What ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products

1. As mentioned in previous blog posts a key aspect of Mise-En-Scene that is featured in every Thriller film is Setting. When going over the plot for our film and the locations we were planning to film, we wanted to create the typical convention settings seen within many Thriller films, one of which is seen in the picture above from the Thriller film "The Dark Knight". The picture is from the last scene where the Antagonist, Two-Face, is holding James Gordon's son. This particular scene, and basically throughout the whole film, creates suspense not just because of what's happening on screen, but because of the location and setting. The building the characters are in creates a sense of eerieness and mystery. Personally, I think we recreated this together with our groups combined efforts, and achieved our idea of recreating a conventional thriller setting.
   1. This is very prominent in our ending scene which we filmed in an abandoned run down barn in the middle of a field, which again can be seen the picture above. Being the main camera man, it was my job to capture scenes which brought out the eerie feeling of the barn, and I think I managed to do this with some input from my group. This particular scene I think brings out the attempted professionalism of our Opening Sequence and also generates anxiety and dread in the audience.
2. As a group, we decided that we were going to have a dark garage scene where the lights would flicker and Jack's character would open an old dusty suitcase which contained a set of pristine knives and a gun. However, when it came to actually filming that scene we decided that a secret kitchen draw containing the knives and gun would be much better, and this way we would be able to utilise Foley and a high angle shot. In thriller films the use of weaponry is usually a key element, and obviously with our assasin plot it would have been almost impossible to not have included any form of weaponry. Therefore we did, as seen in the picture to the right, and this keeps the audiences engaged and entertained with the plot and characters.
3. All Thriller films replicate the Thriller genre perfectly, some more than others, namely Inception and Pulp Fiction, which is where the above picture on the left is from. I wanted to replicate the beliefs or ideologies that surround character description in Ultimatum. Referring back to the Pulp Fiction picture above, I wanted Jack and Daniel to closely resemble John Travolta's and Samuel L. Jackson's characters. This is because Pulp Fiction has done a very good job in adding suspense to certain scenes in the film which is typical convention of a Thriller film.
4. Daniel first hatched the idea for my character, the Unknown Caller, to be shrouded in darkness thus creating a sense of mystery, which is again another convention of a thriller film. Daniel's inspiration for this idea came from the film Taken where, similar to the events in our Opening Sequence, Liam Neeson's character is on the phone to his daughter when she gets 'taken'. This not only would this add mystery and tension among the audience, but it woud also add entertainment, which is what we wanted. Taking certain aspects of thriller films I think enhances our abilities as we are able to learn from these ideas.
5. A part of Mise-En-Scene which is very important when it comes to any Thriller film is Lighting. Our group took the idea of light resembling good and dark resembling bad, the good and evil concept, and channeled the idea into our Opening Sequence. In the above pictures we see my character, the Antagonist, and Jack's character, the main Protagonist, appearing in natural light which emphasies the fact that Jack is the hero, where I am obviously the villain because darkness has lots of connotations such as, evil, wikedness and fear.
6. One scene which argubly breaks the conventions of a Thriller film is the end barn scene where the 'showdown' takes place. Rather than a much needed build to the end it almost just happens, and this isn't a bad thing. This means it leaves the audience in suspense wanting to find out what happens afterwards, we essentially created a very sudden cliff hanger. The chase seems to be going well for Jack and Daniel's characters, but then with an unexpected change of events this leaves Jack and Daniel very vulnerable. This in turn creates a new equilibrium which is only short lasted as the Opening Sequence then ends.
7. Family Relationships are something which draws the audiences attention to the film. When you present an audience with emotions such as love and compassion then the audience appear to get closer to the film, or in our case an Opening Sequence, and are then more involved with the plot and this is probably one of our most useful paradigms within our whole Production. The reinforce of the Father and Son bond also grabs the attention of our audience and that is what we wanted because they are then interested to see what then goes on to happen.