AS Media studies

2. IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE OR
CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
The creation of our teaser trailer was followed the conventions of a psychological
thriller throughout as I strongly believe that when marketing 'Paranoia’ our target
audience would have a strong understanding of what we are attempting 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.