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

EVALUATION:- Question 1.

There are many types of film conventions and it depends on your genre to which of these conventions apply to you.

However there are many film conventions which tend to apply to the majority of film openings in all genre’s. There are a few

which are certain to apply to all film openings, such as:-

• Production company logo’s are certain to be within the opening of all films, but can be changed to fit with the tone/mood of the film.

The Conventions of Film Openings.

Titles and credits: you don't see all the credits within the opening as these tend to come at the end of the film; however you normally see the more important credits and titles such as the producer, director, main actors, the title of the film, sound operators and production company’s within the first few minutes. The main actors/characters are usually introduced, with the use of mise-en-scene. The music and lighting helps to set the tone and mood of the film, it usually has an establishing shot to set the story, scene, date and location. Normally there is enigma created within the opening to hook the viewer to watch the remainder of the film.

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Conventions of HORROR Film Openings.Horror conventions tend to create lots of enigma, the lighting is low-key, with certain types of music which may alter suddenly. The location which is associated with horrors' are ones such as a woods, a haunted mansion or out on the moors which is open countryside. The time of day is normally night time as this helps set the tone of the film better.

In the opening of a film characters are usually introduced, in a horror these are stereotypically a vulnerable woman or young child, with a 'bad' guy wearing dark clothing with a weapon of sorts, or sometimes a supernatural being. These are the typical horror conventions of the opening few minutes, but there are more depending on the type of film.

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o Mise-en-Sceneo Editingo Lightingo Camera Shotso Sound

When looking at other Films.What we had in mind…

Mise-en-SceneC – Costume L – Lighting A – Actors M – Make-upP – Props S – Setting

PropsSetting

Conventions:- We UsedWe have used an establishing shot at the beginning of the film opening, these are normally used in the majority of film openings. We introduced the main character within 30 seconds, and spot the other many times within the opening.We have used a production company logo.The title is on a black background that fills the screen, this tends to be typical in horrors.Sound – The music is broody which fits the mood and tone.Editing – The editing is quick in places which is regularly used in horror films.

We created this using Photoshop, it appears at the beginning of the two minutes.

Conventions:- We Developed

We have used a flashback which is usually seen in horror films, however we developed this by it not been the persons memory. Location – We developed this from an ordinary cellar, to a pub cellar.Characters – The ghost is casual which is not a convention of ghosts in horror movies, yet she is still a ghost which are.

This is what appears on the screen just before the ‘flashback’ takes place.

Conventions:- We ChallengedFor the flash-back we used a white ‘flash’ which tend to be for happy memory's, this however was not a happy memory. Costume – The ghosts costume is normal clothing, this is not usual for horrors or ghosts in general.Actors – We made the men vulnerable ones which is not stereotypical for any genre of film. The females in the opening are not represented in a certain way, this makes the audience think about their characters, so you don’t find out what they're like until later on, this creates enigma.

White flashback flash but for a scary memory instead of happy, this lures the audience to a flash sense of safety.

When in the planning stage of our film we watched many horror’s to get ideas on who to base our characters on. We got the main idea for the ghost from the girl out of ‘Let Me In’ who is a vampire, we thought that the “bad guy” being female would challenge stereotypes.Another film of which we acquired a suggestion for our characters was from ‘The Roommate’.

Characters.

Whilst getting idea’s for the location of our film we came across the typical woods and haunted houses, however we wasn’t keen on these idea’s. We kept looking at different types of films from different times/years and came across ‘The Burbs’ and ‘The Beast in the Cellar’ which were both set in a cellar. We quite liked this idea but decided to develop it further by making it into a pub cellar instead of one in a house.

Location.

Editing.

We decided to use fast editing in places, we decided to use this convention as many of the horror films we analysed had quick editing which was effective. However we decided to develop this by using some slower editing in places, we did this so the audience were able to keep up with the storyline. We also decided to use slow editing in places with random fast flashes of the ghost, this made the film more ‘jumpy’ and helped create tension. Ghosting is an effect which we used to make the ghost have a ‘fuzzy’ effect, this makes the ghost look more ghostly.

Our title.

Lighting.

For the lighting we didn’t use the convention of low key lighting all the way through the film, instead we challenged this and used the natural lighting for the outside scenes and dim artificial lighting for the inside scenes. By doing this we were able to make certain parts of our opening stand out against the rest. It also makes the audience more relaxed until the sudden black-outs which then shocks the audience. We decided to do this throughout the film as it means that it’s hard to tell when something sudden is about to happen making the film more jumpy.

We didn’t use the typical lighting for the scary bits of the horror, this would surprise the viewers more.

Props.

When watching different horror movies there was a great number of different props used, such as chainsaws and hammers. We didn’t want to use these types of props as we didn’t think they fitted the tone of our film very well.Instead we decided to make the props casual day to day things which you normally see laying around, such as bottles, a basket and flowers. We did also use barrels and crates as props, we used these props as they fit with the setting well and were needed in the storyline in the opening and later on in the film.

We didn’t use the typical props within the opening, as we challenged this convention.

Camera Shots.

Whilst watching horror films we noticed that many of them have handheld shots or shaky shots somewhere within them, we thought that this would work well in our film as it helps create tension throughout the film. We use quite a few handheld shots which is alsoseen in films such as ‘paranormal activity’. In places we used POV shots, mainly in the graveyard as it made the scene seem more emotional than it would have done with out the POV of the grave, for the POV we made the camera wobble abit to make it look as though the person was cracking from all the emotion. However in certain places we decided to use very still shots which made the shakier shots look more impressive.

Conclusion.

In conclusion I feel that we have used the majority of conventions, however we have also developed and

challenged a fair amount. We decided to have a mixture of using, developing and challenging as we thought it would

benefit the film most as it would be a good way to create a lot of enigma to keep the audience hooked to watch the

rest of the film.