In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In this question I will be discussing which conventions of a thriller I used or challenged within my film and comparing my thriller opening to that of some real media products and whether or not my opening displays that the genre is a thriller.
Evaluation Question 1:
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| Key frame of my film 'Shadowed' |
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| Key frame of 'Kill Bill' for comparison |
1) In the 1st box of my film's key frame you can see that myself and my group put our Production company name first, before the film even started. This is a common convention of film openings because as you can see in the Kill Bill vol.1 key frame, they too have put the production/distribution names first. However; they have also put a quote in that is related to their film = giving the audience an insight as to what the film could be about: in this case it turns out to be revenge.
2) In the 2nd box of my film's key frame, the image represents the very start of my film opening and it displays straight away from the fact the person is running that the storyline has some sort of chase in it, and that the story will include elements of thriller conventions. It also starts up a particular scene before the name of the film has even popped up. This links to the opening of Kill Bill vol.1 where the name of film doesn't show up till the end (box 7 of the Kill Bill key frame).
The short clip between the production company and title is sometimes a convention of thrillers because the scene helps to grip hold of the audience from the get go and sets the tone of the film. It also allows a sneak peak into what the film could possibly be about. My film follows and incorporates this convention through out the whole of the film opening - allowing the audience to build feelings towards the characters which would be then twisted had the film been complete.
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| An opening shot from 'Silence of the Lambs' |
3) The setting/location of my film is shown only briefly in my film, which slightly challenges the convention of thrillers where the setting is often displayed through some sort of establishing shot or long shot = like the opening of 'Silence of the lambs' where there is an establishing shot of the forest the lady is running through:
In the 3rd box I have taken the shot from a Point of View shot that I felt was the closest we had to properly showing the audience where the opening would be taking place.
In the Kill Bill key frame however, the image represents the frame work used in many types of thrillers. The frame work tends to be many close up shots that include the most important part of the scene; so in Kill Bill the important message is the fact the woman is severely beaten up and frightened. In my film we used used this convention to display the significant sections; such as the finding of the gun, the door being opened and the close ups at the very end of our film.
4) Box 4 on my film's key frame and the boxes 3-4 on the Kill Bill key frame represents the introduction of characters. In the key frame of my film you can clearly see both characters in the shot; one of them running and the other simply standing in the distance. The fact that the Protagonist in the forefront is running symbolises to the audience that this is the victim of the film while the dark figure in the background represents the idea that he is the Antagonist and so brings in the convention of a killer or stalker commonly found in thrillers or horrors. It also brings in the idea that in many films = such as Kill Bill , you see the villian but his identity/features are nearly always unknown until the end of either the opening or the film itself- which links in with boxes 3-4 of the Kill Bill key frame.
5) Box 5 represents the costume of my characters. The stereotypical black hoodie of the Antagonist is one of the many supposed conventions that could be included in a thriller. The hood links with the idea that the identity of the Antagonist remains hidden and also represents the whole 'sneaking-up-on-people' attitude that is found in many thrillers to bring about Dramatic Irony: such as The Strangers that makes the audience want to scream "watch out" at the screen:
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| A scene taken from The Strangers. |
6) The two images from the two key frames in boxes 6 are completely different; however between the boxes 5-6 on the Kill Bill key frame there is one scene that sets the genre of the film:
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| An image taken from Kill Bill Vol.1 |
This image shows that Kill Bill is classed as a thriller due to the blood splatter from the lady's head and the gun shot that sounds when you actually watch the film. The gun and murder creates a kind of jumpscare because although the audience know something is about to happen - they don't actually know what, and they become more and more tense. This convention of jump scares is shared with that of my own film in box 6 where the shadow passing across the screen unexpectedly, creates a small but effective jump scare which indicates the thriller genre that myself and my group attempted in our film opening.
7) The image of the gun in box 7 of my film's key frame is set in place to represent the props used in the film and to show the different types of camera work myself and my group decided upon. We chose to use the common thriller convention of guns in our film because we felt it would attract more of our target audience with one in it than without due to it drawing out more tension and sets the genre. The camera work in this shot is a close up; demonstrating my skills in camera useage through the fact I have used a wider range of shots instead of simply using a mid shot of him taking the gun out the box. This convention of using a close up to draw in suspense is used in most thriller films.
8) Box 8 in my film's key frame shows both the special effects, framework, mise-en-scene and camera work that myself and my group used. The special effects we decided on was the greyscale filter that we placed over the top of the film to add that extra thriller/horror, scary atmosphere to the film; which was also used in Kill Bill. The screen capture also demonstrates the use of framework we used and gos along side with the close-up framework used in other thrillers, such as Dorian Gray, to show the hidden emotions that actions can't always portray.
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| Taken from Dorian Gray to represent framework |
9) As you can see, both my film and the example I am comparing it to (Kill Bill) have both got their film titles after the particular scene; a little later into the film. This is one of the accepted conventions of a film opening because as well as some thrillers starting with the film's name at the beginning - there are other that tend to hold back the title to keep the audience guessing or to get them gripped into the film before revealing it.
My media product incorporates this convention to draw in our target audience and slowly reveal the plot across the opening until the title pops up. Furthermore, the effect of the writing and the shadow behind symbolises the whole plot of the film with the idea that the Protagonist is being shadowed/stalked closely by the Antagonist.
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| End title of my film 'Shadowed' |
This is similar to Kill Bill where you get the sense that there is revenge involved due to two things:
1 - the opening quote talks of revenge
and 2- the handkerchief has the small imprint of 'Bill' on it = connecting to the title, meaning the film is dropping hints to the films plot before the main title is shown.
Soundtrack:
Listen carefully to the soundtrack in the background of my film: ^^^
In my film, myself and my group used soundeffects and non-diegetic music to set the tone, genre and storyline for our thriller instead of using dialogue. The use of non-diegetic music throughout the film in the background is a significant thriller convention which is often used as sound bridging. This sets the atmosphere of our film which then allows our audience to have a good guess at the genre at the same time as having an asumption on the plot and about the characters.
Furthermore, we also decided to allow certain quiet scenes where there is nothing but ambience music to break up the music and help add that same constant tension that thrillers are practically full of.
Existing media products that influenced my work in all aspects:
Many existing media products influenced my work in different aspects, we didn't have just the one influence. For example one of the main existing media products that influenced the camera work used (point of view shots mostly), and the stalked aspect came from a TV programe called Tru Calling; episode 3: "Brother's Keeper". The image below inspired our mid shot of the Protagonist pointing the gun at the Antagonist.
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| Image taken from "Brother's Keepers" |
Another two thriller films that influenced our own media product were Dorian Gray and Van Helsing:
Van Helsing was an influence mainly for the black & white opening. We thought the duller colour made parts of the screen appear more obscured from view which created a more old fashioned thriller film and helped create the tension even more.
Dorian Gray was an influence for the story line of our film opening being a flash-back due to him having flash-backs about his regrets; while it also give us the idea about our Protagonist actually being villionous due to the fact that originally Dorian appears nice but over the course of the film; he becomes twisted and ill-mannered.
