1. In what ways does your media product produce use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The plot of our media product was established by telling it from the view point of the main character of the story, young psychologist Alice O'Brien. Already, the character's occupation reveals aspects very significant to the genre of our media product, being psychological thriller. Psychologists or figures with similar professions (for example, detectives or FBI agents) often appear in psychological thrillers as being the victims of their clients, for example, Calrice Starling from Silence of the Lambs, Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad and Teddy Daniels from Shutter Island. Our plot revolves around O'Brien as she is is captured and (most significantly mentally) tortured by her captor and ex-patient 'H'. Again, this storyline involving 'mental torture' has very much in common to the plot of many other psychological thrillers (for instance, Nina in the Black Swan, who begins to loose sense of reality after being pressured to perfect her performance by controlling and manipulative dance teacher) showing it is very fitting to a typical film from that genre.
Nina from the Black Swan
The genre of our film is also apparent certain through shots and angles used. For instance, close ups were quite common within our film so that the character's facial expression could be revealed to the audience when needed to emphasise tension, or reveal a character's reaction to something disturbing or shocking to them. We tended to use close ups when the character O'Brien was conveying a particular emotion important to a significant scene; at the very beginning of the film, when O'Brien is looking at past events, a tear rolls down a cheek to show it's still effecting her, and also at the very end of the film, when she seems to show no emotion, staring blankly into the camera with 'H' signature skull makeup on, showing she has now undergone an important change thanks to H's control over her, and will probably never be the same.
We also included a high angle shot which (in pace with the non- diegetic background music to build on the eerie and off- putting atmosphere) pans up to roughly overhead looking down at O'Brien. This shot not only reveals to locations of O'Brien, being tied to a chair in a darkly lit room (a typical location found in the psychological thriller genre, but creates sort of a surreal, hallucinogenic feel. We are unsure of O'Brien's exact wereabouts, creating a type of suspense shown in films under the thriller convention.
With regards to editing, our media product includes flashbacks to give an insight into the O'Brien's life and the roots of her present distress. Inspired by the thriller Jacob's Ladder, we also included a scene with fast pasted editing, speeding up the movement of the character H's head, making him look supernatural and beyond anything that can be mentally competed with, making the audience fear his character greatly and see him as more than a ordinary man.
We also used sound significantly to portray our media product true to the convention we wanted it to be. Non-diegetic sound was used frequently in our film for effect. Inspired by scenes we'd seen in other psychological thrillers such as in fight club, we had the main character O'Brien telling her story and setting the scene as a voice over, sounding tired and emotionally drained. Inspired by the film Reservoir Dogs and also the fight scene in Clockwork Orange, we included a torture scene in our film, except we purposely chose to put classical music unusually over the top. This type of music would usually be ill-fitting over a torture scene, which gave it a bizarrely different take aimed to psychologically disturb the audience, just as the other thrillers had done before. The music's tempo speeds up appropriately along with the action and, like Reservoir Dogs, only begins when a record is placed on a record player, despite having the effect of non-diegetic music- adding more tension and suspense.
Dance scene from Clockwork Orange-
https://youtu.be/HtRGeyznv7k
In psychological thrillers, character's will either have ordinary appearances or rather extraordinary ones, like an alter ego. In our media product, we were able to represent both these characters. The dull and unnoticeable appearance, wearing baggy jumpers, little makeup and glasses, inspired by Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs or Malcolm Crow in 6th Sense. However, the outrageous character of 'H' was very much inspired by Clockwork Orange, as someone who both conceals there true identity but shows off their alter ego in flamboyant clothing (H wears a suit and skull makeup throughout our film.) Inspiration was also taken from Heath Ledger's Joker and Tyler in Fight Club as someone who revels in their appearance as showing power over others, inflicting it with joy.
H and Alex from Clockwork Orange.
Knifes and Ropes are also used as props, as well as scenes filmed in either very normal standard locations, such as outside bus stops or houses, or contrastingly in eerie, shadowy cellars or alleyways, representing the light and dark that O'Brien experiences- all typical of the psychological thriller genre.
