Question 1

1. Evaluation
Q1) In what ways does does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Costume: I used the generic convention of the femme fatale,
with slightly smudged lipstick, referencing but challenging
the idea of vulnerability with her casually modern outfit and
her determined persona. Referencing Psycho’s Marian with
having her being determined and quite strong-willed.
Body Language: The convention of an anxious and nervous
female is something we used, yet not portraying her to be
weak. Instead, her relentless attempts to escape associates
her as someone who is a strong-willed and determined,
referencing aspects of Thelma and Louise in their strength,
power and authority.
Props: The Newspaper we used to frame, in the foreground, the bottom of the shot
where our male character enters the house for the first time in the background.
The prop was our creative way to subtly introduce the title of our film into the scene.
Also, as it’s presumed the house is the male character’s the idea of ‘The
Unseeable’ resting on his furniture may be seen to reflect his intentions and sums
up this character:
How he’s unnoticed by society, and goes around unsuspected, when underneath
this, is the hostage of the young woman.
Costume: I used the thriller convention go generic character
archetypes; the male suit costume relates to him being
unsuspecting and a ‘normal’ looking character, with the idea
of him walking back home on a regular day. A sense of
sophistication with the suit costume also adding to the idea
of him being a regular person, someone you wouldn’t
associate with what appears to happen.
Body Language: I used the convention of our male
character appearing to be a respectable man, who actually is
labelled as a dangerous misogynist. Relating to the character
persona created appearing normal and unsuspecting, similar
to Norman Bates in Psycho.
The audience is positioned with the
trapped female, referencing of the
2008 ‘Elisabeth Fritzl Case’ in Austria,
a seemingly normal household was
the location of her 24 year
entrapment, her Father responsible.
Making connections with this male to
our own male character; seemingly
normal, who’s in fact a monster.
Also referencing Harry Limes in
The Third Man being good
company and witty, yet is involved
with the black market and the
death of children. On the surface
appearing approachable, yet
deeper this darker and more
dangerous temperament.

2. Evaluation
Q1) In what ways does does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Location: We conformed to the thriller convention of a small, confined alleyway. Dimly lit, with ambient
street lamps, the street damp and quite grimy. Conforming to the thriller conventions of the location being
darkened and developing the male character to reflect the darkness also, with hidden intentions and
connotations of mystery, leaving the audience to question his motives.
This references ‘Essex Boys’ with a similarly dark and desolate location at the beginning of the film.
Establishing the criminal underworld and reflects the wrong-doings that are to come; something we tried to
capture and twist for our thriller opening. We chose to use a lonely, isolated pathway and one-source back
lighting to convey a similar mood. Reinforcing the reference to Jason Locke with his psychopathic lack of
empathy and morals, emphasising his predatory nature.
Lighting: The choice of lighting in the female shots was mainly non-ambient key lighting, with
us having to arrange lighting presence in order to make the footage readable but also dimly
lit. The choice to film at dusk pays tribute to the conventions of noir films; the darkness reflects
the corrupt moral landscape which our characters operate in.
For our female character, the use of a small claustrophobic locations emphasised the panic
and tension created by her entrapment. The classic thriller convention of small spaces is
something we knew would be successful in portraying the young woman’s fear of where she
is and the unknown about what will happen. An extreme example of this referenced is in ‘Kill
Bill 2’ where The Bride is trapped in her grave, limited to barely any movement, yet she still
manages to escape the horrible situation.
We used the convention associated with noir thrillers of chiaroscuro
lighting, a classic thriller convention, throughout parts of our thriller,
referencing The Third Man, the male character being just a darkened
figure. The outside shots of the male character are lit with ambient back-
lighting, a thriller convention, from street lamps down the alleyway. This
backlighting silhouettes his frame well, connotes his anonymity.
Referencing the introduction of Jason Locke, in ‘Essex Boys’ with the
minimalistic back-lighting, the chiaroscuro look; a convention of thriller films
The use of the lighting coming under the door was using a lamp to shine under, emphasising the approach of our male
character. I think the outcome was very effective with the golden light a contrast to the darkened.

