What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

 

Our production company would be LionsGate Films if “Hunted” was to become a feature length TV Show or Film. The logo looks rather interesting and centred due to it being in a gap in the clouds. It overall looks like a logo you would expect to see before watching a thriller. The actual name itself “Lions-Gate” also sounds somewhat more aggressive and thriller like, it somehow makes the audience to expect to see something dramatic, almost as if the gate is opening to introduce to a good thriller film. The role of this particular production company is the fact it specialises in thriller films and other independent works that are know well known, such as Saw, The Cabin In The Woods, Dredd and The Hunger Games. We overall chose this media production company due to its expertise and relation the thriller genre, and it would be a good associating to have in the media industry if we had their backing behind us.

In terms of our own logo, LionsGate and other company logos did not influence it, as it was an entirely original piece of work that we thought of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see here, our fictional “Boundless Productions” logo is innovative and rather unique compared to other company logos. The production logo has the infinity sign behind it on a sideways angle, to represent that we are infinite and it reinforce the word boundless.

 

 

A production company is basically a company that distributes and legally produces films for other companies that have made them, but with contracts and agreements signed so they get some money and credit for publishing it. Examples of this are Universal, 20^th Century Fox and LionsGate.  An example of a thriller film being produced is SeveN being produced by New Line Cinema.

 

 

The distributer that I would personally choose to distribute our thriller if it was a feature length film would be Momentum Pictures. The reason why is because in the past they have produced some block buster thriller films Such as Dead Man Down, Downfall, District B13 Ultimatum, Law Abiding Citizen and Crash. Momentum pictures are a British organisation and are one of the UK’s leading distribution companies. Their headquarters is located in London, Great Britain. It as of 2013 has been owned by the American firm Entertainment One as a wholly owned subsidiary. Entertainment One is a multi-national, American owned media company and is a direct rival to other major companies such as Universal and 20^th Century Fox. 

The film genres that they are involved in are thrillers, action films, family films, Romance films, and fantasy film genres.  Over the years, they have managed and produced several major blockbusters, such as Dead Man Down, The Kings Speech and Defiance. They are overall an appropriate institution to distribute our thriller opening due to their good reputation and general association with thriller films, so if they distributed our film, our film would possibly gain a large audience of interest and subsequently be more successful.

The money that we would need for our films budget would partly come from bank loans to procure the most expensive things, such as land rental, police safety licence for firearms being carried in public places for some scenes and shooting blank rounds and advertising.  However, through means of our own money and fundraising at public and online campaigns, we would pay for the less expensive costs, such as renting out vehicles, set for some scenes that are not safe to be filmed outside, weapon leasing from appropriate third party firms and medical staff in case somebody injures themselves on set.

The various people named in the titles were for a comical, far-fetched effect including names such as the rapper, and hip-hop artist Eminem and dubstep artist Tyler The Creator.  In terms of jobs, we had Peter casted as the director due to all the shots and camera angles being his ideas with some influence from myself and Conor.  We had the editorial director as me due to the fact I highly influenced the editing. 

In  terms of institutional similarities, there are no major thriller that follow this style of release due to bigger budgets and better financial support. I suppose in a way that the style of marketing of similar thriller videogames such as Condemned and Alan Wake.

 

Q5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience

 

 

We made our thriller opening “Hunted “appealing to our audience due to the innovative camera angle which give a more open-ended and appealing perspective of our mise-en-scene and props. 

 

An example of this is the gun on the table whilst the camera moves along it in a diagonal fashion to emphasize upon its menacing appearance and the audiences expectations of it to be a significant danger to people’s lives.  The editing has also made it dark and has more of a shadow effect around this shots periphery. This would finally attract our target audience, which is predominantly male, due to a gun being more relatable to things they typically like such as shooter video games and action/war/thriller films.

 

Another example is the watch lying on a brick wall before being taken by an unknown person. The camera is completely still and positioned above the watch so the audience gets the best look possible at it before it is taken. The audiences could get the impression that time is running out for somebody as the watches hands are pointing towards the right side so their impression is most probably that out of all things. The editing has made it ever so slightly blurred along the edges of this shot to make it feel more numb and surreal than it actually would be. This would attract our target audience due to its curious nature and it makes them want to delve deeper into our thriller opening to find out more.

