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

Question 1

The task:
 

We were given the task to create a successful and conventional two minute thriller opening. In order to carry out this task we were placed into small groups of three or four with people who are all good at different things e.g. someone who is good with computers.

Our first task was to analyse famous and successful thriller films and see what made them conventional to the thriller genre so we could get an understandingof what we would need to include in our thriller opening to make it successful and what conventions were used, and how they were used in the film.

After doing this we were all placed in groups and then we began creating and filming our own 2 minute thriller  opening. In order to successfully create conventional 2 minute thriller opening we needed to create and do various things e.g. we had to create a narrative and create a questionaire that we gave to our target audience to reasearch what they like in a thriller. 

In order to create our thriller we had to go through planning, pre-production and production. Before that i had to do reasearch on the thriller genre. I done reasearch to give me a greater understanding of the generic conventions used in thrillers and how they are used to impact the audience.

 

I believe that my group were able to create a successful and conventional thriller film because we stuck to our idea that we thought up through our reasearch and developed it as we progressed and based it around other successful thrillers such as Incidious and Paranormal Activity. Also we used our questionaire results to give to our target audience what they believe is a conventional thriller film which they will like.

Does my film follow the generic conventions of the thriller genre?

In order to make sure that my thriller followed the conventions of a conventional i reasearched successful thrillers that are similar to mine e.g. Paranormal Activity. This made sure that i followed the conventions of a successful thriller film. I done this so i could make sure that i got the film across to my target audience and make sure that they will like the opening that i create. Also the use of cinematography and editing techniques to put across the emotions that i wanted to put acrosshelped me make sure that my thriller was as conventional as i could make it.

The soundtrack my group created also helped make sure my film was conventional as the soundtrack to a film is one of the most important parts when trying to create different moods or make the audience feel different emotions when watching the film.

Generic conventions of thrillers:

Genric conventions are what the audience use to determine what genre the film they are watching is in our case we followed the generic conventions of the thriller genre this will then allow the audience to understand that the film they are watchong is a thriller film when they watch it. Generic conventions sum up the use of many different parts of a genre for example what the cinematography used and the soundtrack used in a film. Researching successful thriller films has allowed me to see that the all make sure that they incorperate the generic conventions of thrillers in their films so that the audience will know that they are watching a thriller.

 

Generic conventions used in my thriller:

The use of low key and natural lighting in my film helped to show that my film was a thriller. The low key lighting used when mysterious and strange things were happening helped to build suspense and tension for the audience.

 

 

Our setting was a family home this helped to connect with the audience on a personal level as they feel that you should be safe in a family home but in the film it is not safe this then twists their own views and maks them feel that being at home is not as safe as they thought before this then helps to create tension and make the audience feel uneasy.

 

 

The cinematography we chose to use within our film adds to the generic conventions of a thriller film. when filming we used many different camera angles to get different emotions across to our audience such as close up shots and high angle shots. These were used to make the audience feel different emotions and connect with the character in the film.

Conventions of my target audience:

We had to look into the meanings and reasons for age certificates and film censorship. This helped us to understand what would be suitable within our thriller and what audience would be watching it. The content of some thriller films limits the age of which the film can be advertised and promoted to. Age certificate 15 films can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong language, moderate violence and un-detailed sexual references. with this information we then knew what we could put in our thriller and who our target audience is our thriller is a 15 so we now know what we can include in our film by looking at our age certficate.

 

My thriller following conventional narrative structure:

 

My thriller structure is aristotles narrative theory this is a simple structure that is just a begining, middle and a end. This is shown as there a three main parts to our film that show that there is a begging, middle and end to the audience.