Portfolio Project Genre #2

                                    

                                  Thriller

I have chosen the genre of thriller for one of my genre blogs as part of my portfolio project for several reasons. One of the reasons I have chosen a thriller is that thriller goes good with my other genre blogs, that was the mystery film genre. This allows my group and me to mix genres together, and it gives us a big range of things we can do in our two-minute film opening. And thriller is a good genre to have a lot of emotion. This helps us develop our characters way better than other genres. Thriller is the type of genre that can awaken suspense, excitement, and a lot of tension. It can often keep the audience very nervous and roused. The thriller genre has a lot of sub-genres that go well with it, like psychological thriller, crime thriller, legal thriller, political thriller, and techno-thriller.

The target audience for the thriller genre is between the ages of 15 to 50 years old, both females and males. But thriller drifts to favor a more male-dominated target audience due to the type of action and fast-paced editing. The thriller genre films that have more action and violence usually target the working to middle-class males. For the thriller genre, films are of interest to both genders and a variety of classes and races; it has to have typical thriller conventions like action and suspense, while including a diverse cast. Knowing this information, it helps my group and me know what thriller target audience we go after.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

What makes thrillers so iconic and interesting is all the film's trailers and marketing. For example, the trailer for Gone Girl. The thriller genre is set apart by its skills to awaken a range of emotions and reactions from the viewers. It is able to achieve this by the combination of narrative elements, thematic depth, and technical choices. The thriller genre has some key institutional conventions that make it successful. Like narrative structure, thematic elements, technical elements, mise-en-scene, and marketing. Knowing this fact is very helpful for creating my portfolio project.

The genre of thriller is identified by its skills that bring out strong feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, and anxiety. The thriller genre is defined by key conventions and content elements like suspense, tension, narrative structure, mise-en-scene, camera shots and movement, editing and sound, and character dynamics. For the camera shots and movement, my group and I have to use tilt shots, close-ups, and high-angle shots for a thriller film.  Jump cuts and cross-cutting are used in thriller films to build up suspense. Knowing this helps a lot with my project. 

The thriller film genre uses particular techniques to create suspense and tension, which helps the genre's success. The thriller uses different conventions and techniques, like editing, a lot mise-en-scene, sound, and cinematography. This techniques and conventions work together to help to portray danger and curiosity to the viewer by showing criminal activities. This helps my group and me know what we have to focus on when filming represent the thriller genre very well.

  The two thriller films that stand out are Breaking Bad and Se7en. These two films have a lot of thriller, plot twist and suspense. For example, Breaking Bad is a crime/drama thriller that used the "ticking clock" to show a terminal illness and danger to keep the suspense in the many seasons. These films represent the thriller genre very well.

With all of this information about the thriller genre, it helps me want to film a two-minute film opening because it makes me want to make my own thriller film. I love the suspense. So, I'm probably creating a mystery two-minute film opening for my portfolio project.

 

References

20th Century Studios. (2014). Gone Girl | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-_-1nJf8Vg

Font, T. (2026). Thriller Font Stock Illustrations – 457 Thriller Font Stock Illustrations, Vectors & Clipart - Dreamstime. Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/illustration/thriller-font.html

kieranlowen123. (2026). Codes and conventions of a thriller. Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/codes-and-conventions-of-a-thriller-16501294/16501294

Mac, L. (2016, April 14). Conventions of the thriller genre. MindMeister. https://www.mindmeister.com/685037204/conventions-of-the-thriller-genre

WATCHLIST. (2021, June 3). Top 10 Best Thriller Movies. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1RiQsqG2OE