1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Harry Saunders

2. Our product uses themes like mystery which is seen in man real media
products associated with the thriller genre, like films including ‘Se7en’ and
‘Zodiac’. This is conventional as it is a theme that is commonly used in real
thriller products. We used thriller in scenes like when Mitch found out about
the letter when you can clearly see his face is shocked and the soundtrack
drops. This creates a strong amount of tension which we are using from real
thriller media products.

3. We also used storylines that real media products would have used. For
example, we used a similar narrative to the film ‘Memento’ where the narrative
is to figure out an uncertain mystery. This is also a thriller film like ours. This
is also known as the Enigma Code by Barthes, meaning how tension is built
up and it leaves the audience guessing what’s next, like our narrative. Our
narrative was displayed when Mitch opens the letter and the audience is
uncertain of what it means and we are trying to figure out a mystery of what
the letter means along with Mitch. This creates a strong connotation of real
thriller media products as it is a typical narration of thriller films

4. The titles we used were also very similar to real media products. They were
featured in a style that were very typical of a media product like ours to have.
For example, the font we used was typical as it is used in a lot of real media
products and the way it was presented also matched many other real media
products. The titles displayed names and their assigned roles, which is very
conventional of other real media products. This creates a high amount of
realism and professionalism to the product we made.

5. We also used conventions from real media products from our genre to create
feeling and emotion to be displayed through the audience, a lot like other
films like ‘Fight Club’. For example, we used a typical convention of the
thriller genre from real media products, being the feeling of uncertainty. For
example, this can be displayed via the audience when Mitch is decoding his
letter, the audience will not know what he is doing and are left confused and
uncertain. This adds to the professionalism of our product as it follows the
conventional feelings of real media products in our genre.

6. We challenged real media products in our genre by the characters. For
example, we used a work mate as the person the lead role shares a house with.
This is not typically seen in real media products in our genre, for example in
‘The Box’ it is a married couple, a lot like most real media products.
Challenging this is strong because it creates difference like Steve Neale’s
theory suggests all movies should feature.

7. Overall, I think that we worked well in creating a thriller opening sequence as
we used many conventional forms and even challenged it to an
extent, meaning it will be interesting to the audience. Even in our audience
feedback, we were told that they thought it was very original and they could
spot the themes we tried to input, so the audience was clearly affected by this
in a positive way. Also when we asked what thriller they thought it was, they
told us thriller, so it worked well in my opinion.