Three Act Structure Of Thriller

Three Act Structure Of Thriller 

Act 1 - Exposition
 This part introduces the characters and shows some relationships between the characters. This usually lasts for 30 minutes, mainly getting a feel for the main character and getting to know there character. This is a freeze frame image of the start of the film between the dad, mother and daughter when they allow her to travel to France with her friend for a music tour.


Inciting Incident -
This is part of the film which is half way through the first act. Its an event which sets the plot of the film in motion, for this specific film 'Taken' this part is when the daughter (Kim) arrives in France after trying to persuade her Dad to let her go alone. In this act Kim also meets a French guy who she gets talking to outside of the airport who she then shares a taxi with and her friend tells him they are staying alone in France.


Plot Point
A plot point is an event which leads the plot into a new direction, leading into a new act of the screen play. In Taken this is the scene in which Kim is on the phone to her dad and from the window she can see that people have broken in and grab hold of her friend. Whilst on the phone to her dad she waits anxiously knowing that they're coming to get her too.


Act 2 - Obstacles
In the second act the main character comes across an obstacle which stops them from achieving there plan or goal. In this Film when the dads on the phone to his Daughter (Kim) he tells her to go to the next room and lay under the bed then shout out the kidnappers identity when they grab her. The obstacle which happens is that the dad manages to speak to the kidnapper but then loses trace of the number and cant track down the number or location from where his Daughter was taken from.





















First Culmination -
This is halfway to midpoint of the film when the main character comes close to achieving the goal then something happens and it all falls apart. This part would be when the Dad flies out to Paris to try find his daughter and her friend, find the French guy who they spoke too, he then gets run over so the dad then needs to get hold of more people in order to find his daughter.



Midpoint - Halfway through
Half way through the film when the main character is not yet close enough to achieve/complete their goal. In this part of taken the Dad comes across prostitute's and kills men who have been involved with his daughters kidnapping. He finds Kims friends who's dead laying in bed over dosed on drugs, but there is still no sight of his daughter.



Plot point
Liam Neeson (Dad) gets closer and closer to finding out information on where his daughter may be and finds a location where he could possibly find her.


Act 3 - Climax
Lee Neeson finds his daughter is being sold as a prostitute. He follows the men that have hold of his daughter and tracks them down on a boat. He then kills them all and is safe with his Daughter (Kim) in France.




Denouement -
This is the ending of the film, the part which is calm and is where the state of equilibrium returns. In taken Lee Neeson and Kim return home safely and she is reunited back with her mother.

Genre Coventions Of Thriller - Pinterest

http://www.pinterest.com/frankiealexiex/coventions-of-the-thriller-genre/

Comprehending Time

Very few screen stories take place in real time. Whole lives can be dealt with in the 90 minutes of a feature film, an 8 month siege can be encompassed within a 60 minute siege. There are many conventions to donate time passing, from the time/date information typed up on each new scene of the X-Filed to the aeroplane passing over a map of a continent in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other devices to manipulate time include:

• Flashbacks
• Dream sequences
• Repetition
• Different Characters POV
• Flash Forward
• Real time interludes
• Pre - figuring of events that have not yet taken place

 Inception uses Dream sequences.

 

Film Genre Conventions

The Western

The western is a genre that has long held fascination for a film audience, partly because of its 'mythical' context. This is because its set in the past, in isolated places removed from the rules and laws of modern society. This allows the film makers to explore moral and social ambiguities without any reference to any issues. In the original westerns a fight between forces of good and evil would happen. The heroic cowboy being victorious and the audience faith in humanity restored. However, the western has experienced a series of changed, adaptations and revivals in its cinematic history.

During the 1920's-1930's a big amount of westerns were made. Alan Lovell identified four principals which contributed to the form of genre:

• A structure dawn from 19th century melodramatic literature, involving a virtuous hero and a wicked villain who menaces a virginal heroine.
• An action story, composed of violence, chases and criminal appropriate to a place like the American West in the 19th century .
• The introduction of the history of the migration westwards and the opening of the frontier signalled in such films as 'The Covered Wagon' in 1924 and the 'Iron Horse' also in 1924.
• The revenge structure, which was presented by the time Billy The Kid in 1930.

