Evaluation (part 4) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We looked into codes and conventions of the typical thriller and made sure that our title sequence had these throughout it to give the audience an understanding on what type of film they are about to view. Our film is about a mass murderer who plays mind games with the police trying to find him, by leaving little clues and subtle hints; the film is based around hunt for the killer. Our title sequence shows the killer reminiscing about his kills, and creating a foundation in which the film will fall around. Our title sequence has similarities to the film 'Se7en' as this was a key point of inspiration and was a big influence. 

We used many canted angles throughout the title sequence; this portrays madness and unease, within the sequence, and gives the audience a better understanding on the characters mental state. We introduced this character first as he is a key character to our film. By using various close ups, without showing his face,  we let his personality and surrounding give the audience an idea of who the character is as a person, and what type of things he is into, killing. The mise-en-scene within these shots gives the audience enough perception to become intrigued with the film and feel a sense of discomfort which will echo throughout the film. There wasn’t a selection of shots as we wanted to try and keep the killers identity hidden and long shots or tracking shots would of revealed too much of the killer where as we wanted to get detail instead. 

Our sequence gives an indication the specific genre we chose with the eerie music, and rustic editing, fast paced cutting and the mise-en-scene. Our film also has the conventions of a psychological thriller, which is; “two or more people preying on one another’s minds, deceptive mind games, trying to demolish each other’s mental state.” There is an indication that there is a horrific essence in the film, as there is dark lighting, which adds an edgy feel, and the props; such as knifes, and the nauseating drawings indicate danger and death. The fast paced editing helps create and maintain a sinister mood which is key for our film. Our title sequence is based in a shed so there was limited space to shoot which worked well because the tight and compressed space could also be a representation of the killers mind; trapped and dark.

Our sequence used a soundtrack which had an eerie base, which helped add an obscure feel when the edited shots were added. The scratchiness of the soundtrack worked well with the shots as they had a sketchy static-like movement to them which fitted well with the music.

For our typography we used a font which looked similar to handwriting as our credits this worked because if fitted in well with the roughness of the surrounding images and shots. We had to change them a few times as the colours wasn’t really working, in the end we used an off-white colour as it had the same kind of tones as the areas it was being placed onto so it wasn’t so harsh on the eyes as it blended enough but was still standing out. 

The codes and conventions are not challenged with our title sequence, meaning that the audience know exactly what type of film they are about to consume, and overall I think the title sequence was a success as it presented the ‘thriller’ genre well, with all four areas, mise-en-scene, sound, cinematography and editing.