Task 1: How has my film matched or challenged the conventions of a thriller

In our thriller we use a woman as our main character, in more detail she is a Russian spy who had gotten in trouble with the wrong people. Now the people are after her to kill her and her associates. This conforms the idea of a thriller with spies, our spy thriller is stereotypical to other films that some people are chasing after the spy, and one example of this type of thriller is the movie “Salt”. This movie is about a woman who is accused for being a Russian spy, and now she is on the run.

           

            We first had a tracking establishing shot of the two character’s surroundings, this usually conforms the regular movie. By doing so the viewer is able to understand in what kind of environment the characters are based and if they are in a safe or dangerous surroundings.

            In our thriller there is one part where the male asks for help in carrying a heavy bag to the car, this subverts the idea of a male in a thriller. This relates to gender in a thriller, if the male would be the main character he would not be asking for help from a woman to show that he is able to handle things by himself and he does need help from anyone. This would usually conform the idea of a male in the thriller, but since the woman is the main character this shows that she is the one who can stand up for herself and is able to handle any situation. This is what happened in “Salt” where she has to take care of everything and she is alone with no one to depend on.

            In a common thriller the tension usually builds up to the climax by either the shot having quicker cuts, or by the sound building tension until something big happens. For our climax we did not really have a build up music or the cuts getting faster and faster. Our thriller subverts the stereotypical idea of a climactic moment in a movie.

A woman in a common thriller is usually portrayed as someone who would try to avoid trouble; as for our thriller as soon as trouble breaks loose she breaks into action in her goal to kill the person who wants to assassinate her. This both subverts and conforms the idea of a woman in a thriller; in some thrillers that the main character is a woman an example of that is in the movie “Salt”, it would usually mean that the woman would be ready for anything and at any circumstance. In the thrillers that the woman in not the main character but only the side character she is more likely to be more scared and confused if the same problem came along. This again relates back to gender, when the main character is male the woman who would be a side character would depend on the male to solve the problem. If the woman in a movie has no one to depend on then it would mean that she would be able to take care of her in certain situations.