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