The document discusses how a media production conformed to thriller genre conventions. It analyzes how the dark alley setting, mysterious characters, and kidnapping narrative aligned with conventions and created suspense. Iconography like dark costumes also helped identify it as a thriller. While daytime lighting detracted somewhat, audiences still recognized the thriller genre. Overall, the production successfully followed conventions to intrigue audiences and be identifiable as a thriller.

1. B Y B A I L E E B R O O K S
QUESTION 1 EVALUATION
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. INTRODUCTION
• Conventions are particularly important when considering producing
a media text. There are many elements that contribute to the
conventions of each genre such as characters and particular
stereotypes, audio, themes and narrative etc. There have been
many influences and theories on the ideas of conventions such as
the ‘Metz Genre Theory’ That suggests each film within a certain
genre repeats conventions in different stages, such as
‘experimental’, ‘classic’ , ‘parody’ and ‘deconstructive 'which makes
it easier for audiences to identify what type of film they are watching
within the genre. The main influence of Thriller conventions would
be the work ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ who inspired many to follow the same
type of conventions within the genre which created the recognisable
conventions we see within movie theatres today. I will be evaluating
how well my thriller opening sequence production conforms to these
conventions created within the thriller genre.

3. ICONOGRAPHY
• Iconography is a very important part to consider
when producing a thriller genre. The iconiography
we chose within our production portrayed the genre
particularly well, this can be seen through the dark
and gloomy setting of an alley. This suggests dark
themes as an alleyway is particularly scary setting,
especially when dark /during night time. This would
increase intensity for audiences watching and
automatically suggest to them that the genre is a
thriller as small enclosed area’s suggest no way of
escape and could suggest surprises whatever way
you turn. The overall setting conformed to the
thriller genre however I feel perhaps the scenes
could have used a lower key lighting as the use of
daylight retracts the fear elements, however
audiences still managed to understand that the
narrative was a thriller suggesting it would not be
an issue.

4. ICONOGRAPHY
• I Find that we conformed to the iconography of
the thriller genre particularly well within our
opening sequence production suggesting that the
opening sequence was indeed a thriller genre.
This can be seen through the dark costumes
worn by the ‘Villain’ That is 'Alex's Brother as well
as the main character ‘Alex himself. This portrays
enigma codes to the audience as they would
question why the characters are wearing dark
clothing, perhaps they would be ‘hiding’
information. This shows we conformed to the
thriller genre conventions as the genre is
particularly known for it’s dark mysterious
elements. This can be proved by our audience
feedback who claimed the genre was easily
recognised as a ‘thriller’ which shows the
iconography increased the recognisability of the
genre.

5. CHARACTERS
• The characters within the Thriller genre
tend to be mysterious and have many
secrets, such as a dark past etc. Within my
production we decided to conform to this
convention and create our main character
Alex very mysterious with many secrets
that he refuses to tell his friend Sophie.
This not only suggests the genre due to
enigma codes but similarly keeps
audiences interested as the will engage
with the production and continue watching
to see the narrative unfold and see Alex’s
secrets slowly unfold. The audiences we
asked to review this production claimed
they could notice that Alex seemed
‘mysterious’ meaning we managed to
clearly follow the thriller conventions.

6. CHARACTERS
• Another way in which we conformed to the conventions of
thriller genre through the portrayal of characters is through the
use of Binary opposites, first introduced by Levi Strauss.
Within our production we have the belief of Good VS evil
which is shown through the ‘good’ of Sophie and Alex and the
‘evil’ as the kidnapper. This helps to push the narrative
forward as well as conforming to the usual conventions of
binary opposites shown within thriller films. This would take
into account Steve Neal's repetition and difference theory as
we took into account previous binary opposites and combined
it with our own production. Similarly, the ’Good VS Evil’ would
play the experimental role in the Metz Genre theory as the
binary opposite sets the theme for all thriller genre.

7. NARRATIVE
• Within our production we decided to chose a
narrative that conformed to the conventions of
the thriller genre. This can be seen from the
use of ‘kidnapping’ as well as psychological
themes making our production a sub genre.
This is typical of the thriller genre as it has
been combined to make a psychological thriller
sub genre many times before e.g. in films such
as ‘Shutter Island’ which is a particularly
popular film. Our evaluators revealed to us that
they could similarly follow this narrative as they
recognised it as a ‘psychological thriller’ This
was clearly shown to audience members as
they claimed that the genre was a ‘thriller’ and
claimed it was particularly ‘gripping’

8. CONCLUSION
• So, in conclusion we can see that our group managed to
conform to the conventions of the thriller genre however
challenge and change some to suit the style of our
production. This question will help me when it comes to
creating future productions as I can see which
conventions I would like to include/challenge and
whether I can conform to theories such as the Metz
genre theory.