Evaluation Activity 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of our film is '21 Days'. We chose this because it foreshadows the themes of the film (a killer who kills every 21 Days) and it is also a genre trope of crime films, with a time in the title, such as '88 minutes'. The font is basic because from our research, we found that simple fonts are often used for the titles of crime films.

We used a setting in the woods because it is secluded and so it becomes feasible that someone may be killed in the woods without anyone seeing anything. This creates a sense of dread as we know that the girl will not escape. This establishing shot places the characters in the woods and this is important as with the rapid editing this may not be clear otherwise

This shot shows the costume that we used for the killer. He is dressed in black because this gives an impression that he is mysterious and dangerous. The prop of the knife emphasises that he is going to kill the girl and not just attack her. The worm’s eye shot forces the viewer to empathise with the girl and put themselves in her shoes. A scream is overlaid over what is happening in order to make it clear to the viewer that the girl will be murdered

For this shot, someone ran along with the character as she fled from the killer. This handheld camerawork which is up close to the character makes the audience identify with her and feel worse when she dies. It also emphasises the disorganised nature of the killing - this is an opportunity killing and not something that has been planned. Editing this shot so that we only saw a bit of it kept as sense of mystery as we do not have time to fully take in what is going on.

This scene in a police station, with one detective giving a briefing, sets up the story of the film by explaining previous events and introducing some of the characters who will have important roles within the film. It also sets up the genre of the film as these briefing rooms are used in a lot of crime films, such as 'L.A. Confidential'.

We put this shot at an angle to emphasise that this is not a normal situation and this creates tension as it goes straight in to the middle of the action, without explaining how the characters got there. The use of slow motion emphasises this feeling of abnormality.

The titles of the names of our actors take up the whole screen. This creates tension by holding off the reveal of what will happen. This holds the audience’s attention and will get them to want to carry on watching the film. The names come in and are a different colour and this stops them from just being boring, although they are not too exciting that they remove people from what is happening.

Rapid jarring cuts are used in this sequence to make it uncomfortable for the viewer to watch. The musical sting as the girl slips is very different from the other music used and this highlights that the moment is important and that it leads to the murder.

A zoom is used to create a sense of action and to symbolise that things will happen because of what this character is saying. It is also a reference to other films such as ‘GoodFellas’, in which a rapid zoom is used when the characters say or do something important.