 

 

Another good camera shot is the “I Have Nightmares All The Time” newspaper text is positioned at an angle so it is clearly visible with some slight debris on it to make it out that its abandoned in a degraded or abandoned area. Then it is walked on by somebody to give an eerie and unsettling effect due to the nature and the implications of what the text says. This gives an impression that in the narrative, one of the characters is plagued by physiological problems or another similar type of illness. The editing yet again creates a slightly dimmed effect around the edges of this high angle shot to make it feel like its literally dark and emphasizes upon a potentially satanic  sub-theme or genre even though it isn’t to give a more effective, disturbing feeling. This would definitely attract our target audience due to it being a really innovative, intriguing shot that really gets the audiences minds thinking.

 

 

In this shot, this shows a gun magazine being loaded with brass bullets. It is a high angle shot to represent the power and dominance bullets hold due to their sheer stopping power and deadliness, which emphasizes further upon the murder and death theme of our thriller opening. This further gives an impression that in our narrative, many or some people get killed by firearms at least on one occasion due to the fact we put in a gun related prop in our opening to suggest this. In addition, the editing is yet again dimmed on the edges of this shot. We have also added an increased saturation effect near the fingers and the top of the magazine so it creates a more gleam and shine effect to represent their use by evil people and the general damage that they cause. It also keeps the viewer’s full focus on the bullets s they clearly know what is going on. This would definitely attract our target audience, especially the males due to its relation to items and tools that young men typically take interest in due to the liking of Films, TV and Video Games.

 

 

We overall filled our target audience’s expectations due to several reasons. Firstly, they wanted a dark theme with creepy mise-en-scene’s alongside an eerie soundtrack to create senses of enigma and tension throughout the opening. We achieved this due to never showing full body shots of our actors which included me and Conor. We also used dangerous looking and sinister props which relate to ideas and situations expected by our target audience. We also had a run-down and badly wrecked mise-en-scene, which gives the post-apocalyptic and degraded look to the scenes, more than surpassing our audience’s expectations for our environments. Finally, our soundtrack met the expectations due to its western tone and the extra creepy feel it gives to our thriller opening as it is the only sound heard during its duration.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, our thriller opening was well-received by our target audience, praising all the unique and typical aspects they saw. Comments said included “Effective”, “Intriguing” and “A really good soundtrack and editing”. It is safe to say that all of the audience’s expectations were both met and surpassed due to our hard work and consistency with the audio and visual effects alongside the creative camera shots and angles.

 

Our thriller opening links to similar films and TV Shows like The Walking Dead and True Detective. The opening links to The Walking Dead due to the very similar and diverse mise-en-scenes, from overgrown woodlands to abandoned buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q7: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

 

I personally think that I as a filmmaker have adapted to the complex and innovative software and tool required to make effective films such as our thriller opening “HUNTED”.  I also think that I know what ideas go well with what at the right time, I.e. us using the treeline shot along with the watch pop to almost as if get the message to the audience that time is running out, increasing tension and achieving the effect that both I and my teammates wanted to achieve. I also think that I can effectively tell what environments would be good for certain shots through improvisation, such as what is the best place to position the camera. I overall think that the good experience of filming films outside the school premises has help my knowledge and skills of filmmaking advance.

The strengths of our prelim task was mainly its visual and directional style, such as several different camera angles like pan-shots, extreme close ups and high-angle shots at the appropriate times to signify people emotions and dominance, such as the zombies feet scraping across the floor and an extreme close-up of Me and Peter.

