Research: Evidence of comparative research

The genre of my teaser trailer is Thriller, because after much deliberation, action/crime/drama are three aspects that come into a Thriller and it would be easier to meet the conventions of this genre as it is a developed genre. In this post I am going to be looking at other Thriller films and compare them to other Thriller hybrids.

Crime Thriller

This is one of the most common hybrids, as the often overlap one another. However, if you break it down a crime is a specific crime or set of crimes, where the detectives have to solve the mystery, there is drama throughout and a little bit of violence. Whereas, thrillers are mainly fiction-based which are fast-paced to create suspense, but a crime happens at a more leisurely pace and are realistic. In crime films the villain is usually a gangster who commits crimes, and the hero is a police officer, in thriller films on the other hand, the villain and heroes are most often anyone; this makes crime films more relatable and realistic, whereas with thrillers the audience are able to remind themselves that it is just fiction because it is very unrealistic to happen like this in the real world and is just there to create suspension. Therefore, crime thrillers are a mixture of a few of these features from both genres.



Crime Thriller's are most often filmed in big cities as their are lots of people there which causes suspense because many people can be threatened or harmed; for example, The Dark Knight is mainly filmed in Chicago.
From being a viewer of the film I know myself that The Dark Knight follows the conventions of the thriller genre, however the teaser trailer contradicts these conventions because teaser trailers for thrillers usually includes dramatic music, and clips of people running and explosions with minimal speech, but with The Dark Knights teaser trailer they have the symbolic bat symbol deteriorating with Bruce Wayne, Alfred the Butler, and the Joker talking over top; this just gives an idea of the story for The Dark Knight and a feel for what the main characters will be like.

I chose two of The Dark Knight posters which are more character posters; one of them being the villain 'The Joker' and  the other one being the hero 'Batman'. I feel that these posters are quite dark and reflect the feel of the film when watching it, these posters suggest that this is not a film for young children or anyone below the age of the age certification which is a 12A, however even though the film and these posters are dark, a child below the age of 12 is able to see the film as long as they are accompanied by an adult; this is the cinema and film exhibitors way of making more money out of the film because more people will be able to see it as long as someone above the age of 18 takes them. These posters also include iconic features from the film and the trailer that the audience will easily be able to identify; the catchphrase from the Joker "Why so serious?" which many people from the target audience will repeat to others and this then becomes a word-of-mouth advertisement, also the Joker's smile which has be incorporated into both of these posters as it is an iconic feature of the Joker that people can identify as him.
Thriller's always have plenty of violence and blood in them, and blood is seen in both of these posters, and you are drawn to look at it; for example, in the first poster all the colour's are rather dull and dark meaning the red writing of blood stands out, and this is the same in the second poster. This is a big convention for thriller posters, for the main colour's to be dark and have red included into it as a symbol of blood and violence.

For magazine covers that have crime thriller characters on them, majority of the time the hero features on the cover solo, and the covers are ones that are associated with crime and the character; for example, Batman is in black and then supporting colour's of the text and the background are dark, such as black, grey and white.
The hero takes up nearly the whole of the front cover, to portray that his character is important, and grand. He's wearing his full costume so that it is easy to identify who he is to readers, because they know him mainly as Batman instead of Bruce Wayne, if it was Christian Bale in a suit on the front cover then readers may not know it is an article about The Dark Knight whereas with the costume reader's know as soon as they look at it. His facial expression is serious, representing that he is in a serious and dark film, not a comedy or a romance.
                                                                                                 

Psychological Thriller
A fictional thriller which emphasises the unstable mental state of the characters. It has Gothic and detective qualities with a sense of hyper-reality, moral ambiguity and complex, estranged relationships with obsessive characters. They incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action and psychological horror.

I made these annotations on the Shutter Island Poster

Having the main location of the film in the background represents it's dark, psychological horror; and similar to the crime thrillers it uses dull colours so that the colour red stands out on it and this symbolises blood, portraying that a tragedy happens in this film. The caption "INSIDE MARTY's MADHOUSE" again reminds readers that it is a psychological thriller and revolves around character's mental states. Leonardo's attire lets the reader know that he is most likely a police officer or detective from the 50's, however his facial expression/looking down, the fact he is holding a gun and the way he is standing looks like he is standing over something, this makes readers question whether he is guilty or whether there is more to him than just a police officer.

Spy Thriller

The spy thriller genre, most often the protagonist is generally a government agent or in this film's case an ex-agent who need to take violent action against a rival government or (most recently) terrorists. This genre usually fuses the action and science fiction genres.

Again, this poster uses dark colours with the title of the film in blood red to draw the audience's eyes towards it, this also informs the audience that it is a serious film with violence in it. 

Th positioning of the actor; to have him running portrays that action will be featured in this film and creates the link to him being a government agent.

Also, that he is holding a gun again highlights the government agent and action qualities of the film.