Final Evaluation: Question 1

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Following on from what was said in the video...

As a group we had done our research on the thriller genre therefore were aware of typical conventions presented in such films (mentioned at the very beginning of the video).

Conventions we stuck to:

Low key lighting - helps to connote both mystery and suspense. This was achieved in our product by lowering things such as the saturation levels of the clips on iMovie.

Mystery Male - Although this is not seen in every thriller film available, it is common and aids the idea of the man being of a certain importance - he cannot be shown as it will give away his identity - potentially revealing his motives. As mentioned, this type of character has been used in numerous popular films including 'Physco' and 'Scream'.

The famous masked killer in 'Scream'

'Mystery Male' as seen in Hitchcocks 'Psycho'.

Stereotypical character - As mentioned: A teenage vulnerable girl as the protagonist and an older male character as the antagonist.

Scream - Obviously a scream had to be featured, we didn't feel it would be a thriller film without a stereotypical scream!

Particular camera shots we stuck too:

Extreme close up -
Extreme close ups are shots that are regularly seen in thriller films, often to help connote the characters emotion through focusing in on things like their body language; for example, biting on their lip, fiddling with their hands, crying etc. As a group we agreed that these shots were effective however we wanted to use them in a slightly different way. Instead of all of our close ups displaying Evie's body language,we used them in a way to hide her identity and build suspense.

Point of view-

Similarly, point of view shots are also frequently evident in thriller films. We used a few within in our video and one particularly successful one we used I have attached below. I feel these shots are effective within thrillers and ours in particular because it allows you to in visage that you are the character and almost relate to their fear.

Tracking shot -

Tracking shots are used for the main purpose of following any particular action that takes place. They are obviously popular within mainly action thrillers yet we found them to be successful within our film also. We used one when filming Evie running through the woods away from her 'abducter'. We felt it really gripped the audience and kept the video moving at a fast pace which was good as it enabled us to create a thrilling piece. 

Conventions we challenged:

Title at the end of the product - We took a real risk placing the main film title at the end of our product as it is usually featured fairly near to the beginning of films. The reasoning behind the title placement was that we didn't want the text to overlay any of our clips as we felt it would take away some of the suspense as the audience would be busy reading instead of watching. I still feel this was a good move and don't feel it makes our product and less professional.

Amount of locations - This is not particularly a strict convention yet it is something we picked up on. In many thriller films multiple locations are used. In ours only two were featured. Eventhough we may have included more if it were full length, we decided to stick to minimal for what we produced. I feel this was successful because numerous locations were not really needed, considering the main girl was essentially confined in the space in which her kidnapper kept her. We feel this also made our film different from already existing ones and also made our film stand out because the location we used was different and not many people would have thought of using it.

Vulnerable innocent music instead of dramatic music - We used a 'music box' type of soundtrack for our film, which contrasts against the two main chacters ages as music boxes represent younger children. However, using this sound effect enforced the idea of an underlying pedophilic tone, which potentially could have been introduced subliminally to the film.

Particular camera shots we challenged:

High angled -
Although sometimes high angled shots are used in thrillers we found that it is usually extreme high angled shots rather than just normal ones like what we used. However, it was effective within ours as it helped us to achieve a height that looked similar to the sort of view we could imagine the abducter having looking down on his victim.

Pan -

Although we were aware that pans are slightly slower camera movements than tracking and not regularly used in thrillers; we found them to be successful in aiding us to display our setting in a  chilling way. Although they slowed down the pace a little, they offered a juxtaposition to the mainly fast paced clip.

Zoom -

It is not totally unrealistic for a zoom to be within a thriller however we found that when they are featured they are usually apparent when zooming into to weapons rather than faces. In contrast, we zoomed into Evie's face very subtly near the end to emphasise her fear.