Question 1.

“In what ways does your media product use, develop

or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?”

Firstly, the title ‘The Killer’s Identity’ gives a lot away about the plot of our film. It gives suggestions about the genre (thriller) and also about the idea of there being a lot of mystery surrounding the plot-line, like there is in the majority of film titles for thriller and psychological thriller movies.

For example, some of the top thrillers:•The girl on the train•10 Cloverfield Lane•Eye in the sky

We used the conventions of real media products when coming up with a title, looking at popular thriller names and how much they give away about the full film.

When planning our location, we focused predominately on potentially ‘scary’ places. E.G. a graveyard, an abandoned park. However, after researching the conventions of a psychological thriller, we were made aware that most thrillers are set in less frightening locations as a way of creating unexpected suspense in the situation.

After a re-think we decided on places that a couple would go together; the beach, for a walk in the park etc. It made more sense this way.

When we show a mixture of the sun shining through the trees in the forest cut in with shots of myself running through, being chased, it shows a real contrast of situations.

This was way of using and developing on conventions of real media products rather than challenging them.

Location

Flashback ScenesThe flashback scenes in our opening sequence have been edited to look

dreamy andpleasant, which is perhaps not what you might expect to see when watching a

thriller.

In terms of whether this has a negative effect on building up suspense; I think it could have gone either way. If we had focused to much on the flashbacks rather than the running scenes then I think it would have adjusted the whole feel of the sequence. I feel that we achieved a great balance between each contrasting scene so that it builds tension but doesn’t hold the characteristics of a horror film and isn’t scary for the consumer to watch.

In this way, we have challenged the conventions of real media products. Often, opening sequences are very continuous (especially in horrors and thrillers) and show a long sequence of similar, tense shots. For example, a POV shot of walking around an abandoned house whilst the credits are shown. In our opening sequence we have established the plot by almost making a shortened version of the full film as a way of interesting the viewer.

PosterI designed this poster with the conventions of a psychological thriller in mind. This is why the font is not at all harsh and extremely plain. It gives the viewer a lot of space to try and work out what is going on.

The blurry photograph of me in the background suggests movement and that I am running. From what? The title then gives a clue as to what the film is about.

I have placed a yellow/red, grainy effect onto the photo to make it look older and almost as though it has been taken from an old camera, suggesting that she is being watched in the forest.

It challenges and uses conventions of real media products.

Mis En SceneThe mis en scene in our opening sequence is very much inspired from

the conventions of other psychological thrillers. E.g. American Psycho. The main character in this film is the ‘psycho’ and during the first scene we see him in, he is noticeably normal. Nothing he does jumps out at you to suggest that he needs psychological help. His clothing is very normal and the house he is in is also nothing unusual.

We tried to replicate this idea in ours. The clothes that we wear are very normal and in the flashbacks we purposely tried to make it so that nothing stood out as abnormal (so that the running scenes cause even more tension for the audience)