Thriller Sub Genre, Some Editing Techniques – Shawshank Redemption

Shawshank Redemption Subgenre

Shawshank Redemption can come under the subgenre of a drama thriller. This is because it is not a typical thriller in the sense of the word, but is very dramatic in terms of the characters and how they act around/towards each other. It also qualifies for a legal thriller as Andy is imprisoned, for a crime he did not commit. Although we do not know this straight away, as to create an enigma to the audience. The film however is mainly a drama thriller, as it plays more on the emotions and struggles of the humans being, rather than the physical struggles people usually go through in thriller. It is more psychological as we the audiences see how Andy copes with prison life as an innocent man and a man that clearly isn’t suited to the type of person that occupies a prison.

 

Editing Techniques

At the opening titles of the film non-diagetic sound is present as a song, which then turns into diagetic as a shot comes on screen and pans to Andy’s radio. This shows where the song is playing from as diagetic sound. The shot before this however, the first shot after the titles, is a long shot of a dark night with a house on screen and a car. This is to establish the mise en scene. Then it cuts to a point of view shot after the shot of the radio, that looks down to the glove box, showing Andy pulling out an object wrapped in a piece of clothe. The shot then pans to the side turning from a point of view shot into a close up of the object Andy is holding in his hands. He unwraps the cloth to reveal a revolver gun with several bullets. The transition from a point of view shot to a close up high angle shot occurs while Andy reveals the gun through a pan action. This is filmed as one continuous shot as to keep constant focus from the audience on the object Andy hold in his hands. Andy then grabs a bottle of whiskey from off screen and brings it into shot with a spare hand and starts to unscrew the lid.

 

There is then a match-cut to Andy’s face as a close-up shot to show Andy as he takes a drink looking dishevelled and slightly drunk. An L-cut is then used as the voice of a lawyer in a courtroom sounds as the shot remains with Andy. This then cuts to another close-up shot of Andy in the courtroom with the same lawyers voice sounding. This shot transition shows the juxtaposition in the mise en scene and Andy’s appearance. The previous shot of his in his car drinking shows Andy scruffy, tie loose, hair a mess and generally untidy. But the previous shot to this creates an enigma over Andy’s character, whether he is a protagonist or an antagonist, as the story being given by the lawyer suits everything being seen on screen. This then cuts to a shot of him very tidy and clean cut. His suit sharp, his tie tightly around his neck and his hair perfectly arranged, clearly signifying a man that takes pride in his formal appearance.

 

It then cuts from Andy to the lawyer who is still talking, walking towards the camera slowly, as Andy’s point of view, getting closer and more intimidating, along with the words he is saying, about the crime he has supposedly committed. This shot shows the isolation Andy is in, being probed by the lawyer and frowned upon by the audience that clearly have guilty until proven innocent attitude to the situation. The shot then cuts to a flashback of the narrative, what the lawyer is describing not Andy’s own memory, of his wife and her lover kissing passionately before they were murdered. This is parallel editing, showing one image with the sound of another. It then cuts to the court again as the lawyer continues to talk. The shot then cuts back to the gun Andy was holding in his car as the lawyer speaks of it; this is mirroring as this same shot has been seen before. It cuts back to the courtroom once more, showing a panning shot of people in court watching, showing their reactions to what they are hearing at mid-shot. This shows the isolation of Andy once more as the audience in front of him are supporting the lawyer and believing his story, and are all against Andy.

 

This then cuts back to the lawyer as his finishes he segments on the crime Andy supposedly committed. The shot then cuts to the judge talking to Andy of his opinion on him. This is a low angle shot zooming out slowly, it shot a point of view shot from Andy and also shows the authority of the man who decides Andy’s fate. This then cuts to a high angle shot of Andy slowly zooming in, while the judge is still speaking and finally delivers Andy’s extreme sentence, showing Andy’s isolation again with the audience behind him and his little power the alter the situation at hand. His expression also tells the audience everything about his opinion of the sentence given, complete shock and disbelief. The shot stops zooming at this point, ending as a close up shot of Andy’s reaction as the judge hits his hammer, proving Andy guilty and sentencing him to two back to back life sentences, for each of his victims.

