Evaluation: Question1:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The task that we had was to produce a thriller opening which would last 2 minutes. At first, to ensure we had an in depth understanding of thrillers we did research into thrillers to see the different types of thrillers and the different types of thriller sub genres. Also with the research on the thriller we researched how thrillers make the audience feel. Then we looked at cinematography where we researched for the types shots that are used in thrillers. After we had researched into thrillers we were put in group where we would produce our 2 minute thriller as a group. Then we went on to plan for the production of our thriller and the planning consisted in us planning a narrative that we wanted our thriller to follow. Also we planned a storyboard for the filming of our thriller as the storyboard organised and set out what scenes and shots we need to film for our thriller. After the planning we filmed our thriller and with the filming finished we edited our thriller on final cut pro. We edited and we also added soundtracks in our thriller to give the audience a chilling experience in watching our thriller.

Does my Thriller follow conventions of a Thriller?

In my opinion my thriller does follow the conventions of a thriller but in a unique and new way. The conventions in our thriller are iconography the characters (female victim and antagonist), the location and use of mise en scene.

The most significant conventions in my thriller are the characters and how they are represented. The characters in my thriller show that my thriller does follow the conventions of a thriller. For example my thriller only has two characters, a female victim and an antagonist. These characters are very conventional as these characters are used in most thrillers and my thriller uses these characters which ensured that my thriller followed the conventions of a thriller.

The female victim follows the conventions as the female victim in my thriller is young and attractive. This also illustrates her innocence and vulnerability.  Also the costume for my victim in my thriller is conventional as she wears light colour costumes and has a very simple make up. Lastly the female victim in my thriller is conventional as she has a very weak, small and timid body language.

This is the female victim in my thriller. She is conventional as she is young, attractive and innocent and all the characteristics for a conventional female victim can be seen.

These are other examples of female victims from other thrillers such as scream and Spiderman. My female victim is conventional compared to these victims as they all are young, attractive and innocent and they are all females, with simple make up and light costumes.

The antagonist is conventional and follows the convention of a thriller as the antagonist is a male as usually the antagonist is a male. Also the costumes are conventional as the costumes are dark and the identity of the antagonist is hidden as this is very conventional the audience not knowing who the antagonist is this mysterious character which in many thrillers the antagonists identity is hidden. Lastly the body language and the facial expression of the antagonist are very confident and bold as the antagonist dominates the female victim this is very conventional in thrillers.
 

This is the antagonist in my thriller. He is conventional as the antagonist is wearing dark costumes and he is a male as that is what the audience expect to see. Also he has a very confident facial expression and a bold and tall body language.

These are examples of other antagonist from other thrillers such as Batman, Scream and James Bond. These examples show that my antagonist is conventional as all these antagonists have a very confident facial expression and have dark costumes which give them the fear factor towards the audience.

Also my thriller is conventional as the setting of my thriller is very conventional as the thriller is set at home. This is a very common place for a thriller to be set as the audience feel most safe at home and that safety is being taken away from the characters and the audience. The home was conventional place to set a thriller, for example prom night and scream. These thrillers are set at home and these thrillers have chilled the audience by the setting. This is the one way I used and developed conventions of real media products.

This is the location of my thriller.

 

These are examples of other location from other thrillers such as Prom Night, Scream and Insidious. My location is conventional as most thrillers are set at home and they have the most effect on the audience.

Lastly my thriller is conventional because of the use of iconography. The iconography that is used in my thriller is a knife and blood. The knife is a significant murder weapon in thrillers. Also the use of blood in the thriller is conventional as the audience expect to see blood and when the audience do they think that someone has been killed or has someone been injured.

The iconography is conventional in my thriller as the antagonist is holding the knife as in most thrillers the antagonist does which chills the audience.

Generic conventions of a thriller:

I carried out a lot of research into thrillers in order to get a better understanding of the conventions used. In order to create an effective thriller opening, I also looked at the target audience appeal and other aspects of thrillers such as the use of micro-elements. I also researched further into the following conventions like age certificates, narrative structure and theory, themes in thrillers films and character representation.

