​1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?
The darkness of the setting was inspired by films such as Black Swan, the spotlight used on the character as she dances had a great impact on the production of my preliminary during the filming of my piece, I used a spotlight as my only source of lighting to focus on the characters. ​
For the filming of my main task, I chose to use an old dark tank room which was located underneath a school. However, in order to produce a sense of mystery in my film, the location is mainly presented as completely black, this was to present the theme of enigma.
Unlike Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’, I decided to begin my thriller in a dark location, so that the audience would automatically view the piece as a thriller. Using thriller conventions such as dim lighting and isolation, I searched for a setting to create my main task as well as my preliminary. Based on these conventions,
I developed the themes through the use of editing in my preliminary but defied the norm of a calm beginning through the location of my main task. I used editing techniques such as changing the lighting to centre the attention on the characters rather than the background in order to abide to the thriller theme of mystery.
Alfred Hitchcock is well-known for his thriller productions; I found that a common theme in his thriller openings in terms of location was to begin the film in a setting which the audience would usually associate with peacefulness and tranquillity. This is shown particularly in his film ‘Rope’.
The purpose of this opening is to lead the audience into a false sense of security and safety, which would encourage to be more shocked when faced with a frightening scene.
Macarthy Productions