This document discusses how the media product uses, develops, or challenges conventions of real drama/thriller genres through its use of costume, setting, and lighting. Regarding costume, the characters' clothes suit different purposes and settings, relating to conventions, though the burglar's outfit challenges stereotypes. The settings of scenes in everyday locations like a house and restaurant add realism. Lighting in the phone call scene creates clarity and conviviality, using drama conventions, while low light in the burglar scene creates mystery and tension, developing conventions.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real 'Drama/Thriller'
media products?
Costume
A significant convention to any drama or thriller media
products, is costume. This is because the clothing of
characters is colliquial to the setting, time and other
themes of the film, thus providing a sense of realism. As
my film opening is based around everyday teenagers, my
characters are wearing clothing suited for different
purposes. For example, Polly and Liam wore smarter
clothes in comparison to what Polly and Millie were
wearing whilst on the phone to each other. This implies
that the costumes shown in my media opening relates to
conventions of real drama media products, as typical,
everyday people in them are displayed to be wearing
casual clothes like we do in reality. However, it can be
suggested that Millie's costume in the burglar scene can
challenge conventions of how burglar are perceived in
drama media products. This is because criminals in
dramas may be dressed to be wearing a better, more
sincere disguise. Millie's clothing in this scene
adds vulnerability to her revealing identity. However, Millie
is only a teenage girl and therefore I imagined that her
wearing darker and concealing clothing to 'break into' her
friend's house would make her and
her forthcoming actions more obvious, if put in a similar
real life situation.
Setting
Likewise to costume, the setting of real drama/thriller
media products is based on the theme of the film in order
to stick to the concept of realism. For example, the film
'Gladiator' is based in the city of Rome as its storyline

2. relates to Ancient Rome. If it's setting was based
elsewhere, e.g. in a forest, then the setting will greatly
affect the realism of the overall film that it aims to submit.
Therefore, in my two minute opening, the setting of each
scene uses and develops typical conventions of
drama media products. For my work, we used Charlotte's
house and a restaurant to add realism to the phone call,
burglary and date scenes. This also helps the audience
relate to the content further as they were filmed in
everyday/casual places.
Lighting
Lighting is a very important factor of any media product,
as it helps to create a metaphor for the mood of the
characters and other events in them. Therefore,
lighting can be exaggerated (especially in dramas) to
highlight the emotions of characters, as well as creating
scepticism and suspense. Yet, at the same time, the
lighting in dramas needs to maintain the overall theme of
realism. The lighting in the phone call scene of my 2
minute opening is bright so it adds focus onto Polly's and
Millie's faces, as well as creating a sense of clarity
between the two characters and reflecting on the
conviviality of their conversation. Therefore, my opening
uses conventions of real drama media products to an
extent because its lighting does refer to the realism my
opening aims to portray. However, dramas also include
dark lighting to heighten a change in emotion and
prosperity. My 2 minute opening does contains shots in
which the lighting is low key and therefore creates a sense
of mysteriousness and sinisterness and an unsettling
atmosphere. For example, the burglar scene is filmed at
night with minimum light in order to emphasise a
realistic/stereotypical time someone burgles a house, but
also to create tension and uncertainty because the
surroundings are difficult to depict. Therefore, the lighting
of my film opening does develop conventions of real
drama/thriller media products.