Portfolio Project Genre #1

Hii guys! In this blog post I will be talking about one of the genres that I'm considering to do my final project about and today's genre is: 

Suspense 

Genre overview: 
The suspense genre is related to mystery and thriller, which creates tension and curiosity for the audience. By gathering the viewers attention and creating a tone of mystery, this genre is able to make people ask themselves questions of what is happening throughout the movie. Also, the genre is known for revealing information about the plot slowly, often making viewers feel uneasy. 

Typical target audience:

The target audience are mainly young adults and adults from 18 to 50 years old who enjoy mystery and tension. People who like predicting things and feeling very engaged and surprised by the unexpected are the ones who watch suspense movies more often. 

Genre conventions – Content:

- A suspense production needs to have a good hook to grab viewers attention and evoke an emotional reaction in them. 

- Adding victims, which includes missing people, hostages or dead bodies create more mystery to the story. 

- An antagonist that can be either a criminal or a manipulating villain for example, also helps to add tension to the story. 

- Having a shapeshifter, which is a character who says one thing and does another, impacting the protagonist's mission to stop the antagonist. 

- Locations like an isolated place, dark environments or places with extreme weather usually work well to make the story more mysterious. 

Genre conventions - Techniques: 

- The use of red herring, which is a clue that tricks both the characters and the audience, making them look in the wrong direction and not realize who the real villain is. 

- Cliffhangers can be used to increase the tension over many scenes, which keeps the audience more engaged. 

- They usually withhold information and key details so that people become more curious to what will happen.

- Non-diegetic sound like low music and silence to create tension. 

Institutional conventions: 

- Suspense is usually marketed by hiding informations from the audience so it can attract people to watch it and discover the answers to the hidden details in the trailers. 

- The trailers and posters focus on the tension and they usually use dramatic sounds and dark colors to create mystery. 

- The marketing focus on emotional tension.

- The taglines are usually short and vague to create curiosity. 

Film/ TV productions that represent the genre: 

- Gone Girl (2014)

- Shutter island (2010)