The document discusses how the media product adheres to and challenges conventions of the action thriller genre. It establishes the protagonist as a typical teenage girl to gain audience relatability. Stereotypical genre elements like an abandoned suburban setting and a focus on the protagonist's journey are included. However, it challenges conventions by having a young female lead rather than a male action hero, and by not including typical iconography like weapons or explosions in the first two minutes. The goal is to subvert expectations while still engaging audiences with generic conventions.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
Evaluation Q1

2. Narrative was the first subject we
raised when working in our group.
We had to allocate a genre in which
we wanted our film to fall into. With
all genre there are certain stock
narratives, themes, characters and
settings that need to be shown
throughout the film.

3. Our Genre

4. Action Thriller
Why?
Our Genre

5. We wanted to include a fast pace film
that would have the audience on the edge
of their seats in anticipation. As a group
we also had a good understanding of this
genre as shown on our blog. (link to
genre analysis). Our research allowed us
to identify different elements we should
include in order to make the film work
for our genre.

6. Textual Analysis:
How I Live Now
In my textual analysis of the film
opening “How I Live Now” (2012) I
focused on the development of
characters to set the tone of the rest of
the film and how they acted as a feature
of the genre. The hostile approach felt by
Daisy in the opening sets the tone of the
overhanging threat that is soon to disrupt
the activity of this group of youngsters.
This can be seen to have an influence
over the opening of our film. Ava starts
the film being relaxed and enjoying
herself and is met with the earth
shattering news that not everything is
always as it seems and that everyone can
just disappear in a blink of an eye.

7. Our Narrative
Within the first 2 minutes of our film we establish that
there is a disequilibrium where nothing is as it seems
or as it should be, and this remains for the first act of
the film according to Sid Field’s three-acts. During the
first 20 minutes of the film (the first act) these
unanswered question will continue to stack up. The
narrative is driven by attempts to restore the
equilibrium.

8. Stock Characters
Ava is the only main character that we meet in the opening. She is the
stereotypical teenager at the beginning of the film and is thrown into
the world of the unknown. The main protagonist then seeks out help
from a much larger group that also have been landed in the same
situation and share the same goals. This group then attempt to succeed
at a much bigger target than previously thought about, much like in I
am Legend (2007). Neville is devoted to understanding the creation that
has developed after a bacterial plague that has infected everyone
around him. His discovery of a cure which can heal the infected is in
itself saving the whole world.
These typical teenagers are thought to have everything figured out in
their lives up until they are unexpectedly thrown into a world that
leads them to question the very make-up of their lives. With this they
find out that not everything is as clear as they previously thought it
was. This is similar to the character Nathan in Abduction (2011), who
discovers that his whole childhood is built on lies and he spends the
rest of the film rediscovering who he really is.

9. Stock Setting
The storytelling starts out in a typical house in
a suburban town where everything appears
normal and content. The setting then
continues to distort until it develops into a
world that not even the characters can
recognize.

10. Stereotypes Met
With the beginning of the film we wanted to paint a picture
of a typical teenager and, to ensure this occurred, we had to
consider many of the stereotypical opinions of a 16 year old
teenage girl. The stereotypes we took into account where as
follows:
1. Teenagers are always on their phones – she is clutching her
phone on her walk home, it wakes her up and when she
realises that everyone has gone the first thing she runs for is
the phone.
2. Teenagers go out and drink – she staggers home late at night
3. Teenagers are reliant on their mothers – it is the first person
she calls out to when she gets in and also when she wakes up.

11. It was important to develop
a clear layout of all the
repertoire of elements for
our genre so that we could
ensure that we either
directly linked to it or
challenged it.

