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

There are many conventions of opening sequences for all genres in general. The conventions for opening sequences that we followed are shown below:

• Name of production companies
• Main actors
• Movie title
• Certificate of age 

The Genre of our media product is a 'Thriller' and the final product has elements which are conventional and unconventional for thrillers specifically which I will elaborate on in the following. If you look at many conventional thrillers you’ll notice they have the same group of characteristics:

è Suspense, excitement, mystery, escape, fast speed, tension, terror, alerting the audience and keeping them on the edge of their seats.

è They tend to have a protagonist who is either trying to escape, on a mission or trying to solve a mystery and thrillers keep emphasising what the protagonist faces but this isn’t shown in our media product as it’s only the opening.

è Common subgenres of thrillers would be crime, mystery, political, and psychological.

Story and Setting

Conventional thrillers often present the world and society as a dark corrupt and dangerous place. There are two main settings used in most thriller films. Firstly they’re set in an everyday environment so that the audience can relate with the characters and feel as if they’re in the characters shoes. This then creates fear as the audience begin to think that if the environment matches their lifestyle then the occurrences can also take place in their own life. Secondly, thrillers use a night time setting as this gives the sense of danger and usually crimes take place in the night so is makes the audience feel more uneasy.

In our thriller we planned to follow the conventions of real media products by having the thriller starting in a daily environment at a school during an exam. As it was only an opening we didn’t get to present the second setting which would be the reckless children breaking into the school during late hours on the same day once the school is locked and lonely which is another conventional setting for a thriller.

The tension usually arises when the character/characters are placed in a menacing situation, a mystery or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. We have used this convention but it isn’t shown in the opening sequence as the tension usually arises later in the story but our treatment can be used to show the use of this convention. Our opening sequence does show the students buying the drugs and following on from this our treatment tells us how the drugs then lead to a menacing situation at the school. They’re then trapped in the school which then follows another convention and the aim for the student is to try escaping which seems impossible at the time as they’re on drugs and unaware of what is actually going on.

Conventional thriller are usually set at night time but there may be some parts of which take place during the day time. Commonly the most important scenes of action take place at night when it’s quite dark so that a dangerous and mysterious atmosphere can be created and this is what a producer looks for when filming for a thriller movie. An example of real media that followed this convention could be all the series of ‘Paranormal Activity’. This is because there were minor unusual things which took place during the day hinting that something isn’t right but the major incidents took place at night which clarified the  existence of an inhuman ‘thing’ in the house.

Some real media products that have followed the conventions to an extreme extent would be 'Women in Black' as it is set at an abandoned house and this makes the movie go according to the audiences expectations.

As well as this, on the right is a shot of the surroundings of the main setting where the movie is filmed. As you can see its very lonely and this also goes with the conventions of a thriller.

As you can see there are no people around the house and this helps to create the lonely environment. However in my media product i challenged this conventions of this real media by setting the scene in a school. The scene has many people and this goes against the lonely environment setting and gets rid of any sense of danger but by doing this, I can then later shock the audience by having the same school being in a totally different environment and it shall also go with the convention of a abandoned and lonely place.


Another setting which was used during  my opening sequence is where the drug dealing took place. In comparison to the beginning of our opening sequence which didn't follow any conventions this completely followed the conventions of a thriller. As you can see the environment looks lonely where we can only see one person. As well as this the weather doesn't seem good as the tree has no leaves and this also creates a less pleasant atmosphere.  

Title Presentation with Sounds

In most conventional thrillers there is either a soundtrack played as the title appears or there is no sound at all to show the significance of the title. As well as this the title has usually got a transition which helps increase the importance of it and a soundtrack is usually played in the background.

 

It is also conventional for the titles of a thriller to be done over a black screen as it can easily represent the contrast between good and evil but it can also be done over a white screen with black text as it creates the same impact. The way women in black is shown on the right is a good example of this but it has gone against the convention being extremely simple by showing part of the window and something black moving.

Another example of a white background and the title in black would be 'Orphan'. As you can see the title in this is very short and shown very simply. This helps create emphasis of the word in the movie. Or in this case of the importance of the 'Orphan'. As the word appears out of the ripple you hear a young child singing 'that's the story of, that's the glory of, love' and usually you'll hear a young child a song and usually it would be nothing to do with love because at this age children children don't really know the meaning of love. This then gives the impact that the child is either wierd or maybe they don't think like a child. This effect goes very well with the story line as the young child is actually an elderly women in a young girls body.

