AS Evaluation-Q1

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

Usually, thriller films use successful conventions to try and make their thriller more spiced up and acceptable to the needs of the targeted audience and create the 3 S` (suspense, shock and surprise). 

Many of the conventions are directly involved with the characters, iconography, lighting, etc. I decided to use a few of these conventions for my product because I wanted to create a successful opening sequence. This is why I needed to create the opening sequence with convection such as a blond victim. 

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One of the conventions that I used was with the characters. In my thriller I used the stereotypical blond victim. I used it as many members of the world population believe that blond women are more vulnerable and susceptible to being on the less intelligent side. This should create suspense as the audience will be waiting for something interesting to happen to Stacy. In thrillers such as "Scream", the use of a blonde victim 

Another convention which I used was in the  iconography, in particular the use of a knife. The reason for choosing a knife rather than a gun or a machete is because it is a blunt weapon, which means that it is quiet when operated and can make the victim twist in pains in order to display its discomfort. Also more blood can be displayed by the victim in order to be able to further shock the audience. Knife weapons are also usually assosciated with the thriller and horror genre as the murderers want to be silent in order to surprise their next victim (Something which the pistol or semi-machine gun can not achieve). In my thriller, there was a scene where the killer enters the house and then chooses a knife and goes upstairs to surprise Stacy (The wife). Another reason for me to choose the knife was because it is a more affordable and accessible weapon.

Another convention which I used was in the setting. I used a standard British house in a suburb town as it makes the audience believe that even in a normal household a perillous situation might be inevitable. Another reason why I used it was because the audience can relate to it as they also live in a house like the one I had used. 

 In order to spice up the cocktail of emotions, which the target audience was recieveing we wanted  and did use a conventional POV shot with which we put the audience in the shoes of the killer. This way, the stress between them will increase.and complete one of the 3`s. The use of POV is conventional as in many thriller films such as "Jaws", it is used in order to either keep the identity of the killer or to create tension between the audience as they will have no idea what might happen.

The identity of the villain is meant to be an enigma for the audience so we decided to use the convention of masks and gloves in order to keep the identity hidden. It is normal for the villan to be unable to be seen with his character lines so the use of a mask and gloves, gives the chance of a hidden identity.

Conventionally, low key lighting was used in this scene to show the outline of the victim as she goes to throw away the rubbish (In the case of the rough cut)/When going upstairs to her room(The Final opening sequence). The low key lighting displays the time of the day and gives the incentive to the audience that unknown events are available to happen. Thus the convention is completed and appropriately used










*Some of the pictures used are from our Rough Cut post as they are better examples at displaying the certain conventions. The actors which we used after we gathered our results are displayed in the character representation question (Evaluation Question 2). The reason was that after we gathered the results, the targeted audience preferred the main characters to be older, so we did comply with their demand. Also the setting has been slightly changed as the previous house had central lighting, rather than lamps with which to full fill the essential low key lighting.