The media product, Ascendancy, is a psychological thriller film that both uses conventions from and challenges conventions of real thriller films. It takes inspiration from films like American Psycho for the antagonist's smart costume, The Shining for filming an important scene in a bathroom, and Kill List for including a cult symbol prop. While some elements conform to thriller conventions, other choices diverge, such as using low-key lighting in the style of film noir rather than typical thriller lighting. The film includes a vulnerable female character and psychopathic male character, as is common in thrillers. An opening tracking shot is used to build suspense, as in Children of Men.

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

2. Ascendancy is a psychological thriller that was
created with the influences of various other media
products, as well as challenging certain thriller
conventions. Various products inspired the media
film resulting in specific choices when deciding on
elements of the film such as costume, lighting,
camerawork, mise-en-scene and various other film
elements.

3. For the costumes used in the thriller film we
decided to use the convention of the antagonist
typically wearing smart clothing, this was
decided for the particular scene where the girl
that the antagonist has killed is lying in the bath.
We chose the smart clothing as an attempt to
recreate a funeral that the antagonist held for
the girl he has murdered.
This smart clothing came from the inspiration of
the psychological/horror/thriller ‘American
Psycho’ in which the psychotic character ‘Patrick
Bateman’ .
The colours of the costumes were not selectively
chosen as we knew the film was going to be
edited as a black and white film and therefore
choosing particular colours would not have an
effect within the film.
Costume

4. Mise-en-scene and Location
We chose to film an important scene in a
bathroom with the inspiration from the film
‘The Shining’ in where a bathroom is used
within a very chilling scene. I believe using a
bathroom for a scene within a thriller film
clearly conforms to the genre as there are
various famous scenes in which a bathroom is
used in a thriller, such as ‘Psycho’ . Therefore
we aimed to use the bathroom to connote
specific thriller conventions.
We also chose to film in a bedroom for another
one of our scenes. This was a choice made to
once again conform to the thriller convention
as many common thriller and horror films use
bedrooms within a particular scenes. The
bedroom is used to make the character seem
vulnerable as commonly we associate
bedrooms as a personal space and when this is
being invaded it creates tension and suspense.
Such as in the film ‘Paranormal Activity’ the
bedroom is used to automatically create a
sense of false-security.

5. Props
The props in the thriller film play an
important role within the plot, firstly
we use The Bible in various scenes as a
prompt to the audience that the
antagonist has connections with
religion. The Bible is to suggest to the
audience that the antagonist is being
controlled by a religious cult group and
therefore plays a crucial role within the
plot of the film. The use of the Bible
prop is used to present the cult symbol
which we designed and drew onto the
back of it. This symbol came from the
inspiration of the film ‘Kill List’ which is
based heavily on the idea of cult
groups and the power they have and
the dark, evil crimes they commit.

6. Lighting
When filming inside we used mostly low
key lighting to create a chiaroscuro effect
which came from the inspiration of film
noir, which therefore challenges the
forms of the thriller convention. Even
though some thriller films also use low-
key lighting to create suspicion and fear,
we were not following this particular
thriller convention instead we chose to
use low key lighting in response to the
lighting used in various film noir’s.

7. Characters
The vulnerability of the
female character and the
psychopathic unstable male
character conform to the
thriller convention. There are
various thriller films which
use this combination of
character type. For example
in the film ‘Cape Fear’, which
involves the antagonist
carrying out several
disturbing crimes with
vulnerable, innocent women.

8. Camerawork
Tracking shots are commonly used to build
suspense and tension in thriller films which
inspired the choice to use a tracking shot in our
thriller. In the film ‘Children of Men’ Alfonso
Cuaron chooses to use tracking shots throughout
which prove to be very effective in keeping the
audience engaged with what is happening on
screen. Although this particular tracking shot
used in Cuaron’s film ‘Children of Men’ is used in
one of the final scenes of the film, we have
chosen to use a tracking shot as the opening
shot to our thriller. But with the same attention
of grabbing the full attention of the audience. It
grabs the audience’s attention by creating the
anticipation of not knowing what’s going to
happen next as we are placed directly behind
the character and therefore are blocked from
viewing what the character sees.