1. Evaluation Question 1: In
what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?

2. Our own ‘ident’
IDENT
Before film opening credits, the companies
‘ident’ will appear. Our own media product
uses this convention of a real film to create a
professional feel. As you can see, our main
inspiration for our company ‘ident’ was one
created by ‘Twisted Pictures’. You can see how
we have tried to echo the appearance of it
Professional ‘ident’ through the dark colour scheme and use of
animation. Not only were we influenced by
the visual aspect, but also by the connotations
of the title. ‘Twisted’ relates to the genre of
films released by the company -
horrors/thrillers containing death and gore.
We used the word ‘crimson’ to imply blood
and violence; these are popular themes within
thriller films.

3. Our own title: TITLE
I also feel that the title of our film continues to use the usual
conventions of a real film production. This is because it is fairly
ambiguous; ‘The Syndrome’ does not give much away about the
film plot and could be inferred from in various ways. Just like the
film title ‘Trust’ (a movie also about a preying male antagonist
onto a protagonist female) is fairly ambiguous, leaving the viewer
to want to know more about the story behind the name. We
chose to not call our film ‘Syndrome’ as it is a little too
obscure, however we felt to call it ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ would
be too specific. This resulted in us choosing to call it ‘The
Syndrome’. It is referring to a particular syndrome but still keeps a
sense of mystery, important for a thriller. This is similar to a lot of
films, such as ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘The Ring’. Titles
Other movie titles: with ‘the’ at the beginning create interest as they concern
something in particular, whether it’s an object, a person, an event
etc.
I also feel that the aesthetics of our title within the opening
sequence fits the conventions of other film title designs, as the
placement of bold letters on a black background is especially
popular. We have also chosen to use a dark colour
scheme, representative of the thriller genre. This can be seen in a
lot of thriller title aesthetics. The dark colours reflect eeriness
linked with the dark; people are unsure of what could be hiding in
the dark. The white on black creates an unsettling contrast.

4. Our location:
LOCATION
The location of our film opening sequence was within a wintry forest.
Upon deciding to create an opening scene for a thriller movie, we
chose to use woods as our site for the chase scene. This is because
woods are ‘maze like’, emphasising loss of direction Although
forests feature in a lot of films, I feel that we have developed the
usual conventions of a thriller film by shooting in a snow laden wood.
This is because in films such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ the woods
appear dull. However, the forest location within our opening
sequence stands out more due to the increased exposure.
Also, forests do not feature in a lot of renowned thriller films as
being the main location. However, one of our main inspirations the
TV thriller ‘The Killing’ features an escape scene, like our own, with
the protagonist young girl and antagonist man in a forest setting.
Other film locations: Therefore, in a way, by shooting in a forest we are using usual
conventions but developing through filming in different weather
conditions. Having not originally planned to film in snowy
conditions, I feel it enhances this idea of ‘no escape’ and adds to the
visuals. This is because the victim stands out against the white
clothed in red, making her more venerable and increases her
chances of being spotted by her captor. After realising we would
have to shoot in snow, we took inspiration from ‘The Shining’. The
escape scene within this particular film is enhanced through the
weather condition of snow as it is harder to move and the
environment can be deceptive; an illusion is created as everywhere
appears the same.
One minority thriller which has been filmed
in a wintry forest is ‘Dreamcatcher,’ shown in
the side image.

5. COSTUME
In our opening scene, I believe we have used the usual
conventions in consideration to the costume aspect. For
instance, our victim wears bright red. Red connotes
violence, danger, blood and death. Red can is iconic of
death due to previous historical events such as the
Plague; the diseased would have a red cross painted on
their door, warning others to stay away. It’s almost a
symbol of their unavoidable fate. In this sense, our
victims pre-ordained fate is to be captured again. We
were inspired by the renowned thriller ‘Don’t Look Now’
as the girl wears red head to toe. This emphasises
danger as it is her irreversible fate to die. This creates a
feel of tragedy within both ‘Don’t Look Now’ and our
own opening sequence. Wearing red also means that our
character stands out against the dull
environment, making her more visible to the antagonist.
Wearing the red jumper also highlights her significance
as the protagonist.

