After all writing and discussing our proposed ideas for the final project, we decided as a group to go forth with my concept, as it seemed to be the most workable and appropriate for the nature of the task. We then loosely delegated roles based on our interests as follows:

•  Sarah – producer
• Bonnie and Laura – location scouts, cameraperson(s) and editing team
• Jackson and Alex – scriptwriters

For the meantime however, we must direct our focus on the fast-approaching presentation in week seven. To my understanding, the presentation is less of a pitch but more of an explanation of our intentions and progress so far. Once more, we allocated each group member with a subject to speak about:

• Sarah – proposal/question, concept, general research
• Bonnie – Trailers to draw inspiration from
• Laura – Location
• Jackson and Alex – Draft script

As above, my main topic of focus is on location, but I will save that for another post. In this blog I wish to focus on the broader complex ideas we will explore through our productions, and thus address in our presentation.

At the crux of our project is the desire to produce something technically sound, visually aesthetic, and most importantly, something with a strong and compelling storyline. We intend to take this a step further however by researching the thriller genre as a whole, investigating what makes a thriller ‘thrill,’ if you will. My concern with the thriller genre is if it is not done well, it can come across as a little cheesy and even comedic. We thus intend to then put our research findings into practice in our writing and filmmaking.

So a good starting point is to investigate what exactly defines a thriller.

I found the following definition online which I thought summed it up quite well:

This definition is a good reference point for our production. It explains what mood we are trying to create, as well as how we want the audience to feel. But through what measures can we achieve this?

A good story and motivated protagonist are obvious features to a thriller (and any other film, for that matter), but the genre relies heavily on a number of other elements to contribute to its suspenseful nature. According to Bordwell and Thompson, “the thrillers emphasis on suspense and surprise encourages the filmmaker to mislead the audience, and this invites experiments with the narrative form.” This textual quality makes a lot of sense, as if the viewer is fully informed at all times, they will never experience the uncertainty and anticipation of the thriller genre.

To achieve this, certain stylistic choices are exploited in this genre. For example, framing, specifically the use of off-screen space, is utilised particularly well in thriller and horror films. Viewers are led to acknowledge that what they see in frame does not contain the entire world of the story, and that something may be lingering outside of the frame. Filmmakers can create suspense by teasing the viewer with the possibility of something being there (or not).

Music is another crucial element that works to build suspense. When you watch a thriller film on mute, it is not nearly as tense as it is with volume. Music works to subconsciously make us anxious, build our anticipation, excitement, or fear. It is therefore crucial we use music to our advantage to achieve our desired mood and tone.

I believe it is important that we direct significant attention to these stylistic choices in order to better our chance of a consistent, compelling thriller. Hopefully we are able to execute them with success as to avoid our scenes becoming a comedy!