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

Our media product conforms and subverts the conventions of real media products through the psychological thriller genre as the narrative is not stereotypical of this genre as usually in this genre of film the protagonist typically allows herself to be placed into vulnerable situations ultimately resulting in psychological deterioration. However in our case, the drugs are the central cause of her psychological turmoil, therefore it is the drugs not the situation that renders her a vulnerable victim. Furthermore, our media product challenges conventions of the psychological thriller genre through the involvement of romance within the narrative allowing the audience to relate to the theme. Despite this not being the stereotypical psychological thriller conventions, Love is the Drug demonstrates loves as a counterpart to the drugs, highlighting that love can influence you to do things that you wouldnt think you were capable of. However, our product develops this by accentuating the power and influence leading to psychological deterioration; challenging the stereotypical psychological thriller genre. Furthermore, our media product presents the recurring binary opposition of fantasy vs. reality, conforming to the psychological thriller genre due to the fact that the audience are unable to establish whether the protagonist is in fact hallucinating these events or whether these experiences are truly taking place; blurring the boundaries of what is known and unknown. Additionally, this is demonstrated in Requiem for a Dream which we constructed some of our product on, uses this binary opposition through the potential fantasies of the characters within the film because as the audience you are unaware of what is in fact real, creating suspense. Our media product attempts to develop and reinforce this idea of fantasy and authenticity to highlight the psychological turmoil, creating a sense of confusion demonstrated through the use of the blurred effect after the consumption of the drugs. Moreover, within my media product we conform and develop the genre of the psychological thriller through our conflicts with threats that are sometimes abstract or unseen, as in our media product the audience is constantly unaware of the threat that is not far behind the main protagonist. Additionally, we have developed the traditional compelling question of who did it, by allowing the audience to be misled into believing that the opposing person committed the offence, creating tension and providing narrative enigma.

The domestic setting we used in our media product developed the conventional idea of females trapped in the constraints of male patriarchy, as the male antagonist has more power over the female through her passive reaction to the male influencing her into taking drugs male characters typical of psychological thrillers. Fundamentally, males are predominantly the foundation of the females fragmented psychological state, through the males drive for power and the womens denial of supremacy, shown through films such as Pulp Fiction where the male character manipulates the vulnerability of the female. Furthermore, the open grass area that we employed to develop the experiences of paranoia demonstrates how isolated settings on the peripheries of society have a great impact on the behaviour of the protagonist and their psychological state; we constructed this to conform to the psychological thriller genre. This is due to the fact that in stereotypical psychological thrillers, the setting is usually in an ordinary suburban setting and desolate areas to enhance the vulnerability of the female victims. When focusing on the construction of the female character we decided to conform to the stereotypical trembling victim as most psychological thrillers construct the female character as complicit and vulnerable, they are also purposely made to make mistakes that fundamentally lead to their downfall into psychological turmoil in our case her taking the drugs. Furthermore, the male character is constructed to conform to the conventions of the psychological thriller genre as without the presence of the male, there would be no manipulation of the female character and consequently no deterioration, therefore we constructed the characters to conform to a psychological thriller and create tension within the audience. The construction of our character helped us to execute the genre of a psychological thriller as the male character maintained qualities of a Byronic Hero as he seems to be charming on the outside yet manipulative on the inside, highlighting the binary opposition of appearance vs. reality and the concept of looks can be deceiving. Furthermore, the appearance of the female character challenges the conventions of the psychological thriller as typically the females are light-haired and generally of Caucasian ethnicity, however in our media product the female is of mixed ethnicity therefore transgressing traditional boundaries. Additionally, in real media products the female character is typically a girlie girl and we subvert this by constructing the character to have short boyish hair and clothes that are not stereotypical of females.

