G321 Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
(OUATIA)
Locations: ■
When planning the locations that would be used in my thriller opening my group and I tried to pick places what were similar to locations that would typically be used in a thriller. Using generic location conventions enables the audience to establish the genre of the film a lot faster than if any ‘random’ locations were used. The first location seen in the thriller opening is a teenager’s bedroom. This allows the audience to see that it is based around a teenager’s life. The room has posters of bands and musicians that appeal to the target audience; the room is also a little messy/cluttered which teenagers are also likely to be able to relate with. The messy room allows the stereotype of teenagers being unorganised to be fulfilled and therefore can be seen as more relatable. Bedrooms are sometimes used in thriller films as it is a personal space for a victim to spend their time and if a character takes this personal space away then something bad is likely to happen. An example of this is seen in Once Upon a Time in America. A teenager’s bedroom is however unlikely to be used in a thriller film as most thrillers tend to involve adults and more developed locations.
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My thriller opening develops the conventions of other thriller films through the location involving the staircase. It is typical for staircases, especially winding, to be used in thriller films as it gives a sense of mystery to what is happening at the top of the stairs. For example, Casino Royale includes scenes on a staircase
(My production) ■
(Casino Royale)
Another generic convention used in our thriller is an alleyway. Alleyways are typically used in thriller films as they are seen as a very claustrophobic and enclosed space which can make the character and audience both feel very on-edge. Since it is a small space it means that there is limited space for an individual to get out of any trouble they may encounter which therefore builds tension as the audience worry for the safety of the character.
Characters & Costumes: ■
My thriller opening also uses conventions of a thriller through the characters that are used throughout. Each character has a name developed to reflect their personality. For example, the name Lily Albert was chosen as the flower ‘Lily’ is a symbol of innocence, purity and beauty which reflects her personality. Lilies are also a flower typically put on top of coffins at funerals, this connotes death right from the beginning of the film. ‘Albert’ was also used since it means noble and bright. These positive meanings signify Lilly as it shows just how innocent she is and how there is no trouble from her.
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Lilly’s costume was chosen carefully to reflect her character. The black trousers and white shirt contrast with each other and make Lilly stand out more. The white shirt was chosen to signify innocence and purity. The red cardigan Lilly wears was picked since red can signify love and also blood/death. This shows Lilly is a very loving person and also that her life is taken. Colours of costumes are typically chosen carefully to reflect the character, for example in Essex boys Billy wears a vibrant shirt to reflect his personality and actions.
(My production)
(Essex Boys)
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The name Kyra Blake was chosen as the name ‘Kyra’ is a Latin baby name. In Latin the meaning of the name Kyra is light. This signifies Kyra as being a very bright and clever girl and shows that she is a positive character. Blake is a surname or a given name which originated from Old English. It has a number of possible meanings however one is black. This connotes that the character has some evil and darkness in her. The name Rhiannon Erwin was chosen as ‘Rhiannon’ is commonly known as a witch’s name. This signifies that Rhiannon is a bad and evil character that has no good in her in this circumstance. This is relatable to other thriller films since the writers also generally try to give the characters names to reflect who they are.
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When planning the costumes for our thriller production we decided we would look at the TV show Skins and base it around the costumes used in it. We thought this would be a good idea since the TV show itself is targeted for the same age group as our thriller. We also thought we would use Skins as inspiration since the cast consists heavily of younger members, dressed in casual clothing which was what we also wanted for our thriller production.
(Skins) ■
(Pulp Fiction)
Skins has a range of different characters, a few of which are similar to Kyra and Rhiannon, for example, Effy and Cassie. We aimed for our thriller to contain as much realism as it could to make it as relatable as we possible for the audience. This gives a better chance of the audience feeling as though they can really get involved with what is happening which may result in them enjoying it more. As we were trying to keep things real we found that it was not necessary for us to change our costumes from anything that we would wear ourselves, on a daily basis. This challenges conventions of thrillers such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs where more elegant and planned out costumes are used.
