The document discusses how the media product uses and develops conventions of real thriller genre media products. It analyzes the ident, credits, titles, shots, costumes, location, and lighting and how they follow thriller conventions like using red in the ident to connote danger and keeping the credits subtle. Some elements challenge conventions like using a soft gray text for the credits rather than bold colors. The goal was to create an opening scene that would appeal to thriller audiences while also having unique elements to stand out from other thrillers.

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

2. Ident’s and Credits & Titles
One of the most important aspects of our opening sequence are the credits and ident. From my previous blog posts you
can see that there was in-depth research into what the typical conventions of thriller ident’s and credits. As you can
see below there are screen shots of our final ident, credits and title (right hand side) and screenshots of the ident’s and
credits of the same genre. I feel that overall we managed to keep to the conventions of the thriller genre. Our ident
‘Crimson Pictures’ follows the conventions of a typical ident as it represents the genre of film. This is done as the name
‘Crimson’ connotes the idea of red which is an icon of death and danger, this is then again highlighted by the flashes of
red that run throughout and behind the text, setting the audience up for the thrills that are about to occur. Ident’s are
always know to be simple and reach the point so by the background of our ident being black it keeps in line with the
conventions of ident’s. However in some case our ident does challenge the conventions of ident’s as the colour red is
also an icon of passion so it could produce films of the genre Romance, making it versatile and reach out to different
audiences. Just like ‘Twisted Pictures’, ‘Crimson Pictures’ suites the genre thriller as it has a morbid sound to it.
Our credits however are very subtle and are not too
bold unlike the credits from ‘Shutter Island’ who’s
text is red and white making the audience on-edge as
they do not know what is going to happen next. The
colour of our text was a soft grey and this challenges
the idea of the thriller genre as they blend in with
the background as we felt the red jumper was to be
the only bold colour on the screen. The text does not
have any transitions unlike ‘Shutter Islands’ it just
cuts straight to the next set. This made it appear
jumpy and kept the audience attention on the
screen. Although we researched ‘The Lion King’ as
our title and this is not the same genre it holds
qualities that represent the thriller genre such as the
red. Our main focus was that we wanted the title to
appear straight at the end of our footage, however
this was not the case in the end as we found a light
flicker effect that meant created an eerie effect,
that was more suitable to the genre. We used a bold
font and a bold colour (white) to make sure that the
audience takes in the name of the film and that it
leaves a lasting impact on them.

3. Shot Types
The Syndrome Harry Potter
This shot is known as a Tracking shot, this idea
was influenced from the film ‘Harry Potter and
the deathly hallows part 1’ as there is a chase
scene through a forest which is the same as
ours. A tracking shot will show the direction in
which the character is running, it also enhances
the speed at which they are running at. We
were influenced by a variety of shots from
‘Harry Potter’ as you can see from one of my
blog posts about Camera angles. When filming
we made sure that we got more varied shots
that we may of needed this allowed us to find
the best ones and fit them into out footage.
Our shots are vey typical of a ‘thriller’ genre , such as the tracking and the over the shoulder shots. However we have
also added in our own shots that are not typical of a ‘thriller’ genre such as the canted shot (below on the left).
Although you do tend to find canted shots in ‘thrillers’ this canted shot was not the conventional type as it was used as
a point of view of our victim in a way that it was as if she had just regained consciousness. This was effective as it mean
that the audience could put themselves in the v victims position illuminating the fear that is created. We used a lot
more shots but the most effective one was a focus pull, (below on the right) this was our most effective shot in my
opinion as it created a sense of mystery of the capturer as we had the focus pull on just the victim meaning that the
capturer is out of focus, this is effective in our opening sequence as you are unable to see the face of the capturer
until she notices him. Overall our shots all convert to the typical conventions of the ‘thriller’ genre.

