Thriller Industry

'Thriller is a genre of literature,film and television programming that uses suspence, tension and excitement as its main elements' - Wikipedia
In order to see the different companies heavily involved with the thriller genre, I used IMDb to look at the production companies of the top 10 highest rated thriller films.
1- XYZ Films
2- Wellington films
3- Mindworks Media
4- A Shirwad Cinemas
5- 14 Reels Entertainment
6- Warner Bros.
7- Mirimax Films
8- The Steam Motion and Sound
9- Warner Bros.
10- Creathma Productions
As you can see from the results of my research, the major companies involved are very varied and there isn't one major company dominating. This is due to Thrillers being popular films with the audience and companies want to produce films people will go and see so its a genre a lot of companies are interested in.
This has changed drastically from the past as before the film industry developed, there would be one production company dominating each genre.
Recently there has been a change in the thriller genre due to industrial franchises, for example James Bond. They have almost become their own small sub-genre within the large thriller industry.

Ideas for Movie Title

Previous Thriller Titles

• -Psycho
• -Seven
• -The Silence of the Lambs
• -Shutter Island
• -Saw
• -Memento
• -Black Swan
• -Identify
• -The Sixth Sence
• -Inception
• -The Others
• -Vertigo
• -Rear Window
• -Taken
• -The Shining

By researching previous thriller titles I was able to pick out the common conventions of the title to help me decide my own...
- Most of the titles, seem to be either one or two words rather than a short sentence or phrase
- The titles also don't give anything away about the narrative,or the characters creating a sense of mystery
 From my research i conducted 4 possible titles,  Derivation, Intrusion, Infraction and Provenance. All of which follow the common thriller title conventions, and the final title will be decided through audience research.

Seven Title Sequence

New line cinema presents
Arnold Kopelson Production
A film by David Fincher
Brad Pitt
Morgan Freeman
Seven
Gwyneth Paltrow
Richard Roundtree
R.Lee Ermey
John C. Mcginley
Julie Araskog     Mark Boone Junior
John Cassini--Reginald E.Cathey--Peter Crombie
Hawthorne James--Michael Massee--Leland Orser
Richard Partnow--Richard Schiff--Pamola Tyson
Casting by   Billy Hopkins--Suzanne Smith--Kerry Borden
Music By Howard Shore
Costumes Desgined by Michael Kaplan
Edited by Richard Francis-Bruce
Production Designed by Arthur Max
Director of Photography Darius Khondji
Co-producers   Stephen Brown--Nana Greenwald--Sanford Panitch
Co-Executive Producrs- Lynn Harris--Richard Saperstein
Executive Producers Gianni Nunnari--Dan Kolsrud--Anne Kapelson
Written by Andrew Kevin Walker
Produced by Arnold Kopelson--Phylli Carlyle
Directed by David Fincher

From watching this title sequence I noticed that the main characters in the film are at the beginning of the title sequence after the production companies, and the characters get smaller the later down the title sequence they are. Conversely, within the production roles they get bigger the later in the title sequence, ending with the producers and the director. This clip shows how important the sound behind the opening titles is, as the constant harsh rhythm throughout instantly shows this is a thriller film.

Inception- Opening Scene

Camera and editing- The opening scene begins with a series of extreme close up shots of the sea, this emphasises the power of the waves enabling the audience to imagine the pain the character washed up by the waves must have been through.
The slow motion shots of the children playing in the sand from the character's point of view, foreshadows the importance of young children later on
Throughout the beginning of opening scene, the camera moves slowly between the different shots, which sets the narrative at a slow pace, conversely the pace begins to speed up when the security guards enter and the man is taken, introducing the common theme of thriller films- crime.
The slow paced opening scene is an effective way to start to create tension, and it suggests the scene is building towards something and the audience are wanting to know what is going to happen, and what the scene is leading to.

Sound- The scene opens with a series of slow  non-diegetic background notes, blending together to create eerie background music which matches the slow pace of the camera shots. During the scene around the table, there is minimal sound used however in the background, a few low notes, and played quietly in the background to continue building the tension.

Mise en Scene- The first time we see the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio, his costume is very basic with his messy hair, and makeup has been used to create faint bruises to suggest the intensity of what he has been through out at sea. The landscape is very natural, with nothing but the sea and the sand within the shot. Next there is a large contrast from the natural landscape and basic costume, to the highly expensive room where everything is coloured gold, which is the colour of wealth and all of the characters are wearing suits.

This opening scene, has been highly beneficial to watch to see a way in which the pace of the shots is used to build tension. However the mise en scene has not really been that useful as this is a high budget film and I wouldn't be able to create the same contrast in wealth and landscape.

Heat- Opening Scene & Titles

Heat- 1995 Directed Michael Mann

Opening Titles 

Warner Brothers 
Regency
Warner Bros. Presents
In Association with Regency Enterprises
A Forward pass production
Al Pacino - Robert De Niro
HEAT
Val Kilmer
Tom Sizemore
Jane Venora
Amy Brenneman
Dennis Haysbert
Ashley Judd
Mykelti Williamson
Wes Studi
Ted Levine
William Fichtner
Natalie Portman
Tom Nooman
Kevin Gaze- Hank Azaria
Susan Traylor - Kim Staunton 
and Jon Voight
Casting by Bonnie Timmermann
Costume Designer Deborah L Scott
Music Composed by Elliot Goldenthal

