Evaluation, Task 1.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

As part of our planning we researched the typical conventions of the genre we had selected, which of course was horror. We found these conventions by looking at popular and successful horror films and by including the conventions in our own film we were attempting to conform our product to that of a ‘real’ one. We closely looked at how media producers like Kevin Williamson who wrote the screenplay for  the films ‘scream’ and ‘I know what you did last summer’, of which we looked at the opening sequence of and saw how they conveyed the genre of their film within the first two minutes.  Hence why when we made our own two minute opening sequence we placed in it things which were symbolic in the films, whether it was linked with the setting/location, costumes and props, camerawork and editing, title and font style, the storyline, how characters were introduced or special effects and tried to incorporate them into our own to make ours more realistic. However sometimes we challenged the forms and conventions of a real ‘media product’ – a film by adapting things with our own style or doing the complete opposite of what is usually conveyed in order to suit our purpose, as I will explain:

Setting/location

Our three locations were:

·         A forest

·         A hospital

·         A bedroom, in a home.



By setting our film in a forrest, we created a eerie effect,
 perfect for a murder.



When it comes to forests, yes they are very stereotypical to the horror genre and are used by major film producers to create an eerie, spooky and tense effect. However horrors are set outside in forests at night time rather like ‘I know what you did last summer’.  Ours was in a forest at mid day in broad daylight, and we thought that this didn’t necessary look stereotypical and was quite un conventional to the horror genre and obviously didn’t look like something that a ‘real’ media product would contain. Due to this we decided to add the black and white effect, which made it look dull and gave it the same effect of as if it was night-time, there was more atmosphere. Then again, the fact that it was in broad daylight adds to the fear factor of our film that if our murderer can go out and do such things in broad daylight, what are they capable of at night? Creating fear is obviously one of the main theme’s which is created in ‘real’ media products which follow the horror genre.

The second of our locations was a hospital. Hospitals hold connotations of: death, injuries, patients, psychos and pain. Hence why they are very popular in horrors and are usually used. In films like ‘scream’ and many other horrors they are used towards the end and feature a patient in the aftermath of the climax of the film when they have been injured whilst being caught/escaping from the murderer. However we challenged this by including a hospital scene in our opening sequence, foreshadowing the possible course of the film and the murderous route it’s probably going to take.

The usual safeness and comfort of a home/bedroom is usually turned on its head in horror films. Like in scream the infamous scene when the murderer terrorises a teenager in her own home whilst alone by phone call. We also used a home to feature in our opening but not from the prospective of the victim but from the murderer. We open with our murder plotting against her future victims in her bedroom. This is very unconventional as the murder is usually hidden by mask or costume like in the two films by Williamson however ours is revealed and unveiled to the audience. Whether this is as affective is for the audience to decide but we liked the idea of challenging the usual conventions.

Costumes and props

Most of our props, which added to our mise-en-scene, were extremely stereotypical of horror films

·                    Knives ( seen in countless horror films, a famous one would be ‘scream’)

·                    Red lipstick

·                    A shrine ( non religious- usually used to show stalkers, building up                          photographs and memorabilia of their victim(s)

·                    Mirror, A person is seen staring in a mirror, on numerous occasions throughout the very popular horror film ‘The Ring’.  

By using these we conformed to that of what a real film would include however we also challenged the conventions of ‘real’ media products in the sense that we conveyed things in our two minute opening which are not generally stereotypical of horrors for example: our murderer concealed her weapon in her bag. Usually a weapon is hidden on the persons of the murderer and the audience doesn’t know where it is. This is why we are fearful for the victim that it can be pulled out at any given moment. Or a weapon is clasped in the hand of the murderer as they walk about terrorising victims. 

In terms of costumes our murderer was dressed in everyday clothing, blending in with the rest of the characters (and the rest of society for that matter) we challenged the usual conventions of a film by not dressing our murder in a costume, mask or strange clothing. Although this probably would have looked scary and produced a shocked response from the audience because we only have a miniscule, limited budget we ran the risk of making it look ‘tacky’ and cliché.  Our option of choosing to dress out murderer, what is considered ‘normally’ challenges the usual conventions but also adds that edge, that a murder can easily walk out into society and commit a crime. This made it gritty and realistic.  

