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

We found that a film called Jennifer's Body linked with ours, it has scenes in with a female victim has a phone call and then his a bang. She goes out of the bedroom and down stairs, she opens the door but no one is there, the scene goes on to see the background of the hallway and a shadow moving, typical thriller iconography. The suspense builds up throughout the sequence. This is very similar to ours, the following pictures show this:

This shows that it is like Jennifer's Body because of the idea of the phone in the bedroom.

This is also like Jennifer's Body because of when she hears the bang and she walks down the stairs.

This is also like Jennifer's Body because of when she goes to answer the door, I used an over the shoulder shot to show the victim going into darkness when she opens the door.













There are various signs of iconography in our opening sequence that link in with the conventions of thriller movies, the first example of this is that it is set at night, this is typical as it adds mystery to the film. There is a shot of our victim turning off a light so that the scene goes to complete darkness, this sets an enigma code as the audience are not sure what to expect.

The next example of iconography is when the victim gets a phone call, the contact comes up as unknown therefore creating the effects of mystery and enigma, the audience have the need to want to know who it is therefore drawing them into the sequence.

When the victim picks up the phone, we see a close-up of her face, this expresses the victims emotions while she is on the phone, it shows that she is also confused and wondering who is on the phone.

The next example is when we hear a bang from another room, this creates mystery as the audience wonder what happens, this links in with the typical conventions of a thriller sequence as it exaggerates the effects of enigma codes therefore allowing the audience to think about what is happening, bringing them into the film.

There is a part in our film where we see the victim walking down the stairs, we used a low angle shot (which is un-conventional) because we wanted to show the victim getting lower as she comes down the stairs, therefore showing that there is showing bad about to happen.

The next obvious convention that is common of thrillers is when we see the victim opening a door, this shows that the victim is walking into the unknown and the audience doesn't know what is going to happen.


The music we chose plays a big part in giving an effect in our sequence, we chose not to have any music  until after the victim has been kidnapped because we wanted to build the suspense and wanted the audience to concentrate on the film. We have music at the very beginning when the film companies are being shown (e.g. New Line Cinema), we decided to have a low cello pedal note (long-held note) because this shows that the film is going to be thriller based as orchestral string instruments are often associated with thriller movies. When the music starts after the victim has been kidnapped, it is played in a minor key to give the effect of sadness. I composed it so that I could play a descending ostinato sequence to keep it simple but effective, it was played on a piano using lower notes to keep a mysterious, dark sound. We also use one sound effect which is just as the victim is being kidnapped, we use a scream to get the attention of the audience, we use it when there is no music playing so that it stands out.

For our main character we chose a teenage girl, we thought this because we felt that a teenage girl would be the most vulnerable as she would not be as mature as an adult. For our kidnapper we choose a male character, this is because it is typical in thrillers for the people in the film to be male.