The document discusses the conventions used in a psychological thriller film opening created by the student. The 2-minute opening introduces the depressed protagonist Charlie and mysterious antagonist Amelia. It establishes the plot of Charlie wanting to end his life by signing up for a suicide website before falling for Amelia. Cinematography, lighting, sound, costumes and characters are used conventionally to set the mood and introduce tension and mystery. While the protagonist challenges conventions by not being typically strong, the antagonist and atmosphere follow thriller conventions.

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

2. The task
• My task was to create a 2 minute opening for a film in
my chosen genre. I worked alone to develop a
narrative for a psychological thriller. As a result I
viewed a range of films in a similar genre: Leon: The
Professional (Besson, 1995), Before I go to sleep
(Joffe, 2014), We need to talk about Kevin (Ramsay,
2011).
• Some other research task were taken place, such as
studying the codes and conventions of an opening
and the genre.

3. Treatment – Mr. Sunshine
• My treatment was for a psychological thriller called Mr. Sunshine.
• It is about a depressed protagonist who signs up to a website called Mr.
Sunshine where we pays to be killed in a peaceful way. The next day at
work, a woman shows up, who shows a particular fondness to Charlie
Johnson, the protagonist. Charlie falls in love with this woman, Amelia
Cassey.
• Charlie realizes his days left are number as he draws closer to his death
date, however he no longer wants to die anymore, he has found some
peace on this earth and wants to stay now, so he runs away with Amelia
only to be shot dead. He was shot by the antagonist, Amelia, who gave him
the peaceful death he wished, by making him fall in love with her.

4. Conventions of an opening
• The purpose of a film opening is to introduce the audience to the
genre and hook them on the concept. The protagonist and/or
antagonist of the film is usually present.
• Most film openings are 2 minutes long, however big blockbusters
can be anything from 2 minutes to 5.
• It introduces key characters.
• Introduces beginning of the plot
• Establishes location
• Key credits such as director etc.
• Usually uses Tordorvo’s theory of equilibrium

5. Does my psychological thriller follow conventions of
a psychological thriller?
• A psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the popular thriller theme.
• It focuses heavily on the character psychological state, which is
essentially the driving plot of the film, as well as incorporating elements
of mystery and drama throughout.
Psychological thrillers follow specific conventions, which are;
• Reality – The quality of being real. The protagonist often try's and
determines what is true and what is not.
• This is represented in my opening when Charlie has the dream about
committing suicide, where he pulls the trigger and instantly wakes up in
a panic. He truly believed he was going to die at that moment and wakes
up very disassociated.
• The lighting of the shot in which Charlie is trying to commit suicide is a
room full of shadows which creates a mood which shows the audience
that it wasn’t real and but a hazy dream, this however Charlie doesn’t
know.

6. Psychological Thriller Conventions
• Perception – A persons own interpretation
of the world around him through his
senses. Often the protagonist
misperceives the world around them.
• This is represented in the pathetic fallacy
that is presented on his way to work,
gradually the day grows sunnier, which
contradicts his negative depressive tone.
Here perception is highlighted, as Charlie’s
perception of reality at the time is all
doom and gloom. Utterly negative,
whereas the world around him reflects
otherwise.

7. Psychological Thriller Conventions
• Mind – The human consciousness; the
location of personality, thought, reason,
memory, intelligence and emotion. The
mind is often used as a place of narrative
conflict, when the protagonist battles their
own mind to reach a new level of
understanding.
• This is represented in the dream sequence
at the beginning of the opening, where his
conscious is committing suicide, and he
wakes up in reality not having committed it.
There is a conflict in his mind about what
he wants to do and what he is brave
enough to do.

8. Psychological Thriller Conventions
• Identity – The definition of one’s self. The
protagonist often are confused or doubt who
they are and try to discover their true identity.
• I believe this will be represented further into
my film however hints at it during the
opening. At work Charlie meets a new girl,
and turns around in surprise when she goes to
talk to him. This creates further mystery
around him and the girl and invites us to
discover more about him and how his
personality and emotions will unfolds.

9. Using generic conventions of psychological
thriller
• Cinematography;
I used various shot sizes and angles that reflected the mood of
the opening and both the protagonist and antagonist.
Charlie during the opening is captured in low angle shots to
highlight the shadows being cast around the room, this created
and eerie tension. Amelia is often shot from a low angle, when
she is first introduced she is high up, whilst we viewed her from
a low angle, this creates status over Charlie, and represents her
dominance. Furthermore I used close ups of the antagonist to
show her sly expressions and show the audience her bad
intentions, this once again created further tension. The wide and
high angles were used with the protagonist to convey his
isolation and innocence, he isn’t involved with anything big and
is staying to himself, and alienated member of society.
Finally I used panning shots of Amelia following closely behind
Charlie to build tension and mystery, to create questions in the
audience about why this is happening.

