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

INTROduction I am going to be comparing my Thriller to two films; 28 Days Later and The Descent. I have chosen these two in particular because The Descent follows the claustrophobic aspect we tried to create with our thriller, and 28 Days Later is a good example of a zombie film with all the standard conventions. For my thriller, I have created a sub genre film (zombie film) called Beaten, which revolves around an abusive prison guard being abandoned in a broken down prison, soon to be attacked by zombie prisoners in search for revenge from his abuse.The most typical conventions of zombie films are - Isolation, apocalyptic world/abandoned location, contrast between fast and slow editing, kinetic camera for action shots and the protagonists want to survive rather than killing the zombies. All of these conventions are used to create tension as zombie films can be a sub-genre of thrillers, so they still need an element of excitement.

28 days later DIRECTOR - Danny Boyle RELEASE DATE - 1st November 2002PRODUCTION COMPANY - DNA Films/UK Film Council CAST - starring Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris,, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston

the descent DIRECTOR - Neil Marshall RELEASE DATE - 8th July/ 4th August 2006PRODUCTION COMPANY - Celador FilmsCAST - Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone

OTHER SIMILAR MEDIA PRODUCTS I will also be comparing my Thriller to other media products to show that it can also be similar to other aspects of the Media world, rather than simply just film. First of all, one product I will be comparing it to is a music video called Thriller by Michael Jackson. I have chosen this music video because it demonstrates the normal conventions of zombie films and I can show clear similarities and differences between the two. The second product I will comparing my thriller to is a video game called Left 4 Dead, I have chosen this game as some of the locations and gameplay is very similar to how they are in my thriller.

PLOT LINES 28 Days Later - In this film, the story line is very similar in the fact that the protagonist wakes up alone in an area he does not recognise/know. He then begins to explore as he is trying to find his way out but ends up being chased and followed by zombies. This is the same way we have started our thriller, although our character is in a more secluded area.

The Descent - In this film, the similarities are mainly revolved around the claustrophobic elements of the characters being trapped in a small surface area having to clamber and climb through things, also being chased by un-worldly creatures. As our character wakes up and has to climb through a tunnel, I made this comparison as a wide amount of the shots in The Descent show characters in thin tunnels of the cave.

Michael Jackson Thriller - In Michael Jacksons Thriller, his character ends up being a bad character, which is similar to ours as we find out the protagonist in Beaton is actually an abusive prison guard. The focus on themain characters being evil and bad rather than innocent in both products is what made me decide to make this comparison.

cHARACTERS/ LOOK/ COSTUME The Descent - In The Descent, the costumes and look of the main characters are all very normal and naturalistic. The same goes for our characters, both zombies and protagonist.However the zombies in The Descent are different from our thrillers zombies as they do not wear clothes whereas ours do. Thriller - Michael Jackson - The zombies in Michael Jacksonsthriller are all very similar to the zombies in my thriller. Theyhave the same type of disfigurements (blood from the mouth) and they are all wearing everyday clothes to show they are fresh zombies. Left 4 Dead - in the video game Left 4 Dead, the theme ofrealistic zombies continues as they wear normal clothes. However they all seem to be clothes of an occupation whichis similar to the fact that our main character is a stereotypical prison guard without the costume.

LEFT 4 Dead

THE ACTION

This shot from The Descent is showing one of the characters crawling through a tunnel in order to move to a different location. This scene is very conventional of a zombie film as the small area the woman is having to move through is very restraining and causing the audience to feel claustrophobic. In addition to this, the audience expect zombies to appear sometime soon and for the woman to have no other way to escape. This concept is very daunting and terrifying to imagine as there is simply no way to get out and and live. The fear it creates in the audiences mind is a very clever convention of a zombie thriller as it fully immerses the audience into the action. In our thriller, we wanted to create this same claustrophobic effect by making our audience feel uncomfortable witnessing the protagonist clamber his way through a small tunnel space. These shots are very similar as there is not much light in the tunnel apart from around the characters faces to emphasise the emotions of being in a tight space. The moment of crawling is also at the end of the tunnel in both shots, so we see the characters having a standard look round the new location they have entered. Both shots are looking at the characters rather from their point of view to hide the upcoming location. This technique of hiding the location and focusing on the characters reaction to it creates a sense of mystery for the audience, making them wonder what they characters are seeing as they cannot see it yet.THE ACTION CONTINUED

