Question 1: in which ways did we develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products?por Hyleana Francesca
1. When finding inspiration from previous thrillers, we can across one that had been made by someone from another school called 'DrIvE'. By highlighting the letters 'd' 'i' 'e' in red, this made them stand out to obviously spell 'die'. As a group we thought this was a really effective and clever way to end their opening, therefore we wanted to create something similar. To come up for a name for our thriller, we used a anagram solver online to generate some anagrams for 'hide and seek'; the best outcome was deaden hikes so we used that as the name.
2. When the character Iyra is shown, the titles are distorted and jumbled. In a previous lesson we did a textual analyse on the opening of 'se7en' this influenced us as we wanted to show Iyra as being confused and lost in her thoughts. Therefore this title effect was only shown when Iyra was on screen to emphasis that she is the danger.
3. Stylistic influences for deaden hikes
4. The titles
5. We wanted to reveal the anagram for deaden hikes in our thriller, we did face some difficulty in creating this. This is because there was no YouTube tutorials which showed us how to 'un-jumble' words to reveal the anagram. Fortunately, Niamh's friend who is an A level student showed us a way to do it. At first the group had some problems with positioning and the movements.
6. Sound/Mystery
7. We have used discordant diegetic sound, especially when there was areas of high tension. We used the high pitch distorted sound when the impaled squirrel is shown, to show that this is alarming and perhaps foreshadowing the future of the runner. In our soundtrack we used a mixture of heartbeat sounds, to very ghost like sounds and used them appropriately for our film. For example when the runner s running, the heartbeat is louder, and when Iyra is shown, the score is distorted to show that she is dangerous. Part of the mystery to our film is that the audience does not know what had actually happened to the runner. It is up to them to create conspiracies about whether she is dead or alive. We decided to do this as we didn't want to give too much away, as there needs to be an element of suspense.
8. How does deaden hikes subvert and adhere theories?
9. Our thriller subverts Propps character types theory to a certain extent because we only have two characters. However the two characters obtain more than one of these character types. At the start of the opening, Iyra seems distressed as she is tied to a tree and is waiting for help, at this point it seems like she is the 'princess'. Therefore this adheres to the theory, also the runner comes across as being the 'hero' as she helps Iyra. However when Iyra has either killed or hidden the runner, it is clear to see she is no longer the 'princess' she is now the 'villain' as she has worked in opposition to the 'hero'.
10. A common convention of a thriller is darkness, shadows casts and silhouettes, however we have been unconventional is this aspect of our thriller. This is because due to our opening revolving around mental illness, we wanted to show a realistic view of society. Therefore we set our thriller in the morning of the day when the sun is bright. This shows the thriller genre in a more realistic way as it suggests that anything could happen at whatever time and nobody would expect it.
11. Our location is very conventional for a thriller. We chose a rural location so then the audience could easily infer that the opening's genre was a thriller. This was an easy semic code for the audience to understand, as many previous thrillers have been set in a woods.
12. Our thriller also subverts Todorov's theory, this is because although our opening starts at equilibrium, our main climax is at the end. He stated that narratives are led by events in a cause and effect format. Our thriller opening can adhere this at the part when the runner sees Iyra, this then leads to the runner trying to help Iyra. However the ending of our opening offers an open ended narrative, as it is unclear what has happened the runner, is she dead or alive? Therefore the audience has to interpret and decide for themselves what has happened to the runner. At the end, our thriller does not return to equilibrium, therefore subverts this theory as it is not resolved which leaves a cliff hanger for the actual film.
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