10. Conventional Lighting used in a Psychological
Thriller
• The lighting I used was generally low-key inside,
however outside there is bright lighting to contrast
with his mood and play with pathetic fallacy. As you
can see in his dream it’s extremely low-key lighting
that casts a lot of shadows around the room, this is
conventional of a psychological thriller as it creates
tension and mystery, the fact it is bright in the
outside world and dim in his room highlights a
convention, reality. His little world at home is dim
and haunting in his mind, whereas back in reality
and out in the world it contrasts that, its bright and
alive. It sets the mood and foreshadows the
dreadful events to occur soon.

11. Conventional Sound used in a Psychological
Thriller
• It is conventional for thrillers to have eerie, dark, slow and threatening
sound effects or sound track to set the mood and unnerve or scare the
audience. It will be used to create tension and suspense.
• I have chosen an unconventional piece of music to contrast with the
assumed code of music for films of a thriller genre. It is a reasonably
upbeat guitar take on Mr. Sandman. My reasoning for this is that the fact
it’s contrapuntal in turn creates a sinister vibe. It almost mocks his
depressive cycle of a life style and contrasts with the strange activities
taking place.
• However at the beginning of the opening I have used very eerie and dark
music overlaid with a thumping heartbeat. This is very conventional of the
thriller genre and creates instant mystery and tension.

12. Using and challenging generic conventions within
my thriller, costume, make-up and hair.
• In a thriller it is conventional for the protagonist and
victim to wears light colours to reflect the innocence of
their character. Charlie, the protagonist wears lighter
colours. In the morning scene he wears a top that is red
on the torso and grey on the sleeves. The grey reflects his
clouded innocence, he is depressed and thus echo’s the
grey. The read on the torso foreshadows the terrible
events that are to happen to him later in the film.
• He wears a black coat with the hood up for a lot of
scenes. Although this contrasts with the generic
conventions of a thriller it helps represent the
psychological side he is battling, his depression.
• Amelia, when she is first introduced is dressed very plain
wearing a black t-shirt and peach eye shadow. The black
shirt represents her bad intentions and the peachy eye
shadow represents her manipulative and ‘peachy’
attitude and the fact she has a “mask” on to hide her true
self. Further into the opening she changes in to wearing a
dark purple turtle neck to blend in with the society
around her. Her makeup, her “mask” has been removed.

13. Character Profile, Physical Characteristics
- Protagonist
• Name: Charlie Johnson.
• Height: 6’1.
• Race: English.
• Eye Color: Green.
• Hair Color: Dirty Blond.
• Skin color: White.
• Distinguishing features: Mop hair, dark eyes.
• How does he dress: Generally dull clothing to reflect his mood.
• Habits: Smoking, Medication.
• Health: Poor mental health.
• Disabilities: Mental health – Depression.

14. Character Profile, Intellect/Physical/Mental
attributes - Protagonist
• Educational Background: Education up until university, a drop out.
• Intelligence Level: Relatively ordinary.
• Any Mental Illnesses: Depression and Anxiety.
• Protagonist’s short-term/long-term goals in life: None, their mental state
has abstained them from thinking that far, he takes every minute as it
comes.
• How does the protagonist see himself?: A nobody, with no meaning.
• How does the protagonist believe he is perceived by others?: Believes he is
unnoticed, unimportant, a waste of space.
• How self-confident is the protagonist?: No self confidence.
• Does the protagonist seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination
thereof?: Ruled by emotions, ruled by his depression.

15. Character Profile, Physical Characteristics -
Antagonist
• Name: Amelia Cassey.
• Height: 5’7.
• Race: English.
• Eye Color: Brown.
• Hair Color: Blond.
• Skin Color: White.
• Distinguishing Features: Her sly expressions.
• How does she dress?: Plain, attempting to blend into society.
• Habits: Stalking, smoking.
• Health: Good.
• Disabilities: Psychopathic.

16. Character Profile, Intellect/Physical/Mental
attributes - Antagonist
• Educational Background: High educational background.
• Intelligence Level: High intelligence.
• Any Mental Illness: Psychopathic.
• Antagonists short-term/long-term life goals: None, they feel barely any
emotion, their goal is to survive and feed their dark needs.
• How does the antagonist see herself?: As incredible, almost a bit of a God
complex.
• How does the antagonist believe they are perceived by others?: As equally
amazing as above.
• How self-confident is the antagonist?: Extremely so.
• Does the antagonist seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination
thereof?: Logic alone, emotion is never involved.

