FLASHPOINTOur thriller could be described as a contemporary, gritty thriller due to the modernistic style of characters, costume and props.However, we also pay homage to other sub-genres within our opening such as the noir genre, in particular reference to the

use of shadows in noir thrillers, such as Double Indemnity. We included a shadow of the murderer crossing the victim's face

just after he has been murdered.Also, due to the cold, picturesque landscape that we chose to shoot in and the often blue, muted tint of the shots, the thriller makes reference to contemporary Scandinavian thrillers such

as The Bridge and The Killing.

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

Our choice of characters were heavily influenced by our knowledge of and research into other thriller texts. We chose our characters and their names because of the following reasons:

(taken from planning presentation)

LIZZIE, THE MURDERER:

Because of the unusual nature of having a female psychopath within our thriller opening, we needed to conform to other stereotypes of killers to keep the character believable, having already subverted a very common stereotype. This resulted in finding an actor with dark hair and who was tall, to give this character more masculine features: keeping the murder realistic. Also, we chose to put this character in an all black costume which connotes mystery and darkness of morality. The costume chosen was black boots, black jeans, a black t-shirt and a black bomber jacket. Not only are these masculine items of clothing but also practical, which could suggest a calm, calculating killer.

The character of Lizzie wore red nail varnish, as can be seen in the shot, to explore the idea of deviance and also danger, as this is what the colour red is often associated with. Red is also associated with lust, and because we don't know the motive of the murder, we could perhaps guess that Lizzie and Fred could have been in a sexual relationship.

The character of Lizzie came mainly from other dominant female characters in other thriller films such as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Barbara Stanwyck's character in Double Indemnity. Using a strong female lead in our thriller was important to us because we wanted to subvert the generic stereotype that women are the weaker gender, which is commonly used across all varieties of media texts. There is also a type of binary opposition created between the characters of Lizzie and Grace e.g. good vs. bad or victim vs. predator.

FRED, THE VICTIM:

Because the character of Fred features very little in the opening to out thriller before he dies, we needed to establish certain ideas about him immediately.

Despite Fred's role as a victim, we chose his costume of dark clothing to suggest that although he has been murdered, we question his 'goodness' of character. This makes the murder more believable because we could be led to think that he has done something wrong, rather than him being murdered due to a random killing.

We needed to chose an actor that wasn't taller or appeared much stronger than the killer, to make the action feasible This resulted in us choosing Joe to play Fred as he was slightly smaller than Lizzie and of a similar build.

LOCATION: MARSTON MARSHES, NORWICH

We decided on Marston Marshes because of its picturesque setting, which creates a stark contrast to the violence of what happens in our thriller. Also, the isolation and openness of the space creates vulnerability for the witness character. This type of bleak, featureless landscape is a reference to similar landscapes used in the beginning of Essex Boys and throughout No Country For Old Men.

Because of its isolated setting, there were few people, cars or background noise which eased shooting. Also, there was a good mixture of wide, open primeval space and more confined spots within the woods that connote claustrophobia and entrapment.

When shooting the establishing shots of the landscape, it was very frosty and misty, as can be seen in the picture above. This idea of 'coldness' could symbolise the coldness of Lizzie's character – possibly in relation to her psychopathy.

Transitions

Straight cut

Dip to black

Within our thriller, we frequently used a dip to black transition combined with pauses of black screens. The dip to black followed by a pause could appear as someone blinking, literally over the footage. This reinforces the idea of a 'witness', as someone is viewing the action. Also, it places the audience in association with the witness character as they are also a witness to the scene. This was beneficial for us because we wanted the audience to identify and empathise with the witness character, which retained their interest as they wanted to know the fate of that character.The use of these ellipses, although the audience can guess what is happening, also created a sense of confusion, building up tension and the audience's interest as they want to find out what will happen.

In addition to our use of the dip to black transition, we used a number of straight cuts. We used these to keep up the pace of our thriller opening, to stop it becoming too slow, reducing the tension. The straight cuts were effective in the cross-cutting between the two seperate scenes, as we needed to build up speed here. These were the only two transitions that we used because we wanted to keep the scene concise, without breaking it up too much. With a longer opening, there would have been time for experimenting with more transitions.

Props

KnifeCamera

A very important aspect of our witness was that they were a photographer by way of a hobby. This explains why they are in the location of the murder, as they are out in this landscape taking photographs. We chose to use a sophisticated, professional looking camera to highlight the witness' interest in photography and to make the storyline more believable.

The knife prop is only used in one of our shots, where Lizzie is standing over Fred, after she has killed him. We chose a medium sized hunting type knife, to make the murder look planned. A hunting knife is a more serious looking knife, and better suited for a murder.Weapons, such as knives are a convention of the thriller genre. An example can be seen in Witness, where the police officer's throat is cut with a knife.

Tarpaulin/plastic sheeting

To cover up the body of Fred, Lizzie uses a grey plastic sheet, to wrap his body in. He is dragged onto it and then covered. Like the knife, this makes Lizzie look more calm and calculating, as she has planned this murder beforehand. This prop was also important as Grace has to unwrap this sheeting to discover Fred's body. The plastic sheeting can also be seen in the TV series Twin Peaks, where Laura Palmer's body is found in plastic on the beach.

Conventions of a thriller OPENING

Building up tension/cliffhanger

Titles

All openings to a film need titles including the name of the film, and accredited actors and directors at the very least. We included these within our opening, over less important shots as we didn't want to take away from the action.

The build up of tension was aided by our choice of soundtrack, as this faded up surrounding the action at the beginning when Fred is being murdered and also at the cliffhanger when Grace is discovered and therefore in danger. A cliffhanger is a vital convention of the thriller genre, as it leaves the audience wanting to watch the rest of the film.

Establishing

Within the opening to our thriller, we included some establishing shots of the landscape to set the scene and also introduced the actors. We also sought to establish characters' personality briefly in the opening, for example this low angle shot of Lizzie shows her strength and dominance, a key piece in our thriller.

Conventions of a thriller OPENING

Building up tension/cliffhanger

Titles

All openings to a film need titles including the name of the film, and accredited actors and directors at the very least. We included these within our opening, over less important shots as we didn't want to take away from the action.

The build up of tension was aided by our choice of soundtrack, as this faded up surrounding the action at the beginning when Fred is being murdered and also at the cliffhanger when Grace is discovered and therefore in danger. A cliffhanger is a vital convention of the thriller genre, as it leaves the audience wanting to watch the rest of the film.

Establishing

Within the opening to our thriller, we included some establishing shots of the landscape to set the scene and also introduced the actors. We also sought to establish characters' personality briefly in the opening, for example this low angle shot of Lizzie shows her strength and dominance, a key piece in our thriller.