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

1. In my opening sequence I aimed for a psychological thriller, as this was

the most popular choice, which I found from my research and my own personal taste. The conventions used that make a thriller what a thriller is, is the canted angles and dull colours which sets an un-easy atmosphere for the viewer. Without this, the thriller wouldn’t be easily noted genre wise so the camera and colour has quite a large impact on the setting. To achieve this I did all the camera angles hand held and set at strange angles in some areas, leaving more of a mystery as to what’s going on which will eventually be foretold later in the film. The setting of the film I wanted to be unpleasant and eerie which I took main influence from such thrillers as ‘seven’, openings for these sort of films are unpleasant setting the atmosphere for the following film. The area I was using was also used to represent the character in the opening sequence as this portrayal is supposed to be picked up quick. The character I created is dark and twisted yet still has some innocence left in him. This was portrayed in several of the scenes such as the still shot of the spider in the dark area. The spider being a most fearful thing among the human mind yet the spider is innocent, as it doesn’t choose to be like that. The surrounding of the darkness as well shows its isolation and how it’s surrounded by all of this hatred, which the main character has and it upsets him yet he can’t help it. The conventions used in my opening sequence do set the idea of what the genre is. The use of scenery and props set the tone as to be this dark and ill place and the accompany of the music as well which has been made to sound tense and eerie, making the viewer feel uncomfortable already and they know straight away that the character being shown is not one to trust yet a sense of pity is there for the character as you see that he is not happy with what he does hence the smashing of this isolated room. Specific scenes that accompany the conventions portrayal I’d say is such scenes as the images of the rusted nails and swinging hook with the low lighting setting the atmosphere, as these scenes are aiming to be uncomfortable. Scenes such as the rusted nails are quite a popular convention in thriller films, as the nails can relate to pain, which is a typical familiarity in thriller films. The scenery used fits well into the conventions that are highly common in thrillers. The room being in its state showing this horrible and dirty look accompanies the idea of what genre this film is, its look highly represents the antagonist. The lighting also accompanies the set bringing a darker tone to the atmosphere making this place to be judged as evil and with the antagonist being there he is judged by his surroundings.

The music accompanying the scene has been created with the heavy use of droned noises and reverb creating this suspenseful and tense atmosphere. I also recorded a guitar with a very dense amount of chorus and reverb to create this heavy atmospheric sound and with an addition of delay. With the sound in place I recorded several different pick scratches creating these strange noises that fitted perfectly for creating the right atmosphere for the opening sequence. This is quite a modern and popular convention for most thrillers these days, such films as ‘Seven’, ‘silence of the lambs’ and ‘Shutter Island’. These soundtracks are designed to create a heavy amount of tension and mystery as to what’s going to happen in the film. The setting of the film is also set giving the audience an idea of what t expect.