Evaluation Question 1

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

2. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Titling – Colour, Font
and Style
Simple to read, clear
and usually standing
out from the
background.
For our opening
sequence we used
simple font so it is easy
to read and clear. This
uses the typical
convention which is
clear titles that are
framed well. We used
white and turquoise for
our titles so they stand
out from the
background
Our opening
sequence is similar to
the film ‘Drive’ which
has simple text which
are framed well and
are clear to read. We
mainly used this film
to get ideas for our
titles.

3. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Camera Movement –
Pan, Track, Crab,
Crane
Usually begins with
establishing shot to
set the mood. Then
fast paced,
uncontrolled.
Suspenseful.
We used the idea as
for the first bit of the
film we used an
establishing shot and
then slow still shots
and then later for the
chase scene we made
the shots handheld
and fast paced.
We knew that for
chase scenes there
are usually fast paced
and ‘constantly
moving’ shots
therefore we used this
idea when filming our
chase scene. We also
used some high angle
shots and tracking
shots.

4. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Framing a shot –
ECU, CU, MS, LS, ELS
Close ups are
frequently used in
Thriller films to show
the characters
emotions. Long shots
are also used a lot to
give information
about the
atmosphere and the
environment.
We showed our actors
in medium or long
shots. We didn't’t use
any close ups because
we didn't’t need to
show the characters
emotion. This challenges
the idea as as didn’t get
too close and stuck with
long shots to show the
environment.
In the film ‘Drive’
there were many
close ups and extreme
close ups of certain
character’s eyes. We
made our opening
sequence different
and chose to stick
with medium and long
shots.

5. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Camera Angle –
High, Low
In most Thrillers they
usually use a variety
of High and Low
shots to show that
some actors are
dominant and others
are more vulnerable.
We used this idea
and made our main
character on the low-
angle shots to show
that he is the
powerful and more
dominant character.
In the film ‘Taken’
there were a range of
high and low angle
shots used very well
so we used this as an
idea to frame our
shots well when doing
these types of shots.

6. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Mise-en-Scene In most Thrillers they
use a dark setting to
represent the theme.
In most films the plot
twist / dilemma
happens at night.
We challenged this
idea and went against
the binary opposites
by making the night
time scene a part to
introduce our
character then in the
day time there was
the main action in
the film.
The Mise-en-Scene in
our film was very
similar to the film
‘Drive’ which was shot
at night and the
location (The City) was
similar.

7. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Editing –
Jump cuts, match
cuts, reverse shots,
cutting rythmn
Usually in Thrillers,
the editing is more
fast paced and
contains a lot of jump
cuts and match cuts.
This is a common
technique in the film
‘Drive’
We used this idea in
our chase scene, we
had many jump cuts
and reverse shots to
show the two
characters running
fast. The match cuts
were done by using
two cameras for
accurate results.
Our cutting rythmn
started off slow and
controlled in the night
scene, it allows the
audience to feel at
ease. Further in our
opening sequence the
cutting rythmn
increases just as it
does in the thriller
film ‘Taken’.

8. My Product Typical Thriller
Conventions
My Production – Use,
Develop or
Challenge?
Comparison to
Existing Products
Sound – It is common for
action thrillers to
have a calm
soundtrack in some
scenes then fast
paced and upbeat
music for the scenes
where there is more
action.
We used this idea in
our opening
sequence. For the
introduction we used
a calm soundtrack
then as tension rose a
more upbeat
soundtrack is
introduced.
In the film ‘Taken’
there are parts where
there is very calm or
no music to build
suspense and then
when the action
happens there is
sudden action music.
Our opening sequence
resembles this.

9. Other conventions we followed:
Enigma code is the questions that your film makes
for the audience to think about and draw them into
the story as to why someone or something
happened.
- We followed this convention as Jimmy (the main character) was
sacked in the beginning of the opening sequence and it was unsure
why therefore immediately the audience have a question in mind as
to why he was sacked. This draws them into the narrative.
Vladimir Propp was essentially interested in the
narrative of folk takes. We followed his theory as
we had a hero (Jimmy Olsen) and a villian (Frank).
This provided a good structure for our opening
sequence.