Q1/ In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 Using, Developing and/or Challenging Forms and
Conventions of Real Media Products

Thriller conventions typically include a range of techniques such as McGuffins, Red-Herrings, Cliff-Hangers, suspense, twists, bluffs (double bluffs), etc. In order to make my film a thriller, I’ve had to incorporate some of these conventions into my intro. A USB (the McGuffin) is used as a plot devise in my film to give reason to the murder committed though the object in itself is generally unimportant.The cliff-hanger at the end leaves the audience in mystery and entices them to keep watching the film in order to see if the issue is resolved.  


My intro was influenced by films such as The Collateral, North-by-North West, Casino Royal and No Country for Old Men. All of these films feature the crime thriller genre and most feature an innocent bystander getting mixed into a world of crime. However, my film challenges some of the conformities of a crime thriller by presenting my lead antagonist as a female.

The costumes of some of the characters in the film are linked to their attributes and their personalities. The hit man, for example, is garbed in mostly all black, insinuating that she is not to be trusted. Also, while in disguise, she wears a black wig and large black sunglasses. It represents her want for disgression, though her clothes are black, she is also casual, so she doesn't stand out from the crowd. The witness, however, wears a white or cream coloured jumper, symbolising innocence (she is a victim and a witness). Examles of costume portrayal in the mise-en-scene are illustrated in the film 'No County for Old Men' where the protagonists wear light-coloured, flannel shirts and the antagonist wears black, covert clothing.

My setting is set in a public bathroom where the murder actually takes place. This can be linked to ‘Casino Royal’ as it insinuates the dark, gritty nature of the cool, astute main characters (since both main characters’ darker personalities are revealed in the bright, dirty room and their cool, collected masks are put in place outside of it predominantly in the darker settings).

However there are parts of my media product that challenge the typical controversies of a typical thriller. An example of this is portrayed by my main character, the hit man. Where the role is usually played by a man, she is a woman.

Another conversion of a typical thriller convention is that the hit man is rather gritty (but effective) in her killing techniques. She is proffesional and takes care of any links that may be drawn back to her and her employer, but her killing method (and how the killing ordeal was carried out) was rather shambolic and chaotic (again linked to Casino Royal's bathroom scene where the fight was brutal and mecriless). Unlike a typical thriller hitman, who is smooth and flawless in every aspect, she is not (at least in some aspects). It can be debated that this facet is used to highlight the tragedy of the murder.