The ways my media product uses develop and challenges forms and conventions of real media produces.

My group was given a task to create an opening of a new thriller opening. We chose to set the location in a young girl’s room as a father sat crying on the bed looking at photos as a music box played in the back ground then in the last few seconds of the scene a killer suffocates the father using a plastic bag. We chose to class the thriller as a 15 as there was a sense of violence in the film. The thriller genre can be split into various sub genres to cover a broad area of film, the main characteristics of these sub genres that link them all together are the fast pace, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliff-hangers are also was in which thrillers are named my group used these conventions by using a dog as a red herring building up tension as the audience believe that the door opening could be a murder. The required characteristics that a thriller should abide by in the first 2 minutes are; a mysterious location so the audiences have to think about what is going to happen and jump to conclusions. Close up shots of the characters so the faces or prominent features are shown in more detail so another sense of mystery is created. The titles closely creep onto the screen so the audience get a chance to read the actors etc. the end of the first 2 minutes a cliff-hanger is created so the rest of the movie can use that cliff-hanger as a stepping stone to make the rest of the narrative. The conventions of the thriller genre are the use of mise-en-scene in thrillers to create suspense is approached in many different ways. The locations included in the opening sequence can stand as a very important clue as to what the film is about; in Psycho for example the locations are used to reflect the protagonist's contrasting behaviour with his nasty, and psychotic personality. In jaws the opening scene is a continuous cut scene panning the path of a shark the use of non-diegetic sound is used to build up suspense as a person swims in the sea and whenever the music seems to be climaxing the music starts again and you wonder if the shark is going to attack, this is related in our thriller by the use of the music box producing soft non-diegetic sound. At the end of the opening scene the shark attacks and we/audience is left on a cliff-hanger. Steven Spielberg affected our media opening as we used the convention’s he used in jaws of cutting from the murderer to the victim to build tension.

My media product represents a particular social group as we marketed the opening for an age range of 15+ and to lower-middle class citizens as this range would produce a bigger market for our film and we had to have an age range as the film contained violence which wouldn’t have got an age group of U or PG etc. We also aimed the film to families as there is a strong family connection between a dad and his daughter this is also shown by the use of a Childs room throughout the opening scene and the family home we used. The film companies we chose to distribute and be involved in our thriller are warmer bros. Because they have a large spectrum of making good thrillers from Harry Potter, Batman, and Superman to Terminator, I also chose this company because they own rights to distribute make and show their own films on TV channels they own like paramount TV etc. We aimed to get across the representation of the father like figure a murder and a young child in our production I believe that we did this well because the way we put across the charters image by the father figure wore everyday clothes and looked at family photos that symbolised that he was in a family, there was also a close up of one of the photos showing a young child this represents the girl also the film was set in a child’s room, finally the murder was represented by the use of clothing as he wore black clothes to represent the menacing side of him. BBFC guidelines affected the way we chose the age rating of our film and the age range we asked our surveys to as we knew we wanted violence depicted in a realistic way so we couldn’t of marketed our film to under 15 so we didn’t ask people under 15 to do our survey as BBFC certifies violence depicted in a realistic way to be worthy of a 15+ age rating this age rating will reduce the size of our audience and there for revenue.
We chose the target audience via the surveys we gave the public we found out the public wanted a sub-genre of a thriller genre. We also found out that our audience would like a twist in the film at some point which we put into our opening with the murderer walking into the room and suffocating the father. We also looked into how our audiences consume there use of thrillers and we found out that they stay in and watch movies in their own homes this was another reason for choosing Warner bros. As they have their own TV channels which would make it easier to put the film onto the TV as we are already with a company that distribute the film via TV.
We attracted and addressed our audiences by using a twist in our thriller opening in the way of a cliff-hanger and red herring. we used distorted and close up shots mostly so the audience will have to watch the film to find out what is going on as these hook them into watching more of the movie. The appeal of our filming was the use of miss-en-scene and sound as we used the location of a family home and more importantly the little girl’s bed room this would attract our intended audience, as they would think that the family home is meant to be jolly and happy but we use it as a dark hollow place and this attracts our audience as they would be consumed into watching the film as we found out they like twists like this in the survey we did, another way we attracted our audience was the use of diegetic sound in the form of a music box being played in the background of the scene as it pleases the grieving dad. I want the audience to feel and engage in the plot of the thriller we made by creating empathy for the dad that seems to have lost his daughter, but I also want there to be a uncertainty about whether his daughter and whether he is the murderer and for the audience to make questions about what’s going on. We have met our audience’s expectations as they asked for in the survey that they wanted a twist which we have given to them in the form of a cliff-hanger, the type of thriller we have made which is an action thriller and the use of diegetic sound in the way of a music box.
The technologies I have learnt to use in the process I have undertaken are a digital camera, trolley, and the adobe premiere pro. The highest learning curve was the editing software as I had no idea how to use that before and now if I was to make another film I could do it with ease than I could before. I have learnt how to use various shooting skills as well from panning to extreme close ups I knew the basics of camera shots before I started the preliminary task like close ups but my knowledge has been increased. Before doing this task I only knew how to do editing on windows movie maker but using adobe premiere pro I had to learn all the basics again. The bit I have learned the most was the fading in and out from shots and how to make the cuts fluid so there are no black screens and also the continuity of the editing. The technical issues we had to deal with during shooting was trying to shoot in a dark room during the day time so we used bin bags over the windows then closed the curtains to produce a darker more mysterious scene, another problem we had to overcome was because we used a dark room we had to position lights around the room to be able to see the expressions on the actors face.
Looking back at the preliminary task I feel I have learned how to use the types of shots like close up shots and panning, and how they make the scene feel during the film for example extreme close ups show the detail and are used to show expression and build the mood for the scene and that long shots set the scene like in the opening of psycho as the camera pans down into the room. I also feel I have learned how to use miss-en-scene to its full potential in filming to produce the best atmosphere during the scene. The strengths of our task were the use of props and the way we utilized the light to make the room seem dark and mysterious to build tension. The short comings of our task was the limited use of camera shots as there was only extreme close ups and mid-range close ups and a bit of panning this could also be changed into a strength as there was not many cuts so the scene would of been easily understood but during thriller opening scenes the audience want confusion to make them want to watch on and give them a excuse to do that. The type of planning we did for our main task was more in detail due to the way we went around our preliminary task, another rule we learnt from our preliminary task was the 10 second rule which helps during editing. The main problems during the preliminary task was not having enough footage this was overcome by having more filming during the main task so we could pick and choose the best shots, another problem was the use of lighting as we had to bring extra lights into the room as we needed only spotlights as day light would of ruined the effect we was trying to make and the whole persona. If I was going to do a project again I would do even more shots to edit the final piece and take my time in shooting the shots as the timing was a bit short as we tried to cram all the shooting in one day and this wasn’t enough I feel.