Finally, as far as mise-en-scene is concerned, we made sure to include typical visual conventions of a psychological thriller to make our genre very apparent. We included a scene where only O'Brien's shadow is visible, showing a knife being held close to her face and her screaming out in pain (inspired by the shower scene in Psycho) to cleverly imply that she is in grave danger, even if it cannot be directly seen. Low lighting was also used around both of the character's faces, making O'Brien look tired and vulnerable and H look menacing and a force to be reckoned with.
Nina from the Black Swan
The genre of our film is also apparent certain through shots and angles used. For instance, close ups were quite common within our film so that the character's facial expression could be revealed to the audience when needed to emphasise tension, or reveal a character's reaction to something disturbing or shocking to them. We tended to use close ups when the character O'Brien was conveying a particular emotion important to a significant scene; at the very beginning of the film, when O'Brien is looking at past events, a tear rolls down a cheek to show it's still effecting her, and also at the very end of the film, when she seems to show no emotion, staring blankly into the camera with 'H' signature skull makeup on, showing she has now undergone an important change thanks to H's control over her, and will probably never be the same.
We also included a high angle shot which (in pace with the non- diegetic background music to build on the eerie and off- putting atmosphere) pans up to roughly overhead looking down at O'Brien. This shot not only reveals to locations of O'Brien, being tied to a chair in a darkly lit room (a typical location found in the psychological thriller genre, but creates sort of a surreal, hallucinogenic feel. We are unsure of O'Brien's exact wereabouts, creating a type of suspense shown in films under the thriller convention.
With regards to editing, our media product includes flashbacks to give an insight into the O'Brien's life and the roots of her present distress. Inspired by the thriller Jacob's Ladder, we also included a scene with fast pasted editing, speeding up the movement of the character H's head, making him look supernatural and beyond anything that can be mentally competed with, making the audience fear his character greatly and see him as more than a ordinary man.
We also used sound significantly to portray our media product true to the convention we wanted it to be. Non-diegetic sound was used frequently in our film for effect. Inspired by scenes we'd seen in other psychological thrillers such as in fight club, we had the main character O'Brien telling her story and setting the scene as a voice over, sounding tired and emotionally drained. Inspired by the film Reservoir Dogs and also the fight scene in Clockwork Orange, we included a torture scene in our film, except we purposely chose to put classical music unusually over the top. This type of music would usually be ill-fitting over a torture scene, which gave it a bizarrely different take aimed to psychologically disturb the audience, just as the other thrillers had done before. The music's tempo speeds up appropriately along with the action and, like Reservoir Dogs, only begins when a record is placed on a record player, despite having the effect of non-diegetic music- adding more tension and suspense.
Dance scene from Clockwork Orange-
https://youtu.be/HtRGeyznv7k
In psychological thrillers, character's will either have ordinary appearances or rather extraordinary ones, like an alter ego. In our media product, we were able to represent both these characters. The dull and unnoticeable appearance, wearing baggy jumpers, little makeup and glasses, inspired by Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs or Malcolm Crow in 6th Sense. However, the outrageous character of 'H' was very much inspired by Clockwork Orange, as someone who both conceals there true identity but shows off their alter ego in flamboyant clothing (H wears a suit and skull makeup throughout our film.) Inspiration was also taken from Heath Ledger's Joker and Tyler in Fight Club as someone who revels in their appearance as showing power over others, inflicting it with joy.
H and Alex from Clockwork Orange.
Knifes and Ropes are also used as props, as well as scenes filmed in either very normal standard locations, such as outside bus stops or houses, or contrastingly in eerie, shadowy cellars or alleyways, representing the light and dark that O'Brien experiences- all typical of the psychological thriller genre.
Finally, as far as mise-en-scene is concerned, we made sure to include typical visual conventions of a psychological thriller to make our genre very apparent. We included a scene where only O'Brien's shadow is visible, showing a knife being held close to her face and her screaming out in pain (inspired by the shower scene in Psycho) to cleverly imply that she is in grave danger, even if it cannot be directly seen. Low lighting was also used around both of the character's faces, making O'Brien look tired and vulnerable and H look menacing and a force to be reckoned with.
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