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

2. Using Conventions
My media product uses existing conventions related to the
‘action’ genre as action movies use fast cuts and varied shots in
order to build up pace and tension. I have emulated this within
my piece as towards the end, when the protagonist assassinates
his target, the cuts between shots get closer and closer in order
to create a faster pace.
I realised that the shorter duration of these clips were effective
when I looked at the main kidnapping scene of the film “Taken”,
in which the film uses this technique to create tension within the
audience.

3. Developing Conventions
As the intention of this piece was to create an opening to a
movie with the sub-genre of ‘kidnapping’ I had taken the
conventions of the action genre, and added in the action of an
assassination. This shows the action of abduction, which is a key
convention of the kidnapping sub-genre.
I observed a mixture of assassinations and kidnapping when
looking at movies such as ‘Hitman’ and ‘The Last House on the
Left’, and these films are the inspiration for my development of
the action genre.

4. Challenging Conventions
Conventionally, within a kidnapping/action film, the movie’s
protagonist is the person affected by the kidnapping, or the
person being kidnapped, meanwhile the antagonist in the movie
is the person doing the kidnapping/assassinating.
Within my piece I have decided to challenge this convention, and
instead I have chosen the kidnapper to be the protagonist, and
the movie follows his story instead. My intentions with this are
to challenge the audience’s prejudice to people such as the
assassin, and to show a different possibility to the mentality of
such people.