Thriller Openings

The opening of a thriller is one of the most crucial parts o the film - it can either make the audience want more or make them want to turn it off. Three successful thriller openings are that of 'Memento', 'Brick' and 'Zodiac'.

Memento

Conventions:
Just from the first few minutes of the film we are presented with an eigma: why is the polaroid picture fading the more he shakes it? SHouldn't it be the other way around? Is this a sign of what is to come later in the film?

Camera:
Close ups help us focus on what is on screen to give us precise details of what is important. We can also read characters' faces and get an idea of the mood of the film.

Editing:
After the opening credits, the picture turns to black and white. This tells the audience that they are waching a flash back or dream which allows them to retrieve information that happened prior to the beginning of the present. They audience also begin to understand that the film is in reverse and the beginning of the film is actually towards the end. Short frames at the end of the opening create suspense and speed up the feel of the film as he goes to murder a man.

Sound:
The music at the beginning of the film is in a minor key which adds a dark and mysterious atmosphere to the opening to give the audience an insight as to what the rest of the film will be about.

Mise-en-scene:
The fact that Guy Pearce (the protagonist) has blood on his face immediately draws the audience's attention to the fact that the film is a thriller. He is also holding a gun suggesting that a crime is about to be commited which creates suspense.

Brick

Conventions:
Again, we are given an enigma that runs throughout the opening scene of the film: why is there a dead body?...

Camera:
The use of the camera in the opening of this film makes it seem very realistic. It starts with a hand-held camera which creates the illusion that we are looking through someone's eyes. The camera then switches so that it is steady and it shows a close up of the dead body. The fact that we only see the hand laying dead and cold in thewater makes it even more sinister.

Editing:
There is a graphic match between the bracelet on the dead body which them switches to the blue bracelet on the girl from a flashback of when she was still alive. This makesit a smooth transition from scene to scene.

Sound:
The music plyed at the beginning of the film is very eerie and is played in a minor key. This makes the audiece aware hat something is about to happn which adds suspense and tension.

Mise-en-scene:
The surroundings in the opening of the film are very dull and dreary - there is a grey sky, the floor is muddy and there is someone with their head in their hands. This gives the film an overall sombre mood. The body still has a fleshy coulour which suggests that she has only just been killed.

Zodiac

Conventions:
Once again there is an enigma that is posed at the very beginning of the opening scene of the film. A mysterious car pulls up and shoots the young couple in the parking lot. But who is the culprit?

Camera:
The low key lighting of the film creates a silhouette of the man who is about to kill the young couple. This adds to the air of mysetry and also conceals who the killer is which keeps the audience guessing who it is. Long shots also establish the setting to allow the audience to know where the film is taking place.

Editing:
Captions at the bottom of the film allow the audience to know extra information that would not necisseraly be given to them simply by watching the opening.

Sound:
The use of contropuntal music creates suspense and tension as the audience is expecting something bad to happen but the music doesn't suggest this.

Mise-en-scene:
The firewrks in the opening sequence let the audience know that a celebration is taking place. The fashions show us that the story is set in the mid 1990s.



Narrative - Structure, Formulas and Devices

Continuity Editing:


This makes the whole film very free flowing and makes each shot transition smooth.


Cause and Effect:


The clear establishment of 'cause and effect' plotting sets up character motivations and helps tell an interesting story which proceeds logically and steadily.


Enigma:


This refers to a puzzle, something mysterious or inexplicable, a riddle or a difficult problem. In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try and solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.

Red Herring:


A red herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. Can work with other devices (enigmas) to create suspense.
E.g. In Saw, two characters spend time imprisoned in a room in which a third character lies dead. Throughout the film, both characters appear to be guilty of a series of murders, until it is discovered at the end of the film that the third person was never really dead and is in fact the real killer.


Cliffhanger:


Often these feature a main character in a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation. This entices the audience and keeps them watching to see how it gets resolved. North by Northwest has a literal cliffhanger at the end!

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.