Evaluation

Media evaluation

In what ways does your media product use; develop challenge form and conventions of the real media product?

Our task was to create a thriller opening; we had to plan out how we were going to construct our idea, by first seeing what the target market expects in thrillers and then using their expectations to create the idea for an opening. For the opening we had to form the video by editing the scenes to get to our final product.

This had to fit in with the rating criteria of fifteen. The age fifteen was chosen due too dark scene and such as a knife to show signifiers which are death and misery. It is also classified as a fifteen because it has conventions of a horror which would be: daunting areas which would be the woodland area and graveyard.

The setting is a graveyard and a church due to the wedding which is where normally a wedding takes place in a church but and also some is filmed in a graveyard this also shows conventions of dead and also our media production has been filmed in the woods the woods and graveyards are quite typical locations and they are very silenced and empty places.

A thriller is shown by having a mysterious narrative but still clear to the audience can follow the plot. They are typically designed to put the audience on the edge of their seat and make their heart race. In thrillers there is often the “Hero and the villain” these are typical characters in a thriller and classic setting such as a city, forest, deserts, or derelict areas. Conventions such as weapons and costuming create the sense of thrillers as a lot of the characters are normally dressed in suit and weapons such as knife and guns are used.

Our thriller opening had props such as a dress, Vail, suit, corsage, roses dead/alive.

   

These are the most important props we used which were the flowers the knife and the costumes these helped the knife helped by presenting as a thriller and the costumes and flowers helped to show the conventions of a wedding.

In the first two minutes of a thriller the film would show important information about who starred in the movie and the titles.

 

This shows all shows all the titles introducing the film the actor’s titles are put at a moment where they are in the movie and the other titles put on during dramatic moments. The title at the end distraught bride is done in quite small hand writing on a black screen this can show how lonely the film is going to be and mysterious by the sound playing whilst it is shown.

In these first few minutes it would set the scene by generating a clear narrative. Normally when creating the introduction to a thriller movie it doesn’t contain speech it just has plenty of altered camera shots most of them showing close-ups and stills. This is done to already create a question for the audience for instance “What do they think is happening or going to happen...” the music can also set the scene it can show they type of thriller genre such as if it is going to be a horror thriller or a psychological thriller or an action thriller by making the story line clear. Mise-en-scene such as the props like weapons fit with the genre and help to establish it this is because if weapons are exposed then this may reveal that there is a death or sadness or maybe pain.

During the time period before we filmed our thrillers we researched and analysed different films such as “Psycho”,” Donnie Darko”, “The happening” and ”Memento” all these different films have been presented a different way. Conventions help to show what type of film it is going to be in the opening. In Donnie Darko the opening is represented through the landscape to show that it is confusing and a psychological thriller.

Conventions of the genre means that people expect a typical story line, characters ect but when it fails to be what the audience expect specific things from certain films due to what we have read or been told so this increases peoples expectations and when the film fails to meet the audiences expectation it is genre conventions.

Conventions can be broken by directors because they chose to do what is unexpected such as nonlinear narrative which is unconventional - when the shots and they film aren’t told in correct order or told backwards and aren’t in chronological order. This was done in “Memento” as it was a psychological thriller which was directed by Christopher Nolan.

Thrillers in my opinion they should start with a variety of different shots to portray the storyline and or leave the audience in confusion as what is going to occur in the film. For example in the “The Happening” directed by M. Night Shyamalan he presented the film with a confusing start by showing a typical city and typical everyday characters such as joggers and dog walkers and during this a women kills her self and this creates lots of abnormal scenes and shots such as freezing of peoples positions. This opening scene leaves the audience with a question which shows it is a good quality opening.

A lot of the camera shots from this film were close-ups which show the lighting is used in a way to create a sense of unusual day as the light is bright and as it goes on the light start to dim and get more negative. The shots are close- up to show confusion of the film and the negativity of death of people in the film, the film creates a sad atmosphere from the music as it is a sombre key of music to create the sorrow of the film.

The mise-en- scene is quite stereotypical as there are joggers and dog walkers in  this area in “The Happening” as it is a park where the characters would do when wondering around on was a average day which what they want you believe as they are building up to the deaths by creating a normal atmosphere about the world.

