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

2. STEP 1: Introduce your sequence
Our title sequence conforms to the thriller genre. We know this because we set our piece in an urban setting, had mystery to the narrative and in post-production we increased yellowness and de saturated scenes. These are all typical thriller elements. Furthermore we presented the lead character as psychotic and had elements of crime. Our piece is a typical thriller. It doesn’t question or challenge the normal thriller codes and conventions.

3. Step 2: Then select nine frames

4. Frames The title of the film Setting / location Costumes & props
Camerawork & editing
Title font & style
Story & how the OTS sets it up
Genre & how the OTS suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special Effects

5. Setting/location
We used two settings/location. One was joshes house, the second was a few streets in Hurstpeirpoint. In joshes house we used his attic. We used this room because it was quite gloomy, chilling and mysterious. Which describes our piece, as well as our lead character. Benedict Black. It was all filmed during the day, however the first shot was filmed at night. All the shots inside the attic are supposed appear as if they are at night, but in reality their filmed during the evening. In thrillers it’s typical that they are set in an urban locations, like how in Se7en, its set and filmed in a city. Both our locations are urban, sticking to that convention. It hints at being a thriller by being set at night, which is when most crimes take place. This could suggest that a crime is involved in the narrative. Also hints at being a thriller because the protagonist (Sam Cooke), knows less than the audience. This could be to suggest that there is more to narrative than the eye can see.

6. Costume and props
For the antagonist we used a black suit. This confuses the audience and makes them think he’s the protagonist. The suit also shows intelligence like Tom Cruise in Collateral. Whereas the protagonist, is also wearing a black suit. Sam Cooke is wearing one because of his job, an estate agent. Benedict Black is wearing one because it implies intelligence and reflects his personality. Serious and links with his name.

7. Camera work and editing
We used a variety of shots in our O.T.S. A lot of them where close ups, this is typical of the thriller genre convention because it’s used to show the emotion of the character on his face. We used typical thriller camera work such as quick, short shots. When we were editing we did several things to make our O.T.S. conform to the thriller genre. We added dark, gloomy and thrilling music, to create a tense atmosphere. This conforms because most thrillers, such as “Se7en”, use music like that to thrill the audience. Also in the edit suite we de saturated the colours of our O.T.S, to make them more bluely and yellow. This is one of the most typical thriller genre traits. Thrillers such as “Shutter Island”, do this because those colours make it appear more dull and normal, which reflects thrillers settings. Their usually set in ordinary places.

8. Title font and style
We found two fonts we liked, “bad coma” and “Hacked”, off a free online site (Dafont).Then we downloaded them and decided one would be used for the title and one would be used for the credits. Bad coma is typical of the thriller genre because it is distorted, messy and incomplete. This reflects our O.T.S and Benedict black personality.

9. Story and how the OTS sets it up
Our narrative uses and sticks to typical thriller conventions. Our character identity is hidden like the location of his hideout. This sticks to typical thriller codes because in thrillers, such as Se7en, the antagonist location is hidden. Also sometimes is the identity. The story also sticks thriller conventions because it involves mystery and violence. This is a generic narrative them for thrillers. The O.T.S sets the story up by showing how the situation has occurred. The reverse chronology updates the audience so they know what’s happening.

10. Genre & how the OTS suggests it
Our OTS suggest the film is a thriller in several different ways. One is by using the typical thriller convention of being set in an urban city. This develops our understanding of the film. Also it challenges typical thriller conventions because it sometimes crosses over to a horror film because of some of our scenes.

11. How characters are introduced
Black’s introduction is in a mysterious, dark attic. This conforms to typical thriller conventions because his identity is hidden. It uses the typical thriller convention of making the audience question the character. Cooke’s appears in the flashbacks of black’s. This introduces him as someone from the past which happens in some thrillers.

12. Special Effects
Slow motion is used in one scene, this is typical of the thriller genre because it is often used. Also we made the flashback scenes black and white. Another use of typical thriller conventions. And “Cross fades” at the end of certain scenes. This was used to make scenes end smoothly.