AS Evaluation 1

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

My media product develops as well as challenges conventions of an actual media product. To begin with my title of my opening film does not go against conventions of a typical thriller film, with the title "Whereabouts" it highlights clearly the basic storyline and plot of the film. Similar to films such as 'Taken' and 'Gone Baby Gone'. 


I tried to convey conventions of a thriller film through the shots I used at 2, 7 ,8. In these shots I showed a range of different angles, for example in shot 2 it is a close up of the mirror so the action can only be viewed through the mirror. This I feel has a creepy feel to it, I was able to get this after practising filming 'The Book of Eli' where a similar shot was used. Another shot, number 7 represents a thriller as it is a closeup but also an over the shoulder shot. I wanted to use this to show that the young girl was being stalked but to see you reaction on her face after she realised this, I thought this would be effective as it should make the viewers feel more involved in the action. This is similar to a normal convention of a thriller film, as they often use closeups of the victims face so it gets the audience more into the film. For example in the film 'The Woman in Black' shows a similar technique to what I used in my film.

For the costumes in my film I wanted to keep them as realist as possible, not over the top but what a normal 12 year old would wear. You can see the costume of the young girl in clip 3, 5 and 7, which shows by just watching my opening sequence that she is a normal young girl, which hopefully my target audience would have realised. However for the stalker I wanted him to wear something more heavy and dark you can see in clips, 1 and 8 where he is wearing a big black jacket and black hat even though it is sunny, I wanted it to seem like something wasn't right. These costumes fit the conventions of a normal thriller movie as they would have also had similar costumes.

I decided that I wanted the font of my titles to be bold, and not grungy because I didn't want my target audience to get confused whether or not it was a horror or a thriller. I wanted the font to be small but still easy to read, you can see this in clips 5 and 6. And because it had typical conventions of a thriller, I went by using a strong font. In addition, I believe that it shows the audience a clear difference between the camera shots and the titles themselves. 


My opening challenges the conventions of a crime thriller genre film as it leaves the audience with many different views on how the film ends and the relationships between the characters we see during the film opening. We can see that the girl is being stalked, however the last thing that the audience see is the young girl being taken by the stalker. It is not official whether she is killed or not, which is up to the audience to  decide after watching my opening sequence.


The characters are introduced separately apart from when they meet on the long road on the way to the corner store, challenging the convention of a real film opening. We are introduced to the girl in shot 3 where she portrays a naive and childlike sense, whereas the murderer is introduced through a medium shot of him going into a dingy room. My opening consists mainly of shots of the main characters in my film, the victim and stalker. I did this to show the audience their relevance in the film, which makes it a clear convention of most film openings.