In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
So now that I have completed my main media product and the ancillary tasks, all that is left to do is the evaluation questions. First up in this question I will be discussing which thriller conventions have been used within my film, developed further or subverted - be that slightly or completely. I will be comparing my short film to other short films to see if there is also any conventions from them that I have used, developed or subverted - also pushing the boat out and comparing to real media products that are thriving within the thriller genre: be that any films I based my film off or just selected examples from the genre itself.
I will be using a series of videos with voice overs, key-frames and presentations to help answer these questions.
I will be using a series of videos with voice overs, key-frames and presentations to help answer these questions.
General Conventions of a Short Film
Short films in general have the clue in their name; they are small films that are under 40 minutes and so this is the biggest convention of a short film that you have to follow in order for your product to be a film short. My film follows this convention accurately as it is only 5 minutes long.
Another convention that my film uses from short films in general would be that there is nearly always a moral behind the film for the audience to take away from the experience and its often a very clear moral that the director really wanted to portray. Within my film the moral was that you never know what happens behind closed doors, you shouldn't judge something you know nothing about - just because somebody smiles or acts fine doesn't mean they are fine upstairs or at home.
An example of this in a real media product short film would be from Post It, which is a YouTube short film where the moral is that you should always take the time to give a kind word to somebody as it will really brighten their day and make you feel better. Here is the video for you to watch and see for yourself as it is rather hard to show you the moral on its own.
Real Media Products & Short Films Within the Thriller Genre
This section talks about how my film compares to real media products and short films in the same genre as mine and whether or not I have incorporated the conventions that are shown within the films or if I have subverted them in some way. I will be looking at different aspect such as gender representation in thriller films and mise-en-scene plus camera work/angles as well as any generalised conventions of thrillers that I have used/subverted if I haven't covered them. I will using key-frames and created small videosGender Representation in Thrillers
General Conventions Within the Thriller Genre
Short Film:
 |
| Key-frame of 'Knowing Too Much'
Image 1) The antagonist / villain
Image 2) The protagonist / victim
Image 3) Climax / twist
Image 4) Setting / time of day / lighting
|
Real media product/film:
 |
| Key-frame of 'Enough'
Image 1) The antagonist / villain
Image 2) The protagonist / victim
Image 3) Climax / twists
Image 4) Setting / time of day / lighting
|
My own short film:
 |
| Key-frame of 'Behind Closed Doors'
Images 1) The antagonists / villains / twisted hero
Image 2) The victim
Images 3) The twists / climax / plot
Image 4) Setting / time of day / lighting
|
Image 1) A common convention of a thriller film is that there is always an antagonist who plays a villainous role in the movie, or at the very least commits an act that has negative affects which starts the ball rolling towards the climax of the film. The antagonist has often got a hidden identity - be that their name or their actual face. The convention is that the antagonist is often out for revenge on the protagonist or victim or that the antagonist has become mentally unstable in some way.
This convention is followed in the YouTube short film 'Knowing Too Much' (the first key-frame) and in the real media film 'Enough' (the second key-frame). In 'Knowing Too Much' the antagonist, displayed in image 1, appears second in the film and the audience never finds out his name but they find out his motive is to kill the protagonist who has clearly stumbled over some confidential information that he shouldn't know; this means that his motive is boarding revenge.
In 'Enough' the antagonist is the husband of the protagonist and although you straight away know his identity - the audience is taken by surprise when his motives change and he becomes abusive. Both villains are dressed smartly and wearing dark colours, adding to the conventions of villains being scary, evil and hidden.
I have used this convention in my film through the use of my male protagonist, Richard who actually ends up switching to being the villain half way through the film. We kept his name hidden at the start, as well as his motives - the audience doesn't know that he is actually a killer until the end. Richard's murders are our of revenge mostly; the first being because of the argument and because Alice is leaving and the second because the argument started because of Stacey so Richard decides to kill her as well. Furthermore, the clothing of Richard matches that of the professional male killer as he is dressed in a black suit when he kills Stacey near the end. Black is conventional of thriller film villains because it helps to give them that mysterious and scary effect as well as adding to the hidden identity factor and enabling them to blend into the darkness where most deaths occur.
