Analysing Thrillers - Narrative Viewpoint

Analysing Thrillers - Nordic Noir

Nordic Noir, or Scandinavian Noir, is a Scandinavian crime fiction the compromises the genre through the use of a realistic style, and a dark, morally complex mood. It is simple and precise, and stripped of unnecessary words. One critic stated that "Nordic crime fiction carries a more respectable cachet... than similar genre fiction produced in Britain or the US."

One of the most well known Nordic Noir films is 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo', and recently Nordic Noir TV series have been aired on the BBC and ITV, including 'The Bridge'.


The Killing

The Killing (Forbrydelsen) was originally a Danish police procedural TV series, later adapted into the US version. BBC 4 aired the subtitled series on the 19th of November 2011. Vicky Frost, from The Guardian, said that The Killing "paved the way for a wave of subtitled European crime dramas" in the UK, and the series proved popular.

The key things in the trailer that I felt made it fit the thriller genre are:

• Dark lighting
• Fast paced with heavy bass music directing the cuts
• Action filled plot points to interest the audience
• A blue-grey colour scheme with a contrast of yellows and reds, the colour saturation being drained
• A dramatic voiceover with no dialogue from the characters 
• Range of shots [close up, mid shots, wide shots, long shots]
• Rural, abandoned locations
• "20 days to catch a killer" - raises questions for the audience, creating suspense and curiosity, and indicates the overall pace of the series

Jordskott

Jordskott is a Swedish TV series similar to The Killing, and was aired in the UK on 10th of June 2015. It was shown on ITV Encore.

The key things in the trailer that I felt made it fit the thriller genre are:

• Again, a blue-grey colour scheme appears and the colour is drained overall, however there is use of harsh white lighting, as if to "shock"
• No audio or dialogue as well, instead a track of Swedish electronic music which is similar to the opening song used in True Detective
• Range of shots used including aerial shots, high angle shots, close ups, long shots, mid shots
• Fast cuts in time with the music again
• Focuses on the plot through the imagery of the news articles to spark interest

The Bridge

The Bridge is a Swedish and Danish production, first aired in the UK on 4th of January 2014, again on BBC 4.

The key things in the trailer that I felt made it fit the thriller genre are:

• Western inspired music
• Blue-grey-green colour scheme with drained colours and reds as a contrast
• Harsh lighting is also used, like in Jordskott
• Fast cuts
• Range of shots including close ups, long shots, PoV shots
• Focus of the camera on an object in the foreground/background with the subject out of focus

Starting Off - How our initial idea relates to conventions

Starting Off - The Conventions of Thriller

Thriller is a genre that uses suspense, tension and excitement to simulate the viewer's moods and greatly heightens adrenaline and expectations, and uses techniques such as red herrings, cliffhangers

and plot twists to emphasise this. Within the genre, there are common sub-genres including psychological, crime, erotic, spy and mystery thrillers. However, we are angling, as a group, towards a more intelligent style thriller.

Suspense is crucial to keep the viewer "on-edge", and the idea is to convey the plot with a sense of tension and anxiety, and constantly implies an impending doom. Ari Hiltunen said that "Aristotle's concept of fear can best be understood by the word of suspense. The audience are aware of threatening danger and would like to warn the character but of course cannot do so."


Common themes of thrillers differ depending on their sub-genre:

• Crime thrillers mainly involve ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge and kidnappings, and they often touch on topics of terrorism and political conspiracies, often being realistic in their style
• Mystery thrillers include investigations and the whodunit technique
• Psychological thrillers use the elements of mind games, stalking, confinement/death traps, horror-of-personality and obsession to leave the audience uneasy
• In paranoid thrillers, fringe theories (a viewpoint held by a small group of supporters), false accusations and the feeling of paranoia are common, and leave the audience uneasy like psychological thrillers
• Spy thrillers, like the James Bond series, involve threats to the entire country/world, spies, espionage, conspiracies, assassins and electronic surveillance to excite the audience and fits with the theme of desire for justice. 

Thrillers often take place in ordinary suburbs and cities, although they can also take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, the high seas, abandoned
buildings or fields of farmland.

In terms of editing, thrillers often include:

• Low key lighting
• Quick jump cuts and cross cutting
• Shadows
• Tense/atmospheric music
• Changes in angles of shots
• Diegetic sounds to emphasise silence e.g. breathing
• Black/white shots
• Montages of shots
• The protagonist(s) at the mercy of the antagonist
• A colour palette, usually blue and grey with a contrast colour

James Patterson sums up what a thriller should do, in my opinion, perfectly in his introduction to "Thriller", 2006:

    "...Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on, with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this openness to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing it's job."

Starting off - Moodboard

At this starting point, my group came together and we discussed our aspirations, both for this year and the future, and skills that we are bringing to the course. We shared thoughts and ideas on our preferred genres, all of us wanting to avoid cliche horror or social realism, and also shared camera shots we would love to use.

Discussing further, Charlie told us about a friend's farm and the hill there. The hill has a factory behind it and thus light shines over the brow of the hill, making an eerie setting.
We therefore decided that we want to incorporate a shot involving a silhouette on the top of the hill in our film trailer. We also agreed on wanting to use interesting arc shots, like those used in American Horror Story, and also shots down an infrared camera on a rifle.

The pictures in my moodboard have particular purposes. Scenes from 'The Girl Who Played With Fire', 'Witness', 'The Bourne Identity' and many Nordic Noir series use similar colour palettes and locations; rural farm settings, washed out or high contrast and lighting, blues and orange colours. I chose two camera angles I'd really like to use as well, being a Dutch angle, such as the one used in 'Girl Crazy', and an extreme close up. The extreme close up comes from watching a short film called 'Unwind', based on the book by Neal Shusterman. I love the ambiguity of the identity of the girl in it, the viewer only seeing her eyes but able to pick up on the panic and distress. I also love the blue colour scheme, linking with our colour palette ideas.