1. Evaluation
Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The thriller genre is extremely broad, there are numerous sub-genres some of which
include; Action-thriller, Drama-thriller and Horror-thriller. The common trend with
thrillers in recent years is the increasing influence of the horror or psychological
genre; they heighten tension for the audience as well as other emotions such as
apprehension, excitement and exhilaration. Thrillers are usually based in ordinary
settings for example in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ its based in San Francisco, by
doing this it tells the audience that extraordinary things can happen in their everyday
lives.
The narrative of thrillers is quite elaborate. They lead the audience onto false paths
and as a result they want to solve the dilemma. The climax of thriller films often
include the protagonist in jeopardy and their life in danger bought on by the
antagonist which is usually an abstract character or a supernatural force.
The recurring themes of thrillers include a loss of identity or struggle, emotions or
mise en scene that reflect the protagonists plight and voyeurism, which in relation to
the audiences attract the male side because it adds sensuality to the genre, which
again is a very common thriller convention as seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’.
‘The secret’ is a psychological romance thriller; the protagonist unknowingly in a
relationship with a serial killer, the setting is seemingly ordinary. It’s in the
characters house; similarly our preliminary task was set in an art room. The familiar
2. settings add the element of normality that the audience can relate to. This also is a
common thriller convention used.
One way in which we challenged the typical thriller conventions was by using a
bubbly upbeat character. The protagonist’s personality in comparison to earlier
thriller movies such as Robert De Niro’s character in Hide and seek which is more
pensive and anxious whereas, hers is livelier which the audience may not be used to.
As a result it may maintain the audience’s attention more as they are anxious to find
out what will happen to the protagonist. Again this is another common thriller
convention, where the audience are constantly on edge.
The protagonist’s strong character is reinforced by the shots we used, for example
when she is coming down the stairs we used a low angle which tells the audience how
powerful the person is. We were also inspired by the way Alfred Hitchcock uses
voyeurism in many of his films which adds mystery and sensuality so when producing
‘The secret’ we incorporated it, when the protagonist is admiring herself in the
mirror and also when she is sleeping in her bedroom.
Also, the way we edited our films reinforced the thriller genre because we darkened
the frames which coincides with the genre making it more chilling and horrifying.
We also used a number of transitions to make the film flow smoothly. Likewise, we
did the same for our preliminary because as with many other thriller films, the frames
are darkened to increase the dark mood and tension.
If we didn’t study other thriller films we wouldn’t have been able to accurately
represent the genre and produce films that keep the audience on edge and keep them
wondering what is going to happen next. We looked at websites, opening sequences of
a range of thriller movies and databases such as IMDB all helped us to construct an
original narrative.
