AS Evaluation - Question 1

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

A thriller is a genre it is either a book or film which is used to keep the audience/reader on edge with suspenseful and sensational action - wisegeek.com

For my media product we focused on the thriller(film) genre. There are many generic conventions that belong to a thriller film. The murderer/killer is known as the antagonist and the antagonist almost always has to have a protagonist - this creates opposites (villain vs victim), this contrast can also be referred to as good and evil. Low-key lighting, hidden identity, blonde female victim, certain iconography and more. These generic conventions are all used to support each other and create the effect of the 3 s's (Surprise, shock and suspense) for the audience.

Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It is a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. It has three point lighting uses key light, fill light and a back light illumination. - Wikipedia. Low-key lighting has a dark look which creates suspense and only shows parts of the surroundings, which creates enigma. Successful films such as SAW used low-key lighting. This is shown in SAW V (the picture is below) The low key lighting creates a contrast of light and darkness which also relates to the theme of the film/narrative (good and evil). This lighting creates tension for the audience watching as you can't see what's going to happen which then may make the audience feel nervy and inquisitive. 

Low-key lighting also creates shadows, these shadows create a sense of paranoia and anxiety for the audience as we don't know what's going to happen next and these shadows make it seem like the antagonist has already gotten to the protagonist. For example, In the film 'prom night' the Lisa chase scene we see a lot of shadows. During this high impact, fast editing scene it effects the audience by making them feel confused and nervy as the shadows made the audience not able to see where the antagonist really was. Low key lighting also creates an eerie atmosphere as we can't see the location clearly. The low key lighting also creates a mood for the audience, as dark is associated with bad moods, unhappiness and depression. This then transfers these negative moods to the audience which then allows them to connect with the situation the characters in and have these negative feelings towards the antagonist. And as it is a generic convention the audience will already know that the low-key lighting scene is associated with negativity/horror.

In thriller films the identity of the villain is almost always hidden or made unknown to the audience until a later time. This is to create mystery and again create tension for the audience, because if the identity was known to the audience from the opening scene the narrative would be quite hard to carry on, as you'd need a very good narrative to keep it going. One film that revealed the identity fairly quickly was the film 'Halloween' in the opening scene. Before the identity was revealed it made the audience inquisitive and more focused on the film and cinematography as the audience want to know what is going to happen next as they don't know who the main character was as the camera only showed the characters/villains view point. This was interesting as it created enigma and excitement for the audience to continue watching. And once the murder scene occurred it made us wonder why the villain did this, which makes it even more interesting as the audience starts to build up anticipation and tension to want to find out who the killer is. This built up suspense and once the murder scene happened it created shock and the reveal of the killer created shock. This is a good example of the 3s's occuring in one scene.

Hidden identity also makes the audience want to see the informative part of the film which answers all their questions. This shows how much enthusiasm the audience has for the film all through the use of hidden identity. Another film which used hidden identity successfully were the scream movies. In the film scream 1 it made the audience wonder who the person under the costume is and what their motives are. In  scream 1 the mask worn was also worn with a black gown this made the villain appear as something real and you forget that the villain is fictional and the really actor is the person behind the costume. I think this made the film even more scary as it felt as if the character was not human and lacked any emotion and wouldn't give up. So this made the audience constantly feel anxious about what was going to happen next.

The theme of antagonist vs. protagonist is also kept in a lot of thriller films as it is a generic convention that the audience are use to seeing. The antagonist vs. protagonist gives the theme of good vs. evil and dark vs. light. This then allows the audience to see things from two points of views and have a judgement on the two opposite characters. The reason this is used is so the audience has feelings towards the characters whether negative or positive. These feelings are then allowing the audience to connect with the film and/or the characters which keeps the audience entertained. Antagonist vs. Protagonist theme also allows the producers.directors to include fighting scenes, chase scenes and argument scenes. This again creates entertainment and excitement for the audience. This theme usually makes the audience sympathetic towards the victim. This victim is then made to seem innocent, vulnerable due to the victim coming across as weaker than the villain in the chase scenes, fighting scenes etc. And the victim is usually very relate-able to the thrillers target audience, (typically young people, but not always) so that they will then put themselves in that position and feel even more sympathetic towards the victim. So I feel that this theme is put in place for many reasons.

In the film se7en the theme of villain vs victim is clear with the involvement of police officers. This film includes several victims, these victims all die which makes them come across as weak, vulnerable and causes the audience to feel empathetic towards those victims as they are somewhat displayed as 'not strong enough' to defend themselves from a evil character. As the evil character/murderer in the film is displayed to be a psychopath who has mental problems. The film also displayed the killings in a brutal way to have a negative view towards the man (villain). Therefore, this theme distorts our view and allows us to have these normal and typical judgments of these characters due to their doings in the film and how they are portrayed to the audience. Which then allows the audience to side with who they feel is in greater need of help and who's situation they can relate to the most.

   Victims in thriller films the victim is typically Blonde this is another generic convention. Blonde victims are used because f the stereotypes that surround them, not very clever, ditsy, vulnerable and innocent. These stereotypical characters aren't true in real life but in films these characteristics of a character allows us to feel sympathetic towards the victim. Feeling as they didn't know any better and that they didn't deserve it. Blonde victims are used in many scream and saw sequels. A few images to support these points are below. I also think a female victim is used because females usually display emotions better this is probably a stereotype. But in media men are supposed to be less emotional and more macho. Where as women are the more emotional ones who are not really looked down on if they cry or scream. So In thriller films when a women is attacked they make more of a 'fuss' which then scares the audience even more as they almost feel sick for watching this happen.

