Analysis of Past Students' Work

Looking at other students' work can be very beneficial when planning our own thriller. As well as getting ideas, it is interesting to see the techniques that looked effective and gripped the audience and those that did not.

Aspects that are important when making a good 'mini' thriller are that you have to grip the audience quickly. As the film will only last around two minutes, it is important to have enough information to show the audience the basic plot of the film but not give too much away or overload it. This could leave the audience feeling like the film is too complex and they will not be satisfied. In the case of some students' work we watched, they struck this balance perfectly by keeping us interested with enough content. Unfortunately, some people had either too little or too much.

The Maguffin

In nearly every thriller made to date, there is a maguffin. However, if you ask an audience member what the maguffin was in a film they just watched, most would not be able to tell you. But once you know, you'll always be looking for it...

So what actually is a maguffin? Who better than the greatest director of thrillers there was, Alfred Hitchcock, to tell us:

'We have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'maguffin'. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in a story. In crook stories it is always the necklace, and in spy stories it's always the papers.'

In simpler terms, a maguffin is something that provides a reason for all the action, drama, suspense and violence, but is not actually important to the plot of the film.

Suspense and Shock

This is suspense...

This is SHOCK! 

Shock and suspense are sometimes easily confused, but there is one distinct difference between the two.

Imagine a scene in a film that takes place in a classroom. The camera reveals a bomb in one of the students' bag. There is a timer on the bomb. The audience is aware that the bomb is about to go off, but the characters are not. This is suspense as the audience knows what is about to happen and are waiting for the moment.

Imagine the same scene. Everything is the same, except the camera does not show the bomb in the bag. The characters and the audience are both blissfully unaware what is about to happen. All of a sudden... BANG! Without any warning, it explodes and kills everyone in the room. This is shock as the audience knew nothing about what was to happen and it came as a surprise.

Examples of these two devices are used extensively in most thrillers:

• Children of Men (shock) - coffee shop blows up unexpectedly killing everyone inside just as a man leaves.
• Sabotage (suspense) - we know what time the bomb will go off, the audience is anticipating it.

Another classic example of suspense is shown in the film 'Rope' by Alfred Hitchcock, made in 1948.

It tells the story of two young wealthy men, Brandon and Philip, who strangle and murder a friend of theirs purely to see if they can get away with it. They then have a dinner party and invite other friends (including the dead friend's parents!) while the dead body is in a chest that they are serving food on!

Suspense is created through the body in the chest. What will happen? Will the body be found? Will the murderers be brought to justice?

Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock is a legendary director who had a career spanning over 50 years. He was known as the master of suspense whose films came to be the benchmark of 'psychological thrillers'.

Some quotes from the man himself:

- 'The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them'.
- 'There is no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it'.
- 'If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on'.
- 'Always make the audience suffer as much as possible'.
- 'I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach'.

And some quotes from admirers of his work:

- 'Under the influence of Hitchcock, thrillers often being with a crime and the accusation of an innocent bystander. Were the accused to contact the authorities, no doubt the case could have been promptly solved. But instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardizing life and limb'. - Rick Altman - Film/Genre

Examples of this occur in 39 Steps (1935) and North by Northwest (1959).

One of Hitchcock's films, Saboteur, follows this exact set up. A man is wrongly accused of murdering his best friend and so runs from the law only to be confronted with the real killer. Classic Hitchcock.

Do Thrillers Follow Rules?

Some film makers wuld say that films do not have to follow rules, or that rules are made to be broken. However, many would have to agree that there are certain conventions that mainstream films observe in order to be acceptable to the mass market.


In class, we discussed what elemnts we thought successful thrillers should include. Here is what we came up with:


- A young, naive yet resourceful protagonist.
- A villain/antagonist with a shady past who is initially more powerful than the hero.
- Lots of suspense.
- An element of mystery (enigma).
- Mysterious phone calls/letters.
- High tech gadgets.
- Fast-paced action scenes.
- Flashbacks.
- The hero will usually defeat the more powerful villain in the end.
- The hero falls in love.
- A curious character who usually finds themselves in trouble.
- A double agent (false hero).
- Conspiracy.
- Reason for conflict.
- A maguffin.
- Weapons.

Chuck Jones and 'The Rules'

Charles Martin 'Chuck' Jones was a legendary animator, cartoon artist, director, screenwriter and producer. He is noteably known for working at Warner Bros. Cartoons and producing Looney Tunes. Out of this came Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. This was a show about a road runner who was always escaping the evil plans to thwart him of Wile E. Coyote.

Chuck decided that the show needed to follow some simple rules which all further episodes would be based on. These rules were to act as a recipe to make a good show, much like thrillers have a recipe to follow to make sure it is a successful one. These are the rules that he came up with:

1. The Road Runner cannot harm or upset the coyote except going 'MEEP! MEEP'.

2. No outside force can harm the coyote, only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme Products.

3. The coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic.

4. No dialogue ever except 'MEEP! MEEP!'.

5. The road runner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called the road runner.

6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters - the Southwest American Desert.

7. All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from Acme corperation.

8. Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy.

9. The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

Coursework Brief: Thriller

In year 12, one of the criteria that has to be met is to create an opening for a film in the thriller genre. This has to include the titles and the opening of the film which is to last roughly 2 minutes. This particular piece of coursework is worth 50% of the overall mark.

Marks will be awarded for demonstrating excellence in the following:

• Holding the shot steady
• Framing a shot
• Using a variety of shot distances
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set
• Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
• Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and where appropriate for the task set
• Sound with images