However, our first film as it was, there was far more shortcomings than there was strengths, such as our transitions between shot to shot, (continuity issues) and dialogue not being correctly or as perfectly timed as they should have been. An example of this is me tuning around after Conor and another zombie actor have come round the corner. I also think that some of our acting was not as believable as it could have been, such as Pete looking a lot more happy than you would be in a situation like the one we were portraying. We built on these mistakes by not included any dialogue as intended and used more comprehensive camera angles and shots. The most probable reason why our prelim was far worse than our thriller opening was most probably due to the fact that we did not have a HD camera, we did not have any decent props since we could not bring things such as gun magazines and bullet onto the school property. Our mise-en-scene was also far more believable for a thriller than a secondary school due to it being a run-down, post-apocalyptic looking environment so it made our final thriller far more realistic.

The specific skills that I have developed personally is the ability to make use of the resources and mise-en-scene’s I have and plan them to make the most out of them in order to make the most effective films possible. I also think that my initiative and understanding of editing software has also vastly improved, such as me being able to use the comprehensive and sometimes difficult tools contained within the Apple iMovie software.

To be specific, we had to be aware of the 180 degree rule and we followed it due to the shots having a full view of the relevant props or items of interest whilst not breaking the rule by leaving the background out or moving the camera left or right to the point that the background or a prop is eliminated from the scene. Also our continuity was perfect for the shots we had and I made sure that there was no errors to the point that it would disrupt the flow and pacing of our thriller opening. Match on action was used when I was seen loading the gun magazine with the bullets being clearly loaded in one at a time due to them being loaded diagonally side by side left and right. These shots were useful when editing our thriller to increase tension, for example we had one quick shot of me loading one round into the magazine and then it would be interrupted with other shots and then there would quickly be another shot of me loading another bullet two more times, representing seconds counting down one by one, as if somebody is going to be killed.

The way that I and my groups approached planning and shots was done careful and well thought over in regards to the effect it would create and if it was appropriate the thriller genre. An example of some props we got rid of was ammo boxes. The reason why is because, even though we wanted some gun related items, having ammo boxes makes it look to army looking and little to no thrillers use military themes as a background, so it just would have ruined the believability of our thriller opening.  When this is compared to our preliminary task, it is far more realistic and believable in terms of props that were used and our rather to forward and elaborate ideas such as the ammo box idea were abandoned in favour of yet again more believable and realistic props.

Overall, I think that our thriller opening “HUNTED” was a huge success for me and my group. The reason why is because we carefully tuned every aspect of the opening once filming was completed. There are however some aspects of our thriller that could have been improved, an example was the shot of the mysterious character in the brush line, instead of just standing there, If I actually moved, it could give the impression that somebody is searching for somebody in the woods, creating more effective and scary tension. I overall improved this aspect due to the fact I research and planned what would happen and where and how our shots would be positioned.

I personally feel in terms of me and my group’s progression to a full media product was very positive in terms of the new skills that we learnt. For the camerawork, our shots were far more innovative and sophisticated than the ones we used for the likes of our prelim task. Example of this is the pan shot of the dark woods on the horizon compared to our pan shot of the schools Year 10 yard, which is far less sophisticated and detailed due to an inferior Sony Camera compared to a Nikon HD camera. This was done to try to replicate a CCTV camera for our prelim task. These two shots both follow the 180 degree rule due to the line of focus and perspective is never broken during this time. 

Examples:

Prelim Task

 

 

 

 

 

“HUNTED” Thriller Opening

For our editing, we used Comprehensive and complex editing software from Apples iMovie editor and made the most out of its wide range of editing tools. Our editing in our prelim task was very much so flawed compared to our thriller opening. This was due to the overly done saturation effect that ruined the films look and in my opinion made it look to unrealistic and dream-like. In contrast to this, our thriller opening looked far more plausible and realistic compared to our prelim, with a dark periphery to represent drug addiction or withdrawal effects. This was done by applying desaturation effects to our film adjusting ambient lighting effects to make it look more dull than it would be in reality, similar to Saving Private Ryan.

Examples:

Prelim Task

"HUNTED" Thriller Opening

 

Question 4 YouTube Video

Q4: Who Would The Audience Be For Your Media Product?  

