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

Setting

My film is set mostly down an ally way and in a manky, old garage. The dingy setting definitely fits in with what the audience will expect from a creepy thriller film, the ally way I used is narrow and appears to be in the middle of nowhere, this is similar to thrillers that I have researched. For example, in The Lovely Bones, the girl is taken into a dirty and rundown room under the ground in a scary looking field, the setting of production looks run down, old and creepy.

Dirty, ivy covered wall

The ground is covered in rotten leaves and the ground is uneven.

Characters Costume

The costume that my characters are wearing in some way challenge form or conventions of the thriller genre, my female lead Sarah was wearing a black top and jeans with a checked coat and black high heel shoes. Although this costume was very age appropriate it may not be exactly what people expected from the character, the audience may be expecting her character to be wearing a dark coloured mini dress, with skin showing as she is supposed to of just be leaving her friends the morning after a party.

Character Introduction

Both of my characters were introduced quite gradually, Sarah is the main character of the film and she is the first character to be seen on screen, her feet are revealed first and then her full appearance is revealed quickly after. Dexter however is supposed to be a mysterious character whose identity is never truly revealed, he is not seen until about half way through the opening and there are little full body shot of him. His face is always covered and this therefore keeps the audience guessing about who he really is, this therefore goes along with what the audience would expect from a thriller, I think that the audience would be expecting not to know the identity of the bad character straight away, but for it to remain a mystery until towards the end of the film.

Red checked coat

Black top, jeans and shoes

Red lipstick and makeup

Despite the female lead maybe not wearing what would be expected of this character I think that the male lead (the kidnapper) was dressed in a way that goes with what the audience would expect from a character of this nature. Dexter was wearing all black jeans, jumper, shoes and face mask, this made him mysterious, also the fact that his true identity was never revealed to the audience, sticks with many of the conventions of thriller films.

Genre

There a few aspects of my film opening that suggest the genre to the audience, the suspenseful music that cuts in quite suddenly could be a surprise to the audience, the happy character at the start mixed with the intensity of the music highlight to the audience that the film is of the thriller genre. Another way that the audience is clued into the fact that this is a thriller is that the second camera shot is of Sarah banging on the door in the garage where she has been locked in, this immediately tells the audience that something bad is about to happen to this character, this gives away the nature of the storyline quite quickly.

Shot of Sarah in the garage where she has been shut in my Dexter’s character, is the second shot that the audience sees.

Camera

There were many different shots and angles that I filmed from during production, I wanted to create a sense of pace that is expected in a thriller and really show the audience the setting, while keeping focus on the main characters. The start section where Sarah is walking down the alley way has her speaking and walking from quite a few different angles, the cuts from her being kidnapped and her being locked in the garage separates out the action and give the open a disjointed, exciting but sinister feel.

Editing

There is not a great deal of editing in the film opening, I used quite a few fade in and fade out when transferring from the kidnapping and talking on the phone to Sarah being locked in the garage. I didn’t want to take away from the main action by using many special effects, I wanted it appear real and for the audience to right in with the action.

Example of a long shot camera angle used

Title

The title that I used is very dark and the colour transfers from grey into black. The grey dark colour and the pitch black background conform to what you would expect from a thriller movie. The look of the font used and the title in general keeps in with the sinister and dark themes in the film and is probably what an audience would expect from a Thriller film.