Evaluation Question 1

Foundation Production- Evaluation

Question 1: In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

A thriller narrative involves characters who are in conflict with each other or outside forces and the menace is usually mysterious and dark. Themes and genres of thrillers include mystery, crime, revenge, political conspiracy, or pursuits which lead to murder. The sub-genre we chose to use was crime thriller. We decided to use this sub-genre because we felt that this particular genre would be able to allow each of us to develop our acting roles and our camerawork. This is because in our preliminary we acted out as ourselves instead of playing other roles. Also our camerawork was a little shaky in some parts of our preliminary. Crime is a good choice for a student production as we can over exaggerate parts of scenes by making them look really dramatic. We also have the option of using more props and using more than one character. By using crime as our sub-genre it meant
we could use specific props such as a rope, spade or a gun and settings such as a police station or a house that can make our production look like a realistic and like a real murder scene has just taken place. The audience’s expectations of this genre is for there to be weapons a murder occurring and there is crime to be solved. As we only did a thriller opening it meant we had to try and incorporate the typical conventions into our opening such as the mystery leading up to the revealing of the location and the suspense leading up to the discovery of Laura’s body in the middle of the room. This meant that we were challenging ourselves to meet our audience’s expectations.  The protagonist in thrillers are usually the hero, they are relatable and likeable e.g. 'The Doctor'. The antagonist is usually smart and clever who is stronger than the protagonists. In some cases those people are psychologically disturbed e.g. Claudia Wolf in ‘Silent Hill’. In a typical thriller there would be a varied use of shot types.

These shot types can include close ups which is used to solely focus on one specific thing/object in the shot, extreme close ups which is used to give out a limited amount of detail in the shot, much less than a close up, mid shots which are used to reveal more of the shot than a close up does and a point of view shot which shows what the character is looking at etc. These shots are all typically used in a thriller as they are the shots that would release the most tensions and give the audience a perspective as to what the character is seeing. The way the camera moves whilst using these shots also has an impact as to how the shot will look. Tilts, low and high angled shots and zooming movements can all be used to create an action packed thriller film. Editing in thriller films is used to join the clips together and to change the pace of the shots so that a narrative can be structured to create the film.  Editing is used to structure a narrative by using the shots and then placing them in chronological order in terms of what happens at the beginning and what happens at the end. Fading to black or white and using transitions and jump cuts are some of the editing effects that are typically used in a thriller film as a cut into another scene and to suggest the closing of the scene by using a black fade and a white fade as an opening to the scene. We made the decision to incorporate these editing techniques into our own thriller opening because it would tell the audience when we were introducing the opening and when the scene had ended. Thriller films also have a great deal of mise-en-scene including props. The props we used were things such as the torch to focus on specific parts of the bodies that have been injured. It can also be used to show close ups of the injuries with the torch being the only light seen, creating tension and mystery because of the low lighting. The table for Laura to lie on as this is where she is seen as being dead. The rope to be surrounding the person showing how they are trapped as have no power, use of a high angle shot here to hint how much power the antagonist has. Finally the newspaper to add a modern twist and to create tension by cutting out the letters to spell 'death' and other dark words. Lighting was created by the torch we used and our mysterious location was the Red Hall we were based in. Finally the sound we used was quite dramatic and built up to a crescendo which leads the reveal of Laura’s body. Typically the props in a thriller films would be badges of law, mobile phones etc. However typically weapons are used by the villains for violence and fear overall, these weapons being knives and guns etc as they are the most commonly used props and they represent the genre better. The lighting would be shadowed with some outside lighting, and low key lighting to highlight key conventions in the film and to suggest the type of environment the characters were in.  The location would normally be in abandoned houses or in dark outdoor places as they are the typical settings for a thriller as they are modern and can look run down. The sound in thriller films is usually tense and non-diegetic with some diegetic sound. Increasing in speed and volume of sound works well in thriller films this is because it creates a sense of enigma and tension.

The beginning of a thriller narrative usually starts by introducing the main characters. We  

get given information about them and the location of where the plot will take place. During the beginning we begin to see a problem/situation often an enigma, which would create mystery as to how it would be resolved in the end that the main characters become involved in. It would engage the audiences by making them question the outcome of the narrative. In the end this will need resolving, but we will not notice this until the climax of the film. Mystery such as the reveal of the location can be involved at the beginning of a thriller film and the audience begins to feel tension. We are also introduced to any people who could be dangerous or threatening. The middle part of a thriller narrative is the development of the plot. This is when tension begins to build to a point, which the audience will begin to start figuring out the climax of the film.


