Evaluation Activity 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

The title of our film

For our thriller opening as a group we decided that it would a psychological thriller. After doing some research we then came up with the idea of calling our thriller Oedipus. The Oedipus complex is defined as a male childs unconscious desire for the love of his mother. This desire includes jealously towards the father and the unconscious wish for that parents death, as well as the unconscious desire for sexual intercourse with the mother, however in our thriller the mother also gets murdered by the son. We thought this would fit a psychological thriller well because its related to the mind. Another reason for this is because we thought suspense comes with a character that must resolve conflicts with the mind. I think the title is effective because it labels the type of character thats going to appear in the thriller, but also not that many people may understand this, meaning they may find it interesting and want to watch the film to find out.

Setting/Location

For our main setting/location we wanted to find somewhere that was open, and quite familiar, so we decided to go with a playground/park. This is very common and original in thrillers and we thought it would be a perfect idea to shoot our video there. In our psychological thriller Oedipus we chose the playground/park also because it fitted with our main character. Our main character Jake is portrayed as someone with a split personality, however because of his mental illness this makes him different and lonely, which also makes using an empty playground a good idea, and because the playground/park is big but empty which makes our thriller opening seem even more mysterious and suspenseful. When researching the setting/location we also thought about the audience in our discussion. The playground/park is a recognisable place for the audience as most people have memories visiting the playground/park. These memories could be good or bad for the audience. This establishing shot of the playground/park shows it to be big and empty which can potentially build some tension, but mainly add mystery and suspense. An empty playground/park makes our thriller opening more creepy because it quite a big location. The actual setting/location of the playground/park is in Brentwood. For our second setting/location we decided to use a house, the only room we used was the kitchen. The purpose of this setting/location is to show flashbacks of Jake thinking about the past where he stabs his mother. We used the kitchen because commonly the kitchen holds a lot of dangerous items, so we took advantage of this for the stabbing scene where Jake kills his mother. This setting/location is small and common for the audience and its good to use in a thriller opening because it adds tension.

Costume and props

For our thriller opening Oedipus we decided to go with a costume that was casual, because the main character Jake is a teenager. As a common teenager the clothes we chose a plain blue top and black jumper with a pair of tracksuit bottoms.

To separate Jakes split personality we made the antagonist wear a mask and the protagonist was without. We wanted to use a mask because in psychological thrillers they are seen as scary and by using it, it helped us because it made to easy separate the protagonist from the antagonist. Theyre also a benefit for our thriller opening because it creates an element of horror and makes it more mysterious. As part of the costume we included makeup, to develop thriller conventions we used makeup to make our character look more fatigued and vulnerable. We wanted to make our character look tired and restless are in most psychological thrillers the main character often looks worse for wear. To make our character look tired we simply used dark makeup under his eyes. Our two main props we used in our thriller opening were the knife and fake blood. Firstly the knife was very important because its used to murder the mother, which is relevant to the story, as our character has a mental illness and it portrays his split personality. This will appear in the flashback scenes. A knife is a good idea to use in a thriller because it clearly is showing the antagonist, but it improves our thriller opening because it adds suspense and danger which associates with horror. The fake blood is important to our thriller because it adds realism to the video. When the mother gets stabbed with the knife you will see fake blood on the knife and floor. By introducing blood in the video it makes the murder look natural because this would happen in real life.

Camerawork and Editing

The camera we used to film our When filming our thriller we made sure that we used a variety of different shots and got enough of our main character. At the beginning of our thriller we deliberately made sure got a long shot of our character Jake. This is to make the audience aware that he is important to the thriller opening and is the main character. Its also a good shot because it captures his costume. It shows our character with his hood

up making the audience suspicious of why its up and if hes trying to hide something. This makes it quite creepy and creates some tension.

When shooting our thriller we used experience from the prelim video and brought it into the final thriller. For example we used a match cut and 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule was effective because it made it clearer to see Jake being shown as the protagonist and antagonist. We also got establishing shots of the playground/park and Jakes house to make the audience aware of the location/setting. This is because it creates suspicion and suspense.

To edit our thriller opening we used software called Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013. Editing was important because it allowed us to trim a lot of our footage making the video faster and have better quality cuts, so it made the video look less amateur. We decided to use some fades in our thriller, especially before the flashbacks because its effective, by making the video look more mysterious and adding a bit of tension. To make the flashbacks clearer to recognise we changed the colour of footage to black and white, this is useful because its easier for us and the audience to know when theres flashback, and it looks creepier. We decided as a group to get a lot of close-ups to show what the characters looks like. Its effective because it makes you see the character as fatigued and vulnerable. The close-ups were also important because it helped capture dialog. The dialog makes our character seem a lot scarier and creepy, while representing his mind to the audience, which helps them understand that it is a psychological thriller.

Title font and style

In our thriller opening video we chose to put the title at the end because it inspires people to watch it all the way through as their suspicious of what the title is going to be. We decided to use a large font so it really stands out and makes sure everyone can see it clearly. We chose to make the title big because it looks quite intimidating and adds creepiness. We also thought it was appropriate for the title to be in white on a black background because it stands out so its easier for the audience to see. On the editing software we used, there wasnt alot of font styles so we kept it simple. For the credits of our thriller opening we used the same font because it simply stood out, this is also why we stayed with a white font. The font for the title was called X Files and for the credits we used a 3D font.

Story and how the opening sets it up

The story of our psychological thriller is that a teenager called Jake has a split personality where one side of him is childish and playful, but the other side of him is dangerous and mysterious. He loves his mother, as well as wanting unconscious desire for sexual

intercourse; however he murders her with a knife, which is suggesting part of him is jealous and hates her. We decided to start our thriller opening off with a long shot of our character. This is to immediately make the audience ask questions of where this person is going, and why he is on his own. When we were filming we knew that the flashbacks and dialog would become really important in telling the story about our main character. This is because it explains to the audience that he has a split personality and is portrayed as a protagonist and antagonist showing it as a psychological thriller. This immediately puts the audience on edge because our character is shown as creepy due to the actions he makes such as stabbing his own mother. Its sets a good opening because then the audience are suspicious about the character.

Genre and how the opening suggests it

As a group we researched a lot of different horror genres before making our final decision on what our actual thriller genre we were going to use. In the end we decided on a psychological thriller. In these types of films its all to do with the mind. In our thriller you can identify this as our character Jake shows he has a split personality. The opening suggests this as he kills his mother portraying him as the antagonist, while the other side of him is childish, unaware of danger showing him more as the protagonist. One of the main aspects of video is the flashbacks scenes where it builds tension and horror. These scenes are quite eerie and aim to make the audience ask questions of Why the murder happens? Its very important because this is where the creepiness begins and where most of the tension builds. It is where you see the actions of the protagonists develop.

How characters are introduced

In our thriller opening Oedipus we only show one character. This is because he explains the meaning of the title and is the main attention of our psychological thriller. We use forms and conventions as we introduce our character Jake as someone mysterious, purely because his character lonely and has a split personality, he also portrays a creepy character due to his appearance. To develop our forms and conventions when introducing him we made sure that he still dressed similar to other teenagers to give a sense realism and believability. To separate the split personality, we introduce a mask. The mask makes our character seem creepier and adds suspense to the thriller. Its also important because its associated with horrors which improve our psychological thriller. The mask reveals the characters split personality which is very important because it creates tension when you realise that the protagonist is also the antagonist. This is effective because it makes the character more interesting and makes the audience even more suspicious about his childhood and what our character may do in the future.

Overall I think we have been very effective in the way we have developed our thriller conventions.