Thriller

Mood Board

Importance of Genre

Genre - Typecasting

Genre is the categorization of film, a film fits into a certain genre depending on whether it hits the criteria of said genre. Similarities in films, or conventions, are what forms new genres. Therefore films of the same genre are similar in narrative, style, and contain iconography associated with the genre.

A films genre can be identified quickly if there is a iconic member of the cast who are known for repeatedly working within the same genre of film. This is known as "star association" and is very helpful in the film industry as the mere use of an actor/actress can boost revenue and many fans will go to see the film even if the plot has been done again and again.

An example of this would be actress Jennifer Aniston, she is very well known for her role in "Friends", however once this show finished she moved on to starring in films with a lot of initial success. The film genre linked to her is romantic comedies, and so each film has a predictive plot, yet fans will continue to see her film. That is a positive to being type cast, however negatives include that actors fall into the trap of not being able to leave the genre and explore other areas of work.


As mentioned before, a key part of identifying genre would be seen in the iconography used in the film, these are obvious give-aways to what category the film falls in. For example if we were to look at science-fiction iconography, there would be the expectation of being set in the future, with advanced technology, possible spaceships or aliens, odd landscapes and robots, the plot driven by some advance in science. If we look at some science-fiction films we can see many of this within one film.

Poster Analysis

Film Posters have a clear commercial purpose - to promote a film. When creating a film poster it is important that we consider how well it fulfills its purpose advertising the film to the target audience.

Conventions of a film poster displayed in this example:

Tagline- pulling the audience in. "He was the perfect weapon until he became the target"

Title- "The Bourne Identity"

Credits- Cast, crew, production companies etc.

A main duty of a film poster it to reach out to the correct audience, this is done by clearly establishing what genre the film is. Taking "The Bourne Identity" as an example, we can already tell from the poster that it is a crime thriller due to the presence of a fingerprint, which connotes criminal activity. This is en example of iconography, which is recurring symbolic images that are closely linked to specific genres. 

Due to the main feature of the poster being a male running whilst under the cross hairs of a sniper scope, audiences can also assume that this is a man-on-the-run film. 

We can deduce from the poster that the main character leads a very isolated life as he is surrounded by nothing, in the smaller images we see he is engaged in a fight, which conveys that this is also an action film. The image of him kissing a woman possibly helps reach to a further audience who might interpret a slight romance which may run through the film. This may be to show that this is a "female friendly" film as stereotypically women are more likely to be interested in seeing a film with romance, therefore couples could be a possible audience that they are reaching out to as most of the rest of the iconography denotes that this is a "guys film" with lots of action, combat and weapon use. Or conversely it may just be there to show the presence of a young attractive female actress which will also please the general male audience.

At the top of the poster there is the name of the leading actor Matt Damon who is a very respected and established actor, the presence of his name helps to sell the movie further as many fans of Damon are likely to see this and go to see the film. The film title itself speaks volumes as it coincides with Charles Derry's thriller sub-genre of "the thriller of acquired identity", although not something the average movie-goer would identify, they would still be aware of the type of movie this is. Costume of the lead character is all black, which suggests he is trying to hide, the presence of the gun in his hand supports the other hints of action within the film and perhaps his role as an antagonist. The background has a digital tone to it and so helps to convey that the film is set in the modern day. Overall this film poster is successful in explicitly showing what type of movie it is and drawing a potential audience in.

Levi-Strauss' and Barthes Narrative Devices

Claude Levi-Strauss' built upon philosopher Aristotle's statement that "all drama is conflict" with his Theory of Binary Oppositions. Strauss' said that all stories are accelerated forward by conflict which is caused by opposing characters or events.
 Opposites within a storyline are extremely important in a successful story, as drawing two different worlds or characters together inspires conflict and interesting narrative. Theorist Strauss' was fascinated with a famous Swiss linguist called Ferdinand de Saussure and so went on to develop Saussure's work on the "culturally constructed" meaning of words rather than the meaning ascribed being inherent from within the word. Cultural beliefs or dominant ideologies are built into texts and so the way we understand a word is directly reinforced by the existence of its binary opposite.
Therefore the presence of binary opposition in film is an important one, as the differences within the world of the story collide and create a disturbance for which a solution must be found. It also helps to create and distinguish between character roles, for there cannot be a hero without a villain.


Roland Barthes proposes that there are codes within film which serves to engage audiences.
The Enigma Code generates and controls what information a viewer is aware of within a narrative and holds their interest throughout the film. It introduces problems or puzzles which must be solved as well as mysteries which must be uncovered.
The Action Code refers to events which occur that the viewer immediately can identify as being significant to the development of the narrative. Resolution may be achieved through action also.

Todorov and Propp's Narrative and Character Theories

Tsvetan Todorov presents us with his theory, which is based on his study of folk tales, that implies all mainstream film follows a similar narrative structure to each other. It consists of five stages and is known as Todorov's Theory of Narrative.

