Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

Sanjidah Rahman 12A1

THE FILM

“Ignis Fatuus”

“Something that misleads or deludes and illusion”

Both the title and tagline, I thought, is very catchy, intriguing and somewhat clever as it pulls the audience into watching our film as there is a sense of mysteriousness which is exciting for the audience.

FILM TITLE AND TAGLINE

This is a feature that all films have. Costumes and props help give an overall appearance of a character and the atmosphere.

Example – In our film, the wife is seen wearing a red satin gown.

In most films, red can be used to portray a character being playful or aggressive. However, the meaning of red in our film reflects herself as she is the victim of her husbands abuse. Also, it foreshadows a coming event. Therefore, we developed the use of red in films by giving it more meaning.

COSTUME AND PROPS

We challenged the conventions of trimming cuts in films by adding transitions, split screens and motion blur.

Example – In the end scenes of our film we added transitions and a split screen to enhance the atmosphere of the scene. We also used motion blur in the running scene to create suspense and excitement as most running scenes are usually fast paced, we decided to blur the scene and decrease the speed to maintain the suspense and excitement.

EDITING

Psychological thriller is a genre that focuses heavily on a character. Certain themes in a psychological thriller include mind, identity and reality. It usually contain elements of mystery with horror.

Our film focuses heavily on a male protagonist who has a conflict within himself (mental stability v mental illness). However, the audience does not know this until the very end of our film. Therefore, there are certain elements in our film which creates suspense, but we see this through his expressions and his actions.

USING CONVENTIONS

In most Psychological thrillers, there is always a character surrounded by conflict, and this would be within itself or the outside forces.

In our film , we developed the conventions of a psychological thriller of characters being in conflict, by adding an argument between the husband and wife in the opening scenes of our films. By doing this, there is already heavy tension between characters at the very beginning of our film.

DEVELOPING CONVENTIONS

The thriller genre usually consists of dark lighting and lurking shadows to create mysteriousness. However, our film didn’t include these typical lighting. Instead we filmed in daylight using natural outside lighting and still successfully we managed to create the tense mood and atmosphere we aimed for.

CHALLENGING CONVENTIONS OF THRILLER

Most conventional Psychological thrillers end with a solved problem or situation. Films such as Memento is a good example of this as it ends with a twisted puzzle.

The way in which our film has challenged conventions is by leaving the ending unsolved and in a confused manner for the audience. We leave the story In our film with the protagonist knowing of his situation but walking away from it. This allows the audience to think about their own ending and whether he gets help or not.

CHALLENGING CONVENTIONS OF THRILLER

THE FILM POSTER

THE POSTER – TYPICAL FEATURES

Rating of the film.

Film Title

Tagline

Date of release

Film Company name

Picture of protagonist

USING THE CONVENTIONS TOWARDS OUR FILM POSTER

Title of film is the largest font.There is a single dominant

image in the centre of the main protagonist.

The dark and eerie colour in the background is a typical colour for our genre - thriller

It clearly defines the films genre

RADIO TRAILER

Our radio trailer includes the following:

Film title

Name of cast

Production company

Tagline

A male voiceover narrating the story

Music and sound effects

RADIO TRAILER – TYPICAL FEATURES

Creating a radio trailer could be seen as difficult as the audience can only be reeled in by what they hear.

We used a deep and loud male voiceover as it would be more exciting and thrilling for the audience.

Music and sound effects played an important role as it not only creates excitement for the audience but you can have a sense of what type of film it is. For example, fast paced music could suggest an action film.

CHALLENGING CONVENTIONS OF A RADIO TRAILER