IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

Q1

Evaluation Josie Askem

NARRATIVE

Barthes theory stated that one of the narrative code used in media products is hermeneutic codes. This means the

audience is presented with enigmas and will tend to ask questions about each

enigma. In all the psychological thrillers we looked at, a common convention that occurred in the openings were

the use of hermeneutic codes. In our opening we included many hermeneutic codes. The most asked

question being "Why are they playing Russian Roulette?"

LIGHTING

We used mainly low key lighting in our final construction, and a small amount of chiaroscuro. Many

of the openings we looked at , especially Se7en and The Secret Window, used low key lighting, so therefore we included it in our product for most of our shots. This means the light reflects off of the main subject and the

background is almostall darkness.

MUSIC

Most of the sound in psychological thrillers appeared to be non-diegetic.

We used dramatic, disjointed music in our product with added sound effects. This made our sounds similar to those used in the film, Se7en. Although we went along with most of the conventions that we found, we went against having a voice over, which is used in both The

Prestige and The Secret Window.

MISE EN SCENE

A common convention that we found, is to not actually include a physical weapon, but to lead the reader to believe the killers mind is the real weapon. However, in our product, we did include a gun which features

heavily in our opening. The set we used was ambiguous, in a dark room. Yet in the openings that we observed, you can clearly see the

location despite it having low key lighting. For the costume, the man wears a suit, which is

similar to the costuming of the protagonist in Momento.

EFFECTS

In our product, we added effects such as a rewind effect over some of our shots to make our piece look

distorted , and to disorientate the reader slightly. Similarly, in the opening of Momento the whole thing is

reversed which is there to confuse the reader. Another effect we added was making some shots in bad quality, and some of them out of order – this is seem in

many psychological thrillers as the aim is to confuse the reader.

TYPOGRAPHY

For the credits we created, we used a white font on black background. The font we used resembled a typewriter. Over the top of this, we added a shaky

effect, creating tension. This is similar to the style of the credits to Se7en, the only main difference is that

in Se7en, the font is like it is handwritten.

Ours Vs Se7en