General coventions of thrillers

Conventions of thrillers

The conventions that are shown inside thrillers are dependent on several different aspects. Many of these are depicted by the location that the thriller is set in, the lighting that is used, the actors build and personalities, and in general the mise-en-scene.

Todorov said that there are usually certain types of character that are used in thrillers. This is met in a lot of cases generally as they are seen to be characters that will make the movie a thriller. He said that there will be a Hero, Villain, False hero, Helper, mentor, Blocker, Prize and dispatcher. All these characters are a convention of thrillers. The use of these different characters is as follows:

Hero- the central protagonist of the movie that tries to save something in the story or gain a reward. This is traditionally a male character in the movies.

In the departed, Leonardo Dicaprio depicts Billy Costigan as the hero in this movie. He is a male character as is tradition and seems to be an equal match for the villain in terms of their physical structure and also in terms of how they think. This character is important because he is sent into the Costello mob as an informer for the police, eventually finding out there is a rat in the police department, it would then be his job to find out who this is.

Villain- central antagonist who’s aim is generally to cause terror in people’s life, or to prevent them from gaining

There are two main villains in the departed. Frank Costello is depicted by jack Nicholson and he plays a mob boss leader, a main tradition for thriller movies or crime movies. He normally sits in the dark instructing his men of what to do but sometimes comes out to fight the battles when he sees necessary. He is the same build as our hero in this movie

The second villain in this movie is Colin Sullivan who is portrayed by Matt Damon. This character is sent in undercover by Costello to the police force so that he can prevent them from finding Costello. Sullivan has to make it out that he isn’t a part of Costello’s gang so has to act like a normal officer but gaining information along the way. He would eventually lead the operation of finding Costello and so making it virtually impossible to find him. Sullivan is again the same build and around the same intelligence of our hero, Costigan. Again making them an equal match.

False hero- the person that is given the task to accompany the hero and help to succeed in his/her task

Martin Sheen plays the role of Captain Queenan in the Departed. This character is the false hero throughout the movie until his death. He gives Costigan advice and support throughout on how to stop the Costello mob and to find the rat that they know is working inside the police force.         

Mentor- gives important information to the Hero, and also may provide them with equipment to help them on their task. They are often represented as being wise, or having superpowers.

Vera Firmings plays the part of Madelyn in the departed a psychiatrist that Billy Costigan goes to see fairly often but also gains some form of love interest in also. Madelyn gives advice to Costigan in order for him to find the rat in the mob. She is giving all of this information without actually knowing her boyfriend is the rat inside the mob.

Prize- this is what the hero is ultimately trying to achieve. Traditionally the prize would be a princess or women of some kind that needs to be saved, but more recently the prize can be different things for example saving the world from a villain or getting the world back to normality.

The prize in this movie was to find the rat inside the police force and either kills them in fight or to arrest them and put them in jail. As this is a thriller it would be more a convention of the thriller to have a gunfight as a pose to just an arrest.

In thrillers there is usually a rule on how the film will progress. To start there will be equilibrium- where it shows an ordinary working environment for the characters to be in. For example in the Departed it shows a normal family run business with Sullivan as a young boy in there. The disruption in this case is Costello approaching him and convincing him to join the mob and then be a rat in the police force. The resolution in this movie comes right at the end when Mark Walberg comes back after being away for some time to kill Sullivan after he himself had killed Costigan and Captain Quennan

There are a lot of other convention inside thrillers that are to the story and the mise-en scene, editing, camera work and sound. These include:

-Chiaroscuro lighting

-Quick cuts

-Shadows

-Tension music

-Changes in the angles of shots

-Diegetic sound of music

-Black and white shots

-Montage

-The protagonist in the mercy of the antagonist

The place in which a thriller is usually set is also important as it suggests a lot about the movie. Generally, a thriller is set in the city and normally has lots of sirens going off to depict that there is a lot of crime that happens. This is normally done to show the audience that this is a thriller and make it a lot more realistic to the story then what it would be if it was set in the countryside.