Conventions of chosen genre - Thriller

Conventions of a thriller

In an opening sequence of any film we have to consider the conventions of it.

This is an example of a convention in an opening sequence of a thriller because this shows that it is clearly the setting at the beginning of this film. For example this picture is from a thriller film called Inception this image is a wide shot which the shots are mainly used for the settings of films as it gives a clue to the audience on where the film is going to be based around. This setting comes across as being quite stranded.

This is another image to link to the convention 'setting'. It gives clues to the audience that the film could be based around sea and on a boat. However it also makes the audience question if the boat has a part in the film and whether its important and lastly who is actually on it!!

This is an example of another convention in an opening sequence which is titles. Typically in a thriller film sound is associated with the credits. When the credits come up on screen like company production, main actor/actress, the music is quite fast paced. However when the title comes up on screen they use a sound such as sting which can build up tension for the audience as they already know that the film is a thriller and sound is always used to make the audience feel emotions.

Another example of a convention that will be used in an opening sequence is withholding information from the audience. This is really effective and keeps the audience interested because as we can see from this clip the helicopter is hovering over the car following it, this gives clues to the audience that the people in the car may have done something bad and are trying to get away.

This shows that information about this character who is holding this image is being withheld. This is very effective because the audience would be wondering why this person is looking at this photo as it seems like violence has gone on. Also it could make them think if this person has taken this photo.

This convention is characters, in an opening sequence it will introduce the main character the majority of the time. However, it will not show the full identity it will gradually build up to it which can build tension for the audience, but still hiding some information for later on in the film.

This is an example of body language which is a convention used in the opening sequence. It shows the audience how the character is feeling, for example in this clip it would suggest that this woman is feeling scared as she is in a basement but she is also cuddling herself this emphasises that her holding her arms tight is a protection of being scared.

This is a convention of clues. This is effective in an opening sequence because it gives minute clues to the audience and makes them question things. For example this clip would make the audience question, 'why is  this person looking at this photo?', 'is that blood in the picture?', 'has someone been killed?'. For the audience to be able to ask questions it emphasises that they can get involved more which keeps them interested.

This convention is establishing the genre in the opening sequence. It is important that the audience can tell what genre the film is going to be. For example in this clip the audience would be able to tell that this film will be around a thriller because the woman looks as if she has heard something and looks frightened, also it is dark around her and it is set in the basement which automatically come across scary and builds tension for the audience.

This can show the genre of a film because by the audience seeing that this man is holding a gun it wouldn't be a romantic film. Also it builds tension up for the audience with why this man is prodding at the man laying on the floor with his gun. It also makes them question who is the protagonist and if there is an antagonist.

This convention is props. This is effective for the audience because the first scene of this opening sequence is someone holding this picture. This shows that the photo within the opening sequence has an importance and means something. This prop also gives clue to the audience as they can see parts of the photo and would try to figure out what its about.

The type of props that would be convention are for example a photo like this image is showing and this is because the picture that a character is looking at or holding could link to something within the film. Also it can give clues to the audience on what has happened.