Thriller Research

Thrillers

The thrillers which I am going to research are:

 

Black Swan

Casino Royale
The Happening

 

 

I am going to research the opening sequences to these thrillers and note any textual analysis, connotations, how they portray tension and any typical camera shots and effects used throughout. This will help me understand the genre of thrillers in more depth and give me inspiration of different opening sequences. I need to be careful not to confuse opening sequences with the movie trailers as these are two different things.

 

Trailer

Movie trailers such as the one below which is the Black Swan Offical trailer

 

This is an example of a thriller movie trailer as it is created to advertise the best moments of the movie in a short space of time usually lasting around 2 or 3 minutes or in this case 2.09minutes. The trailer consists of the best parts of the movie in order to entice people to go and see the film as this would be shown at the cinema or on TV to persuade the audience to go and watch the film. The scenes in the trailer are not chronological to the actual film sequence as the editers often change them around to create a dramatic trailer which leaves the audience wondering what happens which will then entice them to go and watch it to find out. In this trailer, the music is non-diegetic and it is eerie which builds up at the end as the shots get faster to build tension for an audience. The trailer does not tell the whole plot of the film, however it gives the audience some understanding as to the basic idea of the film and the genre of the movie through typical conventions, such as the scars in this trailer suggesting a supernatural person or creature haunting them. The trailers are also used to portray to the audience the actors and actresses they have used in them such as at the end of this trailer where the main stars names appear e.g. 'Natalie Portman', which allows people to see the talent of the actors involved. This trailer in particular suggests the idea of a psycho thriller as nearer the end the shots change frantically and the emotion on the actresses face show fear and confusion suggesting a psychotic story line.

 

The footage I am researching is not trailers, however they are often mixed up with openining sequences. I have now established the difference between them and am able to research only the opening sequences of the thrillers I have chosen.