Evaluation Question 1

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

Within a thriller opening there are clear conventions that can be seen. These would include dark lighting, intense music, dark clothing, maybe moments of silence, a masculine antagonist and a feminine protagonist. Our thriller fits into these conventions through things such as dark clothing and intense music. For example, we dressed both of our characters in black clothing in order to create a general feel about the opening. We didn’t realise that we had done this until analysing the video afterwards and realised that our idea to have the antagonist as a ‘dark figure’ and the protagonist as a typical teenager, had inevitably lead to them both being dressed fit for a thriller opening. The theme of having a cast of a thriller in dark clothing can be seen in typical thrillers such as Sixth Sense, Insidious and Taken; all of which influenced our opening in some way.

We also decided to use the idea of having a stereotypical masculine antagonist and feminine protagonist because we felt that this would appeal to most to the audience, being it the most common theme in thrillers.  On the other hand, we did in some way subvert this because we had a female play the masculine role of the antagonist. This was due to the little selection of actors that we had within our all-girls school. However, Rhiannon is an androgynous female that can be made to look rather masculine which is what we done to create her into the perfect antagonist. We also done this by hiding her identity behind a mask. This again conforms to the stereotypes of a thriller opening, with the identity of the person being left to create suspense. This is one of the things that we wanted to focus on and so decided to give Rhiannon a black mask to wear, also allowing us to continue with the theme of dark clothing.

Regarding shots and camera angles, we decided to choose a variety of them in order to create suspense. We used a tracking shot into the bedroom initially to show the environment and setting. We then used extreme close ups of the laptop and phone, including mid-close up shots of Isobel’s face to show her facial expressions. This was repeated throughout the opening in order for the audience to become more involved in how the protagonist was feeling. We also used long shots when looking at both the antagonist and protagonist. This was to show the mise-en-scene of clothing and setting. We also used it to show the stature of the actor. This is to create the idea of the protagonist being a small and timid character compared to the bigger and more intimidating character of the antagonist. These shots were influenced by thrillers such as Sixth Sense. This is seen in the scene where the protagonist (Cole) is in the kitchen and sees a ‘dead person’ in the hallway.

The long shot of him in just pants and a vest shows how small and scared he is. A few moments later, the antagonist in this scene is seen in another long shot with a beaten face with aggressive expressions on it. The long shot shows how much bigger that she is than Cole, establishing that she is intimidating and the one to be feared. This heavily influenced our decision regarding long shots within our thriller opening.

Within a lot of thriller openings, there isn’t as much of the storyline in it as there is in ours. The reason that we decided to change this particular form was because we wanted to entice our target audience. We thought that if we were to have a strong storyline within our opening then this would draw people in to wanting a full film. We also left the opening on a cliff-hanger. This means that there would be a great way to follow on to a potential extended film. There are other films like this such as Taken but it isn’t done within the opening scene of the film. Although it was a risk to do this, we have had some great feedback in regard to wanting to watch the rest of the film that followed.

We did, however, follow conventions of a thriller opening with dark mysterious lighting. This was a conscious decision which meant that we had to choose the right time of day to film because it was filmed in a house and garden. This meant that we had to get the right contrast between natural dark and light in order to make the thriller look dark enough, but light enough so that the quality of the footage was good enough without having to use artificial lighting.

The media platform that we have decided to choose to present our video on is YouTube. Our reason for this is because not only is it a large video company but it is also very well known. We decided that YouTube would be best because it is very popular within our target audience age range. With it accessible to everyone and easy to work, we thought that it would be the best to put it on this media platform so that it would be viewed by people of all ages. Furthermore, underneath all videos is the option to share the video on other social media platforms. This would mean that YouTube would also be used as a promotional purpose for us and not just a publishing one.