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

By Dom Cook

Narrative

• The Narrative follows the general conventions of a thriller as the plot involves an enigma which isn’t revealed until towards the end of the film and we also developed the plotline of the enigma being something that leads to a conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist

• However it breaks conventions of the mystery thriller as it reveals the antagonist and some of the scenes from close to the end in the opening sequence.

Titles

• We follow the convention of using titles by putting the distributor presents, then the studios followed by the cast with protagonist first followed by the antagonist and then the production crew with the director at the end.

• Also we followed convention by putting the film title at the end of the opening.

Characters

• The protagonist sticks to the thriller conventions for a protagonist as he is cool and calm under pressure. Although he is an ordinary person with no training or skills.

• The antagonist develops the conventions as the character is highly intelligent but rather than just a dual personality this films looks at the different perceptions as he is a Police commissioner, this challenges conventions by using a police officer for the antagonist when the general representations of cops is that they are on the right side and either are the protagonist or trying to help the protagonist.

Soundtrack

• This followed convention of a thriller as we use a tense and ominous music with a lot of bass to add suspense and a foreboding atmosphere to the piece

• This alongside the sound effects help to create an overall tense atmosphere which is a thriller convention especially the single percussive beat at the end of the piece which adds suspense and creates an enigma to keep the audience interested

Camera Work

• The film sticks to conventions of the 180 degree rule within the shots by staying on one side of the two characters especially when using shot reverse shots for the interrogation of the protagonist by the antagonist.

• Also an establishing shot of the town hall was used and appeared first in the film in order to follow convention and set the scene before introducing the character.

Mise en scene

• Used Natural light with only a small amount of artificial light to stick to conventions of dark dim lighting for a serious thriller film.

• The costumes were also authentic, formal and stuck to conventions of typical dress for a journalist or a police officer.

• The locations stuck to convention as a abandoned house was used to keep the characters isolated and feel vulnerable which stuck to the conventions of the thriller genre by being designed to build suspense and tension

Editing

• An eye-line match was used so the conventions for an eye-line match was used but within then eyeline match a focus pull was also used to add extra emphasis on the hand this was developed the convention as it used a more advanced shot within the eye-line match to enhance meaning and put more focus on the enigma of the question.

• A match on action was used and the conventions were slightly developed as rather than seeing the bullet from the gun shot the reaction shot was of the protagonist to show the shock and emphasise the vulnerability of the protagonist in that situation