Evaluation Question 1

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

Our media product consists of some of the main conventions of a thriller. It uses the basic features in most thrillers. Our media product’s best use of a convention was the Cliff-hanger. This featured right at the end of the opening sequence, when Sarah has been captured and the scene ends with nothing but the sound of her scream. This is a cliff-hanger because it leaves the audience in suspense; they will want to know what happens next. Another commonly used convention was the powerful villain. In this case, the villain is ‘The Stalker’. He has gotten, innocent, Sarah’s phone and that is now the best source he has to luring her into his trap.

  Compared to real films, our film is not too different (especially compared to the current thrillers). Thrillers such as a ‘Zodiac’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’ and several other thrillers, tend to have an opening scene which consists of an intriguing, criminal act. Our film uses this as it is an excellent way to entice the audience. The opening crime scene in our film is Sarah about to be abducted by ‘The Stalker’. We found this to be a good way to open our thriller as most thrillers tend to include violence, action and suspense.

  Some thriller conventions have been included as well, one of them being a red herring; in this case, Sarah’s phone. This is ‘The Stalkers’ best link to capturing Sarah. Another convention that was used is the ‘damsel in distress’. Sarah is the helpless female in this case; she is in trouble and must be rescued. Generally, our opening scene used the basic thriller conventions, and they were all successful.