Evaluation Of Thriller Film "Captured" Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My group's thriller "Captured" was primarily inspired by Se7en, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Heavenly Creatures. It is also influenced by This is England, which isn't a thriller but played a large part in our idea. The title is short snappy and cuts to the chase, similar to Se7en or Psycho, they state what they are about and clue the audience in. Just as Se7en is about seven deadly sins, our thriller is about someone being captured. But the title could also refer to Jason be captured by racism or Caesar being captured by love. Not only does the film use conventions used and made by these films, it develops them and challenges them. For example, our thriller is set in a grungy city street,lit by street lights,pouring with  rain, similar to those in Witness and Se7en which use the traditional conventions which connote  moral decay, destruction and violence. But our thriller is also set in a secluded wood, where no one can hear anything, just as the murder scene in Heavenly Creatures is set in a trackless woods.

The woods challenges thriller conventions, the usual dark urban areas and small claustrophobic spaces are challenged and changed into surrounding woods, which have just as much of an impact if not more through the woods enclosed around you, making you even more claustrophobic than usual. Similar to the opening of the first episode of The Killing TV series when the victim is running away from her attacker.

Another convention that is clear in our thriller is the use of a modern interpretation of the femme fatale, our femme fatale, Helen Strong is mysterious,elegant but also deviant, just as the conventional femme fatale is. But Helen is a mix of conventional and challenging, as she is inspired by characters such as Lisbeth Slander(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), who challenges the conventions,fights back and defends herself and Eve(Once Upon a Time in America) who is elegant and helpless. The Lisbeth Slander side of Helen is more through her appearance than her actions, but is more like a sixth former than a 29 year old computer hacker.
The soundtrack in the attack scene is generic and cliche. It builds up slowly, gets louder and louder, frightening the audience. Just like in the shower scene of Psycho, although the soundtrack in Psycho is more high pitched and discordant. Whereas the soundtrack chosen for the attack scene is more frightening than creepy. I thought it paid a large resemblance to Jaws, which is a mix of genres, but the soundtrack holds generic aspects of thriller music.
The deep humming music throughout the first part of the film was inspired by The Killing, which reflects the idea of panic,menace and doom.

	John Williams - Jaws Theme
	Found at Jaws Theme on Duck.fm

	Horror Movies - Psycho - Shower Scene Theme
	Found at Psycho - Shower Scene Theme on Duck.fm

One of the most commonly used conventions, is the use of knives. Psycho is the most applicable to this as the famous shower scene involves a knife. As well as the knife we used a shovel to show the audience that there was a possibility of Caesar being buried either dead or alive. This links in with the claustrophobic space within the thriller, being buried,being one of the most terrifying, as shown in Kill Bill 2 when the bride is being buried alive by Budd's cronies.

Another use of conventions, is the use of flashbacks and flashforwards to develop and create an interesting narrative. The use of flashbacks and flashfowards makes the audience think, develops the storyline making it increasingly intriguing. There is a use of flashbacks and flashforwards in several thrillers. Frailty's storyline is based upon a flashback throughout the whole film, at the beginning of the film the main character has grown up but has a flashback about his childhood concerning his religious father, murdering people thinking that they were demons.

Which also ties in with our thriller as Jason could think that ethnic minorities are "demons". Another film that uses flashbacks is Kill Bill 2, when the bride thinks back to her training with the master as she tries to break out of the coffin. This is a similar use to our flashbacks, our flashbacks represent thoughts within Jason's head and also within Caesar's head. The flashbacks are reminders of what Jason has done, reminding him of the times that he slammed the door in Caesar's face and the way that he followed and attacked him. Our film also challenges the conventions of flashbacks by having flashbacks within flashbacks to develop the story and narrative further.