Narrative

Narrative -
Narrative is the organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience. http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=narrative

Levi- Strauss
Levi Strauss built upon philosophers Aristotle's statement that 'all drama is conflict' with his theory of binary oppositions. Strauss said that all stories are 'Accelerated forward by conflict which is caused by opposing characters or events.

Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes proposes that there is codes within film which engage audiences. The enigma code controls what information an audience is aware of within a narrative and holds their interest throughout the film. Puzzles and problems are introduced which must be solved a long with mysteries which must be uncovered.

Tvestan Todorov
Presented with his theory which is basted on his study of folk tales, which implies mainstream film follows a similar narrative. Its consist of 5 stages:

• Equilibrium
• Disruption
• Recognition
• Repair
• New equilibrium

ProppNarrative Devices

Valadimir Propp also proposes narrative structure which is similar to Todorovs. Although Propp is more detailed.

• Complication - Keys or clues to the direction of the story
• Transference - The donor events
• Struggle - Dealing with the complications
• Return - Back to "home" however there are still issues remaining
• Recognition - Lose ends are tied up

Propps character theory which identifies more character roles than the previous clear identify protagonist and antagonist.

• The villain
• The Donor - Prepares the hero or gives them a magical object
• The magical helper - Helps the hero throughout the quest
• The princess's father - Object of the heroes desire, sought for during the narrative
• The princess's father - Rewards the hero
• The dispatcher - Character to send hero off
• The hero/villain/seeker - Reacts to the donor, weds the princess, completes the quest
• The false hero, usurper or anti- Hero

Hybrid Genre

Hybrid Genre

A hybrid is a combination of two or more genres. Hybrid can have a larger audience due to appealing to more people through their multiple genres. This would be more lucrative for the film companies. Some people consider them more exciting and creative.

Some examples of hybrid are:

• Horror romance - twilight
• Horror war - Dead snow
• Horror Historical Drama - pride and prejudice and zombies
• Horror RomCom - Shaun of the dead

"Genres aren't static but they do evolve. Therefore, their common attributes change over time. Most films are hybrid genres, since they possess the common attributes of more than one genre."

Sub Genre

Sub-Genres

Are identifiable sub-classes, almost like a sub heading, within the larger film genre, with their own distinctive subject matter, style, formulas and iconography.
 You can get many different types of action adventure. For example, spy, espionage, political thrillers, material arts film and races against time.
These are all different sub genres for an action film. if were putting the film 'Sky-Fall' into sub genre within a genre, which one would it be?

Genre - Category
Sub genre - Subcategory

Case Study Of Genre

Genre

Genre is a category to which a type of media belongs to, according to certain content and manner. Genre also works as a template, for film makers a certain genre will have expectations to present through their film.


Conventions and paradigms -
Genre function according to set of rules and conventions, which govern their capacity and range. They respond to these rules and conventions by developing formulas and patterns. Over time, these formulas and patterns may acquire not only typical, but even archetypal force, dominating ways of seeing and representing the world around us.

Paradigm = The overall pattern created by a film that helps us categorise is, almost seen as a template.

Conventions = The individual elements which help specify which genre a film belongs to. For example the conventions of genre would be weapons, explosions, car chases etc.

Why do we categorise films?

We categorise films so they're easy to find. Categorising separated the different interests. Making it easy for the viewers to find, so they can watch a film in the genre that they like.
For example romance genre should represent love, romance, happy endings, break ups. Films also belong to certain genres to make it easier for the audience, so if they are interested and enjoy a certain genre it will be easy for them to find a film which suits them by finding films under the category of their chosen genre. Furthermore film stars can associate themselves with a particular genre that they like to take part in e.g. Will Ferrell is known for slapstick comedy, when his face is shown the audience they will suddenly recognise what kind of film they are likely to see if he is being shown.

The idea of genre grew with the evolution of the film industry, although it was particularly developed in Hollywood in the 1920/1930s. If you know the genre you want to categorise you can target the correct target audience.

Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from artistic style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconography