In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media products?
We have challenged conventions of a typical thriller by incorporating aspects of our sub-genre which is psychological thriller. Before even beginning to film for our thriller opening we did a lot of extensive research on various popular psychological thrillers such as Black Swan,The Silence of the Lamb and Gone Girl. We were heavily influenced by the idea of creating a character where the audience were apprehensive on how to feel about him. Lucas's character is portrayed as a grieving boyfriend in the first couple of seconds but as you see the flashbacks it switches the perspective we have of him. This technique was similarly used in Black Swan where Nina starts of as innocent but progressively becomes more twisted.
As a group we wanted to target a minority in which young people could either relate to or become more educated on as later on in the film we would be divulging more into this issue. The topic of mental illness and schizophrenia in particular has not been covered in many films so to be able to cover is in AS media could educate young people. Typically in films those who suffer with mental illness are presented as weak and the majority are females whereas we have used a male. This is deliberate to show an alternative perspective of those who suffer with mental illnesses. By having the majority of our opening shots in a graveyard it set the ominous effect of our thriller opening this is a juxtaposition to how our main character is feeling due to the death of his girlfriend and his surroundings of death. This is otherwise known as pathetic fallacy. The additional use of flowers/greenery contrasts with the dark location suggesting that life can come after death. Daffodil's are used as a symbolism for rebirth and new beginnings, in the case of our media opening we are unsure if this is a good thing for our male main character.
The conventions we developed in our media opening were the elements of suspense and apprehension in which following our main male character to a grave that is yet unknown to the audience. We used a narrative to develop our conventions throughout our plot line to give some insight in to why he's visiting a grave and how it links to our thriller. The use of a narrative explores the way he not only is feeling but how much we wanted to do suggesting perhaps he wanted to help but not being able to because of his mental heath and how broken he is. Similarly the use of music conventions add depth and a inquisitive feeling because of the gradual build with it starting mellow following through with a loud ending. Using this type of slow paced soundtrack was befitting for the opening scenes as it matched the mise-en-scene.
Next the use of clothing to show conventions of death and dejection is used to give an obvious way to convey how the characters are feeling. As a group we thought it'd suit best if Lucas's character stuck with wearing dark colours to implicate him as one of the main reasons why someone has died. Also dressing him in black also brings about a presence with him contrasting to the bright flowers and sky. By wearing a black shirt and jeans also gives a casual setting therefore indicating to the audience that the person was laid to rest some time ago. Throughout the flashbacks both characters are dressed in casual dark attire, one of the reasons for this is to enforce the idea that there relationship is broken and figuratively dark.The casualness of the outfits is to normalise there location. This particular camera shot taken from a birds eye view helps execute the fact she is weaker and at a loss of emotion hence matching the tone of the narrative. Ellie's character is dressed similarly to Lucas to show a union within there relationship almost as though they reflected one another at some point. Aforementioned the use of a female convention where the female is weaker and the victim is used show how although Lucas's character, the antagonist, is suffering with a mental disorder he is still at an advantage due to him being a tall male.This particular scene emphasises the damsel in distress stereotype.
Our media opening is heavily influenced by Gone Girl as prior to making our opening we knew we wanted a relationship with the same dynamic in which they had regular arguments to show an unsteady rocky relationship. One part we enjoyed from this film was the fight scene because of the levels the camera managed to capture whilst they argued. You begin to sympathise with Amy but as the scene progresses and she grows more angry it starts turn against the stereotypical quiet female with her even pushing Nick. We took inspiration from the location of the fight as we felt as though it was somewhere a fight could result in Ellie's characters death.
As a group we wanted to target a minority in which young people could either relate to or become more educated on as later on in the film we would be divulging more into this issue. The topic of mental illness and schizophrenia in particular has not been covered in many films so to be able to cover is in AS media could educate young people. Typically in films those who suffer with mental illness are presented as weak and the majority are females whereas we have used a male. This is deliberate to show an alternative perspective of those who suffer with mental illnesses. By having the majority of our opening shots in a graveyard it set the ominous effect of our thriller opening this is a juxtaposition to how our main character is feeling due to the death of his girlfriend and his surroundings of death. This is otherwise known as pathetic fallacy. The additional use of flowers/greenery contrasts with the dark location suggesting that life can come after death. Daffodil's are used as a symbolism for rebirth and new beginnings, in the case of our media opening we are unsure if this is a good thing for our male main character.
The conventions we developed in our media opening were the elements of suspense and apprehension in which following our main male character to a grave that is yet unknown to the audience. We used a narrative to develop our conventions throughout our plot line to give some insight in to why he's visiting a grave and how it links to our thriller. The use of a narrative explores the way he not only is feeling but how much we wanted to do suggesting perhaps he wanted to help but not being able to because of his mental heath and how broken he is. Similarly the use of music conventions add depth and a inquisitive feeling because of the gradual build with it starting mellow following through with a loud ending. Using this type of slow paced soundtrack was befitting for the opening scenes as it matched the mise-en-scene.Next the use of clothing to show conventions of death and dejection is used to give an obvious way to convey how the characters are feeling. As a group we thought it'd suit best if Lucas's character stuck with wearing dark colours to implicate him as one of the main reasons why someone has died. Also dressing him in black also brings about a presence with him contrasting to the bright flowers and sky. By wearing a black shirt and jeans also gives a casual setting therefore indicating to the audience that the person was laid to rest some time ago. Throughout the flashbacks both characters are dressed in casual dark attire, one of the reasons for this is to enforce the idea that there relationship is broken and figuratively dark.The casualness of the outfits is to normalise there location. This particular camera shot taken from a birds eye view helps execute the fact she is weaker and at a loss of emotion hence matching the tone of the narrative. Ellie's character is dressed similarly to Lucas to show a union within there relationship almost as though they reflected one another at some point. Aforementioned the use of a female convention where the female is weaker and the victim is used show how although Lucas's character, the antagonist, is suffering with a mental disorder he is still at an advantage due to him being a tall male.This particular scene emphasises the damsel in distress stereotype.
Our media opening is heavily influenced by Gone Girl as prior to making our opening we knew we wanted a relationship with the same dynamic in which they had regular arguments to show an unsteady rocky relationship. One part we enjoyed from this film was the fight scene because of the levels the camera managed to capture whilst they argued. You begin to sympathise with Amy but as the scene progresses and she grows more angry it starts turn against the stereotypical quiet female with her even pushing Nick. We took inspiration from the location of the fight as we felt as though it was somewhere a fight could result in Ellie's characters death.
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