Genre is a way of categorizing films and not only do they contain films, they also include certain expectations and assumptions, the audience would take in consideration these codes and conventions that a genre has to watch the film. Hence genre also assists the audience to better understand the film; Why a particular event took place, why the characters speak or act in a specific way, why the editing or mise en scene is like that. For example if one character suddenly starts singing and others join in and start dancing, it would be a musical or at least it is the rule and expectation of a musical and this action makes sense and is appropriate to that genre.
Verisimilitude is an important element of genre, it means "looking or appearing to be true" this is what a genre serves as to a plot or characters, aliens would appear to be true in a sci-fi movie and ghosts would be more believable in a horror or thriller film.
However, verisimilitude is also linked to culture and time period, an example for this is that for Shakespeare plays, any play with a happy ending was considered to be a comedy whereas nowadays in the 22nd century this would not apply.
Neale states that the movie and it's genre depends on two factors:
How much the film followed the codes and stereotypes of its genre. Since a movie has to follow its genre's rules and conventions to be coming from that genre.
How much the film subverts the codes and conventions of its genre to make it different from the rest of the movies from that genre in order to make it appealing and unique, not just a copy of other genres.
Steve Neale states the 2 main aims of Hollywood movies:
For producers:
-Allows film and TV producers to secure funding for ideas based on previous successes (TV seasons and movie series such as 007).
-Minimize risks and allows to predict expenditure. This is crucial as companies require a predictable income and need to have a budget. (The cost of action movies could be more expensive than a romance as the conventions of action movies uses guns and possibly explosions of cars. It would be expensive to hire a good special effects artist or to actually create a real explosion).
For the audience:
-Creates familiar pleasures as they enjoyed the feeling of the genre hence wants to feel that sense of enjoyment again from another plot with different characters.
-Genres satisfy our needs for fantasies and is a form of escapism from reality.
The reason why genres are about repetitions and differences is because the audience enjoy seeing or experiencing similar ideas or experiences and they are curious about what subversions the movie has. As for film producers, genres help them secure funding for ideas based on previous successes. It also allows them to have an expected budget for the film as well as limiting the risks they might face.
How crime thrillers have changed and evolved over time
All genres evolve as time goes by due to the fact that technology is more advanced, the audience's tastes changed and more ideas have been generated. This is very much about Neale's theory of the repetition and subversion of a genre, many thrillers nowadays appear initially to be rather positive and then there is a sudden or gradual twist which was not expected.
A common trait of the crime thrillers from the past few decades, also a code for the Noir genre; grey. This means that a lot of the characters or at least some seem to be neutral, neither evil nor good. This was already evident in the classic crime thriller, The silence of the lambs. The doctor being a psychotic serial killer whilst still helping the FBI agent out for his own amusing, this still decreases the audience's resentments towards the doctor. This technique avoids the binary opposition in the natures of different characters. Therefore, allows the audience to discuss and think on deeper levels about the characters, plot, let motifs after the movie. This is what I believe to be a crucial difference between thrillers and horrors; thrillers are about the psychological aspects and good thrillers would leave a strong impact on the audience and encourage people to review, reflect and consider the film in depth.
Crime thrillers nowadays also have the advantage of better quality special effects, which enables images that may result in the audience covered with goosebumps and hanging on the edge of their seats. To exemplify this, the special effects in Black Swan: The red eyes, feathers growing from Nina's skin creating a very uncomfortable feeling.
In the 70s, Metz realized the limitations that structuralism and semiology had on film, so he began to develop "a post-structuralist framework premised on theories of enunciation, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and phenomenology."[1] In Metz's point of view, enunciation, which means to accentuate signs of the speaker and receiver in a script and psychoanalysis which highlights traces of the subtext. This enabled him to reconsider his semiotics "as secondary systems of signification, which are underpinned and driven by more-fundamental primary processes of signification (unconscious drives, fantasy, and dream logic)."[1]
"genres are instances of repetition and difference"---Neale
Examples of thriller movies
Examples of iconic actors and directors for thrillers:
Director
Alfred Hitchcock (Blackmail)
2. Ida Lupino(The Hitch-Hiker)
3. David Lynch(Mulholland Drive)
4. Orson Welles(The stranger)
Actors
Jennifer Lawrence(Hunger games)
Morgan Freeman(Kiss the girls)
Brad Pitt(Seven)
Leonardo DiCaprio(Shutter Island)
Joaquin Phoenix(The Joker)
Target audience
- Conventionally, Crime thrillers are for young to middle aged men.
-This is because teenagers and especially children cannot stand the scary content of a crime thriller. For old people, most of them tend to find it too nervous and tense to enjoy.
-According to research, women prefers romance, drama or comedy rather than crime thrillers. However personally, I love crime thrillers.
-Based on research crime thrillers target young to middle aged men because they enjoy the tense and nervous feelings a crime thriller brings.
Crime thrillers do not only exist in movies, they are also present in books:
Murder On the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Film openings
Get out(horror, crime thriller)
Looking at Barthes' theory about the audience being presented with enigma, the poster of the film is potentially an enigma due to the fact that, the beginning of the movie is ver much happy and positive. However the audience constantly wonders what could have happened that caused the positive situation to transform to such a negative and scary image on the poster. This ignites the audience's curiosity, hence continue to watch the film to know more.
Get out also fits in to Todorov's theory of the cycle; equilibrium, destruction, recognition, repair, new equilibrium. At first, the man is happy with his girlfriend and they are going to visit the girlfriend's parents, there is the family party.
The part of destruction starts when the other family members interacts in a very eerie way with the man and there is also a black male who seems to be acting unnaturally.
