Thriller conventions

Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, and Claude Levi-Strauss are theorists who have different ideas about the conventions that make up thriller films. We have used these theories to help us develop the ideas for our own opening.

Roland Barthes believes that if you look at films from lots of different perspectives you are able to gain a greater understanding of a film. He also believes that most thriller movies have narrative codes, which are used to help analysis and define a film’s meaning. These codes include; action and enigma codes, symbols and signs, simple description and points of cultural reference. This theory defiantly applies to certain areas of our own opening because we have tried to create an enigma code, when the antagonist is watching the protagonist. The audience does not know why he is watching her, therefore creating and enigma code. Our opening also finishes with an enigma code because we focus on a date and the audience does not yet know why the date is circled.

Tzvetan Todorov is a theorist who pay’s particular focus to thrillers. He believes that thrillers generally follow a distinctive pattern, where they begin with a state of equilibrium. As the film progresses the equilibrium is then disrupted, followed by the acceptance that the equilibrium has changed. The protagonist then tries to re-establish the stability that has been lost, which is what eventually happens. This theory applies to our own opening because although towards the end of our opening, something suspicious is happening, nothing has actually happened to our victim yet and she is carrying on with her everyday life.

Vladimir Propp’s theory focuses on character roles. His theory states that there are eight main character roles:
The villain.
The hero
The false hero (take praise for the work done by the hero)
The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)
The donor (someone who provides the hero with a magical object)
The helper (helps the hero)
The princess (the one who is the hero’s reward and the object of the villains schemes)
Her farther.

Although out opening does include a princess and a villain our opening does not posses all of the characters who are included in Propp’s theory, its is left open meaning there is still the potential for the rest of the characters to follow in the rest of the film. A theory like this has given us guidance on the sort of characters we would include in the movie to help make our opening convincing as a thriller.

The final theorist we have looked at is Claude Levi-Strauss. Strauss focuses on narrative structures by looking at the binary opposites, such as love and hate and good and evil, which constantly cause conflict within the film. We can apply this theory to our opening because there is a clear contrast between the two characters we meet in the opening.

By Chloe Barnham