In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products>

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

2. Research
• After deciding to stay with the original idea of creating a thriller film
opening, I conducted some research into the typical conventions of
thriller films. I am not a huge fan of thrillers but through having
worked on thrillers during my time studying GCSE Media Studies, I
was at an advantage research-wise. In order to become more
acquainted with the ideas of thrillers, I watched a number of films
including Psycho, Raising Cain and Black Swan to study the
similarities and differences between them, therefore deciding on
what is typical of thriller films and what is not. Alongside this, I also
created a short questionnaire to ask my friends and family to see
what they expect from thriller films. I created the questionnaire by
watching various thriller films and taking note of what tends to
happen a lot in them, from the openings to the content, and based
my questions around finding out which of the common traits
audiences tend to prefer.

3. The Questionnaire
- Are you male and female?
4 males, 6 female
- How old are you?
11-15 (4), 16-20 (5), 30-40 (2)
- How many thriller films have you watched in the past six months?
0-5 (4), 5-10 (4), 10-15 (2)
- How much gore do you expect to see in thrillers?
A lot (3), a bit not not too much (3), only a little (2), none (2)
- Do you like films that make you think and piece clues together yourself, whether during or after
the film?
Yes (4), sometimes (3), no (3)
- Do you like a cliffhanger even if there isn't a second film?
Yes (6), No (4)
- How do you think a good thriller should open?
Death (2), chase (3), everyday life (1), flashback (4)
- Do you like to see violence during a thriller film?
A lot of it, yes (3), some but not a lot (4), no, I prefer everything to be psychological (3)
- Do you prefer to see men or women as the victim/s in thriller films?
Men (4), women (6)

4. Audience Research
• From my research and results, I realised that the majority of ‘good’
thriller films are surrounded by mystery and, often, the source of
the ‘thrill’ is not discovered until the very end of the film. This
helped me realise that my film opening should be used only to give
subtle clues about the rest of the film, and should not give too
much away about the outcome of the story. My questionnaire also
helped me realise what role my actors should play, in regards to
being a victim or a ‘perpetrator’; this was shown when more people
admitted to preferring to see female characters portraying the role
of a victim. After watching and researching many different thriller
films, I came up with the four most common beginnings to thrillers
and asked those I questioned which one they preferred, which
helped me significantly when deciding how to shoot my opening.

5. Film Research
• After watching Black Swan, I felt inspired to create a film similar to
it. I was stunned by the way in which it was filmed so differently to
any other film I had seen before, and I particularly liked the shots
used to show the main character’s paranoia, by having the camera
follow her from behind. This is what gave me my original idea to
follow a woman’s feet as she walks and this became one of my first
shots in my opening. I felt that not showing all of my actress
created the air of mystery I had now come to associate with thriller
films and after sharing my idea with other classmates and family
members, I realised that it was the kind of thing that audience
members like about thriller films. It does not give away anything
about the plot; it does not even show you who the characters are. It
purely implies that somebody is possibly being followed, though
the audience could still question whether the shot was purely
artistic or was meant to represent another’s point of view.

6. My Differences
• A lot of the films I watched relied on music to create the atmosphere the
director was looking for, and after looking at many different pieces of
music and playing with dialogue, I realised that my film did not seem like
the kind that would rely on music. My film is about a man that nobody
knows exists; he has always been the silent man in the background and so,
I felt that there really was not a piece of music I would be able to find or
create that would capture the essence of my film, and decided to keep it
as quiet as possible.
• This said, I decided to use a newly released song from the The Hunger
Games movie soundtrack called Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift, featuring
The Civil Wars. It is a very quiet and eerie song that can suggest
overpowering love for somebody but can also seem quite unnerving and
spooky. Lyrics such as “I remember tears streaming down your face as I
said, “I’ll never let you go”” can suggest quite a controlling character, and
can hint towards the part of my plot in which my stalker takes his victim
hostage.

7. The Home
• I used an establishing shot of my victim’s house to make the
audience feel less at ease, because it is clearly a very
homely house in a community where everybody lives very
closely together. This makes the audience realise that you
don’t need to be in a secluded area to be in danger of the
unknown.
• When looking at mise-en-scene, I didn’t want anything in
my shot to give away anything about my plot, such as a
piece of a rope or a camera. All I wanted was the
atmosphere of a home. This meant that I didn’t add
anything to my sets as I was using my friend’s own home
and so it already gave the impression of having been lived
in, though it was quite tidy, showing how only one person
has been living there.