q1

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 1…
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
By Carlie Cokell-Smith

2. The task…
The task was to film, edit, and create a 2 minute
opening scene for a thriller which followed the
conventions of a thriller.
The first stage of our foundation portfolio was the
research stage. This was to make sure we
researched everything we needed to know about
the forms and conventions to create the final
product. Without all this research, we would not
have completed the final product t the best of our
ability.
The next stage of the course was the planning
stage. This was to prepare us before creating the
final product. This included dividing the roles like
producer, editor, etc. Also, to create the narrative
and creating pre-production work. These planning
methods contributed to the making of our thriller.

3. Does My Thriller Follow
Conventions of A Thriller?
There was a few conventions used very well that showed the
thriller genre. One convention was iconography. The fun was
used to emphasise the theme of death, which shows the
thriller genre as many thrillers show and represent death in
their narrative. This piece of iconography was important as it
was the main source to building tensions to my thriller.
Another way in which my product follows the conventions in
my thriller is because the antagonist walks in the room about
to kill, this builds tension and keeps the audience engaged.
Low-key lighting as used to create an eerie atmosphere for
the audience.
Finally, another way our final product followed the
conventions of a thriller is because of the settings. We set our
thriller in a house because to the audience it feels like this is a
safe environment. But, it seems like in our thriller that being
safe is not the case. This makes the audience feel
uncomfortable. This shows that I followed conventions of a
thriller.

4. Generic Conventions of
A Thriller…
My first example is the thriller film ‘Obsessed’. My
thriller and this film contain the same themes
(revenge, death, love and jealousy). Both our thrillers
characters relate as the victims both are being
targeted by the obsessed antagonist who is in love
with the male character. Low-key lighting is used in
both to make an eerie atmosphere which is similar to
what my thriller aims to do.
My second example is ‘My Bloody valentine’. This
thriller also shows the themes of violence, love and
death. Both thriller also have low-key lighting in order
to build tension, and also has a house setting which
links to my thriller. There are many deaths in this film
and very explicit with the violence shown.

5. Generic Conventions Within My
Thriller…
Setting and iconography…
One example is the lipstick the antagonist
uses to prepare to kill the victim. This
shows that she wants to look good while
killing the victim. This also shows she is
very confident, and likes to concentrate
on her looks.
An example of the setting is the house.
We chose the house, specifically the
bedroom for some parts, this is to also
show intimacy in the 3-way relationship.
This follows the conventions of a thriller
as most thriller are based in the
characters house to make the audience
fill up with adrenaline and feel unsafe.

6. Costume, Hair and
Make Up…
The hair and make up is quite natural in all
the characters. The victim has her natural,
curly hair with a plain, natural look to her
make up. Whereas the antagonists hair is
straight, long and neat which also implies
she is very confident.
The victim and antagonist have a
completely different look to their costumes.
The victim is wearing white which shows
innocence in her character, whereas the
antagonist is wearing dark coloured clothing
which shows her evil character.

7. Lighting and
Colour…
Low-key lighting Is used to create an
eerie atmosphere for the audience for
the audience. The colour of this scene
is quite greyish which also follows the
conventions of a thriller.
This is another example of low-key
lighting and back lighting. This is a
slight silhouette of the antagonist
which helps build suspense as it is
coming to the end of the scene. This
also makes the atmosphere dark.

8. Conventions of Target Audience and
Opening Credits…
The thriller that is similar to our is ‘Se7en’. This
is because both credits are written in white with
a simple but sharp style to it. The credits are
quite blurry which brings mystery to the
atmosphere.

9. My Thriller Following A Conventional
Narrative Structure:
Propp: He mainly focuses on folk tales. He believed folk tales were the same basic
struggles. This means they had the same characters – Hero, villain, princess, her dad,
the doner, etc.
Todorov: He believed that there is a structure to a film in a 3 way part – equilibrium,
disequilibrium and new equilibrium.
Aristote: he believed in the beginning, middle and end idea. The events must
eventually correlate to each other being necessary of course. He also believed it was
important to arouse emotion from the audience and to evoke emotion.
Barthes: He believed in having semiology within the narrative. He believed that
narrative can be also defined by the using the following sources:
 Symbolic – Connotation
 Semic – Denotation
 Cultural Understanding