Rochelle Thomas - Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Camerawork: Our initial idea for our opening was to create a psychological Thriller, which involves major focus on the characters particularly the protaganists mind so we decided to use a variety of close- ups and extreme-close ups to emphasize this. In our storyboard we planned to use a range of close-ups and long-shots, however we changed this further into the production process as we had too many shots revealing the narrative of our film. Once we changed this and had less shots, we noticed that our shots became more concealed adding engima and suspense to our opening. The use of close-ups make the shots more intimate helping to indicate that there are thoughts and fears within the protaganists mind creating a eerie atmosphere, however the audience are not revealed to what the reasons are for this leaving them questioning what's to come. This is conventional within this genre as it draws the audience, it creates a build up until the camera cuts adding suspense. The continuety of the shots and the immediate transitions are conventional as it doesn't specify what the main focus should be to the audience leaving them questioning. The slow tracking shot used of our character at the desk makes the audience feel like a voyeur which is conventional of this genre as it allows the audience to identify with the character. The extreme close-ups of our character's facial features creates that idea of the audience visualising her mind this is a typical Thriller convention as it uses the technique cinematography to create tension.

Sound: As a group we decided that our sound should express the characters conflict with time, so we chose to have ticking throughout each of the cuts in our shots acknowledging the importance of time to the protagonist. Although the ticking didn't come from the clock we was tracking from we made sure the ticking was in sync with the ticking of the clock. The dynamics within our sound increases which is conventional in Thrillers as it  emphasises the complexity of the Thriller. However our opening challenges sound as it doesn't use the conventional non-diegetic dramatic soundtrack that you hear in most Thrillers to create a emotionally intense atmosphere engaging the audience. Most Thrillers use a soundtrack that is intially scary, however the ticking used in our opening doesn't demonstrate terror but instead links in well with the narrative of our Thriller similar to 'Se7en'. We also added sirens to amplify the fears and anxiety she is feeling bringing across a sense of terror which is conventionally important to express within Thrillers. From my product research I learnt that it is conventional for the sound to link with the mise-en-scene, for example if the protagonist is wearing red which symbolises danger, the soundtrack is likely to be a crescendo implying a build up. We also had interuptions in our ticking which is conventional as it gives the audience a hint on the narrative, suggesting that our protagonist has some sort of conflict. 

Mise-en-scene/Props: Our protagonist is a student, so we decided as a group that she should be dressed smartly to show that she is within school grounds. She is dressed in black and white, black symbolising mysteriousness and solemnity and the white connotating purity,innocence and youth. The black almost connotates her fears and conflict with time, however both the black and white represent the theme of good vs evil. The conflict between good vs evil is seen to be a common human condition that acknowledges the inner struggles that the character may have. Both colours together create a crepuscular atmosphere adding to the mysteriousness of the characters inner thoughts. We used iconography which is conventional in Thrillers, we symbolised this through the different clocks we showed within our opening implying the significance of time. However we did  challenge real media products as most Thrillers just use props to create suspense to the narrative however we used our props to stress that time is a important theme within our narrative. We used the Iphone 4, classroom clocks and keyboard numbers to express the struggle she has with time, the different forms of time that cut between each of our shots created suspense and almost makes the audience feel her conflict. 

Title/Font: When deciding what our font would be, we chose not to use a predicatable Thriller font. When researching fonts, we used 'da font' to find one that would express time. We wanted to have a opening that was similar to the thriller 'Se7en' by David Fincher. The lack of coherance within this opening helps to reflect on the characters mind. We used the font 'Segmental' which is a font that looks like a digital clock, we thought this was good as it reflected on time which is the most significant theme in our Thriller. The font is white on a black background again suggesting the idea of good vs evil, as opposed to her inner thoughts causing corruption to her innocent mind. We named our Thriller 'Mind Clock' allowing the audience to connotate that our psycological Thriller is going to reflect on the time,and the protagonists mind. We followed a conventional approach to the colour of our font,most Thrillers tend to use white on black to address that some form of conflict is going to happen within the film. From my product research we had identified that it is conventional for the title font and colour to reflect on the Thriller it self, for example a red font would symbolise that violence is centeral in this Thriller. The white on black title is significant in this particular genre. However we challenged conventions, as our font doesn't reflect on Thrillers overall.

Editing And Effects: During our editing process we started to put the shots together, add effects and cut bits out to improve our opening. We used fast- paced editing to build up on the atmosphere, creating tension. Our intention from the fast- paced editing was to give the audience a insight into the anxiety the character is feeling. This is conventional as it makes the opening gripping and satisfies the audience's pleasures as it leaves the audience at the edge of their seats. We used cutting to engage our audience in the sense of movement from one aspect of the opening e.g our protagonist doing her work, to her become fearful of her thoughts. We reversed the chronology of our opening at the end using fast-paced editing to create a thrill. We used photoshop to add in our news headlines, in effect we wanted to address the fears that she may be having this contrasted well with the sirens in the background connotating the chaos within her mind. We used the cutaway tool in Imovie to have our shots of our protagonist overlapped with the news headlines to suggest that there is issues within her mind making her anxious. We used conventions for example the fast-paced editing which is common in Thrillers as a way of creating suspense and making the protagonist seem vulnerable however we challenged conventions through using different effects rather than just using transitions in our opening.

Characters And Setting: Our location was in a school, in order to show that are character is isolated we took a long-shot of her in the centre of the classroom with unaccompanied seats. A isolated setting is conventional in many Thrillers as it makes the audience wary of what could happen creating tension.  The location enables our target audience to relate to this setting. Our protagonist is supposed to look vulnerable and above suspicion, which is conventional as it makes the audience concious that our protagonist is open for danger at any time engaging the audience, the close ups emphasize this acknowledging her fearful facial expressions. Her facial expression suggest that she is the victimin our Thriller. The location is conventional as most Thrillers that involve teenagers are commonly set within school grounds, on the other hand our choice of character is conventional as the victims within Thrillers are often young. By choosing a young character it allows the audience to gain a sense of fear for her which is conventional as it links to the audience's pleasure, my product research showed me that you will often see a innocent female character and a evil, mysterious and disturbed character conventionally a male.