In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing thriller film

openings?

AS Media thriller film evaluation

Does your sequence follow/deviate from a conventional thriller’s narrative content, format and style of presentation?

Our sequence doesn’t necessarily follow the conventional thriller narrative content as it plays with the audiences expectations, when seeing this independent strong women become weak and helpless. This normally isn’t expected from a thriller film as the female characters are always presented as dependent characters. However the format and the style of the film follows the conventional thriller films. We have chosen to keep some traditional conventions as it’s what the audience have shown interest in and changing too many things in a thriller is not always the best idea, because it may not appeal to the audience. That’s why we have decided to change some of the areas we believed would interest the viewers and kept some traditional conventions of a thriller film to establish the genre. (Some of these decisions have been influenced by our audience feedback survey and interviews)

In these images you can see the scared character running barefoot through the forest with no sense of where she is and all her cloths torn holding no shoes in her hand indicating how confused and horrified she is.

In these pictures I’ve pointed out the different things we’ve used to show in the mise-en-scene that convey our film is a horror thriller. E.g. the shots that she’s running away from the camera (the person following her) and the shot of her running past the camera which shows she’s being watched by someone through the bushes. The shot she is getting hit by a log is where the enigma is introduced and also clearly states the films sub-genre. Finally her ripped outfit and barefoot add to intensity of the film

Does the use of conventions indicate what sub-genre you thriller is?

As seen in the pictures, the first couple of shots in the film is a female character running Barefoot through a jungle wearing a classy party dress, holding one shoe in her hand with ripped tights. The conventions clearly indicate that the sub-genre of the film is a horror thriller as the mise-en-scene portrays that right from the start of the film. The mise-en-scene also shows that the character is scared and is seen to have no idea where she is going as she stops to look around which adds to the intensity of the film, she also has torn cloths as she runs through the forest its shown that she is running away from someone or something as she is always looking back behind her. These methods of mise-en-scene are normally used in other horror thriller which is the reason the audience can pick up on the sub-genre of the film as it’s a technique they are familiar with.

The diegetic and none diegetic sounds also convey the sub-genre of the film as the soundtrack is a high pitched heart beating sound and the diegetic sound is a women breathing heavily after running for so long which compliments the mise-en-scene. This coveys that the film is very intense and scary as the music compliments the shots which are sudden short shots that cut into credits, all of these techniques create a horror thriller.

The use of editing also indicated that the sub-genre of the film is horror because the shots of the character running through a forest is very short as it cuts to credits every few seconds. As seen in the pictures this create a rushed effect which gets the audience intense and wondering what’s going on which is normally the type of editing seen in horror thrillers.

Does it use typical or atypical characters for a thriller?

We haven’t used a typical character as we didn’t want to create a common film, we wanted to create a traditional thriller film but as modernised as possible that is why we have chose a strong female who fights till the end for her life rather than a dependent female who relies on a male character to be rescued by. I believe that making a film is to show other people your interpretation of the world and the way you see everything and also to open peoples eyes to new things and to stop people from stereotyping, this is why our film is breaking the boundaries and is showing something new and different. However at the same time we have also put the character in an environment that makes her weak and vulnerable which is a typical type of character, we did this because some aspects of a thriller film should stay the same because its what the audience enjoy as it’s a familiar character type.

Does your use of camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene follow/deviate from thriller conventions?

The use of camera follows the thriller conventions as we used close ups and long shots to create tension and also to create an atmosphere to get the audience questioning the film. The shots don’t last long which is the reason for the audiences questioning and also there are point of view shots which allows the viewer to see the film through the women’s eyes which creates a scarier atmosphere. The use of sound also follows the thriller conventions as we used a heart beating non-diegetic soundtracks and also a very edgy soundtrack through out the whole sequence, we also used scream sounds and breathing sounds as a diegetic sound this creates a tense atmosphere. The use of mise-en-scene was a bit different to other thrillers however followed the conventions as we filmed in daylight rather than in a dark area to create more suspicion.

Does your use of all the above forms and conventions indicate what other thrillers have influenced you work?

The thriller film that influenced me the most was “Wolf Man” in one scene where the women is running through from her lover scared in a very elegant dress. This caught my eye as I wanted to create something similar however change many things in the sequence. The reason I was inspired by the character running through the woods was because she was alone and the soundtrack was building suspense and as she was running it seemed like it was over for her and while I was watching the film I felt sympathy for her and also I felt very on edge, this is why I wanted to create a movie that made my audience feel the same, to feel thrilled and to feel like their neck skin crawled.

How does your thriller establish setting/location, themes, narrative, character, and enigma? Can you improve it to thrillers you researched?

Our film establishes location through the use of long shots. The character is established right at the beginning through medium shots of her running, however by the end of the sequence she is seen through close up but she is in a different state and this gets the audience questioning, which is also where the enigma is established.