Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?
Our thriller opening incorporates several generic conventions of a classic thriller. For example, it has a constant piano score, creating suspense throughout, it also has a sudden drop in the music, scaring the audience. Our camera angle shots that we used were effective, making it clear to the audience that our thriller was based on a stalker. One shot that I found very effective was through the outside window, where the hand held camera can be seen, this matched well with the shot through the gap in the fence, once again making it clear to the audience that the thriller was based around the stalking of the protagonist.

In the editing process of our thriller opening, we used the static television effect in between shots in order to bring a more thrilling aspect to the opening. I felt that this was very effective and ensured that it was clear that our film was a thriller and not a social realism, which without the editing could have been. Due to our film opening being set during the morning, we could not use lighting as effectively as in a conventional thriller opening, however we did apply filters during editing in order to give it a darker, more spooky look, as seen in many other thrillers.

Camera angles, shots and movement
In our thriller we used very conventional camera shots, such as the shot which is through the fence and the shot through the kitchen window. These shots were very effective and made sure that the the thriller matched the genre which we were basing it around; Stalker-Thriller.

Mise-en-scene
The hand held camera that can be seen in the reflection of the mirror gives the film a voyeuristic feel and look about it. The hand held camera makes it clear that the film is a stalker-thriller. We also used the mobile phone as a prop as it is often seen in many other similar thrillers such as Taken or The Perfect Man.

Lighting
Due to our film being set during the morning, we had to keep all of the lighting natural and therefore in order to ensure that the film was clearly a thriller, we applied a filter to make the entire film have a darker, grainier look about it.

Editing
During the editing phase of our thriller opening, we incorporated the static effect of a television screen in-between each different shot. We did this purposely to ensure that the opening kept with the typical conventions of a thriller film. We also applied a filter to the film to give it a darker and more scary feel.

Characters and Plot
Our thriller opening followed the classical conventions of a thriller film. Our protagonist was a stereotypical character to be stalked, a teenage white girl aged around 16-19 years of age. Other films that also match this stereotype is Taken and Alone with her.