In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real
media products?

Our short film is based on a thriller/drama
genre, if follows the specific conventions of
both the genres.

One of the main aims of a thriller is to create
suspense and excitement for the audience
as well the narrative device that teases the
audience by presenting a puzzle or a riddle
to be solved, we manage to do that in the
scene were the main character falls asleep
in the car of the supposed taxi drive and
then ends up waking up in his house, which
makes the audience want to find out what
happened to the character.
Most thrillers are usually set in a
suburban or urban area and for that
reason we decided to film in a busy
city like London. However the
significant event of a thriller is usually
solved at the end but we decided to
leave it as an open ending, this leaves
the audience with a more excitement
and suspense as to what happens to
the relationship between the two
characters.
The reason as to why we believe that
our film is seen as a drama and not
only a thriller is because the taxi driver
actually feels very lonely and the only
way he is capable of making friends is
by doing what he does, this is an
unexpected twist due to the fact that
most of the audience believe that the
main character was kidnapped by the
driver but in the end he is harmless.
Throughout our film we used a variety of
different camera shots, for example
towards the end when the main
character finds himself in a strangers
house and he begins to wonder around
the apartment, we did one single shot
using hand held to make that scene
more realistic and believable for the
audience that way they are able to
interact with the character and follow
him through the corridors and bedrooms
of the apartment.

Todorov was a Bulgarian structural linguist, his work was
focused and interested in the way language is ordered to infer
particular definitions and has greatly influenced the field of
narrative theory.

Todorov's narrative structure consisted of five stages. The first
stage is equilibrium this is the point where everything is seen as
normal and calm we see this when the main character is
walking in the park, however the significant event happens
and he loses his phone and then ends up finding a taxi, later
on he starts panicking because he realises that he is locked up
in the car and ends up falling asleep, the significant event is
when the stable environment is disrupted by some kind of
force which then creates a stage of disequilibrium.

The audience will be able to recognise the disruption due to
the fact that it is not normal that a taxi driver is able to drug its
client and not worry about the consequences.
When the James wakes up in the bed of a stranger and
begins to panic because he doesnt recall what
happened to him before he walk up, this part of the film
is called the climax because it is seen that the only way
to re-create equilibrium is through action directed
against the disruption. Finally the new equilibrium is
restored and a new state of equilibrium is introduced to
the world of the narrative.

This new state of equilibrium can sometimes differ but
be an improvement of the initial state of equilibrium. We
see this towards the end of our film when the supposed
taxi driver knocks on the door and tells James that
breakfast is ready and he seems completely innocent,
however the film end with once again an open ending
where the audience dont actually knows what
happens to the main character. Todorov's theory links to
our story because we have applied his theory to the
structure of our story and plots.
In our film we did not apply Levi Strausses ideas about
narrative theory due to the fact that he believed all
stories operated to certain clear binary opposites. The
importance of these ideas is the essentially a
complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or
structure where things are either right or wrong, good or
bad, there is no in between.

This structure has ideological implications if for example
you want to show that the hero was not wholly correct in
what they did and the villains were not bad. We can
apply Strausses theory to our story because the villain in
our film assists the hero to get back on his feet. We didnt
believe that his theory would fit in with what we wanted
to accomplish with our film, as it has many unexpected
event that are neither bad or good.