There is also some recognition in this part as the man does realize that it isn't normal.
Destruction is also when the man gets caught and is mentally tortured by the mother of the girlfriend.
Repair is presented when the man tries to escape and fights the rest of the family members. The friend also arrives in time to save him from danger, the friend serves as a comic relief from all the tension, this would be a subversion of the genre. When the friend talks about going a black person going to a white girlfriend's home isn't a good idea in a funny way, it exposes the racial tension in a less tense way.
In the opening there are many codes and conventions of a thriller movie:
-Enigma: who is this man? Who is he trying to find? Why did the car follow him? Who is in that car? Why did the man in the car kill the man? What is the relationship between the man who got killed and the main character? Enigma draws the audience's interest and stimulate them to continue to watch the film for an answer to each question.
- Binary opposite in music and action: playful diegetic music along with a killing action. The opposite creates a very creepy and uncomfortable feeling. However the lyrics "Run, rabbit, run" is very much significant to the scene. It is as if the music is warning and telling the man to escape, to "get out'.
-The killing scene occurs at night, hence the negative symbol of darkness and night foreshadows the coming bad situation; the audience knows that something bad will happen.
-Zoom in
-wide shot
-The switch in plot, from a scary/serious moment to a sweet and happy situation.
Red dragon(crime thriller)
-Close up:builds tension and unease as well as threat
-Jump cuts (Shows a musician who made mistakes during a concert and the doctor staring at him, then a dinner celebration where they mention a missing musician who isn't good at it, a delicious dinner which the doctor wouldn't describe in terms of ingredients, a detective walks in and talks about the case and thinks that the killer is eating them, the detective finds the cook book) This allows the audience to realize what is going on, however the detective isn't certain yet that the killer is the doctor until the end of this clip. This dramatic irony is effective as it builds up the tension and makes the audience feel nervous for they know what is going on and yet the character does not.
-If we look at the etymological side of the doctor's name: Hannibal, it rhymes with Cannibal and this is by no means a coincidence, the name itself suggests the nature and habit of the doctor.
- A lot of symbols and hints of what is coming, this slow process is also helpful in terms of building tension and by presenting a symbol in a specific way, it may mislead the audience. As a result, the audience are more shocked at the end.
Black swan(thriller)
-Handheld shots: unbalanced, chaos, in a hurry, nervous, evil
-For Black swan in particular, the beginning of the film is symbolic to Nina's story in this film, how she from this innocent, hardworking pure ballet dancers to a wild, aggressive and determined person. Or in other words, the second side was always beneath her but gets revealed bit by bit.
-Close up: tension, reveals the details of an object or presence
-dark color: mystery, conventionally also evil
-harsh white spot lights: Brutal reality, harsh and pressured society
-the rather short mysterious scene of the ballet gets cut to when she wakes up From a dream. The dialogues and reactions all show that she is very nice and is passionate about Ballet.
Brick(detective, Crime thriller)
-establishing shot and close ups: to show location, surroundings and to highlight the tension or fear
-No dialogue: serious scenes, what is left unsaid is more powerful than what could have been said.
-leit motif of music
-insert shots: to show detail
-handheld: creates a sense of panic, unease and chaos
-POV shots: offers an insight to what the character is seeing, often makes the audience feel nervous because the audience becomes just as innocent as the character in terms of knowledge.
-"Brain": a convention in detective crime films is to have the "source"; a person who provides the detective with information. The name, rubrics cube and glasses are very much significant. According to Barthes, these semiotics stereotypically show that the boy is knowledgeable. Furthermore, the black shiny mustang also signifies power, wealth and evil. These allow the audience to have a general idea of what would possibly happen.
-Looking at Strauss' theory of binary oppositions, there is life and death in the beginning which is very capturing for the audience and makes them curious.
-Dramatic pause before the "source" speaks: this is to show the power of the detective, how noble and threatening Brendan is.
-The flow of water running through the girl's fingers could signify the loss of blood flow and transient nature of one's being.
-The dark tunnel also foreshadows the unknown danger in Brendan's journey.
Birdman(fantasy drama)
-A quote in the beginning gives the audience an idea of either what the film is about or foregrounds the message/ moral lesson of the film.
-The binary opposition of drum sounds and a sudden quiet, noiseless scene: A very mysterious and rather comedic effect, it also draws the audience's attention.
-Zoom in: makes the audience curious about what will happen because the image of a man floating in mid air is very odd.
-There are no cuts (no visible cuts) and is mostly handheld, POV tracking: Hints that there is someone following the character, this is supported by the low pitched voice in the beginning. This is a subversion of the fantasy drama genre, Birdman is also potentially one of the first movie to not have visible cuts. This generates a feeling of continuity and flow.
-The pace of the beginning of the movie is fast therefore requires high focus on the movie, it suggests that the character has a rather busy lifestyle. It also portrays the character's personality as well as daily routine.
Baby driver(action comedy)
-Quick cuts: Chaos and fast pace
-Nice, eye-catching car: to show status of the robbers
-Car chase: create excitement and nervousness for the audience
-Funky happy music with the nervous and dangerous situation: to highlight the driver's skillful ability, rather showing it off because it generates the idea that the driver finds the intense chase ok, he finds it entertaining rather than dangerous.
-Sunglasses: Cool and mysterious
-Skilled and organized movement within the group: in reality it wouldn't be as organized as it is in the film, this mainly lets the audience be aware that the group has done this many times and is very experienced.
-One of the team mate doubting the driver's ability: This usually also makes the audience worry and doubt a bit the character's ability however we see that at the end everything is fine. This increases our confidence for the driver.
References:
1: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0115.xml
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