Evaluation Task 5: In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Classic beautiful blonde victim unaware of what is going to happen to her. It’s a common convention that works and viewers enjoy.

Below is a still from the 1996 film, Scream. Here the beautiful blonde victim is totally unaware of what is about to happen to her in a matter of moment.

Here we have a still of a notebook being written in but it doesn’t hang around long enough for the viewers to read what it says. This makes the audience think about what he might be writing. The fact that its hand written adds the extra creepy aspect.

Left is a still from the opening of Se7en. An unknown character is writing in a notebook, allow this shot lingers for quite a while, the angle of the shot means that the viewers are not able to see what is being written.

This is an extreme close up of the male lead thinking. This shot comes directly after he’s been scribbling in his notebook, so the audience question why he is so serious about it. The dim, moody lighting heightens the tense atmosphere.

The killer here is drawing an ear in his notebook. This makes the audience wonder why he is drawing this particular part of the body. Image of specific body parts are a very classic aspect of horror/thriller films.

In the opening of Se7en they use lots of images and printed photos of body parts and faces. This differs slightly from ours but that basic idea of specific body parts is still there.

A romantic ideal from the woman is established here, as she is unaware that he is a killer. This a convention used constantly in modern films.

For example in the fairly recent 2011 film, Red Riding Hood, there is a romance where the woman is unaware that the male is a killer. He goes along with the romance to get closer to her, therefore making it easier to kill her. This is potentially what our lead male is doing by asking the woman to dinner.

This is a sequence that plays out in the man’s imagination. He is thinking about killing her and then promptly asks her to dinner. This makes the audience question his motives and what will happen to the girl, especially after we have seen what is going on inside his head.

At this point we get the ‘unveiling’ of the ear. His reaction makes us question why he is so fascinated by her ear. The audience also think back to him previously drawing the ear and make connections.

Here we have the killer thinking about killing the blonde girl. At this time inner voices are playing.

This is like American Psycho (below), at this point he is also thinking about his next move whilst an inner voice is playing.

This is the end title, complete with the sound of a knife slashing and blood spatter. The font is representative of something quite journalistic, just like the mans profession. The blood shows the violence of the piece. The white background is somewhat clinical, giving the impression that this could be the intention of the killer.

‘Paragon’ means perfection (as you can see from the dictionary definition) This is what the man is trying to create. From the opening sequence the audience will be unsure why it is called ‘Paragon’. Hopefully later it would become clear.