The Conventions of the genre of Revenge thrillers and trailers. My trailer and how it will fit with aforementioned conventions.

The main aspects of the revenge thriller are the first (and probably most important) scene, which will consist of an event that will ‘drive’ our character’s behaviour to beyond what we are expecting. This will usually involve an injustice being committed against our character e.g. a murder, a framing. Before this scene we will usually have character development but in a trailer, we are usual given some form of overview of this in a voiceover or small clip, this is done effectively in the Harry Brown trailer when his friend tells him that he fears for his life. This often adds some sense of moral duty for our character, and will later motivate his revenge. However these scenes do not provide the action that many of the potential audience will be looking for, that is why these sections must be short but effective, that is one of the reasons that some trailers use sound-bites. The first major scene takes up the largest section of the trailer, the aim is to capture the entire build-up and the main action, and the end result in the trailer is to use the entire scene of the ‘point-of-no-return’ or at least the main action because it is undoubtedly the most crucial scene, it is central to the plot. Also it contains the action that the audience will want to see.

The second section serves as a sort of contemplation scene, where the character is contemplating potential possibilities of what he must do, an inner conflict must be present both physically on screen as well as in some sort of sound-bite that will convey how unsure he is of what to do next. The other thing to do is to have an external source of advice e.g. a friend (in my case possibly a father) who shows him a way of thinking that inspires him to take justice into his own hands. These sections are often set in churches, graveyards and areas that are quite solitary, due to the mourning there is often an extended family involved.

The third section is the main section of the film, yet however much of this is not shown, there is a montage flashed of images that show violence and action, this is the clincher the bits that the audience do not see everything they want to see. The music always picks up pace quite rapidly and ends with a bang with an important shot and then the title and that thing that always come after the title with the cast and crew. It is important to give a massive build up that shows what the audience wants. Guns, fights, redemption, perhaps a message, a definitive bad guy etc. and finally some sort of shot that will stick solidly in the minds of the audience e.g. a twist, a selling point. The title itself should have a memorable font but not too over-the-top because that would end up making the film look less serious.