Tatjana Harrington-Steward- S1-08

1. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Tatjana Harrington-Steward- S1-08

2. Location My opening uses the conventions of a thriller opening in many ways. There is no strong sense of location, so audience must think about it. This is similar to other thrillers as there is an element of mystery. The sense of the location being unsafe is also a common element in thriller films, and we have achieved this through our props as well as our establishing shot of the location (see picture).

3. Props The opening both uses and develops conventions of real media products in terms of props. The props used are typical possessions of a doctor, however we use camera close-ups to our advantage and make the props look threatening, similar to the opening credits of the US television show ‘Dexter’. Props used include: • A notepad with writing in, camera focuses on the word “murder”. • A half-empty pill bottle and labelled sample tube. • Doctor’s scissors, scalpel, clippers, and tongue stick. • A half-empty tablet strip and a full syringe. • A calendar with a suspicious circled date with information. • Red stationary with connotations of red such as blood, murder, danger, incorrectness. • Bandage. • Batteries- these fall down in the opening, showing someone is in the office, doctor then enters office and places them upright- shows OCD tendencies. • Photo board with circled people and dates. Perhaps the creepiest prop, used to establish scene.

4. Characters The only character we included in our thriller opening is the Doctor of the film. We used the conventions of a typical thriller in the way that at first we see a character but he is not completely revealed. The audience only gets a glimpse of his mouth and his eyes, and his voice. This provokes the audience to wander who this man is and why he is saying “Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”, and who to. This again uses the typical convention of a thriller film which is mystery. From what the audience sees and hears, they can expect him to be the antagonist/bad guy.

5. Cinematography All of the shots in our thriller opening our close ups of objects, the Doctor’s facial features, and one open shot of the Doctor’s corkboard. This is similar to other thriller films and television shows such as ‘Dexter’ where the opening titles consist of close ups of everyday activities/objects made to look threatening. This is what we wanted to achieve in our opening. Camera work was essential to be successful in this, and I believe we did well. For example, the shot of an everyday half-empty pill bottle looks rather intimidating as the camera pans slowly upwards. Perhaps if the audience were being shown a full view of the pill bottle it would be a lot less mysterious, exciting, and scary.

6. Editing IDENT Upon creating the ident I hoped to achieve a slightly chilling image. I believe I was successful in this. I named our production company ‘Shaded Productions’ as this uses the typical mystery convention of thriller films. Although the ident isn’t an important aspect of our opening and only helps to make it look more authentic, I believe we have used it to our advantage. It is the very first thing the audience see when viewing our opening, and I believe it establishes a thrilling mood. CREDITS- FONT The font used is ‘De Walpergen’sPica’. I created the credits in photoshop and used a transparent background so they could easily be added in Final Cut. I think the font looks mysterious, and similar to that of an old typewriter. I got the idea to use a font like this from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’. In this film there is a very haunting scene with a typewriter, so for this, a typewriter font became very symbolic of fear. TITLE SCREEN (Our title is in the same font as the credits, for continuity, as many movies have their own unique font.) VIGNETTEIn our opening we put a black vignette around the screen, this helps establish the thought of the audience being the ones looking in the doctor’s office. It also draws interest to the centre of the frame which is helpful in some shots e.g. the word murder in the centre of the doctor’s notepad.

7. Narrative In our thriller opening, the main media convention of a thriller film used is there being the identification of a problem. The audience knows there is a problem as the Doctor is telling someone not to worry. This then creates an enigma, again using the conventions of a typical thriller film.

8. Sub-Genre The characters, mise-en-scene, and narrative are conventional in terms of the sub-genre we are working within, which is a medical thriller. However I believe our location challenges the conventions of a typical medical thriller film as this would usually be a hospital. The very beginning of our opening shows a rushing though of a hospital corridor, but the majority of it takes place in a Doctor’s home office.

9. Music The music of our thriller opening is creepy and definitely has a strong haunting quality. Bethany created the music for our opening in Garage Band, making it easy to add whatever sounds we wanted to it. After it had been created and I listened to it, it reminds me very much of the opening music of ‘The Shining’ with the increasing of the tempo and high pitched undertones contrasting with the strong sounds.