Question 1:

In what ways does your production use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

Introduction
Conventions are the typical things you would expect to see in a media
product, when producing a media text its important to consider the
conventions of the genre which you are looking at. Parts that contribute
conventions are the sound, characters, lighting, audio, narrative, etc. This
links with the Metz Genre Theory, the theory suggests that genres go
through typical cycles of changes during their lifestyle, for example,
thrillers have changed thoughout the years. Different stages of his theory
are, experimental, classic, parody and deconstructive.

Characters
As we were producing an opening sequence, not much information about
the characters was given, so tend to be mysterious. In our opening
sequence, we have made the victim mysterious, as to why he was
murdered, which makes the audience think, was he associated with crime
and did he cross a line with his killer? In our audience research we asked
the audience, we asked them what made them recognise that this
character was a victim, the audience response was because he was
running and they said, why would he be running through the woods and
hide a USB under some leaves. Our characters, link to Levi Strauss theory
of binary opposites which he stated in his theory that binary opposites are
the key to the meaning making of the narrative. An example of a binary
opposite is good vs bad, at this moment in time the good is the Detective/
victim vs the killer.

Narrative
Our production had a narrative that follows the conventions of a thriller. As
the narrative was a killing, the film would have a sub- genre of crime, so
the film would be a Thriller- crime film.

Titles
We named the production logo title 'Locomotion Productions' and the
name of our thriller opening sequence was named 'Cold Trail'. We decided
to name our production 'Locomotion' becomes the definition of
Locomotion is moving from one place to another, so in this case this
resembles the scene of where the victim is running through the woods.
The production logo title credit was placed at the beginning of our opening
sequence which is conventional. The Cold Trail title was placed near
towards the end of the opening sequence. The colour of the text was red,
this represents blood in the opening sequence especially as it had a
thriller crime genre theme. A Fade Transition was added to the Cold Trail
text.

Props
We used props and costumes in our production so that the audience can
identify the role of the character, for example, the forensic suit was
essential in the production because this is the uniform that they wear.
James wore a smart casual jacket and a shirt, to show professionalism and
to represent he is the DCI. Lewis (myself) wore basic clothing and a black
coat to represent evil and darkness. Jason's character was wearing a full
forensic white suit, this is conventional to wear when investigating a crime
scene when collecting evidence. The props we used varied, it's important
to have props as this suggests the narrative. A prop we used was police
crime scene tape, this is conventional to have at any crime scene to shut
of a particular area to the public, but as we were filming up the downs this
wouldn't of mattered as not many would be going past the scene. We
used fake blood, which we splattered up the tree of where the victim was
killed and next to the victims head of where he was left dead. A camera
was also used of which the forensic team took images of the victims body.

How you challenge conventions?

In our production, we didnt challenge conventions much as we wanted it
to be easily recognisable for the audience to identify the genre. We didnt
challenge the stereotype of women being seen as weak and the victim
in the production by having a male victim, but in the production the
Detective was a male which does follow the stereotype of men having
the top job however this wasnt done planned. The identity of the killer
wasnt revealed in the opening sequence so it would be interesting to see
a possible, women killer.

Evaluation
This question has allowed me to identify what conventions of thrillers I
have followed in my thriller production. Following the conventions of
thrillers allows the audience to identify the genre, it also gives me the
opportunity to see what convention I have challenged in my production.