Evaluation Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

In a number of different ways I find that my media product develops as well as challenge conventions of an actual media product. To begin with my title of my film opening does not go against conventions of a typical thriller genre, with the title “The watcher” It highlights clearly the basic story line and plot of the film. Similar to such films as Hannibal and chainsaw massacre.

To make the titles again follow the conventions of a thriller film I used effect over my titles, the hesitation and scratchiness is a frequently used in thrillers, one film I got my inspiration from particularly is Seven, (On the screen grabs of my film you can see at number 6,7 and 9 the font and titles I chose similar font to that used in Seven on screen grabs 1,3 and 6). Again the font style I have used follows the thriller convention, with scratched and irritated look I feel that the font is fitted well to the style of film and captures the interest of the viewer. A classy and neat font would have looked out of place on a film like mine.

One way I went against conventions was that I left the film title till the last couple of seconds where as in most film they produce the title with in the first 30 seconds to a minute. As seen in the screen grabs, the title Seven is produced early on when in mine I brought it in at the very end.

With my film having no dominant and regular character through out the opening section, Mise-en-scene, location and setting makes up most if not my entire film opening. By having no character or person in my opening credit it leaves the audience in suspense, they don’t know who is involved in the film, who they are or what is going to happen, which is a key attribute of a thriller movie. With the location being so vital to make the film interesting I had to think about what location and setting would be appropriate for my said convention. I firstly focused on the CCTV aspect; this would tie in with the title of the film and add to the atmosphere.  I added in shots of statues and old collector items to make the setting of the film more engaging and exciting to get the audiences attention. Having added these aspects in to the opening it showed that this film had the material to make a thriller.

Throughout my film I used several special effects these in turn made my film opening move toward a definite genre of film. It also made the film more eyes catching and engaging. I used numerous camera angles to make up my film opening.  I decided that I didn’t want to make my film neat and perfect as by doing that it may give out the wrong impression of the genre of the film. I achieved this by using the camera angle I have learnt about over the year but using them whilst shaking and moving the camera, however the footage is still recognizable and clear.

 I used After Effects and Final Cut Pro, to add the wanted effects at the end of editing my opening.  I decided to put footage over footage and over lay them; I also decided to cut up my film footage to make the opening more unsteady and choppy. This idea came from looking at the movies Hannibal, but mostly Seven. I think by doing this in the first 15 seconds the audience would be able to tell by the footage and the editing together that this is defiantly a thriller.