Evaluation

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

The general conventions of Horror films are that the lighting is low key in a lot of horror films when the action happens this creates suspense and tension for the audience.Typically diagetic sound usually includes talking, screaming, foot steps, trees rustling this all ties in with the lighting because all these diagetic sounds create suspense and tension for the audience. The non- diagetic sound in horror films is the echo's, the eerie music, creepy creeks in the floor and other things. More conventions is the location most horror films are either set in a creepy external environment (woods, fields or parks) or the other is low key creepy internal environment (houses, abandoned factories or cellars etc), from the location conventions of horror it sets the mood and tone of the scene and the film. The costumes in horror films are generally recognisable for example the killer in films wears dark clothes so that you cannot see the killers face and the victim is generally a good looking young female victim so that the audience feels sorry for her and they do not know who the killer is. Editing in horror films is generally slow paced and then some invisible cuts and fased paced cuts because it creates suspense when it slows down and then when it speeds up the audience is ready for it and then they jump when it actually happens. Props also in horror films are used to create suspense the general convention of a weapon in horror films is usually blunt items or things like knives. Conventions of the binary oppositions are things like 'good vs evil' and 'killer and victims', and we expect to see there in Horror films. We would expect to see the title after the credits at the beginning of the films opening but all the credits and the title should come after the production logo. The enigma's created also are conventions in them selves because they create questions that the audience want the film to be answered before the end and the questions answered are asked at the beginning.

This is a classic example of all the above conventions because it has all of them on:



All of these conventions work together to create suspense and tension for the audience so that they enjoy the film and the thrill of it, they also know whats coming so that theyexpect it and then the director can suprise the audience by making nothing happen then a sudden jump factor comes into it.

We have used, developed and challenged a range of these conventions.

The conventions we used that were kept the same as other horror film conventions:

·         The weapon we used in the production was a hammer this sticks to the convention of weapons in horror films because in some films they use hammers as the killing weapon. The audience knows what will happen with the hammer they just do not know when so it creates suspense.

This is the same as Horror film conventions because a lot of Horror film's use blunt weapons or things like knives for example in scream the weapon of choice is a knife, for example:

·         The young female victim, creates sympathy because she is young attractive and she has a younger sister or a daughter it is not really made very clear but all we can tell is that the young girl will not be looked after because her sister/ mother has been taken.

Horror films use attractive young actors because it draws male and female audiences, for example in the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre Jessica Biel is the victim:

·         The point of view shot when the hammer hits the woman, in the background the tree branches and the tops of houses these shots are used quite regularly in horror films because it is a good way to show the audience what is coming to the victim.

In the film Psycho the point of view shot is similar because it show her seeing the knife, for example:

·         The setting in the cellar is very popular in horror films because it has low key lighting which makes the audience weary of what will happen next.

Just like in the film The Messengers where the ghosts are in the basement/ cellar and that is where a lot of the film is set, for example:

·         In the production, gender is represented as males being dominant, in charge and powerful. Whereas the woman is represented as being weak, useless and not at all in charge. This is  a common convention of horror because of the way the camera is used the males are seen in low angle shots making them look big and the females in high angleshots  because it shows how small they are in the production.

·         Non- diagetic sound is used in horror films for example the music is mostly eerie and scary we have used eerie and scary music, the sound effects used such as echo's are there to create suspense and a sense of the film being twisted

·         The lighting is low key because it is a horror film, we used this because the connatation of low key lighting is that something bad is going to happen and that the mood has changed, the audience automatically knows that either something bad is going to happen or that they are about to be spooked.

In the film saw a lot of the film is set in low key lighting because it is a common convention, for example:

·         The young woman is wearing everyday clothing so that the audience knows that she is the victim in all of this and it signifies that she has no idea this man wants to take her, he sister/ daughter is wearing her pj's signifying that she is young at that it is her bed time soon. Showing the audience that she is vulnerable and they feel sympathy for her and the little girl when the young woman is taken.

·         The enigma's created are questions like:

·         Who is the hooded man?

·         Why is he doing this?

·         What relation is she to the little girl?

·         What are the other dead bodies doing there?

·         Where is the girl and the bodies being kept?

All these questions are answered throughout the film but are made at the beggining. These are conventions because they are sticking to the convention  of horror.

Developed conventions in our production basically means that the normal things we expect to see in a horror have been changed slightly but not completly different to the conventions, here are some we used:

·         The time we have set ours at is dusk and the significance of this is that horror films are set at night normally and we have used the opportunity to challenge the idea of horror's being set at night.

In the film Nightmare On Elm Street the setting is at night' for example:

·         The use of titles and credits in our production has been developed because the original way to set out film titles and credits is to have the title after the credits but we have decided to put the title befor the credits and have the logo before all of this, this. This is good because the audience will not be expecting it so they will have a change of orders in which they watch it which will automatically get them involved and interested.

Whereas in Most film's the order of titles is this:

·         The costumes that the male killer is wearing has been developed because when you watch a horror, the killer/ murderer is wearing dark, robbery clothes but in our production we have made the killer look everyday so that he fits in to the everyday street that he walked up to start with. The man is wearing everyday clothes that also are dark and mysterious so that the audience still thinks who is this. The idea of the hood is to keep the identity of the killer mysterious because if the audience knows who it is right away it is not as scary.

Whereas in most Horror films the killer wears costumes we recognise or that we can tell that they are the killer for example Jason Voorhees from the film Friday The 13th, for example:

We also challenged conventions in our production. This means that the conventions have been completly changed, here are examples of what conventions we challenged in our production:

·         The narrative in our production is non- linear but in most horror films the narrative is linear this is because the idea of horror films are not to confuse the audience but to make sense so that  they can guess who the killer is etc. The use of non- linear narrative in our production makes it unique also because only a handful of horror's have used non- linear narrative.We know it is non- linear because the 2 minute film opening is the end of the film and then after the 2 minutes it shows you why this is happening, so it goes back in time.

·         The fact that the scene was set on the side of the busy road when in alot of horror films thay are set in a urban quite environment because then the audience thinks that the killer will get away with it so that he/ she can keep killing and not get away with it until the end of the film.

Whereas in horror films it is set in a rural or empty area, for example in Sleepy Hollow the film is set in a small village away from city's and in a creepy wood:

In my conclusion I think that the conventions of horror films have been developed and challenged well in my production because the idea of horror being predictable and samey is boring and horror would just get boring but when conventions are developed and challenged especially in our production, it makes the idea of horror much more enjoyable.