The films that particularly helped me use and develop conventions were iconography from the film scream and prom night. The knife was shown many times and it showed the victim playing with the knife before it was used to kill her, in both Scream and Prom night the antagonist uses the knife to kill the female victim. This is conventional as the antagonist attacks the female victim with a knife which is a significant iconography.

For the use of lighting I found that a lot of low key lighting is used which creates shadows and this creates tension within the audience. This is a convention that I wanted use in my thriller.

The characters that were conventional in thrillers was a female victim who is always a female, murdered in a brutal way due to an obsessive boyfriend or a serial killer. Also the antagonist who is usually a murderer in the thriller, which then causes the audience to fear the antagonist. There are also children in thrillers and other additional family members however I did not want to use these additional characters.

The types of settings that were used were houses and bedrooms because this is where the audience feel the safest. Also the settings can be in very isolated and dark places such as in a warehouse, forests, derelict building, ally way and many other locations.

The audience response from the thrillers was that the audience were chilled by what they saw and their emotions were manipulated as they feared for the victim and they are sometimes given the hope that the victim will survive but the antagonist gets the victim. The audience also are made to feel scared as the location and setting isolate the audience when they are watching.  I wanted to use this convention and develop it to make a successful thriller and the chill the audience to the best of y ability in my thriller.

Generic convention in my thriller:

The first duration of our opening it shows the female victim entering the house and there are many camera angle used. There is a high camera angle used and a low angle used. The high camera angle was used to show the female victim as vulnerable and an easy target as she is walking up the stairs to enter her bedroom, the high camera angle makes the audience anticipate that something will happen to the female victim as she will enter the bedroom. The low camera angle used on the antagonist as he is caught in deep thoughts it shows that the antagonist is superior and inferior to the female victim and that he is plotting a sinful act.

This high camera angle of the victim shows how vulnerable she is and the audience can immediately see that she is the victim as she is wearing light colour costumes and the location that is in a house.

This is the low angle used on the antagonist the low camera angle shoes that the antagonist is inferior that he is planning a devilish act.

The victims costume is shown when she is in the house. The costume is very simple and this is used to show the audience that the victim is innocent and she will be a victim due to the conventional costume that she is wearing.

This is the a comparison of the costume that the female victim wear in prom night and the similarities can be seen as the female victim in my thriller also has light coloured costumes. This shows that my female victim is conventional as her costume is conventional to a thriller








The antagonists costume is very dark and the antagonist’s identity is hidden from the audience. The antagonist is made to wear a dark costume as it shows the audience that the antagonist is hear when they see the dark costume and it creates a sense of fear around the antagonist.

This an example of an antagonist from scream the costumes of the antagonist id dark costume and the identity of the antagonist is hidden. This is conventional as my antagonist is very similar to the antagonist in scream this shoes that my character was conventional to my thriller.

Opening Credits:

My opening credits are conventional as it shows the characters in the opening and it introduces all the characters to the audience. Also the typography in the opening credits are very conventional as they have a spooky and thriller like font with the colour red to connote danger and death.

 







 

My thriller following a conventional narrative structure:

My thriller follows two structural theorists. The first one being Propp. Propp looked at mainly folk tales he believed that characters had a narrative function and they provided a structure of the text. My thriller follows Propp as the characters in my thriller can easily be understood and their roles and purposes and creates a lot of meaning in the narrative.

The second is Todorov. Todorov’s theory was that a film always has an equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. In my thriller I think that it follows that structure because in the thriller opening it shows the antagonist having flashbacks of their troubled relationship which leads to his obsession over the female victim.Then the victim comes home and she goes upstairs and the anatgonist creps oput of the other room an enters her room turning off the light and smelling her clothes and creeping into the female victims bed this is the disequilibrium. Then the female victim wakes up and looks around and she sees the antagonists face right in her face this is the new equilibrium.

Overall i beleive that my thriller is conventional to a real media product as my thriller has many conventions that are conventional.