What makes a thriller a thriller?
All thriller movies have at least some of the stock conventions of the
genre, so they have enough suspense, action and dramatic tension to be
successful in engaging and entertaining the audience. Conventions are things
like 'Mise en Scene' (design of the set), the sound, how its shot etc., which
are done a certain way sometimes, to fit in the genre or get the audience to
make connections with this film and other thrillers. The most well-known
thrillers such as The Panic Room, Shutter Island and The Blair Witch Project
have most of the typical conventions which is why they were such successful
films.
Typical storylines follow the
main Character(s)(The Protagonist) throughout most of the film, whilst also cross-cutting,
an editing technique, to the view point of other characters or giving
characters their own scene every now and again; usually the antagonist, because
we are supposed to see the progression of what the character is trying to
achieve and sometimes seeing its effect on other characters, so the mystery is slowly
revealed. The main character always has a very clear thing they are trying to
achieve, for example in 'Taken' Liam Neeson is trying to find his daughter and
the men who have taken her, and then we follow his progression towards finding
her. As we only see very little from the men’s point of view, and we see most
of Liam's; where his daughter is as much a mystery to us, as it is to Liam.
From this we can see that by having a lot of mystery in a thriller film you get
the audience to ask questions and they become involved which is what will
entertain them.
The Camera work, how its shot,
is always working on creating dramatic tension and suspense. There’s a lot of panning
and tracking on characters, especially in the action sequences with a lot of cross-cutting
so that you can see from lots of different angles. There’s also a lot of close
ups on characters and objects usually accompanied by low-level or high angled
shots. There is a lot of Non-diegetic music (music where the source is unknown
or not something the characters aware of) which also adds to the suspense much
like a horror movie which is synchronous sound, sound that matches what's going on in the scene or they could use asynchronous music which is sound that doesn't match the scene in order to emphasize what's going on in the scene. Mise-en-Scene is also very important as thrillers have typical
costume, lighting, actors, makeup, props and setting in order to connote the genre to the audience, for example they use a lot of low lighting and darkness/shadows in scenes to create dramatic tension.
An example is Shutter Island. What make
the shutter island a thriller is its use of Mise-en-scene,
sound, camerawork and editing to create a suspenseful, atmosphere and an in-depth,
mystery storyline that builds up to a climax of action and narrative.
They use Mise-en-scene
successfully to connote the genre and narrative throughout the film and create dramatic tension. They use costume in order to show the time period and status of characters. for example the guards all have uniforms to show who they are, and the warden has a better uniform to show his higher status, and the protagonist, Teddy Daniels, denotes a cheaper suit based on what men in the 1950's would wear to highlight to us when the film is based. They use costume in this way to connote when its based so that the audience know and they don't have to actually say it, meaning that the audiences attention to the narrative isn't broken.
They use lighting in order to create suspense or highlight when certain things in the film "aren't part of reality". for example they use low lighting in scenes underground where there is a lot of danger for the protagonist so that we cannot see what's going on, and the character has to use matches, that blow out quickly, to light his way, and they also use lighting to show when his mind is hallucinating his dead wife, so that its clear to the audience and the continuity of the scene is not broken. This is all used to build up suspense for action scenes or places where we are meant to "jump" and continue the scene without disturbing the narrative.
They used actors that matched the persona the character had well, for example they used Leonardo Dicaprio for the protagonist who has a star persona of playing the hero. this is used so that the audience knows from seeing him that he is most likely the hero after seeing other films he stars in.
Makeup is used to show wounds like bruises and show how tired the character is, as the film goes on he looks more exhausted. this emphasises what he's going through and helps the audience empathise with his pursuit of the truth.
Props are used to mainly to aid the narrative and build suspense. For example the protagonists ciggerretes become ruined and he is given a nurses pack but its later revealed that apparently they have put drugs into them. Also the character is weapon less throughout most of the film and this emphasises the action without weapons or emphasises the fact when he does have a weapon. this helps continue the narrative and build tension so that the audience are more invested into what's going on. Setting is used effectively to match the action that's taking place, for example the island rains a lot and is overcast throughout the film which could connote how the oppression of the wardens overcasts the island.
Sound is used effectively to build suspense throughout using a soundtrack of songs that are all similar. They use a lot of high pitched, eerie sounding string instruments contrasted to high volume, "bassy" percussion instruments, which are used to build crescendos that climax at important areas in scenes. The sound is usually very synchronous and creates a sad or sinister atmosphere depending on the scene.
Camera work is used effectively by using a large range of different shot types to create different atmospheres and connote different meanings to the audience, for example they use lots of extreme close-ups in order to emphasise different things or not show enough or they us panning, high angled long shots to show how massive the island was and make the audience feel small. This is all used to either create suspense in scenes or make the audience feel a certain way so that the film is more entertaining.
Editing is used effectively through the use of CGI and there large range of transitions. For example in Teddy's flashback dreams his wife that he's holding turns to ash in his arms which is used as a shock scene to make the audience empathise with him and become emotionally invested in the narrative. Also they use lots of transitions such as crosscutting in actions scenes to show the audience what's going on in two places at one time.
Overall Shutter island is a thriller through the conventions I have listed above which make It an entertaining and suspenseful film. The conventions that it has are also similar to many other films and are closely linked with the genre.
