Evaluation Question 1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

In real media productions many different conventions are used, examples of these would be red herrings, a macguffin, suspense, cliff hangers, fem fatale, bluff and a twist. 

Within our film we tried to include many different elements of a real media production. We included a MacGuffin, suspense and a cliff hanger which was then supported with the camera shots and movements used. 

Mac Guffin

A macguffin is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story but actually has little relevance to the story which the audience usually forgets about. We added a macguffin in to our film so we would have something to base it around. In our film the macguffin is the disk which you hear them talk about but don't see until the end.

Suspense

Suspense is used to create tension in the film to make the audience stay interested and on the edge of their seat during the film. We decided to add suspense into our film as we thought it would make it more interesting and will help to make the audience stay interesting as well. The suspense which we created was when the first boy got taken and then nobody knew what was then going to happen after.

Cliffhanger 

A cliffhanger is usually used at the end of the film and it is when the film is left on an open ending. The reason behind this is that it leaves the audience to come up with their own ending of how they would like it to end. It also makes the audience want to see more and it can be used if it is then leading on to another film. As our film is only the opening it is left on a cliffhanger, however we added to the cliffhanger more but still leaving it open in the fact that no one knows what was going to happen next.

The main film which influenced our thriller was 'North by Northwest' by Alfred Hitchcock. This film influenced our film on the idea of the maguffin which is where we got the idea from. 'North by Northwest' also influenced us with the suspense in the film.