THRILLER

What makes a thriller
CHARACTERS: In ever classic thriller film you have an Antagonists and a Protagonist. The conflict between these two characters usually sparks the story line and creates tension. Our Protagonist is usually involved with some sort of government sector and can be presented as a variety of things such as a spy or assassin or even just a detective. Most often our Protagonist is an anti-hero, for example Leonardo Dicarpio's character in Inception is technical a detective which in most cases would firmly put him in a positive light, but he falls into the anti-hero category as his way of getting the information he needs isn’t legal. The Antagonist of the story always rivals the Protagonists intelligence and this causes the conflict between them to be complicated and intense. Also the Antagonists is usually psychologically disturbed and are portrayed as serial killers, stalkers or just generally disturbed characters. Also in every thriller film you have the victims. Without a victim you have no mystery.

PLOT LINE: Most thrillers have the question "who done it?" attached to them. Mystery is a key element in making a thriller a thriller. This usually causes the audience to think about the plot line as its usually confusing and usually takes more then one watch to get. This attracts an older audience as most young people wouldn’t want to go to a movie and have to analyse small details in order to understand. Crime is always involved in our plot line to increase the element of suspense as we wait for our protagonist to figure the mystery out. The most popular scenarios used in thriller films are: kidnapping, murder, abduction, alcohol, drugs and money. All story lines usually have one if not all of these scenarios involved.

SCENE: 9 out of 10 thrillers are set in a large busy cities, creating the illusion of an adult only world. Being based around adults gives thrillers a more serious look as most adults in the city are dressed in suits for work in the many skyscrapers that clutter the scene.

OTHER ELEMENTS: The lighting in nearly every thriller film has a blue tint to it. This gives the film a cold appearance which sets the atmosphere as serious and frigid. Also a lot of shadows are used to create a dark appearance in scenes which gives films a dark theme and make it a thriller. The editing is equally slow and fast paced as you want to create tension with slow and intense scenes but also get your audiences pulse racing with intense fast paced scenes.