Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

IDENTOur own ‘ident’

Professional ‘ident’

Before film opening credits, the companies ‘ident’ will appear. Our own media product uses this convention of a real film to create a professional feel. As you can see, our main inspiration for our company ‘ident’ was one created by ‘Twisted Pictures’. You can see how we have tried to echo the appearance of it through the dark colour scheme and use of animation. Not only were we influenced by the visual aspect, but also by the connotations of the title. ‘Twisted’ relates to the genre of films released by the company - horrors/thrillers containing death and gore. We used the word ‘crimson’ to imply blood and violence; these are popular themes within thriller films.

TITLEI also feel that the title of our film continues to use the usual conventions of a real film production. This is because it is fairly ambiguous; ‘The Syndrome’ does not give much away about the film plot and could be inferred from in various ways. Just like the film title ‘Trust’ (a movie also about a preying male antagonist onto a protagonist female) is fairly ambiguous, leaving the viewer to want to know more about the story behind the name. We chose to not call our film ‘Syndrome’ as it is a little too obscure, however we felt to call it ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ would be too specific. This resulted in us choosing to call it ‘The Syndrome’. It is referring to a particular syndrome but still keeps a sense of mystery, important for a thriller. This is similar to a lot of films, such as ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘The Ring’. Titles with ‘the’ at the beginning create interest as they concern something in particular, whether it’s an object, a person, an event etc. I also feel that the aesthetics of our title within the opening sequence fits the conventions of other film title designs, as the placement of bold letters on a black background is especially popular. We have also chosen to use a dark colour scheme, representative of the thriller genre. This can be seen in a lot of thriller title aesthetics. The dark colours reflect eeriness linked with the dark; people are unsure of what could be hiding in the dark. The white on black creates an unsettling contrast.

Our own title:

Other movie titles:

LOCATIONOur location:

Other film locations:

The location of our film opening sequence was within a wintry forest. Upon deciding to create an opening scene for a thriller movie, we chose to use woods as our site for the chase scene. This is because woods are ‘maze like’, emphasising loss of direction Although forests feature in a lot of films, I feel that we have developed the usual conventions of a thriller film by shooting in a snow laden wood. This is because in films such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ the woods appear dull. However, the forest location within our opening sequence stands out more due to the increased exposure. Also, forests do not feature in a lot of renowned thriller films as being the main location. However, one of our main inspirations the TV thriller ‘The Killing’ features an escape scene, like our own, with the protagonist young girl and antagonist man in a forest setting. Therefore, in a way, by shooting in a forest we are using usual conventions but developing through filming in different weather conditions. Having not originally planned to film in snowy conditions, I feel it enhances this idea of ‘no escape’ and adds to the visuals. This is because the victim stands out against the white clothed in red, making her more venerable and increases her chances of being spotted by her captor. After realising we would have to shoot in snow, we took inspiration from ‘The Shining’. The escape scene within this particular film is enhanced through the weather condition of snow as it is harder to move and the environment can be deceptive; an illusion is created as everywhere appears the same. One minority thriller which has been filmed

in a wintry forest is ‘Dreamcatcher,’ shown in the side image.

COSTUMEIn our opening scene, I believe we have used the usual conventions in consideration to the costume aspect. For instance, our victim wears bright red. Red connotes violence, danger, blood and death. Red can is iconic of death due to previous historical events such as the Plague; the diseased would have a red cross painted on their door, warning others to stay away. It’s almost a symbol of their unavoidable fate. In this sense, our victims pre-ordained fate is to be captured again. We were inspired by the renowned thriller ‘Don’t Look Now’ as the girl wears red head to toe. This emphasises danger as it is her irreversible fate to die. This creates a feel of tragedy within both ‘Don’t Look Now’ and our own opening sequence. Wearing red also means that our character stands out against the dull environment, making her more visible to the antagonist. Wearing the red jumper also highlights her significance as the protagonist.