The happening is related as much to our thriller but it has a weird storyline and is quite random which is what our idea is like.

Donnie Darko is related more to our thriller than The happening this is because donnie darko is a psychological thriller as it requires you to think deeper about what is happening in the film and it makes yourself ask question such as “ Is this real?”,”What’s happening?”.

Different film openings helped us to make our own thriller this help us by showing common opening which contain many fast shots and close-up shots this emphasizes the beginning of the film. Films such as “Psycho” influenced us and enabled us to make our thriller because part of the mise-en-scene is the prop, a Knife this helps to show the craziness of the character which we tried to represent in our character also as far as we know the women in “Psycho” is female as we can see from her clothes in the shower scene and her hair but actually she is male masquerading as a female this helped us to be unconventional and have a female killer and push the boundaries by doing this a having a what is unexpected. This helped us to make our thriller realistic by using similar ideas such as the terror of the knife and the unconventional women.

These shots have been shown to show that our thriller was influenced by “Psycho” this is due to how they are both unconventional female killers using a weapon such as a knife. Which both are used in frightening manners which are used to kill.

During our media production and editing many changes have been made to our media as it has been re-done 3 times this is because the narrative wasn’t clear or too confusing this meant that we didn’t have as much time to edit as we kept having to change the series of shots the correct the narrative we did this by doing voice over shots to show what the groom was thinking.

A marriage is arranged but the groom is uneasy about the matrimony so leaves her causing her to lose state of mind and go fanatical and hunt down her fiancée. The reason why the narrative was confusing was because they wasn’t much speech and when this was they were only voice over’s hearing the thoughts of the groom.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller we used a women as the killer this is irregular and unusual. As men are used as the killer because they are seen to be physically stronger which is why it is different to see a female not in the position of the victim. Women aren’t seen as killers as people would not see them as killer as people would stereotype women as not being mentally stable enough which would create the impression that they aren’t spiritually strong enough or not physically strong enough. Because the bride is the killer it can show two things which are she is strong and empowered because women are seen as killers or it shows her weakness by being distressed and turning into crazy and psychological killer.

 But the film shows her by having a women as the killer it shows her weakness as she has been left at the altar and it still is the man making the choice of leaving her, By doing this leaving her in a typical heart-broken and angry state of mind.

Our mise-en-scene shows her weakness in the presentation of her face by using her make-up to how she has been crying this shows black smudges down her face showing her depression. This also shows a stereotype that women aren’t as strong as men as women tend to be more sensitive than men showing that a women killer is unconventional, also as of her clothing which was light which can show signifiers of purity and sensitivity which is why is lead to be unconventional and different in the viewer’s eyes.

As a conventional role played by a woman it is normally the women who plays they distress character when they are attacked and normal not the empowered sex for example a thriller “Jagged edge” this shows a stereotypical blonde women who is naked being attack and as she is naked it makes her more vulnerable this is why it is unconventional about a women being a killer as it is seen as weak for a man to get killed for attacked by a women which is another reason for it being unconventional.

On the left shows small black smudges down her face this shows she has been crying and the one on the left shows her make-up in more detail. These both show the sensitivity and show both their anger.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

They are many types of media institutions such as Warner brothers, Universal ect these are very large institution types that use A-list actors and spend a large sum of money for the films to be made.

Whilst we were researching media institutions we researched independent movies making companies this would be what our movie would be as we would not have a large budget. Examples of Independent films are films such as “Donnie Darko” which is a film we have researched throughout our project. 

