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

Hannah Rideout

Narrative

In most thriller films like ‘Enemy of the state’ and ‘no country for old men’ there is a murder in the very beginning leaving the audience with many unanswered questions.We decided to go against convention and even though ours doesn’t start with a murder it becomes clear several have already happened and from the way we see him talking to a patient it implies he is about to kill again. The patient who is implied is to be the next victim is obviously ill as they are in hospital and the way in which the doctor talks to her is quite intimating and menacing. It makes questions such as “Who is it?”, “what’s wrong with them?” and “are they going to be ok?” It is important not to reveal to much so the audience always want more information. This is common in most thriller films as there is no resolution until the very end.We then get a voice over of the doctor telling the patient ‘everything is going to be ok’ the way in which that is shown creates suspicion on that character. This is when the enigma is created. In “Enemy of the state” we are introduced to a character who works for the government but turns out to be responsible for murders and other illegal acts. In some ways we can identify with that as our character is also responsible for murder which is hinted at in the title sequence. Both characters are using their profession to hide what they do, or are committing these crimes because of their profession. In the opening of “Contagion” we are taken to day 2 of the virus outbreak which leaves the audience in confusion to what happened on day 1 which is not shown until the end of the film. Again this is similar to ours as the opening of our film actually starts with a patient already in hospital and several already dead.

Enemy of the state 1998

Character

We are only really introduced to one character which is the doctor, the fact that we see extreme close ups of his face and arm should indicate the film is based around him. Even though we know that there is a patient there we don’t hear or see them so it shows that they are not an essential part of the film. Our character is conventional because he is male, in nearly all thriller films the antagonist is male this is in ‘Kiss the girls’ and ‘Seven’. He is also middle aged which again is very common, in ‘silence of the lambs’ the antagonist Dr Hannibal is quite a bit older than the FBI agent. Also films in a similar sub-genre such as ‘Coma’ and ‘Extreme measures’ also have a male antagonist. We see that the character is a doctor from the uniform he wears which consists of a white coat and gloves. In some thriller films like ‘seven’ the killer is never clearly in shot so mystery is created. From this we decided to only show the doctor in close ups to

conceal his identity.

Common conventions of male characters in psychological thrillers include that they have power and strength which the doctor in our film does, he has the power to decide what to do with his patients and strength that he can keep up the pretence. Obviously he is mentally unstable as he is killing innocent people for no apparent reason other than he likes the power it gives him. He is similar to “Teddy” in Shutter Island who although we all believe to be the hero he actually ends up to be mentally unstable. Usually there is often something bad that has happened in the past of the antagonist’s life which has contributed to making them be this way, an example of this is in ‘Along came a spider’ where the antagonists parents had treated him bad and he blamed them for how he had turned out. We would have explored this idea further into our film. Also another common convention is that they are independent, when we get to see inside the doctor’s office there is no sign that he has any relationships, there are no photos of him with anyone else. He seems to be alone.

It is evident he is the bad guy so you would expect the film to be based around him killing his patients. It is a convention that in most psychological thrillers the character either fears or has a fascination with death.

Silence of the lambs 1991

Along came a spider 2001

Font and titles

When creating the credits we wanted to use a font that portrayed the genre of our film. We decided to use white text so it would stand out against our footage which is quite dark. White is also used to convey cleanliness and being pure, cleanliness is a trait of the doctor and also something that is needed for that profession. Also you would expect the doctor to be pure and innocent as he is meant to be saving lives not destroying them. The font we chose resembles a typewriter so gives the impression maybe the Dr is quite old fashioned. It’s also all in capitals so looks important and it also looks quite creepy which fits with the genre.

Also their font is white which seems a common convention as it is also in other thriller films such as “Shutter Island” and “Identity”. The title “Dr.” however comes on the screen at the end of our opening sequence and instead the text is black on a white background which gives a colour contrast. It could also be seen as good (white) versus bad (black). The white background could be seen as portraying the hospital setting and the black text is to convey the doctor’s personality which is dark and twisted and he is in the midst of good people.

Our credits come on over close ups of various objects such as needles and bandages, we got inspiration from the film ‘seven’ which also did this. We also had the text relatively small and placed them in the corner of various shots as that is generally where they are placed in thriller films.

Seven 1995

LocationThe first scene is a hospital corridor which is only made recognisable because of the hospital sounds, the bed being wheeled and the heart monitor. Hospitals can be quite conventional; in most thriller films there will be at least one scene in a hospital. In ‘shutter island’ there is an asylum where there are several doctors. Also in “Contagion”, “Awake” and “Outbreak” there are several if not all in the case of “Awake” scenes in the hospital or various medical labs.

We then move onto the antagonist’s office or den area where he has various photos and information about his victims who were also his patients. There are also notebooks with suspicious writing, at one point we see a close up of the word “murder” written in his book. It is very conventional for the bad guy to have his own lair somewhere only he goes and plots or works and various other things. In “Seven” the serial killer has his own space where he plans how to kill various people.

Even though a hospital is generally where people are treated it does have certain connotations such as being ill, death and operations. People don’t like hospitals because it means something bad has happened to you, so to base our opening in a hospital should straight away unease the audience.

As it starts in a hospital you would presume it is located in a city which it nearly always does with thrillers, this is true in ‘cape fear’ and ‘memento’.

Awake 2007

Sub-genre

I think our film is quite conventional of psychological thrillers as it begins to follow the usual structure. An enigma is introduced and it becomes clear it is a psycho serial killer. It is also someone you would be least expect to be a murderer. In the film “The silence of the lambs” Dr Hannibal is a psychiatrist turned serial killer. The doctor in our thriller opening is also conventional, he sounds creepy and intimidating and you instantly get the feeling he is hiding something. The props which included needles and other sharp implements on his desk are conventional of thrillers in general. They also give clues to the audience that the doctor is not so innocent. Looking at other thriller films it shows that the innocent characters are generally wearing some form of white so identifies them as being the weaker characters who will probably end up being victims. In ‘fatal attraction’ all the innocent characters are wearing white or they have white objects in their house such as lamps and table cloths.Also most psychological thrillers such as ‘American psycho’ start with non-diegetic sound and eventually nearly all use sinister music in the background.

Techniques used

We used a couple effects when editing which included adding and echo on to the doctors voice to make him sound mysterious. We also added a vignette to all the scenes to make it look more dark and intense. This worked by misting up the edges of the shots. In ‘seven’ all of their shots in the title sequence look dark and mysterious and we wanted to create this effect. We also used foley sound in a couple places including the beginning in the hospital corridor where we needed sounds such as a bed being wheeled down a corridor. The heart monitor was used to establish the location and also to create and build tension. This was to create realism so the audience would be more drawn into what's happening.Most of our camera shots were close ups to disguise the doctors identity and also give clues to the audience which will make them suspicious. In most thrillers the identity of the antagonist is not identified straight away so as to keep the audience interested.When filming the corridor scene we used a dolly to simulate a trolley being pushed down a corridor, it was also to suggest you were in the patients POV as we turned the camera upright so it would like a patient is lying down. This was done so the audience will seem vulnerable as they are the target of the antagonist.