6. COSTUME CONTINUED
Our antagonists costume is dull and blends in with the
woodland environment. In some ways, this fits the
conventions of captors/killers within films, but in
other ways it challenges the usual antagonist. For
example, in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ we see that
the killer wears a mask. This gives him a scary and
unsettling appearance. In ‘Psycho’, the murderer
dresses as his mother. This again is unnerving as it is
abnormal but expected of this genre of films.
However, it is almost more unnerving to see the
enemy dressed normally. We see this within the
movie ‘Untraceable’ as the villain has a seemingly
normal appearance. We wanted to echo this within
our own opening sequence so we dressed our captor
within seemingly normal clothes. This gives him a
deceiving appearance which could perhaps suggest
context of how the girl first was captured – perhaps
she spoke to the apparently ‘normal’ man unaware of
his villainous attributes.

7. CAMERA
I believe we have used the expected conventions of
a filmed chase scene concerning shot types and
camera work. This is because we used a lot of
tracking shots and close ups. We also included a
shot focused on the victim with a blurred figure of
the captor in the background. This means the
audience can see something the character cannot
which increases tension. We were influenced by the
Snatchers chase scene within ‘Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows Part 1’; in this scene the camera
captures tracking shots, panning shots, extreme
close ups and close ups. By using these
conventional shots, we were able to gain a sense of
speed and create tension.

8. EDITING
Within our final opening sequence we included a minimal
amount of transitions in order to create quick cuts between
each shot. This increased the pace of the opening sequence
chase, however, it is not normally considered conventional
to omit transition from compiled footage. On the other
hand, in the snatchers chase scene from the analysed
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1’ clip, we also
see a lot of quick cut editing. As this is a world recognised
film, we are reassured that we can challenge these editing
conventions. When compiling our footage together, we also
left a pause following the punch from the captor. This
increases suspense as the audience is not immediately
made aware of the consequential events.

9. LIGHTING
I believe that our lighting challenges the
usual thriller/horror movie as our footage
has been filmed in daylight. Films such as
‘The Shining’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’
captured footage within a dusk/night
environment, more expected of a these
genres as they add to the unnerving
atmosphere. However, I believe that it is
more unsettling for a thriller movie to be
captured in such exposed lighting as it
makes the audience question on how the
captor can be so sure that no one will see
him capturing his victim. It also makes the
snow more blinding, possibly sending the
victim into a state of delirium as they seek
escape.

10. CREDITS
Our film opening sequence features credits which look like the
example above. I feel our credits develop the conventions expected
of credits within a thriller film as they are created in a blunt and bold
san-serif text. Thriller/horror films (like ‘Sleepy Hollow’) tend to use
serif text which isn’t as contemporary as our own. However, the
credits our fairly subtle having been coloured in a light grey. This
uses the conventions of thriller/horror credits as they blend into the
environment in an almost ‘ghostly’ manner. Our credits are the same
font as our title which creates a professional and fluid look.

11. SPECIAL FX
As our opening sequence is low budget, and
having no access to software able to create
special FX, we have not included any. This
challenges the normal conventions of a thriller
film as with the themes of violence and
action, special FX normally plays an important
part within production. If we had perhaps of
had the budget, we may have included special
FX to add a more thrilling feel to the film and
appeal to our young target audience further.

12. SOUNDTRACK
Our soundtrack develops conventions of expected
scores within thriller movies. ‘Psycho’ by
Hitchcock, ‘Signs’ and ‘Sixth Sense’ all feature string
instruments within their soundtracks. We chose to
be influenced by the Danish TV production ‘The
Killing’ and to use electronic sounds within our
score. If we had the budget and means, I would
have preferred to record a string orchestra and
create our score through doing so as these
particular instruments can really intensify a feel of
tension. However, having no access to doing so, we
tried to echo a feeling of ‘The Killing’s soundtrack
which I think works well within our opening
sequence as the timings of the computerised
sounds sit well alongside our footage and the
ambient sounds/breathing add tension.

13. CONCEPT
To conclude, I think that our general
concept is conventional of a typical thriller
film. This is because we have a clear
protagonist, a represented antagonist and
psychological storyline that has not been
explored before within a film – having the
victim fall in love with their captor. We
believe that our film will appeal to our
chosen audience due to the use of
conventions but also the challenging of
conventions – they will have seen nothing
like our film before.