My Thriller Short Film Moodboard: Genre Theory.

 For my Thriller mood board, I based all my research and information around the genre, instead of brainstorming ideas for the narrative. I began my presentation by defining and explaining what a thriller is, and i wrote it on the bottom of the the title but because the quality of the picture is quite poor, i will type it out. "Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds of thriller. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action adventure thriller, medi-evil thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller. The list goes on and on with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this opening to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground it the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing it's job.'

 Because i chose a short film instead of a music video, i will have to do a film poster and a film review. I have taken some examples of contemporary thriller films from a a variety of sub genres, such as horror thriller (The Crazies), mystery-crime thriller (Shutter Island), action/adventure thriller (Limitless) and psychological thriller (Black Swan). My narrative is going to be a gang-violence related horror thriller, with scary, intimidating looking characters that chase after a main protagonist. So I'm going to be focusing on more thriller-horror conventions for my film poster, and in my film review i will be pointing out the recognisable thriller conventions.

 I found a thriller short film on YouTube called strangers, and I took screenshots of it and turned into a step-by-step storyboard, and i picked out all the key conventions and ideas behind the short-film.
In the establishing short, a lone man gets on a train, immediately connoting that he's in an urban environment, which is a typical setting for a thriller. The train is quite poorly lighten, creating a lot of shadow and this therefore creates a lot of intrigue and suspense, another typical thriller convention. The two shots of the newspaper and the man holding the Jewish star necklace defines the characters, by using simple codes that the audience can recognise. Looks are shared between the two characters, creating a lot of racial tension.

Then the antagonists are then introduced and recognised, as the skin headed group of men spray paint a swastika on the Muslims newspaper. Tension, suspense, excitement and intrigue is present in the audience. A fast-paced chase scene is then quickly introduced and the Jewish man and the Muslim are then running away from the Nazi's, with typical thriller camera work, shaky and fast editing that connotes urgency, and then they narrowly escape, by swiftly moving through opposite train doors, and they then go their seperate ways.

What makes this video so succesful and an amazing short-film thriller is the fact that not a word is said throughout the whole video, tension and fear are just implied through the use of music and camera work such as the extreme close up on the faces so the audience can really see the emotions and reactions of the characters. I want my short-film to be the same as this, the non-use of speech is so powerful in this video, and it makes the sudden escape so much more exciting. In my shortfilm, I want to use this same approach to film making, so i won't concentrate on speech but music, and camera work that can all imply fear, urgency and tension etc..

So this part of my mood board was focused on possible narrative settings, i already have some ideas on where i would like to shoot my short-film. Because i live in exmouth, i know where a lot of narrow alleyways and rough urban enviroments can be located, and they would be perfect for a get-away or confrontation with the enemy scenes. All my footage will be shot at night and in quite contricted spaces. Every succesful thrilller takes place in an urban environment and problems usually start to escalate at night-time, as the darkness and simple street lighting connotes mystery and a lot of suspense, so shooting my footage in Exeter and Exmouth at about nine o clock onwards, will be perfect for my short thriller.

Film-Noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas that were usually used in the 1940's and 50's crime films/crime fiction. Film Noir can have variable main protagonists, so you can take any character any character and face him/her into the plot. Usually policeman or ordinary citizens are introduced, and then lured into a life of crime. Film Noir isn't a distinct genre, but it has recognisable conventions. They are very similar to thrillers, or to be more precise, physchological crime thrillers, as they rarely have intense action and tense chase scenes, but they deal with mental and emotional struggles, as well as rare scenes of blood, murder and violence.

In order to prepare and brainstorm ideas for my ancillary task of creating a movie poster, I thought it would appropriate to include modern thriller movie posters, so i can pick out the key conventions of the specific sub-genres. The three film posters i am most fond of are 'The Crazies', 'Shutter Island' and 'Law Abiding Citizen'. I think that a heavy use of shadow and silhouettes would be an important element to include in my thriller film poster, as i'm mainly focusing on the psychological horror thriller. Initial ideas so far are to have the main protagonist centre front, with heavy shadowing so you can only see one half of the character, the shadowing stretching vertically

and covering half of the protagonist, who could possibly be in a running pose, I'm not entirely sure if i  Then in the background, will be a silhouette of a city landscape, with a line of character infront of it (the antagonists). These antagonists will be wearing dark clothing, so therefore their bodies will be more or less completely shadowed. I've recently watched a clockwork orange, and i have a slight obsession with the masks they wear, and i really want to try and incorporate masks into my film. So i may or not may not use frightening in the background, and that's the only visible aspect of the evil characters. I'm going to do some sketches of possible poster options, i'll include masks but it's not a definite idea.

I created a short list of Sub-Genres, so i pick out
possibilities for my own short film. The thriller genre has so many sub-genres, it's difficult to choose. Even though this opening to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics, I decided to narrow my choices down to either horror thriller or psychological thriller. I decided to choose both. A horror psychological thriller won't be hard to do, as there are so many recognisable conventions that can be used together to make a great short film. 'Strangers' had elements of both, although it was more psychological thriller than horror thriller.