Question One – In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?
A thriller is a type of film that
typically involves crime, espionage and an exciting plot. Some of the most
common sub genres of a thriller are crime, super natural, film noir, medical,
action, Sci-fi, disaster, romance. Because the opening to my thriller is set in
a church, it may appear that the sub-genre is religious. But, because of the
plot of my thriller, the sub-genre is crime. I have chosen the crime sub-genre
because my research into my target audience portrayed that this would be the
best sub-genre to use. There are certain elements of this sub-genre that I feel
I have portrayed in my thriller opening. One of these elements is that I have
casted a male to play the role of the protagonist. By using a male protagonist
my thriller uses the common convention of the male taking the lead role. I
chose to use a male because of the feedback that I got from the questionnaire I
gave out. But, one other element of my thriller has been developed into
something that in not common to see in this genre, young love. The characters
for this genre of film are most commonly played by male or females between the ages
of 30 to 45 years old, sometimes even 50. This is why that the age of my
characters (17 years old) is unusual to see in this sub-genre.
There are also conventions for the
shot types, editing, and mise-en-scene. After watching and making notes on
popular opening to thrillers I learnt that the most important things to do in
the first three minutes are to set the scene e.g. As show where the film is
set, build tension by using close ups or sound and also to establish the main
characters.
I chose to watch the openings to No
Country for Old Men, Drive and Sky fall. All of these within the first five
minutes showed where the film is set, built tension with action and established
the main characters. This inspired me to concentrate on these three aspects
when coming up with an idea for my thriller.
Some of the conventions that stood
out to me in two of the opening that I watched, drive and sky fall, are that
the protagonists face is often covered with shadows, this could be to show that
he has a hidden past or it could be used to build tension and make the audience
wonder who is the character they haven't seen yet. This is something I took in to consideration
and felt that one of the characters should either be masked or have his/hers
identity hidden with shadows or close ups on curtain parts of their face. I
also liked the voice over in No Country for Old Men. I liked the way that it
built the tension slowly and also gave you information on who the police were
dealing with. After watching the No Country for Old Men opening I was considering about having a voice over for my thriller but
then it dawned on me that it would have to be worded perfectly and that if it
wasn’t the tension wouldn’t be built enough to have an impact on the audience. Another
problem would be that the voice of the voice over would have to fit in with the
genre, for example the voice over for the opening in No Country for Old Men has
a western accent which fits the location of the movie.
When I watched the opening to
Drive, I thought that the dark city was effective for creating an atmosphere
and tension. I did think about shooting but because of the low quality of the
camera, the city wouldn’t be clear and the opening wouldn’t be effective. I did
shoot part of my opening at night and I feel that there is a likeness between
the two images below.
Another convention that I feel I
have used is setting the scene. I have compared this screen shot of my thriller
to the opening of No Country for Old Men and although my shot is not an extreme
long shot, there are still significant aspects that are similar, for example
the position of the stone wall in my opening and the position of the fence in
No Country for Old Men.
This screen shot of my thriller and
a screen shot from the opening to Drive and almost identical in the way they
are laid out and what is on show on the screen.
This tells me that I have used the common convention of using a close up
of what a certain part of the body is doing. Like Drive I have also included a
watch as a prop. By using a watch I am foreshadowing that the protagonist
doesn’t have much time left.
Although the camera is at a
different side in each of these screen shots, there is a rebalance between the
two because of the dark silhouette of the protagonist. The main difference
between them is that in my thriller the protagonist is sitting alone with no
one around him but in the screen shot from Sky Fall James Bond is about to step
in to a buzzing market place.
No comments:
Post a Comment