Media Studies Group Evaluations

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

2. From our individual and group research our group learned
the typical codes and conventions associated to the genre
of thriller films. To understand these conventions in more
depth we analysed real media examples of thriller films,
and identified the sub-genres within the thriller genre. As
well as analysing real media examples we individually
analysed past student thriller work and evaluations to
understand full their ideas and intentions for their thriller
project. We also researched directors of thriller films who
all have their own particular techniques, ideas and takes on
how to make a thriller film successful and a key feature we
learnt from the research was that all the devices used were
to build tension and suspense within the audience.
Introduction:

3. Conventions of the Thriller
Genre:
At the beginning of our project we looked into the conventions of thriller,
we did this separately within this group so we could later combine what
we discovered.
General conventions of thriller we found out included:
• A stereotype dumb blonde victim, who often puts herself in danger, is
vulnerable and relies on the male/protagonist for her rescue/escape.
• Often features a sense of mystery, and isn’t clear what is happening or
who is responsible for the events.
• The protagonist is often male
• Low key lighting
• Quick cuts
• Tension music
• Changes in the angle of shots
• Diegetic sound of breathing/heart beats
• Black and white shots
• Montage of shots
• Protagonist is in the mercy of the Antagonist

4. Cinematography Conventions
• Often a lot of close ups and extreme close ups of key
characters such as the protagonist and antagonist. It allows
the audience to understand the emotion they are feeling and
have a clearer understanding of the plot and how it affects the
character. Also it can be used to focus on significant props to
aid the narrative, and help the audience understand or give
them hints about what’s happening or has happened.
• The shots of the antagonist character will be cut quickly and
will aim to hide them identity, e.g. A shot of the back of them.
It just reveals enough for the audience to engage them and
keep them intrigued, but not enough to reveal too much and
spoil the rest of the plot.

5. Editing of a thriller
• The director will include lots of jump cuts because it increases
the pace and makes the film fast-paced, this thus keeps the
audience interested
• Slow paced editing is often used at the start of the thriller, for
many reasons. It eases in the audience into the narrative, and
makes the audience pick up key details quicker.

6. Sound and Mise en Scene
conventions
• Music in thrillers are essential too understand the mood and
hint at what’s about to happen. In a thriller it adds suspense
and tension. It often starts slowly and then builds for
suspense.
• Sonically exaggerated sound is also used to draw attention to
particular sound effects, that may link and add to the
narrative.
• Lighting is often low key
• Costumes – antagonist will be in dark clothes, and protagonist
is usually in everyday clothes

7. Sub-genre: Psychological
• Shadows and low key lighting – these things are a typical
convention of a psychological thriller, they are used to add
tension into a scene, and sometimes highlight the inner
darkness within the character, and add to the overall mood.
• Props – mirrors are commonly used in psychological thrillers
to portray the use of reflections of a characters inner self as
well as representing the ‘dark side’ of a character. (eg) In our
own thriller we used a mirror when Anthony enters the
bathroom, and swallows the pills.
• Costumes – villains are commonly seen wearing casual/smart
fitting in with the theory that most are set in an urban and
modern setting,

8. Our own research
• We learnt about these conventions through our research.
These are some screenshots from each of our blog:
Past student analysis: allowed us to evaluate
conventions in past work, and see which ones were
successful.
Research through articles: we were able to read and
summarise article to gather ideas about which
conventions were used in major films, and which were
successful.
Dictionary: in order to further our research we also used
dictionary.com to look for words and other phrases we
could use that fits in with the conventions.

9. Impact of our research on our
ideas and final film?
• Our research enabled us to see which conventions we thought
were conventions, and apply them within our film after
discussing and weighing up which ones we could realistically
use within our own thriller. For example, using a blonde
actress and having a montage of hints and clues, which are to
hint at the narrative.

10. Impact of our research on our
ideas and final film?
• We also chose props and costuming which was conventional,
having studied actual thriller films and past student work. For
example, blood and needles are often sinister and featured
within thriller films (eg) Pulp Fiction. We therefore featured
them within our opening, and put our own ‘spin’ on it, by
writing with the blood and using blood as a more artistic
element to our opening, similar to the way Quentin Tarantino
uses blood. We also featured the needle subtly, to make it
more creepy and add to the tone of the opening.

