In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
At the start of our thriller we have an ident and a production company. These are used at the start of a film to put our stamp on our thriller opening to show that this is our product that we have made. The ident is a few seconds long that represents our distribution company that exhibited the film and then we have the logo after that, that represents our production company that produced or made the film. Real media product have idents and production company logos at the start of their films. For example, Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban's ident (distribution company) is Warner Bros. and their production companies are Heyday films and 1492 pictures.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
At the start of our thriller opening we see Alex following Stacey this is a convention of a real thriller because in a lot of thriller films there is a stalker. We see stalkers mainly in thriller films. For example, in single white female, having split from her fiancee Allison Jones welcomes new room mate Hendra Carlson. The young women quickly form a bond, but as Allison starts to rethink her engagement Hendra grows jealous and hostile. As Allison learns new details about her new room mates life, Hendra gets violent in her efforts to get sam out of the picture. With Hendra turning more menacing by the minute, Allison finally realises what she is up against. Even though the stalkers in our thriller and single white female have different motives they are still both stalking somebody which uses the conventions of thrillers. Stalking is a convention of a thriller as it creates tension for the viewers watching, viewers don't know what's going to happen and when it is going to happen, therefore the tension makes it a thriller.
Here is a very good opening sequence for a real media product that I have found called the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
David Fincher films tend to have excellent opening credit sequences (click here to see the Panic room). In the case of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, they are gritty, futuristic and visually spectacular. Director David Fincher intended the opening sequence to be the "personal nightmare" of the character Lisbeth Salander.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - Single White Female
At the end of our thriller opening Stacey, one of the main characters, turns out to be quite psychotic as we see her kidnap Alex because he threatens to tell everyone what her dad has done to her. Stacey then turns psychotic and kidnaps Alex to stop him from telling anyone and to give him a very harsh warning. A real life product that is similar to this is psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. In this film we see the main character turn psychotic and kill a woman. Again even thought the motives are different from Psycho and our thriller both of the main characters turn psychotic. This is a thriller convention as characters are put in a dangerous situation which creates tension for the audience watching.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - Psycho
A theme throughout the film is that the character's are playing psychological mind games. For example, at the start of our thriller opening we see Alex threatening to tell everyone about what Stacey's dad did to her, this is him playing psychological mind games to get Stacey to tell everyone before he does. Also at the end of the tim again we see Stacey wearing a mask with Alex tied up where we see Stacey taunting Alex which makes the audience unaware of what is going to happen next. This is a convention of a thriller as it creates suspense because we do not know what Stacey is going to do to Alex and what is going to happen next. A real life media product that is similar to ours is the game. This is a film about a wealthy San Francisco franchiser who gets a strange birthday present from his wayward brother. A live-action game that consumes his life. This is similar to our thriller as his brother is playing psychological mind games with his brother. This is a convention of a thriller as again it creates suspense and tension for the audience as to what is going to happen to him and his brother and also the character is in a dangerous situation which also creates tension for the audience.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - The Game
The iconography used in our thriller uses the convention of a thriller as there are weapons used. In our thriller we see Stacey follow Alex after he has been waiting for her outside and then hit him over the head with a glass bottle. This iconography that is used accepts the conventions of a thriller as it creates tension and suspense for the audience and and gets the audience thinking what is going to happen to him. A real life media product that is similar to our is the departed in this scene from the departed we see a man get hit over the head with a glass where a fight then break out. This is a convention of a thriller as it creates tension for the audience because no one knows who is going to get hurt or what is going to happen to the characters. No one knew it was going to happen so it was unexpected which also build suspense which also makes it a convention of a thriller.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - The Departed
A genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single minded goal to provide thrills and keep the audience hanging on the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards a climax. Tension usually arises when the main character is placed in a threatening situation, mystery or a dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened usually because the principle character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved is a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other.
Near the start of out thriller there is a flashback. In this scene we see Stacey having a flashback of her dad hitting her where she is cowering up the corner. Flashbacks are a tool where the screenwriter provides the audience with visual information that they cannot incorporate into the screenplay any other way. The purpose of the flashback is that it is a technique that bridges time, place and action to reveal information about the character or move the story forward. A real life media product similar to our thriller is usual suspects. There is a very effective use of a flashback in this film. The usual suspects flashback introduce us to the story told by captured con man Verbal Kint about his criminal associates and a mysterious hit man known as Keyser Soze. While the tale is full of violence, it's not the images in the flashbacks themselves that provoke us. The flashback uses a confused and jumpy style. We are still disorientated by the flashbacks as a criminal is using them to tell the story which makes the audience question their sincerity. Also the flashbacks become part of the puzzle that folds in on itself when the truth is revealed. This is a good convention of a thriller as it allows the audience to unfold the story behind the characters and their lives.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - The Usual Suspects
In our thriller we challenge the convention of a thriller because instead of having the man stalk the woman, which is what stereo typically happens, we have the woman stalking the man. In our thriller at the start we think it is Alex that is stalking Stacey but in the end we actually realise that it is Stacey that end up stalking Alex. This shocks the audience as women are stereo typically seen to be the more vulnerable sex and men the more powerful sex. However, in our thriller we challenging this by changing it around. A real media product that is similar to our film is Chuck and Buck. In this film we see a man stalking a man who is also his best friend this challenges the conventions of a thriller as stereo typically it is normally a man stalking a woman who he doesn't really know but here we see a man stalking a man who is also his best friend.
Our Thriller Never Look Back
Real Media Product - Chuck and Buck
My next post will be evaluation question 2.
