2. My groups media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of
real media products. Our sequence reflects conventions of the genre we are
working in which is thriller/horror.
Conventions of thriller:
The narrative usually set around crime common ones: serial killer on
loose, there’s usually action in it to thrill the audience
Dramatic irony – builds suspense as audience know more than the characters
know so will be frightened for them.
Tension building music
Darkness and shadows used to represent darkness within people and also adds
tension and eeriness to the thriller
Quick shots and edits – puts you on the edge, you didn’t see it properly
Flashbacks
Antagonists identity is hidden
Everyday settings
Plot twist
Psychological and gets you to think
Leaves audience with unanswered questions
Convention of horror:
Predictable
Often contains more gore
3. HOW MY GROUPS FICTION FILM REFLECTS/CHALLENGES
CONVENTIONS OF THRILLER/HORROR
We wanted to focus mainly on thriller but have a side genre of horror
as in the rest of the film we might have wanted to include gore.
We are developing and agreeing with the conventions of a thriller
as in our sequence we use dramatic irony as the audience know
that the depot worker is being watched and that the baddie is
about to suffocate him which makes the audience feel terrified for
the depot worker. In addition we also include tension building
music and it is in sync with certain actions. We also use quick
editing and it’s filmed at night so sometimes there are shadows
and darkness.
Another convention we develop and challenge is that the
Antagonists identity is hidden at the beginning as we see an over
the shoulder shot or a floor shot of his feet but then near to the
end we see parts of his face revealed.
A convention that we challenge within a thriller is having an
everyday setting, its set in a bus depot which is quite original and
not a normal and stereotypical place for a thriller to be filmed in.
4. CONCLUSION
So my groups fiction film will fulfil the
contractual nature of a thriller however it
wont fulfil every convention of a thriller and
will only take some conventions of a horror
film.
5. We haven’t deliberately used parody but we were thinking of
using pastiche which is when the film 'quotes' or reflects
features of another genre e.g. Horror. If we were to film the
rest of the film then we would include horror and the
convention we’d reflect is gore.
We do play with thrillers codes and history as it uses
conventions of a thriller film and thrillers history. In most
thrillers a stereotypical storyline would be the baddie finding
someone from the past and trying to kill them or torture
them. So in our thriller we have played with the genres
stereotypical history.
6. Realism describes the attempt to depict subjects as they are
considered to exist in third person ideal reality. It’s trying
to represent real life.
Our sequence constructs realism as we wanted it to seem
realistic and make it seem like a possibility in real life.
There is a guy who works in the depot and he’s there by
himself in the dark, checking the buses and the villain
must have been watching him for a while so knew his
schedule of what he does and then decided to attack
him, so he suffocated him and then put him in the bus and
then drove the bus to somewhere. However one could
think ‘what are the chances of this happening to someone’
but it is possible therefore constructs realism in our
thriller.
7. Verisimilitude is the quality of realism in something such as films.
Verisimilitude is used through Mise-en-scene, acting, dialogue, music
and style of camera work.
Mise en scene refers to the composition, sets, props, actors, costumes
and lighting which are used to enhance verisimilitude. Our sequence is
set in a depot and it’s not set-up it’s a real depot so the quality of realism
is the highest it could be.
We couldn’t afford to get professional actors so we got Ryan’s friends to
act and they did quite well. Near to the end the two characters exchange
a few lines, however it could have been more realistic, one could think
that it was a bit cheesy as he ends the dialogue with ‘I’m going to take
you back to where it all happened’ And this wouldn’t happen in day to
day life.
The props we used were a florescent jacket for the depot worker, a torch
and a clipboard and for the villain a plastic bag to suffocate him with.
There weren’t that many props but the props the depot worker had were
needed and helps increase verisimilitude, in addition the plastic bag was
needed to suffocate the depot worker, the props enhance the realism.
8. Furthermore costumes make the actors into the characters, the
costumes were very simple the villain wore a black coat with
black trousers and the depot worker wore black trousers with the
safety florescent jacket. A humorous thing about the depot
worker is he’s wearing a florescent jacket which is meant to
represent safety but it contrasts with the fact that he is not safe at
all.
The lighting was hard as it was in the dark but we used red lights
to make it seem like street lamps and very natural so lighting
increases verisimilitude too.
In addition Music helps enhance the actions of the characters or
for example when we see a shot of the villain’s foot going down
the music goes higher which builds tension for the audience.
Lastly the role of camera work constructs verisimilitude through
the different angles and views of shots making fast cuts.
