Research: Narrative Themes (Miss Begum)

Narrative Themes

Themes are prominent or recurring ideas in a piece of film. These ideas are often repeated in a script or narrative as it is important to identify for the audience as it creates meaning and is the key to the audience's reaction.

Different themes in different genres...

Rom-Com	Action	Thrillers	Crime	Sci-fi	Historic
Breakups	Crime	Psychological	Revenge	Supernatural	Fighting
Love	Battle	Envy	Greed	Religion	War
Happiness	Death	Supernatural	Addiction	Space	Battle
Loyalty	Violence	Religion	Money	Disaster	Land
Marriage	Money	Death	Drugs	Earth	Ownership
Commitment	Drugs	Obsession	Good vs Evil	Adventure	Hierarchy

Themes are dependent on their genre as without the themes the genre will not be fulfilled. For example, a thriller film would not be in the thriller genre if it's key themes were not supernatural, psychological and death etc. These elements attract the audience into understanding what genre they are watching.

Common themes in thrillers...

Psychological, death, envy. - "Orphan"

Supernatural, death. - "Insidious"

Death, psychological, violence.  - "Psycho"

Medical, psychological, death. - "Shutter Island"

Religion, death, envy, violence. - "Se7en"

Obsession, psychological, death, violence. - "The Human Centipede"

The impact on audiences...

The impact of themes on audiences are usually to create meaning and help audiences learn and identify from it. Themes satisfy the expectations of the audiences and make them respond in an appropriate way. Themes also make conventions easier to identify in the genre.

Conclusion:

From researching the narrative themes I am now able to identify what themes I want to include in my thriller. I would like to stick to the conventions of thrillers as my audience will know what to expect. Some conventional themes I will include are psychological, death, evil and supernatural.