Question 1

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

My Product: Typical Thriller/ horror conventions:

My Production – use, develop or challenge:

Comparison to existing products:

Titling – colour, font and style:

It is typical of a horror movie to use dark font, the colour tends to be in the grey-scale. They also usually use a bold font to create a dramatic impact from the beginning. The screen behind the titles is usually dark, as colours such as black and grey, connote danger and fear.

Our title of our film challenges the typical conventions of a horror film by placing the title at the very end of the film, we did this because we want the audience to keep focused on the plot and then when the screen cuts from a shot of a photograph we place the titles there, we did this for a dramatic effect. We also used a black screen and placed the bold titles over in white, we did this to show the effect of the two different personalities that you meant in the beginning of the film.

We thought ‘Silence of The Lambs’ title was similar to ours as the bold font is placed over a dark background, it also doesn’t use any sort of transition so it gets straight to the point, we believe this to be effective because it grips the audience. Our film is called ‘On The Line,’ we chose this because the plot of the film is about a young female who doesn’t use online social networking in a safe way, she also puts herself in danger and the majority of the film is based on a train line. She also calls the polices phone line at the end of the two minutes with the titles in place, because she’s in danger.

Camera movement:

To set the scene in a thriller/horror, they tend to use panning shots to grip the audience and display the environment.

We began with a medium close-up to get to know the characters where about and characteristics, we didn’t show the murders face as we wanted to build suspense. This challenges the conventions of a horror film because thriller/horrors tend to begin with a panning shot.

In ‘Too Young To Die?’ it starts off as a medium close up of one of the main characters to get to know them. This challenges the typical conventions as usually we are introduced to the setting before the characters. This makes our film similar to this film.

Framing a shot – cu, mcu, ect:

Long shots are frequently used to let the audience get an idea of the environment. ECU and MCU are used to connect with a character or get to know their emotions.

We used a variety of different shots, we began with MCU of the characters actions and then further on in our film we used ECU to portray the main characters emotions, we thought it would be a good way to convey in particular the venerable teenage girls emotions because she was in deep fear.

Using an ECU into the characters face was similar to the film ‘Psycho’ when they took an extreme close up of the characters eye. In ‘The Call,’ they use an ECU when the female character picks up the phone in fear, this is represented by the glossy glow that we can see in her eyes.

Camera angle – low, high:

To show the characters vulnerability horror/thrillers are usually shot from a high angle to show the killers point of view and their dominance.

We challenged this convention by using shots that were from the perspective of the other character, for example when the female is standing on the train platform and can see her murderer on the other side of the platform.

In ‘The Lovely Bones’ the movie is from a dead girls perspective, this is similar to ours as we follow the characters lives through.

Mise-en-scene: A dark costume is generally used for the killer, sometimes the killers face is also covered to hide their identity. Props that can cause harm are usually used – knives, sharp objects, blood stained towels etc. Lighting is usually low – key, this builds suspense and fear. Quiet, eerie music is usually

We developed this idea by putting the characters in casual clothing, we did this in particular because our target audience is likely to wear these outfits to it could be relatable in their lives. We also used gloomy lighting to create tension. We used props

Our film is similar to ‘Creep’ because they’re both set at train stations, it has a different plot but it represents the idea that there can be many dangers with train stations.

used to build tension. Naturalistic make – up and costumes are used to make it more realistic.

such as blood stained towels, weapons, gloves etc.

Editing – jump cuts, match cuts, reverse shots, cutting rhythm:

The cutting rhythm is usually fast when action is happening. Reverse shots are usually used, this can be seen as dialogue especially when something bad is about to happen.

Fluid, fast pace shots were used in the beginning to jump straight into the storyline. The long shots are on screen for a longer time, this is to make the film more dramatic, for example the shots of the main female character sitting down waiting for her train. This makes the audience feel empathy for her.

In ‘Silence of The Lambs’ you follow the character running through the woods, this is similar to ours as we use a long cutting rhythm in parts to build suspense.

Sound: Sound in thriller/horrors tends to be very dramatic in parts with the use of an orchestra etc. Or it may be very quiet with ambient sound. Sound is very important to create tension or to build a dramatic storyline. High pitched music is often used as it is unpleasant and fits the face paced cuts.

My production used this by making the music match the cuts in the film – this had an impact as the music was in sync. The music also sped up when something more dramatic happened.

In ‘Jaws’ when the shots sped up and got more dramatic the music became a lot more fast pace. The use of high pitched noises in our film and Jaws means that the audience feel slightly uncomfortable and on edge. We also used varies pieces of other sound effects, such as a text tone, police siren, traffic and a train pulling into the station.

Narrative: A thriller/horror usually contains a killer who is either suspected as being strange from the start or is completely unexpected. They are commonly male and are after a young, pretty, female.

My production used the typical storyline of a thriller but instead we wanted to send out a message and as our target audience was the age range most likely to use social media we decided that we could combine it about a teenage girl who uses social networking/dating websites and ends up getting herself in a very dangerous situation.

Our film is similar to the film ‘Unfriended’ in the sense that its about teenagers using social networking in a dangerous way and getting themselves into situations they can’t get out of.