Audience Expectations Of This Genre

The first image shows which genre people tend to like:

The next image shows which opening majority of people like:

The final graph shows which techniques an audience would like to find being used in a psychological thriller:

Using the research I did on what an audience looks for and enjoy in particular when it comes to watching a film, or a psychological thriller, I have found it easier to see which elements would be benefitial to include in my opening sequence. I see, from the second graph that more people enjoy a symbolic opening to a thriller in comparison to a narrative one, which is something me and my group can  work on. 

Research Into Typical Synopsis

Psychological thrillers, or just thrillers in general, often place an innocent victim (an average, responsible person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation, in a case of mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation.


Also, directors tend to use woman who are often subject to misogynistic abuse, threatening humiliation, or murder. They would then explore the darker sides of human nature through the situation, including sexuality and voyeurism, guilt and punishment, or paranoia and obsession. They let the viewer know that some horrible event would happen - creating unbearable suspense while viewers waited for the inevitable.


This genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. Occasionally this genre will border into the also wide-ranging horror genre. The Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. 


Here is an example of the beginning of a synopsis for a psychological thriller I found on the internet:
It’s 2008 in a beachfront Mediterranean home overlooking the bay in Laguna Beach, California.  Under the Southern California sun, wealthy widow and art collector Paloma Zubiondo believes she is safe and protected.  She hides in philanthropy and discipline, surrounded by rare books and the Spanish Colonial art collection she has been carefully building for years.  The phone rings in Paloma’s fortress and everything changes.  

Iconic Directors Of Psychological Thrillers

Alfred Hitchcock

This first name that springs to mind when thinking about psychological thrillers is the late Alfred Hitchcock. He was a British film director and producer, and was regarded as the master of thrillers

After becoming a success in England, Alfred decided to move to America to broaden his horizons and it was over the length of over half a century that he gained a reputation for himself as a for himself a distinctive and recognisable director. He carefully framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing.

The end of Hitchcock's films often have twist endings and thrilling plots including violence, murder, and crime. On the other hand, he also made many movies that were meant only to serve extremely complicated psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones Through his distinct way of film-making, he became a cultural icon.

"Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else."

 The Daily Telegraph

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American director, who also has a distinctive style, which has been dubbed "lynchian” He is also a television director, visual artist, musician, occasional actor, and is renowned for his surrealist films. The violence he incorporates into his films tend to disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences, making them all the more effective.

In the course of his career, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for best director and a nomination for best screenplay as well as many other awards in various countries.

One of the key themes that they noted was the usage of dreams and dreamlike imagery within his works, something they related to the "surrealist ethos" of relying "on the subconscious to provide visual drive".

Lynch also tends to feature his leading female actors in multiple or "split" roles, so that many of his female characters have multiple, fractured identities.

         "the most important director of this era"

        The Guardian

Iconic Sounds Connected With The Genre

                    The sound of someone getting 
                              closer and louder...
 
   the drip drip drip of a tap...
               
                                                        or the tap tap tap of a door knocking..

• Screaming is used in some situations depending on what type of thriller it is. For a psychological thriller, it is not used too often but may happen sometimes. 
• Dark creepy music, with dramatic changes in dynamics and pace to create suspense and make people feel uneasy.
• There is often a crow crowing, which may foreshadow an up coming death/ deaths. 
• In an action/thriller film, there is normally deep droning music to create suspense, and also there is normally and gradual build up of something about to happen e,g. if a train was about to come the sound of the train wouldn’t just start straight away, the sound of it would start very faintly and gradually get louder.
• Mainly in horror/thriller films, if the killer does speak, it tends to be a very deep low voice, with a constant creepy, angry tone mixed into it, to make the audience uneasy and more scared.
• In any thriller or sub-genre related to thriller films, the music being used would usually be deep, eerie and have a droning effect to it or, it would be a song being used which would have been taken from a rock or heavy metal band, loads of speedy guitar solo’s to match the action and make the scene more interesting for the audience.

For example, here are some infamous pieces of music associated with sub-genre's of thrillers:

Research- History Of Psychological Thriller's

After researching Psychological thrillers, I have found that it is a popular sub-genre of the thriller's, horror's and mysteries, however, it is more reliant on the characters mental state rather than their physical attributes. A crucial element of a psychological thriller is suspense. This can be created by the characters and their actions, which could either be done by playing deceptive mind games or them trying to mentally destroy each other. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one character who is resolving conflicts within their own mind, and is usually done so that the character can understand something that has happened to them.

