Questions

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When we decided on the narrative for our Torment video we wanted it to be different and original. When people talk about thriller films people imagine of bloody scary scenes. So we chose to set our story in the 1920’s telling a story of a woman being blackmailed by a character.
In most thriller films it’s the woman who is being hurt and less dominant. We made our one different because it’s the female character who is in power, even if we left it on a cliff hanger it is obvious that the woman is the one who pulled the trigger. Propps theory was based on characters; saying that there is always a evil character which in this case is the mafia and there is always a victim which was the young lady. Our Torment video was a psychological thriller , where we used the conventions as well as different principles creating suspense. We did this by having a shot of a unknown building which made the audience want to know what was going on. Also we had shots of her going up a dark staircase which once again created suspense. We used thriller conventions like silence and going to unknown locations so that the audience would be nervous which is the typical intended effect . We used circular panoramic shots so that we created a feeling of suspense and mystery but also confusion. Normally the audience would of expected the young lady to be in danger even at the end but the lady taking out her gun changed the whole idea of her being the only victim so it challenges the thriller conevtions even thought it had a link at the beginning.
In our second project once again we wanted to fit in with real media products so we chose to have a location who didn’t have anyone around so that the two characters who were there seemed more in need and abandoned, without help if anything goes wrong. The setting we used a park with trees and bushes around which also had a link with our strap line at the end of the video which said ‘Is it all a rumour or is the truth hidden beyond the bushes?’ There is no dialogue and no character seen in the first few seconds of the video which creates suspense as the music played along with the clip builds tension. When they are attacked by the mysterious character the audience can hear yells and screams which is a convention of the genre. Lastly the editing was done strategically were pauses which added deliberately. The black outs was used to show the the disposition of the two girls in need of help. Through out the main task I tried fitting in with the media conventions by using the sound and the editing to create anticipation and a felling sympathy of the girls. We had a bloody scene at the very end of our main task, which was shown after a black out. This is a typical convention which a lot of thriller films do, they use cliff hangers leaving the audience wondering. This production also followed Propps theory that there are victims and a evil characters . Having a mysterious, evil character is a thriller convention which we included in our production. Also Binary Opposition can be found in our production as we the mysterious character has black clothing on which has a connotation of danger and death which is scene in the last scene.


We created the feeling of being stalked by including shots for example we had high angles and shots from behind the characters to show that they were unaware of the ‘mysterious character’ which had the theory of vague in films. We also had a shot behind the bushes which showed that they were spied on which made the audience want to know who was watching them making them think of scenarios that can happen to them. Like in most thrillers and horrors we made sure that only the music was heard in most of time which created more tension on the audience, when we had short clips of the surroundings showing that it was an empty area we only had the music we chose which made it even more thrilling to the audience, making them look for answers for their questions. Most of the parts were quite which made the audience expect something wrong to go on. The main prop we used was the red dye which gave the blood affect in our main task which fits in to all horror films as bloody and gruesome scenes can be found in them. When recording Rumour we wanted to use as many different angles as possible, which we did when compared with our first product Torment.
We didn’t use many shots for our first production so we included many shots in the second production to show that we developed our skills. Apart form the different shots we used in the scene when the second character was trying to escape we had the girls walking to the area they were going to do their plan. We recorded them when they were walking towards the camera unaware of what was going on, when we included the shot from behind the bushes. We included this shot so that it matched with our strap line ‘is it all a rumour or is the truth hidden beyond the bushes?’ we also included it because they were being watched at the shot behind the bushes was a good shot to show this.
The red food dye we used worked really well as it looked realistic when we used it on the characters clothing and the floor. We used it to give it an effect and also to meet the conventions of thriller films. Bloody scenes are used so we added it in our production to meet the principles of a thriller film.
When we were recording we wanted it to be in day light so we went to the park early. The reason for this was that the girls wanted to scare people coming to the park. When we had he last shot of them on the floor with blood, I included an effect which made it darker, to show that it was late and that things didn’t work the way they wanted it to be.
In my research I looked at the film ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and saw that our production had similar conventions as we had the similar shots in our ‘Rumour’ production. Our camera angles like the wide angles and the close ups were found in this film as well and we had a similar storyline when compared with the film. We also left our media productions on a cliff hanger which is found in most Thriller films once following the ideas in real thriller products. Both ‘Rumour’ and Torment was left on a cliff hanger having the same design like really popular Thriller films ;‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Hills Have Eyes.’ This is a significant point as it is seen in well known films, making the audience want to know what's going to happen next.



•We meet the theory which Propp put forward saying that there is always an evil character in films. We had the evil character in our Rumour production which killed the two teenage girls at the end of the short task. This was also found in our preliminary task were the mafia was tormenting the young lady once again proving Propps theory correct.
• We also met the conventions which are found in most thriller films, that there is mostly a mysterious character who caused trouble to the victims. We also had a mysterious character in our Torment video which was the mafia, as the audience didn’t expect the lady to be tormented by a mafia and it was a unexpected shock to them .
• We also met the convention that all bad things happen at night or in the dark so we recorded our main task when it was quite dark and adjusted the colour to make it darker on Adobe Premier. I believe this is an important convention as most thriller films bad things happening at night, for example in Hills Have Eyes and The Blair Witch Project the mysterious characters came at night-time.

• In both of the productions I made I included the media convention of having no dialogue in most of the clip with just the music building up tension for the audience. There was just music playing in Torment which made the audience know what is going on, and what the girl is saying which makes it more interesting to them. In Rumour I met the same convention as there was music playing as they entered the woods. This is significant as it created pressure to the audience as there is screams and crimes in the quite music playing at the background.
•Also we included Binary Opposition in our production as we had a mysterious character with clothing which has a connotation of danger and death which is scene our the last scene. Also having a dark setting is a thriller connotation.
Throughout both of my productions I made sure I met some thriller conventions and tried to prove some theories correct.