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

Throughout the production of the film we have used many different forms and conventions that is common in thriller films.


TITLE









The title of our production is called 'The Unexpected'. My group chose to name our production 'The Unexpected' because we already planned that the tension and suspense would build up until the final moment, which would make the audience jump unexpectedly, which is why we chose this name. The title of the film is also simple and common as it begins with 'The' and 'Unexpected' is usually a common name for thrillers, so the title would be easy to remember.


FONT

Our font and colours also follow the thriller codes and conventions. As you can see we used red, to represent death and blood which is a common factor in most thriller movies. Also the font we used doesn't look plain as it has a style to it to make it look different and interesting. Most thriller films do use colours such as red to represent certain things in their films. This title is also shown at the end of the opening scene instead of the beginning as the audience find out why it is called the unexpected before they see the title. Because the opening scene is made for them to jump, so seeing the title after the scene would make more sense to them.


LOCATION

The setting and location of our final product goes with the typical codes and conventions of the thriller genre. The location of our film is a toilet/bathroom with dim lighting to make it look like a dark atmospheric area and when watching the film, there is literally no escape for the protagonist which is normal in most thriller/horror films. We were influenced by the toilet scene in SAW 2004, as within our story-line and SAW's story-line, both protagonists in each story are helpless and have no escape, which leads to death. This is why our decision was to use this location as it was suitable for our story-line and also it was a close location as it was in school, so no travel expenses or journeys had to be made.

Location of SAW in 2004

GENRE

Protagonist dazed and confused

Using SAW as an example, most of their thriller films do start with just a random room, usually with a victim set up in a trap, or just generally dazed and confused in an abandoned area. We thought this would be a good idea and decided to use this because it has been used before and has been proven to be very successful.

Our protagonist dazed and not responsive


This suggests that this is a thriller film as nobody knows how the person got there, the location of a toilet is unusual so why would he be there and why he is not responsive or awake also gives suggestions that it is a thriller film.

COSTUMES


The costumes used are very similar to usual costumes in thriller movies.

This is the costume we used for our antagonist and as you can see it is a white dress, with blood on it which is one of the most common costumes in thriller/horror films which suggests that this is a thriller film. We decided to dress our antagonist in this way because we were influenced by The Ring 2 as previously mentioned. Samara in The Ring is dressed similar to this and personally viewing The Ring myself it was frightening and scary. This makes our antagonist appear scary and somebody that can cause harm and this also presents thriller films.

The costume we used for our protagonist also follows the codes and conventions of a thriller film as the protagonist us usually a normal, general person living everyday live, going to work, having a family etc. We decided to dress him smartly in a black suit with black shoes and white shirt so he would look like a high class individual who has a good job and could be innocent. Although this doesn't suggest that this is a thriller film, when watching more of the film, it is easy to notice and compare the differences between the antagonist and protagonist, as the protagonist wouldn't be wearing a white dress with blood on it but then again in some cases, the antagonist is sometimes made to look innocent.