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

Conventions of thriller

Thriller is a genre filled with suspense and curiosity, as I have continued to mention in my previous post.

Conventions of thriller consist of; Diegetic sound, tension music, changes in angle shots, protagonist, shadows, low key lighting, montage of shots.

Protagonist: This is the main person of the movie, usually known to be the ‘hero’ or the person who ‘saves the day’. This is also most common to be known as a man. The man is known to often achieve the equilibrium.

Did we include these conventions

In terms of the protagonist, we did not want there to be a main character, who was on full display. We wanted this to be a mystery, so the viewers would be curious as to what the person may look like. This was really important for use to achieve, as we did not want it to be a typical thriller opening of a ‘stalker following someone’. Most thriller openings will set the scene by introducing at least one protagonist, but we did not this to be a part of our opening sequence.

We had a wide range of lighting, we made sure to make it dark and light. This reflected on the different moods expressed by the character. In some shots, I had to change the lighting with the software, to make it dark and therefore have an effect of suspense.

Range of camera shots:

As I have previously mentioned, Se7en was a major influence for my group and I. Therefore, the shots used in that helped us think of different ways we could portray the kidnapper.

We varied from different shots, from long shots to close ups, we used close ups to make the scene more intense and intimidating.

Jump Cuts

Thriller movies usually have many jump cuts, this builds up to suspense and allow the audience to feel more curious and intimidated.

We had a variety of jump cuts, as we did not want to include any main characters. We used jump cuts as way of planning a kidnap and to represent the different ways the kidnapper is planning his next kidnap.

This made the opening sequence flow much easier, the sound also continued and at some points went with the jump cut of the scene.

Tension musicThe music was very alerting, we had a range of sound on the media product. However whilst editing, I wanted to keep the sound flowing and reoccurring, this is so it could build tension and a great build up to the ending as the music got louder.

I then went back and tried to change to music without changing the original track. I took out some of the original sound and added in ambient sound, so the sound will be silent and flow at the same time. I then asked them to view it again, this time they were able to appreciate the effort and responded with, ‘much better’.

There was a problem trying to make the music flow, I had a volunteer to view the opening sequence and they suggested to change the sound, as at one point they ‘lost interest’ in what was happening, because the sound did not change and therefore made them bored.

Overall

We made sure to focus on the sound and lighting the most, as thriller usually has a build up of an event, with the sound that is used.

The titles were also picked out with a thriller genre, this added a much better effect to the entire sequence, as the titles were not simple or boring.

There are many conventions in real media products and I feel my group and I have achieved many of theses forms and challenges of conventions.