Another real media example would be ‘Scream 1’. We see the transition in this to be the work “SCREAM” is highlighted in red three times as we hear the phone ringing. This then creates the sense of warning or an alert. As we hear the phone ringing at the same time, we can consider that the warnings may have been given over the phone. As well as this the colour Red has connotations of blood and murder which reminds the audience of the movies genre. As we get nearer to the last flash of red (last warning), we begin hearing a screaming sound which can mean that we are too late, danger is here or it can be a call for help. While the screaming sound it heard the word “SCREAM” is stretched larger across the screen then back to the middle which could be the symbolism of someone’s mouth opening and closing. The use of the colours red and white on a black background give the significance of good and evil. Usually thrillers wouldn't use this many sounds when showing the title but this thriller has. 


Another example I can use would be 'Paranormal Activity 3'. As you can see it follows 2 conventions, Firstly it is on a black background with white text and secondly it is very simple.






In my media product we followed the convention used in 'Orphan' and 'Paranormal Activity 3' with the very simple presentation. As well as this I have used the convention of a black background with white text from 'Paranormal Activity 3' and 'Scream'. I have also used the one word title convention from 'Scream' and 'Orphan' because I think one word title helps create a huge impact. The transition used when the word 'Gone' is shown makes the work have a shaking shiver effect and then it blurres a few times making the word 'Gone' clear and unclear. The background is rushing black and white which creates a slightly mysterious atmosphere. The sound effect used sounds slightly errie making us feel slightly useasy.

Characters

In most conventional thrillers there is usually a victim who is presented as weak and vulnerable. To do this usually middle aged female is used because they can easily be represented as powerless and weak whereas a male looks masculine and strong so it would be more difficult to represent them as the victim.

As well as this audience usually expect the victim to be a young blonde woman. In ‘Scream 1’ they have used this convention
very well and in the continuing ‘Scream’ movies they have gone partially against the convention by having a dark haired girl as the victim. 

We followed the convention of a female vulnerable girl as our victim but challenged the real media convention of a blonde victim by using a girl with dark hair.

Another convention in real media products is having a villain who is either shown but in disguise or unseen but made aware of their existence. We didn’t get the opportunity to either follow or go against this convention because the action in the movie started later on and we only produced an opening sequence.

Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim (an average, responsible person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation. We followed this having a vulnerable girl as the victim when she is placed in the locked school during the night with an unknown killer.

If you look at the real media ‘Orphan (2009)’ it challenges the conventions of a thriller. In a thriller a young girl would usually be represented as a victim whereas in ‘Orphan’ the young girl is the villain. The victims are a whole family and usually there is one main victim that the story is based around but this time the story is based around a vulnerable group of people who are in danger from young girl. Even just hearing one person being in danger from a child sound unacceptable as children are nearly always the weak vulnerable ones. We then later realise the young girl isn’t actually a young girl but a women with an illness which means she doesn’t grow older and this begins to slightly clear the confusion in the viewers mind.

Costumes

Many real media products present the villain dressed in dark colours, usually black to represent evil and the face is usually pale white, unseen or in disguise and this helps create a mysterious character. Whereas the victim is usually dressed in light colours to represent a pure personality and to show they’re vulnerable and helpless. This means the audience can clearly define who are the ‘baddies’ and ‘goodies’ or villains and victims. For example if you look at the movies like ‘Scream (1996)’ they have followed the all the conventions in terms of the costume colors. As you can see the victim is wearing a light colored jumper with light bottoms.

The villain has also be dressed following the conventions of a thriller. First he is in disguised with the mask and secondly he is wearing a black overall and this color helps define he is the villain as black is usually worn to represent evil.

In my media product we went against the conventions of costumer for the victims because as you can see in the image they're dressed in slightly dark color are victims are usually dressed in light colors.












Because our final product was just the opening we didn't get a chance to show the villains appearance but to the audience the drug dealer would have looked like the villain. This is because he was following the conventions of a thriller movie in terms costume. This is because he was dressed in fully black and his face was barely shown but from what we saw it was pale white and this created a mysterious character.