Evaluation Question 1

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

Narrative

Our narrative uses a non linear structure which isn't as common as linear. Our narrative is non linear because as you can see in the opening you see the killing which is stereotypically in the middle and if it would have been in the middle then our narrative would have a linear narrative because the climax would be in the centre of the story. Our film has the climax at the start and then the rest of the film includes the resolution. We challenged the conventions of a linear structure by adding flash backs in the opening while she is developing the photo, you see what she thinks is a killing. This highlights that our narrative doesn’t have a linear structure. Our film is in chronological order but then again we challenged the conventions of the stereotype by adding flashbacks. We liked the narrative that was used in the film Identity which in the opening shows the audience a lot of different information to do with the film and then spends the rest of the film explaining the pieces of information that was introduced to the audience in the opening, we thought it worked really effectively and creates suspense and confusion. We also challenged the stereotypes of the thriller genre by having a female protagonist, but then it also conforms to the stereotype by having a male protagonist. We also really liked the idea of our main character turning out to be mental unstable which in some cases could imply that she is the antagonist of the story and therefore again challenged the stereotype of the thriller genre. 

Sound

Within our opening we have included eerie sounds for example dripping water which we think creates suspense, this therefore conforms to the conventions of a thriller because the sounds within a thriller film are supposed to create suspense to the audience. We also used the sound of the camera clipping which links to our narrative because our main character is a photographer. By using this sound I think it makes our film challenge the conventions of real media products because I think photographers aren’t normally seen in thrillers but then again there has been occasions where photographers are in thriller films as stalkers and therefore they become a convention of the genre. The music we have chosen for our opening I think conforms to the stereotype because it creates suspense and entices the audience because there is a climb in the music when the title of the film in introduced to the audience. 

Location

Our opening starts off with the photographer in the darkroom we think the idea of the darkroom conforms to the stereotype because it is a dark and unknown location, it also has the typical red light which suggests to the audience that something bad is going to happen. The darkroom is also quite a secluded place and it’s also very mysterious in the way that you don’t know what is going to happen when developing photo which adds to the atmosphere and adds to the suspense of the opening. So having our opening partly set in a dark room conforms to the stereotype of real media products. We also used a park as the other location, I think this challenges the conventions because a park is typically scene as a happy and bright place where children can play together, but within our opening we have completely subverted the idea of a park and made it dark and almost abandoned which then helps it meet the conventions of real media products because it is almost scary and that makes the opening climatic.  

Editing

Within our editing we decided to make our shots snappy to create suspense and builds up tension for the audience this is a convention of real media products and we found that when we used this technique in our opening it really attracts the audience and makes them aware that it is a thriller. We also added a red tint on the darkroom scenes which adds to the narrative and the colour red is a convention of the genre because it denotes danger and death. 

Shots

We used a lot of close up shots which is a convention of real media products as you can see in the opening of the film Identity. Close up shots create suspense and almost makes the shot more personal. There is also a point of view shot that is used in our film which is another convention of the genre, this shot puts the audience into the characters shoes and allows them to be more effected by what happens in the film. We have tried to use a range of shots throughout the opening to our film. We have used long/establishing shots to introduce a setting which is a stereotypical shot to use.

Credits and Titles

We went for bold fonts for our titles and the name of the film because we wanted it to stand out. We liked the idea of the letters coming one by one in the title of the film as you can see in our film, we got this idea from the film Identity, we thought it would look quite effective. We also used white font to make it stand out against the background and we liked the idea of the film Shutter Island’s title, with it against the plain background. I think by doing this the audience notices the title easily because there isn’t anything else to look at.