Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly, the brief was to create a two minute opening sequence for a thriller genre by researching into a range of elements in which would help contribute towards the planning of the sequence. Before we created our sequence, we were allocated to groups consisting of 3 group members. In my group there was myself, Elizabeth Cooper and Kane Faulkner-Wild. Within our group there were various production roles that were assigned to different members of the group. Firstly, the roles of 'Director of Photography' and 'MES co-ordinator' were assigned to me. This meant I was in charge of what the camera is filming exactly and what the positioning of the objects within the frame were. Secondly, Elizabeth's roles were 'Screenplay writer' and 'Music producer'. This meant that she was in charge of creating the base narrative for the sequence and creating the different types of music and sound effects to be included within the sequence. Kane's roles were 'Director' and 'Producer' which meant that he had control of gathering the group and controlling the different activities and what the different things to be produced were, Both Elizabeth and Kane took the roles of being the actors in which they were assigned to play the role of the two main characters (antagonist and victim). All three group members took the role of being editors as we all had different editing ideas and techniques that we wanted to include. Furthermore, the responsibility was to insert different editing techniques at different points throughout the sequence to build up different elements e.g slow editing when the suspense is building up. As mentioned previously, my roles of 'Director of photography' and 'MES co-ordinator', my responsibility was too control how and what was being filmed by including a variation of different techniques using the camera. Also, I had the responsibility of controlling what/how the actual scene was layed out. This was by how the characters and objects were positioned and represented and also the lighting of the scene. The layout of the scene was in my power. I believe myself and my group worked well as a group and we all took great power and responsibility in our different roles. Furthermore, our combinations of different ideas and techniques helped to make our sequence more captivating and conventional. I believe that we have created a very successful sequence as we included a wide of range of different thriller conventions and key elements such as tensions, suspense, shock and surprise being built up throughout which helped to engage the audience more which helped to contribute on how successful our thriller was.


Firstly, there are various conventions that are included within any thriller genre. Some of these conventions are the use of an antagonist and protagonist. This means that the films contains a villain (antagonist) and also a hero/good guy (antagonist). For example, these conventions can evidently seen within 'Batman' films. This could be by Batman himself being the protagonist as he plays the role of the hero within the film as he saves many lives. The role of the antagonist can be seen within the role of the Joker as he takes many peoples lives away and is seen as the villain. These are essential within a thriller as they determine the type of relationship that is built between them and the audience, resulting in the audience to engage more within the film. Within my sequence, we included the role of the antagonist and included it within Elizabeth's character as she murdered Kane's character.  Also, another convention is the use of hidden identity. This is conventional as it helps to create more tension, suspense and enigma which then helps the audience to become more engaged within the film as they want to know who the antagonist is. This conventional can evidently be seen in 'Insidious 2' as they do not reveal who the murder is. I included this for half my sequence as Kane's disappearance was a mystery until another character showed the audience that it was Elizabeth's innocent character. I included this convention within my own sequence as I found it contributes to the high tension levels and keeps the atmosphere mysterious which is ideal for a thriller film. Furthermore, another convention is the use of blood. This is conventional as it builds up a high intensity and tension level as it will immediately alert the audience that someone has died which would engage them more within the film. For example, this convention can be evidently seen within films such as 'Saw V' as when the victim is getting murdered the audience can see his blood within the camera frame. I included this convention within my sequence at the point where Elizabeth's character reveals to the camera the blood around her mouth suggesting that she has just eaten someone. This is ideal, as the audience are now finding out her true identity which is helping them to engage more as they want to know whether there is anything else they don't know.

In my sequence, we  have included a range of generic conventions such as the use of low-key lighting. This was conventional as it contributed to the high levels of suspense and makes the atmosphere more mysterious. This could be evidently seen within our sequence throughout the whole sequence as we felt if we only used low key lighting then the narrative would be too predictable and wouldn't impact the audience as much as it could therefore resulting in the sequence not reaching its full potential. We discussed that if we use the low key lighting  For instance, at the start when Bella goes missing the low key lighting suggest that this is mysteriously dangerous behaviour and as the light doesn't brighten as the sequence continues, this suggest that the danger is within the region. Also, it engages the audience more as it makes the scenario more dangerous and builds the tension. I also included the element of blood within the sequence at the point where Elizabeth's character turns to the camera to reveal the blood around her mouth suggesting that she has just murdered someone by eating them. This could be identified at the point where the close up camera reveals Betties true identity. This is conventional as it raises the tension that she has just eaten Kane and also states that someone has died which then builds up the suspense and intensity of whether there will be a second victim and engages the audience more by making them feel paranoid. Moreover, I have also included the element of an antagonist in which could be identified when Bettie faces the camera and the blood is shown around her mouth. This is conventional as it displays that she has killed someone and engages the audience more as the relationship has changed now that her true identity has been revealed. Furthermore, this can also be unconventional towards the genre as commonly the role of the antagonist is played by a male as they tend to be more dominant and powerful than a female, which changes the relationship with the audience as it builds a sudden shock. I not only followed the generic conventions but also challenged the conventions because I wanted to make my sequence more unique because if I followed a typical thriller storyline then the audience would be shocked and could easily predict what is going to happen which then ruins the impact that the sequence has on the audience whereas if I challenge the conventions by experimenting with a range of different conventions then not only is the sequence less predictable but the audience would be more impacted as they would be more surprised. For example, I included a female antagonist as it would be a bigger surprise towards the audience as they would typically predict one of the male characters to be the antagonist because of their characteristics.

My opening sequence defines the genre as it consist of a range of different generic conventions such as hidden identity, low key lighting, antagonist etc and builds up the key elements (shock, surprise, suspense & tension) throughout which is essential for this genre. Also, a small fright is included to give the audience a small scare and jump so that they do not lose interest. Furthermore, it states and displays the antagonist and victims and helps the relationships to be built. I can relate my sequence to successful thrillers such as Saw V. The different Saw movies are all famous successful thriller films as they contain a range of conventions and also give the fright that a thriller needs. In Saw, the antagonist is 'Jigsaw' which is a evil masked doll so isn't a typical antagonist. Just like in my sequence, I use a female that murders people which is unusual as female are not usually expected to take part in a role of a murderer, Also, Saw films consist of a low key lighting which makes the atmosphere appear more dangerous and mysterious as it includes a lot of tension and suspense. The use of low key lighting can also be seen throughout my sequence as it helps build the tension and engages the audience more. The title of my sequence is called 'DEVOUR' which is another word for 'Eaten'. This title is conventional towards a thriller genre as the word 'eaten' suggest that something has been murdered caused by it being eaten suggesting an animal or cannibal is the antagonist within the sequence which builds the tension up. We chose to use 'Devour'  has most people are unfamiliar with this term so the storyline wouldn't be predictable and ruin the impact on the audience which would then make our sequence more successful.