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

The genre of our film opening is Physcological Thriller. In many ways it compares to other films of a similar genre as it contains similar horror and gothic elements such as dark mise-en-scene and blood, it also has the use of props such as weaponary, etc which is seem in countless horrorand slasher movies such as "Hostal", "Scream" ,etc.

The mise-en-scene of the film, e.g. the costumes and location were similar to other horrors, the ripped t-shirt Mark wore relates to "Hostal" where the victims top is ripped and also blood soaked, the long black coat Jess was wearing were just like that of the "Scream" films as the dominant main character (the killer) is dressed head to toe in black and has their face covered up.




Through the use of sound we were able to a build a tense atmosphere and create suspense just like many other thrillers, this really helped to set the scene. For example our music began to build up and get louder as the killer approached the victim, this happens in films such as "Halloween" where the killer (Micheal Myers) is approaching his victim.

The structure and use of shots is important when relating to the genre, it begins with an establishing shot of the old abandoned mill which reinforces the element of horror and mystery, this relates to the stereotypical old films that begin with a establishing shot of a spooky house or castle, for example Bram strokes "Dracula". We then moves to a pan shot of all the weapons, moving at a slow pace before eventually moving onto a clip of the killer violently cutting up photographs of the male victim. The camera goes from one shot of the victim to one of the killer creating the tension which is so frequently used in thriller films.

Our opening does seem to develop from other real life media products as the killer is a girl, the girl is the one with all the power in the scene.Where as the male victim is left helpless and vunerable. This isn't seen often in these type of films, as the females always seem to play the innocent, helpless victim and the man is commonly the strong figure of the film. In "Saw III" there is also a female killer that tortures male victims however she is the apprentice to the main killer (Jigsaw) and therefore still dominated by a male character.