1. Q1) In what ways
does your media
product, use, develop
or challenge forms
and conventions?
EVALUATION AS MEDIA
2. The Task:
The task was to work in groups of 4 which allowed us to come up with a 2
min clip which was a thriller. In order to create this 2 min clip, I had to create
a portfolio using blogger to illustrate and present my research, plan and
production. Working in groups of 4 has helped me to discover new ideas
and expand our thoughts within our filming crew.
We first had to research what kind of thrillers there are in the film industry
and how the directors use techniques to meet their audiences
expectations, I presented my research work on Blogger which allow me to
add examples of screen shots, images and videos of existing thrillers. After
that, in my group of 3 we had to plan out what kind of filming techniques
we will be using and how we will be using them when filming. More other,
we then filmed, edited and created a soundtrack, which allowed us to
build a connection between the music and audience.
After audience feedback, I believe my group and I followed and
developed conventions of thriller as we have used conventional scenes of
other thriller films to set our production.
3. Does my thriller follow conventions
of a thriller?
My thriller does follow the conventions of a thriller as I have ensured that I use lighting, setting and
character effectively in order to get my audiences attention. Firstly, we have set our first scene in a
hut which was very effective as there was good use of iconography (blood) going up the stairs
which helped to create tension and fear within the audience. Secondly after the hut scene, we
have set our next scene in a house however in the house scenes we have used low key and high
key lighting to make our thriller appear realistic. Moreover, in our thriller we have 2 main characters
which are one female protagonist and a male antagonist, the reason why we have used 2
characters from different genders to create suspense.
A thriller is normal set in
a house with good use
of iconography in order
to get the audiences
attention.
My thriller has followed conventions
of the thriller ‘Se7en’ as our
antagonist is a male character this
representations the male character
as an stronger antagonist.
I have compared my thriller setting to the
thriller film ‘Se7en,’ as the house setting
creates tension and anxiety because the
audiences may feel like in a house the
characters are helpless and lonely.
4. Generic conventions within my thriller?
Lighting
When filming our final production, we have
used different lighting techniques which
helped us to present our production as a
realistic clip. On the left hand side, we have
used Top lighting which we placed the light
above the camera this highlighted the
features of the scene.
We have also used low key lighting which only some areas of the scene
was shown. This creates tensions and builds suspense for the audience.
On the right hand side, I believe that in the film ‘Orphan’ the facial
expression that the antagonist gives allows the audience to understand
that she may be hiding from something that is about to attract her back.
Moreover, we developed our skills to make sure are thriller is conventional
to other thriller because it is important that we impress our audience as
therefore we also used high key lighting which appears to present our
scenes very realistic and natural.
5. Iconography – using and developing
existing conventions
Iconography allowed us to
use weapons to present that
violence that is involved we
also used ‘blood’ to show
that a crime has happened.
The use of iconography
helps us to create tension
and drama for the
audience, as I have gave
an example from the film
‘Scream.’ We have used a knife to illustrate that the antagonist
is very dangerous and harmful. This also helped us to
get the audiences views because the use of this type
of iconography creates fear and allows the audience
to watch more of the production to understand what
that object is going to or has already been used for.
6. Editing
Editing our scenes helped us to mortgage different camera angles and
movements all together to create a footage. we ensured that when
we edit, we combined the correct scenes together so that the
audience could understand what the story is about. As shown on the
top left hand side, that scene is edited by an over lap using final cut
pro. This allowed us to build fear within the audience. This scene is
conventional to the image on the right hand side which is from the
thriller film ‘scream’ the edit from the character to the phone makes
the audience to jump and this builds suspense.
7. Body language and facial expression
The use of body language was very important when
filming our production because the way a
character is showing their body language can
effect the audience. For example, in our scenes on
the left hand side we use different camera angles
to capture these scenes. Our male antagonist was
leaning forward towards the floor and the camera
was placed above. This helped to illustrate the
antagonist as a heart broken person because of
what he done to the protagonist.
I have compared my thriller to the
film ‘Insidious’ because on the right
hand side, the antagonist is
leaning over the protagonist is
leaning backwards. This illustrates
that the male protagonist is
frightened and is seeking for help.
8. Setting
We set our thriller mainly in a house. The reason why we have
set our production in a house is because it is a conventional
setting to a thriller film. I believe by choosing this location I was
able to cause fear between the audience, I have found that
my thriller setting is conventional to the scene in the film
‘Insidious’ this illustrates that be setting your scene in a dark
rom such as a part of a house, this can create dismay.
9. Conventions of target audience
and opening credits?
In our production, we have used plain and simple opening credits to
illustrate what roles each person had to take in order to complete the
production. Our opening credits in our thriller was conventional to the
opening credits of the film, ‘Se7en’ because the font is coming up with
images and the reason why I think that can attract the audience is
because they could still watch parts of the clip while reading the
credited, this will also make sure that the audience does not get bored.
Se7en
10. My thriller following a conventional
narrative structure?
When filming my thriller, I followed the Aristotle narrative theory
which is conventional to my thriller. The reason why I have
followed this narrative is because it is conventional to the
structure of my thriller, my thriller has events that make up the
story. For example, the beginning of my thriller is set in a hut and
iconography (blood) is used which then moves on to the next
event, which is the house scene. Then in the middle, my thriller
adds up events as it plays forward. Moreover, the events that are
caused in my thriller has a meaning and emotions that go
through themes.
11. Character representation?
In our final production, we have
presented our child protagonist as
a innocent character as for the
clothing she is wearing. The colour
white illustrates that she is innocent
and has been killed for no reason.
However, the use of the black
cardigan on the child has been a
mistake because then the
protagonist is wearing the colours
as the antagonist, this may confuse
the audience in understanding
who is the antagonist.
I think the use of blood on the male characters shirt has
presented him as a antagonist that has build tension for
the audience because now the audience may think why is
their blood in his shirt, and therefore this may get the
audience to think about the actions of this character and
what he has done t=wrong in order to be the antagonist.
Texas Chainsaw
I think that the male antagonist from the
film, ‘Texas Chainsaw’ is conventional to
my characters as the antagonist has a
weapon in his hand which means he is
evil and heartless. Therefore, the
character will represent this film as a
gross and horrific film towards their
audience .
