AS Media Studies Evaluation

Hannah Cox

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

Before trying to achieve this goal of making a crime-thriller however, I explored into previous thriller texts and analysed the use of camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. This helped me understand the typical codes and conventions that thrillers have. So I firstly watched ‘Black Swan’ and noticed the use of a black screen and white font for the titles. I noticed this format for titles was used again in other thrillers, hence why we intended of using this generic convention in our media product.

As well as this, with my research into mise-en-scene I found examples that connote certain meanings. For example in ‘4321’ weak characters are shown to be in unappealing clothes with rubbed make-up. This compares to our weak female character as she too shows similar mise-en-scene. Thus, this develops the form of generic conventions as females are presented stereotypically.

Again, with my research into framing, I found out certain shot types connote certain representations of characters. The use of the mid-shot highlights certain props to the audience. In ‘Misery’ the character is shown in smart clothes next a typewriter, thus portraying intelligence. We used this generic convention as our male character is shown in smart clothes in a study. This portrays our antagonist as the dominant male. I believe this shots were successfully as they portray the right meanings we wanted to create.

Upon making our media product ‘Stolen’, we used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. We met the conventions and key concepts of a typical crime / psychological thriller genre, but also challenged these conventions through our development. This way the audience received familiarity and repetition, but also variation.

[See 2:03].

[See 0:47]

[See 1:00].

In some cases however, our media product subverted the forms and conventions to real media products. An example of this is through the titles. I looked at ‘Black Swan’ and found that the titles appear in order. With our media product however, there is a 80 second gap until the title of the film is shown. Even though this is challenging the conventions, we believe this creates impact and suspense and doesn’t take any drama away from the actual footage.

However, the choices we made during the filming and editing process reflect the genre of our film. Through our use of conventions it indicates the crime / psychological genre. This provides familiarity to the audience as we are uses key concepts from existing products. This is evident through the content, editing, mise-en-scene, titles and camera work. Firstly, our content reflects the genre as it covers a typical feature of a thriller: a kidnapping. Audience’s would be able to recognise this, thus providing evidence of repetition in our thriller. The editing also reinforces this as from [1:20], pace is increased through the intercutting from male to female to show the desperation of the female trying to escape.

The mise-en-scene also indicates the crime/psychological genre as the clothing represents the good and bad: the protagonist in white and the antagonist in black. The lighting also adds to this as most of the shots consists of dark saturation, expect for the detective scene. Therefore, this reflects a typical crime/psychological. The titles also reinforce the thriller genre as they provide a simple purpose which doesn’t take away any drama from the shot. Finally, the camera shows use of generic conventions as there is a contrast between different angles of the characters: female shot in a high angle- connoting weakness, and male shot in low angle- connoting power.

Personally, I believe the titles add edge and variation towards our thriller. As genres are always evolving, we are subverting the conventions, thus keeping the genre alive. The audience would respond to this positively, and towards the familiarity

through representing gender in a stereotypical way. I believe we were successful through using, and subverting the conventions as our research proves this. However, we could have gone more into dept in the genre of crime, as we were

more focused on our idea rather than the actual genre.

What thrillers have influenced our work?During our brainstorming and storyboarding, I looked back at some of my favourite thrillers to gain inspiration for our product. I looked at ‘Shallow Grave’ and used the simplistic approach to presenting titles. We used sans serif to add the minimalistic tone. This way no drama is taken away from the footage.

I was also influenced by the film ‘Misery’ as we included the same idea of having someone trapped to a bed. Even though the character roles different in gender, the same idea is used. This shows that we have successfully produced a typical convention of a thriller:

•Centring dominant characters in middle of the shot convey they are more powerful•Holding onto the bars portray ideas of control•The bed bars connote ideas of entrapment as it is similar to jail

Furthermore, the film ‘Taken’ is also similar to our film through the use of the female character being ‘stolen’. We used this idea but changed the narrative. The title for both films are also similar as they are simplistic which is a typical thriller convention: Stolen | Taken.

The name ‘Stolen’ also connotes ideas of isolation and the younger audience can relate to this. As our characters reflect a similar age, the audience can be included as this is how some young audiences feel in society.