Joshua Aristorenas

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

2. Foundation Portfolio
• During my foundation portfolio I was required
to compare the conventions used in existing
thriller productions, comparing those
conventions to my own thriller production
making sure I executed the correct
conventions throughout the creation of our
final product.

3. Does my thriller follow conventions?
• During the filming process of my thriller, as the editor, I needed to make sure that
our group followed the typical conventions of the thriller genre. So in order to do
this I had to plan ahead, what types of editing should or could be used within
certain scenes such as the conventional edit of fast pace editing which would
create an intense and engaging atmosphere towards the audience.
• The gender of our victim/main character is female which is used quite often within
the thriller genre. This is due to the female tending to be portrayed as a vulnerable
but brave character.
• Low key lighting is used to create an eerie atmosphere towards the
audience which allows them to think more about the surroundings as if something
is about to happen.
• Non- diegetic sound has been added to create a more suspenseful
atmosphere and anticipation towards the audience. The sound is gritty and
disturbing which becomes more intense throughout the short film by
the increasing tempo when the main events occur.
• The location used was to create a more clearer narrative and understanding to
the viewers. We used an isolated location to show that the female victim is
confused of her whereabouts. The location varied within our production to follow
the narrative in which our main character escapes from the facility she is held in.

4. Generic conventions of a thriller
• To be able to find the generic conventions of a
thriller I carried out a lot of primary research in
order to develop a better understanding of the
conventions used within the thriller genre. In
order to create an effective thriller, I had to look
into the other aspects of thrillers such as the use
of micro-elements. I then researched further into
the elements such as, age certificates, narrative
structures and theories, typical trends in thriller
films and character representations to help gain
more understanding of what is contained within a
thriller.

5. The film that particular helped me use
and develop conventions were;
• American Psycho 2
(2002)
• I Spit On Your Grave
(2010)

6. • These only two films were the main focus of
research within conventions of thriller because
their narrative and characters both relate very
much towards our own thriller.
• For the use of lighting I found that in all of these
film influences low key lighting was used
throughout and this caused a very spooky
atmosphere and made the audience, as myself,
anticipate that something chilling was about to
occur.

7. • In terms of the characters, they were very
conventional to the thriller genre as well as
the narrative, because they both included a
female victim who has experienced a tragic
event in their lives, then try to solve they
problem by themselves. This was
conventional because the use of a female
victim creates sympathy and attraction but
disappointment towards the audience.

8. Generic conventions within my
thriller:
• This type of shot was a still shot and was used to show
the change of location within the narrative. The edit
used was trying to make the shot seem like a live
camera feed from the facility. The characters face had
also been blurred throughout the film to hide the
identity in order to create a build up of mystery and
suspense.

9. • This shot was a POV (Point of view) shot, which was
used to show the beginning of the characters freedom.
This type of cinematography had been used to allow
the spectators to feel the same emotions of our
thriller character and also to allow the audience to
view the situation within her perspective.

10. • The costume used for our character were
bright colored pajamas to portray the
innocence of the female victim. This was used
to try and make the viewers feel even more
sympathy towards the character. This costume
is very conventional as it shows the purity of a
character.

11. • The sound created separately had been non-
diegetic throughout the majority of our thriller
production excluding the speech of our ''TV news
reporter'' and also the speech and cries of the
main character. The sound used were very
disturbing high pitched sounds which then
increased tempo to create an intense build up.
• The body language used were very tense and on
the defensive to show the worries of the
characters escape. The body language used were
very cautious and troubled because of the
confused and unstable

12. Conclusion
• In conclusion, all the evidence on the
narrative structures I had researched, I chose
to follow Aristotle’s theory simply because his
idea that everything should have a beginning,
middle and end and that the events must
relate to one another in order to make the
narrative clear and fluent. This is why my
thriller does follow a conventional narrative
structure.