There is a long history behind thrillers, nearly as long as cinema itself and the first thriller directors took a few techniques from a hugely popular serial literature of the time. 

One of the earliest thrillers was Harold Lloyd's comic 'Safety Last' (1923), which was about an all american boy performing a daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper. Another of the first thrillers was the haunting German film M (1931) directed by the great Fritz Lang, which was about a criminal deviant - a child killer. The film's story was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten (known as the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf'). 

No list of suspense or thriller films can be complete without mention of English film-maker/director Alfred Hitchcock. He helped to shape the modern-day thriller genre, beginning with his early silent film The Lodger (1926), a suspenseful Jack-the-Ripper story, followed by his next thriller Blackmail (1929), his first sound film (but also released in a silent version).

Three common techniques used in psychological thrillers are a stream of consciousness in which word usage, descriptions, or visuals are used to describe an individuals, first-person narrative which is in first person and is narrated by one or more of the characters, and finally back-story, which is the the history behind the character to help the audience understand their motivations and perceptions more.

Conventions Of A Psychological Thriller

Psychological thrillers are slightly more challenging than most mainstream movies. This may be because they often reverse the traditional 'thriller' balance of plot and character. A standard thriller emphasises plot; psychlogical thrillers however, emphasise character equally or more. Also, they are often analysed from a pschological point of view.

The main theme of 'Identity' involves mistaken identity, stolen identity, dual identity, doppelgangers, confused identity and amnesia. The theme of 'Perception and Reality' can give us an insight of the narrative from the perspective of mor than one characters. A character having a different perspective of what is and what isn't real compared to the norm is often used to establish in the film. These are all sub conventions of a psychological thriller, some more are:

• Clever and unusual plots making the audience think in depth, often back to front by using flashbacks avoiding the typical structure of films. (Such as action) Twists used at the end to make the audience doubt themselves 
• often end on a cliffhanger , not always a resolution 
• question reality
• unusual heros, different from most films where hero is stereotypically big, strong, handsome etc..
• unusual dark themes
• focus on one psychological dimension
• typical narrative structure not used
• parallel edits, use of flashbacks
• characters in conflict with their own mind due to psychologically related problems/handicaps
• 2 characters preying on each others minds
• Danger is on a mental level rather than physical
• Mysterious

This particular sub-genre have emerged and evolved over the past years, in many different types of media including, film, literature, radio and books. Although these types of media are different, there has been a consistent trend of conventions used within them. For example:

• The Mind- Which is where you will discover a persons  personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. This is often used to help characters reach understandings about themselves that they must first battle with their own mind and create a narrative conflict to do so.
• Purpose or Existence- This is when a character/characters try to discover the reason for their existence, which is often shown and resolved through the narrative's conflict.
• Reality – The quality of being real. When the characters try to determine what is true and what isn't, within the narrative.
• Perception – An unreliable narrator is often used to alter the interpretation of the world around them through senses. They sometimes misperceive characters.
• Identity – This is when the characters are confused about who they are and try to discover their true identity.
• Death – Characters often either fear or have a fascination with death in this genre, however, it is less gorey and more psychological.

Virgin Shorts - First Press

This is another one of the short films that although, wasn't my favourite, had an effective way of keeping the main point of the 'initiation' a mystery until the end of the clip. There is a nervous and uncomfortable uncertainty created by the film makers, which is typical in the given situation, however, the comedic twist at the end is a light hearted and unexpected end to the clip.

In my opening sequence, the element of uncertainty will be highly important, because I want to create a certain atmosphere without giving too much of the story away, yet enough to keep an audience wanting to see more. The dress sense of the characters, and also the build, indicate that they are an elite group, also reminding the audience of a dangerous, mafia type gang. You wouldn't think that they would be doing something as innocent as flower pressing. Also, the voice of the main character himself, and the things he says like 'the first time is always the hardest' whilst putting gloves on are often elements found in murder films.

The close up of props that are used can be incorporated in my opening sequence, because props often create more tension because the audience will not know why or what they are there for.