Question 6

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 5

   Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 4

Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product? 

Question 3

Question 7

Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task was to film a 30 second to a minute film of someone walking into a room and having a conversation. The point of this task was to get used to the camera, equipment and different shots. The 5 shots we had to film were; over the shoulder, long shot, mid shot, close up and a high angle shot. For this task we had to quickly film it on the spot so that we could edit it and watch it over and over to see how well our filming and editing was which would of got us prepared for our actual filming and editing on our opening thriller sequence. 

From this task i learnt how to use the camera and tripod to its full abilities. For example; how to extend the legs out to the perfect height i want the camera to be in when filming a certain scene with a certain camera shot. By learning this meant that i could have the correct camera shot, for example; a high shot to show the vulnerability of a innocent victim, which would build a relationship with the character and audience and make them feel more sympathetic towards the character. I also learnt which angle and camera shots to use for which parts of the film, for example; low angle shot to make the antagonist look bigger than the victim which will portray the victim as more helpless and weaker. I also learnt which certain shots create which certain effects, for example; close up would show a facial expression more and if its used during panning then it shows movement between two characters that are being filmed. I learnt that for my film to look professional and neat i need to keep the camera still so it does not looks shaky on the screen and this can be done by me using the tripod. This helped me learn and know where to position the camera in a shot to create effects i want to be put across to my audience to help them focus on a certain thing within a shot. 

However, there were points of this task when i struggled a bit and did not know what to do. For example; i struggled on filming the over-the-shoulder shot because it didn't look professional and neat as i wanted to get the positioning perfect but the other persons whole back was in the shot instead of just half of his body so i had to keep on re-filming it. I also found other shots difficult to do, for instance, i found filming tracking shots very hard. Panning shots were another type of shot i found difficult to film as the camera would lose focus as i was moving it, which made it look blurry and unprofessional. Attempting to film the panning with the camera on the tripod made it even more difficult as it was stopping it from running smoothly as it was very stiff to move around. The last difficulty i had was filming the low angle shot as the tripod was too tall even when the legs was on the shortest it would go, which meant that the only thing i could do was to film the shot handheld. However, this was a bad thing as it meant that the shot would be shaky and look very messy and unprofessional instead of neat and steady. 

However, from this task to filming my full product i learnt many things, which meant i done things differently this time and saved so much time instead of wasting it on learning how to use the equipment and how to follow through and film the shots correctly. I learnt how to watch the recordings back which saved time as i could see straight away if a shot was wrong or if anything was in the background which would of lead me to needing to re-film anything. For the full product i also adjusted the tripod to the perfect size it was needed at did not just leave it at the lowest or highest it went to like i did in the preliminary task. Learning all these things in the preliminary task and putting them all into full affect for the filming of the final product has majorly helped me make the film look more professional and to a high quality which will definitely help the film become way more successful. The thing the preliminary task helped me with the most is understanding which shots are the most effective at which parts of the film and what kind of affect they would create to the audience and how the relationship built between the audience and characters would affect their feelings towards the characters. For instance, a close up will show the facial expressions most of the characters and having a certain angle can portray the status of the character in the film. For example; a low shot will make the character look more bigger and overpowering making the audience think they are dangerous and can do anything to the victim. I used this knowledge i learnt from the preliminary task in my production of my own thriller as i used a certain shot to make one character look stronger and more powerful than another.

Question 2

Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my opening thriller sequence there is only two main characters. The antagonist and the victim. The purpose of me doing this was so that there was only two characters telling the narrative to the audience which would make it clear and easy for them to understand and would not confuse them. 

The antagonist has an hidden identity. Nobody knows who he/she is or

anything about them. This is evident in the picture on the right when the most you see of the antagonist is a black hoody and none of his face or facial features. The audience just know that the antagonist wants to harm the victim and has a plan of doing it. This engages the audience more and helps build a relationship as they do not know the reasons to why the antagonist is planning to harm the victim but want to watch and find out more to see if his identity will be revealed. This straight away helps build a relationship between the audience and the victim as they feel she is innocent and has not done anything for the antagonist to have hatred towards her and wanting to harm her. This builds a different type of relationship between the audience and the antagonist as they do not really understand the storyline behind the antagonist and does not really feel any type of emotion or sympathy for the antagonist in any way shape or form. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience do not know anything about him other than the fact that he wants to hurt the victim and is wearing all black to hide his identity which portrays evil and death which mat foreshadow his death. This straight away builds a relationship with the audience and the characters as they see that the antagonist is a bad person and wants to harm the innocent victim as his black costume makes him come across as being dangerous and scary. This leads to them building an opposite relationship with the victim as they would feel more sympathetic for her and would want her to be safe and not in danger from the antagonist which they now know is capable of harming her as he is bigger and stronger than her. 

