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

real media products?

Film

My media product, Entrada, consistently uses forms and conventions of existing media products from my research. Conventions including typical use of camera in existing short and featured horror films, music and sound effects, editing, mise en scene and narrative structure.

From my research I identified a number of camera angles, shots and movements which I found useful for the final film. One was allowing an inanimate to have characteristics of a human. I identified this technique from the short film, Mannequin. In my first draft of the film, the mask is seen hanging on the wall as though it is talking to Charlie. I used the technique I had seen in Mannequin to make it look as thought the mask has characteristics of a human, by creating a shot where the camera is slowly tracking in towards the mask. In another shot, I had Charlie sitting on the floor in front of it to show a sense of dominance of the mask over Charlie. You can also see this in Mannequin as there is a close-up of the mannequin’s face at a low angle.

Mannequin

Entrada

Film

Another convention my media product uses is the filmmaking style called “found-footage”, the film is completely viewed from a handheld camera or any other camera in the scene. I found that this was very popular in horror films and very effective when trying to make the audience jump as it looks more realistic than traditional filmmaking. Within my research of a found-footage film, I found many conventions that I found useful when making the final film. These include always looking in the direction that the character is, quick movements of the camera and switching between cameras. Example of these are found in popular feature films such as Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project and the short film A Final Message. In the final film, the whole film is filmed in this style and these conventions helped create a scare for the audience. For example, In The Blair Witch Project, the characters each had their camera attached to a torch. In my final product, there was a scene where Cole is split up from the other two. He hears noises and looks around and quickly changes direction. The camera featured a light onboard so it was easy to achieve this convention. Unfortunately one of the cameras didn’t have this so we held a separate torch in the other hand to keep this convention featured throughout the film. I used this convention so that people could easily see what the character was also seeing when In the dark.

Entrada The Blair Witch Project

Film

Switching between different cameras in the scene was another conventions in the scene that felt useful when developing the story. This gave me opportunities to see things from different angles, see what each person is seeing if it was important. This is done a lot in found-footage films such as The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity series. It was very easy filming this because it didn’t have to be filmed at the same time as it could be just edited together in post-production. A good example of this is shown in The Blair Witch Project. In the final scene, the characters are in a house and can hear someone shouting downstairs. Once the character goes downstairs we hear a loud thud as the camera is dropped. The view is then switched to another characters camera at a different location. I’ve tried to challenge this convention by switch the cameras more frequently. When Cole is split up from Timmy and Danny, the camera switches between both Cole’s camera and Timmy’s camera. We also know that they are in two different locations because Timmy and Danny are shouting for Cole, but when we switch to Cole’s camera we can’t hear anything in the distance. To help the audience notice this even more, I made sure their names were on screen at all times. This convention helped a lot to give the audience a sense of loneliness towards Cole at this time.

SWITCH

SWITCH

Film

Other than conventions of camera use, I have also used and challenged the forms and conventions of music and sound effects. Even though music is only used in the first scene and the credits, I have tried my best to challenge the conventions with that time. The sound effects are used throughout the film whether its used as diegetic sound or to be as part of the motion graphics or visual effects.

The music used in the first scene of the film consist mainly of violins and horns. This is what I had identified in the films I had researched. In the short film, Scrambled, there are times where high-pitched violins can be heard very subtle. This type of music is used as a tool to create suspense. I have used this in the first scene, which shows a brief origin of how the spirit consumed Charlie as his host. During the first few shots, I had added a high-pitched violin soundtrack subtly as well, which fitted the scene quite well as Charlie’s mother, as well as the audience, are eager to know what Charlie is doing upstairs.

Film

As I said before, the sound effects are used as either diegetic sounds or sounds that are part of the motion graphics or visual effects, which are also diegetic sounds. There are many sound effects used throughout the film to immerse the audience in fear. These sounds include the whispering sound that comes from the mask, running sounds, stick breaks and many more. I will talk about the diegetic sounds used in the film. When looking at the short film, A Final Message, the two characters hear many noises which causes them to investigate where they came from, which would have the same effect on the audience watching it. In my final media product, I attempted to challenge this convention of finding out where these sounds came from. In one scene, all three of them are in a tent, sleeping, apart from Timmy, and the sound of something running wakes them up. They then exit the tent to investigate. I used this convention because I wanted them to investigate and find something that makes them want to leave the woods. In other words, I used it to develop the story faster so that the audience wasn’t bored with pointless shots of Timmy playing with his camera.

Film

I will now talk about the non-diegetic sound effects that help with the motion graphics such as title sequences and also the diegetic sounds used with visual effects. The sound effects that were non-diegetic weren’t used very often but were effective when they did. Music ad sound effects are used frequently in the title sequences of the films I’ve researched. For example, the title sequence of Scrambled has a short music track playing over it. In my final product, I challenged that by adding very subtle but noticeable wind sound over the title sequence. It gives a very spooky effect that makes the audience eager to know what comes next.

The sound effects used with visual effects make the shots more realistic. An example of where I have used a sound effect along with visual effects is towards the end of the film when Timmy has stabbed the spirit in the neck. When the spirit drops to the ground, a bright light emits from the mask. As the light flashes to its brightest, I added the sound of a ‘woosh’ to match it. This allowed me to create the illusion that this sound came from the mask itself.

Poster

The poster of the film uses many different conventions used in existing posters for horror films. The first is the colour scheme used in on poster. On most of the posters, the colour scheme would primarily be black, white and two other colours. I decided to challenge this convention by only using one additional colour other than black and white. This makes the theme more visible to audience.I would say that my poster relates the most to the design of The Haunting poster. You can see this as I have shown the three main characters’ face, showing a seriousness which makes the audience wonder what for. I have also shown the location of where the film is set underneath these faces as is seen in The Haunting poster. Not only just the location but showing what lies inside it, which is the Ghost, rather than the eyes on The Haunting poster.

Review

My review also uses a lot of conventions from my research. Since it was a double page spread there were a lot of sections that I could use from existing reviews that were in my research. These sections include, the fun facts about the making of the film, the essential facts of the film such as release date, run time etc., and also the conventions of the main images used on the page.

I also decided to challenge the conventions of the review in existing magazines. In these magazines, the designers use their colour scheme for the review. But in mine, I chose not to do this and follow the colour scheme of the film used in the poster, which was blue, black and blue. I also challenged the product by adding the poster of the film in the review. None of the existing reviews that I had researched featured the poster of the film in the review. I thought it would good to have the poster of the film next to the verdict section of the double page spread. Which gives the audience more taste of the film when finishing reading the review.