4. Costume
Costume is what represents and gives a deeper understanding into the
characters . They can help to establish what the characters were doing before, so
in this case it would be that the victim was going for a walk in the woods possibly
with a dog and then got captured. I feel that the costumes will appeal to our
target audience as it modern to this day in age. The iconic red jumper is highly
effective as it is alarming in the surrounding in the woods, this is not typical to
‘thriller’ genre as the “Victim’s” tend to blend in more or be wearing white to
show their ‘purity’, we found this out in our research on ‘The Last House On The
Left’ as the main girl who is escaping is wearing white. However the bold colour
of red is very striking against the white background (Snow), this enhances the
idea that there is no escape for her , because no one is around to notice her. The
bright red is also an icon of danger and blood which represents the torture she
has been through supporting the genre. Red is also and icon of passion and love
this helps to signify the idea of her falling for her capturer. In our opening
sequence we wanted the capturer to look as if he lived and was almost a part of
the forest as he was able to guide his was around, we managed to achieve this as
the green/brown jumper he is wearing blends in with the trees, this is typical of
the role of a ‘capturer’ as you tend to find that they were colours that blend in
with their surroundings. The costume design again for our capturer is practical ,
as by him wearing jeans it is clear to see in the footage that he is comfortable.
The costumde design for our characters also highlights certain elements of them
which is typical in ‘thrillers’, for example; our capturer is wearing a tight fitting
jumper which enhances his muscles, whereas our victim is again wearing tight
clothes but this time it is highlighting the fact that she is small and delicate. Both
of our characters wore wellies, this was not only because it was safer for them to
wear them but it was also due to it would show the practical side to them, that
they know how to look after themselves which is ironic for our victim as she was
on her own in the forest before been captured.

5. Location and lighting
After changing our minds with the locations of our film, due to the two minute limit, we decided to base all our filming in
the woods of Moreton Pinkey which was near the house of one of the team members. When we had done our test shots we
knew that these woods had a certain feel to them that would reflect in the footage. Before we started our filming there
were weather warnings about snow, and as a team we though that we would have to postpone the filming however upon
doing research on ‘thrillers’ that have been set in the snow ‘The Shinig’ was the main one this gave us an understanding
of lighting in our location. It also gave pour group the confidence that our movie will be just as effective in the snow.
Most ‘thrillers’ are set in a location such as a woods or forest as it illustrates to the audience that there is no escape. We
were
lucky in the fact that the forest that we hade
decided to film in was maze like as there was a
lot of symmetrical pathways, which gave the
location a feeling that they were in a maze. In our
opening film we used all natural lighting, whereas
in other films such as ‘The Shining’ and ‘Harry
Potter’ they had used artificial lighting to create
a more eerie effect to the location. The natural
lighting of our shot helped to highlight the fact
that there was no escape and that even so it was
going to be more challenging as the snow was
making it harder for them to run. Throughout our
footage there are lots of different locations of the
forest , this is just like the scene in ‘Harry Potter
and The Deathly Hallows part 1’ in this film there
was a lot of different areas of the woods that they
are in that makes the audience aware of how
large the surroundings are this makes them realise
that there is very little hope for the victim(s).
Overall I though that our location worked out
well, however the natural lighting could have
been manipulated with our colour grading
techniques that we had used on our test shots to
make the location seem more eerie and create
more suspense and fear.

6. Concept
The idea of our opening sequence is to create a Thriller. Thrillers generally tend
to put the audience on the edge of their seats. From all of our research we picked
up ideas that would influence us when creating our opening sequence, that would
help us to appeal to the audience we are aiming for. I think that overall we
managed to create a opening scene that will get the audience wanting more, and
that includes all the elements of a typical Thriller genre. Although it contains
elements that you would find in a typical thriller film, it also has certain elements
that making it stand out from the rest of the Thriller genre.

7. Concept
The idea of our opening sequence is to create a Thriller. Thrillers generally tend
to put the audience on the edge of their seats. From all of our research we picked
up ideas that would influence us when creating our opening sequence, that would
help us to appeal to the audience we are aiming for. I think that overall we
managed to create a opening scene that will get the audience wanting more, and
that includes all the elements of a typical Thriller genre. Although it contains
elements that you would find in a typical thriller film, it also has certain elements
that making it stand out from the rest of the Thriller genre.