Evaluation activity 1

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

During the time of our opening sequence of a horror film we had decided to incorporate a variety of codes and conventions from our chosen horror genre for example dark clothing, dim lighting, and scary location all of these different element that we had included would help make it easier for the audience to understand what the film Is about as well it will create a clear atmosphere for the setting of the film. . As a group we agreed that we all wanted to create something different and unpredictable that our target audience would enjoy so we had thought of the idea of the basement. Which was about the idea is that the storyline will be based on a house haunted by a spirit. The opening sequence begins with a typical night, Blaire organises a movie night in with her boyfriend, creating a romantic atmosphere with a candle lit room and dimmed lights. She lights the last candle and picks up her phone to text her boyfriend, She tells him “Can’t wait for you to come over, this is going to be a perfect night.” She sets her phone aside. Then, focused on getting the movie started; she walks towards the television across the room, switches it on and grabs the remote control. Whilst focused on the TV, behind her we see a figure in a white dress staring into the room through the door (Anne); (only the audience will see this) the figure then walks away before Blaire turns around. She sits on the sofa with the remote control in one hand, when suddenly she hears whispers from the hallway. She jumps to her feet and approaches the living room door as the whispers stop, she opens the living room door and then looks to the right and then the left (the direction of the basement) the basement door then slowly creeks open, the whispers begin again, this time, louder, she takes a few steps closer to the and reaches out to open it further, As she opens it, a longing basement of darkness stares back at her, she takes three steps forward, and reaches out to switch the light on, when she does, the light flickers on, she walks down the stairs (about 4 steps down), Blaire stares at her and the basement door slams shut behind her and the screen turns to black.

The title of our film, the basement is displayed at the very end of our opening sequence in red as the red had connoted the blood and the revenge of the paranormal girl. Having the 'title-card' of the film shown towards the end of an opening sequence is a generic convention of supernatural horror. The idea of a 'title-card' is used across many genres are it make it clear forth audience to understand the titles, but more often in supernatural thrillers. The 'title-card' is a shot showing the name of the film; the text is normally stylized for example put into the scene and there may be an image associated with the narrative of the film. We have something akin to the convention of a 'title-card' - the name of our film is show in an artist text. Red is usually the coloure used to connote danger, however in our case it is also used to connote blood as both of these themes are clearly portrayed throughout or opening sequence as well as the rest of the film. We also decided to put the title against a dark background, not only to foreshadow the deathly, gothic theme of the movie but also to make the red title stand out more to the audience The text is crumbled, it looks as if it has been scratched or attacked, the connects with our antagonist who attacks our

protagonist Another generic convention we have followed is the use of a neutral/minimalist coloure for the text - in this case red. The colored red is favored particularly by supernatural thrillers we had use it to show love in the start of the story as she is getting ready for a date and then at the end to show her death. The basement was written in white to show that once it was pour and a clean place but after something tragic had happened. It is in capital letters which highlights the title as doe’s fact the background being black which means that only the title will be attended to. Furthermore, as the production ends on a cliff hanger, the sudden till being simple and blood makes it memorable and having noting in the background means that it will be memorable

Setting/Location

We decided to set our production in an old fashion house. In some ways this was not challenges because the forms and conventions of the horror genre as a lot of horror films are set in houses or familiar locations to make it more relatable but still we had to be careful of our surrounding as we had to work In tight places this meant were did not damage the property. However, we wanted our production to be set in a house that had dark and light lighting alos in the location we have area that

have objects that can be used to make the scene look scary. This would play on the audience’s fears that this could happen to them in their home and also it adds mysterious feel as the audience weren’t told very much about the location in our opening sequence. The setting of our final production was located in a house. This ensured that our audience could relate to the main character as it also followed the main codes and conventions of a real media product. As well as this is added a sense of realism to the production as it may have made the audience feel a lot more scared in their own houses after seeing the film. Also due to the different factors of the house we could create a sense of suspicion with the audience as to what is going to happen to her as the main character at home alone for the night.

Camerawork and Editing:

the director and I as the cameraman had to work close together as were had a lot of different ideas that both of use came up with as a group we had talk with each other and discussed what would be good to use In the film, moreover I had worked closely with the editor because I know what shots would be good to use want when it should fade in and out overall as the camera man I thought we had many different shots that we could have used but the editor did not use it.

In most supernatural thrillers, the pace of the editing is quite fast. However, our media product challenges this convention. The pace of our entire product is relatively held back.

The production hold a variety of shots which range from an establishing shot to an extreme close up shot. The productions .commences with an establishing shot / wide shot which has the protagonist walking in to the scene. then the use of the title and zoom emphasis the idea that the antagonist is watch the main character , this shot last for at least 3 seconds allowing the audience to take in the setting and also being to frighten them as the character is being watched . This simple shot leaves the audience wondering why this character is being watched and who is watching her.

More over editing, I recall sitting with the editor for most for the editing session she had and we had worked very well together, she would ensure that everything she collates make sense, look and sound good. We used transition such as fade and we also used a lot of match on action to simply make our production flow more and give it an overall smooth and good look.

Furthermore a few shots which may be classed as emblematic as the express the codes and convention of a horror film were firstly , the establishing shot which set the scene and add this the protagonist is she was walking into the scene this was creative as it had shown that some was looking at the main character . Through our POV handheld method, we had more room to possibly break the 180 degree rule, for effect, as the audience followed the action as it happened. We also used static amongst our shots to make our narrative more believable.

We used the generic shot types and movements, to help keep the audience engaged (despite the slower pace) and the action moving. For example, we used wide shots in the living room scenes to indicate the main characters.

The genre we chose for our opening sequence

A ‘supernatural thriller'. This is actually a sub-genre of the wider 'thriller' genre we had choses this because we could use a varithy of different shot and the location we were filming could have been fielded better are the objects that was in the location was able to be used. . We were able to make it clear what genre our opening sequence was with the use of a chilling non-diegetic score music this had made the audience tensed as they want to know what was going to happen, the building tension due to the appearances of the paranormal girl in a white dress and her hair down made the bit scary, dark colures, isolated antagonist, a supernatural antagonist and physical injuries

How the characters are introduced:

the protagonist was seen first seen as happy and looking forward to the night that she had got planed we had due this to show the contrast in the different character .This was not stereotypical of the horror genre as a victim is usually shown being killed to establish the horror genre such as in Scream. The fact that the identity of the killer is concealed until the end of the opening because the audience did not have a clear understand on how she had look but know that it was a girl because of the dress this had created fear of the audience as they did not know how it was this had

kept them in suspense

Costume and props

The protagonist, was wearing was exactly what we had intended when planning the costumes and props for the film. We wanted to stick to a neutral and basic costume of black and white We had use the normal clothing of the protagonist such as a plan top and we had chosen her to wear dark

colures clothing because we want it to have a small sign of death while on the other hand we had chosen the antagonist to wear white to connote that she was in fact the antagonist by the use of the pure white colors and innocent symbolism that it conveyed but we wanted to contrast it to the convention of a horror because we want to show that she wanted revenge and that the white gown which had connoted desperation

Genre and how the opening suggests it

Our final product creates a lot of unexpected surprises, which mirrors what majority of horror movies utilize in order to maintain the attention of their audiences. Within our product, the opening suggests something unusual, as the audience would not expect a thriller movie to be set/ located within a house, so this leads for an unexpected surprise diegetic sounds, which completed the eerie and mystical atmosphere and this is a code and convention used in many thrillers such as ‘The Ring’ Conclusively, the fast pace camera movement at the very end is a usual convention utilized within many thriller and horror movies. As well as this it leaves the audience wanting to experience