Question 1


In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media products?

The opening sequence for our film “addicted” follows the form of most opening sequences for our genre (Thriller).

We followed the conventions of thrillers by not giving away too much of the narrative to the audience, however giving clues to what the narrative is about. For example the point of view shot of our main character George sitting down with a phone in his hand s calling a girl named Michelle, suggests that she has something to do with our main character’s awkward behaviour. We chose to use this code and convention of thrillers because it gets our target thinking and assuming. By doing that we are able to draw them into our story using their own imagination.

Like in the thriller film perfect stranger where in their first shot they use a transition/dissolve from a big eye to their main characters eye which automatically suggests to the audience that the big eye has something to do with the narrative and is somehow linked with the main character.

This method of engaging the audience’s imagination and intellect is also used in M. Night Shyamalan’s The sixth sense. Where the first shot of their opening sequence shows Bruce Willis’s character in a living room with his wife celebrating an award for best psychologist. This suggests and gives a clue that his psychology will play a part in the rest of the narrative. This is followed on in the last shot of their opening sequence where Bruce Willis is shot by one of his old patients, which matches the first shot of the sequence. This code and convention in thrillers allows us to manipulate the target audience’s knowledge on what they already know about thriller movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZi3BmrUVrc

We challenged the form of thrillers by using point of view shots from start to finish. Which are not usually used in thrillers but mostly used for documentaries. We knew that it would be difficult because the camera was hand held and not on a tripod which could make our shots unprofessional, however we were able to use the camera mans body movements for the camera to follow.

An example of point of view shots.



We used point of view shots to get the correct cinematography and realism that we needed in order to entice and put the audience in our characters shoes. To make them feel as if they were about to begin a journey with him. We developed our knowledge and skills on how to use codes and conventions for our sequence to make that our genre thriller noticeable. For example we knew that the credits and title had to be white writing on a black background due to our research of other thriller opening sequences and what they did to make credits and titles eye catching. For example we saw that the same method was used in James Foley’s perfect stranger and M. Night Shyamalan’s sixth sense.

We also used the fade in and out effect as they are used in most thriller movies to set a flowing tempo to the sequence, which follows the rules of the genre. The sound mix that we created with the soundtracks in memoriam, fear factor, heart beat and the deigetic breathing sound layered over each other created a mysterious ambiance as the instruments were soft and slow but the drum beat was jumpy and moderately fast.