valuation Question 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Transcript
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2. However, we feel as though we developed the trope of some
unknowing teen dying at the beginning of a horror film, as it is
Sebastian- a boy, who dies instead of conventionally a girl
screaming and being killed after wondering through some woods or
being attacked by a killer. This subversion of gender stereotyping
of a girl dying at the beginning of film makes our media product
different from convention, whilst still partially adhering to the
convention. Despite this, the use of titles at the beginning of the
film is very conventional to many horror films, showing the idents
and having diegetic sound be heard off screen under titles. We did
this to create the feeling of a horror opening.
3. In the first shot, we see the bold text over the sound of
feet walking. We chose this to be our opening as it adds tensions
to the film, as we do not see whos footsteps they are, are they a
threat? A friend? This is used often in many horror openings to
credit the production company whilst also adding suspense. This was
also used in the beginning of Saw, which I learned from my horror
step outline. This is conventional of horror film openings, adding
tension and mystery to the beginning of the film in order to get
the audience more involved. This also occurs at the beginning of
Halloween, a horror film with the same target audience as
Exposure.
4. The first shot we see of Sebastian is from ground level, of
his feet. We did this as it places the audience in the shoes of the
protagonist, watching him walk away and forces the audience to
physically follow his journey, making them more inclined to follow
his journey in terms of narrative. We introduced Sebastian and
Daisy in the opening scene as it is conventional for horror films
to introduce their main characters in their opening sequences. This
is conventional to horror films, with Funny Games (2007) using a
similar technique in the opening scene by having the camera follow
the car and introduce the character in the car in the opening as we
follow their journey whilst getting the feeling they are being
watched. We chose to do this as it is conventional of the genre.
Funny Games
5. However, we subverted from convention of horror films by
revealing the identity of the antagonist right at the beginning of
the horror film in the opening. We did this because the zombie is
not the central antagonist and there would be a variety of
different zombies throughout the film who would be a threat to the
protagonists so felt as though revealing the threat right at the
beginning of the film would throw the audience into the dangerous
world the protagonists live in, without the need for a secret
identity for the antagonist as there would be no one major
antagonist like there is in the beginning of A Nightmare on Elm
Street or Scream where Wes Craven in both films keeps the identity
of the killer hidden. Scream A Nightmare on Elm Street
6. The final scene of our protagonist shows us that Daisy will
be the Final Girl as she is the one that survives the beginning of
the film, the ending of it on a cliffhanger connotes that she will
survive until the end of the film as she survived the beginning.
The trope of the final girl is conventional to the horror genre and
so we incorporated this into our film. Scream is a good example of
the use of a final girl through the use of Sidney Prescott, however
she is not present in the opening scene and is introduced later in
the film, different from our film.