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

From all of the research my group had conducted on thriller films, we were able to learn from these to create our own media texts. From these discoveries, I made a word cloud using Wordle to present them. [click here for word cloud of conventions]

 

 

TRAILER. 

 

Narrative:

• Most films follow Todorov's narrative theory, e.g.

1. Equilibrium - villain walking round town on his own
2. Disequilibrium - drugging/kidnapping other characters
3. Recognition of Equilibrium - kidnap victims wake-up, realise they have been kidnapped
4. Attempt to Repair - attempts to escape
5. New/Restored Equilibrium - because our production is a trailer, we didn't reveal anything after the attempt to repair as it would give away too much of the plot. We created a cliffhanger before this point so we co draw auldiences in and intrigue them into watching the film itself. Had we included the resolved storyline in the trailer itself, this would not be effective advertising as people wouldn't be interested in going to see the film itself.

Thrillers tend to incorporate elements from many other genres of films, but one element that makes them stand out as fitting into this genre is the inclusion of an aim/target in the plot that the protagonist is trying to reach as there is often some motivation for the characters' actions. The villain's target is initially to have more involvement in Ashley's life (we see him looking at her Facebook, longing to be with her), which then develops to her kidnapping her and also her boyfriend (Nick) who Brian is targeting as revenge for him actually being with Ashley. Ashley and Nick's aim is clear - to escape.

Characters:

Most films follow a clear structure of character types. Propp stated that there are 8 character types that appear in most stories (hero, villain, princess, princess' father, donor, helper, falso hero, dispatcher)

We wanted our villain's character type to be blatantly obvious to audience members, so we ensured the mise-en-scene (see below) would portray him in this way.

For our other characters, we deliberately wanted to create confusion so audiences would question the film itself and therefore be interested in viewing it. We challenged conventions by allowing Ashley and Nick to take on multiple character roles.

Ashley is clearly the princess for Brian's character, while Nick and Ashley are each other's helpers. It is conventional for heros in thriller films to be stereotypically "weak" characters, so Ashley and Nick's youth conforms to this. It is unclear which one of them is the "hero" in the plot, which is to create deliberate confusion and to attract an active audience who will form their own conclusions. There is also the possibility that when watching the full length film, one of them is actually a false hero.

Mise-en-scene:

 

• Low-key lighting is necessary for thriller films. We used bright lamps to create as much shadow as possible when filming, and lowered the saturation of all the colours in the editing process to make all the shots a lot darker.
• The costumes that the characters were wearing were deliberate so that the audience would understand their roles within the film. The villain was dressed in dark colours throughout, and wore red shoes to signify the passion he had for the character of Ashley, and the danger he was to put her and Nick in. The flowery scarf worn by the character of Ashley was to signify her femininity and innocence, along with the white t-shirt worn by the character of Nick. 

 

 

• Make-up was used on all characters. It was intentional that the audience would see Ashley's make-up, as the fact it was there in the first place signified her femininity and possible vulnerability, while the smudges signified her distress. The make-up worn by Nick was very subtle and not noticeable by the camera. Brian had make-up under his eyes to look like bags due to his tiredness. These are very noticeable to the audience, and are deliberately focused on in the ECU of his eyes.

 

Editing: 

• We used lots of jump cuts and very fast takes so signify the pace of the trailer
• We also put flashes and fades between some shots to represent the passing of time or a change in location
• This is similar to the trailer for Shutter Island

 

Sound: 

• Little dialogue
• Intense music / eery music
• Amplified sound effects
• This is similar to the trailer for Panic Room

Camera shots/movement: 

• Establishing shots

 

 

• Close-ups/Extreme close-ups

• Panning
• We challenged the convention of not using hand-held cameras to film the shots of Nick and Ashley running. We liked how these turned out as they added realism and makes you feel as though you're running with them

 

MAGAZINE.

 

We based the layout of our magazine on other magazines.

 

 

 

Although the other magazines don't have thriller films on the covers, both Total Film and Empire market many different genres of films. The idea of having an extreme close-up of the villain's face is conventional and very effective. The detail visible, and also the positioning of the eyes, draws people in and grabs their attention.

 

A convention of magazine covers is not to have text on both sides of the page as it can confuse those reading it. Although there is a slight overlap with ours, it is clear which order to read the text in due to the gaps left.

 

 

POSTER.

 

Our poster both matches and challenges conventions of thriller film posters.

 

 

 

The use of red writing for the title, a black background and white writing for the credits appears to be very conventional. Red and black are the main colours used on the posters for Panic Room and Shutter Island. The silhouette of the villain featuring on the poster is very similar to the Panic Room poster, as is having the actors' names as the very top of the poster. We also placed our tagline near the top, which is similar to  The Machinist's poster.

 

Our poster challenges conventions because you can't actually see the villain's face on the poster as the picture was taken from behind. Apart from the red font, our poster is black and white, which although it may not be conventional, it is very effective and focuses attention on the silhouette and title. The colour on the Panic Room poster is very withdrawn, and The Machinist poster has very saturated colour. Before we made our image black and white, there was very little colour and we decided to go for black and white to take focus off the slight colour that was there.