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

forms and conventions of real media products.

Tears

Tears is a video that I used in my research whilst preparing for the making of my opening sequence. Whilst watching tears, I focused mainly on the aspects of mise-en-scene,

as the mise-en-scene is very effective and helpful towards the opening we made. I did focus on all

elements such as sound, camera work, editing etc. but the main focus was the mise-en-scene, as the other

videos I researched focused on the different elements so the research was not biased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K136askLqTc

How I have challenged tears and developed through mise-en-scene

How I have challenged Tears Through my ResearchFrom the mise-en-scene, it wasn’t clear where and when the film was set, as it was based in a deserted area. It is an area that as the audience we are not able to identify the location. However, in our opening scene, we challenged this as we used a graveyard, a location that can be identified which is generalised as an uneasy place, which we hoped to be very effective. As an audience, the only information we could gather although it was very little was that there were two girls, one being the little girl on the swing and the other being the scary character. We challenged this idea, as we used three characters, involving a young girl, a scary girl but also a hero. The hero is based in a more modern house, which contrast to the olden idea of a graveyard. We originally wanted to use the idea of a villain and a innocent young girl, like in tears, but we decided that in order to make our opening scene a unique style, we changed the formation of the opening. The idea of making a horror meant that from our research, we had to identify aspects of mise-en-scene that we could use an if challenged, would still fit into the genre.

How I have challenged real products in general

There was not much aspects of the mis-en-scene that we challenged as we figured that to keep the opening in its particular genre, a same atmosphere must be given to the audience to make it a horror. This includes locations, characters, props, costumes etc. Most characters tended to be girls as it is stereotyped that they’d be victims in a horror movie. Also, location tend to be simple and unidentifiable whilst costumes tend to be simple and unusual. Therefore, instead of challenging this, we developed on this, as we used simple but horror type locations, but also used titles with effects that do not give a friendly approach.

How I have developed tears through my research

There was one thing that intrigued me whilst watching tears which was the simplicity of the use of costume. To be sure that the

audience can gather that there is a ‘scary character’ and a innocent young girl, the girl had to be dressed casually but simple, not

over extravagant whilst the ‘scary character’ dressed in a more unusual, simple and old style look. This create the sense that

there is an old, scary and frightening person, a common theme of horror movies, haunting a young child, which creates the

source of tension. Also, another theme that reoccurred throughout was that there was not any sign of any other people in the

scenes, which we also tried to adapt to make it seem that the area is deserted and contains a haunted atmosphere. One thing

that I noticed about the location was that most people would stereotypically expect the scene to be in the time of the night, but

what I realised from tears was that the time of the day can be as effectfull in a horror opening scene if the location, costumes,

blocking and props are used right. We developed on this created our sequence during the day, using minimal but effective

costumes, props and location to make the scene genuine.

How I have real produdeveloped cts in general

Most opening that fit into this genre will consist of not only characters that are mysterious but identifiable to the audience, but also

an item or object which is usually a central theme of the movie. For example, items such as old jewlerry, chest boxes or items that

are valuable in a persons eyes are usually what creates the negativity in a horror movie. This type of prop creates more mystery

than the characters as the characters are built up around the mystery of something, which in some cases are valuables. We

developed on this as we used a necklace with a large gem, which to the audience is concerning and mysterious.

Locations were deserted and simple, similar to our product

The title sequence in the real product had effect on a black background which we developed

The woman in black

As I researched the mise-en-scene using the opening sequence

of Tears, I researched the use of sound in the opening of the

woman in black. I chose this video because it gave me a lot of

ideas on how sound should be produced, and how it attracts the

audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z_XetLZlqc

How I have challenged the woman in black through sound

There was one main thing that I challenged in the opening sequence that we created which was the use of dialogue. In The woman in black, there was no speech at all, only music that switched up tempo as it went along to match the performance of the little kids. Although we did use music to match the performance, we also had a part in the opening where a character is seen and heard to be reading of a paper. This is a convention that we challenged as most openings, as not only the woman in black do not really consist of the use of dialogue. However, we challenged this in a way that we could make it effective. We used sentences such as “it will never let her go” and “been captured” which are words that can be gathered as unpleasant and frightening. We specifically chose these words in order to keep the sense of horror running, challenging the aspects of horror openings rather than challenging the genre itself.

How I developed the woman in black through sound in my research

A video that I researched to find this information out and develop was the opening sequence of the woman in black. In the woman in black, the music starts of slow and calm, whilst the mise-en-scene shows kids playing with their toys. We similarly did this, except instead of toys, the sound matched the performance of the character in the graveyard. As the opening continues, the sound of the music gets louder and faster, as more instruments are involved whilst the performance on the screen gets more and more unusual. At the very end, the music stops and there is a sort of screaming foley sound, which is a random noise that is frightening. All of this was something that we developed on rather than challenged, as sound is something that the audience picks up on easily and if it were to friendly or jolly, the opening would be addressed to the audience in the wrong way. We developed on this as we used a rapid changing use of tempo in the music we chose, with no use of dialogue or speech. The only thing that we challenged was the order in which the sounds are used, as the random foley sound was used more than once throughout, whilst there was a pause of sound consisting of natural sound at the beginning when there was an establishing shot of the graveyard.

How I developed real products in general

As I researched other products, a common thing that occurred was the lack of dialogue and the use of unusual frightening sounds and music. There was a consistency of natural sound used also, as the sound of wind without any interruptions of cars etc seemed to be very effective every time it was used. From this, we carried out the same theme to make the sound effective in our opening. We used natural sound mixed with music. The atmosphere that was created by all the videos I researched was a sense of surprise, shock, purely through the sound itself. This is the same sense that we wished to carry out which is why we followed most the techniques used in horror movies with the use of sound so that the video fits in its genre.

AntisocialThe camera work is what I focused on in antisocial,

although it was very limited. It stayed in one place and I

analysed how effective it was. I looked at the woman in

black and tears also, to contrast to antisocial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6S9ZyK0n-o

How I challenged the camera work in anti social through my research

In Anti social, the camera stayed in one place and was shown to the audience through the eyes of a webcam. However, whilst watching the woman in black and tears, I realised that in a typical conventional horror opening sequence, there would be a lot of close up shots as well as an establishing shot. A close up shot on a movement, such as the swing in tears and the dolls in the woman in black is something that is usually done by camera work. We challenged not only anti social but also the other two videos analysed, as we used a the typical close up (holding the necklace) but used a mixture of long shots and mediums shots with it, to make it look effective and unique. We used long shots and close ups on all of the characters individually, apart from the hero. The reason we did the was because it would be conventional for the audience to realise the negative and vulnerable actors by using close up shots, but would not be conventional to instantly give away the appearance and presence of the hero as it would give a sense that the hero is either a victim or a villain. There were not any developments in camera work from antisocial as it was very limited.

How I challenged real products

Not only in the woman black and tears, but in horror openings in general, there would tend to be a large use of close ups with the only wide shot being the establishing shot. This is conventional because the main idea of a horror is to not give away any clues, and wide shots or long shots can give away a lot of ideas to the idea just through little aspects of the mise-en-scene. I challenge this convention as we used a variety of shots, which gave away a variety of locations, but like a conventional horror, did not give away the narrative. The camera work was simple however, as we did not use much tracking shots or panning's, we kept the camera static.

Editing

Whilst focusing on editing, I analysed all the products to see the conventions of a typical horror

opening. As it is a title sequence, there is a lot of focus on edits and it is a large element of the

opening sequence. I saw that all the opening sequences add in an edit transition each time there is a

new location or date used, I kept this the same and did the same as well as adding a few edits aside.