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

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Title

The title of our thriller is “Extinct”. We were torn between this or “Astray”. We chose “Extinct” because we thought it had more chilling connotations than “Astray”. The word “Extinct” conveys a lone victim, which fits the conventions; usually there is just 1 victim at a time. One connotation of “Extinct” is death, and the end of everything. No-one would have experience of an apocalypse, and so this creates a negative psychological effect on the audience. It implies danger and mystery, which fits the conventions of a thriller, due to thriller films being full of dangerous situations for the character.

Setting and Location

We used a high street as the main location for our thriller. We chose this as our location because of the juxtaposition of busyness it would create. The conventions of a thriller state that most unexpected events happen in a normal urban environment – this is changed, however, due to the emptiness we created. Another reason for choosing a high street is because it’s a recognisable place to everyone, but there is contrast.

This creates an enigma, and is unpredictable. The lighting in this shot is light, which would be the same every day. This creates a sense of realism for the audience; fear is created because the same thing could happen to any person at any time. From watching other films like I Am Legend starring Will Smith, we can see the use of normally busy places, and so we took influence from this to use the location that we did.

Costumes

As a costume for our character, we chose a khaki top, tracksuit bottoms, a dog tag and a rucksack. We chose these because green is stereotypically associated with the military; this allows the audience to find out more about the character's background. The lighter colours of the costume create a contrast to the situation the main character is in, and also juxtaposes conventions, as the protagonist would usually be seen to be wearing darker clothes to represent death and danger.

The props we used were a gun, posters and papers. The gun is a vital part of iconography in thriller films, and relates to his military background.  It gives a sense of his paranoia and anxiety, as well as showing a dangerous side to the protagonist. Guns have negative connotations, and so this relates to the codes of a thriller. The posters and papers we used were used to create an eerie situation, and we wanted to make the shots with them in seem different to daily life.  “Evacuation” was used on the posters because we wanted to create an enigma for the audience, as they wouldn't know what had caused the evacuation. It gives the sense that the main character has been left behind, and so the audience will feel sympathy for him.

Camerawork and Editing

We used a variety of shots throughout our thriller to convey different emotions and to allow the audience to be introduced to our character.  We started with an extreme close up; by doing this we can straight away give the audience a sense of realism as the character is in bed and thinks he is doing his daily routine. Close-ups are used in thrillers to immediately create a sense of fear, and we see this in the protagonist’s eyes.

We also included long walking shots. These can be used to create tension before the action unfolds, as well as set the scene of the thriller. We also used point of view shots. This kind of shot allows the audience to be the character and see the dangerous situation through their eyes, and also sense their fear.

We used low shots to give the sense that the character is strong and overpowering – this could relate to later on in the film, as he survives the apocalypse. It is unusual for the victim to be viewed through low shots as they are usually seen as innocent and less powerful, and so we have juxtaposed the conventions of a thriller opening. We have made sure to think about composition when filming; the main character is used in the middle of most of the long shots. This is used to make the character look important to the audience.

The Story

The thriller as a whole would be a psychological thriller and the story is about 1 man left alone, post apocalypse. One of the biggest influences we used was the film ‘I Am Legend’, which features Will Smith in the same situation as our main character. It is psychological as the whole concept is a metal struggle to survive; the audience have no experience of what it would be like to deal with something like this. The film as a whole would be the story of his journey and how he has managed to survive.

The ending of our thriller sets up the rest of the film. The phone ringing creates an enigma for the audience, and when they see it dangling they would feel fear for the character, and would want to watch on to know what has happened to him. This fits the codes and conventions as it has created a dangerous situation and mystery. Many openings are ambiguous, and we have followed this when filming.

Genre

The opening includes an ambiguous evacuation, which shows that the genre we are filming for is psychological. Most psychological thrillers focus on the characters state of mind throughout, and this is what we have tried to achieve when thinking of our film.