I feel New market would be a good distributor for a media production as they create independent films and only distribute independents films which is what our film would be also films we researched such as Donnie Darko and Memento are films that helped us to create our film and by using the distributer of movies that influenced us I feel that would make it fit into the genre of an independent film and also a psychological thriller like many of the films created by new market this is another reason why I picked New market as distributed “Donnie Darko” and “Memento” The benefits of using New market compared to any other institution is because it only distributes in independent movies and we feel ours would be an independent film this is because we would have a small sum of money which limits our chances of using a large media institution and also New market have made quite a few films theses have been positive on the company and have had good feedback towards them and have been getting more well known distributor as they keep creating more films.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

To find out who would be the best audience for our thriller opening with gave out round about 30 questionnaires to members of our families and to students around the school in different years but mostly from the age group of 16 this was to see what people would expect to see in our thriller by asking different ages they each expected different for examples we found out what kind of genres the audience like and one of the most was romance which is why we incorporated a wedding to provide romance for the viewers, also questions like where would you expect the setting to be? Ect.

Questions were asked to find out about our demographic such as what is your age and gender? These where only very simple questions used in this area.

When deconstructing other films this helped us to decide on what ages the films would be because of the amount swearing or graphic scenes such as in Donnie darko there is bad language used but only mild but there are no gory scenes which is why it was chosen to be a fifteen. By looking at other films and researching the BBFC ratings it helped us to decide on what would be the age limit on our we choose fifteen this was due to how there was conventions such as death and weapons such as a knife to show brutal scenes would occur during the film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

By showing a convention of the genre death by using a huge knife this attracts the audience’s attention. By getting their attention by using music which is tense and aggressive also a mysterious feel to it.

The stills of the church create the setting which tells you where it is and also the graveyard this is one of the places where our audience said would be good to hold a thriller in our questionnaires. A lot of our shots are mid shots or long shots one shot that attracts the audience’s attention is at the end and a few points throughout the film is when Jacob (the groom) is stood in the distance partly behind a tree without the bride realising this creates a question if she will ever find him this would appeal to the viewers. Also the knife creates uneasiness and this would give the viewers many questions such as “what is she going to do with the knife”? The sound is very unnatural it creates a feeling of uncertainty which appeals to the audience. I want the audience to feel confused to why he would leave her as there is no reason but also I want the viewers to feel uneasy due to the fact that she has gone crazy.

We have met the target audience’s expectation as we have used part of the genres they suggested they liked such as romance and also used a setting which was a graveyard.

The BBFC affects our target audience as we have to follow a set of guidelines for it to fit in with the age criteria and by doing this is means you don’t get such a wide range of an audience of an such as scenes in films can be very different for a child than for a fifteen year old which is why we have to follow the guidelines and take into consideration language sex discrimination. And by having an age fifteen according to this our film may not contain violent can be used as long as not sexualised or sadistic. And whist violence is happening is cannot dwell on the pain and horrific gory scene aren’t to be used which is why our thriller is aged fifteen.

These shots would catch the eye of the viewer and interest them due the shots such a it has been in a long shot and caught an actor in the corner of the camera and another shot has been shot underneath and been ran over and the other shot is taken from behind also all these shot have effects on them which gives an sense of mystery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK7hLe5KeIo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3OC4Q5Gfgw   this is feedback from our thiller that was uploaded onto youtube.

 These shots would catch the eye of the viewer and interest them due the shots such a it has been in a long shot and caught an actor in the corner of the camera and another shot has been shot underneath and been ran over and the other shot is taken from behind also all these shot have effects on them which gives an sense of mystery.

During our project we have used lots of different software’s was such as imovie and garagreband. imovie was to create the actual piece and edit it all together during our filming I have developed my skills of using the camera I have learnt how to use a camera properly and also learned the 180 degree rule and also the golden rule, my skill have developed skills by showing the characters in different angles who that they all represent different things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL7j7R2AP5c
this link is about how we used garagreband

During editing I have learned how to do a voice over how to fade to white/black, dissolve to slow down the amount of shots together or showing death by fading to white by going into the light or showing fade to black by showing a painful dead or a brutal one ect. Also applying different effects such as black and white to represent a flashback, putting in titles for the opening, cropping pictures adding sound to create an atmosphere 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ek7RATNFoU

This shows how we used imovies to create voice overs.

When looking back over filming some shots weren’t as good as possible so some shots had to be stabilized to stop them from shaking when panning also some shots had to be cropped when not enough attention was drawn to them. When some shots showed bad quality changing the effect made it look better by changing it to black and white.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have developed as a film maker and an editor as I was the person who most of the time was in possession of the camera. This was because during our thriller both Rebekah and Jacob were both actors.

