Evaluation - Question 1

1. Question1: In whatways does your productuse, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
Setting
My filmis set mostly down an ally way and in a manky, old garage. The dingy setting
definitely fits in with what the audience will expect from a creepy thriller film, the ally way I
used is narrow and appears to be in the middle of nowhere, this is similar to thrillers that I
have researched. For example, in The Lovely Bones, the girl is taken into a dirty and
rundown room under the ground in a scary looking field, the setting of production looks run
down, old and creepy.
Dirty,ivycoveredwall
The ground iscoveredinrotten
leavesandthe groundisuneven.
CharactersCostume
The costume that my charactersare wearinginsome waychallenge formor
conventionsof the thrillergenre,myfemale leadSarahwaswearingablacktop
and jeanswitha checkedcoatand blackhigh heel shoes.Althoughthiscostume
was veryage appropriate itmaynot be exactlywhatpeople expectedfromthe
character, the audience maybe expectinghercharacterto be wearinga dark
colouredmini dress,withskinshowingasshe issupposedtoof just be leaving
herfriendsthe morningaftera party.
Character Introduction
Both of my characters were introduced quite gradually, Sarah is the main
character of the filmand she is the first character to be seen on screen,
her feet are revealed first and then her full appearance is revealed quickly
after. Dexter however is supposed to be a mysterious character whose
identity is never truly revealed, he is not seen until about half way
through the opening and there are little full body shot of him. His face is
always covered and this therefore keeps the audience guessing about
who he really is, this therefore goes along with what the audience would
expect from a thriller, I think that the audience would be expecting not to
know the identity of the bad character straight away, but for it to remain
a mystery until towards the end of the film.
Redchecked coat
Black top,jeansandshoes
Redlipstickand
makeup

2. Despite the female lead maybe not wearing what would be expected of this character I
think that the male lead (the kidnapper) was dressed in a way that goes with what the
audience would expect from a character of this nature. Dexter was wearing all black jeans,
jumper, shoes and face mask, this made him mysterious, also the fact that his true identity
was never revealed to the audience, sticks with many of the conventions of thriller films.
Genre
There a few aspects of my film opening that suggest the genre to the audience, the
suspenseful music that cuts in quite suddenly could be a surprise to the audience, the happy
character at the start mixed with the intensity of the music highlight to the audience that
the film is of the thriller genre. Another way that the audience is clued into the fact that this
is a thriller is that the second camera shot is of Sarah banging on the door in the garage
where she has been locked in, this immediately tells the audience that something bad is
about to happen to this character, this gives away the nature of the storyline quite quickly.
Shotof Sarah inthe
garage where she has
beenshutinmy Dexter’s
character, isthe second
shotthat the audience
sees.
Camera
There were manydifferentshotsandanglesthatI filmedfrom
during production, I wanted to create a sense of pace that is
expected in a thriller and really show the audience the
setting,whilekeepingfocuson the main characters. The start
section where Sarah is walking down the alley way has her
speaking and walking from quite a few different angles, the
cuts from her being kidnapped and her being locked in the
garage separates out the action and give the open a
disjointed, exciting but sinister feel.
Editing
There isnot a great deal of editingin the film opening, I used
quite a few fade in and fade out when transferring from the
kidnappingandtalkingonthe phone to Sarah being locked in
the garage. I didn’t want to take away from the main action
by usingmanyspecial effects, I wanted it appear real and for
the audience to right in with the action.
Example of a longshotcamera angle used

3. Title
The title that I usedisverydark and
the colourtransfersfromgrey into
black.The grey dark colourand the
pitchblack backgroundconformto
whatyou wouldexpectfroma
thrillermovie. The lookof the font
usedand the title ingeneral keeps in
withthe sinisteranddarkthemesin
the filmand is probablywhatan
audience wouldexpectfroma
Thrillerfilm.