think it will be exciting to make a thriller for my coursework and it will also be a challenge. It is essential that all the right elements are considered depending on which type of thriller movie I decide to make. I may possibly decide to make a crime thriller or perhaps an action thriller as there are a wide variety of possible story-lines and the opening scene can be exciting and engaging for the audience.

The programmes that i will be using to create the opening scene are: Celtx and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I used Celtx to create the script and the storyboard for the opening scene. I had to make a master catalogue to make sure the characters and actors were organised. I then made the storyboard which contained images of each part of a scene and a small description of what is going on in each image.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 to edit the production. After all of our filming had been completed we could edit it. In adobe we used the appropriate parts of what we filmed and put these together to create our final product. We added music and titles in the parts of the scenes that we felt was necessary.