Arielle Ben-Itzhak

EVALUATION TASK 1IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Genre conventions are recurring elements and tropes used in specific media genres that are easily identifiable to an audience. Genre conventions allow the audience to recognize what genre a certain media text is.

Genre conventions can include features such as plot, setting, characters, costumes, themes, symbols, and lighting.

Subgenres within a broader genre can also have their own specific defining conventions.

For example, genre conventions of a thriller typically include violence, weapons such as guns, plot twists, cliffhangers, heroic male protagonists, and clearly defined villains.

INTRODUCTION: WHAT ARE GENRE CONVENTIONS?

THE DARK KNIGHT

Released July 14, 2008Produced by Warner

Bros.Starring Christian Bale,

Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman

Directed by Christopher Nolan

THE DARK KNIGHT

Our plot shares a very basic outline with The Dark Knight, and it is one that is typical of many films in the thriller genre. We share the same idea of a very polarized battle between the good and the bad. Both have an obvious merciless and dangerous villain: the Joker in The Dark Knight and the Spanish crime organization in our film’s plot. We also have a very brave, archetypal hero: Batman in The Dark Knight and the SAS officer and law enforcement in our film. The plot structure we used of a battle between good and bad was inspired by many films in the thriller genre.

However, The Dark Knight is different thriller subgenre – it is a superhero movie. Therefore, it does make use of several very noticeable genre conventions that are not found within our own thriller’s plot, most notably being the superhuman powers of the hero and villain.

PLOT: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

Though the victim in The Dark Knight is a woman and in our thriller the victim is a man, they are both in an extremely dangerous position of vulnerability. Having a victim in need of saving is also a convention of thrillers, and our victims are similar in the sense that both have come to the realization and acceptance of their deaths.

CHARACTERS

In both scenes, a hero comes to knock down a door to rescue a hostage.

In both scenes a large explosion is also involved. Such violence is a common convention of thri l lers. However, we changed and developed this slightly by not showing the actual explosion on-screen and cutting straight to black, and we did this purposely to create tension and keep the audience on-edge by not instantly revealing all the answers.

ACTION

SPECIAL FORCES

Released November 2, 2011

Produced by Easy Company

Starring Diane Kruger and Djimon Hounsou

Directed by Stéphane Rybojad

SPECIAL FORCES

The characters of Special Forces and the characters in our thriller wear very similar costumes. They are both all black, tough, heavy-duty, and very protective with bullet-proof vests and knee pads. These all connote violence, danger, and action, all of which are typical genre conventions of thrillers.

COSTUMES

Being both action-thrillers, the use of pacing through editing in our opening sequence and Special Forces is key to conveying the genre.

Both Special Forces and our thriller share the same rapid succession of shots with short shot duration and cuts as transitions. This creates a fast-paced, exciting sequence that keeps the audience ‘thrilled’ and are conventions of action-thrillers.

Something that the two thrillers also share in common is the much longer shot duration of shots that are focused on the hero of the scene. These shots are also more frequent, and these make use of the genre convention of having a central, heroic protagonist in the storyline.

EDITING

The camera movements of the two scenes I am comparing are very similar; both use an unsteady, shaking handheld to film much of the scenes. This is another convention of the action-thriller genre, as it contributes to the fast-paced, chaotic atmosphere that makes an action sequence exciting.

The camera angles used are also similar at times. Close-up shots force the audience to focus on the hero of the scene and bring them to the audience’s attention, further enforcing the idea of a brave, important protagonist.

CAMERA

The villains of both thrillers are the dehumanized, impersonal antagonists typical of the thriller genre. By taking away human emotions, identities, and attributes from the characters meant to be the villains, they are instantly more unsettling to the audience and a greater contrast to the hero, which works to highlight the glory of the hero.

In both thrillers, the antagonists are also foreign. In Special Forces, the villains are Afghan and part of the Taliban, and in our thriller the villain is a member of a Spanish drug cartel. Making the antagonists of the film foreign makes them even harder for the audience to relate to, making the threat they pose seem even more dangerous.

CHARACTERS

RAINBOW SIX SIEGE

Rainbow Six Siege is a first-person shooter game, and many of its missions involve rescuing a hostage, which is similar to the plot of our opening sequence.

The entire game is in user point-of-view, which is very effective because it provides an immersing experience for the player. In our opening sequence, we have one point-of-view shot that we included in hopes of creating a similar experience for our audience.

RAINBOW SIX SIEGE

TITLE SEQUENCE: DREAMCATCHER

Dreamcatcher is a science-fiction horror film. Though this genre is not the exact same as the genre of our opening sequence, the opening title sequence of this movie uses thril ler genre conventions very similar to what we used. The text is a bold, dramatic white, and this works by bringing the audience’s attention to what is written. In both opening sequences, this text is placed over a dark, cool-toned background displaying pictures relating to the films. In Dreamcatcher , the text is placed over an icy backdrop, hinting at the setting of the story, and in our thril ler we used blueprints as the backdrop to further convey the industrial setting of our film. These bold, dark title cards help to instantly create a tense atmosphere before any of the action even starts.

TITLE CARDS: DREAMCATCHER