Equilibrium-  the introductory setting is established, with key characters appearing and the storyline is set up. This part of the story shows the balance in the lives of the characters before stage two occurs.

Disruption- oppositional characters are introduced and the story takes a particular direction.

Recognition- of the disruption, the characters lives and the events are combined and so we are able to see the effect the events could have on the characters. This is the part where Todorov believes the tensions constantly builds and this section is the longest in the film.

Repair- or attempts to repair the damage from the disruption, the highest point of tension in the film, after which comes a change in dynamic.

New Equilibrium- where everything is restored but adapted to the new dynamic, problems are all solved and loose ends are tied.

Vladimir Propp also proposes a narrative structure which is similar to Todorov's, but slightly more detailed and complex.

Preparation- Introduction to the story

Complication- keys or clues to the direction of the story

Transference- the donor events

Struggle- dealing with the complications

Return- back to "home" however there are still issues remaining

Recognition- Loose ends are tied up

This ties in directly with Propp's Character Theory, which identifies more character roles than the previously obvious protagonist and antagonist. He states the importance of "spheres of action" for each character as opposed to rigid character types, with one character having the ability to assume more than one role. Propp identifies seven main roles:

The villain

The donor- prepares the hero or gives them a magical object

The (magical) helper- helps the hero throughout the quest

The princess- object of the heroes desire, sought for during the narrative

The princess's father- rewards the hero

The dispatcher- character to makes the lack known and sends the hero off

The Hero (victim/seeker)- reacts to the donor, weds the princess, completes the quest

The false hero, usurper or anti-hero

Narrative

Narrative: what happens or what is depicted in the film- actions, characters and events.
Narration: how the narrative is presented to the spectator- controlling how the viewer gains information.

All media texts have a narrative, whether they soap, drama, documentary series, one paragraph newspaper story or a glossy magazine photograph. Here we focus on film narrative.

There is a basic universal structure to mainstream films narrative which is composed of four stages.

Beginning/Exposition- This gives us an introduction to the story and the situation that is present.

Gotham City in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" is presented as a city that is corrupt and overridden with crime, crooks and drugs. 

Complication- The situation presented is disrupted.

The antagonist, is revealed to be poisoning the water system of the entire city. There are also several other important factors which are threatening the city. 

Climax/Crisis- turning point in the film.

The protagonist, Batman, is seen saving the city by  defeating the antagonists and  stopping any further effects of the villains plans from occurring.

Resolution- after the crisis a new situation is established.

The protagonist is shown to team up with a member of the law force as he is a vigilante. The film ends by showing Batman continuing his fight against evil in Gotham City by going after another villain.

We can apply this structure to almost every film in the cinema today, however as film has evolved over the years it is clear that viewers are after a much more interesting and engaging viewing experience, therefore this structure can be argued to be outdated and too simple.

Therefore many writers use subversion to create a more intricate and compelling narration by having a segment of film which breaks the chronological order of the storyline. Techniques with example include:

-Flashbacks/Analepsis (Bourne Trilogy)

-Flashforward/Prolepsis  (Lost television series)

-Twists

-Parallel Storyline (Pulp Fiction)

Silence of the Lambs Opening Credits Analysis

In this film opening we begin with credits, this is accompanied by ominous music, setting the tone for the film. We then have a series of establishing shots where we can see the location of our film, lots of woodland areas. This mise-en-scene shows a very rural area which denotes a less populated setting, perfect for something thrilling to happen. There is a lot of mist and foggy weather which denotes that it is the early hours of the morning and connotes the idea of concealment and makes the viewer feel uneasy as they are unsure of what may appear out of nowhere. The bare trees add to the eerie effect and emphasize the lack of life.

We then meet the first character, who is also the main character. She is a female and to introduce her there are several shots of her running through the woodland area. At first it is unclear whether she is running from something or someone, however it soon becomes clear that she is training on an assault course, revealing that she is not a typical female character or femme fatale. This part of the scene also might be to portray a possible foreshadowing effect where we might see her later in the film running the same path but under different circumstances.

When she goes indoors, it becomes apparent that she is singled out as a female, with a very masculine environment containing guns and gadgets. However the audience are aware of her being able to take care of herself as she is unlike other typical female characters who are objectified as she is portrayed as unglamorous, sweaty and quite masculine in her ways. She stands out as she is much smaller and dressed in blue compared to all the large men who are dressed in red. In the office setting, things take a more serious tone, with props such as documents, folders and newspaper extracts on the walls. It is apparent that she is respected by those around her by the way her boss talks to her, showing that she is successful in what she does.There are some enigma codes which appear throughout this opening, such as why is she running at the beginning, who is Crawford and why does he want to speak to her and who is Hannibal.

There is a substantial use of diagetic sound, such as heavy breathing, gun shots, running through leaves, helicopters and birdsong. The main genre characteristics, within this film sequence are lone character, that are victims or heroes, police or F.B.I, photographs and clippings on the wall, eerie tension building music. The titles are quite small and simple, white in colour. They come and go, without any special editing.