props and location setting up

We need to start filming early as we need to conduct lighting tester shots before we start filming. The tests that we will carry out are:

One with just the curtains closed and another shot with the window blacked out (this could be done by just putting either card or black bin bags over the window)

Props group members will need to bring:


Andy (Lamp)

Becky (Music box)


We also need to collect the camera from Miss Roberts, and to print off all camera scripts, photo copy the story board pages.

The final camera script

We are filming the thriller in Stuarts little sisters bedroom.

[Setting: Man sitting on bed in dark child's room, outside landing light is on so a very small amount of light is seeping in around and underneath the door]
[Sound: Very silent, the only noises in the whole scene are the music box, the man struggling with the bag over his head, the dog barking and sound effect and the end]

Shot one is a panning shot sweeping across the floor looking at pictures of children playing etc... It continues to pan across to mans feet and then up his body, you see him holding a picture in his hand (audience can't see it), then keeps panning until camera settles on a close up of the mans face. You can see the man is very distraught and has been crying.

Cuts to a close up of the music box playing.

It then cuts to a mid shot of him sitting on the bed, you can see the door behind the man but the camera is focused on him. Then the door begins to open slowly in the same shot, see more light creep into the room, man doesn't notice at first.

Then it cuts to a close up on his face as the light from the hall starts sweeping across it, and then he looks over his shoulder.

Cuts to point of view shot looking at the dog coming into the room. A mid shot watches the dog go up to the man, then a point of view shot from the dog, like he is expecting to be fussed over, as he doesn't get stroked it cuts back to a mid shot of the dog curling up at the mans feet.

Then back to a close up on the mans face that is half illuminated from the hallway light, then suddenly the light cuts out like something or someone is blocking the light. Still on the close up of the man begins to slowly turn to look but then a bag is wrapped over his head. Still on the close up see him struggle for a bit.

Then see a close up of the dog barking at the mystery killer, don't know who its is, very dark against outside light, almost a silhouette. Then it cuts out with load dramatic sound.