2. IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE OR
CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
The creation of our teaser trailer was to follow the conventions of a
psychological thriller throughout, I strongly believe that marketing
'Paranoia', it would make our target audience have a well understanding
of what we attempted to sell. Furthermore, audiences have a strict
tendency to gravitate towards things they are familiar with, especially
with film genre conventions. It’s another reason why I decided to utilize
the conventions of the genre. The reason why audiences enjoy
familiarity is because it helps viewers to understand the narrative, with
knowing the knowledge of what makes a thriller a thriller. Therefore, it
makes watching a trailer a more enjoyable experience. Rather than
confusing the audience, they are not confused spending all their effort
trying to understand the plot instead of enjoying the ride. We decided
not to break any conventions because I believe that it is a risky gamble
that could possibly make marketing our product a more difficult task.
By breaking conventions we run the risk of alienating our targeted
audience, which was a risk I was not willing to take particularly.

3. ARE YOU SECURE IN WHAT SUB-GENRE YOUR
FILM FALLS UNDER?
My film falls under the sub genre, psychological thriller. This is evident
through many of the codes and conventions I followed when designing
and constructing ideas of the essential themes and colour palettes. We
would be using in the trailer, movie poster and also a magazine cover.
The title of the movie ‘Paranoia’ also allows the target audience to have
a better understanding of what we are trying to sell to them. I am secure
of this as I received feedback from a focus group on both; the ideas and
the final product of our film. The feedback from the focus groups were
positive and they claimed that our products followed the ideal structure
of typical psychological thrillers seen in cinema today.

4. WHAT WERE YOUR REASONS FOR CHOOSING
THIS SUB-GENRE?
There were many reasons for us to choose our movie to be helmed within
the psychological thriller sub genre:
• Due to budget restrictions on our movie we were forced to choose a
genre that doesn’t heavily rely on high budget special effects to make it
successful seen in most blockbuster action movies. In that event the
choice of our movie conforming around the conventions of
psychological thrillers allowed us to portray a gritty story to the highest
quality possible with the resources we received.
• Suitably, we spotted a gap in the market, within the past 3 years there
hasn’t been a movie that was able to highly successfully delve into the
inner city perspectives that oppose middle classed outlooks upon
situations of drug usage and murder since the highly successful
‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’ movies.

5. HAVE YOU MADE A FILM TYPICAL OF THAT SUB-
GENRE?
We were able to make our film typical of the sub genre. We used
conventions of psychological thrillers; unusual camera angles, high
number of close ups, quick transitions, panning shots, dim and low
lighting, saturated shots, special effects, and suspenseful soundtrack
(non diegetic sound). We also followed similar themes within the mental
state of the main protagonist, and the decaying relationship between
the characters and situations they are placed in.
Suspenseful soundtrack
A perfect soundtrack is always essential to help draw the audience, the
use of the songs creates foreshadow usually seeking the unexpected
development in the storyline. The two songs I used in the soundtrack
are 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons and 'Ransom' by Ransom.
Radioactive was used (faintly) in the background of the first scene and
during the climax of the trailer. I chose 'Radioactive' because it has an
epic chorus with hard hitting drums and clear vocals with reverse
reverb. On the other hand I used 'Ransom' throughout my trailer
because I felt as if the female vocals within this song were extremely
leading and attention seeking throughout the trailer. It perfectly
matched the narrative of my trailer.

6. I used close ups in my trailer to portray
the emotional state of Brian (the
main protagonist). I found it very
important that we did not to use the
close up of this character more than
twice during the trailer, it limited
the amount of times the audience
views and it will strengthen the
impact it has on the audience. The
two screen shots demonstrates
perfectly the shift in the
protagonists emotional state, from
being ecstatic to becoming uneasy
and stressed. (This also helps the
audience foresee some of what
happens in the plot) This shift in
emotion is so sudden and the
lighting is more cynical in
comparison to the first close up,
this makes the characters mental
state questionable, which is what
we were trying to go for with these
shots.
CLOSE UPS

7. Whilst editing we were able to
manipulate various aspects of
the clip. Which includes,
manipulating the speed,
reversing the clips, adding a
sound bridge, and also a radial
blur effect. A combination of all
of these elements helped
creating a sense of eeriness
that I wanted to mimic from the
famous cigarette shot in
Shutter Island. Most
importantly these shots put
emphasis on the possibility
that these characters are
mentally dysfunctional. These
effects were successful, since
the majority of the audience
members said that it made
them feel a sense uneasiness.
SPECIAL EFFECTS

8. WHAT IS THE UNIQUE SELLING POINT THAT SETS YOUR
FILM APART FROM OTHER FILMS OF THIS GENRE?
When conducting the research there was
a viable gap in the British film
industry market. This gap was the
lack of psychological thriller films set
within an urban inner city
environment which starred teenagers
as the main protagonists. ‘Brick’ and
‘The Butterfly Effect’ are the only two
films that come close to resembling
this type of film, apart from the fact
that these movies are set in American
whilst my product is set in England,
London to be specific. This
geographical variability means that
there is still a gap in Britain, this
increases the likelihood that my
product will be successful as it
differentiates itself from other films
within the British market. The
audience I have targeted also has the
tendency to gravitate towards what is
niche and different.
Furthermore in a survey we conducted as
part of our coursework, we asked the
following question, does the
psychological thriller genre sound
appealing to you? Out of the 20
responses we received, 14 people
said that they found it appealing
whereas only 6 people did not. These
findings reinforced my assumption
that my target audience will gravitate
towards my product. Therefore I
decided to exploit this gap in the
market, by starring young teenagers
as the main protagonists in my trailer.
This is what separates 'Paranoia' from
other products of this genre.