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

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

For media, I was asked to create a two minute opening thriller sequence which should appeal to my specific target audience.

There are a variety of conventions which helped me gain inspiration. For example, in the film Mama, low key lighting is used in the scene where the men are looking for the children in an abandoned cabin in the woods. The use of low key lighting suggests to the audience that there is a darkness or an evil presence lurking in the background. This is because the audience can hardly see what is in the home as it is in the dark. This creates suspense for the audience because they are aware that something will appear in the darkness, it is typically seen within thriller films, so, they are used to seeing this happen. Another convention is the female victim. This is seen in the film, Halloween, when an young boy is seen killing his older sister.. This is typically used in thriller films because it makes the female look weaker than the male. This creates shock as the audience do not expect the young boy to kill his sister. Although it is conventional to see a male kill a female, the audience feel surprised because they expect young children to be innocent and naïve, rather than killing family members. In Scream, an obvious convention would be the hidden identity. This is used to make the audience imagine who the person under the mask could be. This then creates the effect of shock and suspense when the person reveals themselves. This is because the audience have not yet seen that masked person, so, when they do see, they are caught off guard because they didn't know what they would look like even though they tried to picture their resemblance in their heads. The fourth convention is the use of a male killer. In the film Psycho, a man is seen killing a young woman. However, the audience do not actually know who it is at first, but find out later which then allows the audience to feel shock as  well as suspense as they wait to see the fate of the female. It is expected by the viewers because they know that the first female seen is the one that is typically killed. In the film, The Strangers' there is sinister music being heard in the background as the young girl approaches the window, only to see the antagonist outside. The use of sinister music makes suspense and tension build up within the audience because they await what is going to happen next. They know that what they'll see will be sinister and dark, so they also feel suspense because they want to see it happen. The last convention I will discuss is the use of death. This is seen in the film, The purge, character is seen dying on the stairs with his family around him. This is seen to represent the evilness in the air and allow the audience to build up their emotions. This creates the element of shock because the audience didn't expect him to die as he was the main character of the film. They also feel sympathy for the family as they are grieving and the audience begin to imagine what it's like to be in the same position.

I believe my thriller products uses conventions of real texts to make my sequence just as successful as other thrillers.

Within my thriller opening sequence, I have used many conventions such as low key lighting. The audience see this as the hostage/hitman unties himself. This can connote to the audience that something bad/sinister is going to happen as the scene is dark and mysterious. This describes low key lighting perfectly. I believe that it can connote that there is evil lurking in the shadows. Low key lighting is a hint to the audience that something sinister is approaching. This creates the effect of shock and suspense as the audience await to see what darkness is going to make itself present. They are engaged within my sequence because it allows them to feel 'thrilled' as they watch on and see the bad things to the man. It gives them a sense of suspense as they anticipate the upcoming events. The use of low key lighting acts as a mist which can be used to hide part of the story from the audience. For example, in the picture, the man is tied up and is bleeding, so, the first thing that the viewers will be wondering is; 'what's happening', so they want to watch on to see how the story progresses.

Another convention is screaming. The use of this is shown when the wife is about to die. I believe that this almost like a warning to the viewers that she is going to die. Also, it highlights her vulnerability, innocence and naiveness. This makes the audience feel sorry for her. This creates shock and suspense as the audience have to wait to see her death. They will feel shocked due to the fact that although it is typically seen in films, and was obvious that it would happen within my sequence, the audience still feel like it was unexpected. This wasn't shown on screen because the audience know what happened. Also, the cut after the scream is very quick because it allowed the killer to be shown, so the audience understand that she has been killed without having to actually see it, this progresses the story further without the audience getting bored of what they are watching. It also allows the audience to think for themselves without having to be shown everything that is going on.

Another is the use of a female victim. As the audience will be able to see, the wife is the female victim within the sequence. She is made to look weak so that the audience will understand her fate straight away. This creates the element of tension and suspense as the viewers must wait for the murder to happen. The use of the female victim makes the audience feel scared, especially girls because they feel as though they are in that position themselves, making them feel scared and vulnerable. I decided to use a female victim within my sequence in order to make the audience feel certain emotions when watching her be killed by the hitman. This makes the thriller sequence more intense because even though the audience feel sympathy for the woman who is being targeted on, they want to watch on to see how the story will progress with this bad event.

The fourth convention is the male killer. Using this is a convention because the males are made to look superior compared to women. Therefore, making it slightly typical. It also makes the audience feel at ease because it is something that they have seen before. This creates tension, shock and surprise for the audience because the events that are occurring currently were very unexpected as the viewers didn't believe that the man would actually go through with the murder of the innocent, young woman. I decided to use a male killer within my opening sequence because i wanted the audience to again, feel a certain way about this character. At first, they feel sympathy for the man because they don't understand why he is tied up and feel bad because they imagine themselves in the same situation. However, as the story progresses they begin to hate him as he makes the wrong decision when he agrees to kill the innocent woman.

Another convention is the use of the hidden identity. In my sequence the texter, 'C' is the one with the hidden identity. This is conventional because it allows the audience to imagine who it could be and what they look like. This allows them to use their imagination. This creates shock for the audience as they expected the antagonist to be shown and present within the scenes rather than on a phone. This makes the audience feel scared because they can't see them, making them feel smaller, and less powerful than 'C' because they have the advantage over the viewers. So, the audience want to watch on to see how this antagonist continues to show their 'badness' in the upcoming events. I decided to use hidden identity within my thriller opening sequence because i believe that it added mystery to my story. It allowed the audience to feel fear with this antagonist, making the story more enjoyable and allowing the story to be named a 'thriller'.

The last convention is sinister music. This is heard in the background at most times. This thrills the audience and also allows them to feel suspense and tension as they wait for the upcoming scenes to show. Also, it is almost like a warning to the viewers that something bad is going to happen. This creates the element of tension as well as suspense as the audience must wait to see what happens in the upcoming scenes. The use of sinister music allows the audience to want to watch more of the thriller sequence in order for them to see how the sinister music makes the story scarier with the scenes that they are about to witness. I decided to use sinister music within my opening sequence so that there were certain emotions that the audience felt whilst hearing this music aswell as watching the screen to see the events that occurred. It allowed my audience to again feel fear and although they were frightened, they would be gripped to the edge of their seats, anticipating the rest of the story to be shown so they can see what happens.

When looking at another successful film, such as Scream, I believe there are a variety of similarities and differences. For example, one similarity could be that there are hidden identities used within the films. Within my thriller, 'C' is the hidden identity. In Scream, the hidden identity is the person in the long black robe with a white mask with black spaces where the eyes are and where the mouth is. This means that the person in the robe can see the victim they are trying to kill, but the victim can't see them. Another similarity is that both films contain a large amount of sinister music. Both intentions of the films are to thrill the audience, and I believe that both films do so. The music starts off quiet and gets louder as the evil scenes approach. This creates tension for the viewers because they have to wait. One difference is that my thriller is psychological and Scream is just a typical thriller. This is because both films have different target audiences. My thriller is a psychological thriller because of the amnesia that the hitman has.