Conventions of a Thriller

Music –
Thrillers generally use slow and quite quiet music to set the scene; this is used as it builds up tension right from the start, and gives us an insight of what the characters are like. This can be more dramatic in an opening that what you actually see because this builds up the tension, also we generally find something gloomy or bad happening with the main character in the opening scenes.
Music within film is very important. Not only it helps to create the ambience of the film and its plot, it also helps to evoke the emotions of the characters, so that the audience gets to feel the same thing. Without music, the film won't have as much of an impact as it does with music. Music can be the most important part of a film to support feelings like sadness, joy, pain, tension, triumph, suspense, intrigue, patriotism, danger, fright, folly or fury.


Setting –
The setting of a thriller generally includes, time, location all the main locations of the film/story and often will set the mood for the film. There are elements used in a thriller’s also you will find a plot, character theme and style which all are used to set the scene within a thriller.
Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary suburbs/cities. Though sometimes they maybe set in exotic settings such as deserts, polar regions, or the high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger. However, more common in crime thrillers, they may also be "hard men" used to danger, like, police officers and detectives. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.


Characters –
Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense. Characters in thrillers include criminals, stalkers, assassins , innocent victims, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, individuals, terrorist, cops and escaped cons. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism or romantic triangles leading to murder.


Mise – En – Scene –
When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—comparison, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set.

Decor –
An important element of "putting in the scene" is décor, the objects contained in and the setting of a scene. Décor can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood of a film.

Lighting –
The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived. Light affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition.

Space –
The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the story world.

Costume –
Costume simply refers to the clothes that thecharacters wear. Using certain colors or designs, costumes in narrative cinema is used to signify characters or to make clear distinctions between the characters.

Acting –
There is enormous historical and cultural variation in performance styles in the cinema. Early melodramatic styles, clearly indebted to the 19th century theater, gave way in Western cinema to a relatively naturalistic style.


Narrative –
A narrator is, within any movie, the person who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story. A narrator may tell the story from his own point of view or from the point of view of one of the characters in the story. The act or process of telling the particulars of a story is referred to as narration, along with exposition, argumentation, and description, narration.


Camera work –
Cutting between shots is as old as filmmaking, and for good reason. The stories that the first directors wished to record might run near half an hour, but their cameras could hold only a few minutes worth of film.
To solve the problem, they shot scenes in short sections, spliced the separate film strips together, and so invented the cut from one shot to the next.
Shot which shows all or most of a fairly large subject (for example, a person) and usually much of the surroundings. Extreme Long Shot (ELS) see establishing shot: In this type of shot the camera is at its furthest distance from the subject, emphasising the background. Medium Long Shot (MLS): In the case of a standing actor, the lower frame line cuts off his feet and ankles. Some documentaries with social themes favor keeping people in the longer shots, keeping social circumstances rather than the individual as the focus of attention. 

Editing –
It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences , and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. Film editing is the only art that is unique to cinema, separating film making from other art forms that preceded it. Film editing is often referred to as the "invisible art because when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged that he or she is not even aware of the editor's work.
On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent whole. A film editor is a person who practices film editing by assembling the footage. However, the job of an editor isn’t simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film.