Question 1

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

As a group we created mind map to group together of all our ideas and discuss how we thought we used the conventions of horror films, how we developed these ideas even further and even how we challenged the normal conventions to make our film unique.

Our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in various different ways. Our media product is the opening of a horror film; therefore it uses forms and conventions of a horror film. One of the uses is the general casting of the opening of the film. The characters can be seen as stereotypical to the genre and follow the usual conventions of a horror movie. The stereotypes we used for our media product was the protagonist being a young attractive blonde girl. This is stereotypical to the horror convention as young girls are seen as being vulnerable and the blonde hair is stereotypically thought of as a dumb or ‘ditsy’ girl, more likely to get in trouble and be caught by the antagonist. This vulnerability and dimwittedness of the young blonde girl adds much to the film as the tension for the audience builds as they watch the girl and predict her outcome, in this case, being killed by the antagonist. This convention has been used in many films before, one being the opening of a horror film we analysed: The Ring, where a young blonde girl in school uniform is the protagonist and gets killed by the end of the opening. We also used a stereotype for the antagonist in our horror opening. Luke is dressed in all black, this colour symbolises darkness and death and is widely used in the horror convention. This makes a Luke a good antagonist as the audience can see just from his costume that he is not a normal member of public and symbolises some sort of evil. This leads them to believe that Luke’s character will in some way harm the protagonist: Aimee.

For the filming of our opening of a horror film we used a variety of camera shots. From using a tripod, to the camcorder being placed on the ground, to the most conventional to horror movies: handheld. We used handheld shots because they add many aspects to the film. Firstly, they create a sense of realism to the movie because it’s almost as if you are looking through the characters eyes or looking at the scene through an amateur camera mans eyes. This adds a personal feel to the scene and makes the viewer more engaged and immersed in the scene. The handheld shots also add confusion and a sense of delusion to the scene, showing the characters physical state and mental state depending on the steadiness of the camera and the various movements. A film called Cloverfield used handheld cams in this way to create a very effective immersion of chaos and confusion for the audience. The final reason we used a handheld shot is because the plot of our film is based around this camcorder and to truly depict the feeling of holding the camcorder we used the handheld shot in some of the scenes, like when Aimee picks up the camera in the woods for the first time.

We included a montage shot in the opening of our horror movie. We used the montage shot when Aimee looks at the camera. In the montage flashed different scary images of the antagonist; Luke, and Aimee covered in blood. This gives a sign to the audience of what to expect throughout the movie and what’s to come. We took this montage idea from the horror film opening we analysed: The Ring. We found the montage to be very effective in The Ring opening and to disorientate the viewer causing more of a shock factor in the scene. We also used a swoosh sound when the antagonist Luke appears or is about to appear. This builds tensions in the scene and the loud swoosh sound shocks the viewer and theoretically outlines the antagonist for the audience.

The main sound we used for our opening of a horror film is a score from a soundtrack we found on Youtube. This soundtrack is very dramatic and intense and it slowly increases the suspense of the film with the sudden change of amplitudes and pitch’s. It fits well with what is happening on screen, with the tension building and the sudden changes of pitch when certain things appear on screen or take place.