Thriller
Thriller
Thrillers are a 'Genre' that we have
seen come up time and time again, in media texts. It is a mind- numbing
experience that typically comes with espionage and crime. Its an exciting
experience, that is conveyed to the audience with a well constructed narrative
in which is easily distinguished from other genres e.g. Action or drama, although
thriller sub-genres can easily consist of ones such as:
• Action Thriller
• Crime Thriller
• Film-Noir
• Psychological Thriller
• Science Fiction Thriller
• Religious Thriller
In order to analyse specific characteristics or Codes &
Conventions of a thriller film, it is relevant to talk about one individual
sub-genre with references to others in order to conclude in a detailed analyses
of the genre. So, the sub-genre that we chose to talk about is a Psychological
Thriller.
Examples
of psychological thrillers.
Shutter Island
GoneGirl Prisoners Inception
Split
The Machines Seven
Generic conventions of Psychological
Thrillers
Like every Genre there are specific generic conventions that are
depicted in thrillers that emphasize the categorization of these types of
films. These conventions are sometimes common in every type of Thriller,
however, some of them are unique to the specific sub-genre that the film is based
on - this in turn gives the audience a level of expectations that they will
have because certain conventions are recognized through past media texts.
Generic conventions
of Psychological Thrillers:
Sound:
• Begin with a slow tempo.
• Suspense is added through
music.
• Aspects of silence.
• Heightened diagetic sound
- more involved with the protagonist.
(Subjective character identification).
Camera:
• Extreme close-ups of the protagonist .
• Camera angles to show dominance.
Mise-en-scene:
• Antagonist wears dark clothing.
• Blood and violence.
• Weaponry.
• Low-key lighting to create an atmosphere of suspense.
• Settings consisting of isolated places, giving
room for puzzles. (Key part of genre).
Narrative:
• Structured to enhance
the level of suspense.
• Violence is a key theme (Beginning & end).
• Immoral protagonist with good
intentions.
• Movies begin with equilibrium that is lost and then restored again.
Finally
Psychological Thrillers commonly contain a twist at the end, so, Ben is in fact female!
Audience of Thrillers and their
pleasures
There are many different factors that affect how we perceive
Thrillers and here are a few theory’s which help us understand how people
understand what they watch. These theory’s range from narrative to audience as they
both affect the genre of thriller. Rick
Altman had a theory which had a set of pleasures that people would want to
satisfy and would watch a certain time of film to please this pleasure. The 3 pleasures are emotional which is
whether they want to feel happy or
sad; visceral is a gut
response such as fear and finally intellectuals
which is where there is a puzzle which is often referred to the genre
thriller. This theory helps us understand why people would watch certain genres
and shows how people perceive these films or have a general
expectation. Then there is Stuart Halls theory were there are 4 types of readings which
are preferred, dominant,
negotiated and oppositional reading. This theory
makes the audience seem very strong and explains how they can perceive the film
and that can be how the producer wants to ( dominate) or negotiated which is
conflicted but they accept it or oppositional which they completely
disagree with the film and this can happen through genre with there general
expectation of the genre of film in question.lets talk about a film like Split ,
a physiologically/thriller, is one that is one of the best films of the last
few years. A quick description of the film split a group of girls get kidnapped
at the very beginning of the film which is against many sane people making it
negotiated as it goes against many peoples values and morals but as they know
it’s fiction they will carry on watching. The film goes through and it .ales us
question how sane the man is who kidnapped them whether he is crazy or ill
trying to make us feel sympathy for the man then it shows us his doctor who is
trying to help while we are left in the dark on who the monster is giving us the
intellectual emotions to be fulfilled by this film.
Positive and negative affects of categorizing
Genre
Categorizing Genres
This section is
all about how categorizing media texts in this genre, Psychological Thriller, is
done, and how effective it is including all the effects this has on
our perception of Psychological Thrillers.
Positive Affects
Categorizing in Psychological Thrillers is hard to explain as it is
a sub genre of thrillers. Thrillers are usually thought to be a 'Thrilling'
experience in a media text, and this is further simplified or categorized into
'Psychological' taking us away from equilibrium in the move then bringing us
back around to it, rigged to suspend the audience and place them in immediate
danger throughout the whole text. An great example of such would be 'Inception'
where you dive through dreams rigged with violence around every corner,
embodying the genre of Psychological Thrillers. There is no perfect way to
define Psychological Thrillers, Like David Bordwellsaid, 'It is pointless' as
there will be variations from text, to text, to text.
