The ForGotten One
Conventions of a Thriller
A thriller usually consists of a battle between the protagonist and the antagonist. Then the story shows a chain of bad events building tension and suspense for the climax. The aim of the protagonist is to restore justice, while the antagonist seeks to destroy it.
Thriller films tend to include low key lighting as well as quick cuts, shadows, music that creates tension, changes in the angle of shots, digetic sound of breathing (which is used quite often within thriller movies). Black and white shots are often used within thriller films and montage shots.
The storyline within the thriller is designed to make the audience think that what's happening to the protagonist can happen to them also. Which creates fear within the audience.
Conventions of a psychological genre
Psychological thriller is a thriller story, which emphasises the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional state. In terms of classification, the category is a subgenre of the border raging thriller category, with similarities to Gothic and detective fiction in the sense of having something having a “dissolving sense of reality”.
Mise-en-scene within a psychological thriller:
Shadows and low key lighting are typical conventions of a psychological thriller. They are used to add tension into a scene.
Mirrors are commonly used within a psychological thriller to portray the use of reflections of a characters inner self as well as their inner 'Dark Side'.
Location is important in majority of the openings we have watched as they are set in modern settings.
Sound within a psychological thriller:
The musical score is very tense, they use this to build up tension in a scene to create shock within an audience.
Camera within a psychological thriller:
Quick camera movement build up within a psychological thriller. They create panic within the scene which enables the audience to feel the same emotions as the character.
Editing within a psychological thriller:
Flashbacks are common in psychological thriller because it shows what has previously happened which gives the audience an insight into the characters past or highlights an inportant message.
Black&White colouring is used to enhance the effectiveness of shadows.
Resarching the conventions of a Thriller as well as a Psychological Thriller has been useful as we are now aware of the conventions used within Mise-en-scene, Camera, Sound and Editing which we can incorporate into our own film , which will reflect to the audience that our film is a Psychological Thriller Short Film. (Renae West)