However, as you can see from the 'Behind Closed Doors' key-frame, I have labelled two images as the antagonists. I have decided to do this because Stacey is also a villain in her own way, which is a subversion of the typical thriller conventions which say that the antagonists are male and the females are victims/damsels. Her identity is actually hidden in the film as her name is never mentioned and her face is never revealed till around 3:50 in the film since her appearance at 3:39. Her motives are that of seduction and trying to break up a relationship in order to get the protagonist.
This convention is followed in the YouTube short film 'Knowing Too Much' (the first key-frame) and in the real media film 'Enough' (the second key-frame). In 'Knowing Too Much' the antagonist, displayed in image 1, appears second in the film and the audience never finds out his name but they find out his motive is to kill the protagonist who has clearly stumbled over some confidential information that he shouldn't know; this means that his motive is boarding revenge.
In 'Enough' the antagonist is the husband of the protagonist and although you straight away know his identity - the audience is taken by surprise when his motives change and he becomes abusive. Both villains are dressed smartly and wearing dark colours, adding to the conventions of villains being scary, evil and hidden.
I have used this convention in my film through the use of my male protagonist, Richard who actually ends up switching to being the villain half way through the film. We kept his name hidden at the start, as well as his motives - the audience doesn't know that he is actually a killer until the end. Richard's murders are our of revenge mostly; the first being because of the argument and because Alice is leaving and the second because the argument started because of Stacey so Richard decides to kill her as well. Furthermore, the clothing of Richard matches that of the professional male killer as he is dressed in a black suit when he kills Stacey near the end. Black is conventional of thriller film villains because it helps to give them that mysterious and scary effect as well as adding to the hidden identity factor and enabling them to blend into the darkness where most deaths occur.
However, as you can see from the 'Behind Closed Doors' key-frame, I have labelled two images as the antagonists. I have decided to do this because Stacey is also a villain in her own way, which is a subversion of the typical thriller conventions which say that the antagonists are male and the females are victims/damsels. Her identity is actually hidden in the film as her name is never mentioned and her face is never revealed till around 3:50 in the film since her appearance at 3:39. Her motives are that of seduction and trying to break up a relationship in order to get the protagonist.
Image 2) Another convention of the thriller genre would be that the protagonist is nearly always a strong male who is trying to restore the equilibrium that was at the beginning of the film and is in constant battle with the antagonist throughout the film, be that physical or mental or even emotional, so they are basically the hero of the film. In 'Knowing Too Much' you can see from image 2 that their protagonist is a young male and it is clear that he is the protagonist from the start of the short film because he is the first person the audience see and who the camera follows the most throughout.
Image 2 in the key-frame for 'Enough' however subverts this convention by having a female as their protagonist and a hero male as an extra who helps her get away from her abusive husband. As you can see although she is the main protagonist, instead of being strong and able to stand up to the villain, Slim (as the protagonist is called) is weak and unable to defend herself until the very end which plays in with how gender conventions in thrillers. Furthermore in both these films, the protagonist is the victim in some way or another - either abused or murdered by the antagonist which is also another convention of thriller films.
As you can see from the key-frame for my film 'Behind Closed Doors' the image shows the victim of our film as a female. Alice is also the female protagonist of the film but while she isn't as strong as the male protagonist conventions, she does show strength in how she is starting to stand up to the male protagonist of our film - the main character Richard. Here is where we do sort of subvert the typical hero protagonist of a thriller convention because we start off displaying Richard as the good guy, upset over his lover's death until later the audience finds out more about his person and find out that actually he is the villain of the story. This does however link into some rarer thrillers/horrors where the protagonist turns out to be the main bad guy; such as in the film 'Shrooms'.
Image 2 in the key-frame for 'Enough' however subverts this convention by having a female as their protagonist and a hero male as an extra who helps her get away from her abusive husband. As you can see although she is the main protagonist, instead of being strong and able to stand up to the villain, Slim (as the protagonist is called) is weak and unable to defend herself until the very end which plays in with how gender conventions in thrillers. Furthermore in both these films, the protagonist is the victim in some way or another - either abused or murdered by the antagonist which is also another convention of thriller films.