My strengths are now editing.

By doing the preliminary task it taught that when filming you should get as many shots as possible and also to re-shoot things many times this is because this would widen the length of the film and allow us to choose the best shot instead of settling for a good enough shot. 

During our preliminary task we made a story board this was to make it easier for us to film as it would mean it would be less time consuming.

By filming in the school it was hard to film in certain places for reasons such as having permission and also as we weren’t the only ones in the corridors.

I learnt by doing that i need many different shots to capture the right image and also make it look interesting and different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfv4dIbgbOA

audience feedback

Our video as been posted on youtube and so far only one comment has been posted this said:

Well done with those sound effects, they did certainly attract my attention and then kept it! and it definitely fits the conventional style of music that is seen in Thrillers
I like the first few shots from inside the church/cathedral, and the slow pan, it rather effective, however the second could have been a little slower, although I don't know what footage you were working with?
And the narrative is much more developed than when it was before, making it much easier to understand
this is where the comment is from- youtube where we uploaded our clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3OC4Q5Gfgw 

This is from a viewer who has sat with me and watched the opening and after i have asked them questions and these where there thoughts.

What do you like about our thriller?

I like how there are voices in the background as it makes it mysterious, the acting is good and the screaming is very effective. When the knife gets plunged into the tree it is very frightening, the music connects well with the thriller genre.

What do you dislike about it?

I don’t like the random flashes of imagery as it confuses me I also think the story line could have been more interesting and create tension and craziness there should have been a action scene.

Would this meet your expectations of a thriller?

Yes, but I would expect more action.

Does it look like the thriller genre?

Yes because of props such as the knife.

What could be improved?

The acting from the bride could have been more crazy and also more crazy scenes.

Story board for thriller

we had no script this was because we didnt require any talking only a scream in the end we did use speech thi was to make the narrative clearer.to do this we did voice overs and used jacob to say two things "shes crazy" and "i cant do this".

Whilst doing our pitches we were recorded to show our ideas i think that the audience thought our ideas were different to other groups as some groups ideas were similar to one another and ours were very different. I think our pitch went very well as we got all the detail our about each slide and about 3 pitches saying about the classification and also the representation of the charcters.
i feel that we spoke clearly and people understood our ideas clear also graphs were shown to help the veiwers to understand where we got our ideas from.

Audience research!

As we handed out a questionnaire of what people expected by a thriller we had to used the ideas that the audience presented and expected to create a good thriller and as our ideas were already created it was hard to change ideas to work around the audience but action was most popular in a thriller but as our thriller wasn't a thriller it would have been very had to change but the second most popular genre was romance witch was Incorporated into out work because there was a wedding which creates romance and also our setting was in a wood and a church which also involved a graveyard this was another popular setting in a thriller that the audience would like to see.
This helped us to provide the viewers with a expected thriller as we tried our best to provide the audience with what they wanted and this also helped our ideas to be as good as possible and maybe to avoid ideas that have been done or are too obvious.

new market

Newmarket films is an American distribution company which was founded in 1994, it is a privately owned independent distribution company they have produce many films such as cruel intentions and Christopher Nolan films such as Memento and Donnie Darko which we have researched and annotated

prelim task good points and bad points

during our prelim task during this the only problem filming our prelim task was getting used to the camera which is why we shot a lot of material and also we weren't used to being in front of the camera so it took a lot of time to film each scene as we had to be serious, another thing was having to stick to the 180 degree rule as it was easy to forget about it so we had to keep checking that we had done this.
Our strengths were that we editied the movie together quite fast and once we got into the hang of it, it made it a lot esier for us.
By doing this task i learnt how to use a camera and how generally film in the correct way and also how to edit a film all together and how to use an apple mac computer.

finished product

In my opinion

I think filming went extremly well i think it was better than what i expected and the locations and props helped this to make it even better.

