Genre and the Thriller genre - Research

I am doing some more background research on genre and how it has changed in recent years, as i am looking to make an opening of the "thriller" genre, however more recently it could be said that genre's boundaries are breaking down. I am also going some research on the thriller genre so i have a better understanding of that, including hybrids and subgenre's, which will help me think about what our opening might be, it could be a mix of a few, this is called a hybrid. the type of genre will also affect the conventions seen within it, so this will help me know which conventions apply to my chosen genre.


Genre
A genre is a set of codes and conventions that make it fit a certain label - this is then labelled as a certain genre. an example of this is if a film has a boy meets girl situation, a plot involving love, complications of love and romantic situations it will be labelled a romance. Other things can be part of these conventions such as sound, editing, mis-en-scene, that make a film fit a particular genre. in recent years, regenrification has happened, and films tend be a mix of more than one genre ( this is called hybridisation), such as a romantic comedy or a sci fi horror. this often appeals to a wider range of people and means that films can still be new and interesting rather than sticking to a simple genre convention.
Genre theorists originally places genre's in strict boundaries, and didn't consider that they may overlap and cross over into each other, and be influenced by each other. Rick Altman was the first theorist to put forward the idea of hybrid genre's and that there is "cross pollination" between each genre. he says that genre's can not evolve without being significantly affected by other genre's. Altman also argued that genre's start off simply semantic elements, and evolve and change to be classed as a genre, they then expand and evolve further through many sub genre's and then mix to become hybrids. semantic elements of a genre are what people often use to place them into that genre, without looking deeper, these are things such as aesthetics and plot lines. Altman suggested looking at genre in a different way, by looking at the semantic elements and making a relationship between them and society, this is called syntactics. this is a much more in depth way of analysing genre, suggesting that whilst looking at the essential principles, we should also look at the presentation of society. this had an effect on the way people looked at genre, and bent the strict confinements.



Thriller Genre



Thriller is a certain type of genre that is known for suspense, tension and excitement. the main sub genre's are mystery, crime and psychological. thriller mostly contain violence, crime, murder, danger but also action and often a happy ending. they also rely on plot twists, cliffhangers and breaking the rules of the genre to keep each thriller different and new



Crime thriller:
This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes, such as Sin City (2005)

Common themes include robberies, murders, and double crosses.

Psychological thriller:
In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical



Mystery thriller:
 Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or are involved in, a mystery.

Action Thriller

These films are characterized by fast-paced, hero-centered narratives full of action and excitement.

such as Die Hard (1988).

Religious Thriller

Thrillers based on religious teachings, events, and customs. . sometimes they can be quite controversial as they examine people's beliefs, so they usually get a lot of mixed press. such as The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Spy Thriller

The hero is usually a government agent who must take violent action against agents from a rival government or terrorists, such as The Bourne Identity (2002)

Most thrillers are formed in some combination of the above, with horror, conspiracy, and psychological tricks used most commonly to heighten tension. The sub-genres overlap and can be put into several different categories. All of them create tension, suspense, and excitement for the viewers.



 

I found this research useful when understanding how to look at and analyse genre, and how to place them. this will help when i am analysing successful thriller opening, so i can understand it semantically and syntactically, which will give me a deeper understanding of the intentions of the piece. i also think it is important that i have a basic knowledge of genre before i can really talk about it in existing works. it was also useful to look at the breakdown of the thriller genre and some of the subgenre's that exist, what conventions they have, and some examples of these, i will go and analyse some of these examples, so i can look at openings from many different sub genres before i think any further about confining my opening to one sub genre. it has also showed me that i need to consider the need for a specific genre at all, and i can look at mixing them into a hybrid, which might make something new and never been seen, and that it is acceptable to do this, as genre's are constantly evolving.