Thriller Sub Genres – Deep Blue Sea

There are many different subgenres for a thriller, each subgenres with different aspects that put it in that particular category. We watched the first 30 minutes of the film ‘Deep Blue Sea’ in class to look at the different subgenres in it. Most thrillers contain more than one subgenre, an example of a thriller that contains more than one subgenre is James Bond. These films contain the following thriller subgenres; Action thriller, conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, spy thriller and depending on the storyline of the individual film there may be more. This is a lot of subgenres to have in one film, but it shows the wide variety of subgenres types a thriller can have. Like James Bond and many other thrillers, Deep Blue Sea is no different and contains several thriller subgenres.

Action Thriller

An action thriller is when the work of the protagonist often features a race against time, contains a lot of violence and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain a lot of guns, explosions and large set pieces of action. Deep Blue Sea meets these criteria, as there are a lot of these elements. Set pieces in the film for example are when the sharks pick off each character one by one. The first of these is the scientist whose arm gets bitten off. This set piece then expands very quickly, as his helicopter ambulance is brought down by the sharks, causes a massive explosion of the waterstation and the armless scientist is smashed against the glass of the room his fellow protagonists are in. This then causes the glass to break and flood the underwater section of the waterstation. This also shows the violence of an action thriller and the obvious antagonists being the sharks. This particular set piece is very large and sets the pace of the film being the first of the action scenes. The race against time in this film is more of a race to survive. It has aspects of a race against time because the protagonists only have so much time before the sharks kill them. It becomes a kill or be killed struggle for the protagonists.

Disaster Thriller

A disaster thriller is when the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster. The disaster in Deep Blue Sea being an artificial disaster, is the genetic construction of these ‘super sharks’ that become the films main antagonists. This is not a typical disaster thriller, like films such as ‘Tornado’ but does qualify for containing an artificial disaster, the sharks. This causes conflict in who the antagonist of the film is. The sharks are obviously the prominent antagonists, but as we find out at the end of the film, the female scientist altered them genetically because of the deadline given by the experiments funding. Can this make her the antagonist? The sharks did not choose to be that way, they were unwillingly changed. Surely the person that causes the sharks to be that way is the antagonist in the story. But it is not quite the case in Deep Blue Sea, as she herself becomes a victim of the sharks, sacrificing herself to destroy them. The main conflict in this film is between the people in the water station (protagonists) and the sharks (antagonists/artificial disaster) this makes it a disaster thriller.

Eco-Thriller

An eco-thriller is when the protagonist must avoid or resolve an environmental or biological calamity, often while trying to deal with usual obsticles in a thriller. In Deep Blue Sea the biological calamity that must be avoided or resolved is the sharks. They count as a biological calamity because scientists genetically altered them, they were not born that way. This biological calamity then causes the obsticles the protagonists must go through to solve the problem at hand, the sharks. This is probably the main subgenre for Deep Blue Sea as it directly suits the story and the problem the protagonists have. The experiment on the sharks and the way it goes wrong cannot be described any better than as a biological calamity. It was a mistake made by the scientists. Even though the female scientist did act individually in trying to speed up the experiment, not sticking to the initial plans of the experiment, she still did not mean for the sharks to turn that way. However the mistake was made and a biological calamity was formed and had to be resolved. The initial conflicts with the sharks were avoided but at the end of the film when the remaining protagonists when as sea level and relatively safe they had to resolve the problem, by killing the sharks, whether they had helped make a medical breakthrough or not.

Medical Thriller

A medical thriller is when the hero/heroine are medical doctors/personnel working to solve an expanding medical problem. Deep Blue Sea is only loosely a medical thriller but there are certainly elements of it that contain aspects of a medical thriller. The medical problem in this film is brain-related illnesses. The objective of the scientists in the film is the use cells from experimented on sharks to solve human brain illnesses. This is because sharks cannot get brain-related illness, including cancer. But instead of solving the problem they create one. They do make a breakthrough using cells from one of the sharks, but the genetically altered shark then becomes dangerous, almost like a ‘super shark’. The other sharks that have had the same alteration go through this same change and then become hell-bent on killing the protagonists in the film. Instead of solving a medical problem the scientists create several super sharks that will result in their deaths.

All thriller sub-genres with film examples for each

Action Thriller – The Transporter

Conspiracy Thriller – The Good Shepherd

Crime Thriller – The Departed

Disaster Thriller – Perfect Storm

Drama Thriller – The Prestige

Eco-Thriller – Armageddon

Erotic Thriller – Basic Instinct

Legal Thriller – Shawshank Redemption

Medical Thriller – Awake

Political Thriller – Frost/Nixon

Psychological Thriller – Fatal Attraction

Spy Thriller – The Bourne Indetity

Techno-Thriller – The Terminator