BTEC Creative Digital Media Production
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What makes a thriller... a thriller?
- Suspensful music
- Climax
- high tension storyline
- anticipation
- Jump cuts
- low level lighting
- absence of blood/gore
- anxiety feelings
- killings, but not focused
- supernatural slightly off
- engrossing
- surprises
Along Came a Spider
analysis
Produced by Paramount
In association with Revelations Entertainment
Whilst the institutional details come in, the words come in as if they were a spider falling down from a web.
The sound seems quite poor connection as if it was a phone callwhilst multiple colours flashing through.
Opens with a body cam looking up at a man driving a car, this is being shown on a low quality screen.
Revealed soon that the body cam is on a lady and the man is in fact a criminal
Thriller Trailers
analysis
This was made to help us visualise and practice going in depth within the thriller genre, by using common conventions, such as certain camera angles along with editing techniques.
Action Thriller conventions
- Explosions - weapons, guns, machine guns, rocket launches
- Mainly male protagonists, female protagonists often sexualised
- Chase sequences, high action content, cars, helicopters
- Some form of love interest
- Antagonists, male often powerful
- Exotic locations, film will span across vast places
- Locations will be uninhabitable, seculded, desert or mountains
- Protagonists, secret agents/spys or retired solo agents
- Fight sequences
Action Thriller - Kill Bill
Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a The Bride is a female assassin, a trained killer who has been betrayed by The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad led by her former boss Bill who gunned her down at her wedding leaving her for dead. The Bride awakes four years later and she sets out to begin her quest for vengeance.
Disaster Thriller conventions
- Globally impacted, everyone at risk
- Antagonist is the natural disaster, a disease, earthquake, tsunami, meteor
- Protagonist, solo, group of friends/family
- Isolation still a theme, but focusing on unity and coming together
Disaster Thriller - Don't Look Up
Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth, struggling to do so due to society simply dismissing it
Crime Thriller conventions
- Violent Scenes
- Guns and Weapons
- Low level lightings
- Investigations ---> Mystery
- Timed challenges
Crime Thriller - Ocean's 8
In this film, Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City's yearly Met Gala. Following her release from prison, Debbie Ocean, younger sister of the late Danny Ocean, meets with her former partner-in-crime Lou to convince her to join a heist that she planned while serving her sentence.
Political Thriller conventions
- Political features
- Socially relevant
- often male protagonists
- Suits / Uniforms
- Hierarchy system
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Political Thriller - London has Fallen
After the British Prime Minister has passed away under mysterious circumstances, all leaders of the Western world must attend his funeral. But what starts out as the most protected event on earth, turns into a deadly plot to kill the world's most powerful leaders and unleash a terrifying vision of the future.
Technological Thriller conventions
- strong aspect of machines/computers
- revolutionary
- violence but not much focus on it
- isolation / abandonment
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Technological Thriller -
The reclusive CEO of a hi-tech company recruits a brilliant young computer programmer to evaluate his latest invention -- a highly advanced android named Ava, which is supplied with the most advanced Artificial Intelligence ever conceived.