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

2. Thriller Title: Eve
• Our thriller probably comes under the sub-genre of a psychological
thriller. Our film is designed to almost play with the audience and
create confusion which builds up a lot of suspense to keep the
audiences attention. Our thriller is also meant to reflect a conflict
which is both mental and emotional in the main characters. So, we
wanted to show the emotional conflict in Eve with her fear, and in the two hit
men (Hazel and Cha Cha) we wanted to show more mental conflict which has
resulted in them being ‘twisted’ human beings who chase people and attempt to
hurt them. In the opening Hazel and Cha Cha are concentrated on more than
what Eve is which means you begin to learn their thought processes which helps
to build a stronger character development. An example of a thriller in this genre
would be Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960. This film relies on the
pure emotional fear of the characters to help create suspense that builds up to
the climax of the film. This gives it similar characteristic to our thriller opening.

3. Locations:
• The locations we used for our thriller mostly develop generic locations that are used in other
thriller movies. The most generic location that we used for our thriller was the abandoned
barn. This location uses the idea of the character Eve being trapped in a small and
claustrophobic where she can’t be helped. The barn is in a poor condition so it looks very
rough, this gives the audience the view that the place she is now in isn’t safe for her. This
location reminded me of the film ‘Reservoir Dogs’ which was shot in a small warehouse. The
location in this film made the characters appear to be in a dead end which provided them
with no safety, exactly the same as our thriller. The shed in which Hazel and Cha Chas are first shown also uses the same
principals as the barn. The mise-en-scene creates the feeling that the characters are dirty in terms of the way they behave and
treat people. The shed could be seen as a metaphor for the characters within it.
• The next location which develops generic thriller conventions is the wide open landscapes
used for the chase sequence. This location is the almost binary opposite to the abandoned
barn. It shows the characters in less detail and focus more on the open landscape. The
location we used for the chase scene was a long stretch of dirt road which had a dike flowing
next to it. We wanted to use this location because it adds a certain venerability to the chase
that may not have been achieved in a different location. The road in which the chase occurs
in fairly narrow, but the open scenery around it show the characters being small and
considered miniscule in the settings around them. This kind of location is also used in the
film ‘Essex Boys’ which was directed by Terry Winsor in 2000. There is one scene where
Jason Locke takes a man from a fish market, gets Billy Reynolds to drive them to the beach and then leave him there after he
has chucked some form of acid over his face. The beach is a very wide open space so in the screenshot I have included you can
see how minuet the characters looks in the wide angled location.
• The last location we used for filming was a burnt down house. This location was not actually
included in the final cut of our opening because it was featured in the flash back scene. After getting
a few opinions about this scene I decided to remove it. However, the location has still been used in
other thrillers so I have decided to include it in my evaluation. The burnt down house is used to
portray danger in most films because it shows an unstable structure which has been neglected. An
example of this location being used in a film is ‘Batman Begins’ which was directed by Christopher
Nolan in 2005.

4. Characters:• There are total of three characters in our thriller. The hit men that are in
our film had a lot of thought put into them. We wanted to create two
characters which show a threat to Eve, but at the same time we didn’t
want them to look too good at it. We needed them to look like amateurs
because how young the actors playing them were. I took inspiration
from the second graphic novel in ‘The Umbrella Academy’ series
for our two hit men. This book features two psychopathic hit men
named Hazel and Cha Cha. So, for our thriller we took their names
to add an intertextual reference into our thriller. These two hit
men both challenge and develop stereotypical hit men in other
thriller texts. They challenge the stereotype with their age
because there are no other films where the hit men are teenage
boys. However, the concept of hit men in suits have been used in
many thriller films before. An example of another film containing hit men in suits is ‘Pulp
Fiction’ which was directed by Quentin Tarantino in 1994.
• The other character in our film was Eve. For this character we took
inspiration from Lisbeth Salander from ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’.
We wanted to create a character which was almost a cross between a
stereotypical female character from a thriller (someone who is innocent
and dependent) and a femme fatale (someone who is strong and
independent). So, this helped us create a character which appeared to be
quite strong to begin with but still showed signs of fear as the story escalated. Both of these
character types are stereotypes for a thriller film, but the combination of the two challenges
the stereotype to an extent.