The audience will also realise at this part in the film, that the protagonist has been tricked. Finally the conclusion of the film sees the problem resolved or one of the main characters die. This is usually the antagonist. Some films however do create a cliff hanger which could lead to another film being made. Some of the conventions used in a thriller film are tension, suspense, fear of the unknown, danger, mystery and fast paced action scenes. We looked at Psycho and studied how the conventions were used in the opening of the film to create fear and tension right at the start of the film. Psycho was an exceptional example of how the conventions were used in that thriller. Psycho created tension and mystery through the use of its props. The shower curtain provided the mystery as the blurred figure entered the bathroom. The knife represented the danger in the film and the dramatic non-diegetic violins created the fast paced action a thriller film has. Thriller films need to be more realistic because otherwise the audience may not be able to relate to or understand the narrative. They need to be up to date and current with current trends. Psycho, along with Silent Hill: Revelation inspired our thriller opening. This was due to their dramatic and dangerous storylines and their thriller audience. They both influenced our production as they allowed us to see how we could do something better than their films and to see what we needed to include to make an effective opening. Both films allowed us to see how far we could take our opening and what we needed to do to develop our skills further. Psycho allowed us to think about having a murder scene in our opening, however Silent Hill: Revelation allowed us to use the possibility of a villain being disturbed and deadly. Therefore we wanted to combine both of them together to produce the opening we created. We used the thriller conventions in our work by sticking to the main conventions as much as possible. The title of our film ’Innocence’ became the best option for our opening thriller as most thriller films such as ‘Gravity’ are one worded titles. By using the font and style we chose for the title of our thriller, we continued to make our thriller look modern and up to date with real thrillers shown in cinemas today. Both titles are in bold capital letters as a stand out to anything else that is happening behind the word. The setting and the location of our thriller film was also conventional. We used the Red Hall to film our opening thriller as we felt that this would create a derelict and dark atmosphere. Compared to a thriller such as ‘The Woman in Black’ both our location and the films location are very similar because they are both set in a dilapidated house.

 The houses both looked old, rustic and derelict. They both create a mysterious and realistic setting. Therefore this was a good decision to shoot our thriller here as we used reliable sources and recent thriller films to help us film our thriller in the best and most effective location to the audiences’ point of  view. In terms of the shot types used in these pictures, both of the houses in the pictures are in clear view of the shot. Both of the houses are in the center of the shot and both introduce the setting of the film. This shot is conventional as most thriller films would use this so that the audience can see the location.  When it came to the costume and props used in our thriller we looked at using a rope to show how the victim had been strangled, a torch to highlight specific objects in the scene to create a suspicious and nerving response from the audience and the newspaper to again show the dangerous current affairs happening at this time around the world. The cut out and scrunched up newspaper made our opening thriller modern and up to date with thriller films released in cinemas today. We felt that by using these specific props it would show our audience that we planned our murder scene well and showed hints of what had happened in the past to the victim, without revealing too much to the audience. The clothing used in our thriller was casual clothing as we did not feel the need to dress like we were in another time. We ripped the first victims (Laura) clothing apart to show the struggle she must have gone through when she was murdered. The killers (Scott’s) clothing was smart to make his murder look professional and to seem like he knew what he was doing. The second victim’s (Becky) clothing was made to seem as normal and recent as possible Laura’s murder was a recent event, so the clothing needed to be modern and recent. 

The camerawork and editing used in our thriller was used in a variety of different ways. We shot close ups when we zoomed into the killers face, mid shots to get a bigger idea of the surroundings the characters were in, longs shots to include more of the location, high angled shots to look over the victim’s body and extreme close ups on the door handle. We understood that more than likely all of these shot types would be included in our thriller opening. Real thriller films have all of these shots included so we knew that we would combine these shots, with the use of editing to create an opening thriller that would look realistic to real life thriller films. We used editing to add transitions and effects into our shots. We used flashes when we added the pictures into the scene. We used fades when we crossed between different shots and we used jump cuts to swap between shots. The characters are introduced into our opening thriller by having their names written on the victim’s body. This is not as conventional for a thriller film as no other thriller film we found had names written on the victim’s body. The camera slowly moves over her body to reveal the actors in the opening so that the audience knows who to expect in the thriller. We did this to make our thriller different to a real life thriller as we could not find a relevant thriller when we did our research that matched our unique idea. This is why we decided to introduce our characters in this way. The narrative of our opening thriller
sets up the scene that Laura has been murdered and placed in a house that is possibly the murderer (Scott's) home. The victim comes across the house and walks in to have a look round. The victim then discovers the rope leading down the stairs to a door. Becky opens the door to discover her friend’s dead body. The killer then appears behind her and grabs the victim around her mouth. This then leads to the final shot of Scott over Laura’s body leading to the title of the film. This would set up the rest of the film if one was made by making the audience question what is going to happen next in the rest of the film. What was going to happen to Becky? Was Scott going to get caught? Who would Scott’s next victim be? Our opening thriller suggests and portrays the genre very well. The setting is mysterious, the costumes are modern and the eerie and powerful soundtrack accompanies the shots well. The soundtrack is conventional because it sounds similar to other thriller films and matches the action that’s occurring in the footage. Our opening thriller contains the conventions of the genre that the audience will be able to understand and interpret into what they expect the rest of the film to be like if one was made.