QUESTION 1-IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

Erica Hall

As part of the task of our media products we had to consider many different horror conventions. We could either use some that are already exits as horror convention, play around and develop them further or challenge them so its different. The main horror conventions that expected to see in most horror films are isolated location, sound, blood, death, final girl, jock, and geek girl and boy.

I have selected 11 frames from our final product explain the conventions uses. 

Frame 1

In this frame in the background there is a school, with three schoolgirls walking out of it. This suggests that they are very innocent and it sets the scene of the horror film, as you wouldn't expect anything happen to the girls. Also the fact that the girls are leaving at quite a gloomy and dull time it makes the girls look vulnerable and this makes it appropriate for a horror film. Furthermore the girls look very involved with school due to that fact they are holding folders and books, which show the audience, they are willing to work.Also in this scene we had the camera on a tripod and the effect it gave was very professional as the establishing shot of the place was very noticeable and also made the people stand out within the shot. If this part was hand held I don’t think it would have looked as effective because we wanted it to stand out that the school was significant to the personality of the three girls.

The clothes that they are wearing are typical American film style clothes that they would wear in a horror film. One of the films in which gave us the idea of this is "Friday The 13th". The clothes are very casual and also one person is in sports wear in which Ericka is in ours. We have played on the fact she is wearing sports clothes is because its meant to represent that she is a strong character and would be able to defend and protect herself but actually she is the one that week and isn’t able to escape the killer.I think the idea of having quite chilled out clothes makes them all seem the same. In a horror film this is key because it’s a mystery and nobody's know who the killer is and it makes him or her all look similar.

Frame 2

This frame is showing the girls walking towards the woods entrance. This shot we decided to focus more on the location of the place. From frame one the shot is very open and freely but suddenly it brought to a narrow and more compact setting. This mean the girls with in the shot have to become closer to on another which emphasis the fact it’s the last time they will be this close together. The setting and the way the characters act can give hints to the audience of something that might happen. Furthermore the lighting within the clip is very gloomy and most horror films have a gloomy effect to make it more dramatic and horrific atmosphere.

One of the films that we were influenced by was “Blind Alley” and firstly I like the idea from the title. The word Blind suggest if you go down an alley you wouldn’t know what to expect and this is what we want the audience to feel from our movie. The fact that the walls are enclosing the area it show the audience that there is no where to run and once they are there then it means there is no way out. In our film we have showed this more through one character, as she is the one that gets killed.

Frame 3

This frame works a lot on how the camera is positioned as it is through the trees. The trees give the spookiness of the horror film as they scatted and enclosed to the entrance of the woods. This is from the killers point of view so it emphasis that something bad is going to happen and the fact that it is before they arrive at the woods it suggest that the killer has its eyes on the target. Point of view shot are a conventions of horror are this reflect how the killer is feeling and what he may do to strike a scene

This picture has the same effect that we do in our film as it show the killer want to strike and hurt the girls. The fact in our horror film has three girls it shows the innocents that girls can have. The picture is a shot from “Night Mare on Elm Street”. It seems that most of the shot from the killer’s point of view are in medium shot this is probably because the killer is able to see the area that they are in and who there victims

Frame 4

This shot is similar to the one above and links in with the points that I made but the killer has its eyes more on the target of the victim that it wants. We can tell from this shot as it victim is close the killer is staying in a more significant hiding place and this is suggest by the tree having leaves and the camera is looking through a smaller gap. I think this creates suspense to the audience as we to hints that something might happen now. Also the lighting in this scene is dull around the leaves and brighter where the girl (Ericka) is walking past and this shows her innocent life and how chilled she is.

 Frame 5

This shot is of the killers feet which is a little bit of iconography because when ever the audience see this they will be able to tell that the killer is there. The fact that there is a close up on the feet shows that the killer at the moment wants to keep their identity hidden and this happens a lot in horror films. Furthermore the fact that it looks like the killer is taking small steps it suggest to the audience that he is creeping up on it final out come. This was done effectively in scream, as you never actually knew where the killer was only by the iconography of the weapon and mask

Frame 6

This shot suggest a lot about horror films. Firstly the location as it is set in woods and as the place isn’t full of people and not popular it straightaway suggests that it’s a perfect place of a horror film to take place. People tend to avoid woods as it enclosed with trees and isolated from anything else. This frame shows Ericka looking around as she noticed some kind of noise. Another thing that is very effective is as part of the sound and the diegetic sound of the twigs cracking as it sounds like something is approaching and with the fear on the girls face we can tell that so is suspicious that she can hear something that is around her. Also from this we can tell that is a stereotypical sports person as she is grabbing her basketball as part of her defence and doesn’t want to lose it.

