The forms and conventions of a thriller typically include:
Music: Usually tense, starting off slow and then quickening the pace to become dramatic at the climax of the shot. Or the music will take on an opposite tone, of a lively, or even happy mood, whilst the shot is of people being murdered or something– however this usually happens in a more original, edgy or independent film.
- Mystery: There will most probably be an enigma present which will run throughout the thriller film, and it will be answered right at the end, and usually by the antagonist (Serial Killer?) or by the detective (protagonist) which has been clever enough to work out the plot.
- Pace: The pace is quick when action is taking pace, but slower when protagonists are trying to work out what to do, the end scene is open to much interpretation though.
- Mise-en-scene: Cities, where lots of action happens, there is culture and diversity, and a high population. Making the place where the crime happens a ‘normal’ place where the audience themselves are likely to live, so they can relate. Costumes yet again usually represent the ‘casual’ clothes of people, travelling to work, walking in the park, the antagonists is likely to fit in with the rest of the people around him, to he is indistinguishable. The protagonist also, will be either an everyday person who has been thrown into the story unwillingly, or an agent, so the costumes are standard. Props are nearly always used in Thriller films, they could come in the form of clues, murder weapons or guns used by the agents.
- Themes: Isolation, vulnerability, loneliness, betrayal, revenge, love/passion, jealousy, troubled childhood, outcast, obsession...
- Gender: Stereotypically a male character plays the main antagonist maybe with an entourage or on his own. The protagonists are usually a mixture of male and female characters.
- Characters: The antagonist is usually intelligent and scheming and there is usually a relationship between the protagonists too, like a partnership between two agents.
After researching music of the forms and conventions of a thriller we decided to use some of the elements that it contains. For example the tense music used in most thriller title opening sequence. We decided to use this element but however we developed it by playing two tense music at once over lapping each other. We were cautious as we thought it wouldn’t work but thankfully it worked perfectly, this was a challenge that we had and we overcome by finding ways of editing it for it to fit.
A thriller is usually faced paced and tends to have a mystery, we looked at many title opening sequence which have these elements such as se7en:
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We looked at these elements and decided to use it in our title opening sequence "Grimaldi". However it was not a matter of copying it, we develop it by changing the character from your typical male to a female, and bringing a toy to the picture.
Mystery is one of the main forms and conventions of a thriller and it sometimes in films contains a serial killer or a psycho path. in this case of the dark night, it’s the joker. We as a group wanted to implements a similar but not identical mystery sort of character, so as a result we thought of "Grimaldi" who is a clown toy with a mystery. It is clear it’s a similar idea but we developed this and added a toy into the equation to create more mystery and drama.
