Coursework - Thriller Genre Research

Thriller genre

Thriller uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewers moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast paced.

A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. It keeps the audience on “the edge of their seats”.

Thrillers often make use of literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists and cliffhangers. A thriller is usually a villain driven plot which presents various problems a protagonist must overcome.

Psychological thrillers are fictional thriller storys which enphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states, with similarities to gothic and detective fiction in sense of “dissolving sense of reality”, moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters.

Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama and horror.

Examples: The Machinist, House of 9, Straw Dogs, Shutter Island.

Supernatural thrillers bring in otherworldly elements(such as fantasy and/or supernatural) mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists. Sometime the protagonist and/or villain have some form of psychic ability or super powers. Examples: The Dead Zone, Chronicle, Frequency.

Techno Thrillers are suspense films in which manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples: Jurassic Park

Spy Thriller: The protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. The sub genre usually deals with the subject of fictional espionage in a realistic way. Its is a significant aspect of British cinema.

Examples: The parallax View, The Tailor of Panama, Taken, Unknown.

Comedy Thrillers: The normal aspects of thrillers are exaggerated and used in ironic ways to create humour rather than the usual effect of scaring the audience. This sub-genre uses the similair devices, but will often reverse the negative effects and replace it with something which will again create humour.

Camera Angles Research

Camera Angles

Throughout visual media, different camera angles have been used to create various effects.

Close-Up: A shot which shows shoulders and above of a person, allows the emotions of the face to be exaggerated and made clearer

Extreme Close-Up: A shot which shows either just the head, or a part of the head. Used to dramatically increase the effect of the facial expression and the emotions within.

Mid-Shot: A shot which shows the people from the waist up. Shows the body language and reactions of the characters in the shot. Allows greater effects from a conversation.

Long-Shot: A shot which shows the entire body of the people, allows groups of people to be shown, can be used to represent isolation when person is separated from a group of people in the same shot.

Aerial Shot: A view from where the camera is set up directly overhead the focus to ensure a clear view

Canted Angle: A shot in which the camera is set up tilted to one side, this angle is often used to present disorientation.

Crab Shot: A type of shot which involves the camera being placed into a confined space, for example, if a camera is place inside a container as the person opens it.

Deep Focus: A camera technique which allows objects which are both near and far be in focus simultaneously.

Establishing Shot: The shot which is used at the beginning of a scene, this is mainly used to establish the setting of the scene.

Hand-Held Shot: A shot filmed whilst the camera is held within the camera man's hand, opposed to some form of tripod. This is often used to make the shot seem shaky, which creates useful effects for making the scene seem realistic to the audience.

Head-On Shot: This is when the action comes directly towards the camera, rather than the camera following the action. This is often made use of with action movies or war films in order to give the audience a sense of involvement.

High Angle: This is when the subject of the camera is looked down upon via the camera, by having the camera held higher and angled down towards the subject. This is often used to make the subject seem small and insignificant.

Low-Angle Shot: This is when the subject of the camera is looked up to via the camera, by having the camera held lower and angled up towards the subject. This creates the idea of superiority which the subject posses.

Master Shot: A camera shot used at the beginning of a sequence to establish key component elements and relationships found within, and allow them to be able to make sense of them.

Pan: The camera is carefully and gently moving across a 180° Angle across the subject on a horizontal axis.

Point of View Shot(POV): A camera shot taken from the position of the subject in an attempt to create a sense of involvement and realism with the audience.

Pull Focus: This refers to a shot where one object was on focus, which is followed by another object becoming in focus. This is often used to present a shift in importance.

Rule of Thirds: This a common technique used in both photography and filming. They include the use of a 3x3 grid in hopes of dividing up the frames and finding which area of the frame will objects look best in.

Shallow Focus: This refers to a shot where an object in the foreground has been focused on, whilst the rest of the frame in the background has been blurred. This is often used to show the importance of an object/ character.

Soft Focus: This refers to a special blur in which a special lens or filter is used to create a hazy light around the subject(s). This is often used in romantic scenes within films.

Tight Frame: This refers to a shot in which the person or object within the frame, is given little to no free space within the frame.

Loose Frame: This refers to a shot in which the person or object within the frame, has lots of empty space around it, presenting the idea of solitude and isolation.

Tilt: A camera movement in which the camera is set in a fixed position, with the ability to move the angle vertically up and down.

Tracking Shot: A camera shot in which the camera moves along axis to follow the subject. This is normally done using a set of rails surrounding the subject in which a portable camera tripod is used.

Whip Pan: This refers to a very fast pan between two or more characters or points of interest.

Wide Shot: This can be used as an establishing shot or a shot to show the location. A good use of this is showing the size of a crowd or setting.

Zoom/ Reverse Zoom: By using the zoom function on a camera, the lens can be used to adjust how close or far the subject appears to the camera.

180° Rule: This is the rule of which during a scene, the camera must stay within the one side of the 180° Line, this line is an imaginary line which is used to add a sense of realism to the camera work, allowing it to let people get comfortable with the positioning.

Breaking the 180° Rule: This is when the decision is made to break the previously mention 180° Rule in an attempt to confuse and disorientate the audience.

