Planning - Our Chosen Genre

The genre we have chosen for our film opening is thriller. We have decided to choose thriller as it can be done on a lower budget than other genres, this will help make our opening look professional. The genre thriller also leads to many different sub-genres therefore giving us a wide range of ideas we can play with for our final film. Thrillers are also generally shot in isolated areas and as we live in a rural area, it will open up many different isolated locations available for us to shoot in locally. The Mis En Scene of the genre will be easier to replicate. We chose against genres such as action adventure as they often have lots of high quality special effects that would be very difficult for us to replicate as we don't have the funds. As we have a limited number of actors available to us, choosing thriller allows us to tell the story through Mis En Scene with limited script. This will therefore allow us to create a realistic opening in the case of the acting not being at a high standard due to their understandable lack of experience.

Thrillers are generally based around a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist wishes to put things right and restore the equilibrium and peace, where as the antagonist wishes to destroy it as well as harm or kill the protagonist. Suspense is key within thriller, it is a genre based on putting the audience on edge. Typical conventions of a thriller include cross cutting and jump cuts, as they build suspense. Shadows are also a typical convention with the use of low key lighting. The typical angles used for shots are high angle to show dominance of certain characters and low angles to have the opposite effect. Typical locations for thrillers are isolated areas such as woods or abounded houses, these are due to the inability to get help quickly if its needed, therefore adding a sense of danger to the plot. The main characters involved in thrillers are young adults or teenagers, it generally tends to be a group in an isolated area as many movies display the changes in the relationship between friends when danger rises. There is generally a brave protagonist that leads the plot. In some cases, the main character will undergo a personality change throughout the plot, from becoming a coward to a strong leader.