Research On Codes & Conventions

The General codes and conventions often used in the thriller genre:
• Quick cuts and camera angle changes
• Music that gives tension
• Lighting is dark and shadows are used a lot
• Mirrors and stairs
• Isolated suburban settings, cities or quiet country villages (rural areas)
• Flashbacks
• Jumpy moments
• The plots are scary
• There is usually a damsel in distress – a character at great risk
• Near-death scenes
• Large threatening weapons or props e.g. knives
• Themes are usually based around the fears of society, e.g. being isolated, entrapped, murdered, terrorism and pain

Key films of the thriller genre: Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Funny Games, Taxi Driver, The Game, The Shining, The Manchurian Candidate, The Sixth Sense, Fatal Attraction, Seven


EXAMPLES OF CODES & CONVENTIONS USED IN THESE MOVIES
The films above use a range of codes and conventions mentioned above. One example we can look at is Psycho. The opening of psycho uses a lot of symbolic codes – for example the on screen credits; the typography is broken up and this could connote the idea of mental illness (being a psychopath), the text is broken which suggests it is trying to portray the broken mind of a psycho and the unnatural mental state they have. This uses a convention of thriller movies because it represents a certain theme, in this case, a mental illness – the separation of the letters could also connote being isolated from society and being alienated. Another convention of thrillers that is used in psycho is the music that gives tension throughout the film; an example of this could be the music (technical & symbolic code) heard at the start of the film which is sharp and racy – it proves to effective in setting the mood for the film as it puts the audience at the edge of their seats.
In the sixth sense there is a sense of desolateness in the film. The troubled little boy often wanders around at night by himself in the dark and this creates suspense because the audience is already encouraged to think that something or someone will pop up unexpectedly; a character being deserted often leads to jumpy
moments when something or someone appears and it is a effective and convention used in thrillers to shock the audience.




EVALUATION
Based on previous thriller’s I’ve researched, I can use the knowledge about codes and conventions of thriller movies and the movies I’ve watched to develop ideas for the thriller movie opening I will be doing in the future.
Here are some of my ideas: