Genre Research - Cinematography and Editing

In thriller films, a common trait in their cinematography are close ups on the main protagonist of the film. This is done to convey the characters emotional struggle during the film.

Here we see Leonardo DiCaprio's character looking torn in Shutter Island. Another example is Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler going crazy looking at himself in the mirror. The shots in thriller films also contain lots of shadows almost as a pastiche on old film noir's. Here is an example of the shadows seen in those films.

The editing of thriller films tends to go from medium paced sequences and then jump to fast paced action sequences using techniques such as jump cuts or cross cutting. This is used to excite and 'thrill' the audience when watching the scenes unfold. Here is an example of cross cutting being used from the action thriller Inception.