Thriller Opening- Conventions

In our opening we aim to incorporate many of the conventions of the thriller genre. With only the opening to go by, the girl could be a choice of characters, she could be a victim, in that she could have been killed and merely wants people to understand her and help her. But also she could be evil, a criminal in that in the opening she seems quite vicious and it looks like she aims to harm the other characters, so she may be a killer.

We also aim to make sure the narrative conforms to the conventions of a thriller, we are going to attempt to get across to the audience that someone is being watched i.e. the pizza delivery boy, also death is shown in the opening, both by the dead body in the swimming pool in the implication of death when the girl is standing behind the father, with her body language showing sinister intent.

In addition, we aim to include the usual themes of the thriller genre, one of which being revenge, at least that is what could be suggested to the audience in that we see the girls body and then she seems to be out to make someone suffer when she is suspiciously standing behind her father in the shadows. Linking in to that, shadows is part of the thriller iconography we want to use, this helps to create suspense and tension, it also adds to the malice of whatever is in the shadows, in this case the girl. To help with the darkness we plan to edit our filming on a computer so that it has a night time effect. This is easier, and leaves the film with better quality, than filming in quite dark conditions.

Following on from the shadows iconography, we also plan to use water in the film, both by the swimming pool and rain, which, unless raining anyway, we plan to use a hose to create.

All these things we have decided to include I think will help us greatly in creating an effective thriller.