Evaluation Q1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of real media products?

Our opening sequence is based in a small room with blank walls nothing is seen in the room, most other thriller films are based in small rooms or large dark houses which is where the rest of our film will take place. We choose to do it in a small room to create the feeling of madness because if you were left in a small room for a large amount of time you would eventually go mad. This sticks to codes and conventions of a thriller movie. The room being blank and empty also helps to create wonder within the audience which is what thriller films are all about.

The title of our film is ‘Hourglass’ this isn’t an obvious title as to what the film will be about the only clue the title gives is that maybe it has something to do with time, the title in itself creates wonder much like the opening sequence which again is how thriller films are meant to be perceived, the title is bold which makes it eye catching.

The only prop we used in our opening sequence was a marker pen, by only using one prop in the opening sequence we again tried to create the effect of wonder and perhaps loneliness seeing as the girl and the marker pen are the only things in the room. Many thriller films start happy or calmly and build up to the danger or storyline our film starts straight away with the wonder of where she is, what is happening and perhaps may be seen as a danger because the main character is seen to be distressed and angry with someone or something.

When we edited we changed the contrast and made it brighter, as our main character has dark hair it made her look paler and more mysterious, by doing this the audience are wary of her, we made our sequence brighter instead of darker as most thriller films are made darker we felt that it was a better idea to work away from conventions when deciding on how the contrast should be. By reversing and brightening some of the frames it made it confusing and unclear or what was happening which is another feature of thriller films. The soundtrack we used is a fast tempo creepy beat which works well with the piece. In thriller and horror films the soundtrack is the most important micro-feature as it helps to create suspense and tension, the sound helps to create different emotions, it keeps we as the audience on the edge of our seats.

In conclusion our film sticks to mainly all of the codes and conventions expected of a thriller film as the sound and location are what is expected.