Question 1 – In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?By Pooja Dhimmar

NarrativeThe narrative of our opening consists of someone entering their home and trying to turn on their lights, but realises there is a power cut. He is then confused, because the phone starts to ring and realises that it shouldn’t because the power has gone. What the audience realise, but the man doesn’t is that someone is behind him and you don’t see there face, because it is covered. Usually in a thriller opening a victim and an antagonist are identified and some event occurs in the opening that then has to be looked into further detail throughout the whole of the movie, unveiling clues and pieces eventually leading up to the main climax. In our thriller opening the protagonist is the man who has entered his home and the antagonist is the character with their face covered. A good example of a protagonist and antagonist being introduced is in the ‘Casino Royale’ opening, where James Bond is shown as an enigma, but the audience instantly know that he is the protagonist, because of the smart suit and how he is not the one being chased, but the one who is doing the chasing and isn’t trying to be captured for a crime.

CharacterThis character in the opening is introduced by him entering a house. The audience know that this his own house, because he enters with a key and knows where the light switch and other objects are in the room. The audience learn that he is uncomfortable in his own home as he looks confused and is not sure what is going on and why things don’t seem to work, except from the phone. The role the audience would expect him to play is the victim, because he is the only person that doesn’t know that he is being targeted and is being watched by the antagonist with their face covered. The audience also know that he is the victim, because he looks weak and not brave enough to find out why the electricity isn’t working and just stands and stares at the telephone. Characters that are normally shown in thrillers is the victim, a hero, the villain and possibly minor characters like a side kick or a anti-hero. An example of a possible victim being introduced is in ‘Panic Room’. Right at the start there is a woman talking and walking quickly. This could connote the role of a victim, because she looks too flustered to care about anything else and the antagonist could surprise her at any time and she wouldn’t be ready for it.

Props

In our thriller opening we use several shots of a clock. Showing a clock to the audience, suggests that there will be an element of victims having their lives race against time and time running out. Using this prop creates tension, because it is a countdown to someone dying and every time the clock hand moves towards another hour it means that another big event is going to happen. What I expect to see in a thriller opening is a prop that suggests something that leads to the main problem or crime. Or a prop that only the audience understands, but the protagonist and antagonist never notice, but is incorporated into their story. A good example of the race against time is in ‘Scream’. Popcorn is used to show the graduation of tension and a build up or countdown to the death of Drew Barrymore's character. When the death has happened the popcorn is at its highest peak, which is the popcorn being completely burnt and spilt everywhere.

Font & Titles

We used a font called ‘I Still Know’, which was downloaded from a website called Dafonts. The credits appear in order of importance. The order of credits comes on as follows; who presents the film, whose film it is, title of the movie, main actors, who done the castings, costume design, introduction designer, music editing, sound design, editing, executive producers, producer, screenplay and then director. They come in flickering, for this animation ‘Blink’ and ‘Stop Motion Blur’ was used to get the flickering effect. The title of the movie isn’t flickering and is presented by banging onto the screen with a loud non-diegetic sound. Its transparency isn’t like the other credits, the title is bold and still for the audience to be able to read. An example of a movie that uses flickering credits that inspired us to have a similar sort of animation is ‘Seven’.

CostumeThe costume for the antagonist

is a plain simple grey jumper with a hood and a black scarf to

cover the face. The victim is wearing a plain dark green

coat. The dark colour of the coat connotes death and the black scarf of the antagonist connotes death is coming for

that victim. An example of the antagonist wearing dark colours is in ‘Scream’. Ghostface wears a black body clock which has a

hood and is always camouflaged with the dark

night.

Effects

The white highlights were reduced and the blackness was increased. This was so it created a negative mood and made the atmosphere more spooky, suggesting to the audience that something is about to happen. This tint was only used on really bright shots. Any naturally dark clips, we didn’t tint. In most thrillers there is a theme of using dark effects as it helps to emphasise the darkness and evil ways of the antagonist and how the narrative isn’t going to be very pleasant. An example of a shot being tinited is this shot from ‘Seven’. A sepia tone is used, layered over with a darkener to create a a focus point and create an old fashioned tone to it.