Part 4

There are many ways in which my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products, such

as through the narrative, sound, and, continuity and editing.

Music falls in the Micro element. Music I think is a very strong component in any media text as it helps the clip flow and adds emotion.

The first sound we hear is for the production company ‘A Pulse a Shiver’. The music has a mixture of atmospheric hospital sounds such as beeping from a pulse machine and a woman saying ‘please hang up and try again’, this signifies that there will be a lot of blood involved as the hospital represents injuries and may even symbolize death, and may also greater signify that our thrillers may appeal to females, because of the female voice. The sound signifies that our production specializes in conventional thrillers, as the musicgives an uncomfortable atmosphere.

The music for the first part of the product is mostly ambient sounds, specifically drums, bases, electric guitars and some affected instruments. The fast paced track gives a polysemic

function, that the thriller will be quite fast paced. The percussion may foreshadow later events such as death caused by quick

strikes from a knife. The music is also synchronous to the main character as she has a busy and hectic working style, so our audience can relate to this. Sound mixing is used, during the

mental hospital scenes, as it gives greater emphasis to what the woman is saying. The music is similar to the music used in the

opening sequence of the movie Se7en, as it has a similar genre and is used for a similar purpose, to create enigma and anchor

the text to show the character profile as frantic and crazy.

During second half of the opening sequence, the clip has more diagetic music, to the wild track sound of the running tap, which gives a sense of verisimilitude within the clip. From changing the music from non diagetic to diagetic, it manipulates the time within the clip, as fast paced ambient may signify the future, whereas natural diagetic sounds signify the present.

During this scene, there is an ambient high pitched organ sound interrupts the slow paced diagetic sound, when the ‘killer’ comes behind the ‘protagonist’. This was purely done to anchor the text, to stress that the person in black is the antagonist and to give the audience a cheap surprise. The music is also synchronous to the antagonist as is sharp and quick, which may also signify the antagonists killing methods. This is a very conventional sound used on antagonists in thrillers, and is very similar to the sound used in the film ‘’Psycho‘’, when the woman in the bath sees the antagonist, sharp, high pitched sounds are used. A Red Herring is created as the music makes it seem as if there is another

The narrative of If you Run, subverts Todorov’s theory of Equilibrium, as our film first starts of with Disruption, this follows with equilibrium, disruption again and ends with the resolution. This certainly sets up enigma within the clip, as the audience would probably be wondering why and what caused the disruption. I think it follows Robert McKee’s 5 part structure, as the inciting incident is the fight in the bathroom. The progressive complications is murderer getting away from the death scenes, the crisis is that more children are dying. The climax is that the woman finds the killer in her own house, the resolution, is that she find out she is her own killer and has Dissociative Identity Disorder and is put into mental hospital. This is done purely so it subverts usual expectations for thrillers, so this may appeal to our audience. This narrative structure is similar to the film ‘28 Days Later’ as of starting with the disruption of the infected monkeys. This film has a similar audience to our film, so by having a narrative structure to the film 28 Days Later, it may appeal to the same niche audience.

If you run is edited non linear, as clips from past and future intertwine with one another. I think the clip has also been fragmentally edited as during the train station scenes, it cuts back and forth to the mental hospital scene, as well as the typography of the titles coming in between. This was done so that we created enigma within the clip, this is conventional to thriller films. This is similar to the film ‘The life of David Gale’ and ‘Memento’ as the opening sequence first starts of with a flash forward, this I think is conventional for thriller films, as they try to add in these flash forwards to question their audience and set their enigma.

The door scene, suspense is created as well as an Red Herring. The audience would think that something will happen, since it is a quick shot.

Since the story is based around this one actor, we would think this is the protagonist, so from this is also creates a red herring.

This a very common iconic symbol used in thrillers, and it will meet out target audience as thrillers such as Psycho and the Shinning, both use sharp objects to represent death.

A Blood red towel is an arbitrary sign, as it red signifies danger, so it foreshadows that there will be blood later in the scene. There is a huge contrast between the red towel and the dreary set colour, this was done to create emphasis on the towel to show the audience it is that it is an important prop in the film.

The mirror could also signify her split personality since there is one real her and one just a reflection. This may also foreshadow that Cassie is her own Enemy.