What Happened during filming.

ppenFinished filming yesterday on Wednesday 8th December most of our filming went as planned and some ideas were changed, as we filmed at the cathedral we took shots of the outside of the cathedral of the gargoyles and architecture to show the mystery and the archaicness of the church we filmed inside the church as well to show it has some evil essences to it. and because the church was only lit by candles and dim light is gave it a dark tone to the filming. We filmed the statues and the stain glass windows and the font and the top to show all the architecture also. Once this was done we started our actul filming this was taken place out side this church this was because this was a very nice area out side the church and the weather was good as it was raining it was just a dim day.
After filming at the cathedral we went back to jacobs to film some scenes there was an extra scene added as we has some problems with probs we filmed jacob getting ready for the wedding, the problem was as rebekah wore hair extensions for the wedding scene we would of had to use them for the woodland field scene but after we did her hair the hair extenions didnt look good like before so to carry on and still making the filming look good we had to have a scene were the bride because of her anger she cut her hair short as rebekah pretents to cut her hair but she is only taking the hair extensions out with using sissors as a props to show this. At jacobs we also do rebekah's make-up such as we put mascara down her face to give the impressions she has been crying.
As the indoor scene is finshed we move to our last scene which is in both a field and a woodland area. First shot consist of becky coming towards the camera with the knife and as we have two cameras on in placed on a coat and is look at the woods as rebekah runs over the camera we she here feets and snow is flicked up as she runs. As we enter the wood rebekah stabs a tree with her anger and jacobs is stood behind her as she gives up in trying to find him and because of this she represents this with a scream!

location

The location of a filming will be taking place in peterborough in the cathedral grounds this is where the wedding will take place.

Once the wedding scene is finshed we will head back to bourne because the area around peterborough doesnt contain any fields or woodland areas so will head back for bourne to use some of the fields or woodland areas to make the filming look more realistic. In a field such as this one.

Distraught bride

Our first idea is called distraught bride this idea is about a bride who has been left at the alter as the groom runs out with second thoughts leaving the bride left in a distress mind set this causes the bride to roam around searching for the groom to seek her revenge as she hunts for him which a knife.

The accurate story line is:

The bride is panting as she is searching for her husband to be this would be in a woodland or field area this will create feelings of mystery about where she is and what her feelings are! The scene from the woodland area fades to black to show mystery to show a flashback in this flashback the bride entering the church occurs she starts to walk up to the alter , the camera cuts to the groom getting ready as he stares into the mirror. Soon enough the bride realises the groom isn't coming and she sees him run out of the church avoiding the wedding  as he runs out the church  the Bride throws her rose bouquet on the floor this symbolises her feelings as how angry/sad she is.

The film then goes back to the present day when you see the roses are now dead this shows the viewer conventions such as death or connotations such as blood by the colour of the roses, this is a very important shot as it shows her emotion so it would be shown as a close up. As we see the bride is in the woodland area or field which was shown at the start she is still searching for the groom to get her revenge for leaving her.

In her range she can't find him she stabs a tree in anger and screams as she can't find him this would fade into a cross blur effect and by doing a over the shoulder camera shot  as the bride walks away the groom will be seen a while behind her but only his silhouette is seen by the camera but the bride doesn't see his appearance the camera will us a effect and fade into black to show the end and to show a cliffhanger and to show mystery.

This idea will be a classification of 15 this is because of the weapons used such as knife there are conventions such as death these have been presented by the dying roses that have been thrown on the floor.
The representation of these characters would be wedding clothing but once the bride is hunting for the groom she has slit her dress so her dress has loads of holes in people may infer this means that she is empty and hurt.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Props Needed!

Props we need to make the filming look more effective in a real wedding the groom has a corsage and the bride as a bouquet in this case we are using roses (red and peach with white flowers) we need to bouquet an alive set of roses and a dead set. We need a brides outfit we are using a modern short creamy dress with cream woolly tights and a Vail to represent the bride and the broom in a suit with a sliver tie. The next prop is a knife this is for the bride so it can show the conventions of death, we also have confetti to show a convention of a wedding. A prop we are using that isn't being shown is tiger balm this is to help the bride cry on cue because it the ingredients to encourage the persons eyes to water the the balm is rubbed underneath them.
Make-up is also needed such as eyeliner when she crys after the eyeliner and mascara will be down her face to show she has cryed this will also show mystery we will also need to bring a comb this so we can increase the size of the brides hair to make her look like she is angry and gone crazy!

