Thriller conventions

Title

Most of the film trailers that I have looked at show darkness in the text, they are either a black background with a red or a black theme running throughout. They all also have diegetic sound playing behind it to help create tension and set the required mood, this mood is normally an eary feel that created a lot of enigma to make the audience sit on the edge of their seats.  Most film titles for a trailer are also played at the very end of the trailer in order to make the audience remember the name of the film as this is the last thing they see.

Camera movement

The camera movements are not always fluid, as a lot of thriller films have used the self recording method such as ‘Paranormal Activity’ and I feel this is really effective in making the audience feel as if they can relate to the characters.

Editing

A lot of the shots that I have seen been used are fast quick jump shots that enable to show the audience what is going on as well as building the enigma found in thrillers. Jump shots can become quite confusing sometimes so I have studied carefully and seen that a lot of trailers also like to use establishing shots I order to calm to audience and let them understand where the feature is taking place.

Enigma codes

Enigma code are used to create suspense in the audience many of the techniques use to create enigma may include; fast paced music, loud booms, quick jump shots, also as well as fast paced editing we can use slow paced editing in order to make the audience fear what is coming next.

Characters

The main characters in a thriller piece are often male leads as they are seen at the stronger sex. Although I have watched ‘Gone’ which has a main female lead which although is going against the norms of a thriller convention I liked the idea that is more relatable for me where as if the lead was a man I don’t think I would have been as relatable.

A lot of thriller trailers also showed kids as there is a stereotype of kids/teens being very vulnerable ands this could help when trying to create the tension of the typical ‘don’t open the closet’ moment.

Sound

A lot of the trailers I have looked at use a lot of diegetic music to help create suspense. Often to create this type of suspense they speed up the diegetic music as this helps to increase the heart rate of the audience, meaning that they will experience feelings of anxiety, which is what is aimed for when creating a thriller trailer. As well as using a lot of music to create moods, I have also found that they tend to use a lot of voice-overs as this helps to portray another power as in that of the supernatural, which might be helpful when we come to planning our film trailer.

Theories

Todorov feels that it is important for a thriller trailer to have a beginning middle and an end. Where the beginning starts off at equilibrium the middle has a sort of disruption and the end the equilibrium is reordered.