Thriller - Codes and Conventions

Sound

·        A lot of the time, when a tense moment is happening, there is no music. This means that every diegetic sound is exaggerated so the audience are on the edge of their seat, waiting for something to happen.

·        When there is music playing at a tense moment, the music will normally be ominous, fast paced, and low pitch. This will create feelings of anticipation.  If the antagonist is quickly approaching and music is being used, it’ll normally get louder as the antagonist is approaching quicker.

Mise-en-scene

·        Settings are normally very secluded and in the middle of nowhere. This makes the protagonist looks vulnerable and insignificant. Thrillers are normally set in a location where there isn’t much sun. This creates feelings of anticipation as the darkness suggests something bad is going to happen.

·        A lot of the time, the antagonist has some sort of weapon (e.g. a knife.) This makes them dangerous as the protagonist is normally inferior as they are without a weapon.

·        The expressions of the protagonists are normally concerned or confused. This is done so the viewer feels the same emotions of uncertainty. This adds anticipation, as the audience know something is wrong from the characters facial expressions. The only smiles that normally come from a character are the antagonist. These are normally evil smiles. This will add feelings of fright and will make the viewer wonder why they are smiling in the way that they are.

Editing and Lighting

·        The types of shots that are normally used in thriller movies are long shots and close ups. Long shots are used to make the character, normally the protagonist, look small and vulnerable. This makes the viewer anticipate something bad as the character is easy to attack . Close ups are used to magnify facial expressions. This lets the viewer know what the character is thinking. For example, if the protagonist is scared, the audience will be scared too. Use of close ups also mean that you can’t see what’s going behind or in front of the shot as it is so zoomed in. this gives the audience feelings of uncertainty as they don’t know what’s happening.

·        Fast and slow editing is used to set the pace of the mood. If the editing is quick and lots of things are happening in the shot then feelings of uncertainty build up and the audience is unsure of what is going to happen next. When the editing is slow, it’ll mean that there isn’t much going on. This will feel ominous as the audience will be waiting for something to happen to speed up that pace of the editing. This will overall make the audience feel very anxious.

·        The use of darkness and light is used in almost every thriller. Light means safety, darkness means danger. When I room is lightly lit, it means that everything is okay for the moment that is, when there is a dark shadow in the shot, the antagonist is normally about to pounce. So whenever there is a shadow in a shot, the audience will normally feel anxious as they know something bad is about to happen. If an entire room is dark it means that the antagonist is able to move around freely without being seen. This adds anticipation as the audience know that the antagonist is about to injure or indeed kill the protagonist.

Enigma codes

·        At the start of most thrillers there will normally be some feeling of balance or equilibrium. This makes the audience unassuming so that when the unbalancing event occurs it is even more of a shock.

·        Sometimes the audience sees things that the protagonist doesn’t. For example, if the antagonist is right behind the protagonist, the audience will see it but the victim wont. This gives audience more of an insight into what’s going on. This adds anticipation.