Media ideas and questionnaire results.

Over the pass week our group: Rebekah Willcox, Jacob Wright and I have been planning our thriller openings. last week we did our media pitch this turned out well because we had everything planned out and had what we had to say on queue cards ready.

Before in advance when had to find out from the pubic what kind of things entertained them when watching a thriller. We handed out 31 questionnaire to students around school from ages of 11-16 and to adults to get a different perspective on what people like and look for in a film. There were 12 questions which were:

What is your gender?
Male        Female


 What is your age?
11-16   17-24   25-30    31-40    Other


What is your favorite film genre?
Comedy   Thriller    Horror    Romance   Action     Other


How often do you watch films?
Daily     Weekly       Monthly     Other.


What are you expectation within a thriller?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
What is your favorite movie?
______________________________________________________________________________


Do you get a head start and go to the cinema or wait til the movie is out?
 go to Cinema     get it on DVD      Download


What do you expect in a thriller opening?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________


What types of characters would you expect in a thriller?
______________________________________________________________________________


What type of setting would you expect in a thriller?
Woods      House      Park      Graveyard      Morgue     Other


What thriller opening from what film do you find good?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________


What type of music do you expect in a thriller? (Opening)
Intense     Dramatic    Horror     Other


What type of film classification, When watching a thriller would you expect?
12      15     18


Do you think 18 is too higher of classification for a thriller?
Yes     No


What theme would you expect to be mixed with a thriller?
Horror    Action      Comedy     Other

Our media questionnaire helped influenced us on what idea to go into this is because we had to research thrillers as a whole and our thriller opening has to be what people like in a movie. So the media questionnaire helped us because it made us realise that a lot of people prefer romance to thrillers so our idea has a hint of hidden romance to the genre. When the question what genre would you mix with a thriller if it was a hybrid genre most people answered action then horror we have gone with the audiences idea of horror to create conventions such as mystery and sadness. The music is a key importance to a movie especially in a thriller in the options of intense, dramatic, horror and other most of the respondents said they prefer intense music in a horror this is because it creates a sense of suspense, also a lot people agreed with thrillers being taken place in a graveyard some of our will be shot in graveyard or there will be shots of the graveyard as we are shooting in church this will create connotations of death by seeing gravestones.

Three pitch ideas
Distraught bride

our first idea is called the distraught bride this story line is about a bride who gets left at alter and seeks out revenge on the groom with a knife conventions such as death by using dead flowers and weapons such as the knife and the film would contain areas of dispression this will be shown by showing a close up of the brides face of a tear running down her face this would be an 15 because of the conventions the conventions of death and horror. There would be no dialoge this is because just having music will make it more intense. 
the sound would be a scary sound somthing which can make you tell that the scene isnt right and makes your think what is going to happen next? the mise-en-scene would be settings like the church and the woodland area to create a mysetrious view of the actors.

The deal
 Our  next idea is called the deal. This idea involves props such as drugs, guns, knifes and gangsters. The plot is about about drug dealers and how someone is going to die as for revenge as someone has not paid hundreds of pounds to a drug dealer.

this may contain some chase scene and conventions such as death and connotations such as blood. shots would be used such as close up mid shot, long shots. and point of view shots 

this would also be a classification of 15 this is because has conventions such as blood and knifes and guns. 
The representation of these characters would be dark clothing and hooded characters this is to show secrecy of the drug deals.

Is it really paradise?The third idea is, Is it really paradise? This is about a couple that go on a honeymoon which is set out to be perfect and as they are walking down the street the man hears a scream. with the intentions of finding out who this was he goes to look who it is this has been planned that the husband leaves the women alone so they can be separated she is left waiting for hours for her husband be as expected he never returns. But there is a shadow lurking in the corner ready to take the man creates the disappearance of her husband.