THE ACTION

This part of our thriller shows a zombie about to fall from the sky and the protagonist having to face not only them but other zombies as well. This moment creates tension as it is unknown to whether the protagonist will be able to escape from all the zombies approaching. Also, by adding more predators, it brings the intensity of the chase up more as there is less chance the protagonist will survive, very similar to how a video game works.In this shot from the gameplay of Left 4 Dead we can see that the main character is being crowded by zombies and it is becoming increasingly harder for them to survive as the intensity and tension is being increased as more zombies are added. The two shots are very similar as they are both set in dark, abandoned locations with a zombie falling from a height and the protagonist trying to escape from the situation. One difference is that with many zombie games and films, the protagonist will have a weapon of some sort to protect themselves. Our main character in our thriller however, only holds a torch and defends himself simply with his ability to escape quickly.

THE ACTION

In this shot of our thriller, we see a zombie emerging over the edge of a prison cell door and vomiting blood. The scene below from 28 Days Later shows another man who is becoming a zombie and again vomiting blood. This seems to be a common convention of the gore element in most zombie films. The blood vomit acts as a way of infecting other people so we wanted to keep that concept in. The shot itself is very gruesome and really appeals to the common idea of zombie films involving very raw and disgusting scenes and elements. The characters are also quite similar as they are both from a society where they must keep in order and follow strict rules and instructions, one being from prison, and the other from the army. The moments are also similar due to the fact that the camera angle is the same, they are both close ups, focusing on the intensity of the shot.

THE TITLES

For our titles we used mainly white to show the innocence portrayed at the beginning of the sequence. However when it came to the end of the thriller we put the main title in red as it has connotations of danger, blood and horror. We also chose a sharp looking font to make it look more intense and scary to the audience. It also flashed onto the screen as soon as the action onscreen became intense, cutting off the story to show there is a mystery and more to follow. In Michael Jacksons Thriller, they use the same idea of flashing the title onto the screen in a red, sharp font. Our titles have followed the conventions of most horror-thrillers as a vast amount of them choose red to show the film is dangerous. Most thrillers tend to show their title at the beginning of the film to allow the audience to know what they are watching, however this is not the first thing you see when you watch Beaten so it has challenged this convention.

EDITING TECHNIQUES

play videos

Editing techniques continued The editing techniques in the film The Descent are very similar to the way in which our group has decided to edit our thriller together. Particularly on the scene in the top video in the previous slide, we see very long shot durations and slow transitions to new shots in the beginning of the sequence as they are aiming to build up tension and hint to the audience that something bad is about the happen. Towards the end of the clip when the action and tension has reached its climax the cuts between each shot are very frantic and the camera is quite shaky to create the feeling of being distressed for the audience to experience in relation to the action on screen. This is similar to the way in which we have edited our opening sequence leading up to the first climax of action.

CAMERA TEHNIQUES

The top image is from the film 28 Days Later focused on the main character using a close up shot. The effect of a close up shot is to show the audience that the focused object/person is important in this particular moment in time. So the protagonist is in a close up shot to show his reaction to the now apocalyptic world he has just stepped into. The same goes for the picture at the bottom showing our protagonist in our thriller. We wanted to present his emotions through close up shots as we believed their importance needed to be highly focussed on by the audience for them to understand the plot line and events happening.

CAMERA TEHNIQUES

In the film The Descent, the zombies are portrayed as very animalistic, tending to squat over their prey and pounce on them like predator in the wild would. The image below shows how they have used their camera angle and frame to capture the whole posture and action of the creature.In our thriller we wanted to portray the same type of animalistic traits to our zombies through the camera angles. So in the shot above, we placed the camera underneath the bed the zombie was climbing up and faced it upwards so it seemed as if the zombie was preying on the camera. As it is looking down on the camera, this gives it power and intensity, making the audience feel uncomfortable.