Conventional Camera Angles in Psychological Thrillers

As opposed to just making a thriller film itself we decided to make our film into the sub genre of a psychological thriller as there are many conventions that we feel we could add to our film.

Psychological Thriller

A film in the psychological thriller genre has a tendency to have a heavy focus on the character through out the film. This is done by usually keeping initial focus on a main character, usually a protagonist, so that the audience can create an initial connection with said character. When some of the plot is unravelled through out the film this causes the audience to feel as though they are going through the same process as the character. Other supporting characters are introduced although the main focal point would be on the main protagonist. This is to endorse audience's focus into the plot and the role that the character plays in the plot. 

Also opposed to other sub genre's of thriller such as action thriller who would rely on physical strength, characters in psychological thrillers tend to rely on mental strength and the focus would be on their stability.

Camera Angles To achieve the focus on the protagonist, examples of camera angles that are used to do so are:

• close ups - giving close detail to a character and creating a personal connection
• extreme close ups - to create an intimate established connection with a character and to see every detail of that characters expression to empathise with their current feelings
• long shots - to establish the character in a whole, eg: their body language, costume
• medium shots - to establish other aspects of the character such as arm movements as body language and often gesticulation can indicate the personality of a character

For example:

Shutter Island has simliar elements to ours, regarding flashbacks and the slow reveal of something that happened in the past that the protagonist has repressed. The above shots mentioned are in this film.

This is a close up shot of the lead character from Shutter Island. We can see a close up on his face at this given moment to clearly show you that this character is under distress. Although, his entire face isn't in the focal point in the centre of the shot as some of the character's clothing is still in shot. This is to establish his persona and the suit and tie says a lot about the character, that he is professional yet the fact we see that his tie is loosened and his top button is unfastened shows that this character is undergoing stress that is effecting his professional front.