Question 1

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

Some usual conventions of a thriller would be that it is within a dark environment accompanied by discordant and eerie non- diegetic sounds.  During the process of my thriller production I attempted to challenge the forms and conventions of real media productions; I did this by the use of bright lighting for the lab scenes and non- diegetic music that wouldn't usually be found in thrillers.

However, during the party scene of my media product I attempted to develop the expected conventions of a real media production and I did this through the use of low key lighting.  Low key lighting helped to show that the upcoming events in my thriller were about to take a 'darker' turn, almost acting as a pathetic fallacy, the fact that the setting/ environment set the tone of the scene and predicted the forthcoming events, towards the end of the thriller opening as the opening was very pure and innocent until the truth was unravelled shown by the change of lightings between scenes.

Throughout my thriller opening (Droplet) I used many conventions of real media products.  Many thrillers use technical codes this helps to establish the meaning for a product and further engage the audience.  This is why I saw several opportunities in which I could incorporate different codes to use subtle yet clear messages to the audience within my thriller opening.  I chose to use minimal dialect within my media product, in fact, the only piece of dialect came from the science teacher when saying she shouldn't stay too late tonight, I did this to create an enigma code; to build suspense in the fact that nobody knew who she was or what it was she was actually doing and her reasons behind it.  This was to create tension and anticipation, mystery is one of they key conventions for a thriller film, and although sometimes not giving everything away is frustrating it keeps you engaged and allows for more audience involvement within the product.  Another subtle technical code I used was the use of a semic code in how I dressed Alice at the party scene, she was wearing a camouflage jacket, this wasn't done by accident it was to show that she had and was doing this completely unknown by anyone she had the ability to go unseen and simply blended in, no- one knew there was underlying mental health and no- one knew that she was poisoning people, everyone just assumed she was ‘normal’ and therefore she became invisible to them and simply began to fade away into the background, and this was all shown through the use of her clothing.  As well with the white lab coat that showed that others perceived her as very pure and trustworthy, she was just a regular school girl and would never be accused of imagined to do something as sinister as she was, this helped to show that people are often perceived wrongly and are pre- judged, but my thriller helps to show that people can also be pre- judged in a different way, a complete counter type.

I also chose to use more unconventional devices as well though such as having a female villain rather than your stereotypical male villain, this was in an attempt to challenge the regular forms of a thriller media product and develop counter types.

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