Evaluation Question 1

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

Our media product was the opening to a thriller movie. The thriller movie has certain forms and conventions that make a thriller movie unique from any other kind of movie.  The conventions of the thriller genre are:

• Red Herring
• McGuffin
• Cliffhanger
• Enigma

In our thriller, we used a red herring. A red herring is when the audience is tricked into thinking that something is going to happen, only for them to be surprised when it doesn’t actually happen. Red herrings are put into thriller films in order to make the audience think about the film, and for the film to be unpredictable. The red herring that we use in our film is the character of Alex. She is the red herring in our film because at the start of the film, she gets robbed of her handbag. As a result, the audience would think that she is a typical woman who is an easy target and who gets scared easily. However, at the end of the film, we learn that Alex actually gets Freddie killed. This is a red herring because the audience wouldn’t expect Alex to be behind it because of the way she is portrayed at the start of the film, and the audience are surprised when they find out that Alex was behind it all along.

In our thriller, we also use a McGuffin. A McGuffin is a sub-storyline within the film which first seems to have big meaning, or a big impact on the whole storyline, but nothing really happens to advance the sub-storyline so it is forgotten and undeveloped. The McGuffin in our film is when Freddie steals the handbag from Alex and finds the USB stick. At first, it seems like an important bit of the storyline because there must be something important on the USB that Freddie needs. However, the audience never get to find out what was on the USB stick and the sub-storyline fades away when Freddie gets the folder, and then is ultimately murdered. The audience then have to think about what was on the USB stick as it must have been important if Freddie was stealing it.

In our thriller, we also use a cliffhanger right at the very end of the film. A cliffhanger is when the film ends on a very critical moment in the storyline, but then it ends with a dramatic scene where the audience want answers to their questions, but they don’t get the answers until they watch the next one. Using cliffhangers within films almost forces the audience to watch the next one because they would want answers to their questions and can only get these answers by watching the next one. The cliffhanger we use in our thriller film is right at the very end when Alex is on the phone and says “Yeah, yeah it’s done” after Freddie has been murdered. This is a cliffhanger, as the audience would want to know answers to the questions that they would have. These questions would be: Why did Carl kill Freddie? Why are Alex and Carl working together? Who was Alex on the phone to? Will they kill again? The audience would want answers to these questions so they would be more likely to carry on watching.

How is our thriller different?

In our film, we don’t use an enigma. An enigma is when a hero has a difficult problem which needs to be solved before dealing with the problem of the villain. We don’t have an enigma in our film, because this is where our thriller is different to most others. This is because there are no heroes within our thriller, as everyone is a villain. Freddie is a villain as he is stealing the handbag. Alex and myself are villains as they organise and execute the plan of killing Freddie. This makes our thriller different to most thrillers because usually, they all have heroes that save the day by overcoming the villain. Our thriller is unique in the way that it has no heroes as the villains of the film kill the villain.

In our film, we also use an animal as one of the main characters. We use a dog as one of the main characters as it is used for a good portion of the film as it chases Freddie after he steals the handbag. This is unique because most thrillers don’t use animals as one of the focal points of the film because of the difficulties in getting it to co-operate. We managed to get the dog to co-operate and make it do its job within the film, which makes our thriller unique to others.

Another way that our thriller is unique compared to other thrillers is the way that we have a female lead character in Alex. Also, she is made to look like a strong character, as she is able to organise the death of Freddie. This is rare for thriller films because usually the lead actor is usually a man, and they are the ones that are overcoming the villain. Also, the women in most thrillers usually have to be rescued by the male heroes.  In our thriller, the lead actress is a woman, and she proves to be smart and successful, as she doesn’t have to be rescued like women in other thrillers. She is able to evil in her ways and is able to kill of Freddie.

What films influenced us?

 One of the films that influenced us in the making of this film is Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). This film influenced us, because it was one of the first films to have a lead actress who was a female and she was blonde. We liked this idea in that film, and as we had a blonde girl in our group, we decided to use this idea in our thriller film. As you can see from the pictures on the left, the lead actress in Psycho (Janet Leigh) is blonde. Also, you can see a picture of Alex within our film and you can clearly tell that she is blonde too. 

Another film that influenced us in the making of our thriller is the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006). In particular, the chase scene in the video above is the one scene in the film that influenced us with the making of our thriller the most. It influenced us, because we feel that our thriller film needed a chase scene in it, because it is a key part of a thriller film as it puts audiences on their edge of their seat. However, we decided to use the idea of the chase scene from Casino Royale but manipulate the idea too. Instead of having a human chase human like it is in Casino Royale, we decided to have a dog chase a human. This would make our film different and unique to other films. As you can see from our thriller above, we have utilised the chase scene using the dog and human which is different from Casino Royale but is similar.