Altima Kaisamba's evaluation: Question One

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

Our production adheres to many of the conventions of Thrillers. Our protagonist, Mindy, is a blond-blued eyed female and is portrayed as a damsel in distress; we used this convention featured in films we have studied such as Alfred Hitchock's Birds, Rear Window and Psycho, Urban Legends and Scream. Our use of enigma is also typical of Thriller opening credits; we drew an examples from the opening credits of the film Se7en. The use of the enigmatic shots of the doctors laboratory confuse the audience. These shots create tension among the audience as it plays on the audiences fear of doctors and surgical appliances. In addition to this, the enigmatic shots also convey the gynaecologist as disturbed. The feature of a disturbed character is very typical of Thrillers; A ClockWork Orange, Gothika, Psycho, all feature a disturbed character at the centre of the narrative.

We used long shots to establish Mindy as being isolated, a technique commonly used in thrillers for that effect. As well as this, the use of this long shot establishes the setting. Through these shots, the audience become aware of the school which connotes the innocence, vulnerability and youthfulness of the protagonist.

According to our audience research, just under a half of people asked thought that classical music was the most effective genre of music for creating a tense atmosphere within the opening our thriller. Therefore, we did not challenge this convention and aimed to target our audiences preference. As a consequence the intense, repetitive music was typical of mainstream Thrillers.

Altogether, the intense music, the enigmatic shots of the disturbed character and the innocence and isolation of the protagonist, all hint at the narrative. Audience feedback shows that they had an understanding of the narrative, which indicates that we constructed the opening credits clearly. The hinting at the narrative to create tension is also a convention of a Thriller that we adhered to.