Thriller Film Openings: Conventions

Sarah:
This poster was made to make notes on the general conventions of thriller film openings. The mise-en-scene we included were the themes, characters, time, lighting and then we also though that a main part of a thriller opening is making it exciting and thrilling. These parts combined all make an excellent and successful thriller opening when done well.
The main theme we thought that would work well and that we might want to work towards for our final thriller film was a psychological thriller as we found them the most interesting and intriguing as they play with your mind and really get you thinking which really involves the audience. For a psychological thriller we thought that obsession. mind games, and stalkers were quite key sub-themes. Also, some sub-themes for general thrillers we thought might include kidnappings, crimes, enigma (mystery), etc. At least one of these themes usually take place in a thriller film.
The characters we came up with are very typically thriller film related, for example: cops/policemen, innocent victim, assassins, escaped convict, criminal, stalker, menaced woman and a character that you cannot tell if they are good or bad until the end of the film. At least one of these is also usually included in a thriller film.
As for the lighting, most thriller film openings take the simplistic but effective route of black and white or very dark lights. This type of lighting is very typically thriller film related as it creates and atmosphere of mystery and eeriness.
The time slot for a thriller film is usually opposite ends of the spectrum. Most time frames for thriller openings happen either really quick or build up really slowly, there never seems to be much of an in-between.
 Also, a main convention is making the audience want to continue watching the film by making it thrilling and exciting to draw their attention to the plot and the characters.