Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

Laurel Parfitt 9241

Conventional supernatural horror plots:

A family or person moves into a house where the previous residence have been murdered by something else

living there. E.g. Amityville Horrors (Andrew Douglas, 2005)

Something has happened to a person and a spirit posses/haunts them. E.g. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009)

A character is one the audience is led into believing are safe but suddenly they actually become evil. E.g.

Paranormal Activity (Oran Peli, 2007)

The discovery of the spirits past: this involves the protagonist exploring their house and finding clues that further

inform them of the life the spirit once had, why they are being haunted and what they can do to solve it.

Plot

The plot we followed in ours is the first one, the house

that Hannah lives in is cursed and every time someone

moves in their, they get possessed by the spirit after

finding the music box. However, in the full movie the

spirits past is discovered by the protagonist- Bridget,

which is also conventional of supernatural horror.

The spirit is possessing the

girl in both ‘drag me to hell’

and our piece

Mise-en-sceneCostumes

It is conventional in supernatural horror to have simplicity and everyday clothing. So

therefore we dressed Hannah in jeans and a white top and nothing revealing. Her makeup

was natural, and the colours she wore were neural blending into the background of the

piece.

Props

Supernatural horror has less blood than other horror sub genres, for example Slasher

horror. However we have opposed this convention, and instead used a lot of blood in the

opening. Also, everyday objects, framed family photos, dolls, toys and rocking chairs are

also very conventional props in supernatural horror however we didn‟t use any of these.

Instead, we created our own props, which were paper cranes. This was the unique aspect of

our horror opening, the iconography is depicted by the paper cranes because they

symbolise all the people that this spirit had possessed and killed.

Lighting

In supernatural horror, candles re often used to create lighting because they give a

flickering effect, however we didn‟t use candles but we did have a few shots where the

lights were flickering as Hannah entered the room. Also, we used a large lamp to create lots

of sharp shadows and silhouettes which portrayed darkness. The low key lighting of our

piece connotes darkness and the outside shots are unsettling because of the gloom.

Location

Supernatural horror are conventionally set in the home of the protagonist because it allows

the audience to relate, and scare themselves even when the film has finished. Therefore, we

did just this and set the opening in the home of Hannah which is later to be the home of

Bridget. Other conventional supernatural horror locations are churches, relating to Christ

and also woodland areas, where the spirit is seen lurking behind trees in the darkness.

Mise-en-scene DECONSTRUCT A

FRAMEWhite top- her clothing is

simple, but a effective

The blood challenges the

conventions of Supernatural

horror

The lighting has created a

dull effect which has created

lots shadowsHer collar bone and boney

hands imply she is not herself

SoundWe used non-diegetic sound, such as fast pace orchestral

music to build up the tension, when the title appears we used

the sound of violins as it writes across the screen. It is

conventional to have recurring sounds that the audience

associate with the antagonist and protagonist. We used a loud

noise whenever the antagonist appeared, which repeated a few

times to scare the audience and make them jump. We also had

the sounds of a music box to bring back childhood memories

and create a spooky atmosphere, this is called contrapuntal

sound (sound that doesn‟t match the scene). It is used to

create a juxtaposition of sound and image, the sweet sound (of

the music box doesn‟t match the horror of the spirit but instead

creates an enigma.

Conventional supernatural sounds we did

not use were creaking of doors and

floorboards. We also said in our plan that

we were going to use asynchronous sounds

of whispering, as if the spirits were

whispering, like in Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper,

1982) however we didn‟t end up using this

idea, although it would have created

another dimension to our sound.

EditingAt the start we used long takes and few cuts to create tension.

When the action sped up the cutting rate also sped up, creating

a fast rhythmic pace. This meant we had to keep continuity

perfect.

We had to be careful to keep continuity

perfect, and this was very difficult with all

our props, like the cranes. A key example

of perfect continuity was when Hannah

put the book down on the bed, the shot

showed her perfectly playing it down.

hted

Colour/ Typography

Colour

In supernatural horror it is typical to have a colour wash over

the clips, therefore we used an effect on all our work and took

out some of the brighter colours to reinforce the dull

atmosphere. To make it our own, we used after effects to

blacken out Hannah‟s eyes which portrayed her as being

possessed.

Typography

The text in supernatural horror is often red to connote blood

and death, so we used a dark brown red which implies just this.

Also our title is very bold and obvious, to allow the audience to

see the name and understand what the opening and film is

going to be about. The title is written by itself, reinforcing the

idea of the supernatural.

Title order

1

2

4

3

8

7

6

5We ordered the titles, with the distributor

first followed by the actors, then the

producers, the film editor and finally the

director because the director is seen as

the most important. Finally we had the

title of the film come up „Possessed‟

across the screen and the opening

continued. We put the tile in the middle of

the opening so that it didn‟t look like a

trailer.

CameraBirds eye shots for the establishing shot are quite often

used in supernatural horror, however we challenged

this convention by having an establishing shot placing

you with the character Hannah in her home, so she was

more relatable. Also handheld camera shots are quite

often used, which we used in the shots when Hannah

saw the spirit twice in the room suddenly. Shaky camera

work is sometimes used to show the fear of the

characters, however we kept most of our shots quite

still so that when the cutting rate sped up, it would build

tension.