I think that our target audience would be the C2 group, which is young adults and students and above. In addition, I also think that it is primarily aimed at the male gender and for people aged 15 years or over. The reasons that I think that it is aimed at males is due to the dark nature of our opening and has props and referenced situations that males can relate to more easily, such as the crime and murder theme.  Also, I think that the age of 15 or above is appropriate to our thriller opening due to it having mature themes and references that younger viewers may not be able to understand or depict as easily.  There could be some demographic issues because no doubt a small percentage of female viewers would find this particular type of thriller opening appealing to them, but not many.  

 

Audience Profile   

 

   

How Did We Research Our Audience? 

We did to be honest fairly little research about our target audience (C2) aside from the basics. 

What Was Our Target Audiences Expectations/Preferences From A Thriller Opening? 

Their expectations were for our thriller opening to be dark, creepy and scary. I personally fell that the first two do fit in with our thriller opening, such as the “I Have Nightmares All The Time” text on the newspaper for the creepy effect. I also very much so think that our audiences expectations for our environments to be dark were met splendidly, such as the blacked out parts of each shot to give the impression to the audience that nothing can never quite be seen as clearly as they want it to be.  Finally, I don’t think that the audience’s expectations were met over our film being scary as most of our film sequences were predictable. 

BBFC Rating= 18 

I think that if our thriller opening was produced into a feature length film, it would be given an 18 rating by the BBFC.  The reason why is because for it to be an effective thriller, we would have to explicitly go into the murder and possible drugs aspect which is not appropriate for younger viewers to see or understand peoples moral reasons for doing it. This would impact our target audience due to them not being old or possibly mature enough to watch it.  

In terms of BBFC regulations, for a film to be issued an 18 certificate, it would have to include strong language, strong violence, sexual content, racism and in some cases abuse such as rape or torture, if our thriller film “HUNTED” was to become an actual thriller film, it would possibly include some sex or torture but out off all things would definitely include extreme violence, gore and strong language.  

 

 
 

 

Q1 Media Analysis

 

 

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly, a thriller is a form of entertainment genre that usually comprises of dark and satanic themes to keep the viewer’s guessing until the very end to build up tension and just generally for dramatic effect. As with all genre’s, there are several sub-genres included within the main thriller genre, such as psychological thriller, Political-thriller, Neo Noir-Thriller and Comedy thriller. Each of these have combined elements of certain events or themes, such as political thrillers having a political backstory or event to them, such as 2013’s Lincoln. Thrillers come in all sorts of formats, including Films, Plays, Books and even Video Games.

Firstly, our thriller opening is unique compared to other due to several reasons. One is because, compared to most thriller openings, we do not see any full body shots yet alone a visible protagonist, only an obscure face staring into the camera and somebody using their hands to load a gun magazine.  There is one thriller out there on the market that can compare to ours, which is the 1995 thriller SeveN due to it including no full body or facial shots like ours, even though we did not use it for inspiration.

The sub-genre of thriller that we chose was psychological thriller. This is because it is the most widely used sub-genre of thriller and is the most expandable in terms of ideas that can be used. Example of this subgenre are evident in our thriller, such as Conor’s wanted poster keeping the viewer guessing what crimes he has committed and if he is really bad or if he has been set up.

 

An audiences typical expectation of this genre is dark themes and sadistic events occurring at times, such as evil acts like most commonly murder to less common events such as cannibalism. They also expect plot twists and cliffhangers to make the film deeper and more enjoyable to watch as opposed to a predictable story. The elements of the genre that we used were low-angle and extreme close-up shots to keep the viewer’s attention on items of interest in the mise-en-scene of our thriller opening, such as the gun on the table or the dark, mysterious looking woods on the horizon. We did not really develop any elements of the genre but we used and shaped them to suit our needs in a way to suit our thriller opening.  The elements  of the genre that we challenge was the fact that we had no full body shits apart from an obscure face and body parts doing action, such as walking. This was to make our thriller more enticing to the audience and to make them wonder who was who and what potential role they have in the story.

 

The typical conventions of a thriller vary from sub-genre to sub-genre, but the broad range of shots that are most widely used for various purposes are close-ups, extreme-close-ups, high-angle and low-angle shots, long-shot, mid-shot, extreme-long-shots and finally birds-eye-views.

