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

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

Conventions of a thriller:

From research conducted before planning, I looked into the typical conventions of a thriller in order to obtain information about what should be included in our opening thriller sequence in order to create a narrative enigma, with aspects of verisimilitude for the sequence to appear more 'real'. Typical conventions of a thriller include:

• The narrative is usually based around a crime scene; often a murder and involves a strange storyline, which keeps the audience on their toes.
• Contains elements of mystery, action and fear, and narrative enigma.
• Often creates suspense for the audience,  with the tension increasing throughout.
• Provides the audience with an adrenaline rush in certain aspects of the scenes in order to keep them engaged.
• Often, the narrative makes the audience feel disturbed and uneasy due to the abnormal images.
• A thriller is more realistic than a horror film, and aspects from camera, sound, editing and Mise en scene all add to the verisimilitude of the narrative.
• Thrillers include protagonists and antagonists. Previously, thrillers had dominantly male protagonists, but recently both genders have been cast as protagonists.
• Protagonists will overcome challenges and obstacles throughout the narrative.

Conventions of an opening thriller sequence:

An opening sequence involves the first 2 minutes (can sometimes be longer) of a film, whereby the opening titles and usually the title of the film are displayed. The titles are introduced whilst the beginning of the film is shown, usually portraying a background to the narrative, or showing an insight into what the film is going to entitle. An opening sequence will often contain a narrative enigma, not giving too much away about a given character or the plot, making the audience wonder what is going to happen and the often significant pointers to the film will be shown. This adds to the verisimilitude making the audience want to find out more. 

Conventions we chose

As a group, we selected the conventions we felt were appropriate to include in our opening thriller sequence, the ones which would add the most suspense and make the audience feel on the 'edge of their seats' whilst watching our opening thriller sequence. For example, not showing the girl's face at the door at the end, left the opening thriller sequence on a cliff hanger. We based our storyline around our antagonist, who had a strange obsession with girls.

Establishing shot: The establishing shot at the very beginning of our opening sequence is commonly used in opening thriller sequences, as it helps the audience establish the location/setting and make them ponder as to what could happen and who will be involved. Setting our opening thriller sequence in a house definitely added to the verisimilitude, instantly distinguishing this as a thriller rather than a horror. Setting our opening thriller in a house signifies the normality of our character from an onlookers point of view due to the familular family house which is uncommon of a thriller, and so the audience don't realise the abnormal side to our character until the opening thriller sequence progresses.

Here is where we used an establishing shot.

Flashbacks: We contained elements of mystery by using flashbacks, because the audience had to establish who the girls on the wall were and why those particular photos were used, as well as hinting at what has happened in the past. The duration in which they appear on he screen for isn't very long, making it harder for the audience to establish what these flashbacks represent which engages the audience but also gives an insight into the antagonists past. This narrative enigma is a typical convention of a thriller.

One of the flashbacks of the girls being crossed off on the wall

Male antagonist with a female protagonist: We casted Evan Jones, as our male antagonist. Thrillers usually have a male antagonist and female victims, as a male is stereotypically more stern and mysterious, again containing elements of mystery, whilst a women is presented as more vulnerable, which is what we did. The way our actor played the role was just how we envisioned our character to be, and with not including much dialogue, meant that the audience don't really find out too much about the character or the victims in the first 2 minutes of our opening, again adding to the narrative enigma. 

Our male antagonist: Evan Jones playing Oliver

Sound: To add to the tension, we used eerie, deep, prolonged string non diegetic music. This really added to the tense, suspicious and mysterious atmosphere, adding to the tension for the audience, reflecting from the mood of our character in our opening thriller sequence. If we didn't include this particular eerie non diagetic music, the whole atmosphere would be completely different and not as tense and engaging for the audience. We also used sound effects, such as the enhanced doorbell sound. Following on from this, we have voices of news reporters which are distorted, adding to the tension and eerie personer of our character making the audience wonder how many girls he has been involved with. 

Titles: A typical convention of an opening thriller sequence is for titles to be included throughout the duration. This indicates to the audience who was involved in the production of the film, and the titles are usually white. This is something we included, but felt as a group and from audience feedback that the titles should be subtle and simplistic in order to not distract away from the footage. Our titles reflect part of the narrative. We wanted the titles to resemble handwriting, as our character is a maths teacher and so he writes down the appointments which is shown in the opening thriller sequence. We were also inspired by the 'Se7ven' titles

Here is an example of just one of the many titles used throughout our opening thriller sequence, inspired by the Se7ven opening title sequence.

Here are the Se7en titles we were inspired by.

Mise en Scene: Low key lighting is a typical convention of a opening thriller sequence adding to the eerie atmosphere and narrative enigma. This gave our opening thriller sequence a 'darker' feel. Our actor also wore clothing which was smart, portraying him as the serious, creepy maths teacher we wanted him to be. His costume was effective because the audience question why is dressed so smart to tutor girls. His unusually patterened socks with his smart atttire also reflect the abnormality of his character and how there is something particularly unusual about the way he dresses. This was done very skilfully and so our actor portrayed the character effectively.