Diana Nguyen - Question One Evaluation

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

Our final media product has mainly developed the conventions of thriller movies, however we have also challenged them, as we tried to avoid imitating the generic conventions which are included in movies that are created by mainstream companies. The narrative of our story is centred around young teenagers and their drug use, which is not seen in many thrillers. One conventional theme we have used is voyeurism.  At the start of the film, the tracking shot moves through the exam hall, inviting the audience into a space where they shouldn't be.   It then stops at the female protagonist, establishing her as the character whose life they will follow.  The female protagonist as a victim is very typical, especially in earlier thrillers such as movies created by producers/directors like Hitchcock.

 ← Janet Leigh - Psycho

              Slyvia Sidney - Sabotage →

Anny Ondra - Blackmail ↓

↑ Ingrid Bergman - Notorious

In our media product we have established the mood at the beginning by using the common technique of eerie, ambiguous non-diagetic music in the opening credits, this is to imply that something bad is about to happen. During pre-production I analysed other thriller openings (Black Swan and Momento) and noticed that they establish the mood at the beginning by adding ominous non-diagetic music. Similarly we have followed this typical convention and have included slow non-diagetic music in our opening sequence. 


We did not completely develop the forms and conventions of thrillers, but we also challenged them, as our female protagonist is not a typical girly or the female character who is fearful of the enemy, but she is the opposite and this is shown through her codes of gesture, clothing and also dialogue. The colourful clothing worn stands out and shows that is a fun, outgoing character, her clothing also shows the tomboyish side to her character. She is the character who suggests to pick up some LSD from a drug dealer, she is also the character who picks up the drugs by herself, this shows that she is a not scared of the villain and that we subverted the conventions of thrillers with the male character. 

He is the character who listens to her suggestion and goes along with the idea of taking drugs. The reason being that he wants to impress her and prove that he isn't scared and he wants to fit in however, really he doesn't want to take them but he cannot stand up for himself and this is shown through the dialogue when he is on the phone to the dealer and he stutters, . It also displays the clumsiness of this male character and implies that later on in the storyline he is the character is going to have to be saved by the girl. The fact that he nervously calls the dealer's phone but doesn't meet him in person shows that he is a coward. Overall the female protagonist looks dominant as she is approximately the same height as her friend, her posture is more upright, while he is slouching with one hand in his pocket. 


However the villain in Gone is quite conventional because in many thrillers villains keep their identity hidden and only reveal some facial features. The villain in our thriller follows this form and is wearing a black coat with his hood up, revealing only his nose and mouth. The effect of this gives off a mysterious creepy vibe and so we have included this is kind of character to play as the villain to our thriller.


Below are the first nine frames of our opening sequence to our thriller:

In the first frame we included a British Board of Form Classification to show that our thriller includes drugs, violence and strong language and so is restricted for audiences that are 15 or over.

In the second and third frames we presented our production companies, 'Blue Velvet Productions' and  'Silver Serpent Pictures'. Instead of the typical fading transition, we decided to create an animated title on Adobe After Effects CS5 with sound effects to play on top. The font and style of are not boring as the common titles, but they are simple and effective.

The shot of clock was significant as it informs the audience the exact time the event is taking place, the next shot is a shot of pupils in an exam, this shows the audience the exact location they are in. The purpose of pinpointing this information to the audience is to make sure that they are fully aware of what is happening and understand the concept as the story flows, we decided to follow this objective until the title 'Gone' shows, so we can change their focus and start losing the audience's knowledge, we did this through the effect the evil laugh playing through the flashback. This would instantly make the audience focus on the flashback whilst the two friend converse and cause them to try and work out what is going on.

We used cross-cutting for the two following sets of action: The exam and the drug dealer wrapping up drugs to sell. The reason for this, is to show that the two events are happening precisely at the same time but at different locations. In addition this editing technique allowed us to build up some tension as well as show the relationship between the two events. While the tracking shot moves down the middle of room, between the row of tables, revealing the other students concentrating, it stops at the female character and cross-cuts to a dealer sorting out drugs, the relationship between the two shots is that it allows the audience to see what is going through her mind through the  current exam she is in.