1 - Conventions

The Repertoire of Elements: Action Thriller

Stock Characters

- Agent of the government

- Doubtful hierarchical figure

- One enemy of the “good guys” usually having a connection to the main character

- A civilian character, in the wrong place at the wrong time, common that he does not get on with main good guy.

- Wife/girlfriend of the main character who is innocent to the fact of her husband/boyfriend being an agent.

- Side-kick of the main character

Stock Narrative

- A kidnapping or theft of an important subordinate/some important documents

- Kidnapping of the main character partner

- Theft of government codes or money

- Main character has to confront the enemy and recover the “goods”

- An assistant who helps him along the way who becomes very good friends

Stock Setting

- Warehouses

- City Scapes

- Dark Houses

- Abandoned locations

- Tall buildings/sky scrapers

Iconography

- Guns

- Briefcases

- Sunglasses/Shades

- Smart phones

- Laptops

- Smart cars (Mercedes, BMW)

- Suits

- Modern technologies

Similarities to our ProductionOur production did not use all the clichéd props and settings as in other famous thrillers like The Bourne Ultimatum or Collateral. In thus such films, they use sunglasses and suitcases and such but because of our low budget, we based the film mostly exterior, especially since we were using long shot lethal weapons and did not want to alarm anyone. We did not need to use sunglasses as we were filming inside and at night, which would not have made sense to our story. We used a gun which is not an abnormal prop used in action films. Usually, they are small side arms but since we did not have access to any realistic looking pistol’s, we changed it up and used a larger rifle. We stuck with a suit for one character as this seemed a sensible idea.

Even though he was a military Colonel, we did not have the finance for such a project and we agreed that a suit would work the best and it was easier as it could be supplied by the actor without too much stress of sizing and other things. Also, for Nicolas, the robber, we improvised and asked all the members of the group to bring in what we thought would be appropriate for a robber and the common suggestion was “dark clothing”. And dark clothing is mostly what he is wearing in the film.

A warehouse was the most popular location in the films we researched but being a practically none-existent budget, we went for a house. It was perfect as it fitted in with the story without distracting the audience from the action.

We also chose to keep the theme of modern technology visible throughout, using other such props as a laptop and memory sticks/card to evoke the era and what the film is likely to consist of. Since most thrillers use some forms of technology, we thought it would be hard to latch an audience without it. We had originally planned to show a smart car (BMW) driving off from the exterior but we decided to keep it all exterior but his type of car would have fitted in with the themes of thrillers.

I did not want to be extremely predictable by having a secret agent which is not very original so I decided to go for an army/secret organisations mix. This seemed less obvious and I got to share my love and knowledge of the military, and having military characters meant it was a great opportunity to include guns naturally, rather than just wanting them in it for the sake of it being a thriller. Keeping the theme of advanced technology in, we decided the storyline should still be along the lines of theft but not of money or people, but of secret information.

When the Colonel walks in and sees “Nicolas”, he hesitates. This was because the two of them were very good friends and the Colonel didn’t really want to have to shoot his friend. We were originally thinking about having a small scene at the beginning whereby we see Nicolas getting ready and there is a picture of the two of them together. However, we did not have enough time to go into detail with it and stuck with what we had.

Similarities to our Production continued

Nine-Frame Art of the Title Sequence - Monsters

Nine-Frame Art of the Title Sequence - Hardrive