The psychological crime thriller genre

The thriller genre

genre • Genre is a concept of which is defined as a term for any category of literature, whether it being art, music, culture or in this case films

The psychological crime thriller genre • •

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A thriller is a film that is designed to keep the audience on edge, its a film that is used to excite you, fill you with tension and even scare you. A psychological thriller is a thriller of which there are psychological elements EG a serial killer. Psychological thrillers are meant to give an insight into how people think, even just ordinary people it doesn't have to be a psychopathic killer. The psychological thriller is also a genre that is made to make you think about the plot, being that the key conventions of a psychological thriller stems down from the mystery genre. Unlike a normal thriller the characters power does not come from their physical strength but rather more from their ability to mentally harm their enemies/victims. A typical psychological thriller genre’s suspense usually comes from two main characters preying upon the other characters mind. A crime thriller, is a thriller with a story revolving around a crime being committed and the main characters being detectives trying to solve this crime whether its a murder or worse. A crime thriller will usually involve a hero policeman/detective who is trying to crack down on a criminal usually one who has a lot of social presence and lot of power. Over all the genres together make a psychological crime thriller, where there are detectives in pursuit of a villain who has committed crimes in a psychological manner EG a serial killer, or has psychological issues EG split personality disorder.

History of the psychological crime thriller genre • The history of the psychological thriller dates back to some very historical old films such as psycho in 1960 other notable psychological thrillers would include panic room 2002 and phone booth also in 2002 • The crime thriller genre has been around for a very long time as well, however some of the most famous and most notable crime thrillers are fairly recent. Films like se7en 1995 and silence of the lambs 1991 this film also sets into both psychological and crime thriller which makes it a very reliable past film to look at for inspiration.

Narrative conventions • The narrative is the traditional way that the plot of a film is set out, in a thriller film it always follows the same pattern, todorov discussed the ideas of a narrative. • The conventions of a narrative are as follows the film follow a tradition plot sequence of events • The plot sequence will usually start with an equilibrium, where all is fine nothing is wrong. • This equilibrium will then be disrupted by something, for example someone gets murdered • Then the hero characters will make an attempt to restore the equilibrium an example being that they try to catch the murderer • This usually follows with a situation where they try to restore the equilibrium but fail in doing so, for example they try to catch the murderer but he slips away • This is then followed up finally by restoration of a new equilibrium, which usually involves the catching or killing of the murderer.

Character representations • In a psychological thriller, the villain characters will usually be represented as powerful, even more so than the hero. This is usually a case in all thrillers, but with psychological they will be more powerful by having a more sound or more intimidating psychological state • The hero character will usually be represented in a psychological crime thriller, as a cop but with a strong mental state, a very head strong character who can talk their way out of most situations, without having to be violent like most cops are represented in these genres. • In almost all thriller films there will be a helpless girl, someone who is completely innocent who somehow gets dragged into the huge battle between the good guys and the bad guys. This girl will usually be represented as stunning and usually young and blonde. Sort of like the blonde helpless bimbo. • We will be representing the two hero cops as tradition stereotypical detectives, they will be wearing the traditional grey or brown trench coat with the top or bowler hat.

Mise en scene • The mise en scene is basically everything you see on the screen • In our mise en scene of our movie you should expect to see two detectives in trench coats and hats, the setting would usually be wide open field spaces, you would see police warning tape taped around trees and posts, for props you would have body bags with victims of the murderer in them. The lighting would presumably be light as it will be set in the day time. You would also see a news room with a smartly dressed man in a suit reading out the news sitting at his desk with news written on it.

Hybrids and sub-genres • Hybrids are a mixture of two or more genres, for example psychological thriller • Sub-genres is the name given to a genre that is a thriller but has conventions of another genre for example crime thriller • Our film presentation is a hybrid sub-genre called a psychological crime thriller. • The fact that it is a sub-genre means that we can incorporate more ideas and more interesting characters and plot twists.

Camera work and editing • Ideas for camera work would include a lot of close ups and a lot of long shots to show all the detail in the scene. The close ups could be used to show the psychological appearance of the two main characters. And the long shots would be used to show detail in the huge wide open spaces where the murders have been committed to show where the body is, what the location is and maybe give the viewer and insight into the murderers methods/thinking etc. • For editing cutting from long shot to close up between on screen titles which will be on a black background, this could show the un-steadiness of the characters and represent that there is something out of the ordinary going on in the plot of this movie. So sort of in a sense trying to get you to guess the rest of the story by the opening.

Sound and music • For sound and music it will be a fairly quite clip, it will have voice over from the news reader and occasional speaking from within the clips of the murder scenes • For the music track, something slow and rising maybe, like its getting more and more tense. Music that will sort of have the feeling as its getting closer, for example the jaws theme tune. But much softer, very quiet so the diagetic sound of the speaking is actually much louder than the soundtrack.

Audience expectations • For this genre the audience should be expecting a very catchy story line, with very easy to fall in love with heroes. • The audience should also expect lots of tension, this movie will be designed to build tension almost all the time, right up to breaking point, so therefore you will not get bored of the film and you will always be on the edge of your seat. • Another huge expectation of this genre would be that the audience should be waiting for huge twists and turns in the narrative, this is a psychological thriller so they should be looking to see great plot twists. • Being that this is also a crime thriller the viewers should expect lots of police detective drama, the tension built by not being able to catch the villain, and then the realisation of who villain really is.

Target audience • Our films age classification will be a 15 • This will make our target market audience to be late teens and adults so ranging from 15-40 • This is because of the nature of the film, not only will this film be very gripping and compelling that people will not want to leave as they are too excited and want to see how it comes to a close, but it will also be a film that’s intriguing and includes a lot of interesting plot twists which will most probably interest a more older audience. • The rating of 15 is purely down to the levels of psychological depth the film will go and the nature of the murders committed, this may disturb younger audiences of course, so a 12a is not optional.

Similar products • Films similar to this would be psycho • Psycho is a film made in the 1960’s and was the 1st really famous thriller film, it was unique in a sense that the main female character was murdered at the start of the film. This film made by Alfred Hitchcock, was to be fair the un-official start into the mass interest of the thriller genre. • We have gained inspiration from this film being that it is a psychological thriller, involving a very psychologically disturbed individual who is murdering loads of people who come to stay at his motel. The use of the iconic music tracks in the movie psycho has also inspired us, very low tone violin music that slowly rises that is used in the opening titles.

Similar products ideas for final piece psycho: • Psychological thriller, murder with serious psychological issues • Breaking the rules, Hitchcock had the leading female hero killed off near the start of the film, this had never been done before, we would like to do something similar that disrupts the ordinary narrative and conventions of a thriller. Se7en: • the ideas of a cop duo could be interesting • the fact that this is also in a sense a psychological crime thriller could give us inspiration, as the criminal is of highly powerful psychological state.

Initial ideas for opening • Overall initial ideas would be a news report based film • The news report would show news stories of two detectives at the site of various different murders • The killer will be a serial killer, with serious psychological issues, for example split personality disorder • I got these ideas for the narrative from my observing studying previous films released in my chosen genre, these studies have given me inspiration to create something new and fairly unique with lots of plot twists and heart pounding tension.