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

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

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A Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.

A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. It keeps the audience on the "edge of their seats", akin to a sensation of hanging from a cliff, as the plot builds towards a climax. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliff-hangers are used extensively.

A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Common subgenres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers. Another common subgenre of thriller is the spy genre which deals with fictional espionage.

The sub-genre that we chose for our Thriller was Crime and Psychological. This was because of the storyline of our thriller was about a cop trying to be free from nightmares of a crime that he witnessed. This storyline allowed us to create scenes that can disorientate the audience by making them confused about who the murderer is.

The audience will expect a lot of chase scenes and fight scenes from a crime thriller along with a resolution of the crime. The audience will expect to be disorientated from a psychological thriller and for them to have a lot of enigmas at the beginning of the film.

My media product uses some of the conventions of real media products, for example we use a soundtrack to help build tension for the audience along with the scenes of the media product. We also use a variety of shots to add create links between two different shots for example when we show a shot of Jess’s eye after she has been killed and then we cut to Callum’s eye when he is sleeping.

As well as using sound and camerawork conventions, we also used media conventions of adding in different types of editing, for example we use a fade in shot to make the antagonist seem supernatural, we also use face paced quick shots to disorientate the audience so that they don’t know clearly what is going on so it creates an enigma. When making our thriller we developed the usual thriller idea of not seeing the
antagonists face to the audience being able to see what the antagonist sees.

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In thrillers some of the main conventions used are camerawork, most thrillers will use extreme close ups in order to make the audience feel uncomfortable because of how close they are to the objects in the shot, thrillers also use extreme long shots because these introduce the audience to the setting of the film. We used these conventions by<br>using a panning shot to introduce the audience to a key setting of the film. We also used an extreme close up to show detail on a key event, object or character in a scene.

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However a Thriller like “No Country for Old Men” uses an extreme close up to show the audience the amount of damage the antagonist can cause to one of his victims. In my groups thriller we also use an extreme close up to show the power of the antagonist and to show in detail what the victim might be feeling.

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Thrillers also have conventions in editing for example they use straight cuts in order to set the tension of the scene and to build more tension, they will start off with slow cuts to introduce setting then the cuts will get faster to build tension until it meets<br>a climax. Thrillers will also use inserts along with fast cuts to set the audience’s attention to show a key object in the shot which also helps to build tension for the climax.

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Thrillers use mise en scene to create tension that isn’t used in other films, for example thrillers use settings that are isolated to create atmosphere for the audience, thrillers
will also set their film in a dark area for example ‘Crimson Peak’ the setting for the film is a large, old mansion where it gets very dark because of the lack of electricity.

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Thrillers also use costume to give the audience an idea for each of the characters and the characteristics of the characters, for example in ‘Scream’ the antagonist is always wearing a dark cloak which visualises his darkness and how he is the villain of the film.

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As well as costume thrillers use lighting a lot to create atmosphere for the audience and to build tension for the audience, an example of this is in a Nightmare on Elm Street in the opening sequence when Freddy Kruger is hidden in the shadows so the audience are uneasy because they don’t know where he is.

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Thrillers use actors to build tension for the audience, for example an antagonist will be played by a tall actor because of how a tall person looks more intimidating than a short person. The protagonist of a thriller will usually be played by a good looking actor who is famous for other roles in films. For example in ‘The Dark Night’ the
protagonist is played by Christian Bale and the antagonist is played by Heath Ledger.

Thrillers also use conventional characters in films of this genre, for example every thriller will have a protagonist and an antagonist, the protagonist is the hero of the movie and is the character that the film is centred around and is also who the audience are encouraged to route for. The antagonist is the villain of the film and is the character who the audience are convinced to dislike. Although every thriller
uses these conventions, each film still makes their characters stand out more than others by adding different characteristics to the antagonist or protagonist.

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Thrillers also use props a lot to build tension for the audience and to draw the audience’s attention to a key prop that is significant to the scene of the thriller, for example in Mad Max when Max and Furiosa are fighting over the pistol because the gun holds the power in the scene.

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Thrillers also use sound to build tension and to create an atmosphere for the audience, for example in Jaws when the shark is near the well-known tune is played to create tension for the audience and it builds as the shark gets closer to the character until the sound reaches a climax which is where the shark appears.

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Most thrillers use narrative to create an atmosphere for the audience and to build suspense and hopefully offer the audience a resolution. An example of a thriller that uses narrative to build suspense and atmosphere is ‘Childs Play’ this is because they use the narrative of a serial killer trying to get revenge on his previous partners and<br>trying to claim the body of a young child.

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The conventions that are used in most thriller openings to make them effective are that it contains lots of extreme close ups to make the audience feel uncomfortable because of how close they are to the object. Another convention used is editing the shots together so that one shot cross fades into over the other shot to give it a dark<br>atmosphere. A thriller that uses these conventions in its opening is Se7en because it uses constant extreme close ups to show extreme detail, and it also uses a ghosting effect on some shots to give it a supernatural atmosphere for the audience. My thriller uses these conventions of editing when the antagonist enters the shot of a scene and ends up behind the victim; we used this shot to make the antagonist look paranormal. We also used extreme close ups on the rope around the victims neck to make the audience uncomfortable with how close they are and how much more detailed the action is.

