The thriller genre uses suspense, tension and cliff hangers to create an excitment within the film. Thriller subgenres are crime thriller, mystery thriller, psychological thriller and paranoid thriller. Thrillers must contain a villian like character which creates obstacles for the 'hero'.
Thriller films consist of, as the name suggests, thrills and 'edge of your seat' feel to the plot. Most common characteristics for a thriller hero is that of an ordinary citizen put into a dangerous/life-threatening situation in which they have to make a seemingly impossible escape. For the villian his/her identity is often know from the beginning of the film although in many cases now, the 'thrill' is finding out the villians identity amd his/her motives. Another way of looking at thrillers is that they create a 'fearful' excitment.
Taking into consideration of what our thriller will be, i looked at cerain subgenres that our film would fit, crime thriller and psychological thriller. Crime thrillers consist of ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge and kidnapping where as psychological thrillers consist of mind games,psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror of personality and obsession. Our film/opening sequence has some of these elements such as kidnapping, revenge, stalking and obsession.
Barthes Code: Roland Barthes realised that these 5 codes (hermeneutic code, proairetic code, semic code, symbolic code and referential code) defines how a thriller is estaballished and how these codes coe together to make a thriller.
Hemeneutic code is the solving of the enigmas. it is a question and answer process in which it reveals the 'mystery', this process seen as irreversible. Solving the enigmas/mystery is answering a series of certain statements such as thermatisation. what is in the narrative is an enigma?, promise of an answer of the enigma and suspended answer stopping the answering after having begun.
Proairetic code looks at the actions or small sectionsof the narative. It is known to watch the actions and content of the narrative to create meaning. This code pictates the script/text within the reader as they read a part and create an action for it.
Semic code is when the connotations on certain things within the text (a place, a person and an object). This could create suggestions within the reader to link a certain thing to a certain meaning.
Symbolic code reveals certain meanings within the text even if they were not mean't to be of relevancy. Certain transgressions reveal the meaning, these trangressions are rhetorical, sexual and economic.
Refrential code is simple when the text refers to general knowledge or fact.
Thriller conventions consist of crime within the narrative/storyline, a storyline that involves false paths, clues and resolution, expectant resolution for the enigma, the antagonist and protagonist fighting with each other (physical and mental) where the antagonist is disadvantaged but succeeds in the end, events happening that the audience can relate too, the audience being able to identify the characters and the protagonist having a flaw that the antagonist takes advantage of.
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