Researching Chosen Genre

Researching your chosen genre

Action Thriller

In stereotypical action thriller movies, the stock characters are: hero, villain, victim and lover. There are normally two teams against each other, competing with one another over something or someone. There is normally a build up of events which leads up to a scene of the two groups or two individuals meeting and there is often a huge fight involving guns, fire, physical fighting and someone close to one of the teams being held hostage. The characters also normally become more scruffy  in appearance as the film goes on as it shows they are focused on what they have to do to get what they want rather than anything else.

There are normally a lot of events involving crimes or murders occurring at the beginning or even before the film starts which the villains normally seem to have got away with as the police are not a big part of this genre of film. If the villain is punished, it is usually at the hands of the hero, often through a revenge scenario. There is normally one hero or group, fighting for a good reason while the other group or individual has bad intentions.

The hero is normally the one who has to stop the plans of the villains to save his life or the life of others. There is also normally a love scene where you see one of the individual’s emotions and the viewer becomes more attached to them as they feel closer to them and also because having a love interest gives them more to lose. Normally there is only one group who wins and typically it is the group that the audiences feel closer to (the good guys) and they become the heroes. The good guy is never completely innocent but as the audience likes him or her and feels closer to them that never normally matters.

I looked at 'Taken' when researching action thriller, this I think was a great film to refer to as it is a very dramatic and exciting film. It is edited very well and uses a lot of different camera angles and movements.

Mise-en-scene

Lighting- normally  in action thrillers in the build up to the events lighting is high key so that the audience can take in all the detail to establish what it going on. Normally in the day light, they use natural lighting for example the sun light of being outside. When action events happen there is normally low key lighting to make the event seen more dark and gloomy. Also they use back lighting which can give off a strong contrast between the character and the object for example the bad guy and a gun, the lighting can bring out the fact he has a gun in his hand and is going to do something bad with it by use of silhouette. Another lighting state they may use is hard lighting make scenes looks more brutal with the harsh textures and crisp edges. As we are filming in December, we are hoping that we get a bright, crisp day as the lighitng will work well for us.

Costume -normally men wear suits to look smart and important but then throughout the film it changes to plainer, ordinary clothes (jeans, dirty tops).  Normally of the actors will normally also wear sun glasses to look important and cool. The clothing is normally dark to show it is not a happy film. The woman in the film (lover) normally wears tight or figure hugging outfits to bring out the fact that she is very pretty. Her outfits are normally more colourful to show she is a happier part of the film.

Setting-normally starts off in a city and then when the fight actually happens it is in more of a remote area. This shows the audience that because what they are doing is bad that they cannot be in an area with a lot of people. When in the city, the characters are normally in rich and glamorous places. It is set in an exterior location.

Actors -The men in the film are normally very muscular and rough looking, the men all look quite similar. The women in the film are normally beautiful and look very glamorous. even when they are in dangerous situations.  

Props -normally a gun and high tech electrical gadgets. Phones are normally also a main prop as it is used to connect with the other character to see if they are okay. There are normally fast cars that are used to be smashed up in the fights and also used to get away from the enemy quickly. For example in Taken there are a lot of fast car chases while shows action and excitement.

Camera angles and movements

-close up is used to show the importance of a character and to establish the emotion and to feel closer to the character

-long shot is used to show both the groups fighting

-canted angle is used to show confusion that something is wrong

-pov shot is used with the main character so that the

-Establishing shot is used as the location is important key element as it can used to pick up places they have already been

-Short take used to create pace and a feeling of immediacy- used in the fighting scenes

Editing decisions

-making the shots look more blurred and dark so that it is more easily shown that the scene is looking back in the past

-extreme close up to show emotion and importance of a character

-cross cutting used for conversation between two people

-cut to quickly move to one shot to another so that it can show madness / disturbed psychological states that so many things are happening at the same time

Conventional ways of using sound

-dark, gloomy music builds up to a scene, this builds up suspense

-quick low music in fighting scene to make the fight seem more dramatic

-in the love scene there is slow happy music to show this is a happier part
- use of soundscapes to establish a dangerous past / memory - this is something we might well use.