These shots are typical of the thriller genre due to many reasons. Firstly, the extreme close-up shot shows the characters emotions and connotes what they may be thinking to the audience. Secondly, the low-angle shot represents the characters authority and dominance over whoever is beneath them; it also gives a clear picture to the audience that they are in control of whatever situation they are in over the other characters. Finally, a bird’s eye-view shot is used to show the sheer scale of the mise-en-scene and what environment the film is set in.

In the first shots, there is an extreme close-up that emphasizes upon characters emotions, however, the second shot represents a larger overview of things, and these can be dominance, authority or power, which connotes all things that give them characters a position over somebody else. Also, the birds- eye view shot represent the sheer scale of the mise-en-scene and what’s the audience wonder where it could take the protagonists, be it an urban or rural environment.

Examples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extreme Close Up Low-Angle Shot Birds-Eye-View Shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

The typical editing is almost always used as an after effect when scenes are fully shot, such as CGI, Brighter gun muzzle flashes and effects on screen to replicate events, i.e drugs or flashback sequences.  This is typical of the thriller genre because often mysterious characters are introduced and have secret behind them all so they overall use these sequences to depict past events or events important to the plot.

The first shot shows two drug addicts getting high on some sort of hallucinogenic drug, which emphasizes upon the effects it has on people and what it does to them and whereas the second shot show as the muzzle flash of a handgun is shown, this is an extremely common occurrence in all films that utilise firearms, not just thrillers. Finally, the last shot shows Neo out of The Matrix catching bullets with his telekinetic powers.  These shots, even though they are mostly unrelated are all similar due to the fact they are mostly used in slow motion to emphasize upon their special effects and their plot significance.

 

Examples:

Drugs/Flashback Sequence Gun Muzzle Flash CGI

The mise-en-scene includes several things, setting, costume, lighting, actors and props. Firstly, settings can vary but usually compose of these places, dark sinister places like abandoned building or gang hideouts. They also include friendlier places such as the office or place where the protagonist works and their home. For key events such as gunfights, they can occur in places from an open country field to a high-rise city car park.  Costumes can also vary from ragged, torn homeless clothing to an immaculate rich man’s tuxedo. There can also be more generic things like an office uniform or just casual home and going out clothes.  Lighting is usually dark and uncomfortable, as they are usually positioned to never fully reveal a full location of a shot, making it more sinister and obscure to the viewer and just to generally make them guess where they location is and what’s in those places.  Actors very much so of all things vary due to age, gender and what role they play. It could be from a Hollywood star like Brad Pitt in SeveN or more of an amateur or unknown actor like Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz. Finally, props usually compose of things that link to key events in the story, i.e murder weapons like Guns and Knives or Phones and watches for sequences when the hero or villain is in a race against time.  Sound varies from noisy areas like a town centre or busy traffic to silent, echoic areas like an underground tunnel or cave to show the contrast and to give viewers the impression that the protagonist is heading into potential danger or the scene of something horrific or disturbing. Narrative usually involves some conspiracy like murder and the protagonist is indirectly court up in it and has to go against order or become a vigilante to find the truth and serve justice.  The villain is either a sadistic, murderous killer or an intelligent, scheming person of power who seeks to undermine others for his own benefit. Either way, they eventually come at odds with the hero and send people out to kill or personally themselves attempt to have them killed.  The hero progress is often hindered due to injury and sometimes a person who they thought they could trust betrays them for their own benefit or deeper, personal reasons.  When this is compared to our thriller, the conventions are very much so the same. These are due to our dark and mysterious mise-en-scene, actors that are similar and would play a similar role that Hollywood stars do. In addition, our props such as the gun and the shell casings also relate to weapons, one of the most common props in thriller films.

Examples:                                           Gun

 

 

A costume in our thriller would include expensive James-Bond style suits if it was a feature film, but in the opening footage it is shabby, outdoor clothing to represent Conor’s character on the run.

