Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challengethe forms and conventions of real media products?
Does your film conform to the ThrillerGenre?
The Opening to our Film is very typical for the Thriller Genre.
We have the two characters. The Victim and the Antagonist. We show the both the Victim and The Antagonistspoint of views in their environments.
Victim
Female
Young (teenager/schoolgirl)
Alone
We see the Victim alone (or so she thinks) in the woods, we chose the woods because that is also a verycommon location for Thriller Films because woods/forests can be really isolating areas. They are vast areas ofland which hide a lot in them.
Our other place we film in is a photography Darkroom which in itself isn’t a very typical place for Thriller Films,but the reason why we used it ticks a lot of boxes for Thriller Films. First of all it’s Dark, and it is instinct forHumans to be afraid/wary of the dark because there is so much that can be seen, and humans really rely ontheir sight, so to have that taken away from them can be really difficult.
We flick from clip to clip of the Victim slowly realizing she’s being followed and starting to panic more andmore.
We see the Antagonist holding things of hers like her red ribbon to show that he is the stalker.
Antagonist
Male
Middle Aged
Barely Seen
Film Title
This is the title for Trial and Error.
It is shown at the end of the OTS.
We chose white on a blackbackground because the font islike a broken typewriter. Usuallywriting is black writing on a whitebackground. This adds to thebroken typewriter effect.Everything is slightly wrong.
We chose the name ‘Trial andError’ because our film is aboutan illegal and slightly dodgyexperiment.
Settings/Locations
We used two contrasting locations.
One is a bright, open area with lots of natural light flooding in. It is a very green natural looking place.
The other is a small, dark, closed room with very limited (red) lighting.
The two places have something in similar that connects the OTS quite nicely; they are both very lonely places.
Our locations may be very typical for the Thriller Genre because they are isolated and dark areas but they alsochallenge Thrillers in some ways; the woods/outside areas are usually dark, scary places and inside is usuallybright and safe, we’ve swapped them to shake it up.
Costumes/Props
We have the Victim in her school uniform toshow she is young and returning from School.
The Ribbon in her hair is to show the audiencethat the hidden man in the darkroom is the onewho grabs her. So before we see her get grabbed,we see them both with the red Ribbon.
Camerawork/Editing
We faded a lot of our clips into each other sothat the Opening Title Sequence would flowinto itself nicely.
We also used the fading the effect a lot at thebeginning of the OTS more than at the endbecause the end of the OTS is supposed togive the audience a more disorientatedfeeling and by flicking from one moment toanother makes an uncomfortable feeling.
Title Font and Style
We found these two fonts for our OTS on ‘Dafont.com’
We used these two specific fonts because they helped present the message of the film.
Both of the fonts have a Typewriter style to them, but the difference is that one is neat and the other is messywith the effects of ink being spilt around each letter.
It shows a type of build up and contrast.
We also did this because it towards what happens at the end of the film when the Antagonist looses theirmind.
Storyline – how does the OTS suggest it?
Our film is about a schoolteacher with the dream offame and money. He wantsthis by being original. Beingremembered formaking/discoveringsomething. He and a co-worker create an experimentusing outcast students whothey know won’t be missedby anyone.
The twist in out film is thatthe Antagonist turns into theProtagonist when he realisesthe experiment is wrong, buthe isn’t successful in stoppingthe events when his co-worker becomes obsessiveand controlling, she slowlyturns into the Antagonist.
We see the original Antagonist following the desired Victimfor his experiment when she is walking home.
We eventually see her captured by him.
Genre
Our film is a psychologicalThriller.
We use a lot of classic thrillertechniques in our OTS likeusing music to build tension.
Having a young female Victim.
A middle aged, maleprotagonist.
Having our locations inisolated areas.
The storyline about somethingaudience knows is going toend badly.
Introducing the Characters
The two characters I the Opening Title Sequence are never properly shown. The Male Antagonist in particular.
We see close ups of the two characters and keep track with their every movement. This gives the feeling of beingwatched constantly throughout the opening of our film.
We see the back of the characters a lot which helps give the feeling of being watched/followed.