Evaluation Questions

Evaluation QuestionsEvaluation Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop1. In what ways does your media product use, develop

Our media product is a short clip of three minutes to an opening of a thriller. The storyline is based ona woman being captured by a mystery villain and locked in a basement. This specific choice of storylinebuilds up anxiety and suspense adding to the horror theme. Martin Rubin points out that a Thrillershould be categorised as a ‘metagenre’. It is considered one of the most broadest genres in film as itcan have many sub-genres coming from it, such as crime, action adventure, mystery etc.Due to thrillers being broad, it is the most difficult to identify, however, there are elements within itthat an audience will expect to see. These include, a sense of unease, danger, tension and anxiety. If athriller is successful it should keep the audience on the edge of their seats. This is usually achieved bythe particular use of both diegetic and non-diegetic music, camera shots and angels.Before we began filming we all researched a number of thriller films, this was in order for us to learnthe conventions that are needed to create a successful thriller film, we did this both as a group andindependently. We focused on their story lines and openings, comparing them and looking forsimilarities. The two main films we analysed were “Memento” and “Silence of the lambs”. After havingwatched the openings to these thrillers we began noticing the similar aspects between them, we alsonoted what the evident conventions that occurred in them, some of these where; narrative enigmas,suspense, mystery, eerie music and a sense of uncertainty. These allow the audience to be drawn intothe film and feel a part of the characters experience. Another thing that really helps create a thriller, iswhen the audience knows just as much as the character, really putting them in the same position. Wetoo tried to perceive these aspects in our own opening, leaving the audience in the dark as well as thecharacters.Although the films have completely different storylines they both use narrative enigmas in the sameway to keep the audiences attention. As well as both creating an air of suspense and mystery. We usednon-diegtic music, it has an eerie quality and fits into the background perfectly, this adds to thetension of feelings amongst the audience watching and makes them feel on edge. At some points weerased the idea of music and used the technique of silence which added to the uncomfortable, drearyatmosphere, we felt that this helped with the mystery and suspense you would usually achieve in agenuine thriller . Throughout the filming process we decided to use two locations, this was because thehouse we was using that had a basement didn’t look as scary from the front so we decided to use adifferent house for that specific scene.Both the chosen locations had a weird, creepy feel to them, which definitely fitted our thriller storylineand brought the edgy and hostile feel we needed. The basement (house 1) was dark, cold andvery mysterious; it really helped guide us along the way, adding a great deal to the storyline andcreating this horror-like feel we aimed to achieve.When filming the basement scene, we shot from various high angled points, helping to create a feelingof claustrophobia for the audience, therefore putting them in the same position as the actors.

On the Right :

The twofilms we had inspirationfrom

‘Memento’- withthe women waking upin an unknown place

and

‘Silence Of theLambs’-with the idea of a serial killer targetingyoung women.

For the front house scene (house 2) we filmed an establishing shot of the old looking Tudorhouse, which told the audience where the action was happening before it actually did. Overall,we were entirely happy with our location choice as it has all the main elements of a thriller.We decided to keep the amount of characters very simple, the villain and the victim. I felt thatthis was a good choice because it helped express the seriousness of the situation by havingminimal actor’s showing a smaller chance of a heroic ending, this leaving the audiencequestions, what's going to happen next?. All the scenes involving the villain where shot frombehind, we felt it would be better to keep the characters face anonymous creating a real tenseatmosphere and leaving the villain rather intimidating.We used make-up on our actresses to help add to the realism and also create the illusion of bruises and scratches to show the horror and pain in which our victim had gone through. Also,the use of blood expresses the pain and danger experienced.We then began discussing what to call our project, we looked back to the thrillers we analysed.“Memento” was a one worded title we thought this had an impact on the audience, because itsfast and striking. It also helps the audience to think more in depth about what they are aboutto watch and the main point is that it also links to the storyline, another aspect I feel makes agood thriller is when everything pieces together at the end, its like a task, trying to work outwhat's happening and at the end you see if you have achieved this. This keeps the audiencebusy and into the film, and pretty much ensuring they are going to watch it till the end.“ ”

1. Continued1. Continued

<- Anna’s being tied up and prepared in thebasement by Elena A.Me putting make up on Anna to create a realisticfeel for both her and the audience. ->

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