This would be a classification of 12 this is because it doesn't have a foul language or any gore scenes, but weapons may be used such as a gun.The film would also only be a 12 because of reasons such as the darkness and mysteriousness.
The honeymooners representation would be in light colour representing happiness but the murder would be wearing dark clothes to indicate mystery.

film idea classifications

In our film idea we would give it the film classification of 15 the reason for this is because of the violent as a knife would be used and conventions such as death and signifier of blood, plus because the character has mental problems and is mentally distress.
This wouldn't be classified as 18 because it doesn't contain enough foul language or violents.

How does the "Donnie Darko" film cover reveal it's a thriller?

Donnie Darko is portrayed as a thriller, by looking at the cover. We can tell this because of the colours, font, facial expressions, signifier and conventions.
The front cover is assembled by using colours such as blue and black, the character Donnie is presented as blue this gives us an impression that the film contains ambiguity.
The colour blue also could lead us to infer that time travel is entered into scenes the colour blue is characterize as a negative colour which my give a clue that this may be a gloomy film to indicate death.

The brightness of Donnie on the front cover could also give out a signifier of space and time travel. Because he has been portrayed as the main character. So the light shows his importance, and to the world. This is because light is a very heroic symbol so it infers he may be a hero.
The darkness of the film cover (black) which are losing in from each corner  revealed that the world maybe ending by getting this impression the audience could jump to the conclusion that Donnie is a hero because he is a saviour of the earth.
The props in the front cover is a item such as a axe to illustrate his destruction it gives the sense of danger and danger is a convention which is how we can determine this is a thriller.
The centre  of the body shows a bright beam (orb) this could infer he is being controlled and is under influence.

Another connotation is his facial expression these give off a negative vibe as it creates a sense of evil and deviousness, we know this by his eyes because they show that they are off concentration as if he is thinking of something. Which gives clearer thoughts towards the axe.
The last piece of information reveal it is a thriller film is the lettering and font, the main title  "Donnie Darko" is bold and is shadowy to infer mystery this provides conventions for being a thriller. 
The tag line shows it is a conventions of a thriller as it is a question " WHY ARE YOU WEARING THAT STUPID MAN SUIT" the words language comes across as angry and sarcastic as Frank say this back to him when he said " why are you wearing that stupid man suit".

Ruberta sparrow the author of the book which is given to Donnie is layed out on the film cover it is one of the pages from her book it is part over Donnie it seems as if he has been labeled like a skeleton diagram. this seems as if it labels his weaknesses and strengths to see if he is Worthy of a job.

How does Nolan convey memento as a psychological thriller?

Nolan convey memento as a psychological thriller because instead of a regular film it represented backwards which is non-linear.

The film has to be broken down because the film is very complex to understand as it the start if the film is the ending of the film this is because the character has a short term memory so the audience only remembers what the character remembers, which why it is non-linear.

Sound

The music shows tension because it is non-diegetic, in addition it reveals sadness because the sombre key. There different sounds which are diegetic these sounds have been emphasize for example the sounds of a gun firing by the sounds being emphasize it gives the notion that they are the only two people in the building because of piercing sounds being used this also provides the audience with tension because it creates a dark and mysterious scene to the viewers eyes.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene helps to give a clear clue in each shot to what the genre is it gives signifiers such as one of the first shots contain blood which hints that it is a thriller because it signifiers that it the film contains murder, because of the blood which gives us the impression of conventions such as murder, the connotations of the darkness shows the genre of the film also. This gives out a feeling of negitivatity this is partly because it is a sad movie for the reason that he cannot create new memories, plus he is trying to discover the person who murdered his wife. Because the film is non- linear it adds to the mystery of the film because it very hard to understand this is because we are seeing what the character is remembering or doing in the present time.

In the opening scene of Memento shows a close up shot of a photograph being held by Lenard by seeing this shot makes the audience feel hesitant about what is happening. As the shot of photograph stay in the shot for a long period of time it could confuse the viewer because it seems as the character need a long amount of time to take the image in. Because this film is backward it may take some time to realise it if the film has never been watched by the viewer but Nolan uses techniques such as making the photograph fade which gives the audience the hint that the film in backwards.