COSTUME CONTINUEDOur antagonists costume is dull and blends in with the woodland environment. In some ways, this fits the conventions of captors/killers within films, but in other ways it challenges the usual antagonist. For example, in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ we see that the killer wears a mask. This gives him a scary and unsettling appearance. In ‘Psycho’, the murderer dresses as his mother. This again is unnerving as it is abnormal but expected of this genre of films. However, it is almost more unnerving to see the enemy dressed normally. We see this within the movie ‘Untraceable’ as the villain has a seemingly normal appearance. We wanted to echo this within our own opening sequence so we dressed our captor within seemingly normal clothes. This gives him a deceiving appearance which could perhaps suggest context of how the girl first was captured – perhaps she spoke to the apparently ‘normal’ man unaware of his villainous attributes.

CAMERAI believe we have used the expected conventions of a filmed chase scene concerning shot types and camera work. This is because we used a lot of tracking shots and close ups. We also included a shot focused on the victim with a blurred figure of the captor in the background. This means the audience can see something the character cannot which increases tension. We were influenced by the Snatchers chase scene within ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1’; in this scene the camera captures tracking shots, panning shots, extreme close ups and close ups. By using these conventional shots, we were able to gain a sense of speed and create tension.

EDITING

Within our final opening sequence we included a minimal amount of transitions in order to create quick cuts between each shot. This increased the pace of the opening sequence chase, however, it is not normally considered conventional to omit transition from compiled footage. On the other hand, in the snatchers chase scene from the analysed ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1’ clip, we also see a lot of quick cut editing. As this is a world recognised film, we are reassured that we can challenge these editing conventions. When compiling our footage together, we also left a pause following the punch from the captor. This increases suspense as the audience is not immediately made aware of the consequential events.

LIGHTING I believe that our lighting challenges the usual thriller/horror movie as our footage has been filmed in daylight. Films such as ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ captured footage within a dusk/night environment, more expected of a these genres as they add to the unnerving atmosphere. However, I believe that it is more unsettling for a thriller movie to be captured in such exposed lighting as it makes the audience question on how the captor can be so sure that no one will see him capturing his victim. It also makes the snow more blinding, possibly sending the victim into a state of delirium as they seek escape.

CREDITS

Our film opening sequence features credits which look like the example above. I feel our credits develop the conventions expected of credits within a thriller film as they are created in a blunt and bold san-serif text. Thriller/horror films (like ‘Sleepy Hollow’) tend to use serif text which isn’t as contemporary as our own. However, the credits our fairly subtle having been coloured in a light grey. This uses the conventions of thriller/horror credits as they blend into the environment in an almost ‘ghostly’ manner. Our credits are the same font as our title which creates a professional and fluid look.

SPECIAL FX

As our opening sequence is low budget, and having no access to software able to create special FX, we have not included any. This challenges the normal conventions of a thriller film as with the themes of violence and action, special FX normally plays an important part within production. If we had perhaps of had the budget, we may have included special FX to add a more thrilling feel to the film and appeal to our young target audience further.

SOUNDTRACK Our soundtrack develops conventions of expected scores within thriller movies. ‘Psycho’ by Hitchcock, ‘Signs’ and ‘Sixth Sense’ all feature string instruments within their soundtracks. We chose to be influenced by the Danish TV production ‘The Killing’ and to use electronic sounds within our score. If we had the budget and means, I would have preferred to record a string orchestra and create our score through doing so as these particular instruments can really intensify a feel of tension. However, having no access to doing so, we tried to echo a feeling of ‘The Killing’s soundtrack which I think works well within our opening sequence as the timings of the computerised sounds sit well alongside our footage and the ambient sounds/breathing add tension.

CONCEPTTo conclude, I think that our general concept is conventional of a typical thriller film. This is because we have a clear protagonist, a represented antagonist and psychological storyline that has not been explored before within a film – having the victim fall in love with their captor. We believe that our film will appeal to our chosen audience due to the use of conventions but also the challenging of conventions – they will have seen nothing like our film before.