Thriller genre (Bourne)

The main conventions of a thriller movie are, hero’s and a villain’s, usually most films in this genre have a hero and a villain and most of the hero will be trying to get revenge or kill the villain, take the Bourne trilogy for example, here we see the main character (Jason Bourne) seeking revenge on a team of people who trained him to be an assassin, on the road up to finding the villains the hero will face some difficult decisions which usually involves leaving their family or saying good bye to a loved one again in Jason’s case we repeatedly shown flash backs of his former partner.

The props in a thriller movie are usually some sort of weapon but it would most likely be a gun as generally in this genre there is some sort of shoot out, another prop that is used quite often a car which escalates into a dramatic car chase with people shooting at the hero from all angles.

The plot of a thriller movie involves the hero trying to get back at the villain for something they have done in the past whether it is they had killed friends, family or a loved one, or tried to trick the hero in to helping them create destruction.

The camera work in a thriller movie is usually very quick and sharp, this is so we as the viewer don’t miss any of the action some of the camera shots they would use in this genre would be, a pan, close up, and an extreme close up. This leads onto the editing; sometimes shots can be filmed with a hand held camera to give that feel that the audience is running along with the character.                                                                                                              

There are two types of sound in film Diegetic which is music and sound that can be heard within the world of film, and Non Diegetic which is music and sound which only the audience can here, the most common use of the two would be Non Diegetic sound, this is used to create a sense of tension for the audience, this also can give clues as to when something may happen as the music could change in pace and pitch. The use of Diegetic sound is for things like heavy breathing, screaming and gunshots.

Notes on a thriller-The Bourne Ultimatum

Camera shots: close up on Bourne and the gun as he defends himself from the police.

Editing: fast moving camera shots to emphasize Bourne’s memory loss as he is trying to remember what made him like he is today.  

Sound: Diegetic sound of the police radio in the cars suggests that they may be chasing Bourne, bottles smashing could suggest panic.  

Mis-en-scene: the scene is quite dark and looks run down; this may suggest that they are in the poorer side of the country.

Analysis of the Bourne ultimatum

This shot is in the opening scenes when Bourne is in the pharmacy, this shot is an extreme close up of the tap and the packet of bandages which is covered in Bourne’s blood, as you can see the packet of bandages is slightly blurred this is because slightly after this Bourne has a flash back of his time at the base, the lead up to this shot is Bourne being chased by the police, running into a pharmacy and treating his wounds, the Mis-en-scene is quiet a dark run down place and as you can see by the rust and grime on the tap it looks very dirty.

This shot is when the police find Bourne in the pharmacy; this is an over the shoulder shot as we can see Bourne pointing the gun at the police man form over the police mans shoulder, in the previous shot we see Bourne attack the first police man as Bourne is recovering from a disturbing flash back shortly after this we see Bourne destroy the police radio, the Mie-en-scene is very dark and depressing, we see Bourne is in a cage like room this could suggest that Bourne is imprisoned  by his disturbing memories, Bourne is wearing black clothing this could suggest that he is a very dark character who wants to stay under the radar, the police officer is wearing more of a brown coloured uniform this shows that there is a shift in hero and villain as the hero is normally signified by the lighter

colour, there is very little lighting which could suggest that something bad may happen here and nobody would know about it.

This is when one of the villains has managed to trick a man and Bourne into being involved in an explosion they achieve this effect by using an extreme long shot, before the explosion we see Bourne following the villain on a moped followed by him telling the man top stop driving his car as he has driven into a trap, the shot is followed with the after math of the explosion, we also get introduced to Bourne’s companion who accompanies him for a period of time, the Mis-en-scene is a bright sunny part of the town with little flats close to the road with rows of cars on both sides of the road, again Bourne is wearing black clothing which could symbolise secrecy and wanting to stay in the background, the villain in this scene is wearing what looks like to be casual clothing this could suggest that he is trying to blend in, the scene is a well lit area so is a very unusual place for any chaos to happen.

Here we see Bourne treating his wounds in a rundown pharmacy; this shot is a close up as we can see all of the facial expressions that Bourne is making, in the previous shot we see Bourne collecting the drugs that he needs to inject, we also see him smashing bottles this could suggest that he is in a rush to treat himself as he has the police on his tail, shortly after this we see Bourne have a run in with the police, Bourne mainly dresses in black, this could suggest that he is trying to stay hidden from whatever he is running away from, the mis-en-scene is dark and dreary this could suggest that Bourne is not in a very nice place.    

In this shot we are witnessing Bourne dealing with his flashbacks, this shows one of the police officers approaching Bourne, this shot is a close up, in the shot before this we see part of Bourne's flash back which shows a man asking him if he commits to the program, this is followed by Bourne saying “I can’t”. After this shot we see Bourne attack the first police officer as he has not yet realised that he has been followed, Bourne is again dressed in black which could suggest that he is a very unhappy character, the police man is also wearing a dark colour but not the same, this could suggest the Bourne and the police man could be quite similar, the room which they are located looks abandoned which could suggest it has closed down or has very few costumers.