Research into story Ideas -

Story1 - Psychological thriller


(A film where you need to pay attention to what is happening as there are twists that kind of messes with your mind.)

Definition of psychological thriller

-Deep focus on the characters and their state of mind.

-often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, overlaps with horror genre, particularly psychological horror.

-psychological thrillers; emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

-characters not reliant on physical strength, but rather on their mental resources, usually b battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the characters own mind. suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state.

-An approach to film making emphasizing internal personal conflicts rather than sweeping social events. Frequent use is made of close shots which exploit the human face as a barometer of subtle emotions and ideas.

Overall summary:
A sub-genre of thriller with heavy focus on the unstable emotions of the characters within a particular film. Psychological thrillers still incorporate the common elements of mystery and drama but with an emotional status, becoming the main focus within the genre. The mental state of the character is more important than the physical nature of the character in these thrillers and it is often the case that the character is battling with their own mind. The story can be told and is normally told in the form of a first person narrative of the characters going over the events in the story or in essence, talking to themselves. This is a normal convention of a psychological movie.

Literary devices and techniques

-stream of consciousness - a literary technique in which an individuals point of view is produced as a written equivalent so we are able to see the individuals thought processes. in psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the characters psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.

- First person narrative- a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters. this technique is used to make the audience more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand how the characters minds work.

-back story - the history behind the situation right at the start of the main story. This depends the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the characters motivations are and how his/her past shaped his/her current cognitive perception.

Themes 

-Reality: characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative
-perception: a persons own interpretation of the world around themselves through there mind and sense.
-Mind: the human consciousness: the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is used as a location usually for narrative conflict

Examples of psychological thriller


-the butterfly effect- This film is also psychological thriller, it has a psychological element of the main character being lost in his state of mind but also has to face reality. This is quite similar to my first idea of a story, as the main character has to decide on which state of mind she want to live with for the rest of her life, she can either accept death or not and live in false happiness.

The main character in this film has a hard time going back to the past to change some events. The story is also portrayed in the first narrative point of view. You can argue that psychological thriller in this film is portrayed more obviously as the main character doesn't make it confusing for the audience in switching between both his mind and reality. I like this style as it gives more of a purpose to the story line and doesn't over complicate the film and makes the audience look at the different situations every time he changes his past by messing around with his mind. 

-shutter islands- This film is confusing as the audience can't figure out what is a dream and what is real, both states of minds confuse the audience.  

This film is alot more complicated than butterfly effect, that is because this film does not show the reality and his psychological mind separately so it makes it hard for the audience to understand the plot. However this style of work is really catchy as when the audience can finally mange to tell the difference between the two states of minds they can get in to a shock and want to find out more clues to fit the jigsaws together. This type of psychological thrillers can be very complicated to plan and make as it has to have clues throughout the film for the audience to figure out the meaning gradually forming a climax. I would like to use similar style in my film, and leave a few hints to the audience to get their brain working on what these hints might mean.