Evaluation: Question 1

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products.

Our film is a Thriller as it does use conventions that can be found it many Thrillers such as:

• Having an extraordinary event happening in an ordinary situation
• Jeopardy and violent confrontations as standard to plot elements
• Real life situation in out storyline- Child abuse

Our Thriller is about a young girl who is haunted by her abusive past at the hands of her older brother, we see her as see goes through her normal routine as she is plagued by images from her past, we also have a few flashbacks within our opening sequence that show glimpse's of Hayley's past at the hands of her abusive brother.

We were influenced by three films 'Les Diaboliques', 'Fatal Attraction' and 'What Lies Beneath'.

'Les Diaboliques'



'Our Thriller'



What Lies Beneath- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lCDk2uOHU
Fatal Attraction- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaSlq0gCH0Q
Les Diaboliques- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jeKweu8eg



Another convention of a typical Thriller that can be found in our opening is there is a complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions. If our opening two minutes was to be continued to make a complete film the flashbacks from Hayley's past would continue and worsen but we would also take a closer look at her past, why she's seeing the things she sees, her family members and what she feels and how she deals with what happened. By taking a closer look at each of these things the will begin to feel sympathetic towards Hayley, but the closer we go into her home life the audience will see that nothing is the way it has been portrayed.

A third thriller convention that can be found in our opening scene and in typical Thriller films is that our opening scene begins from the point of view of our "Protagonist" like films such as The Birds, Marnie, Psycho, Torn Curtain and Vertigo all directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The Birds- This begins with Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) making her way into a pet store.

Marnie- This begins as Marnie (Tippi Hedren) is trying to disappear after stealing from her previous job.

Psycho- This begins as Marian Crane (Janet Leigh) makes her way to California after stealing from her employer.

Torn Curtain- This begins with Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) and Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews) at a convention in Copenhagen.

Vertigo- This begins with John 'Scottie' Ferguson (James Stewart) on the heels of a criminal on the top of a building. Below you can see stills from the films mentioned above.