Research into conventions - Miss Miller

Conventions

When someone refers to the conventions of a certain thing for example the conventions of a typical comedy film, they are talking about the way in which things are usually done, within a typical comedy, so you would have certain characters set within the film to set up certain aspects to the genre.

Hence the idea follows with the idea of a film being conventional to a thriller film, a convention of a thriller film means to be conforming or adhering to accepted standards, within a film element which are common to different film genre patterns which can be viewed or used in different films from the same category.

It is important to have conventions towards the genre within your film of it's chosen genre as without them audience members may find that they are disappointed in the film as they thought that they would be watching a film of a particular genre however they are not able to make simple connections towards it making them feel cheated. So when creating my thriller I need to add these conventions no matter how small they are important for instance adding blood is an instant reference back to the genre and makes audience members feel comfortable in what they are watching. 

Here are some examples of conventions within a thriller film are:

Female victim/protagonist

Iconography

Typical antagonist/protagonist character situations

Low key lighting

Diegetic/ Non - diegetic sound

Shock, surprise, suspense

Slow editing

Enigma

Eerie music

Abandoned setting/dark/ isolated

Here is a scene from thriller film 'The Crush' of which I can use to demonstrate to you the conventions to a thriller film:

The crush is a 1993 thriller starring Alicia Silverstone (Adrian) as a fourteen year old who develops an obsession with Nick Eliot the writer lodging at the house she share's with her parents. The film has numerous different conventions to a thriller film as is shown within the clip above. For instance although Adrian isn't exactly your typical protagonist and is actually causing many problems, she is still a young attractive female who is in a great deal of pain and suffering, although what she is doing is viewed as wrong, audience members may actually feel sorrow for her after all she genuinely adore this man.

Nick does however fit the role of a typical protagonist portrayed within the genre he becomes a victim to Adrian no matter how much she may care for him he is still put in difficult  as well as frightening situations as a result of her destructive actions. As you can see in the scene above Nick's costume makes him appear like a nice, well manner, friendly, approachable man this helps the audience to recognise that he is innocent however as Adrian is also dressed as you would expect a sweet, innocent young girl to be it is set to confuse audience members at first as it does with all of the characters around Adrian who are fooled by the act she portrays herself with. 

The scene begins with very intense engaging music (non-diegetic sound), which causes suspense by allowing the audience to know that something bad is about to happen yet not telling them enough for them to know what will happen, this leaves audience members interested to find out what Adrian is going to do, creating suspense is a convention of a thriller as often it is this suspense that people find frightening or is the build up to them being scared. As she walks in the musics playing with her strides the camera zooms into a close up of her face, this is done to show her emotions to the audience as well as to encourage them to keep on guessing about her, she is a difficult character although she is infatuated by Nick that does not mean that he is safe around her, often within a thriller film there is a mentally unstable character such as Adrian again this is conventional to the thriller. 

The thriller genre is known for its screams from female characters, screams (on screen sound) can present many different things, often fear or danger, although it is not usually done in the way as it is by Adrian it is still conventional as it is something which thriller fans would expect to see/hear within films from their chosen genre. Her screams remind us that all is not safe for either of our characters, creating further suspense we want to know what the outcome of our characters time together will be, will Nick escape Adrian, will Adrian be found out for who she truly is? This is often done within the genre so to build both tension and suspense as well as keeping audience members guessing as to what will happen next hence keeping them watching more closely gaining their interest. 

Yet another convention to a thriller would be the fight scene between Nick and Adrian, there can be many different fight scenes within a thriller, there tends to be a 'big fight' scene however manly between the protagonist and antagonist. This 'classic' scene can be known to course a lot of frustration, for instance within the scene shown above it is obvious that something serious is happening between Nick and Adrian, there is a large audience as Nick a nice well respected man is standing in the crowd minding his own business then suddenly an evidently angry girl storms through and slaps him yet all anyone does is stand there and watch them in shock this may course frustration for audience members. After  they all allow Nick to leave with this woman and stand by as they hear the noise from the pairs encounter. Audience members want someone else from the crowd to come and help Nick save him from the trouble he could potentially be throwing himself into. This form of built up frustration is conventional of a thriller as often these elements are displayed within thriller films so to keep audience members watching as they feel that they need to see the happy ending for a character such as Nick, they need to see him be saved either by someone else or be saving himself. 

I will be taking inspiration from this when I come to do my own thriller film as I will be closely focusing on making sure I use crucial conventional elements to thriller within my film, what I have taken from film 'The Crush' is that I can make aspects of my film fit and be conventional to a thriller without necessarily having them fit in the exact same way as they usually would within a thriller film. For instance Adrian's screams although they weren't used as you would typically see them within a thriller they were still conventional to the genre hence filling them job and creating a affect by highlighting the danger and seriousness of the situation.  This will course me to think before adding conventions to the genre to my film 'is there another way I could be doing this?' I think this adds an interesting twist onto films of the genre. This clip has also made me consider the concept of not having a typical antagonist. Just because Adrian is a young nice enough seeming female doesn't mean that is in fact the case as the audience is able to realise without putting her in a typical antagonist costume such as a mask or dark clothing through following the plot line. This made me consider that this may be a more effective way to get the audience to view the antagonist after all when watching some films the audiences straight away recognises the villain as this is how they are set out to the audience but they have done nothing to consider this for themselves. It's as though they have been force feed information and therefore not really discovered this on there own, however had they done so they may find that they are able to connect with the film more so and have a great understanding of it as they have discovered a characters true intentions for them-self. This could also make the antagonist appear more sneaky and clever as they are able to fool everyone around them at such ease without ever having to change into a separate outfit to commit their evil deeds.