Camerawork and editing

It’s not uncommon for horror films to be fast paced, jumping from one shot to another, we tried to convey this by making our shots fast and choppy. Usually most of the camera work is concentrated on the victim/future victims in the film within the opening sequence.  However within our two minute opening there is only a long shot, mid shot, and a very quick close-up of the two victims, then a zoom out of one of them dead on the ground. Whereas for our murderer, throughout the first minute there are a variety of close-ups, extreme close-ups, long shots, tracking shots, mid shots and point of view shots used on her.  This is unconventional and usually all of these shots would be focused on a victim however we wanted to challenge this convention because we felt it important that we represent the significance of our murderer and that fact that the film is about seeking revenge on those who commit infidelity, so the real ‘bad guy’ is the cheat not the murder.

Something else which we challenged was that fact that most horrors in modern times contain a glimpse of black and white or will have a couple of scenes which are purposely placed in black and white for effect i.e. when a character is remembering a painful memory a flashback or having a nightmare. Also sometimes some horror films are so gritty and dull looking them almost looks black and white. We however decided to place our whole two minute opening in black and white; we adapted the usual convention and therefore challenged that of a real media product which usually wouldn’t be black and white throughout ba feature length film.



Here is a screen grab of how out openeing sequence text,
font type stands at the moment.



Title font and style

Our title and font is quite blockish, large and bold. Usually the stereotypical writing for the title sequence of horror’s is creepy,  Minimalistic or traditional . We however didn’t convey this but plan to change this so it does conform to that of a real media product because once we looked back at our work we felt it would look more effective.

Story and how the opening sequence sets up

 Our plot was a simple revenge plot. Someone has been cheated on with an ex partner and is planning to seek revenge on them. We set this up so we see the plotting of the murder and open with a shot of a photomontage of her ex with this new girlfriend. We then track her going to find them, she has obviously been stalking them as she has lots of images of them and knows where they are.

Usually films would begin with the murderer and the film would unfold to find the murder, realising that it was a stalker, an ex partner who wanted to seek revenge and this wouldn’t be revealed until the end, however we wanted to subvert the typical beginning, middle and end framework and start at what would usually be considered the end as we believe that this hooks the audience and entices them even more into watching the whole sequence.

Genre and how the opening sequence suggests it

 The first image or shot which the audience is faced with is a shrine of a montage of pictures with various newspaper article words and phrases covering it like “death” “cheat” “revenge” “attack” “stalker” “killer” “traumatized” “heartbroken” “disappeared” which immediately give the audience an idea that the film is going to be that of a horror. A shot which appears almost straight after is one which reveals the weapons neatly aligned on the bed, knives are not typically associated with another genre and would strengthen the audience’s idea that it is a horror sequence. The next shot of a girl staring into a mirror with a blank look on her face would solidify their idea about the genre.

Popular horrors like ‘scream’ and ‘I know what you did last summer’ tend to lure their audiences into a false sense of security. They do this by initially introducing us to what is considered ‘normality’ usually teenage life or drama. Then of course we begin to notice it is a horror through subtle changes on the mood. This is effective in building up the tension, we however challenged this by not taking this approach as we wanted our opening sequence so be immediately spine-chilling as we couldn’t do a well thought out build-up like that of a real film within two minutes, its impossible.

How characters are introduced

Horror films, which are produced to the mass by major media producing film studios and do very well, usually contain strange looking or masked main characters to fill the role as the antagonist or murderer however our main character was very normal looking and an unconventional murderer/villain. I think that we used this to our advantage because, as noted on my blog, it shows how unpredictable people can be; they may be perceived as ordinary because of the way that they look but in doesn’t mean that what is going on in their mind is necessarily normal. The first shot of our character is a mid-angled shot of the murderer looking into a mirror. This isn’t an unusually way of introducing a character but isn’t common either we picked it and chose to convey this to introduce our main character because it’s different and the antagonist is not usually revealed this challenges the usual form of a ‘real’ media product.

Special Effects

Here is a screen grab of how converted out clips into black and white.

We didn’t use any major special effects in our film, as we were on low budget and were only using rather basic editing programme, adobe premiere pro. I see real special effects are, those used in things like ‘Star Wars’ created by Industrial Light and Magic. These are not so appropriate for horror films. Some horror films do look better without special effects as they look more realistic without things like computer generated images. Within the film ‘scream’ in terms of special effects there were only stunt doubles used. What you could class as special effects what were used in our film is things like cross fades, black and white and slowing down our footage to create tension, other than that by not actually using many special effects we were actually conforming to that of a real media product and what real producers and film makers would use by not using many special effects when producing a horror film.