Creating a Thriller

In the view of Alfred Hitchcock:

The Audience:

When creating a thriller it is so important that everything in the screenplay is done for the audience. There is nothing more important than to show how each scene is going to affect the viewer. The content must engage them along with reeling them in. The characters should be used to tease the viewer and pull them along wanting more. 

 

Frame of emotion:

It is well known that emotion is the ultimate goal of each scene. Emotion can be in the form of fear, laughter, surprise, sadness, boredom, anger etc. In a scene at first you should consider where to place the camera as you should already know what emotion you want the audience to experience. Emotion come directly for the actors eyes, you can  the intensity of the emotion by placing th camera close or far away form those eyes. a close up will feel the screen up with emotion, and pulling away to a wide angle shot will dissipate the emotion. A sudden cut from wide to close-up will give the audience a sudden surprise. Sometimes a strange angle above the actor will heighten the dramatic meaning.

Camera is not the camera:
Let the camera become a real person. The camera should take on human qualities and roam around looking for something suspicious. This allows the audience feel that they are involved in uncovering the story. Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements. This method goes back to Hitchcock's beginnings in silent films. Without sound, film makers had to create ways to tell the story visually in a succession of images and ideas. You should always use the camera as more than just a camera.

Dialogue means nothing:
A good way to pull the audience into a characters secret world is to get the character to be pre-occupied with something during a dialogue scene (Their eyes could be distracted while the other person doesn't notice). Alfred Hitchcock said "People don't always express their inner thoughts to one another. A conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person thinks or needs".

Keep the story simple:

If the story complicated, confusing or requires a lot memorization from the audience, you are never going to get suspense out of it. The key to creating that raw Hitchcock energy is by using simplistic, linear stories that the audience can follow easily. Everything in the screenplay must be streamlined to offer maximum dramatic impact. Each scene should only include essential ingredients that make things gripping for the audience. An abstract story will bore the audience and that is why Hitchcock use to use crime stories with spies, assassinations along with people running from the police. These kinds of plots make it easy to play on fear, but are not mandatory for all movies.

Surprise and Twist:

Once you have got the audience into the story's gripping suspense, it should never end the way they expect. 'The bomb must never go off', lead the audience into one direction and then hit them with a surprise twist.  

 May cause MacGuffin:

The MacGuffin is the side effect of creating pure tension. When scenes are built around dramatic tension, it doesn't really matter what the story is about. If you have done your job properly, the audience will still be glued no matter what. You can use random plot devices known as the MacGuffin.  The MacGuffin is nothing! The only reason for the MacGuffin is to serve a pivotal reason for the suspense to occur. For Example in could be something as simple as government secrets.