17. Iconography
• In a thriller it’s conventional for the iconography to consist
of blood and weapons which strike fear into the audience,
these items are also what generally foreshadow the death
and violence that will take place.
• I have pills, a gun and an alarm clock which are seen
throughout the opening. The pills and gun are present in
the opening dream sequence. The pills have connotation
of medication, depression and suicide, which helps to
represent the social group, disability. The gun has the
connotations of death and murder, these items
foreshadow his fate later. At other points the alarm clock is
presented twice in the opening. Alarm clocks have the
connotations of time running out and a waking call, this
item serves as a warning echoing throughout.

18. Facial Expression and Body Language
• Generally within thrillers the protagonist is meant to present a strong,
confident character, that will give faith to the audience they will survive
the situation, however my film, being a psychological thriller does not
present a strong, confident character. He is shown as sad, depressed
and alienated from the world around him. This is specifically to show
the audience he isn’t meant to be a courageous character, or even
strive by the end.
• His facial expressions range from frighten, agitated, depressed and
bored. All of these echo the psychological side of the thriller, his
distressed mental state.
• The antagonist, Amelia is shown as straight faced, stalking, smiling and
scowling.
• She smiles at Charlie at the end scene and then glares into the camera,
this highlights how she is very two-faced, and she shouldn’t be trusted.
She is putting on a facade. This is a classic element of a thriller, the
audience knows that there is something off, something sinister, Charlie
never discovers this and thus it causes tension throughout the film.

19. Using Conventions of a target audience.
• Previous thrillers have been given the age certificate of 15,
which shows that it is aimed at teenagers if both genders.
• This is conventional of the thriller genre as it relates the
younger audience, this is because they can occasionally relate
to the certain situations, and be interested in the adrenaline
of the film.
• Generally in thrillers there is mild violence and swearing which
will contribute to the age range.
• Before I go to sleep – is rated a 15 due to strong language and
violence.
• Leon: The Professional – rated a 15 due to strong language,
violence and sexual references.
• Due to this I have decided to make Mr. Sunshine an age 15
due to the themes, genre and content. My target audience are
aged 16 and up, and thus will relate to the film.

20. Narrative structure of Mr. Sunshine
• The narrative theories consist of Propps, Aristotle’s and Todorovs theories.
• Propps theory suggests that every narrative has eight different character
types, which consist of a villain, dispatcher, magical helper, princess or
prize, her father, the donor, the hero and the false hero.
• Aristotle believed that there are six elements to drama, which are,
spectacle, character, plot, diction, melody and thought. Aristotle claimed
that, contrary to what one might expect, plot or ‘the form of action’ is the
most important element within the film.
• Finally Tordorovs theory. The theory suggests that all narratives follow a
three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything
is balanced, progress occurs where something comes along to disrupt the
equilibrium, finally a resolution is found and the equilibrium is restored.
• The narrative structure of Mr. Sunshine follows Aristotles theory as the
general plot of the psychological thriller is what is the most important
point of the film. The plot goes through stages of mystery, love, drama,
thriller and horror, consisting of relationships, murder, sex, escape and
death. The plot evolving with the time is what draws the audience in to
watching.

21. Character Representation
• My characters generally follow the conventions of a thriller, however
my protagonist contrasts the hopefully, strong and positive character
he should be presenting in this theme, due to the psychological side of
the film, his depression is greatly highlighted in this characters
attitudes. The antagonist does follow the conventions of a sly, two-
faced character, which represents her villainous side.
• The protagonist wears generally light coloured flannel shirts
throughout, which reflects the innocence of his character. His pyjamas
are grey on the sleeves and red on the torso which foreshadows the
dangers to come for his character in the future. He wears a black
zipped up coat with the hood up, this echo’s his isolation from the
world and thus represents the social group he falls into, disability,
mental illness.
• The Antagonist wears a black top and peachy eye shadow which
contrasts with her clear face and plum top later into the opening. The
black top represents her dark character and her separation from the
people around her, however it also links her psychologically to the
protagonist and his mood. The eye shadow represents her character
putting up a façade, to blend into the society around her, which is
shown when she is makeup-less. Her real personality is finally shown
to the audience, which shows the audience she is not to be trusted.

22. • Overall my psychological thriller contains conventions and codes of a
thriller from the mise en scene to the character representation.
Shadows and colour coordinated clothing is used to reflect the genre,
mood and characters intensions.
• The protagonist within my thriller challenges the conventions, he
doesn’t strive as a courageous character who will make it through, he
instead contrasts with it to represent his social group, mental
health/disability.
• Despite this the antagonist and atmosphere follow the conventions of
a thriller.