Conventions of Thriller Openings

Within a thriller opening there are many different conventions that make a thriller opening the best that it can be. One of these things is the storyline. To have a good thriller opening the storyline need to be intriguing and captivating. For example, a storyline that grabs the attention of an audience would include things such as suspense, excitement and action.

One film that does this is Gone Girl. In the opening scene, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is seen stroking his wife, Amy Dunne's hair (Rosamund Pike). She then looks up at Nick with a blank expression on her face and just stares at him. This can be seen as rather creepy due to Nick seen to be loving and Amy being portrayed as acting quite cold towards him because of it. If Amy was seen to have a smile on her face when she looked up, it would be seen as sweet and loving. Furthermore, the storyline of the first scene matches the final scene of the film. This then foreshadows that the end of the film will be just as sinister as the begin.

Another convention of  a thriller opening is titles. This then gives information about the film to the audience at the opening. This is an important convention because it means that the font and transition of how the font appears and disappears can create an effect as to the mood that is created within the film. For example, if a font is bold and bright then it would give more of a happier mood and feel about the film (Juno). However, in a thriller film, the font will need to be darker and sleeker in order to create a more tense feel and introduction to the film (Sin City & American Horror Story).

Camera angles are also a very important convention of a thriller opening. For example, in the opening to a clockwork orange, it shows the characters sitting in the distance. The camera then being to zoom in and focus on the four focussed characters eliminating more and more of their  surrounding until the audience can only see the face of the main character Alex (Malcolm McDowell). The focus on the characters face whilst showing a sadistic and sly look on his face allows the audience to realise that the oncoming film will be rather sadistic and sly like Alex's face is implying.

The final convention is music. Within a thriller opening the music could be of rather low volume gradually building up to a loud intense music. The type of music that would be used could either be very high pitched to give a make the audience think about almost a frightening/screeching idea or very low pitched and low volume which would become very loud and bold when the main title is shown. Both of these ideas of music show suspense and will be more likely to keep the audience intrigued.