Research on Thillers

We have didcided to do the thiller genre as it is one of the most interesting and widely used Genre. Everyone loves a thriller.


Theres nothing like watching a film that gets your adrenaline flowing and gets you to move to the edge of your seat.

One of the most well know thriller of all time is 'Silence of the Lambs'
The plot is about a detective, Clarice Starling, who is assigned to save a missing woman from an extremely dangerous serial killer. She seeks help from another physcopath who used to be a very well respected psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter.

Clarice has to earn the respect of Lecter before he can be used to help them located and save the missing woman.

The film has some sterotypical thriller qualities such as the race againt time, A killer, Victim(s) and fast pace mood.
It has however, unique features such as the use of one evil to capture another evil, evil being used for good (Hannibal Lecter)
Red dragon is a sequal to Silence of the lambs and is simular.

There are alot of aspect that make a good thriller. Location a very important. Location can make or break the atmosphere.

Space - Sci Fi

Abandon house, Woods etc - Horror/Thriller

City - Crime, Action, Comedy

It is important the location fits the genre for every film. In Silence of the lambs they chose the perfect locations.

Quantico, West Virginia - Where we meet the young FBI agent Clarice Starling

Baltimore - Where Hannibal Lectre is prisoned



Tennessee - Where Buffalo Bills is hiding.

All the locations were filmed in the winter to give a cold and murky feels to the film. Although these locations are densely populated, it is filmed cleverly to give the feeling that although it is in a city, you are still alone and isolated.


We also choose the Thriller genre as it often features some of the most iconic camera shots. Hanible Lectre standing in his glass cage looking straight at the camera as if he was expecting you is an example of an iconic camera shot as the audioence remebers it for years after watching hte film. He continues to watch the camera as it moves directly infront of him as he hold his sinister smile. This picture is showen above.

A Film Industry

On the Warner Bros website it shows the viewer all the actors, movies, Video games and TV programmes that they have produced. This page is useful because it allows the view to jump to pages on the website quickly. The website can be found here: http://www.warnerbros.com/main/homepage.html

Warner Bros studio is where most of their films are made.

Did you know:

• It covers 110 acres of land!



• Has 20 acres that can be changes into any environment ranging from Jungle to normal road!



• Though out it's history, it has feature many amazing constructions for movies but one of the most amazing one was a water tank that could hold 2 millions gallons of water!



• It is open to the public for guided tours

• It is home to the famous Warner Bros Water tower that has been standing there since 1932

Warner Bros also own other smaller companies such as 'Castle Rock Entertainment' (who made 'When Harry met Sally') and Warner Bros TV (Who made 'Two and a Half Men' and 'Smallville')

Warner Bros is also a subsidiary of Time Warner which:

• Hires over 38,000 people worldwide

• Are Global leaders of Media and Enterainment

Evaluation of the Introduction to 'Memento'

The introduction of any film is to grab the audience's attention. Christopher Nolan film 'Memento' did this very well.

In his interview about the visual and narrtive style of his film 'Memento' he mentions how he wanted to put the audience in the head of the main charater. He also states that he used 'Scope with anamorphic lenses' to achive this.

The close up of the photograph and the hand holding it makes it feel like the viewer is actually there and holding the photograph. Along with the close up of the charater and his actions(such as taking the camera out), this make the audience feel claustrophobic and close to the main character. This is an example of how cinimatography can be used to set the mood and feel of scenes.

The interview can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2000/10/16/christopher_nolan_i_interview.shtml


In the introduction the audience is introduced to the movie with a devloped photograph from a camera, but as the introduction continues the photo becomes more and more blurry indicating that scene is going back in time. This throws the audience, who thought that they understood what they were seeing, and makes them confussed. This new confusion is used to add to the film's 'mysterious' feel and atmosphere.


As the time keeps going back, we are shown that he has taken a photo of a person that he has just shot.

The introduction of 'Memento' can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XzNIUt1dBQ&feature=related. This Youtube clip shows alot all of the introduction but it stops before we see the body.