In this clip, the opening  titles, are layered on top of the opening sequence, in a series of blue capital letters fading in and out. With the title of the film appearing in the largest letters with the longest amount of screen time.
I chose this clip to research , as I only have 2 minutes for my thriller opening sequence, so the titles need to be layered upon the moving picture otherwise they would take up all the time.
The most important credits which are seen first, are shown in a very light blue colour similar to the poster colour, upon a black screen, enabling the audience to focus all their attention upon the lead characters.
The thriller genre is established through the font, it resembles a police reports font; crime being a major convention of the thriller genre. The tension is also built through the opening credits due to the slow progression from title to title.
The opening sequence happening behind the credits, begins with a series of establishing shots of a train station late at night. There is then a slow motion shot, which follows the character being portrayed as the most important on his journey somewhere. This is an effective way to build tension as the audience instantly wonder why the camera is focused upon him and where he is going?
The Sound plays an important role in establishing the genre; within the opening sequence as the slow music begins to build, the tension increases as the camera continues to follow this one character. As the screen time spent on this character increases,the sound changes into a variation of lower pitched notes, enabling the audience to feel suspicious about this character, and implies that the plot is about to change into something more gloomy.

Touch Of Evil- Opening Scene

The Touch of Evil is a black and white film, Directed by Orson Welles in 1958.

This opening sequence is different to many of the others I have researched as the tension is built through the lack of editing, which contradicts a lot of the other clips i have watched who try to build tension with a series of fast pace cuts.

The whole of the opening sequence being filmed in one long take is extremely effective as the audience know that there is a bomb in the car; watching its journey through the town in close contact to all of the local people who are clueless to what is hidden within the car, effectively creates the tension throughout the sequence as the audience are waiting for the explosion but they don't know when it could be and who will be effected by it.The music during the clip is by know means subtle, it is harsh non-diegetic music which is clearly used to distinguish the film genre,and instantly show the audience something bad is going to happen, and establishes the environment as a place you don't want to be.

The mise en scene within the opening sequence, portrays the location as a happy place, filled with innocent people all dressed for an evening out in their local area. This contrasts to the plot and the harsh music, which enables the audience to be even more engaged in the sequence as they don't want anything to happen to these people as they are uninvolved and oblivious to what is going on around them.

Thriller- Opening Scene Analysis

As a group we thought is would be highly beneficial to analyse the conventions within the opening scenes of different types of thrillers, the first scene that we watched being
Pulp Fiction 1994- Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jomr9SAjcyw
This clip showed some of the most common conventions of a thriller such as weaponry and crime, but we mainly focused on the opening titles and the credits as it will have to be included in our final piece.
Opening Credits
-fast paced music
-dark background
-included people such as the director, and production company first
-Each of the actors and actresses were listed individually in order of the role size
-The title appeared with in a large bold font
-Each clip of the actors and actresses was on screen for roughly 5 seconds each.
Blue Velvet 1986-Directed by David Lynch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDEzzFtrCTs
This clip opened playing eery mysterious music, whilst showing the opening titles which then quickly contrasted to happy music to create an image of a perfect town, enabling the audience member to have an uneasy perception of the town. This is then followed by a lady watching a graphic crime drama film which is a major convention of thrillers.The music then becomes distorted as there is a close up on the hose pipe breaking, the sign of something going wrong starts to create tension as the scene finishes with the man dying. This instantly shows the thriller genre of the clip.
Run Lola Run 1998- Tom Tykwer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiq1lturAao
Run Lola run, starts with a flashback to a drug exchange between one of the main characters. The part of the opening sequence that was most memorable for me was the opening credits. It was shown through a cartoon video game of the character Lola being chased. This shows it is a quirky  film and also introduces the principle of Lola's character as she has done something wrong so people are chasing after her. Also when all the actors and actresses were introduced their names and images were laid out like police identification images introducing the convention of crime and theft.
Summary
Importance conventions to consider when creating an opening sequence to fit the thriller genre...
-music- build tension if needed
-specific camera angles eg high angle
-lighting- to create shadows
-mise en scene
-characters
-opening titles
-narrative

We then ended the lesson by watching the homefront trailer; this was done to clearly distinguish the difference between a trailer and an opening sequence so we don't make the mistake of creating a trailer for our final piece.
The aim of a trailer is to briefly show the whole plot of the film so the viewer can decide whether it is for them or not.
Conversely the opening sequence is to introduce the major themes not show the audience what will happen through out the narrative. 

Thriller Conventions

Today in class in small groups we talked about what conventions are commonly used in most thrillers, and what makes a film a thriller?
Thrillers nearly always include..
-suspense
-small amounts of action ( not too much other wise it would fall into the action movie genre)
-a mystery
-Characters- dis-empowered protagonist, damsel in distress, psychologically disturbed characters
-Narrative- a complex narrative, paradoxical narrative, complicated Todorov curve- false paths for the characters to take.

I then carried out further research to find out additional thriller conventions.
http://www.slideshare.net/CharlotteEmmaVicki/codes-and-conventions-of-thrillers
This slide share created by 3 girls studying media at a different school introduced me to...
Major Props- Such as mirrors which are supposed to reflect someones 'inner sole' which can show peoples inner darkness
Shadows and Low Key Lighting- Represent the darkness within the narrative and creates a sense of comfort and eeriness.
Obtrusive Editing- frequently used within thrillers to accentuate feelings of suspense and tension, its often used within an important scene or a scene which is especially 'thrilling' sometimes creating a sense of disorientation of time and space by using montage editing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/
After discussing an researching the conventions of thriller movies, we then watched The Usual Suspects a 1995 thriller directed by Bryan Singer, to apply the conventions and see who they are used to create tension and suspense.
The movie introduced me into a major theme of thrillers which is crime and weapons, other conventions within the film which made the film a thriller where the graphic props of dead bodies, and harsh weapons and also the music used helped create the suspense and the eerie atmosphere.