How to create a thriller
- 2. The audience When creating a thriller film one must remember that it is of the essence that everything is done for the audience. It is all about how the scene is going to affect the viewers. The characters in the film should tease the audience and make them desperate enough to want to see more. The content is supposed to connect and draw the viewers in.
- 3. All about the eyes It is said that emotion is the ultimate goal in each scene of a film. Depending on where you place the camera it should evoke the emotion you want the audience to feel. Emotion can come from the actors facial expression/eyes and the camera can control the intensity of that emotion by either placing the camera far away or close to the eyes.
- 4. The camera In order to make the audience feel like they are part of and uncovering the stories the camera should take on a human like quality in which it liberally wanders around the room/location. The view than feels as if they are apart of the unravelling of the plot. If the camera pans the room and then focus on a particular object ( close up) this will help explain plot elements.
- 5. A good way to pull the viewer into the secret world of a character is if one of the characters are preoccupied with something else whilst in the middle of a dialogue scene ( their eyes can be distracted while the other person does not notice.) Do not resort to dialogue only when its impossible to do otherwise.
- 6. Montage (Truffaut) Anytime something important happens, show it in a close-up. Make sure the audience can see it. Create a Montage as you are able to depict an event by showing diffrent pieces of it and having control over the timing.
- 7. The plot The plot should not be confusing or too much to remember because you will not be able to get suspense out if it. A simple story that the viewer can easily follow is how one can create a Hitchcock feel to the sequence. Plots such as crime, murder ,assassinations , spies, play on fear.
- 8. Thrillers should suprise you at every step. This is why the characters should be 3 dimentional there is more to them than what meets they eye. These sort of characters are more realistic to the audience.
- 9. Atmosphere Use humour to add tension. if done corectly this can be used to build tension
- 10. Building tension In order to build tension into a scene you can use two unrelated things at they happen at once. This leaves the viewer focused on the momentum of one and distracted by the other one.
- 11. Creating suspense In order to create suspense with the characters. Show the audience a scene which presents a story that the audience will be anticipating and by enabling the audience to create an thought of how the ending of the film will happen . When doing this the characters carry on as if they don't know about the suspense scenes that have occurred whilst they have not been on stage. “The essential fact is to get real suspense you must let the audience have information." -- Alfred Hitchcock
- 12. Surprise and twist Surprise and twist means to create a plot for the viewers to pursue and then change it completely when they are not expecting it. This in turn creates a dramatic effect in order to make sure that the viewer is surprised by the storyline they're now being shown.
- 13. MacGuffin The plot should make sense to the audience in order to create the most interesting dramatic effects.