Costume

Mise-En-Scene

For our mise-en-scene, it would include some urban environments would be used such as town like Bourne and Stamford but overall a majority of the environment would be sub-urban or rural to emphasize upon degradation and depressing environments often associated with crime and murder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The conventions that I personally feel make an effective thriller opening are, good an effective shot types such as close-up and high angle-shots to represent either people’s power and authority and items of interest. I also think that a narrative that includes a betrayal of the protagonist and the murder of a politically important individual composes a good narrative for a thriller, also flashback sequences I like due to them adding more mystery and complexity to a character or a key event in the story.  Also, I think that if shot types are effectively edited together, such as straight cuts, can create more tension and effect in the story or sequence of a thriller, such as End of Watch or Snatch. I also think that both loud and quiet sound effects can create the right felling at the right time or event in the thrillers storyline, such as The Silence of the Lambs or Alien.  I also think that a variety of mise-en-scene’s, to the point of different countries keeps the viewer more enticed and interested on what’s going on in the thriller opening, such as the Da Vinci Code.

Overall, the thriller openings that inspired us the most were The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones. We were also partially influenced by SeveN and True Detective.  Firstly, The Walking Dead was our main source of inspiration due to the mise-en-scene was very similar to ours and the shots and props influenced ours greatly. Examples of this is the gun and weapon related props such as the discarded magazines and shell casings on the ground to represent a previous gunfight and the knife in the tree to show that somebody has been in the supposed derelict location before.  Also, the degraded environments and unsettling locations like the woods and the Spiny Bridge location of our thriller opening is very similar to the The Walking Dead’s post-apocalyptic America in the aftermath of a zombie infection.  Also, Game Of Thrones influenced our thriller opening due to the way the camera slowly moves in our shots is comparable to the overview of the main locations shooting up from the map in Game Of Thrones opening.  SeveN partially influenced our thriller opening due to the dark and desaturated colour effects used in its thriller opening inspired us to use a similar darkening effect to make our thriller opening seem more degraded and evil than it would be if special effects were not applied. Finally, True Detective influenced our use of environmental props, such as the campfire and the use of pan shots overlooking he woods to give the impression that something is hiding out there, i.e the truth or a villain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examples:

This shot of discarded gun magazines and spent casings were influenced by The Walking Dead due to one shot of the Season 3 opening titles includes a shot similar to this one. Due to the fact that both contain guns, we thought it would be relevant to use a shot depicting the ground after a presumed gunfight.  This is typical like the Walking Dead’s version above due to firefights being common due to many antagonists being armed and dangerous, forcing the protagonists to fight back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shot shows a tactical knife stuck in a tree. We wanted to include a shot like this to represent that somebody has been to the supposed derelict location before, creating a mysterious sensation amongst the audience.

 

 

 

 

 

This shot shows a deserted and degraded urban military outpost, which looks post-apocalyptic and a mess, as shown by the abandoned armoured cars and helicopters, as well as scattered litter, fuel cans and ammo boxes. Locations such as this heavily influenced our thriller opening due to the fact we wanted to create the most deserted, eerie looking environment as possible.  This is similar in concept but overall vastly different from our location due to it being urban and more militaristic than our location.

 

 

These two shots show a watch from our thriller opening and the elevated 3D map from Game Of Throne’s opening. Our shot was inspired by the likes of this due to its high angle camera position, which makes it look more innovative and clearer for the audience to see.  It also uses the rule of thirds, since there is the grass on the far left corner and then the brick wall and finally the watch in a symmetrical manner.  Even though they are different overall, the style and the way they are presented to the audience from a high-angle manner are similar in concept o entice the viewers further into the film.

 

The shot above shows an empty cigarette packet beside an extinguished campfire, this shot was overall indirectly inspired by True Detective due to its use of abandoned and vagabond afflicted nvironments due to the shows heavy emphasis on drug and alcohol abuse. We wanted to create the impression to the audience that somebody has been sleeping rough, which came from us watches a few episodes of True Detective.