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Other conventions that are used in thriller openings to make them effective are sound and mise-en-scene to help add the storyline to the film and to create an effect for the audience and when used properly they can make a movie great but if not then they can break a movie so they are key to the success of any movie. A film that uses these
conventions is ‘Dexter’ which uses sound to add an atmosphere for the audience which makes them more intrigued in what’s going on during the opening sequence
for example when Dexter is shaving and drips of blood go in the sink, the sound changes to make the audience feel like he is doing something evil but is actually just accidentally cutting himself whilst shaving. ‘Dexter’ also uses mise-en-scene in its opening to add tension for the audience, an example of this is the use of the different props like the knife which makes the audience uneasy when he uses the knife to cut an orange because of how when he cuts the orange it looks like a head.

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Some thriller openings that we watched that gave me inspiration was ‘No Country for Old Men’ you can see that we got inspiration from this opening because in our thriller we had the antagonist strangle someone to death same as in ‘No Country for Old Men’. As well as that the camera shots used whilst the victim was being strangled are
the same because we used an extreme close up on the rope to show the struggle of the victim and to make the audience feel uncomfortable because of how close they feel to the victim which makes them want to take a step back so they
aren’t as close.

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Another film that inspired our thriller was ‘Se7en’ because in our thriller we used a lot of different shots which are put together using fast past editing which is also used in ‘Se7en’. As well as that we also had our footage edited to make the titles look like<br>they were on an old film reel, this is similar to ‘Se7en’ as in that opening the titles have a unique editing techniques used when the titles show to make the film stand out from other thrillers that the audience might of seen.

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Some other real thrillers that influenced my groups work was ‘Sherlock Holmes’ because of how in both ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and my groups thriller the storyline is all about the protagonist trying to unmask a killer and in my groups thriller the antagonist has disturbed our protagonist for a long time and our protagonist is always one step behind similar to ‘Sherlock Holmes’. Narrative is used in the openings of<br>thrillers to build a storyline for the audience and to create enigmas about the character or events that happen in the opening which makes the audience want to watch more of the film.

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In my thriller we used a lot of different shot types, for example we use a long shot to open the film to introduce the audience to the setting of the film and to create an enigma of where he setting is because the opening shot is jus of the protagonists room. We also used extreme close ups to show detail on the protagonist and also on the victim. As well as that we also used mid shots to introduce the audience to the<br>antagonist although it didn’t show his head, just his clothing. We also used POV shots for the antagonist to show the audience what the antagonist sees and to make the audience question more why he is doing what he does, it was also used to make the audience on edge because they know where the antagonist is compared to the victim but the victim doesn’t know which creates a dramatic atmosphere for the audience.

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As well as shot types we also used a variety of editing techniques to make our thriller opening more successful in giving the right effect on the audience. For example when we were opening up the scene we had the camera pan the protagonists room to introduce the audience to what the storyline might be and what they should expect from this thriller. Whilst panning we edited it so that when the camera panned over<br>a newspaper article, the shot would cut form a long shot to an extreme close up of the article on the newspaper.

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I structured the narrative of my group’s thriller so that the audience would be given enigmas throughout the opening but they would also be given information about some characters but not the others. This was so hat the audience had enigmas which made them want to carry on watching but also give them information so that they were still able to keep up with the storyline of the opening sequence.

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The cuts that we used during the opening of “Witness” were paced with the soundtrack and the amount of tension built by the shots, so when the tension started to rise or needed to rise, the shots would get quicker and quicker until the narrative reached a climax. We used this technique because it caused the audience to feel disorientated like the victim in the opening sequence and then when the victim died everything would stop signalling the end of the opening sequence and the beginning to the rest of the film.

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We also used a fade edit when the antagonist was introduced to make him seem like a ghost so something that cannot be hurt and is hard to catch which makes the audience see the antagonist as a powerful key character for the film. As well as fading we also used some fast paced editing during the scene where the antagonist is strangling the victim with the rope, this was to show the panic that the victim is in and to build tension for the audience. The shots in the editing also cut to the protagonist panicking in his sleep; this was to show the similarities between the victim being killed and the protagonist. The similarities are that both the victim and the protagonist are victims to the antagonist because he has affected both of these characters lives. We also used high angle shots on the victim when she is dying to show how little power she has in the situation.

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The mise-en-scene used in our thriller is a variety to add different effects on the audience and to be important to showing the audience some of the characteristics of the key characters in the thriller opening sequence. An example of some key mise-en-scene used in our thriller opening sequence is a gun on the side of the protagonist’s bed; we also were going to have a police badge to show that he is a cop character so
that it is clearer that he is the protagonist.

Another piece of mise-en-scene that is important to the thriller is the piece of rope; this is because it is the prop that holds the power in the scene where the victim is being strangled by the antagonist. One other key piece of mise-en-scene is the antagonists clothing, this is because the black colour of the clothes show his dark intentions in the scene which suggest that he is the antagonist, the muddy boots show that he is unclean so he isn’t innocent and that he has dirt on his soul.

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some sound used in our thriller opening sequence is the sound track which is played throughout a majority of the opening sequence, this sound track was used because it goes with the editing and the shots to help build tension throughout the opening sequence and it also goes with the editing to make it a lot clearer when the shots change. Another piece of sound used in the opening sequence is the static sound which is played at the end to signal the climax of the opening sequence and to show<br>the end of the opening sequence.

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The narrative in my group’s thriller opening sequence is all about an antagonist who murders victims in the film to grow peoples fear of him, the protagonist of the film is a cop who has been tormented by the antagonist for months after the protagonist wasn’t able to stop the antagonist. The protagonist now realises that the antagonist is<br>still killing innocent victims and has to go back after him to try and uncover who he is.