This is a shot from Cabin in the woods and I think this has influenced, as most with the staging and the look we wanted to get across to the audience. This is shown through the fact that the person is in fear and has something as part of their defence. Also there is no one else within the shot, which then again suggest that they are alone and has no one for protection. Furthermore in horror films the killer will often victimise the people who are alone because there is none to get for help and it makes it easier for them to attack.

Frame 7

This frame also emphasis on her stereotype of a good sports person as she is running as she hear lots of noise and saw someone in the distance. To add to this we have challenge the fact of her being the jock as stereotypically it’s the male character in this play this character because they are shown as stronger. The fact that she is running suggest that she will be quick enough to escape from the killer but yet to know she doesn’t really have any common sense because after this she just stands behind a tree, instead of escaping. This is where we challenge a convention because the audience will expect her to be a strong and fast character that would be able to escape and protect anyone else but she is the one who is hurt. I think we did this effectively because as watching the whole clip in the audience point of view you would think it is the quite one that would get caught out.

Frame 8

This is another significant screen as it shows a lot of iconography. One that we already said was the shoes but there is also the rope and the mask now. I think this has been done very well as the identity of the killer is still being hidden behind the mask and we can’t tell who at all who it is. In this scene we focus completely on the person/killer because this is the first time we able to see the whole body. The film “Friday the 13th” influenced the looks of our character.

We liked the idea of the mask covering the face so we don’t know who it is and also gives a spooky look with it being whit and because when people going white it means there is something wrong with them and this demonstrate that the killer (Jason) is different and strange to anyone else. On our mask we decided to cover it in blood to show that the killer has done other stuff before and so it afraid of anything. Also with Jason from Friday the 13ths his jacket is similar colour to the wood as it is brown and blends in well so he is well hidden, we have also gone for this effect so it shows like it the killers home and is use to the area in which he committees murder in. Lastly we decide to challenge the weapon that we choose to use because most horror films use knifes and axe as their weapons in which they kill with. As children like to make swings out of wood in woods we thought this would be a really good weapon to have as we have a setting of woods.

Frame 9

This frame really reflects the personality of Ericka and how she doesn’t have common sense. The first thing that is noticed is she is looking the wrong way and lets go of her basketball which then tells the kill where she is. There is suspense also created in this clip because we know the killer can see her and we don’t know when he will strike, I think the iconography is effective because the killer himself makes him stand out. I think this because of the fact the killer is holdings the rope which suggest to the audience that it will be used very soon and also the way that it is being held with both hands and the look that the killer is giving the girl. Through my research in an audience point of view of watching a horror I see people like hiding in a cupboard in which they can’t get out and this straight emphasis that they going to get killed, so by the ball rolling we have just fully emphasised that she will get hurt.

Frame 10

 The fear on Ericka face is very strong as she doesn’t have any back up to help her only option which she took was to scream but by the facial expression on her face she knows it’s too late. Most horror film have a very dramatic and horrific scene when it comes to the victim getting hurt by the killer as it takes time and build up to get to this part so the directors like that part to be the most significant and this is what we have done through different camera angles and sound through out our clip to lead up to this.

Frame 11

This is one of the main conventions within a horror film and that is the blood. This is to make is more dramatic as when people see blood that know something horrible must have happened. The challenged this a little as most horror film you expect to see a lot of blood but we decided to cut it down and have a little dripping down from when she was hung. The colour of it is red which emphasis the angry and determination that the killer has with hanging people and making people suffer through pain. I think scream was the film that influences us most on how much blood we were going to use because the killer gets straight to the point in our film and also scream. In scream he usually stabbed someone once and then he is finished and the blood that he sees is mostly on his knife, which isn’t very much.

Sound

The sound is a key convention of horror as it builds up the main part of the horror film. From listening to different sound track we were mostly influenced by the tract from “dead silence” as we wanted something that built up to the thing that happened. The music that were thought would work best is music that fades in and gets louder and it makes the audience think of when something might happen and leaves them in suspense as they have no idea ad the track them repeats itself.

Conventions not Included

Jock- We did include this but our jock which was Ericka as she was made out to be the bigger character was soon lost due to the fact we played around with her character to make the audience have different opinions on her as the film goes on.Geek girl/boy- we decided not to have these, as we want a group of friends that were very similar to get other and had the same sort of personality just different hobbies. I think if we had included this our film wouldn’t have worked as well as there would have had to have been more dialect and the amount we had was very effective and it was very mystery like.Dumb-We didn’t really have a dumb character that was very emphasised; we just had a character without common sense. We decided to not use this as we wanted it to be more original and not common so it create suspense to the audience as they wont know what might happen.

Theme

The theme of our movie was teen and slasher as the three girls attend a high school and this is suggest right at the beginning when the are walking out from school. I think by having a teen cast shows the innocent within the characters well because they are only young and only just staring life. Furthermore it is slasher because of the killer going around and killing people, I think before of the themes work well together. This was influence through scream as this is the same sort of thing that we wanted to do but we attempted it in different ways.