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

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

·         The task…

The task was to create a 2 minute thriller within small groups. We were asked to research and identify the micro-elements and then use of them in our thriller films. Once we understood this concept, we were put into small groups and here we had to create ideas for a thriller we wanted to make whilst using all the appropriate conventions. Once we explored some ideas for a potential thriller we created a narrative by using the narrative structure of Aristotle as this best suited out idea. Once this was agreed, we then created a storyboard, which helped us further plan our ideas and group roles... Once we have captured all the footage of the thriller, we had to edit it using final-cut. Using this program allowed us to put effects that will enhance the visuals of the thriller. As well as video editing, we also had to create an original soundtrack using garage band making sure that it suited the narrative and emotion drawn from our thriller.

Generic conventions within my thriller

My planning and production was influenced by my research a lot therefore I believe that I followed and developed generic conventions of a thriller.

Within my thriller a low angle of the antagonist has been used when he is shown at the party stalking the female victim. With doing this it has been used to show the power that he has towards her and this is used to make the audience feel scared and afraid of him.

What the antagonist wears is all black this is shown at the party scene as everything he is wearing is black head to toe. What this represents is all the dark intensions that he has and also the anger of revenge to get back at someone that took his love away, and what this does is makes the audience feel scared and feared of him.

 

In the party scene of the thriller you can see the characters partying but then you can also hear the non-diegetic sound in the background. Non diegetic sound has been used here to just show that the  characters are being normal teenagers where they are partying and listen to music, and this makes the audience start to understand that the female is partying.

 

Nearing to the end of the thriller the editing starts to pick up, the fast paced editing is used when the antagonist kidnaps the female victim and starts to torture her; this was to use to show that something exciting is happening and what this does is make the audience feel excited while watching.

 

 

The body language and facial expression is scared and shocked when the victim is being taken by the antagonist in the park; this represents the characters as weak and vulnerable and the antagonist as strong and powerful. This makes the audience feel scared and feared for the victim as they know the dark intensions that he has towards her.

With the coursework tasks was that we were put into small groups to film and edit our own original thriller film. With doing this is consists of us creating our own narrative, creating a storyboard, doing research and filming and editing the footage for the production with an original soundtrack to it, then getting audience feedback through surveys and people watching it.

·         Does my thriller follow conventions of a thriller?

My thriller follows typical thriller conventions as we used conventional character representations to show the antagonist as a tall and strong that is dressed in all black clothing that hides his identity. This is conventional to a thriller as all antagonists are dressed in dark clothing to represent the evil and dark, with our antagonist he is perceived as fearful towards the other characters and the audience.

I believe my thriller also represents the female victim in a conventional way because is that she is very vulnerable as she is a teenager going to a house party. The clothes that our female victim is wearing is leopard print shorts and a white vest, what the vest can represent is that she is innocent in some ways because the black in the shorts can show to the audience that she has some hidden secrets. This follows the thriller conventions because the victim is wearing light colours and in most other thriller films you see the victim or the protagonist wearing light colours, which connote to the audience that they are pure. With this being shown our victim is shown as conventional with the innocence’s and purity but has some dark secrets that the audience figure out later on.

Our lighting in the thriller follows the thriller genres conventions as; in the torture/park scene we use low key lighting. This is because using low lighting in these scenes allows it to have more of an eerie feel whist following the thriller conventions, of the thriller scene of where the victim is being tortured and also when she gets kidnapped in the park, there is almost no light where makes it more scary for the audience to watch as they can’t much.

From doing some research of opening credits, which are seven and scream. I have gained some ideas of what to uses as conventional thriller openings. With the film seven, we see that the font of the writing is white and turns red. Also with the font it is in block capitals and some of the letters have parts that are faded. Also in comparison the film scream, shows the title in the colour white then shakes and turns red, screams opening credits are conventional because of the red and the way that it has been shown. With our thriller, knowing the conventional opening credits and typography needed. It has allowed us to be more creative using the research we came up with the idea of when the credits are being shown and title. It appears with a shake and the credits are shown, while the font has the writing looking like it is dripping like blood. Our credits in the thriller follow the thriller genre of being conventional because of the aspect of it shake to have a distort look and the blood type effect to make the audience wonder what this could represent in the thriller.

·         Generic conventions of a thriller

To help me understand the generic conventions were what I had to do is research into the thriller genre and their use of microelements. I found that in editing the way that they build tension is that the editing speed starts slow and then slowly builds to become faster as the editing of the footage would speed up. What this means in the generic convention that they can use in conventional thriller can generally scare some of the audiences by using the slow and fast paced editing.  Also with doing this with the tension and the suspense, there is sound that is in the films. This is used to show the audience that sound could scare the audience or make them emotional. With the research that I have done there are different types of ways sound is shown in the film. There is diegetic and non-diegetic what these are is that diegetic, is a part of the film world. This is when filming whatever sound is made at that time it is a part of the film world. For example, TV the TV can be on when being film this means the characters can hear it and also the audience can when they are watching the film.

Also with this there is Mise En Scene the conventional things that are in the thriller is that, the costume that characters are wearing, with each type of character there is a certain way that they are dressed in the thriller to show what type of character that they are in the film. Also the hair, make up and the body language of the character also are a part of the way they are shown to the audience. With iconography the typical conventions are, when the antagonist for example take a knife to use to kill the victim of the film. This is conventional be the weapon is used to kill the victim. Also with this being said where the antagonist kills the victim is also important as when I researched about it, and when the antagonist kills the victim It would most likely to be in the home of the victim or a isolated area to show the audience fear and to make them feel uncomfortable as the audience can relate to wear she lives.

My thriller following a conventional narrative structure

With knowing the theory of Aristotle, in our thriller we base our narrative around his theory as we think it fits for the thriller genre. We have chosen to follow this theory as it suits the ideas of our narrative of the thriller, this is conventional because with our thriller we have a equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium, the beginning shows the characters and the middle shows the struggle the character goes through and the it ends with the a shocking ending towards the audience.