Conventions of a Thriller Movie Trailer

A thriller movie trailer usually revolves around the idea of establishing tension and excitement to help fully immerse the audience into watching the trailer. As a film genre we can expect to see various changes to the storyline as the trailer continues also incorporating different aspects of the characters to help build up an anticipation in certain scenes. The main aim of  a thriller is to constantly keep the audience unprepared for what will happen next and so ensuring that there is plot twists when necessary.  A thriller involves lots of individual aspects to hep add effect including:

• twists in the storyline
• use of a mixture of quick and slow editing to incorporate the tension
• many camera angles are used to explore the plot
• sometimes uses a form of flashbacks
• normally uses music to add effect
• uses different types of lighting to give emphasis on the characters
• characters are usually detailed to a degree
• voiceovers are often used to explain the plot

A thriller can be classed into different categories such as:

• Action thriller
• Psychological thriller
• Spy Thriller
• Romantic thriller

Depending on the type of thriller we are introduced to different expectations of what to expect i the film, with the element of using certain locations often relevant in a thriller. A good example of this is the use of a mirror or stairs to accompany a music change which allows a build in tension amongst the audience, this is mainly used in a psychological  or horror thriller. One of the main features of a thriller is the use of a landscape to help further the story as birds-eye views high angle shots are often used throughout. We normally expect that the role of the protagonist to be played by a male and he is countered by an antagonist of sorts whom often remains unseen till the plot develops much like a horror movie. Thriller movie trailers usually accomplish a wide variety of camera shots and can be known to focus on closeups of characters or props to help emphasise the importance of them to the audience as the storyline has many different layers of detail for its development. A good thriller trailer also plays on the idea of using high or low key lighting to show what role the character may play during the actual film, this is usually accompanied by different types of editing depending on the type of scene; with the action scenes generally being quicker compared to their horror style counterparts.