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

Suzanne Micael

The media product I created was entitled ‘Unchained’, a film about the discovery of a diary that unchains a demon, set on murder. Naturally, this film belongs to the Horror Genre. Throughout the process of this production, I analysed the Horror Genre as well as the specific conventions, to give me an idea of what successful films within my chosen genre were including repetitively.

Initially, in my research, I wanted to gain an aspect of ways I could best represent the Horror genre in such a way that is recognisable and loyal to the conventions. I found this to be very useful as I also came across ways I could exaggerate certain aspects and challenge them to create my own media product as well as develop them to create the opening two minutes of my film. This included a theme of the supernatural which includes demonic figures, ghosts, witches which were often conveyed by the Propps stock character the villain. For example, throughout ‘Poltergeist’ (1982) this was the hosts of ghosts that haunted a specific family. Another convention used is the need for consistent dis-equilibriums as part of the narrative, in films such as ‘Jeepers Creepers’ (2001) as the Propps characters, the hero consistently tries to escape her fate of death and appearing in many face to face altercations with the villain. As well as these, the conventions include a heavy sense of foreshadowing and red imagery within the mise-en-scene. Other, more technical features I had recognised included the use of sound effects like ambient sounds of screaming, close-up shots, repetitively used high and low angle shots, fast paced editing with the use of sharp cuts and simplistic titling. It was important to indicate it would be extremely difficult for me to include all these features in a two minute opening as it would appear more unrealistic and take away from its scary factor. However, it was still imperative I included as many conventions as possible as the opening sequence is arguably one of, if not the most important part of the film as it draws in the audience and gives a reflection of what’s to come in the rest of the film.

Although themes of the supernatural are not included in every Horror film, it was clear that any film with this convention obviously belonged to the Horror genre as this conventions whole purpose is to evoke fear. In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this convention would alert an audience of their safety as watching other people in danger would make them associate the dangerous scenario they could possibly be in, in their reality. Continuing, Poltergeist as a classic depiction of the Horror genre was one of the many influences for this film as the progression of the storyline was something I wanted to include. The film uses this convention to demonstrate ghouls haunting a family which I thought was particularly interesting and wanted to in cooperate into my own media product. As a result, it was considerably hard to manipulate this convention as it on a wider scale therefore my opening sequence includes a combination of shaky camera movement and blurry camera effects, that transition together to create the effect that there is a ‘presence’ affecting the fluidity of the scene. Even though this seems subtle, it is still hugely affective as it appears more realistic than introducing the supernatural villain in the first two minutes which is unlikely as it wouldn’t allow the build up of a storyline.

The second convention I documented was the consistent dis-equilibriums that exist in Horror films. This convention contributes most to the construction of the narrative as it is apart of the equilibrium theory that describes these situations exist as an attempt for the characters to return to a normal reality. From chase scenes, where the villain is hunting down numerous victims to the character expressing their scared thoughts, this convention seems imperative to include as it keeps the audience on edge and sympathise with the characters as they in turn become involved with the narrative. In Jeepers Creepers, the villain character is continuously hunting down both hero characters which are brother and sister. Throughout the plot, they are put into numerous situations that could potentially kill them or put them face-to-face with the killer. This encourages the audience to route for their survival as the binary opposition between good vs. evil is consistently reminded to them. I developed this convention and included it in my own film product in the dialogue exchanged by the female characters Jade and Clarissa. Jade bluntly expresses her concern with her safety on the camping trip they are about to embark on. Although this is a minor dis-equilibrium, it raises audience awareness in terms of uses and gratifications theory, that this camping trip could potentially be a dangerous location for our characters.

After observing ‘Scream’ (1996), a notorious and modern take of a slasher film that has now inspired many films of a similar type, the convention of foreshadowing became apparent in the first five minutes of viewing the film. The film gives the audience an insight into the location each character will eventually end up after being brutally killed. For example a wide-shot that slowly used the tracking movement out showing a large tree in the foreground of the shot and a large, contemporary house in the background. A few moments after the first appearance of the tree was shown, the audience eventually saw a girl hanging on the tree, harshly killed. This convention was definitely easy to use as foreshadowing can be used to highlight anything that may become apparent later in the narrative. In my media product, small snippets of the camping location can be identified between the titling sequences which suggest this is where all the action will take place. This allows the audience to be familiarised with the location and expect something to happen there without making the entire storyline obvious making the audience ask themselves rhetorical question e.g. why do they go camping? & is it safe? etc.

The convention of red imagery proposes so many different connotations but in a horror aspect it is often a turn for the worst. The denotation of red connotes blood and is a metaphorical colour universally associated with an individual whom is angry, hence the quote ‘seeing red’. Red imagery is also translated to a person costumes within the mise-en-scene and makeup including a red costume or red lipstick for example. In my research, it was interesting that nearly every film adapted this feature into its film as audiences would react in a disgusted way as blood is unnatural and out of their comfort zone. Specifically, ‘Saw’ used the colour red so much throughout the film from both the vicious and horrific games complicated in the synopsis. Again, as my film product would only be a duration of two minutes, it was unrealistic and unlikely red imagery could be inserted in my media product. Therefore I manipulated this convention and instead created a bold title that was red in colour to in cooperate some aspect of this feature. This proved to be impactful as the contrast between the simplistic black background and the dark red tone contrasted well in making the title stand out, which made the title more memorable.

Now focusing on the more technical key features, after observing both the opening soundtracks to ‘Insidious’ (2010) and ‘Scream’ (1996) it was made apparent that the sound effect of ambient sounds of a high pitched female voice was integrated in the opening sequences. This immediately caught my attention and presumably the potential target audiences as the sounds were non-diegetic which made me question where it was coming from. As the source of the scream is made unknown this builds up a real sense of fear. This was introduced into my opening sequence in my opening sequence although I challenged the convention as I incorporated a subtle and quiet consistent creepy whispers into my soundtrack that slowly increases in volume, which again has the same effect as the female scream as people will still question the use of the whispers and it also ties together suitably with the other conventions such as themes of the supernatural.

Corresponding to the opening soundtrack, I recognised that a specific style of titling was used in the horror genre. In ‘Friday the 13th’, the denotation of white and black juxtaposes well to create a cinematic contrast that highlights the titles of the film. Even though it was significantly simplistic, it was still quite peculiar and delicate which contrasts with the elaborate story line, throwing the audience completely off with their assumptions about the movie. This convention allows for a slow growth in the plot of the film and gives way for other conventions such as foreshadowing to express more detail. I used this convention in my own media product but developed it by introducing all the titles in white besides the main title so that remained embedded in the audiences mind.

Lastly, I looked at more of the camera techniques that were used in the horror genre and identify how these in turn represented specific scenarios in existing examples of films. For instance the high angle shot that looks down at the stock character, the hero which subliminally makes them look more inferior to the dominant figure looking down at them and the opposite use of the low angle shot looking up at stock character the villain, adding to their terrifying status as a scary being. As well as this, close-up shots are used in almost every single film I acknowledged within the genre. This allowed characters to convey a specific emotion with the use of their facial expression that camera shot allowed them to pay detail to. ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999), however manipulated this convention as the film was innovatively filmed from a characters point of view. This still included the conventions but just in a different way. I chose to stay local to the original convention as I felt it was appropriate and relevant to film. This is shown in the high angle; close up shot used that slowly track’s into Clarissa in their conversation outside of the cafe discussing their trip. The audience is clearly able to see the details of her face.