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

My 2 minute film opening develops and also challenges the typical conventions of the genre I chose to create my film around.

I decided to base my film around the genre of Thriller. However there are some elements of the film that may tie into an action film genre. The typical conventions of a thriller film is to have some sort of fast paced chase scene and a murder or death along with a victim of some sort and in most cases, a villain or criminal/murderer. My film follows these conventions fairly closely as the whole opening is a chase scene because the girl is running away from the police and taking scenic routes to get to where she wishes to drop the bomb, therefore avoiding crowded areas where police will be. The audience can assume the girl is being followed due to the police helicopter scene at the beginning of the opening whereby the police pilot describes the girl and tries to track her from the sky. This sort of chase is typical of a thriller film as it builds tension from the audiences’ point of view and makes them question the actions of the girl. On the other hand, my film does not follow the typical conventions of a thriller film, as it does not include a murder or death or a specific victim. This resulted in me questioning the genre of the film and this is when I began to link it with other genres. I felt that it might fit with an action genre as it involves a chase and a typical action film will involve a chase of some sort with vehicles or people and police. From this it is clear that my film could tie in with the action genre as police are involved in the first scene and they are chasing the girl who is on the ground from the helicopter. This is something we would expect to see in an action film rather than a thriller but the rest of the film follows a thriller more than an action film as it is more gripping and builds tension through the girls expressionless face and body language along with the clutching of the bag she has.

A typical thriller would use darker lighting and less bright colours than an action film and as my film focuses on both light and dark colours throughout, it doesn’t closely fit with neither an action nor a thriller film. The first scene of my film is in black and white which is typical of a thriller film but then towards the end of the opening, the lighting is lighter and the sun is up and shining which is not typical of a thriller as such and more suited to an action film. Action films are more typically seen to have more bright lighting and flashes, which tie in with explosions etc.  My film uses bright colours towards the end when the girl is about to drop the bomb and when I am filming the market square along with the crowds. The use of brighter footage towards the end is to represent the happy atmosphere that the market maintains and then I used slow motion when the girl is seen in shot to reinforce that she is going to cause disruption and havoc causing this happy atmosphere to change.

As you can see, I have used typical conventions from both a thriller film and an action film which illustrates how my film does challenge both genres of film in order to make my film more gripping and successful in drawing in my audience.