Fun Hong- Evaluations: Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

1.Meaning behind the title:

Title of the film

We had decided to name our thriller Red Marks in order to draw the links between of how the protagonist kills and the relevance of it being set in the school. The use of Red Marks is punning against the red marks in which the protagonist kills, and red marks which are given to students at school who behave anti-socially. 

The idea of the blood running whilst the viewing of the title of our thriller was taken from Dark City , where during the showing of their production company, they had swirls moving at the background. In this sequence of the production company, we later see that the murder consists of carving that same pattern on the protagonists victims. This has been used for the title of our film instead, because as the water mixes with the blood, its expresses the protagonists psychological thoughts being "diluted" which causes her to murder in her school and let the blood run (as shown in the moving image behind the title).

We have developed on the white-on-red title from the title of Dexter, which is switched around into red-on-white. The use of white-on-red for our title stands out, because its on a darker colour on a white surface (sink drain). I thought this would be quite good, because instead of doing another shade of red, the white is able to draw attention to our audience a lot more than the other shades of red.

2. Setting/Location

Corridor Shots

As the group decided that the murderous crimes the protagonist gets up to are based in school, we decided to include corridor shots in order to introduce the setting. This is also used at the beginning of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. We have used conventions from other thrillers, such as lighting. Lighting plays a key part in trying to introduce a mysterious or unnerving atmosphere. This is also used in the introduction of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, which makes the audience feel discomforted. The discomforted atmosphere is created through the use of panning around the house, which comes with eerie and deceiving music. We are also shown an empty room with a cradle placed right in the middle, which makes the audience feel at edge, because it makes us, as a audience, link the cradle directly to the title. We have used this idea with the tracking shots of the corridors, which can also make the audience link these to the title Red Marks, as red marks are associated with misbehaved students and blood. 

Saturday Detention- where protagonist is kept behind

3. Plot/Characters
It was decided to base our plot on the fact that misbehaved students in this school are being kept in school on a Saturday evening for "Saturday Detention". This would give Eleanor an advantage into committing her plot to her victims. This is conventional because the protagonist somehow tries to blend in with the crowd in order to hide their true identity, which in this case she tries to misbehave in order to get dragged into detention, leading her to commit the murders towards her victims.  

Introduction to the protagonist
The way the protagonist is introduced is conventional of the genre of thrillers. For example, in Dexter, we see his reflection blurred(shown on the left), we could reflect the fact that he moonlights his murderous side to others. We have developed this convention, as we decided to finally reveal the protagonists face. This was purposed in order to represent her lack of guilt of the murder she did. This enables us to reveal her cold-blooded side, which is not conventional in thrillers, because it continually creates a sense of ambiguity by not revealing who the protagonist really is.