1. Question 1: In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
2. The title of the film ‘LUST’ reflects a short, punchy and memorable title in which we
chose so that the viewers of the film would have it stuck in their heads. The title is just
on a blank screen and appears shortly after the action happens and appears quickly
too. This uses the forms and conventions of a typical thriller as the font is serif and this
is also a typical font of thrillers. The title is basic and mirrors similar titles used in other
thriller films as it tells the audience that it is based on a genre commonly used in
thrillers such as a certain type of obsession in the film.
Title of the film
3. The setting that we chose to film the beginning of our film opening is clearly a rural
area as you can see by the houses and cars around. We chose this area as it makes the
scene as real and natural as possible. This setting and location uses typical forms and
conventions of thrillers as it shows, like most other typical thrillers, that action can start
in the most unlikely of areas, even a quiet residential area. This builds on the story as it
progresses from two friends bumping into each other on the street and then it turning
into more in the next scenes. We also chose to film in a normal everyday area which
contradicts the conventions of a thriller because its very normal and not exciting. Lastly
we chose to film our final scene in a subway. This uses the forms and conventions of
thrillers because it is a usually isolated area where there are not many people around.
The setting/location
4. The use of props such as phones and clothing etc… really sets the characters
personalities into perspective to the viewer and they also challenge the forms
and conventions of thrillers because for example the antagonist (which is the
girls stalker) can be seen as intimidating or harmful as he is wearing a
hoodie and covering his identity which is typical of a villain in thriller films.
The protagonist (the innocent girl) is wearing casual everyday clothes and
smiles a lot, which makes her look very approachable which is typical of
thriller protagonists.
Costumes and props
5. The camerawork and editing was by far our most successful aspect of our film and
how we used it to convey the personality of our characters. For example we used a lot
of high angle shots on the girl in order to make her appear more small and vulnerable
and we used many low angle shots on the guy to make him appear bigger and more
intimidating to the audience. This was done to enhance the fact that the audience
imagines a guy of this build to be stalking an innocent girl as frightening. This is typical
of thrillers also because they use many different angles to deliberately convey each
character in a particular way. In editing terms, the lighting was low key on the guy as
to keep his identity hidden which is also typical of thrillers. Many of our angles are
canted angles which uses the forms and conventions of a thriller because it makes the
visual look ‘off’ and unusual which can confuse the audience and make them feel a
little on edge.
Camerawork and editing
6. Throughout our thriller and particularly at the end of it, we have created a sense of
dramatic irony as the girl is always unaware of the stalker being behind her. This
challenges the forms and conventions of thrillers as normally a character in a thriller
would have some sort of idea that someone was following them. However, this could
also be borderline to a typical thriller as the pace of editing sped up and the shots
were more broken up with a variety of shots and this builds tension with the audience
as they are constantly wondering what is going to happen next or when he finally
gets hold of her. We have used an over the shoulder shot, low angle and canted angle
shot all to give our opening a very eerie and unsuspecting feel as to what will happen.
Camera work and editing continued...
7. The credit font and style that we have chosen to use is a sons serif font which isn’t
very typical of thrillers as they normally use a serif font and so our font style
challenges the thriller genre. We chose to make our credit sequences slide in and this
mimics a very sudden slide in of the man who is stalking the girl, like he is about to
slide into her life again. We chose to use the same font all the way through our
opening as to make it a consistent style and not confuse our audience.
Credit font and style
8. The story starts off with two old friends bumping into each
other and then they plan to meet up the next day for a coffee.
Little does the innocent girl know that a mysterious man is
watching all that she does, could he be an ex boyfriend?
Enigmas of ‘who is that there?’ etc.
The pair meet up the next day at the Moby Dick and
have a chat about what they’ve been up to lately, just
so that they can refresh their memories of a friendship
that they forgot they had.
Whilst the pair are chatting, that familiar hoodie pops
up again and is behind the girl (as always) and she is
as usual, unaware of his presence. We know from the
first shot of the phone showing a picture of the two,
the guy and girl were once a couple. Something must
have gone wrong… too possessive?
Finally, from the last scene we can see from his
eyes that he wants revenge and is yet again
following her! She is also unaware again and
once he grabs her we are left not knowing
what he could possibly do with her…
Story and how the opening sets it up
9. Genre and how the opening suggests it
The genre that had to base our film opening on was the theme of thrillers. Our opening
has many different aspects of the thriller genre, all adapted to our perception of the
theme. Aspects that we could pick our were, an innocent girl that looks perfectly normal
minding her business and just walking down the street (typical protagonist who gets
caught up in a dangerous situation that they cannot control). Then we have our
intimidating, hooded figure who has their identity hidden. Clearly as we can see they are
stalking the girl and we do not know why (typical antagonist/usually male in thrillers).
Then there is a graphic match which screams thriller as they use this technique a lot. And
finally there is low key lighting and an isolated subway. The low key lighting we have
kept in mind throughout our opening is typical of the thriller genre and the same thing
with the isolated location as this is a typical mise en scene for thriller movies.
10. How characters are introduced
Our protagonist, the
innocent girl, is revealed
physically after one shot
of her legs, but her
identity mentally is kept
hidden until the second
scene. We see her as a
friendly, approachable
and confident girl, yet
once she opens up
about her break up with
her ex, who is stalking
her in the opening, she
comes across as more
vulnerable which is
usually the situation
with thriller
protagonists, we are
given their identity
almost instantly so the
audience can bond with
them and feel sympathy
for their situations.
Our antagonist, the guy
(typically masculine) who is
mysteriously following the
girl, is revealed slowly in the
stereotypical thriller genre
way. This was done
intentionally due to the fact
that in thrillers, we want to
keep the audience guessing
the mans identity throughout
the whole film opening. We
at first feel a little on edge
about his appearance as we
cannot see what he looks
like but then as we see his
face and then see a photo of
him and the girl, who calls
him a ‘psycho’ , we
immediately associate him
with her and assume that he
is her stalker.