Costumes and props as I have mentioned previously both challenges and develops forms and conventions of real media products. For example in many psychological thrillers employ phones as a predominant part of the narrative, this is demonstrated in Se7en as it provided the audience with suspense as he was told on the phone not to look in the box a vital part of the narrative. Furthermore, the style of the female character is crazy and unique, which to an extent subverts the typical vulnerable victim who wears make up to try and conceal the faade of vulnerability. However, our costumes conformed to the forms and conventions through the male characters style as he dressed normally, fitting in with the fashion deceptively fooling others with his charismatic style used as a concealment of what lies beneath. This is demonstrated in Orphan where she dresses up as a child to mask her true character of middle aged woman, creating suspense and confusing the audience. Moreover, the drug props were a fundamental part of our media product that challenges forms and conventions as it is usually a bad event that triggers the females spiral into psychological instability but in our media product the drugs are the cause of her downfall. Furthermore, the drugs are essential in creating narrative enigma seeing as it is the main cause for the binary opposition of fantasy vs. reality that enhances the tension and intrigue of the narrative. The special effects employed in the trailer (the blurry effect), this is used to accentuate the turning point of the narrative, showing the deterioration of her psychological state. This employs the conventional psychological thriller genre as they use the blurry effect to demonstrate the vulnerability of the female and her fragmented mental state. Moreover, the fade to blacks used demonstrates the loss of her former self to the negative effects of drugs and this is shown in many psychological thrillers such as Black Swan where they are used a lot to highlight her emotional and psychological state, presenting audiences with the enjoyment of a stereotypical, suspenseful thriller. The quick cuts used by us conformed to real media products that create a climax by utilising these effects to enhance the tension within the narrative. Initially, we attempted only to use cross dissolves but we felt it didnt correspond with the thrilling circumstances in the narrative, so we changed it to the fade to blacks so the audience was able to recognise the turning point or the change in mood of the trailer, discovering the change in the protagonists behaviour. The titles we used challenged titles of trailers from this specific genre as we used a simple font to demonstrate the binary opposition of appearance vs. reality as it suggests that

although it looks simple there is something malicious behind the beauty of its simplicity. This is dissimilar to trailers such as Black Swan where the font of the title corresponds noticeably with the narrative, allowing the audience to link the narrative and the font together whereas our product encourages the audience to work out the association. Furthermore, the positioning of the title in our trailer uses the forms and conventions of trailers from this specific genre as similarly to other products such as The Stepfather the title is placed at the end of the trailer this enables us to be held in suspense due to the compelling question that is typical of the majority of trailers in this genre who did it and the title allows us to mislead the audience to believe that the male was the fundamental cause of the females psychological state. The institutional information employed in our trailer uses the forms and conventions of trailers from this specific genre by appearing after the main title which is stereotypical of the psychological thriller, demonstrated through Orphan where the institutional information appears instantly after the title enabling the audience to ponder upon the outcome of the trailer and creating suspense through the quick cuts and the instantaneous appearances of titles and institutional information. Furthermore, the inclusion of the institutional information itself enables it to conform to the conventions of a trailer in general making it appear more professional, intriguing the audience as a result. The structure of our trailer is reminiscent of Freytags narrative pyramid and uses the forms and conventions of real media products such as Black Swan where the exposition of the trailer demonstrates the equilibrium, in our case the joy of moving house, meeting the boy and falling in love, similar to Black Swan where she is enjoying her life as a professional ballerina. Then as the trailer progresses (as stereotypical of all trailers) there is a climatic point of the trailer where the attitudes and behaviours of the main protagonist changes, creating a state of disequilibrium. This is evident again in Black Swan as the pace of the editing increases and the music becomes more intense, creating tension and suspense within the audience. The state of disequilibrium is also amplified through the blurry effects utilised, accentuating the change in mood of the trailer demonstrating the deterioration of the protagonists psychological state. However, there does not seem to be a resolution to any of the problems faced by the protagonist highlighted in the trailer, which is similar to real media products such as Black Swan.

Initially, within our media product we attempted to use music to accentuate the turning point and the change in mood of the trailer, but the original music we chose A Team by Ed Sheeran did not correspond with the bleak circumstances such as the moment where the drugs begin to take effect, this would have challenged the conventions of a trailer as the audience would not have been able to establish the turning point. However, we changed and developed the music to conform to other media products and trailers who employ dramatic music to amplify the tension that is demonstrated within the narrative. Furthermore, the music was developed to set the mood of the entire trailer and like other media products it helps the audience to fully understand the narrative and recognise where the problems will occur. The calm, tranquil music to begin with and then the change to the climatic music corresponds with the tension felt by the audience at each scene of the trailer, enabling them to, like other media products empathise with the protagonist. We used the heartbeat sound effect to highlight the suspense building up to the eventual climax; this is stereotypical of real media products in this genre as they often use heartbeats to demonstrate the terror and eventual horror as the audience are left to believe that the antagonist is the main suspect. This to an extent subverts the forms and conventions of other trailers in this genre such as Orphan where music is the central focal point of the trailer and there are no complexities or recognisable misleading information as the audience through the music and sounds are able to establish the majority of the narrative. However, our media product uses sound effects to demonstrate the extreme emotions of the characters and enhances the confusion of the audience.