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

Our thriller opening in many ways conforms to the forms and conventions of a stereotypical thriller opening. The use of camera throughout our opening is conventional for a thriller film, for example as Olivia receives a phone call, the camera zooms in on her face which distracts us from Amelia. The camera shots use give the impression that they are being watched, this is emphasised in the shot of the eyes.

Another convention used is the protagonist having a flaw in which the antagonist takes advantage of, for example Olivia's flaw is what when she receives a call she ignores Amelia, to focus on the call, this then results in her going missing.

The music is typical to the genre and helps to create suspense and an eery atmosphere throughout the opening.

We think the use of conventions in our opening is at first not clear as to what sub-genre it falls into, however as the scene progresses, it is clear the it is a psychological thriller.

At first this helps to add to the mystery of the film as the audience are made to think what has happened and what is going to become of this. They can then compare what they thought was going to happen, with what actually did happen, and this then changes amongst other audiences.

setting and location

Costumes

Props

Camerawork and Editing

Title font and style

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups represented in our thriller are:

White, working class, teenage female, middle class mid-aged male, children, parents.

Gender is presented very stereotypically throughout our opening. Although he man isn't seen that much, we feel as though he dominates in the way that he abducts the baby without actually being there and being seen with the dominant male, and the passive female. Olivia is almost presented as "The Damsel in Distress" having lost the baby, and now being alone having to find her.

In the opening scene, the audience only meets Olivia and Amelia, but in no real depth you could also say you have a slight encounter with the mystery man.

Olivia in ways could appear as a stereotypical teenager, with her clothes, phone and in the way she acts however she also shows a certain independence as she is able to take out her cousin alone, although she does have a naive side to her.

It's hard to represent all characters in the opening sequence, as there is no dialogue in the opening, however i feel that you can relate to Olivia, and sympathies for her and Amelia.

Although we don't meet the man, we conclude that he is a pervert and instantly think that he is the kidnapper, we get this impression though the camera shots used, the close up on his eyes and through music.

 Our key character

Julia: the girl who is kidnapped in Flightplan.

Kim from the Taken.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film is an independent, low budget film and so would be produced by a company like 'Film 4' or 'Working Title Films'.

It is most likely to be produced by a company like Film 4. It would most likely be aired on TV at a late time and possible aired by UK independent cinemas.

it would be released as it addresses the issues of stalkers and child abductions, which is not a well known issue is society.

The mise-en-scene in the film on terms of lighting and setting reflects our low budget production. This type of style is typical film produced by Film 4. The UK film market needs to be different to typical blockbusters institutions and therefore Film 4 is the most appropriate institution for our film.

We 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our thriller opening is likely to be from 15 to 19, maybe upwards.

Other films which are similar to our thriller opening is; 'Gone Baby Gone', 'Flight Plan' and 'The Forgotten', in which all deal with the idea of someone either going missing to being kidnapped, where the protagonist is vulnerable. These all create tension and mystery, which from our questionnaire showed that most 15-19 year olds agreed it is their favorite part of a thriller.

In terms of genre the target audience is likely to be girls as they can relate and sympathies with the protagonist.

We drew pictures of our target audiences and the different things they like. 

How did you attract/ address your audience?

We based our film opening around kidnapping; we used some of the stereotypical conventions. We used a teenager as the person who mucks up and has to in the end look for the missing child. Using a teenager as the main character it attracts our target audience of 15-19. the part where we see through the bushes and some eyes show up as if they are looking through at the protagonist. This could be terrifying to the audience if they didn't expect it to happen. The setting we have used is pretty ordinary, an everyday setting, whereas when we see the shot from the bushes we know something is going to happen as we don't really see people in bushes. We also used the convention "male predator" seen in the bushes shown as superior to the stereotypical victim, a child and teenager . The close ups on Amelia show her as our main character in a vulnerable way. The bush scene is very likely to confuse the audience as they are going to want to know what is in the bushes. Throughout the beginning from the camera positioning we can tell something bad is going to happen.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

There are lots strengths and weaknesses in terms of the camera. One of the issues we found, was trying to was trying to hold camera steady so it didn't shake or move the wrong point as did not have a tripod to use. On the other hand the camera worked very well in creating a realistic opening. One of the problems we faced was filming in the park where is was very busy. Although the park was the perfect place to film; with some advantages. We didn't really have a change to light the scene or edit the staging in any way, we had to deal with things as they came. Another problem we had was the change in the weather, using a young child and we couldn't control passes by.

 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from in to the full product? 

When doing our preliminary task we learnt how to film different shots: 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shot, then when it came  to filming our thriller we elaborated on these shots making them our own. We also learnt to use Final cut pro when doing our preliminary task, this later helped when editing our thriller as we were able to transfer our skills over and learn even more about final cut pro. 

Snatched our thriller opening.