question 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this media product?

Question 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 5) How did you attract/address your target audience?

Question 5

It was very important for my group to conduct secondary research before starting out production. We did this by researching into othe successful thrillers aswell as conducting a questionnaire to give to peopel that fit our target audience. This helped us to find out more about out target audience and figure out what conventions we could use that would best please them in order to make our thriller successful.

Examples of the types of questions we used are:

1) What do you like/dislike about thriller movies?

2) What is your favorite thriller sub-genre?

3) What type of characters do you expect to see in a thriller movei?

4) How do ghost characters in thrillers make you feel?

After recieving research from my questionnaires I then had a greater understanding on what my target audience expect from thriller movies, what they most enjoy, what they least enjoy and overall it gave me a wider idea of what themes and conventions I would consider using in my own thriller. It almost helped me to make important decisions, for example; deciding to use a ghost as a conventional character in my thriller.

After finishing my production we then presented it to a focus group. This allowed us to see if we were successful and appealing to our target audienc.

feedback included :

"Wow! That was a shocking twist"

"At first I was slightly confused and then by the end it had all fallen into place and was very exciting."

Question 4) Who would be the audience for media product?

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

Question 1


The task –
Our media task was to create a 2 minute thriller production opening that is conventional and relevant to the thriller genre. In order to do this we were put into groups of 3 or 4 based on different abilities to make sure our group strengths varied in different areas.

When then watched other thrillers and analysed them in order to see examples of thriller conventions and give is some ideas of what we can use in our own thriller.

Next as a group we had to come up with our thriller narrative, storyboard, characters ect… When we came up with our story we then had to create questionnaires to find out the opinions of our target audience and what they would like to see happen before we finalised our production ideas in order to achieve our desired audience response.


Does my thriller follow conventions of a thriller? –
I would say my thriller does follow conventions as after conducting research on other thrillers I became very clear about watch typical thriller conventions there are that I could use. My group continuously used typical conventions of a thriller to make the audience associate my product with the thriller genre. However, my group decided to often put a twist on the typical thriller conventions in order so engage the audience and keep them excited as things would occur that they wouldn’t expect to.


Genetic conventions of a thriller –
Using generics of a thriller therefore allowed the audience to then group our thriller into the thriller category as we used varies conventions such as using the theme of possession, death and spiritual - supernatural events. Doing research on other thrillers made it clear to me that it was important for me to make sure my thriller followed the right conventions in order for it to be seen as successful.


Genetic conventions within my thriller -My group conducted research on thriller conventions by watching and analysing other thrillers; such as, ‘the unborn’, ‘paranormal activity’ and ‘scream’. This gave us ideas about what conventions we can use.

We then decided to make our antagonist a ghost and the using idea of possession on our victim and supernatural activity. This is conventional because the supernatural theme and the theme of possession is a typical conventional thriller theme. However, we put a twist on the typical theme by making our antagonist a ghost child. This was so that we could shock the audience and make them feel slightly uncomfortable with the idea of a cute child being evil.

Also, we decided to use jump cuts in our thriller, similar to paranormal activity and also similar to the ending on scream. This makes our thriller conventional as it excites the audience and shocks them as it makes the scene move sharp which is unexpected.

We used close ups on facial expressions and key iconography. These cinematography techniques allow the audience to have a clear view of the characters facial expressions and emotions, and have a clear view of important iconography. This allows them to sympathise with the characters by allowing them to identify their emotions, as well as making sure they are seeing certain iconography that it is important for them to see so they can easily follow the narrative and is conventional to a thriller.

Lastly, we use low key lighting in a key scene in our thriller which is extremely conventional to a thriller and it creates tension and suspense amongst the audience. However, we put a twist on this as in our final scene we used high key lighting. This is done to again shock the audience as they wouldn’t be expecting anything frightful to happen in high key lighting. This increases the amount of fearful excitement the audience are likely to feel.


Conventions of target audience and opening credits –
After looking at other successful thrillers my group decided that we would target our thriller at an audience of 15+ year olds. This is due to some of the content being innappropriate for peopel under the age of 15. For example, the theme of a ghost child may be seen as disturbing to someone under the age of our target audience. We are aiming our production mostly as teenagers which is why we made or victim a teenage girl to make it seem more realistic and relatable to the audience.

We decided to make our opening credits come up slowy in creepy faded font to help set the atmosphere and to help the audience to identify it as a conventional thriller opening.



My thriller following a conventional narrative structure –

My thriller follows a conventional narrative structure as it starts off like everything is okay and everyone is happy and then it turns negative and a big twist is somehow revealed. From doing research on other thrillers I was able to identify these narrative structures that decieves the audience into thinking thinks are positive and then shocking them with a negative turn.

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

What was the preliminary task and what were its main aims?

The preliminary task was to create a 30 second clip and the aims were to practise and learn how to use the camera, film using different types of cinematography, practise working in a group with the assigned group roles and learning how to edit a scene.



Where my technical ability has improved

Filming :I am now more familiar with how a camera functions and I become able to function and film using a camera confidently. For example I can frame my shots a lot better making sure that there is no unwanted background space.










Filming: I now know how to operate a tripod and it has made me able to set up for the camera operator in my group and assist him confidently. This meant that with shots like close ups I could use the tripod effectively to make sure that the shot is filmed to good standard.





Editing: I have had the opportunity to practise editing using final cut pro and I am familiar with various editing techniques which has made me able to have a greater input with the editing for my group.


Editing: I can now more confidently edit my different camera shots into looking like one piece. I can extend shots and make them shorter where appropriate which is something I didn't do in my preliminary as my final production was better planned.




1) This is an example of bad framing  as there was a lot of unnecessary background which I improved in my final product as I made sure the shots only included areas that needed to be seen.

2) This shot was too far and made the subjects look too small and hard to identify.
Where as, in my final product I made sure the subjects were always clearly visible in the scene.

3) This point of view was very shaky that didn't add any value to scene. In my final product I made sure my point of view shots were effective to the scene.