Thrillers

Thriller : A novel, play or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage

Conventions of a thriller:

- Narratives will have similar themes
- Suspense ( murder/death/violence)
- heroes and villains
-dark lighting
- isolated/derelict locations
-Non diegetic sound to create tension and atmosphere
- Synchronous diegetic sound to match the action
- An enigma ( we want to find out who solved the mystery)

Different types of thrillers:

Action Thrillers;  An Action Thriller uses physical action to create suspense within the film. Like a traditional Action film, this sub-genre will often have continuous motion and action including physical stunts, chases, fights, battles, and races. Often, these scenes will contribute to the overall sense of danger that the protagonist is facing. (e.g. Taken)


Crime Thrillers: Crime Thriller film is a sub-genre that incorporates the suspenseful aspects of a thriller with a crime film plot. This sub-genre's plot usually centres on a serial killer, murderer, robbery, or manhunt. (e.g. the silence of the lambs) 

Horror Thrillers: This thriller focuses on suspense and tension while empathising fear, gore and crime ( e.g. Saw) 

Super Natural Thrillers: In this sub genre other worldly elements are introduced, usually as an antagonistic force, but just as in the romantic thriller, the plot line and feel or distinctly that of thrillers. Some characters may have psychic abilities and other supernatural novel elements may be present. (e.g. The Skeleton Key) 

Psychological Thrillers:  In this sub genre a lot of the conflict is mental, rather than physical. The protagonist has become involved in a dangerous situation which literally threatens their sanity. They must use mental prowess to overcome their opponent, whether the battle is inside their own head or it a battle of wits. (e.g Psycho)

Comedy Thrillers: Comedy thrillers are a hybrid genre that draw subject matter generally from comedy and thrillers. They include a disproportionate amount, relative to other genres, of humor (e.g scream)

Disaster Thrillers: a story in which Mother Nature herself is the antagonist, in the form of a hurricane, earthquake or some other natural menace. (e.g 2012) 

Conspiracy Thrillers:  a thriller in which the hero battles a large, powerful group whose true extent only he recognises.  (e.g absolute power) 

Medical Thrillers:  a thriller featuring medical personnel, whether battling a legitimate medical threat such as a world-wide virus, or the illegal or immoral use of medical technology (e.g Awake)   


Sci-Fi Thrillers: is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, alien forms , extrasensory perception and time travel along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies. (e,g Inception)                                         

Gangsters Thrillers: Part of a crime film, dealing with organised crime often involving the Mafia. (e,g. Goodfellas)

                    How is gender represented in the opening sequence of Skyfall

Firstly, we are introduced to James Bond, who is instantly shown the be the male protagonist. With the use of a tracking shot, Bond is portrayed to be a leader and the dominant character within the film, this is very stereotypical as it is extremely common for the man to be the main character of the film and for them to be more important than women, however he is soon presented to be counter typical due to the fact that his boss is a women and is giving him orders, this can be shown by a diegetic voice over from a woman directing Bond what to do. An over the shoulder shot showing him trying to save someone’s life, signifies that he is also very compassionate, this is also portrayed through eye line match as he is searching for something to help representing him as caring and helping. This shows a positive representation of gender by Bond as he is shown the be the archetypal male with power and a heroic status. Mise en scene is also used to show a positive view of bond through the use of costume and props, signifying his status through a smart suit and a gun. This shows that Bonds, character is both stereotypical and counter typical as he is the main and most dominant character, however he is being instructed by a woman.

Additionally, we notice that the roles are reversed with the character M as she is a woman with the position of power who is presented to have male characteristics to show that she is in charge. Wide shot tells us that M is powerful as we can see that she has a private office, it also allows us to see that everyone is behind her, giving her importance compared to the other characters in the same scene as her. We also see her in control through the use of simultaneous cross cutting as this shows her being the “brains behind the mission”, whilst she Is having a diegetic dialogue and therefore reinforcing her control. Overall the gender of the woman in charge is a counter type as stereotypically the man should’ve been in charge.

Lastly, we are also introduced to another female character – Moneypenny who is shown to be Bonds sidekick which is a stereotypical character role. We initially see her waiting for Bond and following his orders. Additionally, she is also shown to be stereotypical as she seems to be a bad driver, smashing the car. This conforms to the gender expectations as she is letting the male lead take control, although she does demonstrate some power, which is shown when she smashes the car window through a match on action shot, instead of staying and hiding.

Overall, gender is represented in Skyfall through the use of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene, as it allows the audience to see how the characters are portrayed throughout the opening sequence, we see both stereotypical and counter typical behaviours between characters allowing us to make a decision whether or not each character makes a positive representation of their gender groups or not.

Introduction to Cameras

equipment names: 

A 3 legged dolly : This is a very sturdy and durable platform with wheels, which allows the camera and camera man to move around smoothly.
Tripod : a tripod is used to stabilise and elevate the camera, all tripods have 3 legs - the tripod has a tilt and pan aspect, allowing fluid movement
Camera : The device for recording movement and images

Setting up the cameras:

1.To open the dolly, press the button on each leg and extend them in an outwards direction, until they are fully stretched out and so the wheels are on the floor

2. to extend the legs of the tripod, loosen the screw and let the leg fall, do this one at a time and then place and secure into the dolly. - to secure the tripod into the dolly, pull up the rubber bungees and clip them into place.

3. Place the camera onto the tripod, with its back facing the red lever, that will click into place, securing the camera

Sweded FIlm

 Sweded film: The summarised recreation of popular pop-culture films using limited budgets and a camcorder. The process is called sweding.


Within our groups, we made a sweded film of The Breakfast club, we included 4 moments of the film that we though were the most exciting and which represented the original the best, we used very basic equipment of just a camera on a phone and a simple editing programme. Although we used basic equipment of just a phone, we tried to focus on our shot angles; we used techniques such as over the shoulder shots, tracking shots, medium close ups and a mixture of low and high angle shots. I found this task very helpful as it taught me a range of basic skills of which i will need when making my opening sequence