1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A thriller is a novel, play or film with an exhilarating storyline that leaves the audience clenching to their seats. Commonly, themes of crime, such as murder, and espionage are to be found in a thriller.   

 There are many different sub-genres of thrillers that include action, conspiracy, crime, and disaster etcetera. As a group we decided to choose crime/conspiracy as our feedback from our target audience told us this was the second most popular thriller genre.  We designed our thriller to be set in a dystopian past in which the audience would have our take and an insight into how the world would be different if Germany had the won the Second World War. We wanted them to feel involved in this dystopian world as much as possible and chose to include perspectives from both first person killer and victim; in addition we used shots that would overview this comparatively. To make these ideas that we had really stand out we had to ensure what could be filmed respectively to the time period, was done so.

For different sections in the scene we used different shot types and typical thriller conventions to emphasise the action. A common theme throughout our thriller was the use of cutaway shots. We placed them at intervals to emphasise certain objects, such as the killer’s boots and leather gloves, and so that the audience notices key objects perhaps more than the victim does. We also encompassed high-angle shots including one on top of the victim’s car targeting him, as this hints to the viewer that he is in fact the vulnerable one in this scene. Vital types of camera shots we used were point-of-view, as mentioned, from the killer and the victim. However we used them both differently to create alternate effects. The killer’s point of view was essential before the ‘strangulation’ scene to impose on the audience a sense of what is to come whilst still remaining mysterious. It is only when the killer strikes that we see the victim’s point of view. This puts the viewer in his shoes and shows first-hand what his reactions are.

In order to build upon and maintain tension and panic throughout the strangulation scene we needed to use a series of shot types and fast-cut editing. The Bourne Identity was a major inspiration here as a typical action and mystery thriller. We took our victim and killer and positioned them in a confined space where it appears (rightly so) that the victim would have less chance of escaping the attack. We filmed numerous different shot types that we were able to use for short periods of time, for example one second and placed them sequentially in our editing timeline to create and sustain panic, suspense and tension continuously throughout the strangulation scene. Furthermore we chose rather than to slowly build tension earlier on in the scene to instead promptly start the action. The effect of this on the audience is that they do not see it coming and so there is more an element of surprise.

The soundtrack for our thriller took a key role in linking the video together and adding to the different emotions we wanted to portray. To begin with we chose a song from the movie “Drive”, which was also an inspiration for our movie, called ‘Tick of the Clock’ by The Chromatics. This film inspired us because of how calm and focussed the protagonist is able preserve himself whilst in threatening situations. The song is a likely thriller soundtrack as it is in a minor key, it is also very simple but effective at creating tension; as more instruments are brought in, the volume increases. However this is not the only piece of music we chose to include. As the victim closes his car door the first soundtrack stops abruptly in time with the door shutting thus creating suspense. We felt that having just silence following this technique seemed unnatural and therefore added in a silent sound effect, which actually sounds like a mysterious wind and foreshadows that something bad is to come. In order to seamlessly bring our next piece of music in, ‘Je ne Regrette Rien’ by Edith Piaf, we used both the visual and sound effect of the keys in the ignition starting the car as if the music was being played on the radio. This proved to be a very effective technique and the actual soundtrack itself challenged the typical conventions of thriller by providing irony to the scene because the victim is killed to a pleasant and civilised piece of music. This is much like a Tarantino movie and in particular Reservoir Dogs in which the song ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ plays over the top.

In terms of props for our film we used very little but in an effective manner. We used car keys as mentioned previously to queue the second soundtrack of the film, but they also serve to distract the audience from the gun in the compartment below the steering wheel of the car. This leads on to our second prop the 1952 Morris Traveller that actually serves more of a setting for the film. The car fits the time period of the film (1956); however being this old it means there is no alarm fitted, which offers no real chance for the victim to alert someone when being attacked. Inside the car we have the murder weapon that is a thick orange rope. We chose this as it is something likely to already be in the car, hence the audience does not know whether the attack was planned. We decided upon the colour orange because we wanted it to resonate in the viewer’s minds and, as it almost resembles blood. In addition it is an unlikely weapon of choice for the killer and so adds more mystery. 

We also planned to use the long length rope to create a continuous shot following the rope back into the boot of the car, where our title sequence was filmed. This is a rare technique found in films but when filmed correctly it does pay off, Hanna is a prime example of this. Hanna’s father is confronted by a group of men when he is walking down onto a subway platform, of which he ‘deals’ with. To film ours we begun by designing a French newspaper called Le Monde (also the title of the film), we used this to place images of each person in the group so that it looked like normal newspaper articles. We then filmed a continuous shot following the orange rope from the front to the boot of the car, where the newspaper was laid. This was not an easy task, as one person cannot reach all through the car to film this shot. In order to overcome this we passed the camera between two people, beginning with person 1 to person 2 and then back to person 1 again.  When filming this we used close-up shots to film snippets of newspaper combined with the images with us. In the editing process all we had to do now was add the text and freeze-frame each close-up. The font style we chose to use was American Typewriter because it has a classic look to it but it is still clear to read.