Evaluation : Question 1 - Conventions

How does your product use of challenge conventions:

Convention: the generally accepted way of doing things/ what the audience expect to see.

Common conventions of thriller which was used in our film opening and is expected in our "film":

• The antagonist ensnares the protagonist in an increasingly complex web, until the protagonist feels isolated and helpless.
• The narrative centres upon a crime E.g theft, murder
• A series of enigmas are set up - only to be solved at the end.
• The narrative presents extraordinary events in ordinary situations/ settings.
• The micro-elements are used to build suspense

The location is established in this shot. The room can be seen with a simplistic layout, which is common in most apartments. It provides the idea of an ordinary situation which the audience can easily relate to. This is common in thrillers as it is one of its conventions.

This panning shot of the credits was inspired by the credit sequence of the film How to kill a Mocking Bird (1962). In the credit sequence of the film, an extreme close up is used to show small details that contribute to the storyline of the movie. We used this idea to creatively show our credits by a panning shot of the woman's desk and her collage board, which helps to tell the story of who the woman is and what differs her from normal people.

The idea of a murderer's "planning board" is rather common in thriller films as it allows the thoughts of the murderer to be revealed to the audience. The murderers board often also show what the character is planning to do and is used as an action code.

Here are some scenes from other films which I explored as a reference to this scene for my film opening.

A scene from Luther Series 3 episode 1

A scene from Ex-Machina.

A scene from American Psycho.

The fonts are presented in white as it creates a contrast between darker shadows and the text itself. We chose the font New Times Roman since it was easy to read. The shape of the text signifies the woman's prosperity as the font appears very traditional and classic.

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In this last shot an aftermath of a murder is shown. This concept is inspired by the film Se7en (1995)  in which the act of murder is not seen until the murderer is revealed at the end of the movie. Similarly,  throughout our opening the audience is given hints of who the woman is, her method and her motivation of killing along with the mis-en-scenes the enigmas are unraveled.

Another film which uses a similar idea of showing the aftermath prior of the murder prior to the act of murder is the film Taking Lives (2004). The opening scene ended with an enigma of "What has the man just done?" "Why did he have to kill the other character?". We used the same method of ending the opening on a cliffhanger to keep the audience engaged and wanting to watch the rest of our "film".