What are the conventions of the thriller genre?

What are the conventions of the thriller genre?

Sound
The non-diegetic music in thrillers is fairly repetitive, creating anxiety and agitation for the audience. It's typically non-diegetic sound used to increase the tension and create a sense of pessimism, desperation and paranoia. The music acts as symbolic of the genre, as it prepares the audience for what's to come. Sound bridges are used to cut to another shot, without the action being interrupted, this is very important in a thriller as it allows the audience to still feel tension even when the action is no longer viewable. Dialogue is diegetic, and often the dialogue creates a very tense atmosphere, causing the audience to be 'on the edge of their seats' waiting for the action to begin. The speed of both the dialogue and music is dependent on the action taking place, thus, if the action is energetic and racy, the music and dialogue will match it.

Characters
The most common characters in a thriller film are often binary opposites, including a protagonist and an antagonist; the antagonist is commonly a psychopath, stalker, criminal or assassin attempting to harm the protagonist who is often an innocent character. Furthermore, they are often a character of alienation, and melancholic behaviour. The protagonist typically endures danger, having to escape a hazardous situation.

Narrative
Common narratives surrounding thrillers are: terrorism, romance triangles and political conspiracy. Generally, the narrative is very complex and convoluted, with twists within the plot, this keeps the audience intrigued, and interested in what may happen as the climax building plot progresses. The audience should be 'on the edge of their seats' as the plot builds to its climax, which is often when the protagonist is faced with a menacing situation.

Camera Work
A combination of close ups and mid shots are most commonly used in thrillers; these shots increase the anxiety and tension within the narrative. Long shots are rarely used, however when they are it is to allow the audience to see the setting, and gain knowledge of where the action will take place. Additionally, skewed camera angles are frequently used to portray the characters personalities, for example a low angle shot makes the character look bigger and more superior. As well as camera shots, editing plays an important part of thrillers as well; for example, flash backs are often used to increase the suspense and tension.

Mise-en-scene
The settings of thrillers are usually the same throughout, e.g. the same house. The colours in the setting are symbolic, using colours such as red to represent blood and danger. As well as this, semiotics is used in the setting to create tension and anxiety, the use of semiotics plays a more important role than the setting itself. An example of this is the common haunted house. Lighting is often dark, symbolic of the fear and tension the audience should be experiencing, shadows are used frequently to connote fear and danger. Colour of clothing does not vary an awful lot, reds, whites and blacks are commonly seen to represent danger, antagonist/protagonist characters and is also iconic of blood etc. Props are not used largely, however objects such as guns and weapons are used to highlight the ongoing theme throughout the film.

Editing
Editing is often fast paced, again increasing the tension within the film. Cuts are commonly use to switch between scenes and characters perspectives without interrupting the action and also increase the pace of the action, increasing the tensity within the film.