Negative Affects
Trying to categorize a Psychological Thriller is like limiting
a genius by setting boundaries. If a producer was to move away from and implement
their own ideas into texts, the line between genres may be blurred, and therefore
make it pointless to try and categorize a text that fits into more than one
genres. There is no telling where a Mind blowing Psychological Thriller may take
the viewer, aspects of other genres will definitely be implemented, but should
not necessarily be mentioned or taken into account when categorizing a text. The
culture behind who is viewing such a genre like Psychological Thriller will
definitely affect how a genre is assigned to the text, if a violent text was
presented to Monks, for example, they would classify that differently to what a 16
year old adolescent teen would, which links in to John Fisk's theory of genre.
MUSICALS:
Genre Task – Classical
Musicals
Slide One
– Classical Musicals
My choice of
genre is classical musicals. This will take us from the very beginning of the
genre all the way up to the 1970’s. The exact definition of a musical is ‘a
play or film in which singing, and dancing play an essential part’. But singing
isn’t what makes a musical. The characters have to outwardly express their
emotions through song to make it a musical. They tend to have an ending in
which the protagonist prevails. The musical genre also breaks the rules of
realism, as the musical accompaniment comes from nowhere and is usually outside
of the world the musical is taking place in.
Slide Two
– History
They began
very early in Ancient Greece in the form of operas which were made up of light
music and a tragic or comedic plot, but the start of the musical era in the
western world came about in the late 19th and early 20th
century. The very first British musical writers were Gilbert and Sullivan, in
which they combined acting, music and humour to create what is now known as the
musical. Some of their most famous works are HMS Pinafore in 1878 and Pirates
of Penzance in 1879.
Broadway was first opened as New York’s centre for musicals
in 1866 with its first show being The Black Crook, which ran for 474
performances. There has always been a West End of London, but it only became
famously known as the West End or ‘Theatreland’, when theatres started opening
there in the latter half of the 1800’s.
The first movie musical was ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1927, which
started the sound era of motion pictures, but the most famous at the start was
‘Broadway Melody’ in 1929. We know that it will always be one of the greats, as
it was the first movie musical to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Slide
Three – Theorists
Musicals follow a set of generic conventions to make sure
that they stay a musical, and not a movie with music in it. Rick Altman said
that movie musicals are made up of five parts ; setting, shot selection, music,
dance and the personal style of major characters. He said that a setting should
be chosen to give the audience an opinion on the character. This can be linked
back to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposition, in which we still see good
vs evil or wealthy vs poor. So, if the character was in a fancy hotel or at the
opera, it is an automatic assumption that they are wealthy, and if they are
outside the city limits or in a rougher area of where the show is set, we think
that they are one of the lower characters.
Altman also said that genres offer a set of pleasures to an
audience and these pleasures can be visceral, emotional or intellectual. An
intellectual response is going to be hard to get from a musical as they are
just watched for fun with the music and characters. It is a lot easier to get
an emotional response because the storylines have great moments of joy and
smaller moments of sadness, triggering an emotional response in us all. A
visceral response is possible through films like West Side Story. When two
characters like Tony and Maria have such an emotional connection and their
storyline has so many problems, a visceral response is inevitable for an
audience member that is going through a similar thing.
Daniel Chandlers theory on genre being a relationship between
the creator and the consumer relates heavily to musicals, based on the fact
that for a musical to appeal to someone, you need to look at your target audience.
A young child is not going to be interested in a movie musical like The Jazz
Singer because it does not include anything that they can relate to, but they
may well like something like Singing In The Rain because it is more upbeat and
fun with all of the singing and dancing.
This then relates to John Fiske’s idea that genre is an
attempt to add structure to an array of texts. It is an idea that benefits both
the creators and consumers, but then makes the audience decide whether they
like the text or not without even giving it a chance. I can relate to this
because I know fine well if a film is labelled a horror I won’t go near it.
Slide
Four – Conventions - Emotion In Song
One of the most obvious conventions of a classic musical is
that they express a character’s emotion through song. If you watch any classic
musical, the lead character will always have a solo where the audience finds
out what they are thinking or feeling. One example of this is ‘Singing In The
Rain’ from the musical of the same title. Gene Kelly combines both the lyrics
and tune of the song to show us that he has no reason to be worried about the
weather when he has got so much love in his heart. Another example is ‘As Long
As He Needs Me’ from Oliver. Nancy has such a powerful voice, which conveys the
powerful feelings she has towards Sikes, ignoring the fact that he mistreats
her.