5. Props and objects:
• For our thriller we didn’t use that many props or objects purely because
they’re not needed in our storyline. The main prop be used for our thriller was
the diamond necklace which was the thing Eve stole from the draw. The
necklace was used to show wealth which is what makes it an attractive thing
and explains why Eve has stolen it. Expensive necklaces have been used in
several thriller productions before, so it helps to develop generic conventions.
An example of a film which uses a necklace as a wealthy item is ‘Titanic’ which
was directed by James Cameron in 1997. In this film Rose DeWitt Bukater is given a sapphire necklace as a
present. Titanic is not a thriller, it is a romance, but the principal of the necklace works in with our thriller.
• The only other props we used were the weapons that the hit men carried with them when chasing Eve.
Originally they were both going to have baseball bats but we encountered two problems with this; 1. it was
impractical for them to run with something that big and 2. we could get access to any. So for the final
production we used a smaller wooden stick and a copper pipe. These props were much lighter, practical and
allowed us to stick with developing generic conventions in our final
cut. There are a large variety of films in which there are people
(usually men –supports masculine stereotype) who use some form
of weapon which is like a baseball bat. One film which reminded
me of this was the film Zombieland. This film was directed by
Ruben Fleischer in 2009. It concentrates on how to survive a
zombie apocalypse but a comedy element is added in to make it
appeal to a larger audience. Though this film is not considered to
be a thriller (it is in fact a horror) it contains elements like the
weapons which adds a link to our film. There is one scene in the
film where Tallahassee and Columbus go into a supermarket to see
if there are any Twinkies. During this scene Tallahassee uses a
range of objects as weapons in order to kill as many zombies as possible. The screenshot that I have included
shows him mid swing with a baseball bat. This helps us develop the generic conventions that we have chosen
to use within our thriller production.

6. Costumes:
• We put a large amount of time into developing the costumes for the three characters that are featured in the
opening of our thriller. First of all we wanted the female character (Eve) to stand out with her costume like
Lisbeth Salender in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. This meant that we wouldn’t be challenging any generic
conventions with her costume. For the thriller she wore black boots, black leggings and a black jumper which
featured the tarot card for death. We used this to inject irony and anticipation to the mise-en-scene; this was
a nice little touch to our thriller because it adds a sense of foreboding. The idea of having an certain aspect in
a costume which could indicate something to do with the later storyline. An example of another thriller which
does this is ‘Once Upon A Time In America. At the very beginning of the film we see the
character Eve enter a dark room and turn on a light just before she is murdered. The
character is wearing a pearl necklace around her neck which is used to indicate purity. This
normally is where the audience get the hint that maybe this character isn’t as innocent as
what they thought they originally were.
• The two hit man had nearly identical costumes for our thriller because we wanted them to
look as if they’re meant to be together. Hit men normally come in pairs (e.g. Jules and
Vincent – Pulp Fiction) so we made sure our audience knew this through their rough
looking suits and amateur attention to small details. The costumes which Hazel and Cha Cha wore
both develop and challenge the generic costumes that are normally used in thriller films. Their suits
develop the generic convention because it is such a common outfit to be warn. It shows that the
characters are taking their job seriously and it helps to make them look more professional.
However, small details in their outfits like the beanie hats and non-suit shoes made them
look less professional. This is where the aspect that they’re amateurs comes into play.
This idea has been used in other thriller films in the past like ‘Dead Mans Shoes’. The
hit man in this film is very skilled at killing, but what he wears doesn’t really show it. He
looks more like a kid who doesn’t really know what he is doing, more than a mass
murdering hit man that is out to get revenge. The last significant aspect of Hazel and Cha
Cha’s costume was their name tags. The idea was that this was one of the easiest ways to
indicate which hit man was which and give them more characterisation to the audience. The names themselves sound very
childish which works in our favour to an extent. It makes these two characters look a feel more like actual psychopaths who are
out to track Eve down and get what they need out of her.

7. Lighting:
• Our thriller mostly used ambient (natural) lighting, purely because the majority of the
film was shot outside. When shooting outside during the day you have very little
control over the lighting, so we couldn’t really use it to develop or challenge any generic
lighting conventions that are normally used.
• The only non-ambient lighting we used, was for the flashback clips which are shown
during the chase sequence. These shots were done at night so I had no choice but to
use non-ambient lighting for them. This did however give me a much stronger control
over what was and wasn’t lit in each shot. For the birds eye view shot I just used the
lights which are located on my ceiling in my living room because allows me to bring
focus onto everything which was present at this angle. Then
for the close up shots involving the necklace I used a small
lamp with an adjustable neck. This meant that I could move
it so that the focus was brought onto the face of Eve and the
diamond necklace. This lighting develops generic
conventions in thriller films because it uses the idea of
chiaroscuro and gives the film elements of noir when it is in
black and white. The few clips used in our thriller with this
lighting reminds me of the highly controlled lighting in the
film ‘The Third Man’.