1. THE INTIMIDATION
GAME
HammerHead Productions

2. OPENING SEQUENCE
EVALUATION

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

4. For our production, we chose the thriller
genre as we thought that it would have been
the most interesting out of all the other
genres. We also added the detective-versus-
serial killer as we thought that it would make
a good plot and we could be creative with it.
Detective thrillers have been done before
but mostly centre the plot just between the
detective and the serial killer, such as films
like Seven and The Silence of the Lambs.

6. Serial killers from Seven and
The Silence of the Lambs

7. Instead of following that trend, we added
the daughter of the detective as the main
victim in our plot to give the production a
more personal matter as not every person
has to deal with a serial killer every day, but
every parent does have the duty to protect
and keep their children safe, and so we
thought that having this will help the
audience relate to the characters, specifically
the detective, as he tries to save his
daughter from the serial killer.

8. Actor Mariel Racaza as Sarah
Anderson

9. As for characters, we chose to follow the
mould of the upright, lawful, noble detective
as our hero. Other films such as Seven and
Taken both have the standard Honest Joe as
the good guy who does what is morally
right. Again following that trend, we also
chose to have the detective as a male
character to further strengthen the father-
daughter bond that the characters have and
to reinforce how protective a father could be
towards his daughter.

10. Actor Romeo Racaza as Michael
Anderson

11. Detectives Mills and Somerset
from Seven

12. In regards to MES, we chose to have the
detective in his standard work uniform
including suit, tie, and trousers following the
trends of such films such as Seven. We also
had him looking neat with little facial hair so
further reinforce his moral and noble ways,
but to have a little facial hair so that he
would look old enough to have a daughter
and to look like a seasoned and experience
detective that knows what he’s doing given a
situation.

14. Another convention we had that was similar
to other thrillers is the psychotic serial killer
that goes against all of the detective’s
motives with their opposite motives that
involve killing innocent people horribly and
violently. We took the template of our serial
killer from the film Seven, John Doe. They
both have the same personalities and
characteristics such as being disturbed, anti-
social, and psychologically broken.

15. Serial killer John Doe from
Seven

16. In regards to MES, we chose to have our
serial killer to be neatly dressed and out of
fashion in a way to reinforce his anti-social
nature. Another convention we took some
ideas from is the camera work used in other
thriller films. We deliberately did now show
his face in the opening sequence which is an
effect also used in the film Seven. This will
connote mystery as the audience will not
know what the serial killer will look like and
also shows his secretive side. Another
convention that we copied is having the
serial killer as a male character, which we
took from Seven and The Silence of the
Lambs and various other thriller films.

17. Serial killer John Doe from
Seven

18. Serial killer Jacob Duffy from
The Intimidation Game

19. Opening sequence to Seven

20. Opening sequence to The
Intimidation Game

21. Another convention that we took from
other thrillers are the victims the serial killer
targets. In this case, we chose to have the
victim as the detective’s daughter. This is
another convention that is present in many
thriller films, as having a young victim
reinforces their vulnerability and the urgency
of stopping the serial killer. Having this
convention will also help the audience relate
and sympathise with the detective and also
make them hate the antagonist more.

22. 2. How does your media product
represent particular social
groups?

23. For our production, we wanted the
characters Michael Anderson and Sarah
Anderson to have a strong father and
daughter relationship so that our plot can be
made more urgent and more important. We
also wanted it so that the audience can
relate to Michael as he is just a simple father
trying to do everything he can so that his
daughter gets the best of everything. In our
opening sequence, we didn’t show the wife
and made it seem like it was only Michael
and Sarah in the family. This would help
make our plot more effective as there is a
stronger sense of danger and urgency by
having a single father instead of a complete
family as everything he has would be on the

24. Detective Mills and his wife in
Seven

25. Bryan Mills and his daughter in
Taken