The next convention is iconography. Iconography are the props used in a frame. Thriller films typically use iconography such as phones and knives. Phones are used in the film as contact with someone who can provide them help or to show how normal there life was before the villain came or contact with the villain. This phone can have a lot of impact as it can be the reason a character lives and also makes the audience high with adrenaline, excitement and tension as they the victim to survive or escape. Phones are used in many thriller is one thriller that focuses a lot on the phone is scream 3 the scene 'the cutting room'. The phone was used for contact between the villain and the victim. This phone created mystery along with the scary dialogue (from the villain) and also allowed us to see the reactions of the victim (Sarah). This then showed us her facial expressions and made us panic with her as we the audience didn't know what was going to happen next.

Another type of generic iconography in thriller films that seems almost vital is a knife. A knife to anyone in the audience shows danger and quickly signals death when held in the hands of someone dangerous. Knifes are also very important as it shows control, the person with the knife has the most control as they have the choice whether the person lives or not. This choice can also cause tension for the audience as we don't know whether the villain is actually going to follow through, where he's going to attack the victim and if we are going to see all the goriness. One example of a thriller that used knives really well was the film is fatal attraction the scene is called 'Bathroom Brawl'. The clip can be viewed below, once you watch it you will understand my point on control. 

A knife also allows the film to show the audience the brutalness of the murder as a gun would not do that it would only shock us by the sound but hardly terrify us. But the sound of the knife and the response of characters pain from the knife. Makes the audience so terrified they look away and the film starts to give a sense of realism as we forget that it's just fiction and none of this is just a film. So a knife can really share the audience but then make us feel sympathetic towards the victim that was murdered.

Lastly, cinematography contributes heavily to the success of many thriller films. A typical, generic shot would be close ups and mid shots. Close ups are used to display the characters face close up this is so the audience can read the characters face and see what they feel like and then channel that facial expression into sympathy for them. And allow us to then connect with the characters. I have mentioned this point a lot but one of the main aims for a thriller is to connect the audience and the on screen actors. Because if we didn't we the film wouldn't seem realistic and would possibly just com across as funny. A great example of a close up would be in the film psycho the shower scene. It allowed the audience to feel how the victim was feeling and feel how terrified she was in that situation and then imagine how terrified we would be in that position.

There were a lot of ways our film followed some of the generic conventions. The main conventions we used were female victim, low-key lighting, hidden identity and certain iconography.

In our film the victim was a female, this allowed the audience to feel sympathetic towards her and feel like she's a vulnerable, innocent character who had no reason to be attacked by the villain. By using a female character in the film allowed the audience to connect with her. 

Another generic convention I feel like I used well was low-key lighting. I feel like we used low-key lighting well especially right at the beginning of the clip. The aim of using low-key lighting was to create a feel for the audience and to build up to tension by the darkness. I felt that the low-key lighting created an eerie atmosphere for the audience and created a lot of tension especially when paired with the sound. The low-key lighting in my thriller really set the scene as the location was unknown and was mysterious to the audience so low-key lighting made it hard for the audience to see the full surroundings and made them wonder why this house (door 16) was chosen. 

Lastly, I think I used the generic convention - iconography, the phone. The phone again built up tension as you didn't know who was calling and you were wondering why they were calling with the caller ID saved as silent. This created mystery for the audience again and built up anticipation and anxiety to see what would follow. The phone was used as communication between the victim and villain. Even though the villain did not speak again it created that sense of mystery.

 In thriller films micro-elements are also used, Micro means film elements such as cinematography, sound, editing, narrative, genre, mise-en-scene. For cinematography we used generic conventions such as close up shots and mid shots. Close ups are used to show characters facial expressions and mid shots are used to show the importance of a character. I included these shots in my own thriller the reason being because a close up shot really shows the characters emotions. ions clearly. This creates sympathy for the audience to have towards her. Therefore, some close ups cause the audience to sympathize and have a connection with characters.Also the mid shot was used to create the connotation and secret message to the audience to focus on this character and this character will be of great importance in the narrative. Mid shots are used in many thriller films. And in our thriller that is what we aimed to achieve. You can see the actor(victim's) facial expressions and emotions.

I would also say that we developed the use of 'hidden identity' but we may have developed it too much as the identity isn't shown throughout the opening scene. We didn't reveal the antagonist just yet like other films. We felt that by doing that it released enigma to quickly. But the media products that are existing that we think displayed hidden identity the best was Halloween 1978. As it built up a lot of tension and mystery for the audience as we didn't know what to expect. And I feel our film developed the typical theme of hidden identity (mask, for e.g. Scream)

My media film displayed similar attributes of generic films such as, Halloween thriller film 1978. The film Halloween included long shots of houses to set the scene and surroundings for the audience.

  

Halloween long shot

(My thriller) Silent long shot

A long shot is the most difficult to categorize precisely, but is generally one which shows the image as approximately "life" size. It is called a long shot because the camera is placed far away to capture a large area of view.

The long shot was used to introduce the beginning of every scene. It sets in motion the audience's perception of time, place and logical action of the scene that is about to happen. This shot creates an eerie location and shows that the location is unknown and quiet.

Wipe/fade

(My thriller film) Silent 

Halloween film

A video fade is when a shot gradually fades to (or from) a single colour, usually black or white. Fade was used to create enigma and suspense for the audience as you don't know whats going to happen next. Suspense is done to make the audience feel excited, anticipated and distort perceptions.

To conclude, I feel that my media product defined the thriller genre through the use of generic conventions. But we also changed and developed those conventions to make them unique and intrigue our audience to want to watch our film or to continue watching.