Thriller/Mystery Genre - Iconography

Iconography

Common iconography in the thriller/mystery genre includes shadows, created by low-key lighting techniques. Shadows build up fear as they make the audience feel suspicious of the locations or the the character who is shrouded in darkness, creating a foreboding tone. Characters can also feel that something is wrong or unusual. A character with a silhouette, lit often with backlighting, is the most likely to be the antagonist, or a character who cannot be trusted. Dark lighting and monotone colours in the cinematography are also common techniques as this makes the themes of the film more serious and mysterious, perhaps foreshadowing that something bad is about to happen. as it feels unsettling.

A lot of the time in thriller/mystery films locations include cities, filmed at night. This makes the events that take appear more realistic, as the locations are recognisable to the viewer, and cities are often associated with crime - central to most thrillers - where killers and criminals can slip away unnoticed. Some thrillers involve shady and sinister corporations or organisations, whose bases are situated in large urban areas.

Typical props in the genre are guns or other weapons such as knives, along with technologically advanced devices that suggest characters are being monitored, watched, listened to or recorded. This is the kind of prop that I want to use in my film, perhaps a USB or storage device which contains crucial information that the antagonist wants to retrieve. In many films a character may have a gun to show that they could be put in dangerous situations or feel scared, and imply that the protagonist is likely to have to fight for his or her survival.

Isolated locations or confined spaces are common in thrillers, where characters are trapped or imprisoned against their will. This creates a sense of claustrophobia for both the characters and the audience, and their is often mystery surrounding how the character got there. This is definitely something I want to include in my opening sequence.