1. Question 1
In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
2. My Product: Typical Thriller/ horror
conventions:
My Production – use,
develop or challenge:
Comparison to existing
products:
Titling – colour,
font and style:
It is typical of a horror movie to use dark
font, the colour tends to be in the grey-
scale. They also usually use a bold font to
create a dramatic impact from the
beginning. The screen behind the titles is
usually dark, as colours such as black and
grey, connote danger and fear.
Our title of our film challenges the
typical conventions of a horror film by
placing the title at the very end of the
film, we did this because we want the
audience to keep focused on the plot
and then when the screen cuts from a
shot of a photograph we place the
titles there, we did this for a dramatic
effect. We also used a black screen
and placed the bold titles over in
white, we did this to show the effect
of the two different personalities that
you meant in the beginning of the
film.
We thought ‘Silence of The Lambs’
title was similar to ours as the bold
font is placed over a dark
background, it also doesn’t use any
sort of transition so it gets straight to
the point, we believe this to be
effective because it grips the
audience. Our film is called ‘On The
Line,’ we chose this because the plot
of the film is about a young female
who doesn’t use online social
networking in a safe way, she also
puts herself in danger and the
majority of the film is based on a
train line. She also calls the polices
phone line at the end of the two
minutes with the titles in place,
because she’s in danger.
Camera
movement:
To set the scene in a thriller/horror,
they tend to use panning shots to
grip the audience and display the
environment.
We began with a medium close-up to
get to know the characters where
about and characteristics, we didn’t
show the murders face as we wanted
to build suspense. This challenges the
conventions of a horror film because
thriller/horrors tend to begin with a
panning shot.
In ‘Too Young To Die?’ it starts off
as a medium close up of one of the
main characters to get to know
them. This challenges the typical
conventions as usually we are
introduced to the setting before the
characters. This makes our film
similar to this film.
3. Framing a shot –
cu, mcu, ect:
Long shots are frequently used
to let the audience get an idea
of the environment. ECU and
MCU are used to connect with
a character or get to know
their emotions.
We used a variety of different
shots, we began with MCU of
the characters actions and
then further on in our film we
used ECU to portray the main
characters emotions, we
thought it would be a good
way to convey in particular
the venerable teenage girls
emotions because she was in
deep fear.
Using an ECU into the characters
face was similar to the film
‘Psycho’ when they took an
extreme close up of the
characters eye. In ‘The Call,’ they
use an ECU when the female
character picks up the phone in
fear, this is represented by the
glossy glow that we can see in her
eyes.
Camera angle –
low, high:
To show the characters
vulnerability horror/thrillers
are usually shot from a high
angle to show the killers point
of view and their dominance.
We challenged this
convention by using shots
that were from the
perspective of the other
character, for example when
the female is standing on
the train platform and can
see her murderer on the
other side of the platform.
In ‘The Lovely Bones’ the movie is
from a dead girls perspective, this
is similar to ours as we follow the
characters lives through.
Mise-en-scene: A dark costume is generally
used for the killer, sometimes
the killers face is also covered
to hide their identity. Props
that can cause harm are usually
used – knives, sharp objects,
blood stained towels etc.
Lighting is usually low – key,
this builds suspense and fear.
Quiet, eerie music is usually
We developed this idea by
putting the characters in
casual clothing, we did this in
particular because our target
audience is likely to wear
these outfits to it could be
relatable in their lives. We
also used gloomy lighting to
create tension. We used
props
Our film is similar to ‘Creep’
because they’re both set at
train stations, it has a
different plot but it
represents the idea that there
can be many dangers with
train stations.
4. used to build tension.
Naturalistic make – up and
costumes are used to make
it more realistic.
such as blood stained
towels, weapons, gloves
etc.
Editing – jump cuts,
match cuts, reverse
shots, cutting rhythm:
The cutting rhythm is
usually fast when action is
happening. Reverse shots
are usually used, this can be
seen as dialogue especially
when something bad is
about to happen.
Fluid, fast pace shots were
used in the beginning to
jump straight into the
storyline. The long shots
are on screen for a longer
time, this is to make the
film more dramatic, for
example the shots of the
main female character
sitting down waiting for
her train. This makes the
audience feel empathy for
her.
In ‘Silence of The Lambs’ you
follow the character running
through the woods, this is
similar to ours as we use a long
cutting rhythm in parts to build
suspense.
Sound: Sound in thriller/horrors
tends to be very dramatic in
parts with the use of an
orchestra etc. Or it may be
very quiet with ambient
sound. Sound is very
important to create tension
or to build a dramatic
storyline. High pitched
music is often used as it is
unpleasant and fits the face
paced cuts.
My production used this by
making the music match the
cuts in the film – this had an
impact as the music was in
sync. The music also sped up
when something more
dramatic happened.
In ‘Jaws’ when the shots sped
up and got more dramatic the
music became a lot more fast
pace. The use of high pitched
noises in our film and Jaws
means that the audience feel
slightly uncomfortable and on
edge. We also used varies
pieces of other sound effects,
such as a text tone, police
siren, traffic and a train pulling
into the station.
5. Narrative: A thriller/horror usually
contains a killer who is
either suspected as
being strange from the
start or is completely
unexpected. They are
commonly male and are
after a young, pretty,
female.
My production used
the typical storyline of a
thriller but instead we
wanted to send out a
message and as our
target audience was the
age range most likely to
use social media we
decided that we could
combine it about a
teenage girl who uses
social
networking/dating
websites and ends up
getting herself in a very
dangerous situation.
Our film is similar to the film
‘Unfriended’ in the sense that its
about teenagers using social
networking in a dangerous way and
getting themselves into situations
they can’t get out of.