One of our shots was inspired by Donnie

Darko. The shot when he gets out of the bus

and it turns from the side to straight. The shot

creates a sense of unease and make the

viewers feel on edge, that was our aim with

our shot.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social GroupsCharacters

Hannah is a young, white, American, middle class girl, which could be seen as stereotypical as she is

vulnerable, and weak and ends up killing herself.

The spirit is a women which isn‟t stereotypical, because she is the killer and possessor – this was inspired by

The Women in Black (James Watkins, 2012), as the spirits past experiences have led her to become this evil

creature.

The main protagonist, Bridget, is a young, white, British, middle-class girl who destroys the possessor by the

end of the film.

All the characters are white middle class, teenagers,

this is because it‟s aimed at young adult marker,

who are more attracted to own age group. There are

no black, ethnic, minority groups and no males in

our opening. If we made the rest of the film, males

would appear but we have no males as main

characters. This reflects the film as non-patriarchal

because males aren‟t dominant.

Representations Hannah is represented negatively because she is

easily led to be possessed, she shows no bravery or

ability to fight for herself, this therefore reinforces

the residual ideology that women are weak. In The

Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel

Myrick 1999) the lead character is a women who

ends up being taken by the witch, and throughout

the film becomes weaker and weaker.

The ghost is represented negatively because she is a

killer, but at the same time she is a women and has the

ability to be strong and powerful which isn‟t stereotypical.

This is a regressive ideology because there is a strong

female in the lead. If all the women in our opening died

then the film wouldn‟t survive in this modern day.

However the main protagonist from the rest of the film

beats the evil spirit. The binary opposition challenged the

residual ideology that women are weak. A male doesn‟t

have to come and save the day, Bridget fights for herself

portraying a strong woman.

For example, in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) the

lead women get‟s away from her mad husband with her

little boy, and she shows herself as independent.

ConstructionMise-en-scene

The tear that falls from her cheek connotes her

vulnerability by non-verbal language

Sound

When the music box is heard, it immediately brings the

audience back to a childhood noise, which could

compare her to a child or compare her actions to those

of a child because she is unable to control herself and

easily led.

Throughout the opening the girl doesn‟t say a single

word which reinforces the residual ideology that women

are „seen and not heard‟ again like a child. The only time

we hear her make noise is when she is chocking which

implies she is vulnerable.

Camera

The extreme close up shots we created show her

emotion and the fact she‟s being so possessed by this

monster

Editing

The black eyes we edited on Aftereffects show that she

is possessed easily and therefore is a weak character.

Construction

The blackened out eyes

portray Hannah is possessed

The shot is a close-up

showing that she is

completely under the control

of this spirit

Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

Online toolsThe Internet (Google)- I used Google to search ideas, for example conventions of the genre and also other

title sequences, overall it was there to help me do research.

We live in the modern world with we media/ web 2.0, meaning that it gives audiences the ability to interact

with media content. “We” implies that the Internet is a participatory media, so it allows us to personalise

content, including media content. That‟s why the internet would help us promote our film opening to

audiences.

Prezi- I used Prezi to present ideas for our concept development, this meant I could visualize our finial

project and develop our ideas.

Survey Monkey- this allowed us to create a

survey and question people on our ideas, then

we got feedback for our final piece.

YouTube- We exported our finished production

onto YouTube so we could market it through

various forms of media such as social

networking. I personally used YouTube to

research title sequences to analyze and also

shots that inspired me from films to use in our

opening piece.

Facebook- YouTube enabled me to post our

horror opening on Facebook so that my friends

could view it, and some of them shared it so

their friends could view it.

Filming our workWhen filming our work we used

Alex‟s canon 60D camera for all the shots

because it creates clear shots that were perfect

for our piece and we could easily adjust

brightness and contrast

A tripod to keep the shots as safe and still as

possible

The issues with the camera

We had to use lots of lighting, like large lights to

brighten our set so that the shots weren‟t grainy.

It meant we could always edit the shots and make

them darker afterwards., to create a spooky effect.

Also we had to board up one of the windows in

the garage, so that the camera couldn‟t be seen in

the shots.

Issues with lighting

The only problem we faced with lighting was

keeping the continuity perfect, this meant we had to

keep checking the shots so that the lighting didn‟t

differ too much.

Aspects of editingThis here is the paint pallet that we

used to to change the colour of the

font to a red-brown to connote horror

and blood.

This is where we

changed the font,

we choose

‘suicide draft’

which we

downloaded from

a website, it is

long and slanted

and gives a

spooky effect to

our piece.

We placed the

text around the

sides so that

the action

wasn’t missed

Font and Text

Aspects of editing

Colour Grading

This is a key shot

where the colour

grading has been

used to create a

dark shot which is

very effective in

our piece, it

creates a sense of

suspense because

Hannah is walking

through the dark

towards her fate.

The contrast and brightness was

also pulled down a little bit,

portraying the conventions of

dark, scary horror movies

We pulled the

saturation down

a lot to remove

some of the

colour, and

create a dull

effect

Aspects of editing

Sound editing

- diegetic = cutting

of the throat and

chocking

-jump sound when

the spirit appeared

We added sound

to create tension:

- non-diegetic

background

ambient sound

was constant all

the way through

- the music box

In this shot where Hannah is shown slicing

her neck, a sound effect was used for the

slice. This was used to create verisimilitude,

as if she had actually sliced her neck