No matter the gender, classical musicals always have the
characters singing about love. Which shows a contrast between classical and up
to date musicals, because the shows created after 1980 talk a lot more about
social and political issues, rather than concentrating on the theme of love.
These include shows like Billy Elliott, Blood Brothers and Les Mis.
Slide
Five – Colourful Scenes
Nearly every
classic musical you watch will have that one scene where the colours present
just pop, and it is usually cover’s a large surface, be it the walls of a room,
floor of the stage or fabric of a dress. It is the first thing you notice when
the scene start’s and it lets you associate the colour with the emotions that
are present in the scene. Red is a colour often used in musicals for dramatic
effect. One example of this is the dance in West Side Story. The walls of the
dance hall are bright red, which automatically makes our minds associate the
colour with either passion or anger. As the scene continues, we realise that
the convention works because they start to show the hatred, they have towards
each other through the dance and using their surroundings, which is just an
empty hall.
A second example of this is Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Diamonds Are A
Girls Best Friend’ in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. We already knew that Monroe was
a seductive actress and woman in general, but when she appeared in this scene
in the long pink dress with the diamonds draped over her and the bright red
walls and staircase, we were able to see just how much colour effects a
creators thought-process when creating a scene.
Colours play
a major role when creating any text. We know that sci-fi films include a lot of
blue and orange, romances have the typical lighter colours of pinks and whites
and actions just tend to be a blur of different colours all mixed into one. To
make a musical interesting and effective, the creator needs to think about how
what is on the screen is going to affect the viewers’ opinion of the product.
Slide
Six - Generic Conventions – Characters
In classic
musicals, there are certain characters that repeat themselves throughout all of
the films. This happens in every genre, following Feuer’s idea of repetition,
but musicals are very noticeable, especially the classics. One example is the
woman. In every classic, there is always ‘that woman’, who is always either in
need of saving or is the object of the leading man's affection and is always a
protagonist. A few examples of these women are Kathy in ‘Singing In The Rain’,
Maria in ‘West Side Story’ and Laurie in ‘Oklahoma!’. There is the male hero of
every musical, who makes it his mission to win over the woman. Examples of
these characters are the opposites of the females listed : Don (Singing In The
Rain), Tony (West Side Story) and Curly (Oklahoma!). There is then the villain,
almost always presented as a desire for something unobtainable. And finally,
the side characters that support / go against the protagonists. They are there
purely to round out the narrative.
Slide
Seven – Problems With Genre
Despite most
musicals being upbeat and fun-loving, there are many that do not conform with
what the genre stands for. This does not, however, mean that they aren’t
musicals. Things that came out a bit later, like Les Mis, or movie musicals
based off of other stories, like West Side Story, will have components that
don’t fit, but are still considered musicals because they do everything else
they are supposed to, and in the end, there is always some form of closure.
With Les Mis, the ending shows everyone coming together in a time of tragedy
because they don’t want all of the deaths that have happened to be for nothing.
So they overcome their grief for the sake of the greater good. Throughout the
musical, however like I said, there are many deaths. With the exception of the
song ‘Master of The House’, all the songs create an emotional response within the
viewer, which is the intended purpose the creator had. West Side Story is based
off of Romeo and Juliet, so we already know that there is going to be a sad
ending. But it does not mean that there aren’t musical elements throughout the
film.
Films in general
are supposed to have a line between reality and a sense of escapism which
allows the audience to choose if they are going to enjoy it, and musicals are
no exception to that. So when musicals start to blur the line, it creates a
problem for whether it should be considered a part of the genre or not. With
something like Singing In The Rain, we know it is a musical because it has a
continuous joy throughout and keeps giving the audience pleasures. Again, if we
look at Les Mis, it doesn’t allow escapism, and if it does, it is for a person
that wants to be part of a poverty stricken France in the 1800’s. So even
though it is a REAL show, there is no
reality to it, because we are not an audience that is living in the era. It is
still considered a musical though because of how it expresses emotion through
song and how unrealistic it would be to start singing in the middle of a
battle.
Slide
Eight – Conclusion
The genre of a
musical is set in stone ; a play or film in which singing, and dancing play an
essential part. But after researching and making the presentation, I eventually
realised that there is allowed to be sub-genres like every other genre has. Why
would musicals be any different ? Musicals, be it on the stage or screen, draw out
emotions from their audiences. They can make you happy, make you think, make
you sad, make you laugh. It doesn’t matter how they make you feel, because
their purpose is just to make you feel something.
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