Portfolio Project Genre #1

     The first genre I decided to research was thriller. I wanted to look into thrillers because of the survival game/dystopian shows I've watched, Alice in Borderland and Squid Game. Even though you can probably guess the ending and the survivor(s), which is usually the main character, it's fun to watch, and I wish there were more shows like that. 

Typical Audience:

    The typical audience of this genre is usually teens and young adults. (1.) From a survey done in 2019, it was shown that the 18-29 age group enjoyed these shows the most. However, they only surveyed people who were 18+. (2.) Another survey done in 2018 showed that both men and women enjoy this genre equally, everyone was also 18+. (3.) Since the surveys didn't include teens, I found an article from The Michigan Daily about a teen expressing their obsession with dystopian books and movies. They said that teens crave this genre because they can relate to the feeling of the main characters of rebellion, which is totally true. 

Genre Conventions with Content:

• Crime: Revenge, kidnapping, investigations
• Characters: Criminals, stalkers, investigators, victims
• (4.) Themes/Characteristics: Suspense, fear, betrayal, mind games, escaping and surviving, mystery
• (5.) Flashbacks: usually show the backstory of the main character. If it's the antagonist, then it usually shows the motivation behind their choices, it also adds to their character, and helps the viewer understand the character better

Genre Conventions with Techniques:

• (6.) Music/Sound: Non-diegetic, could be used to intensify the scene. Silence technique builds tension. 'Calm before the storm,' where the music goes from slow and calm to a faster tempo to create tension and suspense
• (6.) Lighting: Lowkey lighting used in tense scenes, shadows represent evil and darkness
• (6.) Editing: many jump cuts, dissolves, fades, and superimpositions (layering), all to build tension and suspense
• (7.) Camera Angles/ movements: close-ups, high angle, tracking, tilted, low angle, over the shoulder, dramatize scene, add tension, suspense, emphasize expression/details 

Institutional conventions: 

• (8.) Structure: Usually, always calm before something terrible happens
• (8.) Characters: the protagonist is usually an ordinary person, maybe in trouble with something like debt, vs. the antagonist, powerful and evil, who can make the debt go away, but does it at a price. There is also a 'shapeshifter' who leads the protagonist to fail
• (8.) Clues: the main character/protagonist finds out clues, connects things together, and ultimately leads them to the antagonist after a lot of trouble
• (8.) Deaths: There are always people dying because the protagonist can't stop the antagonist in time
• (8.) False Endings: When everything seems like it's over because the antagonist got caught, but then a big fight or something similar happens that makes everyone think that the protagonist won't survive. 
  
  

Two Films/Tv productions that represent the genre:

• Alice in Borderland:

Alice in Borderland is a dystopian game survival thriller, released in 2020, with 3 seasons that ended in 2025. I only watched up to the second season because that's where the main story ended when they escaped the game. The third season was unnecessary because they were sent back to a game again right after they just escaped and recovered. The characters were transported to an abandoned Tokyo after what seems like a meteor hit them, but not everyone in Tokyo, just a select few who were all dissatisfied with their lives and all had a heart attack at the same time, almost dying. They had to compete in survival games every few days to survive, or they would be shot and killed by lasers above in the sky. To escape, they had to collect the whole deck of playing cards. Each game they played could result in death if they didn't beat it in time and represented a different card, difficulty, and type of game.

• Children of Men:

Children of Men is set in a dystopian future (2027) in the UK, where it is now a police state, and humans are no longer able to reproduce and will soon go extinct. However, one day, a woman, who was a young refugee, mysteriously got pregnant, and was the only one in the whole world. Another woman named Julian wanted to take her to a research group, trying to cure infertility in humans. They have to keep Kee, the pregnant woman, safe as they wait for her to give birth, from the government and other groups, as she may be the only hope for curing the extinction crisis.

1. Morning Consult. (2019, July). Utopian vs. dystopian movie/TV preference by age U.S. 2019 [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1016271/utopian-dystopian-movies-tv-preference-by-age-us/

2. Morning Consult. (2023, December). Favorite movie genres in the United States as of December 2023 [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/254115/favorite-movie-genres-in-the-us/

3. Gagnon, S. (2022, November 9). The teenage dystopian film obsession. The Michigan Daily. https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/b-side/the-teenage-dystopian-film-obsession/

4. Hellerman, J. (2023, September 14). What is the thriller genre? Definition and examples. No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/thriller-genre-definition

5. Paredes, A. (2022, October 15). 10 best thrillers that use flashbacks to tell their story. Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/luckiest-girl-alive-best-thrillers-use-flashbacks-tell-story/

6. Connor, T. (2016, October 23). Codes and conventions of the thriller genre. Taryn Connor AS Media. https://tarynconnorasmedia.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/codes-and-conventions-of-the-thriller-genre/

7. Gemini Productions. (n.d.). Camera angles types in thriller films. Windsor Girls Media. https://windsorgirls.weebly.com/gemini-productions/camera-angles-types-in-thriller-films

8. Gilbo, S. (n.d.). The 7 key conventions of a thriller novel. Savannah Gilbo. https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/thriller-conventions