The document provides an analysis of how the student's media product uses, develops, or challenges conventions of typical thriller/horror films. It compares elements such as titling style, camera work, framing, angles, editing, sound, and narrative structure to well-known films in the genre like Psycho, The Blair Witch Project, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Final Destination 3. While some elements follow conventions to set the expected tone, others develop or subvert expectations to surprise the audience, such as not showing the killer in the first two minutes or using atypical camera angles on victims. Overall, the production challenges conventions at times but develops many elements seen in exemplar thrillers and slashers.

1. EVALUATION – QUESTION ONE<br />1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?<br />My ProductTypical Thriller/Horror ConventionsMy Production – use, develop or challenge?Comparison to Existing ProductsTitling – colour, font and styleBig and bold font with red colouring to signify blood/anger/danger. The titles usually give a clue as to what the movie is about or a theme within the movie. In Final Destination 3 which the titles show the colours and designs in a circus.For our film we used American typewriter. This creates a police report style, we also used time and date, which suggest that the event has already happened. This sets the narrative .It is also sets the mood for the film before the action begins. This uses the typical conventions for a thriller/horror as our writing is bold and red which give a clue that the movie is going to be a thriller.Our movie is similar to Blair witch project by using the idea of the group of girls. We used titling ideas from many movies such as The secret window and Final destination.Camera Movement- pan, track, crab, craneUsually begins with an establishing shot/pan to get the environment of the are/ victimsEnvironment.We used close ups for the first bit of the film and then jumped from close ups to long shot. This challenges the idea as we did not begin with an establishing shot, we jumped right in. We used our own techniques for the camera movements and we used the techniques of two cameras to show the quality of the hand held camera.Framing a shotECU, CU, MS, LS, ELSLong shots and close up’s are used frequently. An example is in Psycho when the first victim is killed the audience get an extreme close up of her eye. This presents the theme of psychological thriller to the audience but also creates a tense atmosphere.We showed the victims using close ups and long shots. This showed the victims themselves and their environments.Showing the victims face’s using close ups was just like in Psycho when the close up of the victims eye was shown.Camera AngleHigh, LowIf it’s from the point of view of the killer its usually high angle to show the vulnerability of the victim and if it’s from the victim’s point of view it is usually there to show the inferiority of the victim.We challenged the usually convention as we didn’t show the killer within the first 2 minutes so we didn’t use the high angle to show the killer. We also didn’t use the low and to show the victims and we used high angle to present the first victim showing we subverted the convention.We used Psyco’s techniques of high and low angles to present the vulnerability of the characters Mise-en-SceneThere is dark costume for the killer. The movie uses red for props. The props used are often there to present the personality of the victim/killer.The mise en scene was simple using only a tent. This does not use the regular convention fully however it does show the environment of the characters at the time of the event. Mise en scene used in our movie is similar to The secret window as the location was quite similar.Editing – jump cuts, match cuts, reverse shots, cutting rhythmnThe cutting rhythm is usually frequent and fast when the action in the movie is happening but is usually fluid to put the audience on edge in the beginning of the movie.Our cutting rhythm uses the convention as it is quite fluid in the beginning. This allows the audience to become tense in the atmosphere, as they know something is going to go wrong.Our cutting rhythm and rate is quite smooth and fluid in the beginning to allow the audience to feel at ease. As the action begins the cutting rate/rhythm increases adding an uneasy tone to our Thriller. This is just as in Texas chainsaw massacre .Sound The music uses lots of string instruments and is usually a slow tempo. His is to create an eerie atmosphere and to show the nature of the movie.Our music uses the convention as the music is slow and melancholy but this contrasts with the weather.Our music resembles string instruments used in Many thriller movies. On that is quite similar is The secret windowNarrative TheoryA thriller usually contains a killer (that the audience is unaware of) or someone that is assumed to be the killer. There is usually a young, attractive and helpless, blonde which goes of alone and gets killed and the aim of the story is o find out ‘”who did it”.The narrative theory uses the convention as the structure of the film ids the same as the typical thriller.Our Narrative theory was similar to many slashers and thrillers as we chose to have the introduction of the characters and a villain and a group of victims who each die out one by one. Some movies similar to this are, Final Destination 3,I know what you did last summer and Saw.<br />