As you can see from the key-frame for my film 'Behind Closed Doors' the image shows the victim of our film as a female. Alice is also the female protagonist of the film but while she isn't as strong as the male protagonist conventions, she does show strength in how she is starting to stand up to the male protagonist of our film - the main character Richard. Here is where we do sort of subvert the typical hero protagonist of a thriller convention because we start off displaying Richard as the good guy, upset over his lover's death until later the audience finds out more about his person and find out that actually he is the villain of the story. This does however link into some rarer thrillers/horrors where the protagonist turns out to be the main bad guy; such as in the film 'Shrooms'.
Image 3) Like every film there must be a climax - something big that happens. In thriller films there is often little areas of tension or twists that create moments of surprise or jump-scares for the audience or really pushes them to the edge of their seat right up until the big climax happens; this often being where the antagonist and protagonist meet for the first time or if the protagonist ends up in a situation they will find extremely hard to get out of. Sometimes murders are the climax however these are often conventionally used in particularly thrillers near the beginning to drive the story on or to grip the audience straight away. In 'Enough' as you can see from the key-frame - image 3, the climax would be around the part where she is on the run from her husband, changing her appearance and quite possibly when he has actually found her again and is close to catching her. Shortly after she learns self defence as a way of escaping the situation and resolving the problem.
In short films however the climax or the major WOW factor happens near the end to really surprise the audience while increasing suspense and tension. For example, as you can see from the key-frame for 'Knowing Too Much' image 3 is of the antagonist slamming the protagonists head into his car. This is the main climax of which the rest of film had been building up to. It's important for thrillers to be conventionally tense, full of twists and gripping otherwise it wouldn't be very thrilling because there's nothing for the audience to 'sink their teeth into'.
Within my own film I used murders as the main climax of the film, using twists throughout the film to keep our audience on their toes and guessing what will happen next. The two images in the key-frame for 'Behind Closed Doors' are of Alice's death and Stacey's death. The only difference between the two is that Alice's death is in the very middle of the film during scene 2 to explain the unexpected truth of the start of scene 1 where the film opens with her dead body - this is using the conventions from a thriller film where they are full of twists and have something shocking as the climax. However I also follow the conventions of a short film in the thriller genre where they end on a cliff-hanger, this being a death or an unanswered question, through the death of Stacey at the very end - which is was a complete shock to our audience who really didn't see it coming because we wanted to trick them into thinking everything was going back to the equilibrium.
In short films however the climax or the major WOW factor happens near the end to really surprise the audience while increasing suspense and tension. For example, as you can see from the key-frame for 'Knowing Too Much' image 3 is of the antagonist slamming the protagonists head into his car. This is the main climax of which the rest of film had been building up to. It's important for thrillers to be conventionally tense, full of twists and gripping otherwise it wouldn't be very thrilling because there's nothing for the audience to 'sink their teeth into'.
Within my own film I used murders as the main climax of the film, using twists throughout the film to keep our audience on their toes and guessing what will happen next. The two images in the key-frame for 'Behind Closed Doors' are of Alice's death and Stacey's death. The only difference between the two is that Alice's death is in the very middle of the film during scene 2 to explain the unexpected truth of the start of scene 1 where the film opens with her dead body - this is using the conventions from a thriller film where they are full of twists and have something shocking as the climax. However I also follow the conventions of a short film in the thriller genre where they end on a cliff-hanger, this being a death or an unanswered question, through the death of Stacey at the very end - which is was a complete shock to our audience who really didn't see it coming because we wanted to trick them into thinking everything was going back to the equilibrium.
Image 4) Most thrillers are either set in the dark which helps add an eerie atmosphere to the film which impacts upon the audience by making them tense, or setting them during the day or in a house with really low lighting to create shadows and places to hide. This convention is reflected in image 4 of 'Knowing Too Much' where you can clearly see that the short film is set at night time and is pretty much a deserted street except for the protagonist and the antagonist of the film. This helps to bring the audience into the film through suspense and keeps them gripped because they all want the protagonist to win whether or not they actually know anything about him because that is how thrillers work. You can also see from image 4 and image 2 how the lighting has been used to both light up the important aspects of the film; such as the protagonists face and the area he runs out of by the house, but then leaves shadows around the place that gives the antagonist the chance to hide and makes the audience unsure of whether the antagonist will jump out at some point or not.