11. Influence of sound:The research taught us that tension and suspense can be built in a variety of ways. A big
way to build tension is through the use of sound. For example, in the thriller Psycho,
directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the hugely famous shower scene relied on the dramatic
music and sonically enhanced sounds to build the tension for the audience.
In our thriller we used these conventions and included a few non-diegetic sonically
enhanced sounds of thunder and sonically enhanced diegetic sounds of when the letter
comes through the letterbox to add to the suspense and tension and potentially creating a
red-herring as the audience do not know yet why the letter box has been targeted
specifically and if it plays a big role within our film. By using the dramatic music we are
making the audience aware that the main protagonist is in danger and anything could
happen at any time.
We also had a voice over coming from the main protagonist herself. The voice
over was used to give the audience potential hints as to what has happened in the past or
what might happen in the future and to how our protagonist may be feeling; creating a
sense of mystery for the audience as they have no real concrete idea as to what is
happening, making them want to continue to watch our thriller and find out for
themselves.
Another aspect of our sound that breaks thriller conventions is the use of considerable
amount of sounds; diegetic, non-diegetic and dramatic music; it is typical of thrillers to be
minimalistic with sound to build tension, films like; The Third Man (1949) and Se7en
(1995) both do this.

12. Lighting
The use of lighting is another conventional
micro-element of a thriller film. In our
research our group discovered that most
thrillers limit the use of lighting on certain
characters if not all to create an enigmatic
atmosphere which creates a sense of mystery
for the audience as they do not know who the
person is and whether they are a protagonist
or antagonist. We decided to use the film
Se7en’s style of chiaroscuro lighting on some
of the scenes, mainly in the credits, to create
a sense of mystery around the person who is
completing the disturbing tasks of writing
TRUTH in blood etc.
By creating mystery around the character is
typical of thriller film conventions, as not
knowing helps to build tension for the
audience. This can be seen in Memento which
has a number of mysterious character which
leaves the audience unsure of what is going to
happen next.

13. Mise En Scene - Location
The location linked to the idea of the stereotype of an older person
who lives in a bungalow that is decorated in a simplistic old fashioned
manor. This location links to our target audience we aimed the film at
as they can relate to this simplistic old fashioned style within the
homes of older generations of their family. However, we have relied on
the dim natural light in some scenes to create this dark and
atmospheric that is typical of thriller settings.

14. Editing
We noticed in most thriller films a key convention is fast paced
editing, to keep the suspense at a high level and entice the
audience to watch the film on the edge of their seats.
However we have decided to challenge this convention and use
a mix of fast pace and slow pace editing in our thriller. The slow
pace editing is mostly during the beginning scene and gives the
audience time to think about what is happening or what could
happen. This links well with ours being a psychological thriller as
the irregularity of the editing creates a jumpy effect and throws
the audience from one cut to the next; suggesting that the
characters within these edits have an unstable mind and can be
unpredictable, however still shows examples of the common
conventions associated to thriller. It also allows us to control the
tension and way the audience feel and react by changing the
speed of the editing (slow/fast paced editing).

15. Unconventional Characters
• We decided to challenge the convention of age within our
opening. We chose to have an elderly antagonist to present a
normal family relationship at first, which makes it relatable to
many. This challenged convention contrasts the normal
convention in which the antagonist is usually a lot younger
and fitter. This therefore has created a very different,
mysterious opening as the audience aren’t sure who is the
antagonist or protagonist at first glance.

16. Unconventional Location
• Some may argue that our use of location can be seen as
unconventional as our opening is based in one location. A normal
house, and in three main rooms: the living room, bathroom and
hallway. Usually, in thrillers they move around and feature more
than one location – adding suspense and variation, which keeps
the audience interested. We chose to use one location to make
the storyline slightly clearer, and also be consistent for the short
opening. This allowed the audience to familiarize themselves with
the location, and begin to understand more of the background of
the characters.