Conventions of Genres

Horror


In horror there are very distinctive sounds used in the back ground, like sudden low frequency trumpet sounds, crows, rain outside, and if there's allot of tension in the atmosphere, there may even be complete silence before a sudden, loud sound.
the film is often also set in an empty environment, like in the middle woods or the desert, or even in a small town away from the rest of civilization, so that the characters in the film cannot call police. There is also often a reason for them to not be able to leave the area, like there vehicles wont work, or they got in a car crash. The victims also get murdered when they are on their own, in a dark environment. The characters themselves tend to be young, students that go to the empty environment  on holiday with each other to basically take drugs, get drunk or to have sex.The being that's actually killing the victims is completely mysterious, an only near the end do you find out why its killing people. The killer also is always has its face hidden, and is mainly seen in darkness, your you cant see what it is, unless its a slasher horror, where the killer is in a specific outfit with a mask and a signature weapon.










Thriller


The thriller genre normally involves a main hero going through numerous deadly situations. The heroes of these films tend to be either men/women from a normal city or suburb with a normal life with no experience of action packed adventures, or professionals who are accustomed to danger, like policemen or criminals. In a typical thriller film, the hero attempts to defeat a main villain and to stop an evil plan or to solve a big mystery.

Conventions of opening scenes of different genres

Allot of  films have certain conventions in the introduction scenes, such as lighting, set, camera angles and music.

For example here is the movie "the shining", a psychological horror.


This intro consists of a series of shots of a car driving across long stretches of land on a long winding road, with no other cars nearby. This shows how the people in the car are going somewhere separated from the rest of civilisation, and the music in the back ground sounds deep and ominous which means that some bad stuff is ensured to happen. The opening credits are bold bright blue and scroll upwards in plain capital letters. At the end of the opening scene the audience sees a building by some snowy mountains. It has a dark and somewhat evil look to it. this is most likely where the car is going.This sets the enigma of why they are going there and who they are.

Here is another opening from the movie Akira, an action fantasy animation.This intro begins with an upwards pan of a very large city. The audience is then told that is is Tokyo, Japan, in 1988, but then there is a huge explosion in the centre of the city which destroys a large portion of the city, and there is no sign of why or who did it. The explosion makes the screen a bright white colour which fades into a red silhouette  of Tokyo, which may symbolise danger. which also fades again to show the city itself from a birds eye view. The Audience is then told that it is now 2019, after world war 3, which means the explosion shown previously was due to a world war. The Audience is then shown an outwards zoom of an enormous crater and then in large red letters the name "Akira", which may mean that that may be the name of a company or person that is somehow intertwined in that explosion. The fact that there is no music for most of the intro builds allot of tension and when the crater is revealed, the sounds of slow, sinister drumming plays. This intro creates allot of enigma and confusion, but still keeps the viewer interested.




Here is another Intro of the film The Number 23. a drama thriller.
The Opening scene to this film starts off with a view of a page, and a bold black type writer like font appears telling you the distributor company. This instantly tells the audience that this is meant to be written on a type writer and causes an enigma of why this is relevant. The Paper seems some what messy as well, then numerous 23's, causing an enigma of why that number is important. When the title of the film is shown, it it written in red, symbolising violence or evil. 
Afterwards, many facts appear leading to the number 23, and they're all ominous. The audience now knows that the number 23 is meant to be evil and maybe cursed. Blood eventually appears, further promoting the idea that the number 23 is meant to be related to violence or evil and  it goes with the theme of red.The camera also starts moving quickly, in a panicking  style which gives the audience a sense of fear.At the end of the opening scene, there is a zoom out effect of all the blood which then shows that it makes the number 23, which may symbolise how it is related to everything.