What is a thriller? How are they made? Why are they so enjoyable to watch? These are all questions that we answered through our latest project, Thrill Us.
In this project, we viewed many different types of thrillers in an attempt to better understand the vision of their creators. A thriller is a film style that builds suspense and anxiety for the viewer, and often has a climactic and mysterious ending. We used this medium of film to better understand how we can bring our own creative ideas to life through videography and storytelling.
We started off by practicing our photography skills through a number of activities, and worked on creating clear storyboards. Our first assignment was to create a storyboard for the short thriller Run! We were also asked to examine the shot styles, acting, and sound construction of the film.
Next we were put into groups and told to recreate the film Run! and try to match it shot for shot. This took a long time to do, as it was a lot of hands on work. If you want to learn all about this, you can visit my blog post on the subject:
We spent the first portion of the project learning how to create a film, and our final task was just that! We got to pick a group to work with to write, direct, and act in our own short thrillers! My group’s film was called “the basketball,” and was a thriller with very little dialogue. It was meant to leave the viewer a little confused and disoriented while still being enjoyable. I created the storyboard, and did a large amount of editing on the final video. There was a lot of trial and error, and I learned a lot about using editing software, as well as working together to create something amazing! Here’s a link to my video:
The Contract, and Clock, and the Crucible. These are the three main factors that contribute to a thriller. We can find examples of all of these in the thriller Black Hole. The premise of this film was that human greed is an infinite black hole, and he practically signed a contract when he started using the power of the black hole. The more used it, the more greedy he became, and eventually it was his demise. The Clock can be seen in his impending doom, and as he keeps using it’s power for bigger things, it creates a ticking time-bomb for a climax in the viewer’s mind. The Crucible is apparent in the confined space that the main character is in, and how he ends up trapping himself in the safe. The crucible means a challenge or difficulty that the main character has to get out of, and it’s normally a result of their previous actions.
The film was meant to show what happens when a human gets too greedy. This is made very obvious when the man starts to take money out of the safe, and it sucks him in. Thrillers are meant to insight fear into everyday objects and settings, which makes a printer paper perfect for this concept. The film did a great job of showcasing this idea, but also making the viewer feel like they were really in the office with the man, alone. If I had created this film, I would have included more wide shots to show how truly alone the main character was, and include louder music to truly build up to the climax. I also would have given a bit more context to the character of the black hole. Altogether, there isn’t a lot that would change about this film, other than a few minor details. The production quality was amazing, and truly transported the viewer to another world.