The codes and conventions of a Thriller:
- Mirrors
- Low key lighting
- Obstructive editing
- Quick cuts
- Changes in camera angle
- Tension music
- Stairs
- Flashbacks
- Use of photographs in black and white
- Disorientation of time and space
- Montage editing
- The use of shadow is very important in thrillers as it sets the mood of the scene and can build up the tension which is needed quickly and easily.
- The editing in a thriller movie is important. It crops the film between scenes of high and low tension it can leave the viewer unsettled and convinced that something bad is going to happen in the every day ordinary scene.
- The music expected from a thriller movie would have an eerie feel to it as it is mainly used as a tension builder. For example, the shark music in jaws.
- Another thing commonly used in a thriller movie is small and confined spaces that would be likely to make the characters feel or look isolated or claustrophobic for a sense of entrapment.
- The use of shadows, mirrors and stairs in thriller films is very important as they can be used to hide the 'bad guy' or the evil that is out to get everyone. They are used and played on alongside shadows to create the switching effect of safe and unsafe as the camera angles and cuts of footage switch in sharp and short timing.
This is great Bonnie. Have another look at the opening scene of The Sixth Sense, which we watched together in class. There are lots of thriller conventions such as the use of shadows and stairs to identify.
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