Codes & Conventions of a Crime Thriller

Crime Thrillers often highlight the life of a crime figure or a crime's victim(s). Or the rise and fall of a particular criminal(s), gang, bank robber, murderer or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with law and order figures, an underling or competitive colleague, or a rival gang.  Headline-grabbing situations, real-life gangsters, or crime reports are often been used in crime films.  
Doing a Crime thriller is one of my groups possible choices for our opening sequence, so these are some of the things we need to take into account when putting our storyline/storyboard together.

Codes

• Camera work (close ups of the characters to show their emotion).
• Long shots (establish the location as well as what the characters are doing).
• Body language (see how the character is feeling). 
• Fast paced music (create suspense). 

Conventions of a thriller

The characters might range from being:

• Materialistic
• Street-smart
• Immoral
• Meglo-maniacal 
• Self-destructive. 
• Rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare is often a significant plot characteristic.
• They rise to power showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can express sensitivity and gentleness.

Settings of a Crime thriller

Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, crowded cities to provide a view of the secret world of the criminal e.g. Dark nightclubs or streets with lurid neon signs, fast cars, piles of cash, sleazy bars and contraband. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be apprehended by police, private eyes, special agents or lawful authorities, or mysteries such as who stole the valued object. 

Features of protagonist

Often from poor immigrant families, gangster characters often fall prey to crime in the pursuit of wealth, status, and material possessions (clothes and cars), because all other "normal" avenues to the top are unavailable to them. Although they are doomed to failure and inevitable death (usually violent), criminals are sometimes portrayed as the victims of circumstance, because the stories are told from their point of view.