in what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
. discuss the ways in which your thriller incorporates generic conventions ( identify specific scenes)
There are several elements within our thriller which conform with generic conventions which you would usually expect in a thriller film. For instance the convention of the 'chase scene' and voyeurism is explored within the opening two minutes of the thriller; we start to get a sense that the students are being followed by the 'persuant'. As the opening progresses, in certain long shots Jamies character is present in the background t the start he is not noticeable or obscured) but his presence becomes more noticeable than the shot before each time.
There is a sense of mystery and an eerie mood is created particularly during the grave yard scene when izzy's character walkthrough the church graveyard by herself she is singled out and vulnerable as she is no longer within the company of her two friends (sam and matt) and this innocence clearly shows that she is a protagonist because audiences will sympathise with her.
Mis En Scene
Jamies 'Persuant' costume fits with generic conventions of a thriller as it clearly portrays him as the antagonist. He wears a large biege overcoat to imply he has something to hide and effectively creates mystery around the character. a similar effect is created with the hat and glasses he wears as they obscure Jamies face and makes it difficult to see what he looks like or what his true emotions are. which makes the audience curious to discover 'the persuants' identity and works as an incentive as it is intriguing to continue watching because as an audience we want to know who this person is, what he looks like.
Music editing, camera shots
We were able to develop these conventions through many contributing factors; the music and the angle of the shots help us to achieve this because the music we used 'Darkness is Coming' tied in extremely well with the setting. The track we used had a biblical sound to it and linked in very well with the church setting and established a sense of danger as Izzy went further through the church yard the music intensified creating more tension. the sense of danger was also established through certain shots used during the church scene; we had an over the shot shoulder shot of Jamie whist he was standing at the top of a flight of stairs ( near by the church). The shot was angled so emphasis was put on the fact that Jamie was looking down (watching over her) at Izzy's character the female student. The positioning of characters in the shot was effective because as well as it being the first audience see Jamie's figure (close up shot from behind) it also implies that as Jamie appears higher and larger in the shot, that he is the dominant character and izzy's character is the weaker and more vulnerable as she appears smaller.
We used two different music tracks during the first two minutes of our thriller film, both of which we found on incompetech. We chose 'Night of Chaos' and 'Darkness is Coming' because we felt they were very similar to our original music inspiration Brian Eno's 'Complex Heaven'. Brian Eno is known for doing the Lovely Bones soundtrack, a film which i felt explored very similar themes to our piece; it involved voyeurism and a man who has an obsession with making elaborate plans to take young girls. Brian Eno's theme for the antagonist Mr Harvey was extremely effective and rather chilling, it evoked real fear. Mr Harvey's theme (which is based around complex heaven)appeared many times during the film, every time 'Mr Harvey's' character was present, so the audience would immediately associate the music with unpleasant or bad things.
we were inspired by this idea so we used 'darkness is coming' and 'Night of Chaos' and used it as a device like 'complex heaven'. although it was simple it evoked fear. it had similar musical elements, but we ensured that the tracks we used weren't overly intense to that extent that it turned into a horror film as this is not what we wanted to achieve. the tracks we used created just the right amount of suspense and fear without being to dark and intense (we wanted to build the tension slowly). we used two tracks as opposed to one simply because we wanted two separate
moods (or sections) within the opening. the first track 'night of chaos' is much less intense and more ambient (but still builds tension) which is exactly what we wanted as it sets the scene and , whilst is sounds quite mysterious it wasn't too intense and it couldn't be, because we needed to establish narrative and setting to ease the audience into the film before the music becomes more intense and changes to ' Darkness is coming' when it becomes apparent that Izzy is being closely followed.
does your use of conventions indicate what other thrillers have influenced your work?
One Hour Photo, the collector, the people under the stairs, the lovely bones.
All these films explore and incorporate similar themes: kidnapping, stalking, elements are portrayed by using tension and suspense to create a thriller style and fit with the conventions of thriller.
One hour photo and The lovely bones both delve into the phycology behind the Antagonists i.e how the obsession grows and why they have become this way.