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Throughout the time of media, theories have been made about narrative, explaining what they thought was the cause of how the narrative was made. The theories we have learnt about are:

-  Roland Barthes: Barthes theory is based around five codes which he decided, these codes are:

   -Action

   -Enigma

   -Semic

   -Symbolic

   -Cultural

These codes have different meanings to each audience, and it means the way things are represented depends on the audiences views and their interpretations.

- Vladamir Prop: Prop's theory said that characters each had their own narrative function, which then created the structure for the narrative. He based his theory on folk tales and fairy tales and how they where the ones who 'created' the story. He thought that it was the variation in characters which made the narrative structure what it was.

- Tzvetan Todarov: His theory suggests that narrative starts with an equilibrium, followed by a disaster, followed by a conflict, which then results in a new equilibrium, where its either back to how it was, or resolved for a better world.

- Claude Levi-Strauss: Claude's theory was that its the constant creation of conflict/opposition which carried along the the narrative. He thought that narrative could only end once the story's conflict as has been resolved. Claude believed that there was always an opposition found within films, for example, when theres love that has to be hate, wheres theres good, there must be evil and so on. These are all examples of binary opposites.

Audience Theory + The effects model

Audience Theory

All media is created to a set of conventions, which are specified for the intended audience. The differences which can make the different audience groups are:
- Age
- Gender
- Class
- Disabilities
- Race/Cultural Origins/ Ethnicity
- Interests

From audience theory, three main theories have been made around the principles of this, they are:
- The Effects Model/ Hypodermic Syringe
- The uses and Gratifications model
- The Reception Model

There is three ways which are theorised ways that the audiences consume media, these are:
- Primary/ Active Audiences: The audience is paying full attention to the media, and consuming all that it offers
- Secondary: The audience isn't focused solely on the media and will often be performing another activity whilst paying some attention to the media.
- Tertiary: The Audience is consuming the media sub-consciously, without paying any real attention to the media source.


The Effects Model

The effects model is a media theory developed in the idea of how media is consumed. There are three concepts related to this model.

Imitation: The idea that the consumers of the media are passively taking in ideals and copying them within real life.

Desensitisation: The audience is become more used to things they may have previously been seen as completely inappropriate and becoming a more normal scenario.

Catharsis: The audience is using the media as a way of escaping their own lives, to make themselves feel better about life by seeing something which they consider worse than their current scenario.

Research: HollyWood Classicism

Hollywood films have a theme of classicism throughout several Hollywood movies. These movies contain each contain their own codes and conventions, which are not set to a single genre.

- Five Determinates of Narrative Structure
1) One or two Protagonists
2) Desire catalyses story
3) Antagonist
4) Cause and chain effect:
     - A causes B
     - B causes C
     - C causes D
     - Closure
     - Narrative is a result of code and formalisation of Hollywood film

What is the purpose of Censorship?

The purpose of censorship, is making sure the media doesn't offend any people or groups that may view the media. Another purpose of censorship is to preserve the 'status quo', by restricting what can be displayed through media and keeping control of media developments within society.

Examples of Censorship:

Hays Code

The Hays code (The Motion Picture Production Code), was made in 1930.
The code is based around the idea that "If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind". The code was made to prevent people using the media to effect the public and prevent any possible harm that could come from abusing the media.

There are 3 main principles that the Hays Code follows:
1) No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2) Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.

3) Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

Music Video Censorship

With music videos there are also set guide lines which must be followed when creating music videos. Although different distributors of music videos have different guidelines, there are still some common ones among them. One example is shown in the actual music itself. To make it suitable for as many people as possible, if the music involves swears, the swears will be removed either by bleeping it out or by cutting the sound for the duration of the sound. Another example of whats censored during music videos is sexual imagery. Majority of the distributors won't allow nudity within the video, or strong sexual imagery or references.

Watershed

The watershed is the term used for TV media which is displayed after a set time. This is a form of censorship as it was made so that younger members of a TV audience won't see something which isn't suitable for them, however it would be suitable for an older member of the audience. An example if this is a long running TV show known as 'My Family'. The show started out as a family friendly show, which younger members of an audience could watch, It's old air time was before the WaterShed time (9PM). However as the characters of the show the topics and subjects talked about within the show got more mature. This meant it became less suitable for the younger members and was moved into a watershed time spot.

How far do you agree with the comment that mass audiences are still passive recipients of media texts?

From what I have learned in lesson, I have found that this sounds like a very plausible and strong theory. One reason I believe this is that peoples opinions seemed to be based of what media is taken in. For example, someone brought up in an area were people are constantly against a topic, when brought up in an area that they may not oppose it, the person may still say they are against it. Another example, is what people think is attractive. This can be affected by gender and other factors, however during class when we talked about whether we thought that a female cover model was being represented as positive or negative. While males said they viewed the model as positive due to her being attractive, some of the females thought that she was being represented negatively, as if she were an object rather than a person. These different thoughts and opinions could have been brought out by what they personnally thought, however there is constantly claims similar to these opinions found throughout the media, which the class may have taken in passively, which would also again show the affect that passive media can have on a person, without them ever realising.