3. Evaluation
Q1) In what ways does does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Sound: Some of the aspects creating the opening to our
thriller film were given to members of our team, James Coy
created and edited together our soundtrack. Then we
individually edited the soundtrack to fit our own thriller
opening edits. I think it compliments the onscreen activity
brilliantly. The building intensity with the eye opening and the
end of the piece.
I kept all of our diegetic sound when filming, sometimes increasing and enhancing the volume of the clips where the male
character is walking in order to make the sound clearer to the audience. Especially the footsteps, something so normal being
contradicted with the hostage situation and growing suspense. Similar to Animal Kingdom (see film clip below this
embedment); creating this sense of creepiness, the audience knowing something isn’t quite right. Animal Kingdom use the
emphasis from the song ‘All Out Of Love’ enhancing what you’re witnessing visually. This can be applied to our own film with
the soundtrack growing in suspense, this convention using ambient sound, the footsteps and the females’ frantic escape
attempts add to the drama and thrill of the production.
The use of the convention; a sound-bridge, which continues over the candidate information and the James Rollins quote, the
sound of the male character’s footsteps over the top of the fading text.
This then matches visually to his movements, anticipating the scene and who and where the person is before you see him,
holding the tension and creating anxiety for the audience.
Referencing Psycho (see film clip below this embedment), in the famous shower scene where Marian is murdered, also has
this build in intensity, reflecting that the audience are becoming apprehensive and expectant of the action which will occur;
similarly, the use of the visual eye also connects Hitchcock's film to our own.
Narrative Structure: My film uses the convention of a linear narrative structure, similar to
other thrillers like Essex Boys, Animal Kingdom or Psycho where the focus is much more
centred around the character and portrayal of the action.
Unlike ‘Memento’ (Christopher Nolan - 2000) which had a reverse narrative structure and focused on mind
games of the plot, indicating the unreliability of memory, which wouldn’t appear appropriate for our production.
Remaining chronological in the order of the events, cutting between male and
female, allows the audience to remain interested and keeping on their toes
about what’s happening, being left with the tension of a cliffhanger.

4. Camera Angles: When filming, we used the classic thriller convention of extreme close-ups;
Evaluation
Q1) In what ways does does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
the inter-textual reference of Marian Crane in Psycho, also with an
extreme close-up of her eye, the camera on a slight tilt, the same
footage used twice is disorientating to the audience with the
cliffhanger looping back to the start, the viewer questioning the
action they've just seen, which as a thriller, I think works well.
Another thriller convention in terms of camera angles is a low-angled
shot, connotations of the character being authoritative and has high
control. The audience having to look up to them. Our male character is
often shown through a low-angled camera shot, connotations with him
having the more powerful stance.
Over-the-shoulder shots are a convention we used a few times during our
filming, they are often used to connote placement, status or the audience
taking sides with a character. A high angled almost over-the-shoulder shot is
an intertextual reference to ‘Once Upon A Time America’ when Eve pulls back
her duvet to see a body outline made of bullets in her mattress.
As well as an over-the-shoulder shot with our male character so the audience perceive the danger the female character is in.
This comes with an inter-textual reference being built into our film from ‘Once Upon A Time
America’ with an exaggerated worms-eye view shot, although these shots are slightly different;
they create a similar effect. The dominance of masculinity reflect the patriarchal society where
men have greater power and authority. This is reflected through men with low-angled shots while a
female in thrillers doesn’t necessarily have the same power given.
It places the viewer with the character, making them feel involved with the scene and what’s
happening. We placed the audience with our female character with an over-the-shoulder shot
when she tries the locked handle, kick-starting that dread and fear of her fate.

5. Evaluation
Q1) In what ways does does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
‘Baskerville’ and ‘Kefa’ are the two fonts I used for inserting text for our credits.
I decided to use a proverb, the quote from James
Rollins’ The Judas Strain novel, I loved how
simplistic the quote was and how it foreshadows
the rest of our opening.
Transitions of text appearing for our production information fades from a
black background into the moving image; overlapping the information,
visually leading the audience into the first scene of the film.
The placement of the text was also inspired by being part of the scene and not pulling distraction
completely away from what’s happening on screen.
Colour Correction: I did quite a bit of colour correction, only changing small things, in order to make
it visually ore appealing. Altering the colour tint; for the female scenes adding blue and the male
scenes sharpening the image and having some red tints created a light change which helped to get
across the mood we wanted to reflect.
Original Edited Original OriginalEdited Edited
The quote highlights how the door is incredibly symbolic and important in
connecting the two characters to the audience. This is a convention which
Tarantino uses in order to indicate a quirky style and the black humour used,
as in Kill Bill 2 the villains can be laughed at and feared.