For my AS Media coursework, I created an opening title sequence for a thriller with a partner. In order to successfully come out with a good grade we followed the conventions of a thriller. Our thriller plot was that the computer hacker has something valuable that the killer wants, for example government information on a USB stick. In order to get this, the killer kills the computer hacker. The sub-genre of our thriller can be classed as a crime-thriller, however it can be also classed as a mystery and conspiracy thriller too. The theories that I will include is Christian Metz and his theory on Genre Development and Transformation, Steve Neale and his theory on sub-genres, Jason Mittel and his theory on how the Media Industry uses genre to persuade their audiences to buy products, Rick Altman and his theory of how genre creates pleasure and the last theory on the Strengths of Genre.
Christian Metz believed that there were four stages to the genre development theory, these are Classical, Experimental, Parody and Deconstruction. We used genre development in our thriller opening because ours is experimental as there is no resolution at the end when the computer hacker is killed. However, our thriller could also be considered Classical because it conforms to the conventions of stock characters (Hero, Villain etc).
Steve Neale declares that 'genre are instances of repetition and difference', he adds that 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre'. To summarise, you need sub-genres in order to draw in audiences, otherwise it would just be repetitive. In our opening titles we class our genre as crime thriller because the acts that both the computer hacker and killer do are illegal, hence a crime. Although, the reasons behind their acts define them as their stock characters (Hero, Villain etc). However, our thriller could also be classed as a mystery thriller because the audience doesn't know why the information the computer hacker took was so important that he had to be killed by the killer. And there is also a hint of our thriller being a conspiracy thriller because we steer towards the idea of the government that the compter hacker stole from, is conspiring to kill him by hiring a killer.
Jason Mittel argues that industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Genre allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to complete a particular pleasure. It can be said that our thriller sells products to an audience. For example, the use of tension in our thriller opening when the hacker uses his computer could increase advertising for the use of technology because that is how he's able to get the information he needs. However, you could say that it would put an audience off technology buts the acts that the computer hacker is performing on the computer is stealing information from a large organisation. This is considered illegal and may influence audiences that technology is giving people too much access.
Rick Altman argues that genre offers audiences a 'set of pleasures'. These include Emotional, Visceral and Intertextual Puzzle pleasures. I would say that we used Visceral pleasures in our thriller because at the end we have a close-up of a gun shot to the computer hacker's head. Which has a physical effect on the audience as they are shocked and draws the audience in. However, emotional pleasures also feature in our thriller opening because we sympathise with the computer hacker who doesn't know that he is being followed by the killer. We also used intertextual puzzles because a mystery is left to know why the information the hacker stole was so important.
The Strengths of Genre theory explains that the reason why it is so effective is that everybody uses it and understands it. Media experts use it to study media texts, the media industry use it to develop and market texts and audiences use it to decide what texts to consume. Without the genre in our title opening, the audience wouldn't be able to judge whether they want to watch the film or not, they need a genre because it decides what type of film it is. However, in our thriller opening, it would better to not conform to the conventions of a thriller and go against the genre. If we marketed our thriller as a romantic comedy in our thriller opening, it would be a lie and may not bring in as big of an audience.
In conclusion, our thriller does conform to the structure of genre because the mise-en-scene, characters, soundtrack, foley etc. show conventions of a thriller. For example, with the mise-en-scene, the first location was in Canary Wharf, London, which is known for businessmen/woman, which the computer hacker fit in with. This conforms to how we see thrillers because we get a sense of mystery as to why the computer hacker is in there amongst the busy workers and buildings. The characters in our thriller opening conform to the conventions of a thriller genre because they are typical Hero (computer hacker) vs Villain (killer) stock characters where the Villain (killer) seeks out to end the Hero's (computer hacker) quest (which is to keep the information from the large organisation. However, the computer hacker isn't a stereotypical Hero because his quest involves stealing, this means that maybe the characters don't conform to the genre of a thriller.
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