In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

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

2. This year for our film we observed media conventions such as conventions of genre,
cinematography, lighting .etc.
In order to work out what we needed in our film in order for it to suit our genre at the
beginning of the year I made sure I researched common conventions of psychological thrillers.
This was so we could work our how to accurately portray our film as a psychological thriller. It
also gave us some ideas for story lines and how out film would flow.

3. At a technical level, how well did you observe the
conventions of continuity, and the language of film and
editing?
When researching genres I found that common themes of the genre where based around death, reality
and consciousness. We decided that we wanted to use these themes and in order to portray them well
we worked with editing and continuity.
We used flashbacks in order to portray the story well. This worked well as it gave the story a more
interesting side. We also used editing in order to show that this was a flashback. This gave our film an
interesting look and made it work well as a psychological thriller as it had an overall eerie theme which
solidifies the genre more.
The editing overall is something we’re proud of as it took a long
time to put together and really makes the film. This worked well
on both the visual and audio level. We used echo in order too
make the audio interesting on the same level as the visual.

4. In terms of the content, how does your film reflect or challenge the
conventions of the genre you are working in? Does it fulfil the nature
of film genre or will it subvert expectations deliberately?
The genre itself as stated is a psychological thriller. This is a sub genre of thrillers. We wanted
to create a psychological thriller as it was a good way to create an interesting story but also
portray something interesting. Our story like other psychological thrillers explores the mind of
it’s main character. In our case it looks at things through the mind of the protagonist, Ben, as
he deals with the death of his girlfriend, Ava.
This allowed us to explore the main themes associated with psychological thrillers, Death,
guilt, reality, existence etc.. And develop our film and story line in an interesting way. We
centred our entire film along these themes.

5. What kinds of audience pleasure are you trying to provide, and
how confident are you that you have achieved this?
We used the‘Uses and Gratifications Theory’ when thinking about our film. According to the
theory there are four key pleasures a film may provide; Entertainment, education, socialization
and role-model. We decided we wanted our film to be entertaining. In order for it too be this
the film can be used for;
◾escaping, or being diverted, from problems
◾relaxing
◾getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
◾filling time
◾emotional release
We believe that our film has achieved these things. Individuals who have watch our film and have
reacted to it by filming in our survey have reacted very positively and have given it a high
rating.