Evaluation 1 "In What ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"

a)      In our media product, we used all of the commonly used standard professional techniques and conventions. Continuity to make the shots of each scene flow nicely together and create an understandable scene (e.g. to create an understandable chase scene). 180 degree rule, a simple basic rule of staying on one side of the characters/ filming location.  Shot reverse shot, commonly used in conversation scenes in most of the films, used to show another characters response or reaction to whatever was said by the other character (or done).  Match on action shot , a standard shot to ‘present’ the action, or whatever the character is looking at (or just something important we want the audience to focus on).

One of the example of a match on action shot in our film. Alex and his friend staring at the “DANGER Thin ice” just as the trip out starts kicking in.

We used some tricky shots and techniques, some of which we saw on known Hollywood productions. We used the famous jaws zoom in/out shot and hand held tracking shot used in many chase scenes.

The famous Jaws shot was first used in the original first Jaws movie in 1975, in the scene where Brody looks at the shark attack in distance. We wanted to use the shots because originally Ryan’s character Alex was meant to be hearing voices/ whispers during the trip out in the woods. The Jaws shot seemed like a “trippy” realisation kind of shot worth using. We didn’t get the time to put the voices in the scene. The shot stayed simply because we thought it looks good and suits the ‘trippy’ scene.

b)     Our film reflects the conventions of the supernatural thriller genre in almost all ways, however we have put used some of the conventions previously used in other genres (e.g. Dramas and Crime/ Action films). In thriller films there is always a riddle to be solved, something unclear which usually sooner or later becomes the danger to the main character/s. In supernatural thrillers there’s no big difference, just the reason behind the situation a main character is in. The reason behind the character’s position/ situation in supernatural thrillers is usually abnormal,  something above the power of a human.  A good example from the big Hollywood blockbusters could be The Sixth Sense (starring Bruce Willis) or The Devil’s Advocate (Starring Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron). In both of the films the main characters realise there’s something /someone behind the strange and bad events which are happening in their lives. Later in the plot, usually at theend, the main character/s realise the reason for the events and the situation they’re stuck in is beyond natural, often overpowering their abilities. In our production the conventions are followed and reflected. Alex a teenager experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs gets himself in debt with his local drug dealer. He doesn’t pay back in time and gets caught  after the trip out on his way back home. Alex is put into a near death state by the dealer as he attacks him for not paying back the debt on time. In the next scene Alex wakes up in a strange place, which turns out to be the ‘purgatory’.  Agnar, the guardian of the ‘purgatory’ gives Alex a chance to come back to life and save himself in any way he can. The genre convention is challenged in our film in a way because the audience is  left to figure out if the whole film was just a trip out, or whether Alex actually died?

The Devil' Advocate (1997)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

c)      We used some conventions used in Hollywood films, however only one particular one for deliberate pastiche/ parody. In the trip out scene, we used the Jaws shot. Originally it was used to show Brody’s realisation of the shark attack and focus on his stone face reaction. We used the Jaws shot to show the reaction of our character (Alex) to the intensity of the trip out, and we thought it looks pretty “trippy” and is worth of using.

The famous "Jaws" shot (Trombone shot)

d)     The film provides the similar entertainment to that delivered by  both thriller/ supernatural thriller films and teenage dramas. A story of a teenager experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs with a small abnormal twist to it which then creates a small riddle for the audience to solve; did Alex really die or was it just a part of the trip out? The purpose of the film was to show that the boundary between illusion and reality can be easily broken under influence of hallucinogens.

e)      “Trip” is a unique film. There was never a film made similar to ours. We did take some inspirations from other films in particular areas.  We did a little research on hallucinogenic drugs, looked through hallucinogenic art, and a couple of films with the use of hallucinogenic drugs. We took some ideas from known drug related Hollywood films like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998), and “Shrooms” (2007). Like “Shrooms” our production is more serious and has a thriller/ mystery parts. We do have a little humour, pastiche and parody. However the film overall is far from the drug related humour like in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.

The masked character, guardian of the purgatory (Agnar) was inspired by “V” from V for Vendetta. The main character Alex, like any other character of teenage drug related film is just an ordinary teenager , with his own  little problems which grow bigger as he’s dragged into the world of hallucinogenic drugs.