Question 1

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

A thriller is something that thrills the audience and what makes them be on the edge of their seats. It is adding tension to most of the film; normally a certain genre builds the plot, which leads up towards the climax. Normally a thriller follows a characters life and involvement of what is happing in the film such as a death or shock to the audience. The sub-genre that we choose is crime, we choose this because we were going for a Sherlock Holm's approach as everyone in our group had seen it. The conventions in Sherlock Holm’s are that during action scenes there is fast paced editing and lots of close ups to see the emotion on the face of the actors.  We felt that this was a strong point for bases of what to add into are thriller. The elements of the genre that we used were the building up to a cliffhanger to keep the audience on edge and wandering what will happen next. The ideas from Sherlock Holm’s that we used and developed were the flash backs to where the action had taken place and what is happing on in his head trying to piece together a mystery death. We developed this idea by putting in a flash of white, which changes the Sherlock Holm’s version where when he flashes back in his head, which has a white filter over the whole scene. We also choose crime as a sub genre as between the group we felt like we had a strong group of actors to be able to play the typical characters in a crime thriller. There are many typical characters in a thriller and many different stereotypes such as the females are always the weaker ones. The male is normally built up strong so he reason that we used Luke as the main character was because he was built up. We used Sam as the victim as he was the smallest; this follows the typical conventions of a thriller such as James Bond.   

The conventions of an ordinary thriller is that there are a lot of close ups to create tension, this gives the audience a sense of mystery and they wonder where the action is happing, it does this by not showing the audience the surroundings of the actor. An extreme long shot would be used to show where the place of action would be set usually in a vast big environment. The location could also be in a well-known location such as a famous landmark as this could bring the audiences emotion into the thriller. There is normally low-key lighting to build a mysterious feel on set; this can be anything from small windows for natural light or small lamps to create a dull and scary environment. The thriller that influenced my group was Sherlock Holm’s; this is both the same genre as well as the sub genre as the one as we were filming. This inspired me as it showed older crime and a strong-minded man who helps solves mysteries.  A sudden rush of emotions would support the narrative used in the thriller and to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, this would help to build up to the climax in the thriller. The mis-en-scene used in the thriller would be also to create tension on the scene, it also determines who all of the characters are. For example somebody who is wearing a black hoodie and genes would be classed as a criminal as that is stereotypical of what they wear. The camera work in the thriller would be mainly close-ups as they create tension, as the audience doesn’t know what is going on around them. 

The normal conventions that are used to make an effective thriller opening are lots of close-ups which show facial emotions and expressions but at the same time don't show what is going on around the actors as there needs to be a sense of mystery about the whereabouts. In most of the thriller openings that I have seen there is no narrative only sound this makes the opening have more tension and could appeal to a larger audience. Fast paced editing is used in the openings to make the audience want to watch the film. The use of sound and mise-en-scene makes the thriller more believable to watch and make the audience feel like they are there with the actors. Fast paced editing is also used, as during action scenes the audience needs to see all of the actors in it. In James Bond there is never a shot more then 5 seconds long during fast paced chase as they want o show how fast they are actually going by changing the angle every 2-3 seconds.

My Work:

Real thrillers inspired my work by following the same style as Sherlock Holm’s, we took certain points in which is in the film. We used the flashback idea, which works well when piecing mysteries together. The title of the film is called classified which is shown in the opening, we choose this name because it suits well in its genre. It is a detective doing classified work of a murder case; the audience doesn't see the dead body until the titles show a picture of him. The typography used is an old style army print as it is all about to ex army personal fighting over a mystery. All of the titles were shown on a notice board to make the audiences feel like they are in the film. The setting in which we choose was an abandoned slaughter house which makes a perfect set for a killing, stereotypically in a thriller the death would be covered as a accident leaving no traces of any idea of who did it. We tried to go anti stereotypical, as we wanted to have a more interest plot for the audience to see that the thriller is different from the rest. We added in makeup to give a better effect to the dead actor, things such as bruises could be found on his face near the right eye. The props that we used were rope, knife and a baton; those were all placed in the thriller to make it more believable. With the use of props it meant that we could focus on them instead of the actors as it follows the typical conventions of a thriller. The camerawork throughout the opening is consistent which makes the action happing on screen more believable. The tiles were worked into the film, which gave it a much smoother feel; this made it easier to film as we didn’t need to worry about any bad places to put a title in. They worked by being integrated into the thriller at various point for example when the actors came up on screen the picture and description would come up too.

The sound used in the film ‘Sherlock Holms’ is made to build tension with certain points related to the music. For example the shooting of a gun in a thriller opening normally has a certain instrument linked to it. The instrument would normally play as the gun shoots. The editing would be fast paced during heavy action scenes and then it will slow down to make and show the audience what pace the film is at. The camera tech used in the thriller would be specific to the relevant shot type. The framing in which we used was mainly the rule of thirds; on the camera there is setting to bring up a grid to get objects and people directly in the middle. We used the golden mean to show the audience all of the props in one shot. The Mis-en-scene used in thrillers is made to look real life, for example the costumes are accurate to what real life versions would be. Also the faces of the actors need to look similar to the real life events so if somebody had been in a fight then they would need to show the blood and bruises. There in our thriller there is no talking, we thought that this would be effective as it creates tension. In real thrillers there would be fitting background music in which would build up to create tension.