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

Genre:

My thriller has a subgenre of horror and this is conveyed by the use of a distorted nursery rhyme (play sound as I say the next sentence) as it takes away the innocence of the characters and adds to the fear and suspense by taking away the ‘natural order’ and expectations of nursery rhymes which normally connote a sense of safety and security.

Mise en Scene:

In the scenes of my thriller that are filmed in the living room (show still images of the scenes) the lighting is fairly dark. The darkness and shadows conform to the typical thriller conventions. It helps create a scene and a sense of suspense like you would find in a real media product (insert clip). Close up shots of characters faces (show stills) uses real media conventions as many thriller films use close ups to draw the audiences attention to key parts of the scene. An example of this is in the film ‘Body of Lies’, where close ups are shown of the important listening device and important characters, especially to show their emotion (show stills from Body of Lies). When I first started filming I intended to film at a time of day that meant the lighting would be naturally low, in the hope to create natural shadows that would add to the fear and isolation. However this didn’t workout because it was far too dark which disrupted the quality of the picture. Instead I filmed during daylight and used sound effects/ sound track (screen shots from garageband/ clip previews) that would create a greater sense of fear. 

Location:

When looking at real media products I found that a lot of thrillers were set in woods or areas with a lot of trees. Examples I looked at were ‘Cabin in the Woods’ (show stills), ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (stills) and ‘Eden Lake’(stills). These all used the woods to portray entrapment and isolation, which are typical of thriller conventions. These films also conveyed fear and used shadows to help do this (add a clip that shows this). 

When it came to making my thriller I took this into consideration. I decided to film the beginning in a wooded lake area (show stills), as I wanted to particularly convey isolation and therefore fear.

Narrative:

Typical thriller narratives are of death, being watched, being followed and deception. My thriller conveys all of these. In the beginning of my opening you get the feeling that Charlie is being followed/watched. At the end of the opening you are led to believe that the characters die and you are also left with the possibility to develop deception from the father to the rest of his family. 

Themes:

My thriller opening had themes of entrapment, isolation and being forced to step up and deal with extreme situations. These themes, especially isolation and entrapment, are quiet typical of a thriller an example of this is shutter island (insert shutter island poster). My thriller also has themes of revenge which is typical of the thriller genre 

Camera work and editing:

When creating my product I tried to use a variety of shots such as, mid shot, long shot, close up, tracking and panning, in order to convey to the forms and conventions of other media products. However not all of these shots made it into the final edit as there was not enough time or perhaps too much footage to fit into an opening.