1. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions and
forms of real media products?
There are a few mains thing I think are most important concerning this question and
that is our setting, characters, props/costumes and structure. These are the things I think
most relate to conforming to or challenging the conventions of real thriller films.
The entirety of our thriller opening was situated in a wood, and a wood or forest is an
extremely conventional location for a thriller film. A wood creates an elusive setting in
which the character(s) seem isolated and lost, as if nobody can reach them and they can’t
get away from where they are. There are many examples of thrillers in which a main
location is that of a forest, some being Dog Soldiers, The Blair Witch Project and Evil Dead. A
wood was an ideal location for our thriller as we wanted our characters to seem very
secluded from civilisation and this wood brought about this effect. In terms of iconography,
the trunks of the trees appear similar to that of prison bars when light is shining from
behind them – and this gives a very enclosed feeling and a sense of entrapment. Therefore
the character in our thriller seems like they can’t get out and that they have to deal with
whatever problems they may face on their own. This is a very similar sort of situation as to
those of The Blair Witch Project and Dog Soldiers; in The Blair Witch Project a group of
young people have to face what they believe to be some kind of attack by a witch in a forest
and in Dog Soldiers a group of military men on a training mission have to fend off
werewolves. The setting of a forest, especially since we filmed in autumn time, also added
to creepiness of the atmosphere. In autumn leaves were orange/ brown and were falling off
the trees; this symbolises time passing as well as perhaps death which can be seen as a
negative thing. As our thriller consists of the current time as well as flashbacks, this symbol
is quite appropriate. Death is also a conventional theme to be portrayed in thrillers in
general, in our representation of it using leaves it creates a kind of foreshadowing effect
before we even seen any violence in the film.
Linking to The Blair Witch Project, we also used a POV camera shot – a part where are
main character (Rhys) is looking around frantically as he thinks there is somebody else with
him. Through his eyes we see the figure of the Lady in the Gas Mask appear in multiple
places – we managed to achieve a very nice effect! I’m not only pleased with this because of
how well it worked but also because a POV camera shot breaks down the distance between
the screen and the audience- it makes the audience feel like they are a part of the film. In
addition to this, our thriller opening sequence contains very frantic scenes of violence and
confusion. This primary thrilling scene draws the viewer in straight away, and also engages
them as it causes them to raise questions about what is going on in the film and why things
are happening. Therefore they are inclined to watch the rest of the film to understand the
meaning of it all. This kind of structuring is also common in thriller products, such as in the
film Body of Lies - the opening scene is that of a police SWAT team breaking into an
apartment with terrorists within, an explosion follows. This is a very effective form of thriller
products and thus we are glad we conformed to it.
The characters in our thriller also conform to those of conventional products; one
character is ordinary looking and relatable while one is devious, mysterious and seemingly
intelligent. Rhys is a character that dresses in usual clothes and just looks ordinary, and
therefore the audience can relate to him. The fact that a very ordinary looking person is in

