Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and coventions of a real media product?

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

There are many generic conventions of the thriller genre that I identified seen from my research into the different areas of the thriller genre so therefore we have an understanding of the typical codes and conventions through a thriller or opening scenes. The following conventions are some that I have seen in consistent use throughout the films that I have researched specific to the tasks that I set. 

Blonde Female Victim, This convention is used widely across the genre because a blonde female is stereo-typically weak, so it will engage the audience when they are first introduced to this character as they will automatically start to think that this character will be the first to be killed rather than any other character. This can be seen in such films as Scream, which is one of the films I researched specifically for its conventions. But it can also be used to manipulate the audience this can be seen in The last house on the end of the street, where at the beginning a small blonde child is walking through the corridor being portrayed as weak not only because she is blonde but because of the consistent use of the high angle, but this turns out to be a false portrayal of the character as in fact she is the killer.   

Hidden Identity, is also a common convention of the thriller genre, the killer behind the masks gives the film a sense of mystery. The audience not being able to see the killer engages them more as they are consistently trying to figure out what the killer looks like as personally and facial features are removed making the main element of surprise more intense when the character is first unveiled to the audience. Such films that represent this are again Scream and The Strangers.  

Jump Cut, Is one of the common editing techniques that is used across the thriller genre, it is used to represent when the film suddenly focuses on something else. This editing gives the audience a sudden sense of shock breaking in to the main element of surprise. This is typical for most thriller films but some researched examples are The Uninvited. We decided to use this as it is conventional and could be fitted many times into the scene therefore meaning the audience was constantly feeling the intended state of shock, which they expect to feel when they are watching a film under the thriller genre. Also it would challenge the conventions of a media product recreating this experience.  

Timing of Shots is another conventional editing style as it is used to create tension/emotional impact throughout the audience, but the slow or fast pace of the time between different camera angles or shots it either to create a weak or a strong bond between audience and characters. Again it is typical for most thriller films another example would be The Uninvited. It has a massive effect on the audience particularly in the emotion impact they feel which yet again is expected when the audience watches a film under the genre. They feel such elements as suspense and surprise due to the different lengths of shots, this is why it was taken to so much consideration. 

Credits, there is also a conventional style of font for the thriller genre, credits are on a dark part of the footage or a black screen with the soundtrack playing at the same time, The font will be either a bold or printed like font (Se7en) or a hand written style (Hannibal). And they will either be black or white in colour depending on the background. In some cases they will be jumpy or distorted to engage the audience further. The audience expects a convention style of credits and this is what we gave to the audience my film had a similar font to thriller that I have seen and researched. 

Camera Angles, there are many conventional camera angles used by all films under the thriller genre, close up, high angle, low angle, panning, two shot, point of view etc. These were taken into massive consideration as they would play a vital role in how the audience would react to the opening scene. This is why there are a massive amount of varied angles in the scene so the audience continue to be engaged but at the same time are having an emotional impact that we expect them to feel at specific sections of the scene. 

Sounds, again also there are many sounds used by the thriller genre designed to make the audience feel uneasy or nervous about a particular situation they have been placed in or to engage them as a whole. These include the soundtrack, eerie sounds, high pitched sounds or even silence. Again alike Camera angles there are an array of sounds through the scene to keep the audience engaged as well as create an emotional impact by making them feel unstable through the sound they hear in relation to what they are viewing.  

Through my research and the information that I gathered in that process and with use of our storyboards my group and I were able to follow the generic conventions of the thriller genre.  We all understood the generic conventions of the thriller genre and we knew we had to portray this in the opening scene through camera angles, editing styles, sounds, characters etc.  

One of the things that is apparent to the audience in my thriller genre are the credits in the opening credits they are white on a black background and are of a bold text conventional to the thriller genre. The credits take place in the same order as the one of Se7en making the films credits alike as they follow the same order that roles are introduced in a thriller film. In addition the font of the credits is also a conventional style of the thriller genre that the audience would be able to define the genre easily. 

The characters are conventional to the thriller genre in the way that they are based on our inspirations as mentioned previously The last house on the end of the street. This is where the girl in the film is portrayed to the audience as a victim where in fact she is actually the killer. We took this idea because it is not used widely across the thriller genre but is still conventional, it is commonly increasing to see child killers in thriller films as they tend to be more intense on the audience rather than adults.

I also used both of the conventional editing styles in our opening scene. The jump cut was used mainly twice for two different reasons, to introduce the second character the teenager into the scene and also to show the audience a particular part of the setting which was a light (used to illustrate the convention of low key lighting within the setting).  In addition I also carefully used timing of shots to get my audience to react in a particular way we wanted to build up tension at the start of the scene making the audience bond stronger with the character, then when it was discovered that the girl is the killer we wanted to weaken the bond by increasing the time between different camera angles used.

I also followed the generic convention of using all of the specific camera angles and sounds of a thriller film including them all within the scene. I used a variety of camera angles which include:

Ø  Panning

Ø  Long Shot

Ø  POV

Ø  High Angle

Ø  Mid Shot

Ø  Low Angle

Ø  Two Shot

Ø  Close Up

I also had a clear soundtrack that was used to engage the audience further into the scene, and eerie sound to make the audience feel uneasy and also a high pitched sound when the killer returns for a second time letting the audience known that something is going to happen.

My opening scene defines the thriller genre because I have challenged the main conventions of the thriller genre by taking inspirations from other researched films and have collaborated ones into the narrative that stand out so that it is clear to the audience the genre of our work, because they can relate to the conventions or micro elements with other thriller films that they have seen and possibility even their own life’s through the main character because of younger brothers and sisters or even possible the setting or other sections of our opening scene.

I believe that my thriller opening scene is successful as it can be compared with another thriller opening scene to show the comparison between the conventions of each of them and how I have developed a successful thriller film. Firstly they both in away have very similar narratives so our conventions are very similar. We both have a blonde female firstly seen by the audience as a victim then switched so she becomes the killer. We also both have a conventional setting to the thriller genre, our film using an industrial estate for which many of our target audience will have parents that work in them or will have passed one so will be able to easily relate to the setting. Meanwhile the other film follows more conventional setting of a household which is more commonly used through the thriller genre in films such as Scream and the Strangers.  In addition our setting both contain Low Key Lighting which casts shadows and engages the audience further into the scene as they have to concentrate more.  Again we have both used conventional camera angles and sounds to have further emotional impact on the audience.     

Camera Angles

Sounds

Mid Shot , We both use this camera angle in our scene on all of the characters as a shot to introduce the character into the scene. Close Up, is used to show the victim and the killers emotions to a certain element of the scene, and to reflect the audiences emotions at this time as well. Point of View, Point of View is used on both of the killers in the opening scene to show their movements and there thought, but also so that the audience empathises with the characters. High Angle, is used to show the weakness of all of the characters in the scene as at some point the audience is left wondering who is the antagonist and the protagonist with the scene.  Low angle , is used to show the audience the dominance of one of the characters in the scene particular the killer in our scene or the mother in the other over the small blonde child.

Soundtrack, peaks at certain points  to create emotional impact on the audience but  also to engage them within the scene that they are watched. High Pitched, sound is used to show the audience the reoccurrence of the killer in the scene to make the audience feel uneasy when the situation is suddenly seen by them.

Lastly we both have similar Iconography in the way we both use weapons that will cause fatal injures when they come into contact the person but will not kill them directly like a gun which is unconventional to the thriller genre. We use a knife alike Scream, but instead a hammer is used which is also a conventional weapon as it can cause serious harm to the victim when used. It conventional in the way that this category weapon is widely used across the genre.