Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media  products 

A media convention depicts and conveys the genre of the film to be interpreted by the audience. In our film we used our research into films of a similar genre to follow the conventions best suited to our genre and demographic.

Credits and titles

To begin when conducting our research we found similar conventions across the genre to which we followed when producing our on titles and credits. This being that they were often bold, capitals with a distorted typography which appears to have been scratched or distressed suggesting that there is something wrong which may occur in the narrative, creating a sense of fear. 

We also found that  the font colour of the film titles in the thriller genre often have contrasting colour in order to attract attentions, keeping by this we decided to use black and white giving the title a simple yet professional look. This also means that the text can be clearly read despite the slight distortion in it. Similar text can be seen in the titles of The Maze Runner which is a thriller, dystopian film. The text as shown below is more bold than what we have chosen with a grey tone as opposed to white however both have been distressed, giving the text an aged look.

We decided to name our film 'Captured' as it links well with our narrative therefore enticing the audience. The name can also be interpreted in two alternative ways, one of which is captured implying the camera which is a dominant feature in the narrative and another is the capture of the kidnapping. 

We included credits as they are also conventions which would be found in a real media production. For our credits we used a bold font which appeared in the corner of the screen over the moving image of the scene, this can be commonly seen in other film openings. We chose to overlay the credits as it made the scene more interesting, giving the audience something else to observe so the scene duration was not overly long and uninteresting, without as having the text over the image an distracting the audiences attention from the scene. We decided to not make the titles last over the entire opening sequence as the audience may find this repetitive.

Props

Other conventions include the props which are featured throughout the sequence, one dominant prop which we chose to include was the camera, showing its significance added to the narrative and linked well with the film name 'Captured'. We showed the significance of this prop using a mid shot of the female character walking past with the camera in clear view for the audience.

Another prop which is a significant part of the narrative and is conventionally seen in thriller films is a weapon. In our film this weapon is the blue rope, with the presence of this weapon the tension in the scene increases and fear is felt amongst the audience as there is now a clear threat to the audience. Seeing this convention in other thriller films means that there is already an association with weapons and following events therefore suspense is created. 


Shots

With our production we chose to use a selection of close up shots. After researching into similar films we found that shutter island used predominantly close up shots of the props and actions of the protagonist so we repeated this in our filming.

Using this to ensure the audience feel uncomfortable as they cannot put themselves in the scene and relate to any of the characters as the identities are unknown. Use of close up shots means the scene is slowly revealed to the audience not giving away what is occurring in  the scene,  increasing the tension in the scene and making the audience impatient to receive more information

                                                                                    

These close up shots continue when the characters are introduced, typically the audience is shown the character profile through use of mid and close ups shots. We decided to subvert from this, showing only the characters costume and slowly revealing the identity through the course of the extract.
this is scene through the use of a close up on the characters shoes, the manner in which he ties his laces is meant to signify his aggression and subtly build upon his character.

Location
In choosing our location we thought about a setting which would increase the tension and build upon our narrative. For our internal scenes, the darkroom fit best in order too achieve this. It linked with our narrative as the protagonist is a photography student, however adds an eerie aspect to the scene with its unusual lighting which also connotes danger and death.

Our external location was situated in an isolated park, using a long shot and pan to establish this. Through research we found that isolated wooded areas or parks were conventionally used for the thriller genre as the concept of being alone makes the scene more dangerous and suspicious. This location also builds upon the narrative and fits with the kidnapping, as a busy, urban area would not have been able to achieve the same effect.

Editing 
In our editing we used techniques such as a graphic match to symbolise the transition of time from present to the past. This match can be seen from the dripping water from the tap in the dark room to the dripping leaf in the park. Using a graphic match means the narrative is consistent and flows through a transition of time with out making it too obvious or confusing the audience

Our editing is non chronological as shots from the past have been edited in the present sequence using cross cutting. These shots have are predominantly short duration and are used to represent snapshots of memory. Keeping them short ensures that the tension builds and the audience do not loose interest in the narrative

Both of these editing techniques can be seen in similar thriller genre productions, therefore in this aspect of out production we have conformed to the editing style of real films