Convention of Thrillers

In our lesson today, we discussed conventions of thriller films.
The conventions we came up with were:

• Suspense
• Action- but not too much
• Mystery
• False leads
• Confusing and complex storylines

The characters used are generically

• a damsel in distress
• a sociologically disturbed person
• police
• a disempowered protagonist

We also talked about how thrillers use Todorovs Equilibrium Theory, which is structured in five stages:

1. a state of equilibrium
2. a disruption of the equilibrium
3. a recognition that equilibrium has been disrupted
4. an attempt to repair the disruption
5. equilibrium regained, either the same as the start, or a in new form

Another feature of thriller films we discussed, was that their conventions differ from T.V. thrillers, partly because of the time frame, air time, target audience and the use of episodes.

• Conventions of a Thriller Film [Taken from http://www.slideshare.net/TaylaMoore/conventions-of-a-thriller-film-6772447]
  
• Thriller films are essentially about the battle of good vs. evil. The two main characters are normally the protagonist (the good guy) and the antagonist (the bad guy). At the beginning of the story there is usually peace which is then disturbed by a particular event; at this point the storyline begins and a chain of bad events happen, engaging the audience. The main aim of the protagonist is to restore peace and justice whereas the antagonist seeks to destroy it. At the end of the story, the protagonist normally achieves his aim and peace is again restored. There are four main conventions of a thriller which are: characters, themes, narrative, and iconography.
• The first convention of a thriller is the characters. The protagonist is usually a brave male who seeks to remove injustice and/ or save an innocent female whose life is in danger. The antagonist is normally a mystery but has the characteristics of being a number of the characters although it could range to a sweet innocent little girl. Even though the antagonist changes in every film, they all share similar reasons for their actions: anger, revenge or has misinterpreted an event. Their dress codes tend to change according to the plot. For example, a spy is conventionally well-dressed, in smart dark clothing. For boys, the costume normally empowers their appearance by showing their muscles proving how strong they are whereas girls are normally dressed in a seductive, revealing manner showing their vulnerability.
• The second convention of a thriller is the theme/s. The director of the film usually bases his storyline on the things that are most feared by society so the audience can relate to them which enhances the level of fear. For example, I found that there was a correlation between the recent terrorist bombings and the amount of movies made linked to terrorism.