Thriller Definition.

Thriller is a genre of film and television which uses suspense, enigma, mystery and tension as some of the main elements in a thriller genre film or program. There are thriller sub-genres including action, horror and crime. Some thrillers use allot of red herrings and cliffhangers to throw you of course and take you in a new direction of the film and also use plot twists to change the course of storyline.

Audience Research

I went on to the website Box Office Mojo and looked at the overall popularity and grossing of thriller films. Here are the results.

The sub genera 'On the Run' has the highest popularity and grossing, followed by 'Political' both are popular genres as seen from the amount of money made from each of the different sub genres.

Films such as 'Skyfall' which is a thriller grossed allot of popularity and money for example on the opening weekend it grossed $88,364,714. Thriller films seem to be one of the bigger genres from the amount of money made from allot of the thriller films out especially at the moment another example is Alfred Hitchcocks 'North by Northwest' which grossed $13,275,000.

On the IMDb website, you can see the two top films grossing the most amount of money are both thriller films. IMDb is a website which is a database for films and people can vote and give them a sore out of 10. It seems that thriller films are allot of the time, especially at this point in the year, are allot of the time the top grossing films compared to other films out at the same time. This shows that allot of the time the thriller genre is preferred to other genres.

On IMDb's top rated 250, the top three films are of the thriller genre, they all have 9.0 or over. Also IMDb is from the public voting for what films they like and what they would like the rating to be, this means thriller films are the most popular within IMDb's website.

Ideas for thriller opening.

• A vigilante.
• Wears dark clothing like a trench coat and suit trousers.
• Smart shoes.
• The opening starts with the man sitting at a table, the room he is in is dark and the outside weather is raining.
• He has a map in front of him with a small circle drawn on it.
• He then gets up looks out of his window and walks over to a board.
• On the board there are about 10 (or more) small photos of people's faces, 3 or 4 are crossed out.
• 2 of the photos have circles drawn around them (to show significance)
• He picks up the photos and puts them in his pocket.
• The shot then changes to a man sitting in a room reading a newspaper with a girl tied up in the corner, she has her head down and not really moving.
• Another man then enters the room, walks past the girl and sits down.
• Cut to the vigilante who is leaving his house, as he closes the door behind him he takes one last look at the 2 photos, before putting them back in his pocket.
• He is then seen leaving the house on foot.
• You see him walk towards the house and moves to the garage door where he listens in.
• He opens the garage door and runs in.
• The door shuts behind him.
• As the door shuts the screen goes black. 
• You can hear smashing and movement coming from the room.
• Then there is silence and the title fades in.

Opening Sequence Analysis.

The opening to the T.V show Mad Men shows a shadowed man enter an office room and put down his suitcase, the style of the opening has a unique feel, it is as if it has been put together using card and gives a graphic feeling. You can tell the man is a business man from the suit he is wearing and the office environment, the briefcase is also a giveaway as well. The violins playing give a very dramatic feel and add tension into the scene, they are also the only instruments playing. I like how tense the music is and you can tell this is a drama or thriller, also how unique the graphics and art style are and the titles are easily seen. I would use something similar for my opening sequence as the music adds tension and builds up something dramatic.

The room round him begins to collapse and the office objects (desk, lamp, windows ect) begin to fall beneath him, he then falls with them. This could show a business collapsing, or his life. The music then picks up and a beat is introduced, making the scene more dramatic as he falls.

The titles used are clear and easy to read, this is because the contrast between the black and red text are easily seen on the white/cream background, it also links with the shadowed man. The text is very simple and I like the fact they aren't in your face but just continuously fading in and out throughout the whole opening. I would use something as simple as these to give the opening a simple but effective look. 

To analyse this opening sequence I used Art of the title to view the opening, then took screenshots to help show which parts of the opening I was talking about. 

Vertigo.

• The first shots are close ups of different parts of a face, like it is a examination.
• The extreme close up of the eye turns red, like blood or anger. Makes it feel like a horror or worry.
• You can clearly see the white font from the dark shots.
• There is a spiral animation which is used in hypnotism, shows it is a psychological thriller.
• Vertigo has something to do with the mind, so this means the film will we have a psychological feel.
• The women seems innocent.
• The spirals change colour.
• Why is the women here? Adds enigma.
• Hypnotised or falling effects are given from the spiral.
• The music is tense, however soft like hypnotism.
• The music becomes smoother as you get further through the spiral sequence.
• The start of the eye colour of the girl is not seen it just looks black. Which adds enigma.
• The women seems scared/worried and it seems like she is being forced to stay still.
• The colour pallet is dark which shows the unknown and horror.
• Fear is a big element because of how scared the women is. 

Bourne Identity.

• The start shows a nightmare happening, but what has happened which would lead to haunt him?
• Who is the women and why is she helping him?
• Who was shot in the dream?
• Is he ill?
• All these questions add enigma to what is happening in the story.
• It is dramatic to start and builds up tension.
• Voices in the dream are heard although they're indistinct.
• Wooshy sounds are heard to show speed.
• Gunshot wakes him up, voices are heard but can't work out what they are saying.
• Wakes up - Rain on the window and it is windy - Pathetic fallacy.
• When they're talking the women isn't panicking so it must have happened before.
• Out of focus, follows the man down the street. Point of view.
• When the man gets out of bed the camera follows him all the way to the bathroom without cutting.
• Persons silhouette past the camera.
• Shot and reverse shot from the man and women.
• It looks like a thriller/action from the violence and enigma.