Evaluation task 1: using, developing and subverting the conventions of similar products.

In this video I'm discussing how we've used, developed and subverted the conventions of already existing media products, which are similar to our thriller.

Media products	Genre conventions	Use	Develop	Change
1)      ‘Unsteady’ by X Ambassadors	Use of colour psychology and juxtaposition.	Used a lot of red, which connotes love, passion and danger.	Smart use of shot juxtaposition, giving hints about characteristics of the main heroes.	We created a strong female character, rather than presenting a typical woman victim.
2)      ‘Enough’, 2002	Particular use of camera work and stock characters as a base to main heroes’ characteristics.	Eye line matches to show the moments of realization or shock.	Creating characteristics of the main heroes, which would fit with the stereotypes – aggressive man and emotional woman.	We created a strong female character, rather than presenting a typical woman victim.
3)      ‘Love the way you lie’	Fast pace and the use of stereotypes about men and women.	Stereotypes about strong men and emotional women.	Keeping the fast pace of the actions through shot short duration and also creating a revealing panning shot, which adds tension to the story.	We didn’t create a love story behind the violent actions in our opening sequence.
4)      ‘Sleeping with the enemy’	Powerful, evil villain.	Fast pace and straightforward villain and victim roles.	Character positioning – stronger character is on the top of the weaker one.	We have subverted the general stereotypes about women and created a strong female villain.
5)      ‘Treat you better’	Clever use of the mise-en-scene and contrast to create  bigger impact on the audience.	Natural lighting and set juxtapose with violent actions.	Shot duration is a bit longer on the violent scenes in our thriller than in ‘Treat you better’, so that the audience understands exactly what is happening.	We created a strong female character, rather than presenting a typical woman victim.
6)      Video games	Women are victimised, oversexualised or, which is less likely, are presented as main protagonists.	Use of blood and weapons like knives.	Unexpected plot twists.	Presenting a woman as a main strong protagonist, who doesn’t need help of another characters.

Overall, we have used and expanded most of the thriller genre conventions and stereotypes - like characteristics of the main heroes (e.g abusive, angry man and crazy, mentally unstable woman) or colour connotations (e.g red = love and danger). On the other hand, we have subverted the stereotype of a weak woman and introduced a strong, cold-blooded female character, which has most of the stereotypical male characteristics like smartness.