Evaluation - Question 1

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

In the first two minutes of any thriller we expect to see a combination of images, sound and effects in order to create a tension building, dramatic beginning to the film. Our final thriller piece includes quick movement between scenes and fitting music to entice the audience into wanting to watch more. I believe this opening would be aimed at both males and females of ages between 15-40+ and therefore we have not added and specifically aimed conventions.

We used dark clothing on both of the characters to add to the dark feel of the piece and less aimed at the idea of fashion, thus paying more attention to the characters and their actions rather than props and mise en scene.

This is an image of the male characters eyes, this is when we are first introduced to him and I feel the audience gains at extra connection to him and his motives through watching him become nervous and guilt begins to show. He is a stereotypical antagonist and villain and we feel using shots such as this make his character appear creepy and mischievous.

Mise en scene was another highly influential convention to our piece as it took much research and consideration to decide where our filming should take place in order to gain the most thrilling feel. Our two most important mise en scene shots are the girl running in the field and when the girl is sat in the garage.

 

This is an image of the last scene where the young girl has gotten away and is running for her life through a dark, secluded field. The time of day allowed us to show the surrounding was dark and the stillness in the background showed the area was secluded, further adding to the creepy, dark feel. This girl is wearing a long black dress to show her femininity and vulnerability, also adding to the mysterious theme.



This is a shot of the female character being held hostage in the garage scene, we felt this would be a good place to hold this scene because it was at my house so was easily accessible, and held the specific rustic a dark feel we needed.  

Following this, we took time into researching traditional thriller conventions, in order to attain a grasp of which key features make up the dark, sinister, thrilling feel to an opening. Our opening showed similar characteristics and conventions to those of ‘Seven’, a thriller film produced by Arnold Kopelson and Phyllis Carlyle in 1995. The quick shots and attention to detail are similar to ours and we took loads of inspiration from their thrilling opening.

The main conventions in which we researched consist of:

The title: We named our piece Tortured as we believed it quickly and effectively defined the meaning of our piece and gave a clear idea to the audience of what the film was about. However, we found there was also another film produced in 2008 named 'Tortured' but felt as this was a low budget, independent British film there would be little confusion.

The antagonist/protagonist: In our opening scene we tried to add as much detail into the storyline as possible in order for the audience to gain a good idea of what is happening between the two characters. We used the classic idea of having an antagonist and protagonist to add tension and anticipation to our piece. Our antagonist (male, dominant character) chases, captures and tortures our protagonist (venerable, young female character) making the link and difference between them very strong.

The narrative: The main idea of having a short opening scene is to give the audience a slight idea of what is going to happen later on in the film. Although we haven't planned the rest of film we wanted the audience to feel like they could expect and anticipate what would occur later on. We feel having snappy shots of small events would give the audience a hint at what may be happening, with the intention of filling in the gaps later on in the film. I think the best idea for this would be to suggest the female character getting away is in the future, thus allowing the rest of the film to explain why she is captured and what the mysterious male is doing to her.

The protagonist: We again followed the classic thriller roots of using a venerable female lead which in recent years has been adapted with the different hybrid versions of thriller films. Female leads have now often become power characters and can help solve or even become the antagonist in new aged Thrillers.