1)
In
what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products ?
Our
Opening scene has mostly kept to the conventions of the thriller
genre. One way that we have kept to the genre is in the use of the
dark locations as a locations such as the darkly lit interior at the
first scene – this is similar to several thrillers, one example of
which would be the motel rooms of No Country for old men.
We
have also within this scene we have used angles that do not reveal
the characters face while they’re pouring the chemicals. This
creates mystery around the character that helps re-enforce the
thriller genre within this scene. This is similar to the way that
Quentin Tarantino filmed Bill in the intro to Kill Bill Vol. 1 where
you never see his face, but you do see other parts of his body as
well as the handkerchief with is name embroided on it. We have also
used a sound track that creates a tension within the scene, which is
also a convention of many thrillers. We also used camera angles when
we were filming the character of the girl with the poison/toxin that
were never at eye level to make the audience feel as if there is some
unfamiliarity between them. This is also in keeping with several
thriller films, often used to indicate how powerful the character is
within the scene – using a low-angle to show power and a High angle
to show insignificance in the current scene.
Also,
within our thriller, the main, female, perpetrator has some
characteristics of a femme fatale, such as the mysteriousness created
around her -created by the camera angles in the start of the scene -
although we have made her more like a male character with the
costume. This is unlike the stereotypical femme fatale found in many
thrillers such as Once upon a time in America and Thelma and Louise.
We
also chose a soundtrack that would create tension in this scene. We
also cut it to get the sound the fade out during key moments in the
scene, this was to draw in the audience and to keep them concentrated
on what was happening within the frame, rather than the soundtrack.
We
have also used props within this film, one of the few is the
container of the poison. This is very important in our scene as it
helps create the mystery around the character of the killer. And as
the audience doesn't entirely know what is in the container, we could
(if we were filming the entire film) keep this liquid a mystery
though-out the film as a enigma, which is a classic thriller
characteristic. A good example of this could be the silver case in
the film Ronin, where the audience never finds out what is exactly
contained within the box.