Audience expectations from thrillers
To find out what audience's expectations of thrillers are I decided to conduct a questionnaire. This way I'd be able to get straight answers from the audience and be able to understand what it is that they expect from a thriller. This was my questionnaire:

1. What is the last thriller you watched?
2. Why did you decide to watch this film?
3. What scared you about the film? Was there any particular moments that you found particularly scary?
4. What emotions did you feel when watching the film?
5. Was the thriller conventional or did something happen to make it a bit different?
6. Did the thriller fit into any of the following sub-genres?

• Psychological thriller 
• Political thriller
• Action thriller
• Crime thriller
• Romantic thriller

7. How did you feel after watching the film?

Conventions of a thriller
These days most thrillers are hybrids and have more than one obvious convention. However, there is a pattern that all thrillers follow to ensure that it is categorised in the genre of thriller.

• The narrative sets around the antagonist disturbing the equilibrium e.g a theft or robbery
• The protagonist is usually an every day person that is thrown into the situation, yet deals with it all considerably well.
• The protagonist will be seen in peril on numerous occasions before there is any resolution
• Themes of identity and who they are as a person come into question
• Usually violence through either physical means or psychological means
• Mirrors and low lighting are common to create a sense of mystery and unawareness
• The protagonist usually has a major flaw or weakness that the antagonist picks up on, and throughout the duration of the film the protagonist will have to overcome this.

History of Thriller
The term thriller is described as a genre which is used in literature, film and television to evoke suspsense, excitement and tension. In the genre of thriller there are many sub-genre's that film can be classified under, for instance; Pyscological thriller or political thriller. There are many iconic film directors that are famous for their successful achievements in thriller films, for example Steven Speilberf. However, Alfred Hitchcock begun the phenomena in the late 1920's, with successes like 'The Lodger' and 'Vertigo'.

Thrillers are often easily confused with horror's as they both evoke the same emotions; fear, nervousness and panic. A typical thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat and continuously guessing the plot line, while constantly shocking you. However a horror is more focused on scaring you and having gruesome special effects and blood.

Thrillers are a very popular and broad genre of film. They contain many different sub-genres that make them so widespread and easily assessible for an audience. Thrillers tend to be rated at 12 or above as some scenes may be too distressful for a younger audience.

Youtube documentaries/programmes which give an insight into thriller

Both of these videos give a clear underlining as to what a thriller involves, what it can connote and what different types of thrillers they are. They have educated me a lot on thrillers and have helped me solidify my knowledge.

Still Frame Analysis








The still frame i have chosen to study is from the critically acclaimed thriller film 'Inception', directed by Christopher Nolan. There is a lot to say about this particular still frame, our protagonist is standing directly in the middle of the frame. He immediately gains our attention and this is what the audience's primary focus is on. Furthermore, he has his back to us and we mainly see a sillheoutte of him, rather than an actual clear shot. This already creates tension and mystery, and makes him contrast considerably against the bright background. This could connote that perhaps he is going through a dark period or that he in fact has a deep, dark secret or something to hide from the audience and that he is now stepping into the light or being called upon for it.

Moreover, we can briefly make out water streaming in through the windows in the very front of the picture. This can be seen as both ominous and foreshadowing. Water can symbolise purity and being woken up, as in many films people have been rudely awaken by cold water. This co-incides with the scene actually being acted out, as once Leonardo Dicaprio's character has been found out to be in the world of the dream, he falls back into the bath-tub to wake him up, hence why the water surrounds him.

In addition to this, the staircase is also in shadows as well, this contrasts with the brightness of the water which again makes it stand out considerably and suggests what is important in this still frame. Also, the stance Leonardo DiCaprio's character has suggests a lot about his character, he is standing with his legs apart and from his body language we can deduce that he is quite a strong and powerful character that has a lot of authority. However, the fact he has cupped hands shows a slight vulnerablity and perhaps wasn't expecting what has happened to have occured.  

Font Analysis
Thriller font are typically meant to be spooky and ominous. This is to let the audience already have a eerie feeling when looking at the title. The title font can affect the whole feel of a movie poster, therefore by deciding what text you have can immediately decide the genre of your film.



Psycho

The font used on this movie poster is typical of the thriller genre. The title of the film is in bold and capitalised, immediately standing out to the audience. It has the expected font, an effect that gives it a slight mystery. The cracks in the 'c' of psycho could represent cracks and instability throughout the film. Also there's a huge line going through the title. This could also symbolise instability but as the title is 'Pyscho' something that usually refers to someone losing their mind or having two sides to them; a split personality. The line could represent the two different sides of the antagonist, already creating tension and mystery for the audience. The font colour of yellow co-incides with a colour theme as the woman has a yellow filter over her photo. But yellow usually represents light and hope so is therefore breaking stereotypes and conventions of having at typically dark title.

Furthermore, the font of the actors is different to the main title. This is so the title stands out more. The text is typically thriller-like having elongated letters and skinny text.

Jaws
Jaws also coincides with typically thriller font as it again is in capitals, immediately drawing the audience straight to the title. Moreover, the font is in bright red, red already symbolises blood and death, already foreshadowing the chain of events that are about to unfold. Furthermore, the font has both sharp and rounded edges. The sharp edges could symbolise the sharp teeth of 'Jaws', representing the danger and scariness of the shark. The rounded edges on the 'J' could represent the dorsal fin of the shark that appears on top of the water surface.

Certificate Ratings - BFFC Research
The BFFC stands for the British Board of Film Classification, and their job is to go through a screening process of a film about to be released and make sure what certificate rating is suitable for the content of the film. All films have to go through this procedure; it's mandatory. The BBFC base their decision on 6 main factors:

Innuendos

Mild Language 

Sexual References 

Nudity 

Violent Scenes

Drug use

However this is only a brief insight of what the BBFC have to study and analyse in order to provide a suitable certificate rating. A recent example of a thriller action adventure that had to have it's rating changed is 'The Hunger Games'. The film's content meant that it should have been rated as a '15' due to the violence and distressing scenes. However, the director knew the franchise would have lost it's entire demographic audience by having such a high certificate rating. So the film production team decided to cut out the violent scenes in order to bring the rating down to a 12A.

These are the certificate ratings currently given to films by the BFFC in the United Kingdom at the moment.