UsedThe first convention we used in our opening was the theme of voyeurism. Thrillers use the theme of voyeurism to create tension leading up to a dramatic scene. It also gives an eerie feel to the scene, as it is like someone with a dark motive is observing. In our piece, a shot of the escapee running is seen, but the camera is tracking the character as if he is being chased by it. This creates a sense of panic and opens the idea to the audience that it is a point of view shot with another character chasing close behind, although the character following the escapee is not as close as the camera is, it still suggests that he is being followed. I feel this also supports the sense of urgency that the short scenes create in between credits. Other scenes, such as the CCTV shot, supports our use of voyeurism, as it is known that someone is watching at all times around the setting. We wanted to use the theme of voyeurism as it is a very common convention used it thriller films.
This is very similar the the opening scene of 'Silence of the Lambs', in which the main character is tracked by the camera whilst running. It also appears as if this is a point of view shot and is being chased. Much like our piece, it creates the same sense of panic and urgency. However, in the scene from 'Silence of the Lambs', the characters appears not to be in any danger and is not being chased, whereas, n our piece, the character is under threat. We do not find out that the character in 'Silence of the Lambs' (Clarice) isn't in any danger until approximately 10 seconds in, making the viewer question what she's actually doing.
Another convention we have used in our final production is mise-en-scene which echoes/ mirrors the protagonist’s plight. This is used to relate to the character's emotions and the atmosphere will change according to what mental state the character is in. This is used in our opening specifically when the escapee winces in pain. The scene is edited so that the character's surrounding reflects his mental state and makes the audience aware he is in pain. Low angle shots are also used later on from the point of view of the escapee when the government agent approaches to show the vulnerability of the escapee. This scene also supports the portrayal that something is wrong with the escapee, as his vision in the point of view shot is slightly blurred.The sound is also quite loud, which can suggest that the character is in pain. 
This is subtly shown in 'Minority Report' when the protagonist is going through images of a 'pre-crime' the lights are dimmed, and classical music is played. Even though this may be the usual for such process in the film, it implies that the character is calm, even though he is watching a murder being committed. He is clearly used to watching such footage. He also appears quite powerful, this is supported when talking to a colleague, a high angle shot over his shoulder is shown, suggesting he is an important worker, and is dominant over this certain colleague.Developed
Another convention we have developed in our opening is a crime at the core of the narrative. This is usually murder, but not always. The perpetrator may not be revealed until the end to fuel the narrative. Thrillers use a crime in the middle of the narrative to base the storyline around and to create questions based around the plot. Even though the main crime is not shown in the opening, it is hinted that a larger crime has been or will be committed through the fact that the character is attempting to escape. In the last scene, the government agent is seen to let the escapee go, which, again, can be seen as a crime. The shot that has been edited to look like CCTV also suggests that someone has broken in or out of the facility. 
This is much like the beginning of 'The Da Vinci Code', where a character is being chased for information and then murdered. Even though this is not the main crime of the storyline, it hints that other crimes are to be committed. It gives the viewer an insight on what is to come in the film without giving too much away. At first you cannot see who is chasing the character in the scene from 'The Da Vinci Code', but is revealed later. We use a similar technique, and proves effective, creating suspense, as it is unclear what is happening.
Another convention we developed in our opening scene is having a protagonist with a flaw. This is used to show the protagonist's weakness and can be used against them in order to manipulate them. Hints of this is shown in our opening from the escapee, from his vision and head pain mentioned before. These both suggest a major flaw later on in the film and leaves the audience questioning what is wrong with the character. Usually, at first, the viewers are unaware of the protagonist's flaw and may become apparent when the antagonist wants to show them at their worse. We deliberately showed hints towards the character's flaw to get the audience to question and want to know more about why he was having these episodes.
This is seen in 'The Machinist', where the protagonist suffers from chronic insomnia and a wide range of other mental illnesses. The audience are briefly aware of why he has all of these conditions, but not to the full extent. It is clear that these flaws are there, just by looking at the character's appearance. A dark filter has been used throughout the film (apart from flashbacks) to show that the character sees the world differently to others.
Challenged
A convention that we challenged was having the film title at the end. Most films in general have the film title placed after the main actor's names. We decided against this as we wanted the title to be the last thing the audience remembers while watching the film and wanted it to stand out. The music also fades out with the title, and reflects the animation of it. We wanted to build tension leading up to the title as well, to keep the audience entertained.
