IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Question 1

Forms and conventions

When using forms and conventions in our film we wanted our audience to feel uncomfortable watching the character Lucinda. At times they should feel unsettled and disturbed at the more intense scenes where Lucinda is acting sinister.

Narrative

In our plot, the main character Lucinda poisons the psychologist. This is a significant event which is played out before the main titles come up to show the audience a brief encounter of what the storyline is going to be about. It is open ended as the rest of the story is still to come.

The title sequence is linear when they are in present tense of the psychiatric hospital but switches to non-linear when Lucinda has her flashbacks of her bad memories.

Genre

Our chosen genre is a psychological thriller

This is shown as Lucinda is a mental patient in a psychiatric hospital

Lucinda also refuses to speak meaning she needs a translator to communicate. This makes the psychological thriller genre more intense as the audience understand her unfit state of mind.In our research, we found we wanted Lucinda to resemble the girl from The Ring as she was also a eerie patient in an hospital.

Camera angle, shot movement and position

Deep focus – This shot makes Lucinda appear distorted and more eerie. This is because we can’t see her properly due to her being slightly blurred. This fits our genre as a thriller includes sinister scenes that come across as creepy.

Extreme close up – This shot fits our genre as it is played as a slight jump scare. The shot is previously a mid shot then switches to an extreme close up to jump the audience and show the first glimpse of Lucinda as her being unwell. This shot was used lots in the film Orphan.Focus pull – The focus moves from the cup to her

tapping fingers. This shows the audience that the cup is a significant prop and that it is connected to Lucinda.

Continuity/editing

Generic verisimilitude – The continuity of the shots edited together aloud me to ignore realist aspects and still make it feel real to the audience. This is because the storyline involved Lucinda killing the psychologist, yet the audience may not be very sure on how this happened.

Fast paced/rhythm – Whilst Lucinda is having flashbacks, we see quick snippets of her face. Each of these snippets have been edited to be a bit more zoomed in each time to have more of a impact on the audience. The rhythm becomes even quicker when she starts having more frequence flashbacks at a quicker rate.

Sound

Sound bridge – There is a sound bridge at the end of the opening sequence when the translator screams and it is joint onto the beginning of the title music. This is to make the video flow and make the audience feel spooked by the eerie scream.Sound effects – These are used mainly around the character Lucinda. Non-diagetic sound of whispering is played over the snippets of her having her flashbacks. This is to show the audience what is going on in Lucinda's mind.

Music – The music at the start has synchronous sound as it fits with the opening credits making it easier for the audience to watch.There is also non-diagetic sound on the ending credits saying ‘Retribution’ which sounds really sinister. This is to make Lucinda look sinister and to make the audience feel slightly scared.

Mise-en-scene

Makeup – We made Lucinda’s character wear make up which made her look very ill and sinister. This will make the audience feel wary of her and slightly scared.

The mug – The mug is shown significantly in the sequence to show that it is symbolic. It is supposed to give the audience a sense of danger and realize afterward that Lucinda did something to the drink.

Location – We changed the location to look like a mental institute so that it gave more realism and looked believable to the audience. We used something similar to the hospital scene in The Terminator.

Typography

For the title credits we used an effect which starts by saying ‘Retribution’ and then the titles separate. This gives off a creepy effect as it doesn't stick to the normal convention of the titles just fading or swiping away. It has a black background with white capital text. Black connotes a dark/creepy atmosphere making the audience know the psychological thriller genre of it.

Iconography

In a stereotypical psychological thriller genre film there is always a hospital scene with a doctor and the main character of a mental patient. These give the audience obvious indications which help construct the plot line and make the audience feel a certain way whilst watching it.

Doctor

Patient

Hospital room