 

We used the convention of low-angle and moving camera shots in our thriller opening to focus on key objects or people in the surroundings to give our audience an idea of what sort of items will be used and what locations will be visited if our thriller was a full film or a TV show. The editing follows the conventions of typical thriller openings due to it being slightly out of colour contrast and the fact that this is combined with dark environments relay a creepy and slightly nervous feel to our audience, hopefully achieving the unsettling effect that we want our audience to feel and experience. Our mise-en-scene follows the conventions of the thriller genre due to it being an unnerving place and looks post-apocalyptic, it also gives away the feel that it is a hideout for a villain or a place of interest for the protagonist or narrative of the thriller. Our sound is entirely composed of a single, independent western style song obtained off of YouTube. This follows the thriller genre and fits in with the pacing and mise-en-scene of our thriller opening due to non-diegetic western style and slower paced songs are often used in thriller opening over all other noises.  There is no real narrative in our thriller opening apart from ideas that the audience could get from our mise-en-scene and props included in the opening.

 

Finally, the conventions of the following are typical of the thriller genre due to numerous reasons:

 

1.       Title Of Film

The title of our film, which is “Hunted” is conventional of the thriller genre due to it signifying that somebody is as the titles imply, are being hunted down or is in some kind of grave danger, which many characters within the thriller genre good or bad are usually subjected to.  When this is compared to the likes of The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, slightly longer titles, it is somewhat more effective due to its short nature and a more harsh sound when spoken, as well as hunted sounding more threatening than the previous two.

 

2.       Setting/Location

Our setting/location is typical of the thriller genre due to it being dark and somewhat depressing, mostly due to it being decayed and abandoned, as well as the significant appliance of graffiti. This compares to the likes of The Walking Dead’s harsh emotional tone due to it being more relatable to real life situations. It also looks more depressing and sad than a well maintained area would.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.       Costumes And Props

Our costumes and props are conventional of the thriller genre due to them being weapon and time related. Weapon related includes guns, gun magazines, shell casings and knives, which signify death and great harm to people, especially crime and murder victims that are typically included in physiological thrillers such as Hunted.  Time related props are things like the watch, which is a key piece of equipment used in almost every thriller film out there due to it representing that the odds are stacked against the hero and they are in a race against time.

 

4.       Camerawork

Our camerawork is typical of the thriller genre due to it using pan and numerous shot angles to represent that status of locations and key objects, such as a high angle shot over the knife sequence to signify its power and deadly effect if it’s used in capable hands.

5.       Editing

Our editing is not conventional of the thriller genre due to many places in the background being obscure and unclear to the viewer, as well as several blur effects such as the close up of Conors face and background images such as the feet passing by a sunken piece of ground. 

 

6.       Title Font And Style

Our title font is typical of the thriller genre due to it being effectively placed against a partial light source such as a fire as opposed to a full light source such as a lamp.  The style has also got pieces missing from it, almost as if it has been faded away or degraded slightly.

 

7.       Narrative And How Our Opening Sets It Up

Our narrative in terms of an opening sequence is not typical of the thriller genre due to it not having any spoken dialogue from the actors and no ambient background or set sound as music is superimposed over it, which not many thrillers have with the exception of The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones. However, the way that our opening is set up is typical of the thriller genre due to it building up tension effectively and making the audience eager to go further into the plot and watch a the whole film if it was one.

 

8.       Genre And How The Opening Suggests It

Our thriller opening suggests that it’s included within the thriller genre due to it having dark environments which are somewhat unsettling for the viewer to watch and its props being related to unpleasant situations and themes, such as combat, murder, death and satanic related things.

 

9.       How Characters are introduced 

Whilst it is minimal, we do have some characters visible, most notably Connors blurred face.  This creates a sense of enigma amongst the audience as they do not fully know who the person is.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our media product did challenge, develop and use many media conventions. Firstly, we used conventions that are typically associated with the thriller genre, such as guns, creepy environments, and mysterious characters, much like famous thrillers such as The Shining and Taken.  We challenged thriller conventions such as adding the desaturated and dark special effects to make the opening sequence feel more dream-like and surreal. Finally, we also developed thriller conventions by combining elements of different genres with thrillers, such as supernatural and horror elements fused with normal physiological thriller to create the sense of enigma that our thriller opening effectively accomplished.