In 'Enough' there time of day and setting changes because its impossible to limit the these during a film, however the conventions of the lighting still apply. 'Enough' uses low key lighting during the film and even has the weather display the tension of different scenes, such as lighting when there's an argument or rain when a character is sad. There are many house shots which do have bad lighting in them, resulting in many shadows that of course provide hiding places and therefore tension. In image 4 of 'Enough' you can see how the lighting is used to manipulate the audience through the use of creating shadows and having a low key lighting shows that the film is a thriller because all the colours are duller and less bright - which you'd expect from comedies or romance films.
In 'Behind Closed Doors' I used night during scene 1 & 2, causing the atmosphere in the house to become darker and again brings in the idea that Alice is alone with her boyfriend who is getting more and more angry - there is nobody around apart from neighbours who are probably in bed next door and so can't hear anything. We took this idea from 'Enough' when the two main characters are arguing and it takes place on the evening. However during scene 3 we didn't really use any particular light effects to create any shadows or any low key lighting because we wanted the audience to think that everything was happy with Richard and Stacey and that its no longer tense - until the end where the lighting does drop slightly at the point when Richard murders Stacey, which we felt does follow the conventions of the light being used to express feelings in thriller films. As you can see from image 4 of 'Behind Closed Doors' key-frame it is dark enough for the use of candles. Now although we wanted a romantic setting, fire from candles does create shadows that begin flickering which again makes the room appear dark and more sinister, reflecting the characters mood, instead of homely and friendly like that of a romance film.
In 'Enough' there time of day and setting changes because its impossible to limit the these during a film, however the conventions of the lighting still apply. 'Enough' uses low key lighting during the film and even has the weather display the tension of different scenes, such as lighting when there's an argument or rain when a character is sad. There are many house shots which do have bad lighting in them, resulting in many shadows that of course provide hiding places and therefore tension. In image 4 of 'Enough' you can see how the lighting is used to manipulate the audience through the use of creating shadows and having a low key lighting shows that the film is a thriller because all the colours are duller and less bright - which you'd expect from comedies or romance films.
In 'Behind Closed Doors' I used night during scene 1 & 2, causing the atmosphere in the house to become darker and again brings in the idea that Alice is alone with her boyfriend who is getting more and more angry - there is nobody around apart from neighbours who are probably in bed next door and so can't hear anything. We took this idea from 'Enough' when the two main characters are arguing and it takes place on the evening. However during scene 3 we didn't really use any particular light effects to create any shadows or any low key lighting because we wanted the audience to think that everything was happy with Richard and Stacey and that its no longer tense - until the end where the lighting does drop slightly at the point when Richard murders Stacey, which we felt does follow the conventions of the light being used to express feelings in thriller films. As you can see from image 4 of 'Behind Closed Doors' key-frame it is dark enough for the use of candles. Now although we wanted a romantic setting, fire from candles does create shadows that begin flickering which again makes the room appear dark and more sinister, reflecting the characters mood, instead of homely and friendly like that of a romance film.
Films we used for inspiration
The films my production team and myself used to come up with ideas for our film and any conventions that we followed / subverted are the following:
This film was the biggest impactor on our film and we used it the most to help decide how we wanted our characters to be like and whether to follow the conventions of all of the other thrillers or to take some out of 'Enough' specifically. We felt that 'Enough' was the best fit for our film and enabled us to connect certain aspects together
This film is not as big of an impact, its more so a connection to our film through certain things that they have in common - we didn't use it during the construction but for the evaluation the film has proven to both back up and challenge areas of our film and so being another thriller, I felt that the film should be put here because it has allowed us to pin point exactly what conventions we have used and developed that have been put into other thriller films.
'Taken' is the same as 'Gone Girl' with the fact I used it mostly for evaluation and not construction ideas because for starters to relationship between the characters had no relevance to ours but the thriller genre did and the representation of gender within the film also linked to the gender representation within 'Behind Closed Doors' so I took interest in the film and have used it in a few examples for this question.
