Task 1:how does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products

Assassination of Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the USA. There were attempted assassinations of Nixon. It was involved of an hijacking a commercial jet and flying it into the White House. Samuel Byck (the assassin) shot a police officer forcing his way to an Atlanta airways plane he then shot the pilots when they would not let the plane leave; he had then told a passenger to fly the plane. Police then surrounded the plane. Byck was then wounded, before the police could gain entry Byck committed suicide. However secret service agents were aware of this threat but thought it was harmless. This event had inspired the Niels Mueller film 'The assassination of Richard Nixon'. 

Original props

88 Minutes power point

Changing our thriller idea

For our thriller we were going to do it set in the 1960's in the USA, based on the JFK assassination. It would have been filmed in a war bunker during the Cuban missile crisis. We decided to change the concept of our idea to the present day as it would not be as difficult to get modern day props, hairstyles and clothing. We are still going to be filming in a war bunker but the set will be more modern. In our thriller the president will still be assassinated. It will also be set in the USA. But it will expand the list of problems that could be faced in the storyline for the president. This could include present day problems that the USA face which could include crises in the Middle East and perhaps in Russia.   

               

Thriller shoot - set

                                                                                                                                              When building the set we went to set up the day before filming - this meant that  we would have everything organised for the next day. For building the set we used white wooden boards that  we painted  grey to make it look more realistic as a war bunker. We also put down wooden floor boards and hung up the American flag and map posters; we did all this so it would look more effective as a real US war bunker. 

The set

For our set it will be based in a war bunker. We will build this in the studio the day before filming. This war bunker will be thought of as underground somewhere in the USA.

We will also use a hallway for one of the scenes that is not in the bunker where the assassin is being chased by a security guard. This hallway will be thought of as outside of the war bunker.