Question 1

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

Convention
There are several conventions to a thriller such as suspense, tension, quick cuts, black and white shots and finally tense music. I tried to add all of these qualities in my thriller. Firstly suspense was used whilst capturing the antagonist as I made sure that his face was hidden to the audience, by using camera shots such as over the shoulder shot, and mid shots that go no higher than his chin. This gave the antagonist character a mysterious and creepy effect, adding suspense throughout. The second quality of this thriller is tension this was created via the anticipation of not knowing what particular weapon the antagonist was going to pick out as well as this it was also created when the antagonist was walking from room to room but leaving the audience in the dark as to where he is going, this gives off a mysterious aspheric effect. There were several quick shots throughout that depicted the victim’s tied up body this added to the already nervous edge the clip has, due to not knowing whether the victim was alive or not. At the very opening scene of this movie there is a lengthy black and white shot that shows the antagonists house and it also depicts this devilish character waking up too, it stays black and white until the speakers are turned on. This projects a dark and perplexing mood as if something isn’t quite right. Tense music is used throughout the start to give an ominous iniquitous mood, the music within at the very start projects a bewildering vibe something that really is very mysterious and dark. Then after the speakers are turned on a song plays but it isn’t any old songs it appears to have a dramatic effect of being creepy and weird, something quite unique that almost scares you.

Type of thriller
Our thriller would classed as a possible psychological type thriller. Where an antagonist David seems to be a mysterious, disturbing and sinister character. This leads you to the name of the film Psycho. The themes within the opening scene covey many conventions from the thriller genre; these include quick cuts, suspense, changes in angle shots, black and white shots and tense music. Many films within this genre feature these conventions, they also include fatal crimes like murder or hostage type situations that I have used, films such as you’re next. Where there is a family gathering and slowly one by one each individuals is killed in a brutal way by assassins paid to kill, until one stands up to defeat them before everyone is killed in a psychotic way.

Costume
We have used just stereotypical modern normal type clothes such as the likes of a dressing gown, t shirt and joggers seeming to be a fairly average and normal person none of the less. Despite being a dark and deviant character, his real talents for murdering are hidden transparently behind his ordinary typical clothing choice. The clothing has been inspired by silence of the lambs character buffalo bill who typically wears normal common clothes for the time zone that this film was featured in but however behind clothes doors is a complete psychopathic serial killer who kills and uses faces as masks but however once leaving his house appears to be a completely normal citizen just like any other person just like our character. This stereotypical normal identity lead him into a state of mental being unstable choosing a psychotic and mad life of crime until he is finally stopped for good. This portraits a normal character but, to the audience he will be seen as demonic and unnerving person that we all know him to be.

Location
We have used a common and average house by looks on the outside and inside which a generic location is for and normal human being but however not for this demonic killer. Within the house several locations are used such as a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and staircase which are all everyday typical rooms within the house but that’s what gives it its enigmatic feel throughout as it appears so normal that almost in fact it isn’t at all. This house setting isn’t lonely at all as it is featured on a street with similar looking houses all alike which all make it puzzling to the eye. However until the character walks outside to the garage and enters it has a sense of entrapment as a hostage is seen which brings to life an abnormal location setting for our mass murder. The grey concrete floor and dull walls give an appearance of an urban feel which is used in many similar thrillers. The reality of this location like many people have witnessed before in their own household allows them to put themselves in the position of the victim and the antagonist.

Sound
When implementing a specific genre, the soundtrack and sound effects are very important aspects of the film that make and break it in total. During the research I conducted I found that the soundtrack mostly consists of building tension and fear. So for this we had to find the correct type of music and effects we wanted otherwise our overall film would have suffered. Due to copyright laws this task was a lot more difficult than it should have been, so like many existing thriller films I found a tracks that got your heart racing with pure fear along with an intense spin chilling tremble as the fast paced beat of it made you scared and anxious, whilst sitting on the edge of your seat. Then like the film I used for inspiration ‘you’re next’ we found a very weird and creepy eccentric music song that clearly engaged the audience with its freakishness of it. Then we also added in diegetic sound too to increase the intense factor this film needed have such as the sound of the door creaking along with bang sound and footsteps, this all emphasised what was happening for the audience.

Camera Angles
After closely following a range of different camera angles in the research of different thrillers. I noticed that close ups were commonly used to emphasis the fear within the clip, as well as that they also show the intensity of any facial expression or action being done. Therefore we used this to show exactly what the action antagonist was completing, such as opening a draw and taking out a selection of knifes, this builds fear and the tension with a creepy effect like this. Over the shoulder shots are commonly used when the film makers don’t want to reveal the identity of the antagonist this therefore keeps the intense secrets within. This generate feelings of confusion. Long shot is also a common convention this place the audience in the mind-set that they are viewing it themselves as the character.

Props
When we were creating our film we wanted to make sure that our antagonist created a clear convention of a psychopath. This was done by using clear shots of our antagonist taking out large knifes and weapons from kitchen draws and toolboxes. This creates a large amount of suspense its self as the audience are on edge as to why he taking out knifes specifically. This portraits a stereotypical psychopath not only this but he also uses very normal and everyday props such as tooth brush, radios, breakfast cereal and spoons. These portrait a normal setting and a normal chilling atmosphere. This shows the audience how stereotypically ordinary the antagonist appears in such a common place such as a traditional house.

Lighting
To ensure we kept our theme of a realistic normal film we then featured only ambient lighting which is the use of only natural lighting and no artificial lighting was used throughout the whole of this film. Several ambient lighting uses were used as we decided to use natural lighting like shadows and sunlight through the window to convey a normal atmosphere, this is a generic convention within many types of thriller films. The shadows can convey fear and suspense in its self, but however this lighting was just completely natural never the less and wasn’t meant to show anything other than naturalness, which gives off an whole enigmatic feel to the entire film such as the ordinary atmosphere.