Evaluation Question 1

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

Our group followed many conventions used by real film makers by doing a number of the same processes used in real media products. Our preliminary task helped us to decide on a number of shots that we liked and wanted to include in our own piece. Similar to how film makers test out a variety of shots and angles to see which they like best and which fit in with their chosen genre. We did a large amount of background research into our chosen Genre which helped us gain an insight into what type of music and locations to use. Real media products will do similar research so that they do not stray from their chosen genre while shooting. Finally we created a storyboard to finalise good ideas, to see how well shots fit together and to prevent future squabbles within the group. Again something which any media producer will have to do when creating a media product.

In a real media product the opening scene should do a number of things, establish genre, establish setting and introduce main characters. To establish our main charater we used her in our establishing shot so that straight away she is the focal point throughout. The fact that the setting around her was so desolate and abandoned helped create this focus upon her as there is nothing of any interest to look at in the shot. We foreshadowed her impending doom in the sense that she is wearing very tatty ripped up clothes so the audience place a certain amount of pitty on her, mixed with the music and setting of the film the audience know full well something bad will happen around this character. The character of the killer is quite easily recognised what with the dark clothes and weapon in hand. This seemingly follows the usual conventions of a thriller however we challenged some conventions in the way the character moved. Most killers are supposed to be of the same physical ability just not mentally sane, in ours however we gave him almost superhuman ability. When kourtney runs away upon seeing him she never seems to gain any ground away from him despite the fact that he is walking, this shows the killer being almost superhuman. I feel this worked incredibly well and left the audience stunned, making our product stand out from others.

To establish the Setting and Genre of the piece we felt it necessary to include these in our Establishing shot so that the audience can straight away be part of the film. Our establishing shot is a 'long shot' in which we wanted an isolated desolate feel to be seen straight away. To do this we placed the main character Kourtney on her own within the shot with no other human contact and nothing of any other interest. This places the focus upon Kourtney and also establishes the setting. The random building materials and the assortment of bricks and broken wood helped establish this chosen setting. We alsoused music to establish the genre, our music was slow and involved a rather creepy voice lending well to the thriller genre. When the killer is first brought into the film we changed the music from a slow pace to more speeded to amplify the intenseness of the introduction typical of a thriller genre. The genre is firmly put in place by the introduction of the killer due to him being shrouded in mystery wearing dark clothes and holding a knife making it clear to the audience what genre we are trying to achieve.

Overall i feel that we did follow some conventions used in real media products but where necessary challenged others for the better which allowed our piece to stand out amongst others.