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

When you think of a thriller film the most immediate phrase that pops up is scary. They involve a rush of emotions, excitement and a sense of suspense around an exciting plot, typically involving crime. The most common characters involved are a villain which the narrative is a them killing of innocent person brutally. The first few minutes of a thriller needs to attract the audience and wants to make them carry on watching so suspense and tension will need to be added. Credits will be involved in the opening few minutes to introduce the characters and in some cases a narrator telling the story keeping certain bits hidden. This will make the audience want to know what happens next.

These are the main conventions associated with a thriller; 

Different editing techniques would be used for different genres. For example, two types of thrillers are psychological and an action thriller. The editing in a psychological thriller would be much slower than an action thriller. This slower layout would mess with the audience’s mind thinking what is going to happen next which keeps them motivated in the film. On the other hand, an action thriller would have more upbeat music, short clips and direct close-ups of characters to show their emotion. This keeps the audience focused on what’s going to happen next. Our thriller consists of short clips and straight cuts to keep the audience on their seats and we mainly had transitions for each scene to smooth our thriller out.

Another transition that can be used effectively in a thriller is the dissolve effect. This is when one shot fades into another which can help show a move from one location to the next or from one person to the next. We used this effect in our thriller to show flashbacks as it showed time passing and was effective to use. It also made it simple for the audience watching so they knew there was a difference in time. Another effect that can be used is black and white. This is where one shot fades in or out to, or from black or white. If done quickly enough it can create a sense of flashbacks and can create a sense of time passing. We used this is our thriller at the beginning to show it was clear of the events that took place. We thought doing this would make it different from other thriller films. Also a jump cut could be added which is an abrupt cut between shots. It's effective as it’s dramatic and can begin/end action. We didn’t add this effect in our thriller as we didn’t feel we could carry it out effectively.

Mise-en-scene basically means anything in the shot. It can consist of location, costume, props and lighting. The mise-en-scene location is where the film/TV programme is set. Our location was in the middle of nowhere revolving around an abandoned, knocked down building. It had hardly any people walking around so nothing got in our way when filming. The location came very creepy as night as different noises from the building occurred which created an eerie atmosphere, just right for a thriller opening. Our thriller was set in darkness as in thrillers where darkness is added things start going wrong, and that’s how we set our plot to be.

The two sounds that can be used in a thriller film/opening are diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is heard on and recorded from the location of the film, for example, speech. Non-diegetic sound is added when the film is edited to add to the atmosphere. For example, sound effects and music. We used a voice over in our thriller as the sound levels were too low due to the wind on the day of filming. We added the sound at the end so it fitted with the character’s movement. We also used a backing track which worked well with our opening as it was a slow, creepy eerie sound which fitted perfectly with a thriller.

Narrative can happen any time in a thriller opening, either on top of dramatic music or when the music stops to create more tension. It can be used in someone telling the story from their point of view or the audience hearing someone's thoughts and feelings. The narrative is normally being played over the mise-en-scene so it is not possible to see the actual character talking. This creates a sense of mystery to the audience.

In our thriller we had a script which was used for the detectives, we all came up with this script and tried to make it mysterious for the audience to want to know more.

When working on our thriller we researched different films to see how they have used conventions effectively. These films were useful as a source of inspiration:

‘The Happening’ used many conventions which created tension on the audience watching. For example, the background music played draws the audience’s attention to the rest of the film. It creates drama as the music starts slow and eerie then suddenly builds up with a more fast pace beat creating dramatic effect.

The way the opening has used quick transitions from each clip shows how dramatic the film will be and how fast pace the shots will link to each other. The most used transition in this opening is fade to white/black which is effective in showing previous events. A lot of short clips and straight shots were added for dramatic effect to keep the audience focused on the film. When the music became more upbeat and powerful the clips got quicker and faster showing the events and wanting the audience to see more of the film. The use of close-ups is effective in showing the characters emotions. For example, the main character is staring at something which we can’t see, but through his facial expression it reveals he’s scared or confused which makes the audience think what could happen to him. The mise-en- scene in this opening isn’t like other typical thrillers; dark and at night. This opening is in full daylight which shows how different the film is. It also concentrates on the wind, which shows that it must be the main cause of the disasters striking. The use of the title fonts/colours are important to a opening as it sets the scene for the audience in that it can show what sort of film it is. For example, if the writing is black and red, the red could connote blood or death and the black connotes mystery and tension.

The film that inspired our thriller was ‘The Strangers’ as it’s different and the characters are hidden from the viewers. For example, in ‘The Strangers’ the three main characters are hidden as they are wearing white masks and terrorise a young couple in their summer home. We thought having our main character in a mask would hide his identify to the audience and the young girl he stalks and attacks. Also, as we were filming our thriller at night, a typical thriller convention, the white mask would stand out which would create suspense and mystery of the masked man.

We used close-ups to show to show facial expressions of characters and to give a sense of mystery as you can’t see the location that they’re in. This is so the audience don’t know where they are and adds mystery and suspense when watching. Also, we used point of view shots to show the power someone has over someone else and the reaction of what they’re looking at. The speech added was used in a way to try not to give anything away. We added a quote of ‘do you think it was him’. This creates mystery on the audience as the detectives must have worked on that case before and know a lot about him and what he has done. Having a location in the middle of nowhere added mystery on the audience as it’s a completely dead area and the audience would want to know why they’re out there in the middle of the night. We tried not giving the location away too much, but as it was dark it created an eerie atmosphere to where they actually are.