2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? -Martin Rubin, in his book ‘Thriller’, explains that it’s a lot harder to define a thriller genre than it is defining a western or horror film, and so the conventions for a thriller film are a lot more broad. He indicates that it acts as a metagenre which holds many genres under it. In this sense our media product which comes under the sub-genre of crime and psychological thriller, uses typical ‘Thriller’ conventions; It contains conventions of many other genres such as horror and adventure which creates narrative enigma’s through evoking feelings of tension in the viewer. The basement scene is proof of this, as blood is shown on Serhan’s face; blood is a common convention of horror films. And is shown in the opening of ‘Memento’, when the character shakes in his hand a Polaroid picture. - We have created a dark, negative and mysterious atmosphere, particularly in the basement scenes not only to raise narrative enigma's, which according to Gary Braver are essential in making a thriller successful but also to ensure the desired effect on the audience is achieved. The mysterious atmosphere is intended to make the audience feel at the edge of their seat and to ‘expect the unexpected’ as well as to raise narrative enigma's, which according to Gary Braver are essential in making a thriller successful. - ’Memento’ an example of a fairly modern film which features film noire through it’s black and white lighting, was used as our inspiration. Through watching it we became more aware of how to make our thriller film a successful one whilst at the same time incorporating elements of film noire. These elements include creating a dark and shadowy outlook, use of Interesting camera angles, shadowy lighting as well as extreme close-up's. In this sense our gangster, psychological thriller developed film noire conventions. -Despite the fact that Rubin describes Thrillers as a metagenre, this still means theirs elements that should always be seen in Thrillers. Some of which are included in Gary Braver’s book about Thrillers, and include suspense and narrative enigmas. ‘ Silence of the lambs’ creates suspense through it’s use of music. This is particularly evident in the escape scene where the scene starts with calm classical music evoking feelings of suspense in the audience. The use of music in creating tension is also evident in our film showing that we have developed conventions of real media products; the basement scene begins with eerie, bleak music which becomes more fast paced and slower later on in the thriller introduction. The silence of the lambs: Escape scene
