Evaluation Question One

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

Looking back at our research into the conventions of a thriller film, many comparisons and similarities can be made between what things are in a typical thriller film, and the things and ideas we included in our own opening sequence.
A link can be made between our opening sequence and the opening sequences of other films such as Silence of the Lambs. Although these are quite different in terms of their storyline, they both give an introduction to their character, show titles in a similar way and share some of the typical conventions of their shared genre.

As you can see both sequences take place in one of the most iconic settings for a thriller film; the woods. Both of the main characters appear at first to be isolated in the woods, both of which seem dark and eerie, which helps to create tension.
Both sequence involve the camera following behind the main characters through the woods, which helps to create the feeling that they're being watched. Both also include close ups of the main characters face, showing their emotion but also emphasising their isolation, creating a sense of paranoia about what might be there with them.
However in both situations it turns out just to be someone they know. The sequences start to differ here, as this is where in our film we create tension by making the audience believe that our main character Amber is about to be attacked, when it turns out to be her friend Evelyn. They then have an argument (although both show over the shoulder shots in both sequences of the conversation) and Amber walks off back to her friends, which is similar to the main character in Silence of the Lambs walking away from the setting of the woods back to her normal life.
Both of the main characters are dressed in modern seeming clothes, suggesting that both films are of similar times, although in Silence of the Lambs the female character is dressed more plainly and shows more independence, where as both of the female characters in ours seem more like the typical female characters you find in a thriller film - helpless and in need of rescue.
The titles in both are of a simple style, both of which roll over the top of the sequence and both show a similar sort of order (e.g. main actor first and director last).
By following both of these characters you can tell the story is following them, and by the use of the setting, light and feelings of being watched it helps the audience to identify the film as a thriller.

Some additional things we included in our film that don't appear in the opening of Silence of the Lambs was the murder of one of our characters straight away, flicking between beach shots of the group and the our character being killed to give make it appear as though no one can hear to help, and so all of the violence is implied, which helps to create a sense of mystery.
Being upfront about the killing in the first few minutes allows us to follow the story of what happens next, and who is next and why the character was killed in the first place. By going straight into the plot line it helps our film to be more exciting and engaging for the audience watching, rather than giving a slow build up of the initial death.
In our opening sequence we didn't really use special effects, as this isn't really typical of the thriller genre. Most thrillers tend to be more realistic which was an effect we tried to get in our film because the idea that this could be real and could happen to anyone makes it more scary - another classic convention of a thriller.
The only effects we added was to darken each clip using a 'day into night' effect so it appeared darker and more eerie (as though it took place at night) and a record effect which was essential to our plot line.

In short, we kept with a lot of the conventions of a thriller - such as the darkness, the mystery of the killer, close-ups, tension and eerie music to help the audience identify our film as a thriller. However we didn't use all of the conventions, such as shadows and ghosts, because this would have been a sort of overkill of the film, making the audience feel overwhelmed and confused at the plot. We used enough conventions to make the genre clear, but not too many to make it overwhelming.