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.