AS Evaluation- Question 1

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

My final narrative includes a couple that are about to get married, however the man abandons his fiance on their wedding day and starts a new life. The bride doesn't deal with this situation well and her mental state deteriorates. She decides to blame all the guests and his family and sets out to murder them. Her identity is unknown to them as she wears a veil and wedding dress. This creates suspense and shock, as the audience is unaware of her identity, too. 

Before making my sequence, I researched the codes and conventions used within other thrillers. Many films need to contain specific codes and conventions that make them typical of the thriller genre. Examples of this include cinematography, mise en scene, setting, iconography, sound and editing. An example of a film that I took inspiration from is 'The Shinning'. This film is an extremely popular thriller film and contains the typical shock/surprise/suspense elements. Previously, I have analysed the well known 'Here's Johnny' scene and identified that it contained many different micro elements that are typically seen within thriller productions. 

The first example that I found is that the room was low lit showing the negativity and lack of hope, making the audience feel empathy for the character that cannot escape. Low key lighting is conventionally used in thrillers to create the sense of an enigma and to incise the audience. The atmosphere is immediately tense, causing the audience to feel suspense and on edge for what is to come. 

The scene from 'The Shinning' also uses iconography, as an ax is used as a dangerous weapon, slashing through the door, which contrasts to the vulnerable female victim. The large ax tears through the door easily, showing the power and brutal actions of the weapon. A woman is typically used as a victim within thriller films to show the female stereotype of vulnerability and innocence, therefore the audience feel empathy for her. 

This also links to mise en scene and the positioning of characters element as the victim is placed behind a towering door. This further causes the audience to feel empathy for her, and care for her safety. 

My opening sequence is successful to the thriller genre as many conventional micro elements are used as I followed the generic conventions. This includes the use of cinematography. Below are examples of shots that I used within my opening sequence.

Here, a panning shot is used to introduce the dark setting. This causes suspense as the panning shot shows the setting and then the killer sat on the bed, last. The audience are introduced to the setting, causing them to engage with the narrative. This shot shows the ruined event, and how devastated the bride/killer is by the situation. The use of iconography is shown through this panning shot, making the frame more believable. The atmosphere caused by this shot is eerie and tense, as the killer's room/shrine is revealed to the audience, showing her negative mindset.

In some points within the sequence, POV shots are used in flashbacks. This causes the frames to look more real and the audience are part of the action. The use of POV further makes the frames look personal and that they have actually happened. This type of camera work is used in films such as Paranormal Activty, to make the production seem real. This scares the audience as they are confused and are unaware if the situation is real or not. 

I believed that extreme close ups should be used within my production. This is because, if used on characters, the audience are engaged as this technique can show a character's emotion. I used this shot when showing the bride/killer's facial features. We see from this that her make up is mess up and she is not a conventional bride. Her emotions are negative, and through the eye, the audience can see deep into her soul. The audience sympathise with her, as she is emotional over a ruined, negative event that happened to her. Fundamentally, this shot shows how sinister the killer can be as she is ready to murder those around her.

Aswell as this, low key lighting is used within my sequence. Low key lighting is conventionally used in thriller productions to create an enigma and suspense. The audience feel uneasy from the use of low key lighting as the audience is unaware of characters hiding in the background. Low key lighting is used in many scenes of my thriller. An example below includes the image below. As the main victim walks up the stairs, the killer is waiting for him, both he and the audience are unaware of this. However, the audience can guess that something negative is approaching because of the use of low key lighting.

Positioning of characters is shown especially in the ending. This is used successfully at the end scene when the bride/killer faces her main victim. The audience are unaware of what will happen after this. Over this, a loud sound effect is used to surprise the audience. I believe that the use of this causes a positive end effect, as the audience would want to keep watching from the intriguing ending. In this scene also, iconography is used as the killer holds a knife. This causes her to seem more sinister, contrasting with her gender. Fundamentally, all of these elements causes the bride to become a conventional killer, terrifying the audience further. 

Make up and costume, an element of mise en scene, is also included within my opening sequence. I believed that this was extremely important to focus on as, characters become more believable causing the sequence to become successful. Costume and make up are highly focused on within successful thriller films as the characters need to be believable. Overall, victims need to be portrayed to the audience to show innocence, such as a blonde female that is typically used. And killers need to be portrayed evidently also, for example, wearing black and hiding in the shadows, usually masked to hide there face, making their identity unknown. The killer in my sequence wears a crumpled wedding dress, showing that she is still obsessed with the event that never happened. She hides her identity with the veil over her face, creeping up on her victims, scaring the audience also. The make up she wears is ruined and her hair is a mess, showing her mental state and deranged mind. The audience feel empathy for her however, the killer terrifies them also as the costume and makeup cause her too look creepy and shows her negative mindset, showing her craziness can result in murder. 

Following this, the representation of characters is also explored within my opening sequence. Whether a villain or victim, characters are always represented effectively within successful thriller films to make a character/audience connection, therefore audience members bond with victims and care about their safety and then become afraid of killers, fearing what they will do next. The killer within my narrative is a bride with a deteriorating mental state and is affected by her wedding that didn't take place. She challenges other conventional killers as she is a female, highlighting her power and brutal nature. Women are conventionally used as victims therefore, using a female as a killer creates a wider audience and overall makes the character more interesting and creates a whole new representation of a killer. Contributing to this, a male plays the main victim. This too challenges the conventional thriller aspects as the female killer targets a male victim therefore she dominant and and shows a huge amount of strength, contrasting with her mental state. This terrifies the audience as she is stronger and powerful compared to a male victim, therefore the audience can empathise with him and become afraid of the female killer. This links to my analysed narrative theory as my narrative fits Erving Goffman's theory as he suggests there are four main characters within his own theory. This includes the protagonist, the main leading character. In my case, the female killer that leads the audience through the narrative. The deuteragonist, the second most important character in my case, he male victim whom the killer targets through out. The bit player is a character of less importance who within my sequence is the bridesmaid/new wife. She becomes important at the end of the sequence as she marries the male victim, who the bride killer was in love with. Lastly, a fool who isn't serious and uses humorous elements to communicate. Within my opening sequence, the groom's friends play the fool(s) as they make jokes and are unaware of what is to come (the bride murders them all). This theory is used within many successful thrillers thus, I decided to use this theory for my narrative to represent characters. 

My media product has been created from ideas that each of the group members had from research from other successful media productions. From a range od ideas that had been taken from other films, my sequence challenges the forms and conventions used. My thriller sequence contains a high amount of suspense and a sense of enigma, as my sequence engages the audience from adding these elements into the narrative. My chosen narrative is also extremely unique and had not been seen before within other thriller productions. The storyline is based around a ruined wedding and the bride's deteriorating mental state. Therefore, my narrative also contains a pyschological theme, causing audience members that are intreseted in subplots to watch it. As well as this, the protagonist/killer is a unique character and challenges other killers. This is because she is a powerful woman, which can confuse the audience as typically, men are the killers. This shows the woman's power/strength, causing her to seem more terrifying. Consequently, this will cause a wider audience as a woman is the killer. This makes women watch the production and appeals to men, also.