The document discusses the filmmaking techniques and genre conventions used in the student's supernatural thriller film. It analyzes the film's use of editing techniques like montage and shot reverse shot. It explores how the film reflects the supernatural thriller genre through elements like its dark tone, ritual scene lighting and iconography. The student also discusses how the film was inspired by and pays homage to other films like "Se7en," "400 Blows," and "Death Note" through its title sequence, ending, and plot similarities. Finally, it analyzes how the film provides the audience with intensity, transparency and continuity through its main character and group of antagonists to achieve Richard Dyer's theories of entertainment and utopia.

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

2. A) At a technical level, how well did you observe the convections of
continuity, and the language of film and editing?
• In the making of our film we used a range of editing techniques one of them
being a montage, we used this when Zachary is looking for the specific magic
book. We chose to do this because we wanted it to look like he was taking his
time finding the book and was finding it difficult. A montage represented the
passage of time the most effectively and that’s why we chose to use it. We also
choose to use a montage when Zachary is in his bedroom to represent pace and
him doing a ritual. Both of the montages also showed an example of elliptical
editing due to the fact we used a montage to show a passage of time. They did
not take up too much time in the final film and got the message across.

3. A.1)
• Also, further in the film Zachary talks to a Librarian. We decided to
use shot reserve shot when he is speaking to her to represent the
conversation is short and the most important thing in that scene is
Zachary finding the book.
• However there are some continuity errors in our initial draft of the
film, when Zachary lifts up the book. The two shots are not smooth
and are from different angles which is what we need to fix.

4. B)In terms of the content, how does your film reflect or challenge the conventions
of the genre you are working in? Does it fulfil the nature of film genre or will it
subvert expectations deliberately?
• The genre of our film is a supernatural thriller, The supernatural elements
can be found in the fact that Zachary has a book that he writes in and the
things he writes happen. The Thriller element can be seen through
Zachary using the book for revenge for example when he writes 'choke'
and the bully is on the floor chocking. We used the film 'Death Note' as an
inspiration for our film. In 'Death Note' the main character picks up a
supernatural book that has been dropped from the sky, anyone's name
that is written in the book gets killed. The main character uses the book to
kill criminals in the world, similar to our film the main character wants to
punish people who have done wrong however, Zachary uses the book for
personal satisfaction (revenge).
• however, our film slithgly subverts the genre for supernatural thrillers as
we added some comedy aspects, to help contrast with the darkness in our
film. This can be seen when Zachary opens the wrong book. Although,
supernatural thrillers usually do not have aspects of comedy in them in
some recent films such as the new IT by Stephen King has a lot of comedy
bits in the film. We choose to add it as it makes the character more
relatable to the audience.

5. B.1)
• The scene that reflects the genre the best in our film is
the scene where Zachary is doing a ritual to get his
powers. In this scene we chose to use low key lighting
to create a creepy atmosphere, highlighting that
something bad is going to happen. We used candles in
order to do this to cast shadows and create a darker
effect. We used black and red as our main colour
scheme for the scene. The colour red is shown through
the candles and the red circle. Red has connotations or
blood and danger and black has connotations of magic
and dark evil which are all convections of a
supernatural thriller.
• Iconography is also used in our film to show the genre
this can be seen through the props when Zachary is
doing the ritual e.g. the candles and symbols which are
usually what people think of when someone is
performing a ritual.

6. C) Are there any elements of deliberate pastiche or parody, where you
‘play’ with the genre’s codes and history? Are there any intertextual
moments where you hint at a reference to another film?
• When watching the film ‘Se7en' we decided that we liked the opening
title sequence and decided to create something similar for our film. We
like the disturbing nature of the title sequence in ‘Se7en’ which would
suit our film as we are going for a disturbing vibe. The main aspect we
used from ‘Se7en’ was the way that the words were distorted and
appeared on the screen to show Zachary is psychologically disturbed.
• Another film that inspired ours was ‘400 blows’ at the end of the film
the main character a young boy escapes under a fence. The last shot is
the boy reaching for water and it ends with a freeze frame of his face to
show his emotions. We wanted to use this in our film at the end also
when Zachary realises the girl has stolen his power as we thought this
would show his reaction to finding it out the best.
• Overall, our film was inspired by ‘Death Note’ which follows a young
student who finds a book and whoever's name he write in it they die.
The main character in ‘Death Note’ however choose to use that power
to kill criminals where as Zachary uses it for his own vendetta to get
revenge on his bullies. This is very close to our film and follows the
storyline.

7. D) What kinds of audience pleasure are you trying to provide, and how
confident are you that you have achieved this?
• Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment and utopia suggests that if a person is feeling kind
of social tension, inadequacy or absence a utopian solution shown in a film could fix that.
Some of Dyer’s utopian solutions are abundance to help feelings with of poverty, energy to
help with feelings of exhaustion and transparency to help with feelings of manipulation.
• In our film we used Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment and utopia. Our film provides
the audience with intensity , transprency and community. transparancy is clear through the
main character Zachary who makes his dark intensions right at the start of the film. making
him the anti-hero. He is a messed up person with dark fantasys who wants revenge on his
school bullies. We made this obvious throughout the film making him the 'transparent'
character. This can be seen through Zacharys monologue where he explains what he is
going to do and why. The transparency makes it easy for the audience to make judgement
on Zachary.
• intensity can be applied also in our film as the main characters actions get more evil
throughout the film, he starts with knocking a drink over to making someone have a nose
bleed to finally wanting them to die. These actions build up in our film making the
audience tense and have more anticipation for what will happen next and then having
satisfaction for when the scenes do get more intense.
• continuity is another one of Richard Dyer's solutions that can be applied to our film. This
can be seen through the group of bullies that can be seen in our film, they are the
antagonists in our film but they are represented as a group creating a sense of continuity.