On the other hand, the other main character is the female victim. She is a female to portray her weakness and she is a young, 15 year old, teenage girl which portrays her vulnerability. Her vulnerability is evident in the picture on the right as the audience can see how scared and confused she is through the mise-en-scene used of facial expression as she is seen crying and upset in this shot. This will help them build more of a relationship with her as they will see how upset she is as she is crying and they will feel more sympathetic towards her and worry for her and wanting her to be safe and not in any danger. Making her this age also means the audience will understand the narrative more and feel more sorry for her as she is the same age as the target audience so they would feel as they care for her safety more. She is a blonde girl which stereotypically means she may not be the smartest person which portrays the fact that she will be helpless. The victim will be wearing a white t shirt which will signify her purity and innocence. This is also relatable to the audience of the same age category as her costume will look very similar to the school uniform that nearly all of the audience wear on a regular basis. The victim will be portrayed through the narrative to just be an average teenage girl and this is evident when she will be browsing her social media account on her laptop one day after school, as all the audience has most likely done before which shows it is realistic, before she wakes up in an isolated basement. These will all make the audience build a relationship with her easier as she will be portrayed as an average girl and everything about her and what she does will be realistic which will make it easier for the audience to relate to and understand. This will be conventional to the thriller genre as the victim will be small, weak and helpless compared to the antagonist which would make the audience intrigued to find out what she has done wrongly t be targeted and also find out if she will escape safely without being hurt or harmed in any way by the antagonist. 

Question 1

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

My media brief was to produce a 2-minute opening thriller sequence consisting of thriller conventions, such as; jumpy scenes to build suspense and shock the audience when something pops out to frighten them when they least expect it, gory scenes to get the audience feeling frightened and feely sympathetic for the victim as they would understand what emotions and feeling the antagonist is putting them in through the gory scenes shown, low key lighting to set a sinister atmosphere to get the audience feeling spooky and as they are in a thriller film, antagonist to deliver the narrative to the audience through using this character to harm and set out to hurt the victim which the audience would be wanting the best for and many more other conventions, in order for it to be a successful opening thriller sequence. 

An example of low key lighting is in the picture on the right and this is used to create a dark atmosphere to make the audience feel as they are in a spooky scene and feel engaged and part of the film to make their experience of watching it a better one. As we can see in the picture on the right, low key lighting is used on a cat and a cat is normally portrayed as a cute, fluffy pet however the lighting makes it look evil and twisted which is the same affect it has on the antagonist and the settings.

I used many conventions in my thinner sequence such as; female victim, tense music, iconography, low-key lighting, silence and an isolated setting.

The first convention i used was a female victim. I used a female victim instead of a male victim because stereotypically females are smaller and weaker so they wold be portrayed to the audience as more helpless, powerless and vulnerable than a male victim would. You see this in my thriller when the victim is not aware that the antagonist is standing behind her with a knife. The fact that the positioning of the antagonists hand is way above the victims head shows him as being bigger than her which would straight away portray him as being stronger which would make the audience feel even more scared for the poor victim. This would build a stronger relationship with the victim and audience as the female victim would seem as she can not protect herself therefore, the audience will feel more sympathetic towards her and feel sorry for her as they know she is more likely to get hurt or even die. This is conventional as it makes the audience want to watch more to see if the female victim get killed. 

The second convention i used was tense music. I used tense music throughout the opening of my thriller sequence because it would engage the audience more as they feel as something scary or bad is about to happen. Tense music is used in my thriller when the victim is walking around the isolated room seeing pictures of herself targeted on the floor. This use of music at this time makes the audience wonder what is about to happen as they link the targeted photos of the victim and the sinister atmosphere through the music together and the tension and suspense being built leads them to thinking something really bad is about to happen to the victim to harm her safety. The tense music builds up suspense and tension which makes the audience focus more. This builds a relationship with the audience and the characters because the fact that the tense music enticed the audience more will get them more shocked when something jumps out or something horrific happens to the victim which will make them even more sympathetic. This convention is conventional to the thriller genre as it builds on the elements of shock, suspense and surprise which makes the experience of watching the film a better one for the audience.

Another convention i used was iconography, and in this sequence the main one was a knife. I used a knife for the antagonist to use to harm the victim because this weapon was the most realistic and horrific weapon to use. The knife is seen in my thriller on the floor when the victim is starting to wake up and notice she has been kept hostage. This is evident when we look at the picture on the left. When the audience see this dangerous weapon at the beginning it foreshadows a death for them making them think something bad is going to happen to someone from that knife. A death by a knife would mean more blood as the victim would be in a critical state and this would build a strong relationship with the audience and character as the would know that the vicim is really hurt and is about to die so would be more upset. This is conventional to a thriller genre as this weapon would lead to loads of blood which thriller audiences would love to see as it makes the sequence more realistic and more scary.  