12. SETTING
• Urban cities
• Suburbs
• Darkness
• Abandoned areas
ICONOGRAPHY
• Car chases
• Guns and weaponry
• Explosions
• Deserted building
• Low key lighting
CHARACTERS
• Ordinary citizen pulled into
danger
• Powerful villain
• Supporting characters – who
journey together, resulting in
one of them betraying the rest of
the group.
NARRATIVE
• Focus on the protagonist
• Hero must overcome the
problems
• Good vs evil
• Violence
• Fast paced action
• Unexpected plot twists
• Uncertainty

13. What we developed in our 2
minutes of film
SETTING
• Urban cities
• Suburbs
• Darkness
• Abandoned areas
ICONOGRAPHY
• Car chases
• Guns and weaponry
• Explosions
• Deserted building
• Low key lighting
CHARACTERS
• Ordinary citizen pulled into
danger
• Powerful villain
• Supporting characters – who
journey together, resulting in
one of them betraying the rest of
the group.
NARRATIVE
• Focus on the protagonist
• Hero must overcome the
problems
• Good vs evil
• Violence
• Fast paced action
• Unexpected plot twists
• Uncertainty

14. What we developed in our 2
minutes of film
SETTING
• Urban cities
• Suburbs
• Darkness
• Abandoned areas
ICONOGRAPHY
• Car chases
• Guns and weaponry
• Explosions
• Deserted building
• Low key lighting
CHARACTERS
• Ordinary citizen pulled into
danger
• Powerful villain
• Supporting characters – who
journey together, resulting in
one of them betraying the rest of
the group.
NARRATIVE
• Focus on the protagonist
• Hero must overcome the
problems
• Good vs evil
• Violence
• Fast paced action
• Unexpected plot twists
• Uncertainty
We gained the
abandoned and
desolated look by
positioning our main
character on the very
left of a wide angle
frame. This camera
positioning was also
used later to give a
continuation feel of
abandonment as the
character developed the
idea that she was all
alone.

15. What we developed in our 2
minutes of film
SETTING
• Urban cities
• Suburbs
• Darkness
• Abandoned areas
ICONOGRAPHY
• Car chases
• Guns and weaponry
• Explosions
• Deserted building
• Low key lighting
CHARACTERS
• Ordinary citizen pulled into
danger
• Powerful villain
• Supporting characters – who
journey together, resulting in
one of them betraying the rest of
the group.
NARRATIVE
• Focus on the protagonist
• Hero must overcome the
problems
• Good vs evil
• Violence
• Fast paced action
• Unexpected plot twists
• Uncertainty
We gained the
abandoned and
desolated look by
positioning our main
character on the very
left of a wide angle
frame. This camera
positioning was also
used later to give a
continuation feel of
abandonment as the
character developed the
idea that she was all
alone.
Using a
typical
teenager we
hope that
the
audience
could relate
to Ava and
therefore
increase
their
emotional
attachment
to the film.

16. What we developed in our 2
minutes of film
SETTING
• Urban cities
• Suburbs
• Darkness
• Abandoned areas
ICONOGRAPHY
• Car chases
• Guns and weaponry
• Explosions
• Deserted building
• Low key lighting
CHARACTERS
• Ordinary citizen pulled into
danger
• Powerful villain
• Supporting characters – who
journey together, resulting in
one of them betraying the rest of
the group.
NARRATIVE
• Focus on the protagonist
• Hero must overcome the
problems
• Good vs evil
• Violence
• Fast paced action
• Unexpected plot twists
• Uncertainty
We gained the
abandoned and
desolated look by
positioning our main
character on the very
left of a wide angle
frame. This camera
positioning was also
used later to give a
continuation feel of
abandonment as the
character developed the
idea that she was all
alone.
Using a
typical
teenager we
hope that
the
audience
could relate
to Ava and
therefore
increase
their
emotional
attachment
to the film.
Ava is the only
speaking
character that
we meet in the
first 2 minutes.
With this we
develop the
idea of her as a
leader and
innovative
thinker; she is
the first to
discover that
not everything
is as she
thought it was.

17. Codes and
Conventions
that we
Challenged
Most of the successful action films
are based around strong willed fully
grown male protagonists, for
example James Bond and The
Bourne series. However, Silence in
the Streets follows a small teenaged
girl as she fights to defeat a
powerful government.