Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Treatment Sheet: Conventions of a Thriller Film

Thrillers are essentially about the battle of justice vs. injustice where often there is a price to be paid for the conclusion of the story. A thriller is a film of suspense with a plot structure that reinforces the elements of gamesmanship and the chase. Thrillers can be spy based, tales of geopolitical crisis, legal thrillers, medical thrillers, or domestic thrillers. Commonly thrillers progress with a growing sense of threat or danger and the excitement of pursuit.
Thriller films are normally shown from two characters points of view. The first being that of the protagonist, which involves the audience more in events and creates empathy for the character. Or the story is occasionally told from the view of the villain, which can lead to empathy for the villain also at their twisted understanding or perhaps disturbing past that has led to the present. Although it can also create a sense of guilt..Events in the storyline enable the film to progress, and allow the audience to second guess what will happen next. In many films this will be wrong so adds to suspense.
The dialogue in thrillers never contains a complete explanation of events or plot, to give it pace, and maintain the mystery, which is essential in building up suspense.

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