Low key lighting was another convention i used. I used this convention to make the atmosphere more sinister and more thriller like. A sinister atmosphere would make it more scary for the audience as it would build on the elements of suspense, shock and surprise which would entice them more as it would mean they are feeling scared but still watching and looking around the dark room to see if they can spot the killer. This builds a relationship with the audience and character as the audience are looking around the room to find or spot anything that is harm to the vitim as they feel sorry for her and want to help her. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it engages the audience and makes them on edge when watching waiting for something bad to happen. 

Furthermore, silence was another convention i used. I used silence so that it can build on the element of suspense. You see silence in my thriller when the victim escapes and is walking around the room and steps in a broken picture frame of herself. The build up of suspense from silence will entice the audience more so that they are more on edge waiting for something to jump out and scare them. This builds a relationship with the audience as they feel more engaged into the film because of the suspense being built so they expect something to happen. This is conventional to the thriller genre as not only does it build on suspense but it also surprises and shocks the audience when something happens which makes the experience of watching the thriller more enjoyable. 

Lastly, i also used an isolated setting as another convention in my thriller. I used an isolated setting so the audience straight away assume something bad is going to happen because no one is about. For example; my isolated setting was a basement of a house which nobody knows about. This is evident from the picture on the right. This would build a relationship with the audience and character as they feel more sympathetic to the victim as they know she will be in danger and no-one is around to help her or for her to escape. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it engages the audience to waning to watch the rest of the film as they want to see and find out if the victim escapes safely and lives or if she is trapped and dies a horrific death without anyone knowing.

I got my three inspirations of the female victim, low-key lighting and iconography of the knife from the very successful thriller sequence, Scream. I used this thriller film as my inspiration as it has become very successful but also because the fan base is huge and a lot of people all over the world love it. I was also inspired by it as this thriller is very good at creating and building on the elements of; suspense, shock and surprise which engage the audience from the beginning and the more of it there is the more the audience enjoy the film and the more successful the sequence will be. I used the knife from this film as it is very realistic as any killer can just get a knife and hurt someone as the antagonist in this film had done. A knife would also do a more gruesome death compared to another weapon, like a gun, which the audience would like more as it is aimed at a target audience that prefer to see gory scenes in a thriller film. I used low key lighting from this film as it engages the audience more as they feel as there is something lurking in the dark about to jump out and harm the victim. This would create more suspense and tension for the audience and when something did suddenly happen they would react more as they would of been on the edge of their seats expecting and waiting of it. I also took the female victim from this film as the audience saw how she was helpless and powerless compared to the victim which made this film more scary and successful. It would also make her look more fragile and make the antagonist look more bigger, more stronger and more dangerous. Having the female victim looking small and the antagonist looking big would set the difference between the two characters and intrigue the audience more by making them want to see what the most the antagonist is capable of doing to the victim. These conventions that inspired me from this film are very conventional as they all are realistic and create a sinister atmosphere which engage the audience and makes them want to watch the rest of the film and find out what happens. 

The conventions i chose to use in my opening thriller sequence are all conventional as they all create the elements of; suspense, surprise and shock which engages the audience more and makes them want to watch it more which leads to the film being more successful. This is evident through the reaction of the audience when something ends up happening and also is shown through how much the audience is enticed into the film and feel as they are part of the film going through the same experience. Moreover, the sounds i used such as; diegetic, music and sounds from a soundboard are all also conventional and helps make the movie flow creating even more suspense for the audience to enjoy. 

A very successful thriller film is; Hannibal. Hannibal is more of a physiological thriller whereas my thriller focuses on the narrative more and is not a physiological one making the audience want to find out what is going through the antagonist head the whole time and not wanting to solve the problem each time a clue is given or something is foreshadowed. On the other hand, Hannibal focuses more on mystery making the audience want to solve the problems and also focuses on the antagonist more and not the victims. However, one thing they both have in common is the fact that they both engage the audience in different ways and build a relationship between them and the characters. My sequence makes the audience want to help the victim and want her to be safe whereas, Hannibal makes the audience want to solve what is going on in the psychotic killers brain and why he is doing what he is. My thriller along with Hannibal also contain some of the same micro elements such as; sound when when we both use tense music. I think that this leads to both our film becoming more successful as it makes it more tense for the audience which makes them more engaged and more happy to watch it. Overall, my sequence and Hannibal are very different but also very similar in a way.