Question 1IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT, USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS?

Foundation Portfolio During my foundation portfolio I was required to compare the conventions used in existing thriller productions, comparing those conventions to my own thriller production making sure I executed the correct conventions throughout the creation of our final product.

Does my thriller follow conventions of a thriller?

During the filming process of my thriller, as the editor, I needed to make sure that our group followed the typical conventions of the thriller genre. So in order to do this I had to plan ahead, what types of editing should or could be used within certain scenes such as the conventional edit of fast pace editing which would create an intense and engaging atmosphere towards the audience.

• The gender of our victim/main character is female which is used quite often within the thriller genre. This is due to the female tending to be portrayed as a vulnerable but brave character.

• Low key lighting is used to create an eerie atmosphere towards the audience which allows them to think more about the surroundings as if something is about to happen.

• Non- diegetic sound has been added to create a more suspenseful atmosphere and anticipation towards the audience. The sound is gritty and disturbing which becomes more intense throughout the short film by the increasing tempo when the main events occur.

• The location used was to create a more clearer narrative and understanding to the viewers. We used an isolated location to show that the female victim is confused of her whereabouts. The location varied within our production to follow the narrative in which our main character escapes from the facility she is held in.

Generic conventions To be able to find the generic conventions of a thriller I carried out a lot of primary research in order to develop a better understanding of the conventions used within the thriller genre. In order to create an effective thriller, I had to look into the other aspects of thrillers such as the use of micro-elements. I then researched further into the elements such as, age certificates, narrative structures and theories, typical trends in thriller films and character representations to help gain more understanding of what is contained within a thriller.

Research of films.. The film that particular helped me use and develop conventions were

; • American Psycho 2 (2002) • I Spit On Your Grave (2010)

These only two films were the main focus of research within conventions of thriller because their narrative and characters both relate very much towards our own thriller. For the use of lighting I found that in all of these film influences low key lighting was used throughout and this caused a very spooky atmosphere and made the audience, as myself, anticipate that something chilling was about to occur.

In terms of the characters, they were very conventional to the thriller genre as well as the narrative, because they both included a female victim who has experienced a tragic event in their lives, then try to solve they problem by themselves. This was conventional because the use of a female victim being young and innocent provokes more emotion by the audience as they feel more sympathy towards these types of characters.

Generic conventions within my thriller•This type of shot was a still shot and was used to show the change of location within the narrative. The edit used was trying to make the shot seem like a live camera feed from the facility. The characters face had also been blurred throughout the film to hide the identity in order to create a build up of mystery and suspense.

•• This shot was a POV (Point of view) shot from the cctv perspective, which was used to symbolise the audience witnessing the beginning of the characters freedom. This type of cinematography had been used to allow the spectators to feel the same emotions of our thriller character and also to allow the audience to view the situation within her perspective.

Another convention I had used within my thriller was the use of low key lighting surrounding the character to create a mysterious effect. This was used with under lighting which allowed to emphasise the suspense build up combining with the intense build up of soundtrack. This dark background lighting creates tension and allows the viewers to relate to being in dark places feeling scared, allowing the viewers to feel pity towards the character.

Location The use of a working facility with tight corridors and rooms allowed us to create a mysterious and isolated feeling towards the audience. The location had blank walls everywhere making it easier for us to create a sense of a mental hospital/facility, making the audience feel the intense build up when this character tries to escape.

The costume used for our character were bright coloured pyjamas to portray the innocence of the female victim. This was used to try and make the viewers feel even more sympathy towards the character. This costume is very conventional as it shows the purity of a character.

The sound created separately had been non- diegetic throughout the majority of our thriller production excluding the speech of our ''TV news reporter'' and also the speech and cries of the main character. The sound used were very disturbing high pitched sounds which then increased tempo to create an intense build up.

The body language used were very tense and on the defensive to show the worries of the characters escape. The body language used were very cautious and troubled because of the confused and unstable

Conclusion In conclusion, all the evidence on the narrative structures I had researched, I chose to follow Aristotle’s theory simply because his idea that everything should have a beginning, middle and end and that the events must relate to one another in order to make the narrative clear and fluent. This is why my thriller does follow a conventional narrative structure.