Our media production "SKATE" uses various elements of thriller genre conventions to reinforce that it is a thriller film. These include character names and costumes that reference other thrillers, as well as props like a bike, skateboard, and car that are associated with stereotypes of reckless teenagers. Sounds were also used diegetically to represent characters and foreshadow events, challenging the genre's usual use of non-diegetic sound. The film was set in a local park and cafe that would be familiar to the target demographic and enabled the use of props, mirroring locations from other thrillers.

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

2. Characters and Costume
• In our thriller production SKATE we wanted to make sure that people would
understand that the genre is thriller, and so we incorporated generic thriller
concepts throughout to ensure that our audience would realise that we made a
thriller film. To do this there were many elements of our film we needed to
consider when trying to reinforce the thriller genre. One key area was our
characters; we needed to think about how they would radiate the thriller
concepts. An example of one thing we did was the names of our characters; the
names were chosen from other thriller films so there were inter-textual references
for people who could spot them. One main character was 'Jason', this name we
chose because like Jason from 'Essex Boys' he is a reckless character who has no
regard for the consequences of his actions. We also dressed Jason in a dark
costume like 'Holly Martin' in 'The Third Man.' This is because these
clothes resemble much of what today's youth wears; but we also chose the dark
hoody and jeans because of the connotations associated with dark clothes: shady,
shifty character who could possibly be very dangerous. Another of our main
characters was 'Natalia', this name we thought would be appropriate as she is like
Rosa Klebb from 'Russia with Love' because she is a strong female who will do
anything to get what she wants.

3. Props
• Also in our production we decided to use props which reinforced the
stereotypes associated with our characters, these included a bike, a
skateboard and a car. The bike and skateboard worked well as these two
objects are things you associate with teenagers. We got the idea of using a
bike from the film 'Premium Rush'. The car was put to good use in
reinforcing stereotypes on how young people are seen to drive (fast and
dangerously). The car also represented the older half of our target
audience as these are people who can drive. The car was used for the hit
and run scene of our film which we took inspiration from the TV series
'The Silence'. The memory stick used in our production was our main prop
as it was at the centre of our story. We used a memory stick instead of a
phone or a wallet as the memory stick creates more enigma as the
audience want to find out why its so important to Natalia and why its
worth running someone over for.

5. Sound
• Within our production SKATE we used a lot of diegetic sound in our shots,
this challenged the generic thriller concept as non-diegetic sound is most
commonly used in thriller films for ambiguity. The sounds we used
represented each character, for example the sound of the skateboard
rolling along the ground represented Gnarly as he is a skater, and the
sound of the bike wheel ticking was used to represent Jason as he is a
biker. This helped us establish our characters to the audience and give
them a little background information as to what they are like. We used the
sound of the skateboard to foreshadow later events within the film, for
instance Gnarly getting hit by the car and his skateboard rolling along the
ground. Along with the diegetic sound we also added a soundtrack to
create a speedy atmosphere and create some tension, the soundtrack also
helped us convey a sense of movement.

6. Location
• The location of our production was Eaton Park in Norwich
which is a very well known place for teenagers to be,
especially as there is a skate park there. The idea of a park
was also influenced by the TV series 'The Silence' as someone
witnesses a murder in a park. The location helped us use our
props as the area is skateboard and bike user friendly and it
also represented the characters Jason and Gnarly as they
skate and bike. The location also represented some of our
demographic as they are similar in age to our characters; I
think this is what made the hit and run scene really effective
as the audience could possibly be in that situation.

8. Location continued
• In the scene that the memory stick is stolen the location is a café full of
relatively young people, the location represents the type of place that
teenagers and young adults hang out and makes the ideas in our
production more relatable. The fact that a male character steals the
memory stick is quite stereotypical as men are seen as more dangerous
and daring, but also that most thefts are acted out by men. The purpose
of this was to make the scene more believable and more relatable to
the audience as it is statically shown that men commit more theft offences
than women; last year theft offences accounted for 50% of all police
recorded crime (1.9 million offences) in 2012/13 and 60% of all incidents
measured by the CSEW (an estimated 5.2 million incidents) for the year
ending March 2013.