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Props and objects : The main prop used in my thriller opening was a mobile phone. Mobile phones are being used increasingly more in films since technology is progressing all of the time. Mobile phones also give a way of easily communicating with individuals and can also add mystery if the audience are not able to see/hear what is being said between two people.
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Sound: When choosing the soundtrack we wanted to make sure it would be similar to one that would be used in a thriller. We took a lot of time picking it to be just right to fit with the pace of the film. Our choice of soundtrack turned out to be very fitting and effective since it is quite fast paced. From the track being fast paced and quite high-pitch it creates quite an edgy vibe and builds tension and mystery of what will happen. We kept the diegetic sound throughout the whole film to add to the effect of realism, this also gives the audience the chance to get a feeling that they are there and part of the drama.
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Lighting: Our thriller included two time periods; past and present, this meant we had to make it clear to the audience what was real-time and what was a flashback. To do this we changed the lighting to black and white during a flashback to make it slightly more obvious, this was done as inspiration taken from the beginning of Kill Bill 2. We noticed this was effectively used in this film as we were able to instantly tell the scene was a flashback.
(My production)
(Kill Bill 2)
Sound: â– When choosing the soundtrack we wanted to make sure it would be similar to one that would be used in a thriller. We took a lot of time picking it to be just right to fit with the pace of the film. Our choice of soundtrack turned out to be very fitting and effective since it is quite fast paced. From the track being fast paced and quite highpitch it creates quite an edgy vibe and builds tension and mystery of what will happen. We kept the diegetic sound throughout the whole film to add to the effect of realism, this also gives the audience the chance to get a feeling that they are there and part of the drama.
Titles: ■ The title ‘Cyberbully’ and the names of those who appear in the film are shown in the opening of the thriller. The text appeared as the film progressed and was shown over the film itself. We made the titles relatively small so the audience were able to still see what was happening clearly. The font used was white as this was the best colour to be seen over the film, it was also chosen as it looked good over the clips that were in black and white. The white text contrasts the black background, establishing the thriller genre. White on black is often used in thrillers as these colours are very bold and dramatic. For example, the titles in Once Upon a Time in America use white text on a black background. The font we picked was very dramatic yet realistic to the thriller genre, the way the font is in a sense, misshaped foreshadows the idea of the rest film containing trouble and drama that would not happen every day.
(My production)
(Once Upon a Time In America)
Camera angles: â–
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As a group, we planned to use different camera angles and techniques that would be the most effective to our film, we avoided using medium shots since there are very boring for the audience and give no insight into what is going on. Instead we attempted to use shots that created a very claustrophobic atmosphere for both the character and the audience, one camera shot we used to do this was extreme close ups. An example of the use of a close up shot can be seen in the film Pulp Fiction. The shot types that we used comply with those typically used in other thriller films.
(Pulp Fiction) (My production) An over-the-shoulder shot was also used to establish Rhiannon being followed by Rhiannon, this informs the audience that Kyra holds the power over Rhiannon from this point. This shot gives a chance for the audience to see what Charley sees and therefore they are able to relate and identify more to what is happening. From this shot, Rhiannon is made out to be very small and in danger which creates a sense of curiosity and builds tension of what will happen next, this is common for thrillers.
■ We decided that for the discovery of Lilly’s body we would use panning shots. We decided to use these as it allows suspense and mystery to be created from the audience as they question what the next part of the shot will reveal. It also allows the audience to focus on a small part of the body at any point and take time to figure out that Lilly has killed herself. When taking practice shots before the real shoot for our thriller, we took a 360 panning shot of Lilly’s lifeless face however, we were unable to use it since it was filmed with the camera handheld and therefore would have been too shaky and low-quality to use. The panning movement adds effect and is largely used in thrillers as it builds suspense and mystery.
(My production)