Evaluation – QUESTION ONE

Liat Shamash

A.My groups media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of

real media products. Our sequence reflects conventions of the genre we are working in which is thriller/horror.

Conventions of thriller: The narrative usually set around crime common ones: serial killer on loose,

there’s usually action in it to thrill the audience Dramatic irony – builds suspense as audience know more than the characters

know so will be frightened for them. Tension building music Darkness and shadows used to represent darkness within people and also

adds tension and eeriness to the thriller Quick shots and edits – puts you on the edge, you didn’t see it properly Flashbacks Antagonists identity is hidden Everyday settings Plot twist Psychological and gets you to think Leaves audience with unanswered questionsConvention of horror: Predictable Often contains more gore

HOW MY GROUPS FICTION FILM REFLECTS/CHALLENGES CONVENTIONS OF THRILLER/HORROR

We wanted to focus mainly on thriller but have a side genre of horror as in the rest of the film we might have wanted to include gore. We are developing and agreeing with the conventions of a thriller as in our sequence we use dramatic irony as the audience know that the depot worker is being watched and that the baddie is about to suffocate him which makes the audience feel terrified for the depot worker. In addition we also include tension building music and it is in sync with certain actions. We also use quick editing and it’s filmed at night so sometimes there are shadows and darkness. Another convention we develop and challenge is that the Antagonists identity is hidden at the beginning as we see an over the shoulder shot or a floor shot of his feet but then near to the end we see parts of his face revealed. A convention that we challenge within a thriller is having an everyday setting, its set in a bus depot which is quite original and not a normal and stereotypical place for a thriller to be filmed in.

CONCLUSION

So my groups fiction film will fulfil the contractual nature of a thriller however it wont fulfil every convention of a thriller and will only take some conventions of a horror film.

B.We haven’t deliberately used parody but we were

thinking of using pastiche which is when the film 'quotes' or reflects features of another genre e.g. Horror. If we were to film the rest of the film then we would include horror and the convention we’d reflect is gore.

We do play with thrillers codes and history as it uses conventions of a thriller film and thrillers history. In most thrillers a stereotypical storyline would be the baddie finding someone from the past and trying to kill them or torture them. So in our thriller we have played with the genres stereotypical history.

C.Realism describes the attempt to depict subjects as they are

considered to exist in third person ideal reality. It’s trying to represent real life.

Our sequence constructs realism as we wanted it to seem realistic and make it seem like a possibility in real life. There is a guy who works in the depot and he’s there by himself in the dark, checking the buses and the villain must have been watching him for a while so knew his schedule of what he does and then decided to attack him, so he suffocated him and then put him in the bus and then drove the bus to somewhere. However one could think ‘what are the chances of this happening to someone’ but it is possible therefore constructs realism in our thriller.

D.Verisimilitude is the quality of realism in something such as films.

Verisimilitude is used through Mise-en-scene, acting, dialogue, music and style of camera work.Mise en scene refers to the composition, sets, props, actors, costumes and lighting which are used to enhance verisimilitude. Our sequence is set in a depot and it’s not set-up it’s a real depot so the quality of realism is the highest it could be. We couldn’t afford to get professional actors so we got Ryan’s friends to act and they did quite well. Near to the end the two characters exchange a few lines, however it could have been more realistic, one could think that it was a bit cheesy as he ends the dialogue with ‘I’m going to take you back to where it all happened’ And this wouldn’t happen in day to day life. The props we used were a florescent jacket for the depot worker, a torch and a clipboard and for the villain a plastic bag to suffocate him with. There weren’t that many props but the props the depot worker had were needed and helps increase verisimilitude, in addition the plastic bag was needed to suffocate the depot worker, the props enhance the realism.

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Furthermore costumes make the actors into the characters, the costumes were very simple the villain wore a black coat with black trousers and the depot worker wore black trousers with the safety florescent jacket. A humorous thing about the depot worker is he’s wearing a florescent jacket which is meant to represent safety but it contrasts with the fact that he is not safe at all. The lighting was hard as it was in the dark but we used red lights to make it seem like street lamps and very natural so lighting increases verisimilitude too. In addition Music helps enhance the actions of the characters or for example when we see a shot of the villain’s foot going down the music goes higher which builds tension for the audience. Lastly the role of camera work constructs verisimilitude through the different angles and views of shots making fast cuts.