In 'Skyfall', the order of the credits are what is usually expected. However, in this case, I do not think it was as effective, as the credits went on for a long time, the important information had already been and felt as if they were dragging on. There was no actual part of the film taking place while the credits were on screen, which could lose the audience's interest easily.
Another convention we challenged was that the role of the protagonist was not clear in our opening scene. We did this to create a sense of confusion so that the audience were curious about what the storyline involved and to not give everything away in the first two minutes of the film. We did this by having roughly the same amount of shots with each character in. Even though we made the government agent the more dominant character, by using high angle shots, it is the escapee who is the protagonist in this film, which would be unexpected.
In 'Law Abiding Citizen', although it is clear on who the main character is, it is difficult to distinguish whether he fits the protagonist or the antagonist character. We see protagonist traits of this character in rarely in the film, as most of the time, he is violent, manipulative and cold hearted, many traits you would see in an antagonist. He disobeys the legal system and is a criminal. This is shown mainly from when he is held in prison, he has been forced to wear high security devices, which suggests he is extremely violent and difficult to control.3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The answer to this question can be found on our wikispaces page below
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Name: Thomas Howard
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Class: Middle
Location: Cambridge
Hobbies: Studying special effects on films and video games.
Pastimes: Gaming marathons with his friends, watching DVDs with friends, most likely to be a sci-fi or sci-fi based film. Most likely to see a film down to genre, special effects and quality of footage. He runs a blog on YouTube reviewing the latest games and films.
What they spend their money on: Tom would most likely spend his money on the latest video games, or going to see the latest sci-fi film with his gaming friends.
Beliefs: Tom does not see himself as religious, but was christened as a child by his parents.
Values: Believes in equality.
Our film is aimed towards mainly the male population aged mid 20s, fairly intelligent to be able to understand complex storylines in films. It is also aimed at video game players, as the film has a 'gaming' theme to it. The film has many special effect and is in high quality to interest 'technical' audiences.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We have added a number of annotations to our thriller opening 'Gatekeeper' to answer this question.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Blogger
YouTube
YouTube was used to not only upload our projects and videos, but to also research other pieces of media. I have had a lot of experience with YouTube before, but throughout the project, I learned how to use other features that I had not come across before, such as annotating our videos. Using YouTube was incredibly useful to share our videos to others and get feedback on how to improve, specifically on our preliminary task. YouTube was also easy to access on my phone and could easily sign in and watch our projects.
Prezi
Prezi is an online presentation software that I used to present our ideas and information. I found this a creative way to do so, and found it easy to refer back to as I could access the account from anywhere. Before, I had not had any experience using Prezi, some features of this website were easy to pick up and use. However, at the beginning, I found it difficult to edit the template to what I wanted. As time went on, and with practice, I was able to use Prezi to it's full extent, managing to use most of the features and being able to edit the presentation to how I wanted.
Photoshop
I used Photoshop in the course of editing our logo and ident. I have used Photoshop for a long time and know how to use most of it's features. This turned out to be useful as I would have found it difficult making our logo and ident due to the complexity in the process of making them.
Final Cut Express
I had no previous experience using Final Cut Express, and found it incredibly difficult to use this software at first. As time went on, I still found it difficult to use, but was slightly familiar with the features. I think that this was software I was the least able to use as I have had not had any experience with any video editing software beforehand.
CameraThe camera we used was very simple and easy to film with. It was a Canon Legria Digital Camcorder, which I have never used before, but was easy enough to film with. The fact that it was a handheld camera was incredibly helpful, which meant we could easily film handheld shots and move the camera to different locations without complications. Even though we used this camera as it was the best one freely available to us, it was a great use to us, and produced high quality footage for our project.
Tripod To frame shots and steady the camera, we used a tripod to film. The tripod was quite easy to assemble and place at the angle we wanted. This was a useful piece of equipment as it was difficult to steady the camera without the tripod. It was fairly easy to frame shots with some practice.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
We have annotated our preliminary task (below) to show what we learnt from it.
From the preliminary task, I learnt a lot about where and how easily we could go wrong. It also showed me how much editing was needed to be done in our final project, as I was unaware that a lot of going editing to be needed to improve the raw recordings we were filming.
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