The document analyzes how the opening sequence of a student thriller film uses and develops conventions of real media products in the thriller genre. It matches conventions through the use of a helpless blonde female protagonist and ominous antagonist in black, as well as blood and gore makeup and a creepy male voiceover. However, it subverts conventions somewhat by setting the sequence in a doll house rather than a typical hiding location. Overall, the sequence aims to match audience expectations set by inspirations like Scream and Silence of the Lambs more than challenge conventions.

1. Evaluation Task 1:
How does your product use, develop or challenge
conventions of real media products?
In the opening sequence to our thriller we both matched
and subverted generic expectations of thrillers and real
media products, through the use of the four main factors
that make up a sequence, these are the mise-en-scene,
editing, sound and camera.

2. Mise-en-Scene (Actors)
The use of a blonde main
character is used a lot in
horror/thriller films, as they are
shown to be naïve and helpless.
In the film “Scream” the use of a
blonde female character shows
weakness and a stereotypical
female protagonist. Much like our
film where we casted a blonde
female protagonist. The use of our
actor also will draw our target
audience of young males in, as
they will find her attractive. Just
like the use of a female
protagonist in “Scream”. Our
thriller matches the convention of
using a weak female lead and
strong male lead.

3. Mise-en-Scene (Costumes)
The costumes we used
for the antagonist
establishes the binary
opposition of a “bad”
character type. The all
black outfit convention
also builds tension for
the audience as it
creates a sense of
mystery and allows the
antagonist to blend in
more to his
surroundings and once
you see him you know
something thrilling is
going to happen.

4. Mise-en-Scene (Make-Up)
The use of Make-Up was especially
important in our opening sequence
because it shows how the teenage girl
has been kidnapped and hurt before
being “devoured”. In the horror like part
of the scene we have conformed to the
idea of blood and gore like elements of
horror/thriller films. The blood
demonstrates violence and the struggle
from the characters, like from the
screenshot from “Cabin in the Woods”
below the screenshot from our
sequence.

5. Mise-en-Scene (Location)
Our main location for our opening sequence was set in a
“doll house”, this subverts the normal idea of where the
antagonist would hide and keep the protagonist because
the bigger the room, the more the scene shows the
character to be alone and vulnerable as it shows that no
one is around but the protagonist.

6. Editing
When we were editing, we
added special effects to
some shots to make them
seem more realistic. The
CCTV footage effect
foreshadowed the idea that
the teenage girl was being
watched, just like in the film
“District 9” when the CCTV
footage adds a sense of
reality to this part of the
movie scene. Our editing
techniques conforms to the
idea of real media products
and their editing
techniques.

7. Camera
These close –up shots on both
my protagonist and Hannibal
Lecters victim shows the pain
and fear caused by the villains.
This camera angle is important to
show the vulnerability and
emotions of the characters who
are evidentially being tortured,
which are generic expectations in
a horror/thriller genre film.

8. Sound
Up into this point in our
opening sequence, you might
not expect that the sequence
will be a thriller because of the
happy non-diegetic and
diegetic sounds e.g. enhanced
sound of birds and soundtrack
in the background. When you
hear the voice over, of the
creepy male leads voice, it will
then hopefully change your
mind. The mysterious voice
behind the camera angle
leads you to suspect
something suspicious, and the
sound of his inner voice will
begin to alarm the audience.
This is like a stereotypical
antagonist, behind a

9. Titles
The title sequence is
one of the most
important parts of an
opening sequence
because you are
establishing the genre
and obviously the
name of the film. In
both title sequences
they are bold, with a
sharp over
exaggerated sound, of
the fork for ours and
screams for scream,
behind the word, they
both foreshadow the
main plot behind the
film and so develop
the ideas of real media

10. From the research above it is clear that our
opening sequence defiantly matches the generic
expectations of a horror/thriller film more than it
does subvert the idea. Our inspirations have been
from classic horror/thriller films and so it is
expected that it would match the ideas because we
wanted to create something that people would
want to see, just like they like seeing the
inspirations like “Scream” and “Silence of the
Lambs”.