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

          

A thriller is usually defined as a novel, play, or film that has an exciting plot, usually involving crime or espionage. There are lots of different sub-genres of the thriller genre, some of these are comedy-thrillers, spy-thrillers, action-thrillers and gangsters however there are many more as the image below shows.



For our thriller film opening we chose the gangster-thriller style as we thought that this was the sub-genre that would appeal most to our audience due to its distinctive conventions and the exciting narrative. This sub-genre would also be fairly easy to film and to get the mise-en-scene right due to the unique costumes such as the ‘gangster hats’ involved. As well as this we felt that we could edit this sub-genre the most and develop it more to create a more effective thriller film opening. For our gangster thriller we had to make sure that the costumes and lighting were correct as well as the sounds as the audience expects a sense of mystery with this genre and by getting these conventions right we could help to achieve this.

Camera

Shot types is one of the most basic conventions used however can wield good effects if used correctly. Close ups and extreme close ups are often used to show fine detail on objects or to emphasise expressions and body language.

 You also get a lot of over the shoulder shots in thriller films so that you can see the expressions on the other person’s face. These are used because it helps to conceal people’s faces as well as long shots and establishing shots which help to set the scene and provide visual evidence of where the film is taking place.

Like in some real thrillers we have used some of the same techniques to show certain things. An example of where we’ve done this is showing items of importance close up which helps to show what genre the film is and show what might be happening. The key shot that we have used which gives this effect is the close up of the gun.

We wanted this shot to show the significant item therefore we used a close up shot and ensured that the composition only showed the item we wanted to focus the audience’s attention on.

Compared to this close up of a significant object in Se7en.

Editing

Clip and sound editing on thriller films is also a key convention as so many different effects can be added or changed such as the feeling of suspense or vulnerability. This includes mise-en-scene changes such as lighting changes, special effects and addition sound or sound changes. Typically there is fast paced editing in thriller films especially during tension building moments making quick flashbacks and shot changes. This gives the effect of excitement and suspense. This helps to add to the tension of a thriller film and gives the sense of lots of action happening which is common in thriller films as it creates excitement which is what the audience expects.

Conventions

To help achieve the best possible results for this genre we used, developed and challenged some conventions of the genre seen in other films. We used the elements of mystery and the narrative to help build tension in our thriller opening and created this by using the appropriate lighting and sound effects.

We also developed a lot of the conventions of this sub-genre into our own style which helped to put our own style on the film opening and make it more interesting. Some of the conventions that we have developed and adapted was the costumes, the narrative and the props.

Costumes are an example of a convention of gangster-thrillers that we adapted to our own style. We used a slight variation in the type of hats the we used in our film and the suits that the gangsters were wearing.  This still worked though and overall looked quite good.

Mise-en-scene

There are some typical gangster costumes seen in gangster thrillers that we used to help us get the correct mise-en-scene. This typical costume is smart dress, usually a suit or something similar along with shiny shoes and a gangster hat. As these are commonly seen in gangster-thriller films we could help add up to the what the audience would be expecting.

Mise-en-scene is very important in thriller films and can be the difference between a successful or non-successful film. Mise-en-scene includes setting, costume, lighting, actors and props. In a thriller film the setting is commonly a busy setting, often a city as this helps to add to the fast pace of shot changes. Depending on the sub-genre the lighting is often quite dark, or can be taking into account the character. For example in the film Se7en the older detective is shown in a lot less light than the young, inexperienced detective as this shows experience and helps to show that the younger detective is perhaps more vulnerable to mistakes. We used these conventions in our thriller film as we showed our villain in quite a lot of light which showed his vulnerability and the fact that he could be in danger but he doesn’t know it.

Costumes, actors and props are often well thought about in thriller films and often correspond to something important later on such as a gun that may be used to kill someone. Sometimes props and costumes can also give an insight into a character’s personality and can give clues to the audience of what they’re like such as the clock in Se7en and the way it demonstrates how the detective gets away from his job.

Sound

By creating the thriller opening with nobody speaking and just diegetic and non-diegetic sound it made the audience ask a lot of questions and therefore helped to create this added mystery. These questions and mystery are typical of thriller openings as it helps to make the audience interested and makes them wonder what is going to happen. Due to this the audience is more likely to continue to watch the rest of the film and the film is therefore more likely to be successful overall.

Sound is an important convention of thriller films. Sound can be added during editing to enhance and emphasise points. Using the correct sound can wield effective results by adding to the tension and excitement of the thriller film. It can also demonstrate danger or vulnerability and fast music/sound can add to the fast pace of thriller films.

Narrative

The narrative is probably one of the most important conventions of a thriller film as it dictates how the film will proceed. The narrative needs to be exciting with plenty of action but with some mystery involved therefore giving the audience something to think about and keep them interested. Flashbacks are often used to demonstrate time passing.

What we really gained from watching thriller openings like Shutter Island and No Country for Old Men was the knowledge not to release too much information about the narrative. I learned that a certain amount of information needs to be given in order to pull the audience in and make them interested however too much can have bad consequences as some mystery needs to be present to suit the genre of film we were trying to produce. We incorporated this by revealing just enough information to make the audience interested and want to continue to watch the film however didn’t reveal enough to show what was going to happen or to be too obvious about the narrative.

An example of this would be the close ups on the characters faces allowing us to see the expressions and body language. We sourced this technique from No Country For Old Men where we see close up of the villains face while he is strangling the police officer.

This is a point of view shot. We included this shot as we wanted it to show what the victim was experiencing and how it may look to him. The framing of this shot ensures that we can only see the villain and nothing else therefore focusing the audience’s attention on him.

Titles

An additional convention used in a thriller opening is the titles of the film. There are many different styles of adding titles to a film opening including the over the film type whereby the film doesn’t stop while the titles are on and the title are just laid over the picture. Titles are very effective especially if styled in the correct way. One of the most effective titles I have seen was the titles of Se7en which were great quality and showed items used throughout the rest of the film. They were effective because they related to the film and showed important and significant objects that were used later on in the film.