2. this film realises the situation – it makes it seem like it could actually happen. The
convention of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people is rather common in
thrillers, an example I thought of was 28 Day Later. In this film Cillian Murphy play a man
who wakes up to a deserted hospital and city (because most people are now zombies), that
character himself looks ordinary – a usual build, a usual haircut a usual face – but he finds
himself in a very unusual situation. There is also the case of our other character, the lady
wearing the gas mask. She is the antagonist in our thriller, and as in a lot of thriller she is a
villain that appears human. However she is actually a hallucination experienced by Rhys, and
because she differs between being in reality and in his mind she has a sense of mystery and
danger about her. Most villains in thrillers do tend to be some kind of extraordinary human
(whether in brain or brawn), or some form of monster. She also wears an army-related
costume that contains military boots, coat and of course a gas mask. Connotations of the
military tend to be strength, organisation and intelligence all of which are also relatable to
an antagonist. For example, in The Fifth Element the villain is a very clever human and thus
is the case in most good vs. evil situations.
The last thing I will discuss in relation to our thriller and the conventions of real
products is that of props. We didn’t need to use many props in our thriller opening but one
I’m going to talk about is our weapon. In one of the flashbacks the lady is hitting Rhys with a
rock; this is a very blunt and primitive weapon. I tried to think of thriller films in which blunt
weapons are mainly used but couldn’t – weapons tend to be that of knives or guns in most
conventional thriller films. In Shaun of the Dead the main weapon of choice is that of a blunt
one, as they make clear as it is apparently the best weapon for killing zombies – however,
although this film has zombies it is not necessarily a thriller film, it’s a comedy. Therefore
this is one of the aspects of our film that perhaps challenges the conventions of real media
products.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The first character I’m going to talk about that represents a social group in our thriller is
Rhys. Rhys is a young man, about 19 years old, who has schizophrenia and is involved in the
drug scene. You often seen young characters involved in this kind of thing in crime/gangster
thrillers such as Twin Town. Now Rhys doesn’t represent a normal kid that’s a part of the
drug scene so he can’t be a complete representative as he is a character who already has
mental health issues. However, in our thriller those people who are a part of the drug/rave
scene are represented to end up with problems as Rhys ends up being attacked by his own
mind as a result of abusing recreational drugs by using them with his prescribed ones.
Therefore there is a negative representation of violence and mental distortion associated
with this kind of social group in our thriller as it shows the effects on a potentially normal
life as well as an underlying condition. You could also say this negatively portrays people
with mental health problems (an actual current issue and campaign against mentally ill
people being portrayed negatively in media as they are often villains, etc). However I think

3. this is meant to induce sympathy in the viewer, not to make them dislike the character. Rhys
also is a representative of all seemingly ordinary people. It is important to me that Rhys
represents this as I believe this social group is most relevant to us all. I think most ordinary
looking people are thought to be just that, ordinary. However in most cases this doesn’t
seem to be true; people’s lives are complex and full of history that you cannot understand
just by looking at someone. Therefore I think Rhys also represents all of us in a way – in that
we can be mistaken for something simple when we in fact hold many secrets, although Rhys
may be seen as an extreme case of this as he is extremely abnormal. Rhys also represents
victims in our thriller, as he is himself a victim. He is fairly tall and fairly thin which adds to
his vulnerability, we also edited the footage to make him look paler to emphasise this. Even
though Rhys is male and the general thought may be that males are stronger than females –
in our thriller this is not the case. Therefore it may be considered that Rhys is an
unconventional representation of a victim.
The lady wearing the gas mask is of course representative of women. In films, women
are often portrayed as sex objects or people of a deceiving nature. In a way, we slightly
conformed to the idea of deception as this character has a lot of mystery to her. However,
we gave this character a lot of power and strength although she is a woman – she is no
classic damsel in distress. Therefore she’s a slightly new representative of females in that
she is strong, mysterious and slightly inhuman.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Thinking about our thriller film, if it was to be made into a complete production (not just
an opening) we wanted the film to be fairly distorted and confusing. This was because the
main character had schizophrenia and had heavy delusion/hallucinations; therefore the film
would differ between looking at reality and looking at the world through his eyes.
Consequently, the film would probably be a little confusing and perhaps quite heavy and
messily structured which could perhaps make it suitable for showing at some kind of art
house or gallery. The film would have a pretty dark theme, and half of the film would be
manifestation of the mind and some not so the complicated natures makes it seem
appropriate to those interested in the art that can be produced based in the potential
darkness and disarray of the mind. However, this would depend on which sort of direction
we eventually went with the entire feature.
Another possibility would be release straight on to DVD because the film does stick
to quite a few thriller conventions, assuming we would stick with these if we made a full
feature film. The setting, characters and themes all are pretty common amongst the thriller
genre so (as aforementioned) it would depend really on which direction we went with the
film and how structured and obvious we made it. Also, because the film is fairly conforming
it may not be a new enough idea to be appropriate for a release in a cinema as a feature
film. Furthermore, although this film may not be good enough for cinema release it is a
desired film type in our day and age. Psychological thrillers are some of the most popular of

4. their kind, examples being Shutter Island and Inception which were extremely successful.
Thus this film would still hold what the majority of a modern day audience desires, and
therefore could be suitable for commercial release onto DVD.